Rule of Rose Mysteries

Because of the spoiler-intensive nature of this Rule of Rose blog, I have always envisioned it as being for readers who have already played through the game. However, there are readers of this blog who come here before finishing the game. Some even come here before starting the game.

As a service to those who may be having trouble getting past some of the difficult combat challenges, I’m going to create some blog-post threads where readers may give advice on battle tactics.

Let’s dedicate the comments for this post solely to the subject of how to defeat the Hoffman (headmaster, teacher) Boss in the “Sir Peter” chapter.

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Because of the spoiler-intensive nature of this Rule of Rose blog, I have always envisioned it as being for readers who have already played through the game. However, there are readers of this blog who come here before finishing the game. Some even come here before starting the game.

As a service to those who may be having trouble getting past some of the difficult combat challenges, I’m going to create some blog-post threads where readers may give advice on battle tactics.

Let’s dedicate the comments for this post solely to the subject of how to defeat the Mermaid Boss in the “Mermaid Princess” chapter.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have previously written blog-posts about the hypothesis that the story of Sir Peter in the “Sir Peter” storybook is really a story of metaphors about Mr. Hoffman, his sexual dirtiness (from a child’s perspective), and his murder at the orphanage. See my previous blog-posts:

“Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 1)
Clara and Hoffman: Mermaid and Hare?

Sir Peter is depicted in the “Sir Peter” storybook as standing upright (also walking and running) on two legs, holding an umbrella, and dressed like a man in a suit-coat and hat.

The hat may be an important clue that supports the above mentioned hypothesis that the “Sir Peter” storybook tells Hoffman’s story.

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In my previous blog-post “Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 1), I discussed the idea that the story of Sir Peter, in the “Sir Peter” storybook, is really a story of metaphors about Hoffman, his sexual dirtiness (from a child’s perspective), and his murder at the orphanage.

The original insight, leading to that blog-post, came from a comment-maker going by the name of RozenMaiden. In that same comment, she also came up with the insight leading to this blog-post you are reading now.

Quoting RozenMaiden:

Of Clara the mermaid, what it possibly symbolizes and related musings:

First of all, I think the mermaid may be an important euphemism here concerning Clara.

The dubious relationship between Hoffman and Clara, and the mermaid element, reminded me about Mary, queen of Scots, and how she was known as the “Mermaid Queen” after her affair with Lord Bothwell (he raped her, but she consented -or was pressured by him- to marry him). Anyway, back in Mary’s time, a mermaid was a euphemism for a prostitute, whore, slut …etc. Is this how Clara feels about herself? Like a filthy whore?

The following is a quote from http://www.marileecody.com/maryqosimages.html:

‘The Mermaid and the Hare’: Placard denouncing the adultery between Mary and Bothwell. This anonymous placard was one of many plastered throughout Edinburgh during the fateful spring of 1567. Rumors of adultery with Lord Bothwell were only encouraged when Mary wed him just three months after Darnley’s very suspicious death. In popular culture, the mermaid symbolized a prostitute; the hare was Bothwell’s insignia. The initials ‘I H’ refer to his full name, James Hepburn. ‘M R’, of course, stands for Maria Regina. Mary was devastated by this sort of anonymous slander. Her reputation in Scotland never recovered.

Think about what else a mermaid symbolizes, luring and tempting men to their doom (which ties in with Hoffman’s lust for Clara and Diana – who is the other main focus in the mermaid theme.)

As a side note, I think it is also an interesting coincidence (I’m not saying it’s intentional, but still interesting :p) that Lord Bothwell’s insignia is a hare and Hoffman is represented as Sir Peter-Rabbit…

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I suspect that it is NOT a co-incidence that Bothwell’s insignia is a hare. I think that the game-makers are deliberately drawing from the story of the Earl of Bothwell and Mary Queen of Scots. And, I propose, it is not at all unreasonable that Jennifer would know of the story of Bothwell and Queen Mary. She is, after all, an English school girl and would, as such, be expected to study the history of the royals.  And we KNOW that the girls of the orphanage were obsessed with ideas of royalty and aristocracy.

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The theory that the “Sir Peter” storybook tells a story about Hoffman was introduced at this site by comment-maker RozenMaiden back in June of 2008.  I think RozenMaiden displayed a brilliant insight with that theory, and it deserves its own blog-posts on the subject. The text of the “Sir Peter” storybook is:

Sir Peter, Sir Peter, went out for a stroll. Sir Peter, Sir Peter, put in a cage, had to hold it in. Sir Peter, Sir Peter, needs to go right now, doesn’t want to sin. Sir Peter, Sir Peter, bagged and whisked away, before he found a toilet. Good-bye, Peter. Good-bye.

