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 does accompany him and stays by his side for a great deal of the game.

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

Appearance and Personality
Rosa is a woman with light blonde hair styled as a half updo with long bangs that frame her face. She also wears a large assortment of garments and accessories. On her shoulders are small horned pauldrons worn over a floor length white and gold cape. Rosa wears a sleeveless white top with long, decorated gloves and a large belt that holds a dagger on her side. She also wears gold and pink braces on her knees and light purple ankle boots.

In The After Years, Rosa wears a long-sleeved and floor-length white gown with small horned pauldrons and a silver belt around her waist. 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 and is said to be the most beautiful woman in Baron. She is also strong at heart, willing to follow Cecil into dangerous situations and stand by him despite his numerous objections. 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 in Kaipo tends to Rosa during her malady, and when Cecil and Rydia come to 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 actively 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 dangerous Mt. Hobs in order to reach Fabul. However, a thick sheet of ice blocks their path as they attempt to cross the mountains. 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 this block with encouragement and a reminder of the enormity of their quest, and Rydia overcomes her limitation and opens the way to Fabul by melting the ice. 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 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 then takes Rosa to the Tower of Zot and keeps her as a prisoner at its highest level. She remains bound as Golbez's captive throughout the game 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 finally 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 and attacks. 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 wholly 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. 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, secretly stowing 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. However, the hatred that grew inside Zemus over the years gains its own 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 has passed after the events of Final Fantasy IV, 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. Hearing this, Yang plans to leave, but Cecil and Rosa decide to go with him. Once they get to the summit of Mt. Hobbs, they find two injured monks, who Rosa heals. Soon after, they are attacked by the Dad Bomb. When they defeat 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 that 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 that 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 that Rosa is pregnant. Everyone is overjoyed with the news, and they tell Cecil that he should start coming up with some names.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Seventeen years later, Rosa returns as 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 then joins Ceodore, Rydia, Golbez, and Edge to take out the girl. The girl escapes after her defeat, 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 soon reached 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.

Equipment and Stats
As she is a mage, Rosa's stats are weighted in magic. Her equipment includes most mage equipment such as light tunics, caps, hoods, and robes. Her weapon arsenal includes staves, bows, and arrows. Though heavily weighted towards magic, while using her bows Rosa is an adequate physical attacker, especially when attacking flying enemies weak to arrows.

Final Fantasy IV
As a White Mage, Rosa has the ability to 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 GameBoy Advance release, 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: The After Years
In 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. 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.



Battle
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.

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

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.

Etymology
Rosa is the Latin word for "Rose". It is pronounced and 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 form of the English name "Joanne" that means "God is gracious".

"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 GameBoy 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.
 * 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.
 * Rosa's middle name, Joanna, is only revealed in the novelization of the game. According to the novel, Rosa takes the name from her mother, Joanna Farrell.
 * 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.