The “Mermaid Princess” Storybook (Part 1): Evidence of Clara’s Death?
Posted by PokerNemesis in Clues, Mysteries, SymbolismThe cover of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook shows a lone mermaid. Her hair is parted down the middle and resembles the style and length of Clara’s hair.
As Clara is the mermaid “boss” that must be battled in order to complete the “Mermaid Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose, the mermaid on the cover of this storybook can be confidently identified as a fantasy representation of Clara.
Turning the page of the storybook, we see another depiction of a lone mermaid. This mermaid has large black spots where the eyes and mouth would be expected to be seen.
Does this second mermaid drawing also represent Clara? I think so.
As we will see later in this storybook, this second drawing depicts what the mermaid princess looks like when she is dead, when the storybook says: “all alone even on the day of her death.”
With regard to the black spots where the eyes would be expected to be seen, in this second mermaid drawing, it is relevant to compare the depiction of Clara as the mermaid “boss” as having dark empty sockets instead of eyeballs. See this short youtube video: Clara’s eyes.
Should we take the death of Clara as the mermaid princess of the storybook as providing evidence that Clara died at the orphanage during Jennifer’s forgotten past?
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In the “Once Upon a Time” chapter of Rule of Rose, Jennifer tells us: “One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”
This statement of Jennifer’s has sometimes been misrepresented by people as saying that Hoffman, Martha, and Clara “left”. But “disappeared” is a word with more possibilities than “left”. One also can “disappear” due to dying and the body being disposed of.
What does it mean when the fantasy depictions of Rule of Rose characters die in the storybooks?
In the “Sir Peter” storybook, Sir Peter “bagged and whisked away” may depict the death of Peter the rabbit, or Mr. Hoffman, or both. See my blog-posts:
“Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 1)
“Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 2)
Did the Orphans Think That the Men’s Lavatory Was Haunted By Mr. Hoffman’s Ghost?
In “The Goat Sisters” storybook, the goats—representing Meg and Diana—are shown dead with Stray Dog standing nearby. And we know that Meg and Diana were indeed killed by Stray Dog during the orphanage massacre. See my blog-posts:
The Goat Sisters Storybook, Part 4, Mixed Message
The Goat Sisters Storybook, Part 5, Stray Dog and a Grimm Wolf
In “The Funeral” storybook, we see a buried bag that represents buried Brown.
In the “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” storybook, we see the girls of the orphanage (other than Jennifer and Clara) killed by Stray Dog. And we know that Stray Dog did indeed kill the girls.
An exception, perhaps, might be the bird of “The Bird of Happiness” storybook. Eleanor’s prized red bird was, in fact, only a doll in Jennifer’s true past, and therefore couldn’t die. But might the bird might also be a fantasy representation, at times, of a person? Comment-maker “Cry” brought up the idea that the red bird might represent Eleanor’s father. I have suggested, as an alternative, the idea that the bird might (at times at least) be a representation of Hoffman, as the father-figure of Eleanor’s life at the orphanage. The death of the bird, in that case, might represent the death of Hoffman. And, as yet another alternative, I propose that the death of the red bird might represent Martha’s death. Martha, after all, had a red bird’s head drawn on the bag that went over her head when she was bound and bagged. I’m going to think more on this last idea, because I think I like it very much.
It seems to me that the death of a character in a storybook may be a reliable indication of death during Jennifer’s forgotten past. If so, then we may have, in “The Mermaid Princess” storybook, evidence that weighs against the idea that Clara abruptly left (traveled away from) the orphanage, and which supports the idea that Clara perished at the orphanage.
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I have made a “Storybooks” page, with a link in my blog header, that serves as a “table of contents” for blog-posts relating to the storybooks of the Rule of Rose game.
About Clara’s missing eyes, one can find a lot of speculation on this topic in the comments-thread of my blog-post Mutilated Clara.
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I think it would make more sense if the red bird represented Eleanor herself. It dies in a chapter/story book focusing on Eleanor, it’s seen as her pet in game, it was her toy in Jennifer’s past (I think… :S ), Eleanor wears a bird mask, and in The Funeral chapter there is a bird imp on the balcony where she had been previously (the bird imps represent her).
I think the bird dying could not only hint at her death (like with the other story books and characters as pointed out), but it could symbolize Eleanor dying inside. Hence having ‘happiness’ added to it’s name, as she can no longer feel joy or happiness.
Does Wendy have a story book death as well? I can’t remember.
I wonder if the “all alone even on the day of her death” line could hint that she died without the other orphans around to witness her death?
“One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”
“all alone even on the day of her death.”
The way the first sentence is structured implies to me that Hoffman’s disappearance happened first, and maybe Clara and Martha…left together?
If they left together, something must’ve happened to Martha along the way for Clara to die alone.
Ugh, I don’t know.
Or, maybe Clara being all alone has to do with her emotional state? As in, she’s alone in the regards that no one can relate to her well, or understand, what she’s been through, so she feels isolated.
I got a wild hair and decided to look up “missing eyes fish” and found some interesting information. Mostly reguarding Japanese goldfish. Namely, the Ryukin.
Goldfish Connection (I’ll add a link to my name) Says thus:
Wikipedia has more information on Ryukins, but it doesn’t mention the missing eyes.
I was thinking this fish may have been the inspiration of Hoffman’s “koi” turned “Eyeless Clara Mermaid Doll”.
We have two half fish girls, one obviously secretly violent and one who seems to over night appear with both her eyes gone. (in Jen’s dream)
I always thought it was strange I never could visually see Hoffman’s fish as a “koi”. I’ve seen a few swarms of Koi before and Hoffman’s didn’t necessarily look like one.(especially that thing swimming through the sky) The name fits the game, of course, but it doesn’t really look like a koi fish. It’s easy to identify a gold fish as a koi… however most koi are not blue/gray.
The closest definition I could find to a koi that looks like the one in the game is the Asagi koi, which is blue above and red below. However, in the opening sequence, we plainly see that the koi is all blue, and it’s scale pattern is not like a typical koi, on which the scale pattern is easily seen.
So I was wondering. Did anyone see a koi? Or is it just a fish? I can’t decide myself. I am curious.
Masq cited GoldfishConnection regarding how goldfish lose their eyes:
At the end of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook, we are shown a drawing of multiple fish attacking the mermaid princess.
: hasn’t seen the fish :
Are they small and round like the Ryukin?
I haven’t played the game, and while I don’t have a PS and not going to have won’t play. Which is a little pity because reading your site makes it look like a really interesting game to go through. Or maybe you all have too much fantasy.
So, just a little observation on a post Choco-chan wrote:
“One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”
“all alone even on the day of her death.”
Based on the alone, there one more explanation. The orphans are all alone on the day of her death.
Welcome, Lunatic!