Rosa Joanna Farrell

Rosa Joanna Farrell is a playable character in Final Fantasy IV and its sequel, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. She hails from Baron, and is a skilled Archer and White Mage. Rosa is Cecil Harvey and Kain Highwind's childhood friend, and harbors romantic feelings for Cecil. Though Cecil is reluctant to let her follow him into danger at first, she stays by his side.

In the English localization of the Nintendo DS version, Rosa is.

Appearance and Personality
Rosa has blonde hair styled as a half updo with long bangs. She wears horned shoulder-pauldrons worn over a floor-length white and gold cape, a sleeveless white top with long, decorated gloves and a large belt that holds a dagger on her side. She wears a white pattern pantyhose, gold and pink knee braces and light purple ankle boots. She is said to be the most beautiful woman in Baron.

In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Rosa wears a long-sleeved and floor-length white gown with small horned pauldrons and a silver belt. She wears fingerless gloves, gray sandals, and a decorated pink and purple cape. Her hair is still styled as a half updo, but it is mostly concealed by her cape and she now has longer bangs framing her face.

Rosa is gentle and kind by nature. She is strong at heart, willing to follow Cecil into dangerous situations and stand by him despite his numerous objections. She also takes care of the other party members, encouraging Rydia when she is frightened and forgiving Kain without hesitation. Like Cecil, she is deeply concerned about Baron's aggression and wants to help warn the other nations. As Queen of Baron, Rosa continues to be a steadfast support for Cecil, while as a mother, she worries for Ceodore as he struggles to obtain his Proof of Knighthood and become as strong as his father.

Final Fantasy IV


Rosa became a White Mage because her mother, Joanna, was a White Mage who fought alongside her father, a Dragoon, and she wished to fight alongside her lover Cecil like her mother did with her father.

Rosa is first seen in Baron, when Cecil finds her in the castle after his mission to Mysidia and before he and Kain go on their mission to deliver a package to the village of Mist. She worries for and tries to encourage Cecil, who has doubts about the King of Baron. She responds to Cecil's fears and doubts about his current path in life by speaking about the goodness she sees in him, that he needs to follow his heart, and lastly wishes Cecil luck on his mission to Mist.

When Cecil does not return, and after learning of the new plans of the Red Wings, Rosa becomes worried and starts searching for him. The specifics of her travel from Baron to Kaipo remain unknown, yet she eventually contracts Desert Fever, an illness which only the Sand Pearl can cure, and collapses on the outskirts of Kaipo. An elderly couple tends to Rosa during her malady, and when Cecil and Rydia visit her, they vow to find the Sand Pearl so they can cure her. After obtaining the Sand Pearl in the Antlion's Den with Edward's help, they return to Kaipo and use it on Rosa, who recovers. Rosa tells Cecil about what happened after he left Baron, revealing how a man named Golbez took control of the Red Wings and seeks the remaining Crystals. Rosa offers to assist in reaching Fabul, where its people keep the Crystal of Air - surely Baron's next target - as a national treasure.

Rosa, Cecil, Rydia, and Edward cross the Mt. Hobs to reach Fabul, but a sheet of ice blocks their path. Only a Fire spell can melt the ice, and only Rydia, gifted with Black Magic, can cast it, but the burning of her village has created a mental block that keeps her from casting the spell. Rosa helps Rydia overcome it with encouragement and a reminder of the enormity of their quest, and Rydia opens the way to Fabul. Further up the mountain, the party meets a man named Yang Fang Leiden, a Monk from Fabul. They help him defeat several of Golbez's monsters, and warn Yang about Fabul's impending danger.

Upon reaching Fabul, the party provides the urgent news of Baron's intentions to Fabul's king. He accepts the party's help and shortly thereafter, Baron invades Fabul. During the battle, Rosa and Rydia take the office of relief until the invading forces push Cecil, Edward, and Yang into the Crystal Room. Kain arrives in Fabul as Golbez's servant and defeats Cecil in battle, but the sight of Rosa stalls Kain and he stops him from killing his former friend.

At Kain's hesitation, Golbez enters the Crystal Room and defeats the rest of the party. He abducts Rosa and orders Kain to take the Crystal of Air. Golbez takes Rosa to the Tower of Zot and keeps her as a prisoner at its highest level. She remains bound as Golbez's captive until Cecil defeats Cagnazzo and obtains the Enterprise from Cid, at which point Kain parleys with Cecil and offers Rosa's freedom in exchange for the Crystal of Earth. Cecil reclaims the Crystal from the Dark Elf and fights his way to the top of the Tower of Zot, defeating the Magus Sisters to reach the top floor.

When Cecil arrives with the Crystal, Golbez takes it and denies that he holds Rosa hostage. Tellah attacks Golbez and casts Meteor on him, which breaks Golbez's control over Kain who guides Cecil to Rosa in time to rescue her. Cecil and Rosa admit their feelings for each other and share a kiss, and Kain apologizes for having betrayed Cecil and mistreated Rosa. Rosa forgives him and invites him to fight alongside her and Cecil, to which he agrees. The party moves to leave the tower when Barbariccia, the Archfiend of Air, appears before the party. After her defeat, Barbariccia sets the tower toward its destruction, and Rosa casts the Exit spell to warp the party from the tower to Cecil's room in Baron.

