See Octopus-Jennifer pet Crab-Brown.
See the location of the October Ticket (required to unlock the costume set).
See a tuna used to slay imps!

Players of Rule of Rose have long complained about not being able to pet Brown, or complained that they only achieved it one time but not ever again.

This is the method that I developed to be able to repeatably pet Brown.

Summary of the method: Use the “O” button to call Brown and use the “O” button to attempt to pet Brown. Always call Brown to Jennifer in order to make the computer align Jennifer and Brown. Don’t bother trying to align Jennifer and Brown manually by moving Jennifer to Brown. If the petting behavior doesn’t occur after two or three presses of “O” in a particular alignment of Jennifer and Brown, move to another position, create another alignment by calling Brown, and try again.

The last 45 seconds of this video (in which I gave the above summary, and also pet Brown one more time) got lost during upload/processing, which is why the video ends oddly. I decided against doing a re-upload attempt.

Along the way, Jennifer can encounter Eleanor searching for the red bird. See my previous blog post: Eleanor in the Sector 9 Turbine Area During the “Bird of Happiness” .

Brown eventually comes to a halt shortly after entering the 3rd Passenger Corridor, where a trail of fallen, and falling, red feathers begins.

Is it a coincidence that the place in the corridor where Brown halts and barks is in the vicinity of the door to the Women’s Lavatory, and the end of the trail of feathers will also be a Women’s Lavatory?

The trail of feathers is made up of feathers too large to belong to the red bird, and there are far too many on the floor, and falling from above, to belong to any single bird.

What does it mean that the feathers are continuously falling from above? The impression I get is that it means that whatever happened to the red bird was very recent… the feathers haven’t even had sufficient time to have all hit the floor yet.

Jennifer can follow these feathers up the stairs, through the one-leaf clover door, into the 2nd passenger corridor, and to the door of a Women’s Lavatory.

Once inside the Women’s Lavatory the trail of feathers is much different. More realistic.

The feathers are now small enough to have come from the red bird. And there are only just a few feathers, not so many feathers that they couldn’t have come from a single bird. And there are some dark red drops along the path that look like blood that has dripped down to the floor.

I get the impression from this scene that the previous trail of over-sized and over-many feathers was a dream exaggeration of this trail that we see now, this trail of feathers being the truer and more realistic memory upon which the dream-exaggerated trail was built. (Yes, I know that we will learn in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter that the red bird was a doll and not a living bird… nonetheless, the impression given by this scene—in my opinion—is that we have transitioned from a fantasy exaggeration of a memory to a true—or truer—memory).

The impression that we have undergone a transition from a fantasy world to a true, or truer, memory is not just a matter of the transformation of the exaggerated feather trail into a more realistic form, but also a matter of our seeming to have undergone a nearly full transition back to the orphanage itself.

The Women’s Lavatory in which Jennifer now stands is nearly identical to the Women’s Lavatory that we can find near the Reception Room of the orphanage. The only difference between the two lavatories that I can see is that there is no window in this lavatory (unlike that of the one in the orphanage).

When Jennifer opens the stall door that the feather, and blood, trail leads to, she sees what looks like a splatter of blood on the wall. This splatter of blood has some feathers stuck to it. Blood has dripped down from the splatter mark. Below the blood splatter is another drawing of the red bird (which resembles, in style of drawing, the drawings that were seen along the corridors before Jennifer and Brown encountered the exaggerated feather trail).

The red bird drawing has outstretched wings, one wing seems to be holding a fork and the other wing seems to be holding a knife. The beak of the red bird is turned upward and is wide open. The dripped blood from the blood splatter has dripped down the wall as if into the open beak of the bird. Combined with the effect given by the knife and fork, it seems as if the bird wants to eat whatever it was that splattered on the wall. But this is especially odd if it is the red bird itself that is supposed to have been splattered on the wall (as the feathers stuck to the blood splatter seem to indicate).

This drawing is also found in the Women’s Lavatory of the orphanage (near the Reception Room). But in the orphanage, the blood splatter does not look real as it does in the “Bird of Happiness” chapter. It seems to be just a rather unrealistic drawing of a blood splatter, not the real thing. And the blood does not drip down to the open beak of the red bird drawing.

