Rose

Rose
Species	Human
Affiliation	Macro Cosmos (former) Galar Pokémon League (former)
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Purple
Base	Rose Tower
Relatives	Peony (brother) Peonia (niece)
Voiced by	Maaz Ali (2023)
Debut	Pokémon Sword/Shield

Rose (commonly referred to by the title of Chairman Rose) is the main antagonist of Pokémon Sword and Shield. He was the president of the Macros Cosmos corporation and chairman of Galar's Pokémon League.

Background

Rose was a skilled Pokémon trainer as well as a wealthy businessman. He appeared to be naturally talented, to the point where his brother Peonia had to live in his shadow, and Rose helped his brother to catch a Cufant when they were young. According to Oleana, Rose worked at a coal mine at some point in his past. He would go on to place second in the Pokémon League's Championship Cup, and he would later become the League's chairman. He ended up endorsing Leon, who would go on to become a long-running undefeated champion. He also acted as the president of the large business conglomerate known as Macro Cosmos. Rose even had his own tower that was named Rose Tower after him. As chairman, Rose supported Professor Magnolia's research into the power of Wishing Stars and their connection to the phenomenon known as Dynamaxing. With her research, he had his company create Dynamax Bands that trainers could use to Dynamax Pokémon. Presenting himself to the world with a friendly demeanor, he was very popular and sometimes had to hide himself by wearing casual clothing. However, he was privately pursuing his own agenda. He researched the ancient evert known as the Darkest Day and how it provided the Galar region with Dynamax energy. That energy was finite, so Rose wanted to recreate the Darkest Day in order to stop Galar from running out of energy in a thousand years. For that end, he started collecting Wishing Stars to use to awaken Eternatus, and he used Magnolia's research for this end.

He was almost constantly accompanied by his secretary, Oleana. She was obsessed with Chairman Rose and was one of the few people who knew about his true plans. She did what she could to help him, sometimes without Rose's knowledge. Rose also took in a young trainer named Bede, who apparently reminded him of himself when he was young. Rose gave Bede his first Pokémon and sent him to Trainers' School. He ultimately ended up endorsing him for the Gym Challenge, although he did not seem to be particularly attentive of him, as he forgot who he was at one point. Regardless, Bede seemed to have some awareness of Rose's plans and sought to collect Wishing Stars for Rose. This was implied to be due to Oleana's manipulations, although it was never made clear if Rose was aware of this or ordered it himself.

In Sword/Shield, Rose was the first character seen in the game and gave the "welcome to the world of Pokémon speech" in the middle of a stadium, before presenting an exhibition match between Leon and Raihan. He later appeared at Motostoke Stadium, where he announced the opening ceremony of the latest Gym Challenge. Afterwards, Leon took Rose to meet the two trainers he had endorsed: Victor/Gloria and Hop. Rose noted that both of them had Dynamax Bands and wished them well in their journeys. Victor/Gloria later found Rose in his casual wear at Hulbury. He invited them to have dinner with him at a local seafood restaurant after they defeated Nessa. They were joined for dinner by Magnolia's granddaughter, Sonia, and Rose helped to steer the research that she was carrying on for Professor Magnolia. Rose continually excused himself to attend to business, which involved experiments to awaken Eternatus. This caused an explosion at one point, and things eventually reached the point where more Dynamax Pokémon were suddenly appearing. At one point, Bede borrowed Rose's Copperajah and used it to attack the mural at Stow-on-Side. In the aftermath of that, Rose expressed his disappointment in Bede and disqualified him from the gym challenge.

Eventually, the time came for the Championship Cup of the Gym Challenge. At this time, Rose focused on the final stages of his plan to awaken Eternatus. First, Rose called Leon to Rose Tower in an attempt to coax him into helping him with his plans. While they had their talk, Oleana took matters into her own hands to keep Victor/Gloria and Hop from reaching Rose. Despite her efforts, the trainers found them at the end of their conversation upon the tower. Rose was intent on setting the plan into action immediately, despite Leon's attempts to get him to wait until after the championship cup had ended. And so, within the power plant beneath Hammerlocke, Rose managed to finally awaken Eternatus. The resulting energy surges proved to be too much to contain, so Leon broadcasted a video of himself to Wyndon Stadium, just as the championship battle between Victor/Gloria and Leon was about to begin. He announced what he had done and blamed Leon for what had gone wrong. Leon came to his aid and attempted to capture Eternatus, while Rose remained at the underground power plant. Victor/Gloria ultimately confronted him there. Rose attempted to explain himself and proceeded to battle with the trainer. After being defeated, Rose frowned for a moment and then applauded Victor/Gloria for a good battle. He claimed he had not battled in a long time. He regretted that he could not witness the championship match, but he still believed his plan was right. Rose sent Victor/Gloria and Hop over to check on Leon, feeling that he had captured Eternatus by now.