With Golbez possessing all the four Crystals, Cecil's party worries about the next step in Golbez's plan. Kain reveals the existence of the Dark Crystals, a similar set to the Crystals stolen from each prominent kingdom, hidden in the Underworld. Kain explains Golbez needs all eight Crystals - the four Dark Crystals and the four already in his possession - to open "the way to the Moon". Cecil decides his party should head underground to protect the remaining Crystals, and Kain shows Cecil the Key of Magma. Cid's airship Enterprise had since returned to Baron via remote control.

Following Rosa's rescue from the Tower of Zot, a visit to Rosa's mother in the Nintendo DS version of Final Fantasy IV leads to a conversation about Rosa's decision to pursue Cecil to Kaipo. Rosa's mother laments permitting Rosa to study White Magic since it put her in harm's way, demanding that Rosa remain home. Rosa responds by expounding her thankfulness for the ability to help those in need, and reminds her mother of the bond her parents shared similar to her relationship to Cecil. Confronted with Rosa's true feelings, Rosa's mother admits the value of her daughter's choices and entrusts Rosa's safety to Cecil.

From this point on Rosa travels with the party in their quest to protect the Crystals, mainly in the background role. Upon witnessing the suicide of the transformed King and Queen of Eblan, she is horrified by the cruelty inflicted on the deceased couple. Once on the Red Moon the game reveals the tragic history of Cecil and Golbez, finalizing in a flashback of the first meeting between Cecil and Kain during their childhood years. In it, Kain initiates a scuffle with Cecil over the perceived special treatment he believes Cecil receives from the King of Baron, when Rosa intervenes. She reminds Kain of the moral code of men stated by the King, and when Cecil admits to starting the fight, Rosa shows admiration for Cecil's honesty.

Following these revelations, Fusoya and Golbez head to the Moon to fight Zemus. On the Lunar Whale, Cecil asks Rosa and Rydia to leave the ship, convinced that the fight with Zemus would entail too much danger for him to allow them to accompany him for the final battle. The women reluctantly agree, but secretly stow away within the ship. Once the airship lands on the moon, Rosa and Rydia reveal themselves. Rosa defends her right to join Cecil out of love and by noting her ability to cast White Magic, a skill Cecil possesses but with much less proficiency.

Cecil admits to their value and allows the women to take part in the battle against Zemus. They journey to the core of the moon, where Fusoya and Golbez appear to defeat Zemus. The hatred that grew inside Zemus over the years gains sentience in the form of a creature called Zeromus, which continues the attack on the party. With help from the prayers of old friends, the party defeats Zeromus. Cecil and Rosa marry and take the throne of Baron. All party members except Kain attend the wedding.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
A year later, Cecil and Rosa send off the Red Wings to fly over the Damcyan Castle for the reconstruction celebration. While at the celebration, a guard enters and tells Yang that some monks were brutally attacked at Mt. Hobbs. Yang plans to leave, and Cecil and Rosa decide to go with him. Once they get to the summit of Mt. Hobbs, they find two injured monks, whom Rosa heals. Soon after, they are attacked by the Dad Bomb. After defeating it, they head to Fabul where Yang's wife Sheila is about to give birth to Ursula. Yang asks Cecil to be Ursula's godfather, which he gladly accepts.

When Cecil and Rosa are about to leave they find Cid, Luca, Palom, and Porom, who tell Cecil there is a swarm of monsters coming out of the Sealed Cave. As they are about to take off, Cecil tells Yang to stay with his family. Cid notices Rosa looks pale, and Cecil asks Yang to take care of her while he is away. After the incident in the Tower of Babil, back at Baron, Rosa lies in bed, and Cecil asks if she is alright. At Damcyan, Cecil reveals Rosa is pregnant. Everyone is overjoyed with the news, and tell Cecil that he should start coming up with baby names.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years


Seventeen years later, Rosa is the wife of Cecil and mother of Ceodore. She accompanies Cecil and Cid when Baron is attacked. After some debate, she escapes with Cid on the Enterprise, reluctantly leaving Cecil alone to face the Mysterious Girl and her summon.

Following her departure from Baron, she journeys to Damcyan, where Kain's evil-side abducts her at the same time that he steals Damcyan's Crystal. Later in the game, once the real Kain has transformed after defeating his dark half, Rosa joins a small group in confronting the Mysterious Girl and Cecil, under the Mysterious Girl's thrall, at Baron's throne. After a fight, Odin, who was also mind-controlled, came to his senses and knocks Cecil to his. She joins Ceodore, Rydia, Golbez, and Edge to take out the girl who escapes and Golbez calls the Lunar Whale to chase after her.

In the crater's dungeon, the party has to get through eight bosses before defeating Cecil's Dark Knight doppelganger to get to the Mysterious Girl and Bahamut, who also comes to his senses and pushes the girl back. They reach the Creator, who pursues them through several battles before finally being destroyed by Meteor. Rosa is last seen in Baron, serving as referee to a timed sparring match between Cecil and Ceodore in which it makes no difference who comes out the victor.

