Warning: There are manga and anime spoilers below.
What Happened to Maryrose and Rosemary?
After Rosemary was exposed as Master Robe, Kate, to her dismay, had no other choice but to turn her in to Barbara and the other Star Bearers. Kate understood Maryrose’s motivations and felt bad for doing so, but it was the only way for her, Emilico, and their friends to survive and one day bring change to the Shadows House. When Barbara – who used to be good friends with Maryrose – takes Maryrose and Rosemary to the Adults’ Building for questioning, their backstories are revealed. Before understanding what the process entailed, Maryrose was happy with the prospect of becoming an adult, and she did her best to help the more timid Barbara develop her skills. On that, Maryrose had help from Christopher, a very charismatic Shadow and Star Bearer who was interested in educating everyone in the Children’s Building and bringing the best out of them. However, when Maryrose broke the brainwashing of Christopher’s living doll, Anthony, things changed. Their happy lives went on for a little while longer, but, eventually, Christopher was invited to the Adults’ Building. Having figured out what the process entailed, he committed suicide so as not to subject Anthony to the unification process that would kill him. Maryrose chose not to trust Barbara with her knowledge, fearing the information would break her. This meant that they could no longer be friends, as Barbara didn’t know what had happened to Christopher and she was keen to become an adult so that she could meet him again. When she gives Maryrose and Rosemary to Edward for questioning, Barbara doesn’t hide her disdain for him, telling him that Christopher should be the administrator of the Children’s Wing and reminding Maryrose of how little she actually knows. Maryrose realizes it’s too late to do anything about her relationship with Barbara. However, she’s determined to go out with a blast.
Did Maryrose Die?
After fighting Edward and causing chaos while accusing him of thoughtlessly killing his living doll, Ed, Maryrose and Rosemary fall from the Great Grandfather’s Tower presumably to their deaths, although this is left ambiguous. This was a violent twist that many fans didn’t see coming unless they had already read the Shadows House manga. But are Maryrose and Rosemary really dead? Or is there a loophole? At this point, it seems that the creators consciously chose to leave us guessing. After all, and especially in fantasy anime, the consensus seems to be that we only 100% believe a character’s death if we see the dead body. In the very same episode, we see Kate using her soot to create a pillow so that Emilico, who’s prone to falling, doesn’t hurt herself. Maryrose’s power isn’t quite that, and her soot capacity is rather limited for all her skill with soot phantoms. As such, we can’t vouch for her ability to create a soft space huge enough to save her and Rosemary. On the other hand, Maryrose did advise Kate never to show the full extent of her powers to others, so could she have been following her own advice, even then? In the manga, the very next episode after Maryrose’s fall introduces Anthony, Christopher’s living doll, who is still hiding in the house and will presumably continue her legacy as Master Robe. While Anthony seems to think little of Rosemary and Maryrose’s decision to fall to their deaths, he suggests that Maryrose’s powers could potentially save them, though this isn’t a certainty.
Will Maryrose and Rosemary Return?
Maryrose and Rosemary haven’t returned so far, although the manga spans more than 60 chapters after their fall, and it is still going. On the other hand, fan theories are also going strong. Many fans believe that Maryrose was strong enough to create a soot phantom to mitigate their fall. She and Rosemary did seem resigned to their fate and rather pleased to die together and suffer the same fate, which they deem preferable to unification. But could this resignation also be just acting? One might feel that this is far-fetched, especially since Maryrose has yet to make another appearance if she’s alive. On the other hand, if the pair somehow survived, it makes sense that they’d want to stay as far away from the house as possible. With more of the subsequent manga chapters taking place outside of the house, we do hope to see Maryrose and Rosemary again. It would be interesting to see a Shadow and human pair trying to make their way in the outside world.