When Jennifer opens the stall door in the Women’s Lavatory of the airship, she says: “Is that blood on it…?”

Then Diana and Meg arrive.

(To be continued in “Part 2″)

~

In the “dog ending” of Silent Hill 2, we learn that it was the dog who was secretly controlling Silent Hill and making all of the bad things happen.

See the YouTube video of the “dog ending” of Silent Hill 2.

Could it be that this can give us a blazing insight into the true solution of Rule of Rose’s mysteries?

Jennifer found a stray dog and named it Brown. A stray dog!   Think about it.  Brown is actually the only character in the game that is truly a stray dog!

A chalk drawing on the the outside of the orphanage has the caption: “Stray Dog gives us sweets.” How did Jennifer obtain sweets throughout the course of the game? Brown led Jennifer to the sweets, that’s how!

~

The slapping of Wendy by Jennifer was the act that ultimately led to the massacre of the orphans.  For what reason did Jennifer slap Wendy?  Because Jennifer thought that Brown was dead.  But, in fact, Brown WASN’T dead!

If Brown TRULY had been dead, then Brown could NOT have re-appeared during the final boss battle!

I propose that Brown, in collusion with Amanda, faked Brown’s death.  Brown knew that Wendy intended to present flowers to Jennifer and try to mend their strained friendship.  Wendy, however, was Brown’s rival, and Brown wanted to thwart the reconciliation between Wendy and Jennifer.

Watch the YouTube of the scene leading up to the slapping of Wendy.  Jennifer thought she saw dead Brown, but then started to realize that she was seeing a doll that resembled Brown and not the real Brown.  Before Jennifer could properly process the deception, Amanda distracted Jennifer, pointing to a bloody bag and telling Jennifer:  “Your friend is in the bag.  It’s too late now.“  And so Jennifer believed Brown was dead without actually seeing the corpse.  And Brown’s rival, Wendy, was brought down by the deception.  See  Faking Brown’s Death.

~

Not yet convinced?

Do you recall the mention of “Hitlerism” on the blackboard of the classroom in “The Funeral” chapter? What is a mention of “Hitlerism” doing in the game? How does it fit in?

I propose that it is a very important clue.

According to Wikipedia (Eva Braun wiki), Hitler had been introduced to Eva Braun as “Herr Wolff”.

“Braun” is German for “brown”, and is pronounced the same way.

Could the reference to “Hitlerism” in Rule of Rose be a clue designed to lead us to link together the concepts wolf+Brown(Braun)+evil?

~

Yes, I propose that the chalk drawing caption “Stray Dog Kidnaps Kidz” was actually referring to Brown. And that it was actually Brown who dug the holes in Gregory’s yard, with the intention of incriminating Gregory.

~

It should also be considered that when the “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” storybook shows the orphanage massacre, the Stray Dog that is shown killing the orphans looks like a dog and not like a man.

~

The Evil Brown theory also explains the “good ending” of Rule of Rose.

Why is it a “good ending” that Jennifer locks up Brown in the Rickety Shed? Because, as much as Jennifer loves Brown, Jennifer finally faces the truth that Brown is evil and must be locked up.

The scene re-appears and Gregory walks away as Jennifer awakens. He makes a low sound in his throat, of which it is hard to interpret the meaning, but it seems to be a satisfied or approving sort of sound. Perhaps, seeing that Jennifer is awakening, he is satisfied that she is O.K. I get the impression, from the darkening to black interruption of the scene, that we are to recognize that Gregory stood over her for an extended period of time watching over Jennifer until she awakened.

Jennifer stands.

Narrator:

When the unlucky girl awoke, she was in a rose garden. The place was strange, but familiar. Looking around, the girl noticed that her faithful companion was missing. The lonely, unlucky girl became very sad…

The statement by the narrator, “her faithful companion was missing,” relates the dream-plot to Jennifer’s forgotten (“the place was strange, but familiar”) past. Brown had been with Jennifer on the dream-airship. Gregory grabbed Jennifer from the dream-airship and brought her to the rose garden. But now—according to the chapter date—it is June 1929. At that time, in Jennifer’s forgotten past, Jennifer had not yet found Brown. Indeed, Brown would, almost certainly, not have been born yet.