Ultimately, Eternatus was subdued, and Rose's Darkest Day came to a quick end. Rose turned himself in afterwards. The details of what happened to him afterwards are unknown, but Oleana began performing "voluntary community service" for his sake, while Leon became the new Leage chairman as well as taking control of Rose Tower, which he converted into a Battle Tower.

Pokémon Roster

He specializes in Steel-type Pokémon.

• Escavalier
• Ferrothorn
• Perrserker
• Klinklang
• Copperajah (Gigantamax)

During the game's introduction, he is also shown to have a Cufant, which he displays as an example of a Pokémon.

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Rose and his Copperajah appeared as a playable sync pair that could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout during limited time periods starting in July 2023. His Copperajah retained its Gigantamax ability. In this game's storyline, Rose had been brought to Pasio from some time prior to his attempt to revive Eternatus. This timeline discrepancy is acknowledged in-game, as the other trainers from Galar are befuddled that Rose does not seem to remember being arrested or stepping down from his post.

Rose was featured in the Galar chapter of the Villain Arc, in which he had recently arrived on Pasio and was intrigued by the potential that sync stones showed towards energy development. He wanted to dedicate all resources towards studying such capabilities, but when Professor Bellis and Lear refused to put sync stone research solely towards that end, he formed a partnership with Giovanni to use his stolen sync stone research. He also began booking events all over Pasio in order to become popular and to urge the people to put him in charge instead of Lear, so he could assume sole control over management of sync stones. It was ultimately decided that Leon and Lear would settle their differences through a Pokémon tournament. Rose built up a team of supporters who included Colress, Maxie and members of Team Galactic and Team Magma. Rose was ultimately convinced to surrender and to work together with Lear on researching the energy capabilities of sync stones while still allowing them to be used for Pokémon battles and enriching the bonds between people and Pokémon. Rose cut off his partnership with Giovanni and was later seen giving an introductory speech for Pasio which mirrored the one he had given for Galar at the beginning of Sword/Shield. Afterwards, Rose briefly appeared during "Paulo Interlude: The Last Evil", in which Lysandre brought Rose and Oleana into a meeting with Lusamine and Faba to discuss the growing threat posed by Paulo and Team Break. During the Final Chapter of the Villain Arc, Rose and Lysandre showed up to provide back-up to N and Colress in their battle against Team Rocket forces.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• He has been featured in the Pokémon: Twilight Wings series of anime shorts, which follows his initial status quo from the games. The first episode featured him when he visited children at a hospital, and a child went through lengths to give him a letter asking for an invitation to see one of Leon's matches. He also told the child that he had potential as a trainer. Rose made appearances in most of the other episodes, in which he was seen dealing the other Gym Leaders and his work. This included advising Nessa to give up her modeling career to focus on being a Gym Leader. An episode focused on Oleana showed the value of her role in Rose's company.
• Rose appeared in the Pokémon anime during the Pokémon Journeys series. This series expanded on his background and motivations by showing that his father died in a coal mine collapse while he was a child, which inspired him to try to prevent future tragedies. He rose from poverty to create Macro Cosmos. He was shown as having mentored Leon and influenced him to focus on Pokémon battling, as well as having helped Professor Magnolia to research Galar Particles. Rose was featured in an arc that adapted the general storyline of Sword/Shield, and he disappeared after his defeat. He later made a cameo appearance with Oleana during Ash and Leon's championship match, where they witnessed Eternatus stabilizing the Dynamax energy at Wyndon Stadium.
• In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Rose was featured during the Sword/Shield arc, which followed his storyline from the games for the most part. One difference was that he was working with Sordward and Shielbert as a contingency plan for containing Eternatus, one which ultimately failed. Rose ultimately ended up in jail and apologized to Bede. In this version, he explained that his mistreatment with Bede was an act to keep Bede from being considered an accomplice to his crimes.

Trivia

• He is named after the flower.
• The descriptions for both of his League Cards are said to have been written by Oleana and thus influenced by her bias. His rare League card has a picture of him in his casual clothing, with Oleana in the background.
• His character description in Pokémon Masters EX references the card descriptions from Sword/Shield, as it refers to him in a flattering light, with a mention that the description was submitted by Oleana.