I think this is a genuine case of symbolism, and that the symbolism is not hard to interpret.

The theme of “The Mermaid Princess” chapter is, in my opinion, Hoffman’s sexuality directed at Clara and Diana. His sexual bad behavior is what caused the metaphorical overturning of the (real, not the model) orphanage. The orphans, who had competed for Hoffman’s good opinion previously, turned against him and rebelled, and then he “disappeared”. The orphan revolution ultimately led to Martha’s disappearance as well, and the orphanage coming under the rule of an orphan (the Princess of the Rose). This, I propose, is the symbolic meaning of the overturned orphanage in “The Mermaid Princess” chapter.

What do you think?
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Thanks, Jay, for providing the screencap that I edited for use.

Here is my hypothesis about Diana’s thigh-bandage.

I want to emphasize that there is little evidence available upon which to base a hypothesis, so this is basically some creative writing that endeavors just to provide an account that doesn’t clash with what little evidence is available, fits in with my view of the personalities involved, and satisfies my sense of the game’s avoidance of simple black-and-white depictions of human interactions. See my earlier blog-post relating to Diana’s thigh-bandage to read my objections to some of the other hypotheses that have been proposed, and to read some set-up for this blog-post).
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I propose that Diana deliberately injured her thigh (in a way that would have the appearance of having been accidental) because she wanted to have that injury bandaged by Mr. Hoffman.

Both Mr. Hoffman and Clara are associated with working in the Sick Bay. And we see Mr. Hoffman at his desk in the Sick Bay during “The Unlucky Clover Field” chapter (with Clara sitting on an examination table like a patient, see the picture above). The biggest objection to the idea that Hoffman did the bandaging of Diana’s thigh might come due to the statement of Jennifer in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter: “If Clara had disappeared, there would’ve been no one to tend our wounds…” But can we really believe that all of the equipment of the Sick Bay was there for Clara alone to give health-care to the orphans? Isn’t it likely that Clara received whatever instruction she had in health-care from Mr. Hoffman? Isn’t it likely that both Mr. Hoffman and Clara were capable of tending wounds? If so, perhaps the idea that “if Clara had disappeared, there would’ve been no one to tend our wounds” pertained only to the situation immediately before when Clara actually DID disappear, a time when Mr. Hoffman had already disappeared (he disappeared before Clara and Martha), and so a time when the entire burden of health-care rested on Clara’s shoulders because Hoffman was—at that time—gone. But before that, Hoffman was also one who might tend a wound.

I propose that the bandaging of Diana’s thigh occurred around the time of Jennifer’s arrival at the orphanage (during her forgotten past). The scene during which we see the bandage looks like it might be the first time that Jennifer was invited to the Aristocrat Club, because it seems to me that the curtsying of the aristocrats to Jennifer has the appearance of an introduction.

At this early time, I think that Mr. Hoffman either was not yet sexually involved with Clara, or that the other orphans did not yet know about it. Jennifer tells us, of those early times: “Back then, Mr. Hoffman was a kind and admirable teacher.”

So what might Diana’s motive be to deliberately injure herself to get Hoffman to apply a bandage to her thigh?

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

“Mr. Hoffman loved to broadcast over the PA system… He always announced our names in the order of his favorites. We’d try our best to win his approval and be the first one to be called.

The orphans competed for Mr. Hoffman’s approval. And Diana, presumably, was one of those that wanted to win this competition. Diana is the “strong-willed” princess, so she would be expected to take a strong-willed effort in that regard.

Diana is also the only one of the orphan girls (not counting Clara) who looks to be beginning to undergo the womanly development brought about by puberty. And Jennifer tells us, in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter:

She was the prettiest, the most mature of the Aristocrats. She wanted so much to be an adult… and yet she was also afraid of growing up too fast.

I propose that Diana wanted to test her prettiness, and her newly formed maturity, on Mr. Hoffman. Perhaps Mr. Hoffman still seemed to think of her as just another one of the children, and Diana wanted to impress upon Mr. Hoffman that she was more mature than the others. And maybe she wanted to test her powers, as a woman, on the only man in her life. And win the position of “favorite”.

So Diana contrived to need her thigh bandaged at a time when Clara was not available to do it. Or perhaps she just manipulated Mr. Hoffman into doing it.