In the dream, Gregory watches over Jennifer until she awakened, and then, satisfied that she was O.K., left her in the rose garden. Could Jennifer have arrived at Gregory’s house in exactly the same way during her forgotten past?  Had Gregory, at that time (i.e. in “real life”), watched over Jennifer until she awakened, and then, satisfied that she was O.K., left her in the rose garden?

~

Could it be that when Gregory rescued Jennifer, after the (“real life”) airship crash, during Jennifer’s forgotten past, his intention was that Jennifer go to the orphanage so that somebody there would take care of her?

Could it be that it was NOT Gregory’s original intention to keep Jennifer in his basement room?

If so, why—one might ask—didn’t Gregory just bring Jennifer to Mr. Hoffman personally?

Could it be that Gregory didn’t want to come to the attention of the police, who would want to question him about how he came to find Jennifer, and so Gregory decided that if he brought Jennifer very close to the orphanage she could find her way the rest of the way to the orphanage on her own?

If so, these questions come to mind:

Why didn’t Jennifer go to the orphanage?   Why did she follow Gregory instead?

Why didn’t Gregory kidnap, or harm, Jennifer, if he had been kidnapping and harming other children?

We will consider this hypothesis, about how Jennifer arrived at Gregory’s house during her forgotten past, further as this walkthrough continues.

I would characterize the music (solo piano) of the “Once Upon A Time” chapter as sweet and nostalgic.  This is admittedly subjective opinion. If it affects you differently, feel free to post a comment about it.

No voices are ever heard in any of the rooms of the mansion or in the very tiny hallways (such as the one connecting the filth room with the 2nd floor lavatory).  And no voices are ever heard anywhere in the basement.  Voices are only heard in the major hallways and stairways.

In the various rooms we only hear the songs of birds from outside, except in the lavatories where some water drip noises are heard as well.

All of the voices heard inside of the mansion are disembodied voices (that is, no person associated with a voice is ever seen by us).  We hear:

—Children giggling and laughing.

—Children making animal noises:  a goat bleat, pig snorting, a roar (?). [I would guess that the goat bleats are made by Nicholas and the pig snorts are made by Xavier, as they are the boys associated with those animals.]

—A teasing sound is repeated good-naturedly in different ways and by different voices.  [How can I describe it in words?  Do you understand what I mean if I say that the voices use the tones of "Na na nana na" but don't use the "n"s?]

—Jennifer’s name is sometimes whispered, some times called out.  Various voices do this, including Mr. Hoffman’s voice (gently and good-naturedly).

Never do any of voices the seem (in my opinion) to be in the least bit hostile or threatening.

Are there any voices in the mansion that you recognize?

~

Bird songs are heard louder outside than inside the mansion, naturally.

In the front yard, a burst of wind can be heard to blow away Wendy’s hat.

Press “x” three times at the front gate of the orphanage, once it has closed, to hear Wendy speak the following:

“Jennifer?  Where are you going?  Please?  Don’t leave me.“

Gregory speaks with Jennifer at the bus stop, but only written text is given to us, without the sound of his voice being heard.

Brown is heard whining, as Jennifer nears the rickety shed and after she enters.

~

Have I left out anything?

~

You can look at this theory as a blast from the past, or as an alternate Rule of Rose that might have been. The story of Rule of Rose is, in many ways, sort of like clouds that one can gaze at in the sky and imagine as castles or giraffes… theorizing “out-of-the-box” can be fun.

So, for the rest of this blog-post I will set aside negative thinking about this theory and do my best to make a positive case for it. Then we will see how well it holds up. Whether or not it is “true”, I think it makes for an interesting story.

~

In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, Jennifer tells us (in the library by a white goat doll):

“It’s a stuffed goat… The white goat Mary. The black goat Sally.

The goats Mary and Sally, that we see as living goats in the airship chapters, were actually dolls in Jennifer’s true past.

