Rosa Carlstead

Rosa Carlstead (ローザ・カールステッド) is a recruit of the Survey Corps and the daughter of Sorum Humé and Maria Carlstead. She appears in the light novel Attack on Titan: Before the Fall 3 and the manga series Attack on TItan: Before the Fall.

Appearance
Rosa is a young girl with short black hair; like her mother, she has two strands of hair running along the side of her face. She wears a white button up shirt underneath the traditional uniform of the Training Corps.

Personality
Friendly and brave, Rosa is headstrong and eager to join the Survey Corps like her late father; she also is determined to prove to others (as well as herself) that women were just as capable as men of joining the Survey Corps. Much like her mother, Rosa is known to tease and act mischievous around others. Rosa does respect people's privacy, as seen when she admonishes one of her friends for trying to eavesdrop in on a private conversation.

Restoration of the Survey Corps arc
Rosa is first introduced as a new member of the Training Corps attending the academy within Wall Rose. During a routine training exercise, Rosa and the rest of her squad-mates come across an unconscious and heavily injured teen washed up along the bank of a river. She took him to a nearby abandoned cabin to heal. Roughly a week later, she goes to check on him and is surprised to see him awake and moving, believing him to be in a coma. As Rosa goes to change the teen's bandages, she introduces herself and is astonished to see his wounds have healed so quickly.

As she mentions one of the wounds looked to have been caused by a sword, the teen starts to panic and asks about a device he was wearing; Rosa shows that it was removed and stored away in a nearby cabinet. The teen introduces himself as Kuklo and mentions that the device in question is a tool designed to fight Titans. Amazed, Rosa is further taken back when Kuklo reveals that he knows both her mother and the famed hero Jorge Pikale. When asked by Kuklo if she can get in touch with either Jorge or her mother, Rosa agrees to help him.

Later that night, Rosa brings her fellow squad mates to see Kuklo. When Felix questions Kuklo's injuries, Rosa defends him by stating Kuklo's part of a secret group designing an anti-Titan weapon. When she hears that Jorge will be arriving soon (and since Kuklo is friends with him), Rosa asks if he can put in a good word for them; she affirms her desire to join the Corps in order to avenge her father's death. Kuklo agrees to put in a word for them all, but only if they promise to him that they will take the training seriously; Kuklo reveals that he was at the last expedition where many soldiers died, and that some of his scars are from Titan inflicted wounds. Slightly shaken by this, Rosa and the others still agree. As the next two weeks go by, Rosa is amazed by how all of Kuklo's wounds have mostly healed. When she hears Kuklo mention the name Sharle, she teases him by asking if she is his girlfriend. She then gives Kuklo back the iron bamboo knife he had on him; suddenly struck by an idea when hearing it referred to as a protective charm, Rosa takes it and inspects one of the wounds on Kuklo's side. She tells him that due to it placed there, the strike did not go any deeper and it saved Kuklo's life.

When Jorge arrives at the training academy, Rosa and her friends return to notify Kuklo and spot a pair of Military Police soldiers approaching the cabin. They try to bluff that they found the cabin abandoned and use it as a way-point for training but the two MP's do not believe them, accusing them of knowing what is inside. Only the arrival of Jorge Pikale is able to convince them that Rosa and the trainees were telling the truth. After they leave, Rosa is curious where Kuklo disappeared to when she sees him jump out of a tree and use the device to reach the ground. After hearing how the device can be used, this only furthers Rosa's desire to join the Survey Corps and tells this to Jorge himself.

Rosa and her squad then volunteer to take part in a special training regimen devised by Carlo Pikale. Hearing that those who do not succeed the training will be sent back to the Academy only makes her more determined to join their ranks. After hearing Jorge Pikale will be instructing them, Rosa notices that Kuklo and Cardina are being referred to by other names; she does not have much time to dwell on it before they are thrust into the training immediately. Ordered to perform a logistics exercise with sand bags, Rosa starts to fall behind her squad. Pushing herself to keep up, she eventually falls unconscious and is helped by her squad. She wakes up that night and, remembering what happened, assumes that she caused them all to fail. Kuklo arrives and brings her some food. While eating, Rosa is told her friends brought her back after passing out; she immediately asks they not be penalized for what happened. Kuklo waves her concerns off, reminding her that they will be judged over the course of three months and they have just started.

Eventually, Rosa and the other recruits are informed the training regimen will be altered and that they will be taking part in an aptitude training exercise that focuses on balancing. After seeing several recruits fail, Rosa is glad to see Ivo being the first one to succeed. Kuklo calls her up and she is determined to succeed; however, she ends up upside down and fails. Dejected, she also sees Kai and Felix fail as well, with all three solemnly believing they will be sent back to the Training Academy. She later is surprised to see Xavi, the Military Police soldier sent to monitor the regimen, is able to stay balanced with little strain or effort.

That night during dinner, Jorge announces the five candidates who passed the initial test and Rosa is glad to hear that Hugo was able to pass along with Ivo. Despite being disappointed that she did not succeed, Rosa is quickly surprised to hear that along, with Kai and Felix, she would be eligible to retake the test in ten days. The next morning, the recruits are relieved of training that day and are taken to Wall Maria. As they travel, Rosa goes to Jorge and offers to take over; he declines, but allows Rosa to sit up front. He remarks that Rosa takes after her mother and Rosa is surprised to hear that Jorge knows her mother as well as her late father Sorum. When asked if she truly wanted to join the Survey Corps to seek vengeance for Sorum's death, Rosa replies yes; however, Rosa admits that she has no memory of her father despite using his death as motivation. Jorge warns that if she wants to join, Rosa must not let her desire for vengeance blind her for it could cost her her life. He mentions that Kuklo is in a similar position to Rosa and despite losing both his parents to Titans, he does not let that be his sole motivation. Jorge tells Rosa that Kuklo lived much of his life in a cage and wishes to fight so no one else has to go through what he did by being 'caged' in from the threat of Titans.

Relationships

 * Sorum Humé and Maria Carlstead - Rosa has a loving relationship with her parents. Despite never getting to meet her father, Rosa held Sorum in high regards and wishes to join the Survey Corps to avenge his death; her mother understandably tries to prevent her from joining and hopes Rosa will instead join the Garrison.
 * Kuklo Munsell - Rosa is curious about Kuklo and is amazed that he knows both her mother and the head of the Survey Corps. Hearing about his device (and seeing him operate it) only helped drive Rosa to improve herself to be able to join the Survey Corps someday. It is presumed that Rosa has a crush on Kuklo as she mentioned to herself how dashing Kuklo looked when using his device, and was also the primary person who took care of Kuklo while he was recovering. She also teased Kuklo when he mentioned Sharle's name, but was visibly disappointed to see them hugging each other after reuniting.
 * Jorge and Carlo Pikale - As the respective head instructor and captain of the Survey Corps, Rosa holds both men in high regards. She especially wishes to show to Carlo that she is capable of passing the training in order to join the Survey Corps like her father.

Trivia

 * The names of Rosa and her mother Maria are most likely based off of the names of the two outermost Walls, Maria and Rose.