Sidequests
In the Game Boy Advance version of Final Fantasy IV, each character has his or her own Lunar Trial. Rosa's trial focuses on using her White Magic abilities to heal injured people, culminating in a battle with Lunar Asura.

Stats
In Final Fantasy IV, as she is a mage, Rosa's stats are weighted in magic. Though despite that, Rosa is an adequate physical attacker due to ability to wield bows, especially when attacking flying enemies weak to arrows.

In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Rosa has fairly good HP, the highest of the dedicated mage-type characters, and her Aim ability and decent Strength let her be a respectable attacker. Compared to fellow White Magic users Porom and Leonora, Rosa has greater HP, Strength and Stamina but lower MP and slightly lower Spirit than Porom, and all-around greater stats than Leonora.

Final Fantasy IV
As a White Mage, Rosa can cast White Magic. She learns every White Magic spell in the game, although some she learns at levels different from Porom. Her other two abilities are Aim and Pray. Aim allows Rosa to charge up a slightly stronger attack that never misses at the cost of executing slower, and is only usable while Rosa is equipped with a bow. Pray restores a small amount of HP to allies if successful, roughly equivalent to a Cure spell.

In the DS release, Pray has a higher chance of success and restores both HP and MP, the amount healed based on a percentage of each party member's max HP and MP. Rosa also learns her White Magic at different levels. In the Game Boy Advance and The Complete Collection releases, completing Rosa's Lunar Trial rewards her with the White Ring, which upgrades Pray to Miracle. Miracle casts Cure on a failure, Cura normally, and randomly casts Curaga and Esuna.

Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-
Rosa's Pray, Aim and White Magic return with the same attributes as in Final Fantasy IV. She joins the party at Level 30 with all the spells she would normally learn up to that point, including Teleport, and will learn new spells at the same levels as in Final Fantasy IV. She comes equipped with a Healing Staff, Sage's Miter, Sage's Surplice, and Rune Armlet.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Rosa can cast White Magic and has the command Blessing, which heals some HP and MP to the entire party similar to Pray in the DS release of Final Fantasy IV.

Final Fantasy IV
Her equipment includes most mage equipment such as light tunics, caps, hoods, and robes. Her weapon arsenal includes staves, bows, and arrows.

Boss
Rosa is fought in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years in Kain's Tale. It is impossible to damage her in any way, and thus the player should only focus on Edward instead.

Musical Themes
Rosa's theme is called "Theme of Love". It is played in scenes between her and Cecil, and is meant to symbolize the love between them.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call


Rosa appears as a DLC character.

She is a Support and Defense oriented character.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Rosa is an ally and a summonable Legend in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade. Her EX ability is Aim.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Rosa is depicted on a few cards in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. One card features her SD art, while the other features her DS CG Render.

Virtual World
Users in Square Enix Members Virtual World community can make their character appear as Rosa Farrell.

Etymology
Rosa is the Latin word for "rose". It is written identically in Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. It is also an Italian and Spanish female name; the German, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish word for "pink"; and the Bulgarian, Czech and Polish word for "dew".

"Joanna" is a derivation of the Hebrew name יוֹחַנָּה, Yōḥannā, which means " is gracious". Rosa's middle name is only revealed in the novelization of the game. According to the novel, Rosa takes the name from her mother, Joanna Farrell. Rosa becoming a queen with this name may also be an oblique homage to Queen Jayne, as both Joanna and Jayne are alternative derivations of the same Hebrew name; English Ja(y)ne is in fact directly derived from Latin Jo(h)anna via French Jeanne.

"Farrell" is an Irish surname that is the anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Ó Fearghaill, which means "a person of great courage" or "heroic".

Trivia

 * In Japan, TV commercials advertising Final Fantasy IV for the Game Boy Advance included a model dressed as Rosa as portrayed by Yoshitaka Amano's concept art of her.
 * The opening video for the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy IV depicts Rosa with a sword on her belt and wielding a staff to battle, despite the fact she does not wield them.
 * In pre-release screenshots for The Complete Collection, Rosa has a different menu portrait, with a longer face, less-prominent bangs and blue eyes instead of green.
 * Over the course of Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife will take a character on a date through the Gold Saucer. One segment of this date involves Cloud and the other character performing in a play in which Cloud plays a valiant knight named Albert and his date plays a kidnapped princess named Rosa. Rosa and Albert defeat the antagonist, the Evil Dragon King, through the "power of love" between them.
 * In a Favorite Character poll conducted at Square Enix Party 2007, Rosa ranked 5th out of all the major characters. For comparison, Cecil got first, Kain second, Rydia third, and Cid fourth.
 * Rosa is notable for being the first love interest in the series and the first female White Mage, a trait that other females like Garnet Til Alexandros XVII from Final Fantasy IX, and Yuna from Final Fantasy X followed.
 * Screenshots in the instruction manual of Final Fantasy Origins assign the name Rosa to the White Mage from the original Final Fantasy.
 * Even though Rosa is married to Cecil, she has not seemed to take his last name of Harvey.