Rose

Rose
Species	Human
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Purple
Base	Rose Tower
Debut	Pokémon: Sword/Shield

Rose (commonly referred to as 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. At some point in his past, he placed 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 Olean'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 took control of Rose Tower and made it 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.

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.

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.