Would Mr. Hoffman recognize that Diana’s thigh was that of a pretty woman, and not a mere child? Would Diana be able to gain power over Mr. Hoffman thereby? Diana wanted to know.

I’m not suggesting that Diana got molested at that time. Nor am I suggesting that Diana invited being molested at any time. And I am DEFINITELY NOT suggesting that Diana deserved to get molested because she did this. I just propose that she was curious about her power, and was wanting to test it. And also wanted to see if she could use her power to become raised up in Mr. Hoffman’s eyes (and we DO hear Diana head the list of favorites when Mr. Hoffman calls off the names of the orphans over the P.A. system during “The Funeral” chapter). But it could be that what Diana did had an unfortunate consequence, for her, down the line, with respect to Hoffman’s later sexual predation.

I think we also see Diana’s urge to test her power when we see her mean treatment of Meg: Diana demonstrating to herself that, however mean she got, she could keep Meg “bound by the shackles of foolish devotion” (as Jennifer tells us).

I propose that Diana regarded her ploy with Hoffman as having been successful: successful in demonstrating the power of her new maturity. And I propose that the other orphans had learned of what Diana had done, and also saw it as a demonstration of her power. And Diana knew this. So that is why she is pleased to lift her skirt extra high during her curtsy, and show off her bandage, and her thighs: proudly displaying, on this occasion, her power. As the “strong-willed princess”, Diana relishes displaying her strength, her power.

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What do you think of this hypothesis?

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?

In the game-time story, Hoffman paws Diana while Jennifer openly stands nearby in the same room watching. Is it believable that Hoffman would act in such a way right in front of Jennifer? I have proposed that Jennifer did indeed have repressed memories of having witnessed the scene, but she wasn’t where Mr. Hoffman would have seen her as she watched. See my blog-post: As Hoffman Pawed Diana, Where Was Jennifer Really? Did Jennifer actually see worse happen at that time in her forgotten past, but cleaned up and falsified her memory of it somewhat (which is the version we see in the game-time story)? It seems very possible that Jennifer did, considering that she apparently walked in on Mr. Hoffman and Clara having a sexual encounter in the Sickroom, but seems to have cleaned up and falsified that memory (and thereby the game-time story as well). See My Video: A Sex Scene in “The Funeral” Chapter of Rule of Rose?.
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In the game-time story, the goats Mary and Sally, and Eleanor’s pet bird, are seen as living (and sometimes dying, and then back alive again) creatures during the time that Jennifer is in the airship. But during Jennifer’s forgotten past, in the orphanage, they were only dolls, not creatures that were ever alive. In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, Jennifer tells us:

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

and

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

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I think that almost everything that we see in the “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” chapter relating to the orphanage massacre is a huge distortion of Jennifer’s actual experience of the orphanage massacre. See my blog-posts:

The Stray Dog Boss-battle Mystery (Part 1)
The Stray Dog Boss-battle Mystery (Part 2)
Bad Ending vs. Good Ending
The Stray Dog Boss-battle Mystery (Part 3)
The Stray Dog Boss-battle Mystery (Part 4)
The “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” Storybook Mystery (Part 1)
The Stray Dog Boss-battle Mystery (Part 5)
Did Jennifer Hide in the Grandfather Clock During the Massacre?

This is basically a video remake of my blog-post: What is Hoffman Saying as He Paws Diana?.

There’s voting! Please go and place your vote!

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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The snowman can be found in the Freezing Compartment of the airship, and I decided to make a quick revisit to the Freezing Compartment, before writing up my theory, to make sure that I would describe the details of the scene accurately.

Scanning the scene, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. And suddenly everything that I thought I knew about the snowman changed. How did I miss this before? It is right out in the open in plain sight, and yet I had missed it. Surely somebody else must have seen this before now, I thought to myself. But if so, why has nobody ever made a comment about it on my blog, or on any Rule of Rose forum that I have ever frequented?

What was the snowman theory that I was forced to abandon?

I thought that the snowman symbolized Diana.

Mainly, I thought this because we get Meg’s love letter when Brown knocks the snowman over, the snowman breaks open, and the letter apparently comes out from inside of the snowman. In comparison, in the Goat Sisters storybook, Meg’s love letter comes out of the Diana-goat’s stomach when the Meg-goat cuts it out of her.

