I don’t think that there are many clues to find in the Rule of Rose game that address this question. But I think there are at least SOME clues for us to consider.

Clue #1:

Eleanor : Greetings, Princess Jennifer. From now on, you’ll be our new Princess.

Meg : Now, Princess… Please think up a new game.

Eleanor : Please lead us.

Diana : We are yours to command, Princess.

Amanda kneels on the ground.

Amanda : Princess, go ahead! Guide us! We need you! We don’t know what to do!

What is NOT made absolutely clear, in this scene, is exactly what the old game was (or what the old games were, if multiple), why the old game no longer serves, and exactly why it is important that there be someone to lead in “a new game”. If we knew more about the function(s) of the game(s), we would know more about the functions of the Princess. And that would help us to understand why Wendy was the Princess.
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Clue #2
During the above scene, we can see this written on the blackboard: “STRAY DOG LEGEND / THAT IS JUST WENDY’S LIE” (see the beginning of my You Tube video “Legend of Stray Dog” Drawings in Rule of Rose for a closeup of the blackboard). Is the implication that Wendy was deposed because the other orphans came to believe that Wendy lied about Stray Dog? I think so. For more on this see my blog-post Why Was Wendy Deposed As Princess?
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Clue #3
To what extent might tales and activities related to Stray Dog have defined Wendy’s role as Princess, or even have been responsible for Wendy’s ascendancy to the rank of Princess? The Stray Dog and the Lying Princess storybook (see my blog-post The “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” Storybook Mystery (Part 1)) tells us, about Wendy:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who told lies.

She liked to scare the other girls by screaming, “Stray Dog is coming, Stray Dog is coming!”

But soon, everyone stopped being scared. They hated the way that she lied.

Could it be that Wendy became the Princess because she scared the other orphans with tales of Stray Dog? Could it be that Meg investigated the “evidence” of Stray Dog (see my blog-post Documents of “The Goat Sisters” chapter) because she thought that Diana—whom Meg loved—should rightfully be the leader of the orphans, rather than Wendy, but that Wendy held on to the position of Princess because of the Stray Dog Legend?

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Clue #4:
Wendy was deposed shortly after Jennifer rebelled and said:

Jennifer to Wendy : Liar! Go away! Just go away! I’ll never forgive you! Not ever!

Jennifer to the other girls : And as for the rest of you, how could you believe all those lies? “Aristocrats”? You’re just the opposite! I hate you! And I hate you! And you! And I hate myself the very most, for playing YOUR stupid games and not having the strength to stand up to you! It’s all just hideous!

Did Jennifer undermine the others’ satisfaction with Wendy’s games, and therefore their satisfaction with Wendy as Princess, by calling those games “stupid”?

Did Jennifer, by openly accusing Wendy of being a liar, open the door for Meg to finish off Wendy as the Princess with the “results” of her investigation into the Stray Dog Legend?

At any rate, we again seem to have “lies” and “games” connect with the function of the Princess.

In future blog-posts, I’ll discuss possible functions of the games, and of the Legend of Stray Dog, within the Red Crayon Aristocracy. And then I’ll attempt to tie these discussions (in Part 2 of this series of blog-posts) back to the question of: Why was Wendy the Princess?

I mean to say that, is the hierarchy ranks important? o_O;;
like, how is it important for that person to have that rank— what does it do, and how it benefits her?

There isn’t much evidence, that I can think of, upon which to base speculation about this.

If we consider the hierarchy that we see in the game before we discover that Wendy must be placed into it, the ranking seems quite understandable. Diana (Duchess) outranks Eleanor (Countess). Both outrank Meg (Baroness). Diana is the tallest, and seems to be the oldest (she is the only one of the three girls with obvious post-puberty physical features). And Eleanor is taller than Meg. Age and height are rather common factors of dominance among children, I think, so this “pecking order” isn’t surprising. The older and taller girls will generally tend to dominate the shorter and younger girls, all other factors being equal.

Amanda, although heavy and broad of girth, appears to be shorter than Meg (see the scene by the coffin in “The Little Princess” chapter), although Amanda’s hunched-over posture is a factor that lowers her height below what it would be if she stood up straight. And whatever Amanda’s age actually may be, she acts far more immaturely than Diana, Eleanor, or Meg. Also, it may be that her awkwardness and lack of beauty may be important factors working against Amanda with regard to gaining respect from other girls. Perhaps some of my female readers will have more insight than I to share about how social dominance arises among young girls.

If the Prince and Princess were only figureheads, only dolls (Joshua-the-bear and the Little Princess doll), then it would be Diana who was truly at the top of the hierarchy. And this seems to be the position that one would expect of Diana.

