See-all Walkthrough, With Commentary: “Rag Princess Sews” Chapter (Part 2): The Library and Meg
Posted by PokerNemesis in Plot Structure & Story, SymbolismLeaving the Sickroom, cross the hall and enter the door to the Library.
The Library is a shambles. Move Jennifer as far forward as she can go and then switch camera angles back and forth to survey the scene.
The bookcase to Jennifer’s right has tipped over and spilled its books onto the floor. A bookcase in front of Jennifer has also spilled its books onto the floor in a large pile. This seems to suggest that the airship has been making violent movements rather than flying smoothly. But to Jennifer’s right there is a wooden table that has been overturned in such a way that the length of the table extends upward, and I find it hard to imagine how the table could have gotten positioned like that accidentally. Near that wooden table there is a smaller table-stand (?) that has rope wrapped around it (the purpose of which is unclear to me). (See edit at the bottom of this post)
Turning Jennifer to her left, we can see Meg sitting at a table. In front of Meg is another bookcase that has tipped over. On the wall in front of Meg are two paintings. The painting to the left is the portrait of Hoffman that can be found in the foyer of the orphanage. The painting to the right (which isn’t hanging straight) is a painting of a airship, similar—but not identical to—the painting of an airship that can be found in the library of the orphanage. Perhaps the painted airship not hanging straight is a metaphor for the airship itself being askew.
The only click-able that I have found in the Library is Meg. One gets a different view of Meg depending on which side of the table Jennifer is located when clicking (pressing “x”) near Meg. Meg either sits facing forward, or sits sideways on her chair, but the the text reads the same in either case:
The wise-looking Princess said,
“The Princess was very fond of Sir Joshua the Bear, so her highness is rather displeased by this incident. The culprit who stole Sir Joshua will be severely punished.”
~
Two different classifications of “Princess” occur in the text.
For Jennifer, every orphan (except herself) is a Prince or a Princess. That is why Meg is called (the wise-looking) Princess. Jennifer never uses the Aristocrat Club rankings to refer to anybody.
Meg, however, does use the Aristocrat Club rankings, and means the Red Rose Princess when she says “Princess”.
But I don’t understand why Meg refers to Joshua the Bear as Sir Joshua the Bear.
Exit the library, move Jennifer to her right, make a left at the corner, and click “x” at the chart at the corner. The chart reads:
………………….The Red Crayon Royalty
Red Rose Princess………………………………………Bear Prince
Duchess
……………………………..Countess
……………………………………………………………BaronessBourgeoisie
…………………………Poor
……………………..Beggar
According to this chart, the bear (which is drawn to look like Joshua the Bear) is a Prince. Is it ever correct to refer to a Prince as “Sir”? I confess that I don’t know how royal titles work. Can somebody tell me if a Prince can correctly be called “Sir”?
~
Edit:
The stand (that I had tentatively described as a “table-stand” above) apparently doesn’t function as a table. It can be found in the Library of the orphanage in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter. The part that I thought might be a table-top is actually near the floor (unlike a table). Strangely, the cords that I described “rope” wrapping this object are still on it! I have no idea what these cords are about.
Entries (RSS)
I just now added an edit to the bottom of this blog-post.
Actually, I can help with this one! Yay for useless knowledge. In answer to your question, a Prince cannot correctly be called “Sir”.
——————————————————
The only titled nobles that are to be called “Sir” are male knights and baronets (which is the lowest hereditary title someone can receive and is actually a commoner in rank.)
All other royals are to be called by their title or a specific general term. For instance, a direct member of the royal family such as a queen or king and also a prince or princess could be called “Your Majesty” or “Your Royal Highness” and sometimes just “Your Highness”.
A duke or duchess would be called “Your Grace”.
A marquis or marquise would be called “Your Lordship” or “Your Ladyship” or “My Lord/Lady” by servants.
An earl or countess has the same terms as a marquis/marquise. A countess is the wife of an earl or woman of the same rank as one. I wonder what happened to Count? Crazy British. (j/k)
A viscount or viscountess has “The Honorable…” added to his/her name and can be called “My Lord/Lady”. No more Lords or Ladies for the lower ranks’ children though. They are only “The Honorable…”
A Baron or Baroness can still be called “My Lord” or “My Lady”, but their children too are only “The Honorable…”
After the Baron is the Baronet who is called “Sir…”. I…don’t know what his wife is called. Baronetess maybe? The dictionary doesn’t recognize her, so she just “Lady” so-and-so. The children have no titles.
And then, there is the knight. A knight is called “Sir…” and his wife is called “Lady…” again. However, if a woman was to be knighted (not just married) she would be called “Dame…” The children have no titles as well.
And those are all the British titles I know. Actually, those are all the royal British titles anyways.
Thanks, Passerby.
I suspected that calling a Prince “Sir” was wrong. Now, the question is… does it mean anything? Or is it a meaningless error?
It’s most likely a meaningless error. I doubt other people have as extensive a knowledge of British royal titles as I. “Sir” is as formal as most people get in their whole lives.
Although it could mean Joshua the Bear has been demoted to a knight or another lower rank because Jennifer is going to become the new Prince.
Wait… At the pre-game opening, didn’t jennifer say to wendy that ” my name is joshua and i will serve you princess”-thingy? then why is joshua a bear? could he be a stand-in while the real “joshua” is somewhere? is that the reason why the joshua-bear is called “sir”?
Eh… Well Jen was supposed to be a prince, right? When you first started explaining I immediately though, “Oh, then that’s Jen’s way of warning us that there is no real Prince yet. Just a stuffed animal stand in.”
But who knows? I jump to conclusions alot.
Hmm..I’m not perfect in japanese, but I think it’s a translation mistake. Normally in japanese, if Joshua the Bear is a prince, then the suffix ‘’sama” would be attached to his name as a sign of respect and his superiority. In the original dialogue, the bear was surely refered was ”Joshua-sama”, which would cause no problem in japanese, since ‘’sama” is a bit vague and doesn’t state any hierarchical rank. The translators probably replaced sama by sir, since it stills adds importance to the character. Unfortunately for them, the ranks are really specifics in Rule of Rose and ”his Majesty” or something more regal would have been better or at least less confusing.
I can be wrong but I thought that ”Sir Joshua” sounded a bit too literal. I thought right away that ‘’sama” was used in the original.
That would be my explanation^^
Red Rose, the explanation you propose about the possible mistranslation of the honorific “-sama” makes a lot of sense to me. I can easily believe that’s what happened.