RozenMaiden commented:

I think that the tale of Hoffman mirrors the tale of Sir Peter. 1. He’s a molester of young girls, and now finds himself in charge of them, trying his best to resist his urges and being a good teacher. “put in a cage, had to hold it in.” 2. It gets harder and harder to resist temptation as time goes on. “needs to go right now, doesn’t want to sin.” 3. He can’t control himself any longer and gives in to his true nature. Then disappears. “bagged and whisked away, before he found a toilet. Good-bye, Peter. Good-bye.” Quote from “Once Upon A Time” chapter:

“That day, Mr. Hoffman disappeared, like he was running away from something. He had tried too hard to be someone he wasn’t. The expectations were too much for him… and he wanted to escape those restrictions. However, children and adults live in the same world, and we must both play by society’s rules.”

I think Hoffman left because he could not control himself among other things.

I think that RozenMaiden has some great insights in her comment. But I also think that she got the ending of the story wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

In the “Rag Princess” storybook, we are told that the fairy godmother cast a spell on “the girl”:

One day.
a fairy godmother came,
cast a spell on the girl, and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

What puzzles me about this is the role of the spell. Why doesn’t the above passage just read:

One day.
a fairy godmother came and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

In the Cinderella story, the fairy godmother casts spells, but are any of these spells actually cast ON Cinderella herself?

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The following blog-post was based on my identification of the head of the seamstress as being that of a bear. Thank you Pandora for the alternative (correct?) identification of pig (comment #6). See links to images, scattered throughout the comments-thread.
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The animation that begins the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter of Rule of Rose is described by TheSinnerChrono’s “Rule of Rose Game Script” as follows:

A girl works at a sewing machine. Her hand gets punctured by the needle; the wheel continues to spin and she’s pulled through the machine, becoming flattened by cloth.

TheSinnerChrono failed to mention a very important feature of this “girl”: she has the head of Joshua-the-bear!

As the only person who we see sewing in Rule of Rose is Amanda, this establishes, it might seem, some sort of co-identity between Amanda and Joshua-the-bear!

What could THAT possibly be about?

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The “Rag Princess” storybook of Rule of Rose tells us:

One day.
a fairy godmother came,
cast a spell on the girl, and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

The accompanying illustration in the storybook shows Joshua-the-bear as the fairy godmother.

How does this section of the storybook tale relate to the events of Jennifer’s forgotten past?

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I have stated before that I believe that the months ascribed to the chapters of the Rule of Rose game are unreliable.

The airship chapters are ascribed the following months (in 1930):

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field
May__________Sir Peter
July__________Bird of Happiness
August________Mermaid Princess
September____The Goat Sisters
October_______Rag Princess Sews

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If we take note of the progression in the number of Wendy’s drawings posted on the wall of the Sick Room, we find the following pattern:

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field__________2 DRAWINGS
May__________Sir Peter______________________3 DRAWINGS
July__________Bird of Happiness_________________________(no access)
August________Mermaid Princess________________________ (no access)
September____The Goat Sisters__________________________(access; but no drawings at all on the wall)
October_______Rag Princess Sews______________4 DRAWINGS

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Now let’s look at the height progression of Amanda’s covered-up sewing project in the Working Class Luggage area:

April_________The Unlucky Clover Field____________________(no project present)
May__________Sir Peter________________initially SHORTEST-SIZE,
_______________________________________then MID-SIZE later in the May chapter (at which time Amanda says: “It’s almost ready.”)
July__________Bird of Happiness__________________________(no project present)
August________Mermaid Princess__________________________(no project present)
September____The Goat Sisters___________________________(no project present)
October_______Rag Princess Sews______________TALLEST SIZE

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In both of the above progressions, the pattern breaks after the “Sir Peter” chapter and then resumes again in the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter.

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I’m going to start our discussion of Amanda’s sewing project by posting the entire text of the “Rag Princess” storybook here for reference:

Once upon a time,
there was a girl who sewed rags,
day in, day out.
The stench of the rags seeped into her clothes.
Her stepsisters wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball.
The girl stayed at home and her jealousy festered.
One day.
a fairy godmother came,
cast a spell on the girl, and said,
“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”
The girl patched together the sooty rags,
and that’s how she became the Rag Princess.
A very stinky princess indeed.
She stunk up the whole town, in fact.
No girl who stunk so would be allowed into the ball.
I’ll make that girl wear this awful dress myself!
And thus, the Rag Princess and the girl in the rag dress became play pals.

In the “Rag Princess” storybook, the Amanda’s sewing project begins as a dress for herself:

“Sew yourself an ash-grey dress.
Then you can go to the ball like your stepsisters!”

But it is a project that fails:

No girl who stunk so would be allowed into the ball.

Some entries in Amanda’s diary seem to relate to this sewing project.

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