So far, I am suggesting that the Aristocrat Club hierarchy just seems to reflect the natural factors of social dominance among girls.

The effect of this ranking upon the day-to-day lives of the girls, upon their duties and privileges, is not something, however, that I’ve found the game to show us. [edit: I now think that there is something about this that is shown to us in the game, and will address this in Part 2 of this series of blog-posts]

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When we factor in Wendy as Princess, the hierarchical order is harder to understand.
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Wendy is not as tall as Diana, nor as old. Wendy is sickly, and so probably not very physically strong. I find it hard to imagine why Diana would allow Wendy to be Princess and out rank her. Because of this, I have wondered if the apparent absence of Wendy from the hierarchy throughout most of the story of Rule of Rose was perhaps not—contrary to what most people seem to believe—really just a trick of Jennifer repressing her memories of Wendy’s royal rank. Might it be that Diana, as Duchess, actually ruled throughout most of Jennifer’s time at the orphanage?

Whether or not Wendy ruled all along, or only at the end, there still remains the question of how she managed to get herself ranked above Diana.

I’ll give some of my ideas about this in my upcoming blog-post: “Why was Wendy the Princess?”

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By the way, the Game Script of TheSinnerChrono (see my page labelled “Important Resources”) has the order wrong when it designates Eleanor as the Baroness and Meg as the Countess.

Comment-maker on this site, Mokgrok, explores this question in her video.

I think it is a very well-made video, and Mokgrok’s observation that Diana’s touching of Amanda resembles Hoffman’s touching of Diana is a new and original observation.

See the video on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfeOy8veZm4

(LATER NOTE: Mokgrok shut down her YouTube channel for some undisclosed reason)

Hopefully we’ll see more good videos from Mokgrok analyzing Rule of Rose.
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A blog-post of mine that relates to this video is:
Did Diana Molest Jennifer?
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When Jennifer finds Martha’s hat in that chapter, we see the text:

The hat worn by Martha, who was accused of being a witch.

And later in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, when Jennifer finds a dirty rag, the voice of Martha (her invisible ghost?) says:

I was a mighty witch. Yet now, I am but a powerless wretch. Rubbish and dust.

It isn’t at all clear why Martha should be depicted as a witch in the Rule of Rose game. Could it be that we are meant to associate Martha, in some manner, with the witch of “The Little Mermaid” fairytale? And if so, what might that association be meant to tell us about what happened in the orphanage during Jennifer’s forgotten past?

The witch of “The Little Princess” fairytale is the one who facilitated the getting together of the mermaid and the prince. The witch did so by providing a potion which removed the mermaid’s tail and gave her legs.

The price that the witch demanded for her help was the tongue of the mermaid.

Could this be construed as a suggestion that Martha somehow facilitated the sexual relationship between Clara and Mr. Hoffman? And that Martha played a role in keeping Clara quiet about it?

Jennifer tells us, in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter of Rule of Rose:

“Clara was a quiet person. To me, she looked like just another student at the orphanage…except when she spoke to Mr. Hoffman or Martha. Then, she looked scary.

I have questioned whether the word “scary”, above, is a proper translation from the Japanese. Clara has been called the “Frightened Princess”, so perhaps “scared” is the word that should have been used. If so, why was Martha included with Mr. Hoffman as one that contributed to Clara’s fear?

Amanda wrote in her diary:

I tattled on Mr. Hoffman as they told me to do, but I failed again.

The above is a statement that many have argued is a mistranslation, saying that it should read “tattled to Mr. Hoffman (about Jennifer)”. But what if the statement is correctly translated, and Amanda meant that she had gone to Martha and told her about Mr. Hoffman doing naughty things with Clara? And that Martha wouldn’t act on this information. Is that a possibility?

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Click on this link for the text of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”.

The Cell of Bliss Mystery (part 1)
The Cell of Bliss Mystery (part 2)

By this theory, the dolls on the left side of the table represent Jennifer, Diana, Eleanor, Meg, and Amanda during the event shown to us at the end of “The Little Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose wherein Jennifer has water poured on her and goes into a coffin.

I think that the dolls on the table, because we see them depicted in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter when Jennifer’s memory has returned to her in a clear manner, should be something that actually existed during Jennifer’s forgotten past. Which means that, in my opinion, the water pouring incident in which Jennifer went into a coffin should be more than just a dream-event, it should also be something that occurred in some fashion during her forgotten past. My explanation for the context of this occurrence during Jennifer’s forgotten past is found in my blog-post:

The Mystery of Jennifer in the Coffin

By my theory, the dolls on the right side of the table represent a threat to Jennifer that she will be hanged if she doesn’t do something that is demanded of her by the Aristocrats.