Jennifer also tells us, in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter (on the balcony by the birdcage):

“The red bird in the cage… The doll Eleanor treasured.

Eleanor’s red bird was also a doll, but we see it as a living bird during the airship chapters.

Given that we’ve seen these dolls as living animals during the game, how do we know that Brown is not also a dog doll that we see as a living dog?

Consider these similarities among the red bird, the goats Mary and Sally, and Jennifer’s dog-friend Brown:

—The red bird is shown to us as having been killed at the end of the “Bird of Happiness” chapter (July 1930), but we can see it alive again later in time in the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter (October 1930).

—We see Mary having been killed, stuffed, and placed inside of a grandfather clock in the “Goat Sisters” chapter (September 1930), but we can see Mary and Sally alive and well in a livestock area later in time in the “Rag Princess Sews” chapter (October 1930).

—Brown has been understood to have been killed in “The Funeral” chapter (November 1930). But he will be seen alive again at the end of the “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” chapter (December 1930), having helped Jennifer, even though the Stray Dog’s massacre of the orphans must have occurred after Brown’s “death”.

Like the red bird, and like Sally the goat, Brown dies and then appears to be alive again later. Could this be because Brown, like the red bird, and like Mary and Sally, was actually a doll and not a flesh-and-blood dog, and he was never really and truly alive at all except in Jennifer’s mind?

Take a look at Brown’s death scene, during the first 35 seconds of this YouTube video: The Death of Brown.

First, what we see is a dead dog, but ultimately, all we see at the end is a destroyed dog doll. Is Jennifer suppressing her memory of seeing her pet dog dead (putting a destroyed dog doll in its place in her mind), or did Jennifer have a flash of reality break through her fantasies and see the truth: a beloved dog doll that had been destroyed. Very soon after this, reality will massively break through and she will see herself as she really was back then, a little girl, not a grown up girl.

Let’s imagine a different Jennifer than the one we are used to imagining.

Jennifer was profoundly traumatized by the airship accident which killed her parents, and of which she was the sole survivor.  She lost her memories of her past.  She next ended up in a cellar, held captive by an insane child killer, and living in solitary confinement for about seven months.  How did she ever cope with this?

Would it be surprising if Jennifer’s sense of reality broke and she retreated into a fantasy world to escape from her troubles?

Jennifer’s retreat into fantasy may actually have saved her life.  Instead of resisting Gregory’s identification of her as Joshua, Jennifer fully took on that role for Gregory.

When Wendy found Jennifer, Wendy bonded with Jennifer in a shared fantasy:  Wendy is a Princess and Jennifer is a Prince, and they have an everlasting true love for each other.

Jennifer was hopeful for a happy new life when she came to the orphanage, but she had been psychologically damaged by her experiences and her isolation, and she came to feel that she couldn’t fit in with the others.  She sees all the other orphans as Princes and Princesses, but she does not see herself as like them.  She sees herself only as the “unlucky girl”.

Jennifer doesn’t feel that she can join in to conversations among the orphans by the furnace, Jennifer doesn’t feel she can join in with the orphans playing airship, and Jennifer doesn’t wear a bag on her head on Halloween as do the other orphans.  She tells us, about herself, in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter:

Hallway near Classroom door:

–At a bucket-headed construct:

“A silent scarecrow… It stands there quietly, not meddling in the affairs of others. It sways in the breeze, like me…a cowardly girl who was unable to assert her true feelings.”

and

Classroom:

–At the drawings on the wall (a map of Great Britain):

“The map of this country… That day we flew from England… Those memories were buried deep inside of me… The airship…and the accident… Thereafter, the story of my life became a tale of misfortune. Even when the others played ‘airship’ I couldn’t bear to join them, so I was left out.”

–At the furnace:

“On cold winter days, we all used to gather here and talk… I, of course, couldn’t join in, so I sat off to the side. Even so, it felt so warm.”

Jennifer once again retreated from reality and escaped into a fantasy world. The airship world of the game represents the psychotic state that Jennifer descended into. Inanimate objects became alive to her, as we see in the airship world:

—The headless Bucket Knight requested: “Lass, please help me find my head. Once I am whole again, I’ll return the favor.”