Also, I thought the goat imp that spawns in the Freezing Compartment arguably marked the place as associated with either Diana or Meg. Elsewhere, in the Goat Sisters chapter, we can find infinite goat imps spawning in the Library (see my blog-post Infinite Goat-Imps in the Airship Library) , which is Meg’s special place. So, it made sense to me that the goat imp spawning in the Freezing Compartment might link the Freezing Compartment to Diana, the other goat sister (although the special place of Diana in the airship is arguably the Crew Cabin, which is a transformation of Dormitory of the orphanage).

I thought that Diana, symbolically depicted as a snowman, might represent Diana’s coldness to Meg over the matter of the love letter. I didn’t really like this symbolism, as Eleanor is supposed to be the cold princess. It seemed like poor writing, on the game author’s part, to use a symbol of coldness to depict Diana when that was Eleanor’s defining trait. But, it did seem, I had to admit, that Diana could truly be said to have treated Meg coldly at times.

The rope binding the snowman could also have a symbolic interpretation. In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, Jennifer tells us, of Diana, “she was trapped by her own ideals.” The rope binding the snowman could symbolize this. Or could symbolize that Diana was in some way bound by some other element of her personality.

The blindfold on the snowman could symbolize Diana’s inability to see her need for Meg’s love, or something like that.

I wasn’t too thrilled with this theory. I would prefer that story elements relate to solving the mysteries of what happened to Martha, Hoffman, or Clara, rather than just being some symbolic commentary on a character’s personality. And I didn’t like that Diana would be depicted as a snowman when Eleanor is the cold princess. But outside of the coldness of the snowman and the Freezing Compartment, there didn’t seem to be anything to else to point to Eleanor here.

I put off writing up this theory for a long time, not being too fond of it. So I’m far from heartbroken to have to abandon it now.

In tomorrow’s blog-post, I’ll tell you what I had never noticed, prior to just a few hours ago, about the contents of the Freezing Compartment.

Can you guess what it was before then?

Let’s consider the stalls from right to left, from nearer the entrance of the lavatory to furthest away from the entrance of the lavatory.

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Nearest to the entrance of the lavatory is (1) a stall without a door, piled high with sacks filled with who-knows-what, and which has boards nailed across its door frame to block access. I’m going to ignore the mystery presented by this blocked-off lavatory stall in this blog-post.

One stall further away from the entrance of the lavatory is (2) the stall in which we see Diana and Meg together in the E3/pregame video (this is the scene during which Diana deliberately presses Meg’s finger into the thorn of a rose that Meg is offering to Diana, after which Diana sucks on Meg’s wounded finger—provided we believe the illustration on the game box showing Diana sucking on a finger: from the just the E3/pregame video itself we cannot see exactly what Diana is doing… she could could just be kissing the wounded finger).

This (2) is also the same lavatory stall in which Diana and Meg are talking to each other—during the “Bird of Happiness” chapter—while Jennifer is listening from (3) the adjacent stall (one stall further from the entrance).

(3) The adjacent lavatory stall from which Jennifer is listening, during the “Bird of Happiness” chapter, is the stall with the drawing of the red bird.

One stall further from the entrance, is (4) the stall into which Gregory pulls Jennifer during the E3/pregame video.

And there is one more stall (5) that is the furthest from the entrance of the lavatory.

I propose a hypothesis that these lavatory stalls are assigned (by the Aristocrat Club) as follows:
(2) The stall of the Duchess, Diana
(3) The stall of the Countess, Eleanor
(4) The stall of the Baroness, Meg
(5) The stall for all of the other girls

In the gamescript of TheSinnerChrono (see the link in “Important Resources“), we are told that lavatory stall (2) is “their secret place” (that is, the secret place of Diana and Meg). This is just an interpretation given by TheSinnerChrono, the game itself never tells us this explicitly. And as I thought more about this interpretation, I began to wonder if it was wrong in two respects: wrong in saying that the place was secret, and wrong in saying it was “their” (in the plural sense) place.

At first I accepted that the stall was “their” place, but questioned whether it was actually a secret place.

That particular stall is certainly a place for Diana and Meg to tell secrets and do secret things, but having a lavatory stall as a secret place invites unintentional interferences by others wanting to use the stall. Unless—I thought—it is a actually a private place rather than a secret place… a lavatory stall well-known by all the girls to be the exclusive “private property” of Diana and Meg. That made more sense to me.