During “The Funeral” chapter, we see a “gift of the month” warrant for Jennifer which shows her being hanged by the neck. The dolls on the right side of the table, showing a figure hanged by the neck, surrounded by “spooky things”, is—according to my theory—a depiction of the threat of that.

But could it be that, like the dolls on the left side of the table, the dolls on the right side of the table depict an event that actually occurred during Jennifer’s forgotten past?

Obviously, Jennifer herself was not hanged by the neck during her forgotten past, so, if it is not Jennifer that is shown hanging, who could it be?

We have recently been discussing the matter of whether or not Hoffman was hanged. See my blog-posts:

Was Mr. Hoffman Hanged? (Part 1)
Was Mr. Hoffman Hanged? (Part 2)

But let’s open up the discussion to include Martha and Clara as well. Could all of them have hanged?

This YouTube video shows us dead Martha.  If you watch at time 15-18 seconds, you will see that Martha’s neck appears to be broken.  The sight of dead Martha at 35-40 seconds seems to show that her legs must be broken at the hip (or something like that) for her to be folded up as she is.  How did Martha go from being alive and bagged (as we see her in Clara’s cabin of the airship during the “Bird of Happiness” chapter) to having a broken neck and legs?  Could she have dropped from a height?

Could Martha have dropped from a height after being hanged?  I see no rope marks on her neck, but might it be that there would not be rope marks if she was still bagged when she was hanged by the neck? Could the flimsy scaffold at the top of the stairs (see my blog-post The Gallows at the Top of the Stairs) have given way, dropping Martha hard to the floor, but still breaking her neck (as well as her legs)?

We see Clara, as the Mermaid/Clara-boss, hung, but not by the neck. She hangs upside down. But she still hangs.

Sir Peter is shown hanging from a gallows in the animation which opens the “Sir Peter” chapter. To read about the possibility that Sir Peter represents Hoffman (at least at times) see my blog-posts:

“Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 1)
Clara and Hoffman: Mermaid and Hare?
“Sir Peter” Storybook: The Story of Hoffman? (Part 2)

In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, we can get our best look at the doll hanged-by-the-neck in the Cell of Bliss. Unfortunately this chapter is not in color.

The hanged doll appears to have squiggles on its torso. I favor an interpretation of these squiggles as red crayon markings. This is consistent with an identification of the doll as Jennifer, for we have seen Jennifer marked with red crayon in “The Funeral” chapter. But it could also be consistent with an identification of the doll as Martha, who was marked with red crayon while bagged. At the end of the “Sir Peter” storybook, we are told that he was “bagged”. If this refers to Mr. Hoffman, might not he also have been scribbled on in red while bagged?

It is hard to make out what, if anything, is on top of the head of the hanged doll. Can anybody make it out? It could help with an identification of the identity of the doll.

Does the hanged doll wear glasses (or have glasses drawn on it)? I’m not sure. What do you think? This could also help to identify the doll.

Initially I identified the hanged doll as representing Jennifer because of (a) the squiggles (red crayon scribbles) and (b) I had accepted TheSinnerChrono’s ( see: Rule of Rose Game Script, by TheSinnerChrono) identification of the scene as “Horrible Imp dolls surrounding teddy bear”. A teddy bear would be Joshua-the-bear, and I interpreted this as representing Jennifer. I am far from confident now, however, that the hanged doll is a teddy bear. What do you think?

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I think that I have found some strong evidence against the theory that the forest scene at the end of the “Sir Peter” chapter of Rule of Rose might actually be the occasion of the hanging of Mr. Hoffman (see Part 1 of this series of blog-posts, and the comments there, for discussion of that theory). This evidence also argues against the “Mondays pea…etc.” chant being about Hoffman, Martha, or Clara.

At the end of that final scene, in the forest, of the “Sir Peter” chapter, Jennifer sticks a maggoty dead rat in Amanda’s face.

In Amanda’s diary, the following entry was made:

Sunday, June 1

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Those awful things got into my mouth!
She’ll be sorry the next chance I get.
But why me again?
What have I done?
(Working Class Luggage, “Rag Princess Sews”, Amanda’s Diary)

If the statement, “Those awful things got into my mouth!”, can be safely assumed to be a reference to the maggots getting into Amanda’s mouth when Jennifer thrust the maggoty dead rat into Amanda’s face, then we must date the forest scene to June 1, which is long before the time when Hoffman, Martha, and Clara disappeared (they were all present in the orphanage as late as November).