—Rubbish Bin told Jennifer: “My belly is as dark as night and as deep as the abyss. Anything in the world that is dropped will be collected inside it.”

—The door with the gift box told Jennifer: “Give me a beautiful butterfly, one per person. Is that clear? No gift, no entry. Is that clear? Give me a butterfly. Give me a butterfly. Find one and you shall be invited to join the Aristocrat club.” And later: “You call this a beautiful butterfly? Are you blind? Give me a beautiful, beautiful butterfly, and then you will be allowed to join the Aristocrat club.”

—Scissors also spoke to Jennifer: “No thanks necessary. No thanks necessary. You might have been better off being bound than free to feel pain. So scary!”

—And dolls (the red bird doll and the goat dolls) became as if living creatures to Jennifer.

Jennifer found a doll of her own, a filthy discarded dog doll named Brown. But it was the fantasy friend that she so desperately needed to break her loneliness. And so this dog doll became her beloved pet dog.

Players of Rule of Rose who are used to thinking of Wendy as a jealous bitch who couldn’t stand for Jennifer to love a pet dog may have trouble with thinking of Wendy getting so jealous over a mere dog doll. But maybe that is not the right interpretation of Wendy’s motivation. Let’s re-think the concerns of Wendy, keeping our new hypothesis of a nearly psychotic Jennifer in mind.

Wendy may have feared that Jennifer’s great love for inanimate-object Brown was leading Jennifer to break away further and further from real human social interaction. Wendy may have feared that Jennifer, as Jennifer isolated herself more and more, was in danger of sinking into total insanity. And Wendy, who truly loved Jennifer, didn’t want that to happen.

Wendy tried to talk Jennifer out of having Brown as a pet (Jennifer was so far into her fantasy that Wendy had to humor Jennifer and speak as if Brown was a real dog), but Jennifer wouldn’t give up Brown.

Wendy eventually got so desperate that she came up with a radical plan of action. A plan to destroy the Brown doll and replace it with Wendy herself dressed up as the Little Princess doll. Jennifer would now be a Prince and have a place in the Aristocrat Club where she would interact with the other orphans. And Jennifer’s new obsession (Wendy hoped) would be for the Little Princess doll (which was now Wendy herself). Wendy hoped that Jennifer’s subsequent interactions with other humans, that Wendy had hereby forced upon Jennifer, would gradually bring Jennifer to a healthier state of mind.

By this hypothesis, Wendy isn’t a sicko dog killer, she is someone trying to set up an intervention for a beloved friend whose obsession over a doll presents a danger of descent into madness.

Some people may feel that this theory of Brown as a doll might strip away from Rule of Rose the poignancy that comes from Brown’s death (as a real dog). Jennifer may feel Brown’s death as deeply as if he were a real dog, but the player of the game will not feel it the same way. There is another poignancy, however, that can perhaps substitute. This is the poignancy of Wendy suffering through Jennifer’s rejection of her, Jennifer slapping her again and again, and poor Wendy hadn’t the heart to resist. She had failed, and her beloved Jennifer now hated her.

Poor Wendy! I feel sad for her (in this theory).

In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter of Rule of Rose, pressing “x” at the drawing labeled “skeltin” gives the subtitle:

There are doodles everywhere. No matter how many we cleaned, more would show up the next day.

This is yet another example of Jennifer giving a relatively uninformative comment about a significant clue. Jennifer never really ever opens up about the juicy mysteries of her past… the goings-on at Gregory’s house, the disappearances of Martha, Hoffman, and Clara, the sacrificial offerings, the creepy dolls and the blood in the Cell of Bliss, Hoffman’s sexual predation, etc… and this, I believe, is another example of her avoidance of opening up to us about something important.

I believe that the key to understanding the significance of the skull drawings is to notice that they each align perfectly with a different window that looks down upon the Inner Court of the orphanage.  If just one skull drawing aligned with a window, then it might plausibly be a coincidence.  But both drawings aligning perfectly, each with a different window, is no coincidence… it is a clue.