And notice that in the E3/pregame video, while Diana and Meg are together in the lavatory stall, Eleanor is standing in the middle of the main space of the lavatory room, facing toward the open entrance of the lavatory (connecting to the hallway), as if standing guard over the privacy of Meg and Diana (Jennifer sees the scene only because she is looking through the open lavatory door from the hallway outside of the lavatory). The stall is certainly not a secret from Eleanor. Nor would the fact that something was going on in the stall be a secret if somebody was turned away from using the lavatory by Eleanor. Privacy seems to be the issue here, not secrecy.

In the “Bird of Happiness” chapter, it may be that Meg and Diana are wanting to talk about Eleanor behind her back. At any rate, Eleanor is not around to stand guard over their privacy, which could be enough in itself to explain the “shhhhh”s and admonitions to be “quiet” before Meg and Diana enter the stall. Even in their private place, they don’t want “eavesdroppers”, so it is better if they go to their private stall secretly on this occasion.

The idea that this stall (2) was the private property of Meg and Diana opened up the possibility that the adjacent stall (3) was the private property of Eleanor, which might shed light on the presence of the red bird drawing in that stall. I liked this idea, but as I thought more about it, I began to think that the idea that Meg and Diana shared a stall, while Eleanor had one to herself, was an odd arrangement.

It then occurred to me that it seemed far more appropriate that each of the three aristocrats would have had their own private lavatory stalls, and that these stalls would be arranged according to rank.

TheSinnerChrono identifies Diana as being the one who says “Over here!” to Meg, before they enter the stall (2) in the “Bird of Happiness” chapter. I agree. And we see that it is Diana that leads the way to the stall. If the stall was Diana’s private place, it would be expected that Meg would only enter by Diana’s invitation.

Both times that we see Meg and Diana together in that stall, we see Diana as the one who sits on the toilet, which is sometimes humorously called “the throne” in English. Diana on the throne, while Meg stands or kneels, is what we would expect anyway from Diana’s superior rank and relational dominance, but it is also consistent with the idea that Diana is the master of that particular place.

And if my hypothesis about private stalls, and their assignment, is correct, then the lavatory stall with the red bird drawing is indeed Eleanor’s private lavatory stall. Perhaps we can use this as a clue to help us come to an understanding of the meaning of the red bird drawing in that stall.

What do you think of the hypothesis of assigned lavatory stalls?

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″)

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?

The bear doll might well be a stand-in… but the issue is: for whom?

Wendy began her first letter to Jennifer by addressing it: “To Mr. Joshua, the bear in distress”.

At the end of “The Gingerbread House” chapter, Wendy chose to name the bear doll “Joshua”. Why?

Is the bear doll a stand-in for Jennifer?

Or does Wendy think of both Jennifer (whom she addressed as “my prince” in her letters) and the bear doll as a stand-in for the original Joshua, whom Wendy knew?

Might the original Joshua have been the Prince of the Aristocrat club? And was Joshua the Bear used as a stand-in Prince after the original Joshua died?  Did Wendy thereby keep Joshua’s death a secret from the Aristocrats, making up an excuse of some sort (such as feeling ill) for Joshua’s absence?

Did Wendy ever stand in for the original Prince Joshua (Gregory’s son) herself by pretending to be Prince Joshua? At the beginning of the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter, Wendy-disguised-as-Joshua said “I am the Prince, and the Prince rules!” If the Prince was never anybody but Joshua the Bear, what is the meaning of that scene, and the scenes of Wendy-disguised as-Joshua sitting on the throne in the first chapter, and during the in-between-chapters times on the airship?  Did Wendy ever deceive the Aristocrats by disguising herself as Prince Joshua?

It seems to me that there are many possibilities to consider.

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Of course, any discussion of Joshua the Bear as a possible stand-in should address the little Princess doll as well.

Were the little Princess doll and the Joshua the Bear doll just figurehead rulers (puppets, as they say) during Jennifer’s forgotten past, with Diana or Wendy running the Aristocrat Club indirectly?

Was the little Princess doll just a dream-device for Jennifer to block her memories of having seen Wendy acting openly as the Princess?

Were both dolls used as stand-ins, during Jennifer’s forgotten past, for the Prince and Princess after the original Prince Joshua (Gregory’s son) died?

I find the little Princess doll to be quite mysterious.  If the little Princess doll was Jennifer’s doll before the airship crash that she survived, how did it get to the orphanage and to the position of Princess of the Aristocrat Club?