It seems to me that, unless we claim that two separate incidences were somehow mixed together in Jennifer’s memory (or we claim that the maggots were not the “awful things” that got into Amanda’s mouth), we must dismiss the idea that this scene, and the “Monday’s pea… etc.” chant, relate to the disappearances of Hoffman, Martha, and Clara.  A pity, as I had a shocking theory, to explain the plural peas in the chant after Thursday, that I was working on, but which totally goes down in flames with the June 1 date for this scene.

To view the forest scene, watch this YouTube video:  forest ceremony

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(to be continued)

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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?

Joshua-the-bear is the “Bear Prince” of the Red Crayon Royalty. And Wendy-as-Joshua identifies herself as “the Prince” in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter. (See my blog-post: “Rag Princess” Storybook (Part 7): Joshua-the-Bear as Fairy Godmother). Amanda as Joshua-the-bear doesn’t seem to fit with any of that.

So. What is going on here?

If you have any ideas about Amanda as Joshua-the-bear, or what the animation signifies, please share them.

I have a hypothesis, which I will post later, but for now, let’s hear your ideas.

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I, myself, would describe the animation of the beginning of the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter as follows: The seamstress (a girl with the head of Joshua-the-bear, or alternatively, Joshua-the-bear wearing a dress) is somehow snagged and pulled through from one side of the sewing machine to the other side of the sewing machine (suggesting a needle feed mechanism, and that the figure has been caught by the needle). The seamstress comes out the other side extremely flattened.

What does the sewing accident mean?

I suggest that the sewing accident might represent Amanda’s devastated feelings after her sewing project failed to gain for her an Aristocratic rank (what the “Rag Princess” storybook refers to as being able to “go to the ball”), as Amanda expected her project would because, in the storybook account, of the words spoken to by her fairy godmother (Joshua-the-bear):

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

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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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Does the story-element “Joshua-the-bear” stand in for an orphan who promised Amanda that she could gain Aristocratic status (the meaning that I ascribe to the “go to the ball” story-element) by doing the sewing project?

If so, who was it that promised Amanda?  And what exactly was the outcome of the sewing project supposed to be?

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Let’s look at the role, in the Red Crayon Aristocracy, of Joshua-the-bear.

Entering the First Class Passenger Area after climbing the stairs, one can find, to Jennifer’s right, a chart on the wall entitled:  “Red Rose Royalty“.

The top row on this chart consists of “Red Rose Princess” and “Bear Prince“.  Each has a drawn representation (respectively, the “Little Princess Doll”— I presume—wearing red, and “Joshua-the-bear” wearing a green ribbon) and has a red rose symbol drawn nearby each.

The row second from the top, on this chart, consists of “Duchess” and “Countess” and “Baroness“.  This row slants slightly so that “Duchess” is a bit higher than “Countess” which in turn is a bit higher than “Baroness”.  The subtitles also emphasize this slant.  Each rank has a drawing of a girl wearing red and has a red rose symbol drawn nearby each.

Below this are the words “bourgeoisie” and “poor” with a blue-ish figure of a person drawn between them.  No red rose is drawn nearby…instead there is a black mark.

And at the bottom of the chart is another blue-ish figure of a person next to the word “beggar“.  Again, no red rose is drawn nearby…instead there is a black mark.

Joshua the “Bear Prince” is at the top of the aristocratic hierarchy, next to the “Red Rose Princess”.

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At the very beginning of the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, before Jennifer was freed from being tied to the central pillar of the Filth Room, Wendy-as-Joshua told Jennifer:

You will follow my orders, or else, for I am the Prince, and the Prince rules!

Was Wendy somehow, at sometime or at different times, during Jennifer’s forgotten past, both Prince Joshua and the Red Rose Princess? If so, during what dates in time was this the case? And who knew this? Everybody (with Jennifer just having blocked her memories)? Only a select few? Only Wendy herself?

Did Wendy ever actually deceive orphans dressed as Joshua?

Was a dual role as Prince and Princess an expression of Dissociative Identity Disorder (split-personality) or just role-playing?

See my blog-post: Wendy’s Drawings (Part 3): Wendy and Joshua

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And, going back to the topic of the sewing project: Was Amanda’s sewing project originally Wendy’s idea?

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 consider dated documents to be at the top of the hierarchy of reliability of clues.  And so, I consider the dates in Amanda’s diary to be more reliable dates than the months ascribed by the game to the Rule of Rose chapters.