And it is a clue that I believe fits together with the animation (cartoon) at the beginning of “The Funeral” chapter showing a human skeleton in the Inner Court of the orphanage.  See my previous blog-post:  “A Human Skeleton:  Is It Martha?”

Each of the skull drawings also has a box drawn around it. The box might represent a coffin, but it sort of looks like it could be a representation of a window too.

I believe that these drawings indicate that, if one looks out either of those windows, one will view the resting place of a body or bodies (represented by skeletons/skulls, in Thomas’s drawings) buried in the Inner Court.

I suspect that this was a message directed toward any orphans that might not be fully trusted (such as Jennifer, or perhaps Amanda—it is located by the Sewing Room, after all) to be careful or that could happen to you too. In this respect, I propose that it fits with the eye drawn on the toilet lid in the lavatory of which Jennifer says (in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter):

“‘We’re watching you.’ That’s what the picture meant. But it was still scary.”

Together, the message might be… we’re watching you, and you could join the skeletons if you don’t stay in line.
~

I think that if Jennifer did not fully cooperate in the attack and demise of Martha (not to mention Hoffman and Clara)—and I think that it is possible that she didn’t— then the other orphans might fear that Jennifer might do something like run away and tattle on them (blaming the others while proclaiming her own innocence). With Jennifer sleeping in the Filth Room apart from the others, and refusing to play along with the shared airship fantasy of escaping to India, Jennifer might well have seemed dangerously like an outsider.

This need for Jennifer to prove her loyalty might have been an additional motive, besides Wendy’s jealousy, for Jennifer to be given the ultimatum that I believe she faced in the Cell of Bliss… sacrifice Brown or die. See my blog-posts:

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

~
Later addition:

See comment #7 for screencaps of the skull drawings.  I used one of Jay’s screencaps above.  Thanks Jay.
~

Once inside of the Closet Room, we can see one of the most glaring discrepancies between the structure of the outside of the orphanage mansion and the structure of the inside of the mansion.  From the outside of the mansion, we saw that a window should be here, but inside of the Closet Room there is no window.

One who pays attention to the features of the inside of the Closet Room will find that this room of the orphanage mansion is present in a transformed way in the airship as the Dressing Room and the Four Leaf Clover Room.

The wallpaper is basically identical in the Closet Room (a little bit bluer), the Dressing Room (a little bit grayer), and the Four Leaf Clover Room (a little bit greener).  And each room has red carpeting.

The Dressing Room and the Four Leaf Clover Room have square mirrors, rather than round ones like the Closet Room, but the light fixtures just above the mirrors are identical in all of the rooms.

The chairs with the green padded seats, and wood filigree backs, are identical in each of the rooms.

All three rooms have a high shelf on which boxes are stored, and a high wood trim at the same level where there are no shelves.

On the shelf in each of the rooms one can find two black top hats, two metal boxes with metal handles, and two round red hat boxes.  There are more correspondences among the items on the shelves but I didn’t bother to catalog them.  If anyone wants to add to the list of correspondences, please feel free to do so.

Each of the three rooms contains a violin case and a cello case.

Each of the three rooms has a free-standing metal frame with a bar and hangers for hanging clothes.

There is a table with the same vase of flowers in both the Closet Room and the Dressing Room, but I didn’t see this vase in the Four Leaf Clover Room.

The Four Leaf Clover Room cannot be entered during the first play-through of Rule of Rose.  One can only use the Four leaf Clover Key to enter during a re-play.

Inside of the Four Leaf Clover Room one can find bonus costumes for Jennifer and Brown.  The Closet Room also has an association with costumes:  Halloween costumes.

During the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, by the clothes hangers in the Closet Room, Jennifer tells us:

“On Halloween, we all dressed up in costumes… Everyone else wore bags over their heads, and stared at me through tiny holes… Their blank faces and muffled voices… It scared me like you wouldn’t believe… ‘Is it really you under there?’ I asked, fearing it was something else. But, no one would answer me.”

It is also worth noting that, as the imp attacks begin during “The Funeral” chapter, imps can be seen pouring out of the Closet Room. This (combined with the location at which Jennifer’s statement—above—is elicited) seems to imply that the Closet Room was the place that the orphans stored their imp costumes.