HOW IT STARTED
I've been fond of Rose ever since I played Metal Gear Solid 2 several years back. I find her fascinating, gorgeous, and hearing her voice always makes me smile. Even though she doesn't have the most 'swoon-worthy' things to say in this game, I still found myself saving often in my play-throughs so I could find out what she had to add next. I wouldn't be surprised if I've heard every line of dialogue by now.
I completed Metal Gear Solid 4 in late 2023, a few months after the first rendition of this page, and loved utilising the Codec to hear her throughout. There, I find she has a much more openly passionate and kind personality; a persona so much more authentically her that I fall for a little more every time.
Her rambles about psychological and therapeutic concepts, the way she gestures as she speaks, the sound of her voice, even the different clothes she wears really get to me. Rose being one of the permanent Codec contacts was what encouraged me through the game.
We've been together since March 2022. I bump that date up to April 2022 so I can celebrate the same anniversary date as our 'main' one (I do consider the 30th of April 2007 our actual anniversary date). In April 2023, I embraced this relationship properly and began to talk about us among close friends who were very kind to me about it.
I accepted I didn't want or need to chase after fruitless romantic relationships with real people I didn't experience attraction to. A chase that made me push down my feelings for fictional characters as something casual, a stepping stone to something real, and ignored what I really wanted my love life to hold. Nowadays, I refer to her as my wife or my girlfriend in equal measure. I really do see her that way.
WHY ROSE?
Raiden, her husband, is a character I consider an important aspect of myself. In non-jargonised terms, I see myself as him and I have an empirical understanding of his life. This is obviously a huge driving force behind my feelings for Rose, though not the only one. It gives my more sentimental feelings that extra layer of personal significance. Raiden gets to be a very convenient stand-in for myself in creations such as writing and art, as well as a way to project my current relationship with Rose onto the real one that occurred in the story.
I feel dedicated to Rose. It's as if our relationship still exists, the core of it unchanging; carrying on, and I love her just the same. It's more of a solo effort now. Though, physical distance was an issue for us then, too. It's not so different. This time around, I'm going without my semi-regular communication home or the anticipation that she'll be in my arms when it's over.
Rose is my favourite character in the series. I see her as one of the most human characters, which might be why her behaviour stands out to anybody. She's passionate, she's caring, she's extremely competent and dedicated to what she enjoys. She makes mistakes, has second thoughts; she feels remorse and uncertainty. I never got the common impression that she was nasty, only that she was trying to stand her ground as her own woman who didn't want to 'put up or shut up'.
The negative reception to Rose from fans of the game, even nowadays, really surprised me. I don't mean to white-knight her but I think she has a pretty normal reaction to a lot of the things concerning her conversations with Raiden. He's a difficult guy to live with! Especially when you have no idea what is happening. I don't agree that her emotions make her a bad person. Or that she's any guiltier or more unforgiveable than her male counterparts.
I categorise the hatred of her character as split between players finding Raiden irritating so they find her even more annoying by proxy, fans of Raiden misrepresenting her beyond belief because 'he deserves better' or she stands in the way of their sexual orientation headcanon, and those who are critical toward fictional women regardless. I wish others could come around to see her with the same curious interest I do without writing it off as apologism or stupidity.
I'm aware that one of the narrative functions of Rose is to pry out Raiden's troubles and... troubled-ness. So, most of our visible interactions are part of this. I can't expect people to know what simply isn't there, but I can't deny that being joked about as a disastrous couple who don't love each other bothers me.
WHAT IT'S LIKE
The best way to explain what I have with her these days is that I'm self-shipping with her in a devoted and monogamous way. Particularly, I ascribe to the sort of sincerity seen more often in waifuism. I dislike using the term waifu and prefer just 'wife' but I suppose that's what she is for me.
She means a lot to me. More than any other character, maybe even person, in the world. And as cheesy as this is, she's changed me for the better. She's become a "muse" of sorts for creative work: I got into writing fiction again because of her and depicting her is the reason I took developing my skills regarding drawing humans seriously. Now that I'm getting pretty good with human features, I look at that artwork and I see a piece of her in them. The thought of her can calm me down when I'm agitated or feeling low; I fall asleep most peacefully when I'm imagining her close by.
Rose is always in my thoughts in some way. I note things she'd enjoy when I come across them. I dream about her. There's not much merchandise out there, but I own an acrylic charm of her and a stuffed animal that shares her name.
I've made a lot of progress on myself and my mental health under the goal of doing it for her, or with her. I've been coming out of my shell in fictosexual and waifuist communities to talk more casually about her to others rather than treating it as a shameful secret. I have someone to love, someone to live for, and I really value that.
There aren't many ways to publicly share something so personal without feeling uncomfortable or too embarrassed. Honestly, even after updating this page several times over years I still want to curl up in shame at the thought of others seeing me expressing these feelings. Hopefully this page can share just a small slice of what I personally feel for her, as well as provide a detailed introduction for people who aren't familiar with her. I don't want her only to be known as the most evil, or worst received, Metal Gear character. I want it to be clear that someone loved her.
DATING A CHARACTER?
More common than you might think. If you hang around Neocities I'm sure I'm not the first one you've seen do this. There are multiple communities celebrating attraction to characters — waifuists, fictosexuals, and selfshippers to name a few. Some are attracted to their fictional love in a form close to a real-life relationship, others see it as a fun creative exercise, a form of role-play, or a way to deal with loneliness. Some are not interested in real people, others have different relationships alongside characters.
I have always dated characters with my whole heart in it and I had my beginnings in the waifuist community. The full devotion waifuist relationships tend to have is something I echo in my own. In my case, it functions the same as any other relationship, just without the physical aspect. I love her enough that I'll happily shoulder the burdens this dynamic comes with.