Here are the entries in Amanda’s diary relating to her sewing project:

Sunday, July 27

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

Sunday, August 31

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

Sunday, September 28

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

Sunday, October 5

After all that time I spent sewing it!
Basil, Fanny, George, Hector, Ida, Leo, Paul!
Why must they always bother me so?
Oh, woe is me!

Amanda’s sewing project clearly began no later than July 27. Ran through August. And ended no sooner than September 28, and no later than October 5. But it is in the months of July, August, and September (according to the chapter months) that the project is NOT visible in the Working Class Luggage area!

Anyone want to try venture an explanation for all this?

]]> http://ruleofrosemysteries.com/2008/11/15/mysteries/progressions-with-an-intriguing-matching-gap/feed/ 14 http://ruleofrosemysteries.com/2008/11/14/mysteries/rag-princess-storybook-part-6a-the-sewing-project/ http://ruleofrosemysteries.com/2008/11/14/mysteries/rag-princess-storybook-part-6a-the-sewing-project/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:36:47 +0000 PokerNemesis http://ruleofrosemysteries.com/?p=252 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.

From Amanda’s diary:

Sunday, July 27

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

Sunday, August 31

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

Sunday, September 28

I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER
Oh, my! I’ve got to sew the rags…

But Amanda’s sewing project, once completed, seems to fail to win for Amanda the result that she wanted. And that failure seems to make Amanda angry:

Sunday, October 5

After all that time I spent sewing it!
Basil, Fanny, George, Hector, Ida, Leo, Paul!
Why must they always bother me so?
Oh, woe is me!

Sunday, October 12

Oh, why can’t they all just go to hell!
Basil, have a nap on the railroad tracks!
Fanny, take a dive off the roof!
George, I’ll hang you upside down!
Hector, get run over by a carriage!
Ida, I have some fancy poison jam for you!
Leo, walk across an open manhole!
Paul, get smothered by a great rug!
And lastly, that girl!
The Aristocrats will have their way with her!
Oh, how very delightful life is!

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In the course of playing “Rule of Rose”, we first see evidence of a special project of Amanda’s in the Working Class Luggage section of the airship during the “Sir Peter” chapter.

If you take Jennifer to the Working Class Luggage area immediately upon beginning the “Sir Peter” chapter you will find, on the elevated platform, behind the sewing machine, a small grey cloth that covers something. Pressing “x” while Jennifer stands next to it gives you the following subtitle:

A cloth is covering something that’s about knee high

After seeing this, meet with Amanda at the top of the airship. Then return to the Working Class Luggage area. Now the grey cloth and the object it covers have grown larger. And Amanda is there working at the sewing machine.

Pressing “x” while Jennifer stands next to the covered object gives the same subtitled response as before (revealing a minor flaw in the game, as the size of the cloth and the covered object have clearly grown considerably larger):

A cloth is covering something that’s about knee high

If you press “x” while Jennifer stands near Amanda, Amanda stops sewing, turns to Jennifer, and says:

Jennifer, I have a wonderful gift just for you! It’s almost ready, so please wait a little longer. Tee hee hee…

When Jennifer leaves the Working Class Luggage, a crumpled up note is tossed at her. The note reads:

Amanda and Jennifer, report to the gift box at once.

Amanda now emerges from the Working Class Luggage area and says to Jennifer:

Too bad, but the gift will have to wait. For now, let’s wish ourselves luck, Jennifer! Hee hee.

After the “Sir Peter” chapter, we won’t see this covered object again in the Working Class Luggage until the beginning of “The Rag Princess Sews” chapter. At that time the grey cloth and the object underneath are larger than ever. And I get the impression, from the shape, of a head and shoulders underneath, with the head tilting to one side. Pressing “x” next to the covered object gives the subtitle:

Something is covered up

Amanda and her covered up project both disappear from the sewing area shortly before Jennifer finds Amanda bludgeoning the Jennifer-doll.  Could it be that Amanda’s sewing project was the grey rag dress? And was the doll just a fitting-mannequin for the dress? Or was it part of the intended result of the project too?

Previously, on this blog and in Rule of Rose forums, I have always argued that Amanda’s secret sewing project was the dress that Wendy wears in “The Funeral” chapter when she offers herself to Jennifer. Now I have doubts about that hypothesis. That dress wasn’t sewn from rags, like the grey dress on the doll.

We know from Amanda’s diary that she was quite angry at the results after her project was completed. I think that Amanda expected to get aristocratic social rank from the project, and was angry when that didn’t happen. Could that anger be the reason why she bludgeoned the “Jennifer”-doll and the Joshua-the-bear doll?

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See comment #2 below for links to pictures of the cloth-covered object. (Thanks, Passerby!)
Comment #4 corrects an error in comment #2.

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