- Joined
- Nov 27, 2025
- Messages
- 4
I don't recall ever seeing a flashback to Rosemary's backstory, now that you mention it.
I think you might be right, maybe she is simply that docile. In some ways, the little shadow-nymphs seem to pick up on and exaggerate certain aspects of their "living doll's" personality, and in other ways, they seem to "complete" a personality by filling in an underdeveloped or repressed personality trait... take Shirley, for example, once Rum at last gave her a chance to take on a personality of her own after the failed debut: Rum was painfully shy and meek, but Shirley turned out to be quite energetic and playful, which in turn helped encourage Rum to take chances she might not have taken on her own. Or, the way Patrick took on some of the more sensitive and gentle qualities of Ricky's personality, while Ricky assumed the more aggressive side of his personality to help protect his shadow.
It seems consistent with the way the shadow mimicry works, for Maryrose to express a very flamboyant and and assertive personality, to complement Rosemary's natural docility: we might conclude that Rosemary might not have always been so passive and docile as we see her in the Shadows House, but was probably still always a delicate and quiet girl inclined more toward following than leading, even before arriving at Shadows House.
Also, I take it from some of the seemingly throw-away lines in the last couple episodes of Series 2 that Rosemary/Maryrose were regarded as "sickly" by Edward and her other peers, we see hints of it in Rosemary's soot sickness, and it also comes up again with their reaction to leaving the island, as the illness which brought them back: the delicate-and-sickly-cute-girl thing seems to be a popular anime trope, and Rosemary/Maryrose seems to be a play on it, in much the same way that Barbie/Barbara are, with very different results (I couldn't help noticing that the - very beautiful! - ending credits sequence for the second series of the anime feature these two pairs of characters almost like reflections of each other, something that I'd caught before, and thought was an interesting detail, but never gave much thought to until now! I have to think that connection between these characters will come back into play again later, as more of Barbara/Barbie's story arc unfolds....)
