In defense of Rosa
Because from what I can tell, it looks like nobody else is going to be fair to her without someone taking the time to go through her character and the storyline. Be aware, this is not going to be mere rehash of the obvious. It will push you to consider some aspects of the game in ways you may have overlooked.
SPOILERS throughout this post.
The first point I'd like to touch on is one that always bothers me because of erroneous assumptions of people who start playing the series further down the line. The argument I'm about to challenge: "Rosa is just a stereotypical white mage." Now, we all know that the white mage was first introduced in the original Final Fantasy. Trouble is, which Final Fantasy was the first one to give a white mage the "loving, caring" type of personality? That's right, Final Fantasy 4. The only other white mage in the series to have a personality before FF4 was a character in FF2 (I think his name was Mindu). When we get right down to it, Rosa is the very first character in the series to have the type of personality that is now EXPECTED of a white mage character in the Final Fantasy series. She did not merely copy someone else, she's the original. In my personal belief, I think this gets slapped on her because people who were introduced to the white mage personality with Aeris, Yuna, or some other FF girl don't take the time it was created in the series into consideration. Hey, if I wanted to be unnecessarily cynical, I could claim that people only do this to Rosa because they don't like the idea of someone with that personality coming before a character like Aeris. But that's being cynical.
The second topic of my post: "Rosa is just a damsel in distress." Let me ask you, how many times does Rosa need help? Twice. Once for desert fever and once when captured by Golbez. We all know Rinoa tops that, but let's look at the other characters in the series besides her. Aeris needs your help at LEAST four times: Don Corneo, escaping the church, escaping Shinra headquarters (you could really count this TWICE if you wanted to because they get recaptured and then must escape again), and the City of Ancients (where she dies before you can rescue her). Even if you cut out Don Corneo, that still leaves three other spots. One more than Rosa. Yuna? If I remember correctly, she's captured at LEAST twice (Seymour and the Al Bhed...there could be more that I've forgotten). Garnet: at least twice. At worst, Rosa is equal to these other FF leads as a damsel-in-distress.
This weaves seamlessly into the nature of Rosa's two instances where she needs to be helped. First: "Rosa could have at LEAST fought Golbez off when he captured her!" No, she couldn't. Golbez just annihilated half the party with one bolt spell. In one attack, Golbez took down the best Dark Knight in Baron, the best martial artist in Fabul, and the prince of Damcyan. What's a white mage going to do to a guy like that? The more time she spent struggling, the worse off her comrades would have been. Why give Golbez a good reason to kill Rosa and her comrades when Golbez has no intention of finishing the rest off as long as he gets her? This is a sign of intellect, not cowardice.
Second: Rosa gets desert fever. You already know the obvious defense of "it's a sickness, not like she could prevent it?" I have something better to think about: how do you think Rosa got out there in the first place? She doesn't know how to teleport. Nobody else accompanied her (and if they did, they died or deserted along the way). She crossed monster-infested lands alone, her bow and arrows her only attack. The fact that she made it to Kaipo is in itself a clear sign that she's more than just a damsel in distress. And unlike Rydia, she didn't have black magic to fall back on. Not only does this show Rosa's a strong woman, but it shows her deep love for Cecil. She risked her life traveling across land, desert and possibly mountain and must have faced hordes of monsters just to reach the man she loves.
And as long as we're on magic, let's compare the magic and attacks in this game real fast in terms of their worth. I'm not going to go into the character-specific stuff because that would take too long. Black magic can target all enemies and do a great deal of damage, but you still have a regular attack to fall back on for any mage characters. Just the same, you have characters that are entirely physical damage dealers. While black magic has its uses, it's not absolutely essential. When we move on to items, there are plenty that can function in the place of both white magic and black magic. But here's the thing: there's a limited supply of items that can heal ALL characters at once. And in this game, healing is an absolute necessity (especially against Zeromus). If you removed any of the damage dealers of the party, whether black magic or physical attack, you're still safe with the other characters. But if you remove Rosa, you're pretty much screwed unless you replace her or someone else with another white mage character.
Finally, we get down to feelings, both romantic and when captured. With regard to romantic feelings, many people complain about Rosa being "clingy." But here's the thing: her and Cecil have been in an intimate relationship for YEARS, and they've been close to each other since childhood. Now tell me, how realistic is it that you WON'T want to be near people you love after being around them for so long? The game makes it an obvious point that Cecil's distancing from Rosa during the early parts of the game are NOT because she's some crazy girl obsessed with Cecil, but that Cecil's the one with the problem. His Dark Knight class is slowly closing his heart off to all sense of humanity. And as for her pleas to be saved by Cecil while she was captured: what do you expect?! She's a hostage in a vulnerable position. She could be killed, harmed or raped at any moment, she wouldn't be able to fight back, and the only one that can save her now is Cecil. That isn't weakness; it's being human.
With that, I will point out two more loose ends and then leave it at that for now. At Mt. Hobs, you discover that you cannot pass until young Rydia learns the fire spell. This would be simple enough..if Rydia weren't traumatized by fire earlier. If Rydia could get over it with just Cecil and Edward, you would be able to melt the ice much earlier in the game. However, it's only after Rosa tags along that Rydia manages to overcome that fear. Thanks to Rosa's caring and compassionate touch, the party can progress. Rosa does not slow the party down from their mission by coming after Cecil. In fact, she becomes the second most important reason the party makes it to Fabul at all. And when the party went to defeat Zeromus, it wasn't Rydia that suggested they hide on the ship. If I remember correctly, Rydia didn't even put up an argument. It was Rosa who suggested they hide on the ship, then confronted the guys (including Cecil) for trying to make the women stay behind.
I realize that in my writing this rather long post, most people will brand me as nothing more than an overobsessive psycho who needs to "calm down." Some may even have the audacity to say "it's just a video game." But these are very real aspects of the game that have come from multiple replays and many thorough discussions of Rosa on various boards. With so much negativity levied at Rosa, I felt it only proper to provide a truthful and balanced defense for Rosa, the most underrated character in the entire Final Fantasy series.
* Yeah, she doesn't have much character on the surface, and just appears to be the weak 'omg save me!!1one1' damsel in distress character, so I guess that's the main reason people wouldn't like her. But I've never really thought about it anyway. People are allowed to like and dislike who they want. 
Originally Posted by Zeromus_X
I think Rosa's an alright character. She's quite useful in battles (I use white magic more than other magic, and she actually does quite a lot of damage with a bow when you use her Aim ability and good arrows), and she doesn't annoy me in the game. Not my favorite character, but a white mage is still a must-have in a party in FFIV.
. Also thanks to Evastio for bringing up that scene. Sorry if the following sounds like it's trying to "steal your thunder" or something along those lines, I'm just saying something else that comes to mind out of what you mentioned.
