Rule of Rose Mysteries

During the airship chapters, after the “Unlucky Clover Field”, one can find this ominous newspaper article in the Smoking Room:

20 December 1930

A tragic multiple homicide has occurred at an orphanage in Cardington
resulting in the deaths of all the children housed there.
Among the dead was one adult, Gregory M. Wilson, a local resident.
Analysis of the crime scene suggests that Wilson shot himself with a pistol.
Police have identified him as their prime suspect in the murders of the children.

Later in the game, at the front gate of the orphanage during the “Once Upon A Time” chapter, Jennifer tells us:

That day, I was escorted from the scene by Officer Doolittle. At first, it was reported that there were no survivors… Then, word got out that, miraculously, I had escaped the tragedy…

The authors of the game had set us up—if we had been diligent about finding all documents during the first playthrough—to expect Jennifer’s death. Then they surprised us by producing a way in which Jennifer could still survive. But what was the reason for the mistaken report? It would be better writing on the part of the authors of Rule of Rose—especially in a mystery game—if there is something that we can figure out to explain this. So let’s see if we can.

The following is a scenario that I think makes sense.

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Tags: Doolittle, Gregory

In the letter written by Officer Doolittle to Martha (found in the “Once Upon a Time” chapter of Rule of Rose), Officer Doolittle wrote:

Mr. Wilson is father to a son who closely matches your description in your letter.

Martha described someone in her letter who turned out to match what Officer Doolittle thought Gregory’s son should look like.

Why did Martha describe that person?

Doolittle wrote:

In your letter, you report suspicious activity on the part of Mr. Gregory Wilson.
After investigating the matter, we have come to the following conclusion.
There is little to indicate that the said individual is connected to the recent kidnappings.

Martha was apparently suspicious that Gregory was connected to the recent kidnappings of children, and in expressing this suspicion to Officer Doolittle described to Doolittle a boy, on Gregory’s property with Gregory, that she did not recognize.

So, if Martha was aware that Gregory had a son Joshua, and had seen that son in the past, she apparently didn’t recognize that boy (that she reported) as being Joshua.

But perhaps Martha didn’t know about Gregory’s son. She saw Gregory acting suspiciously with a boy that she didn’t recognize and described this to the police because she knew of the kidnappings (which had been reported in the newspaper).

If that boy was actually Wendy, disguised as Joshua (which seems to me to be the most probable explanation), then I think that it is clear that Martha did not recognize, at that time, that it was Wendy.

Did the police go to Gregory’s home when they investigated? And did Wendy pretend to be Joshua at that time, successfully convincing the police of it? Is that why Doolittle wrote that “Mr. Wilson is father to a son who closely matches your description in your letter”?

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Tags: Doolittle, Gregory, Joshua, Martha, Wendy

This is an arrangement of dated documents, of the Rule of Rose game, as a time-line extending from just after Jennifer’s arrival at the orphanage to immediately after the orphanage massacre.

This is the time period from 20 March 1930 to 20 December 1930.

This is a follow-up to Document-based Time-line: Before Jennifer Arrived at the Orphanage

Four of the documents presented in this time-line, by the way, are ones overlooked in the GameSpot/GameFAQs game-script faq. I marked those documents with ###.

I also included two of Jennifer’s memories that relate to precise dates.

The last of Amanda’s diary entries have no dates. They consist of one written passage and numerous drawings. I included the diary passage, and a summary description of the drawings, out of sequence at the end of this post for completeness. These should date to no earlier than 19 October 1930.

I also left two dated headlines, attributed to the Daily Flamingo newspaper, out of the sequence: I don’t think that these share the reliability of the other documents. But I have included them at the very end of the post, for completeness.

If I have made any errors, or have left out a document that should be here, please let me know in the “comments”.

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Tags: Amanda, Basil, Brown, Clara, Diana, Doolittle, Fanny, George, Gregory, Hector, Hoffman, Ida, Leo, Martha, Nicholas, Olivia, Paul, StrayDog, Wendy

We see Martha attacked, and apparently killed, by spooky things (imps) in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose.

We see Martha bound, bagged, and lying motionless on the floor in Clara’s cabin during the “Sir Peter” chapter.

Both of those chapters are set aboard the airship. Is there any reason to suspect that, sometime during Jennifer’s forgotten past at the orphanage, Martha was ever really attacked?

I think that there is.

And I think that one of the best ways to recognize this possibility is to try to think like a story-writer.

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Tags: Doolittle, Gregory, imps, Martha, spookythings, StrayDog, Wendy

This incomplete letter, written by Martha and addressed (but unsent) to the police, might lead some players of Rule of Rose to think that Wendy had, for a considerable time, trained Gregory specifically for the orphanage massacre:

24 November
Officer Doolittle,

My name is Martha Carol, and I work at the Rose Garden Orphanage. In the past month,
I have sent six letters to your attention, but have yet to receive a response.
Have my letters reached you?

I ask you to please investigate this matter at once at once for the safety of our children.

Yesterday, I saw them together again… Mr. Wilson and Wendy, a child at our orphanage.
I am very concerned for her safety. The two of them have been behaving quite strangely.
Ooo… it is terribly odd. By strangely, I mean Mr. Wilson walking on all fours and nodding…
and Wendy appears to be scolding him. I don’t know how to explain it, except that it
resembled dog training gone wrong. Ooo… it gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
Please come investigate this matter as

I think that there is good reason, however, to believe that Wendy was not training Gregory for revenge upon the orphans at the time of Martha’s letter. Instead, I think that the massacre came about later by a relatively spontaneous and unpremeditated act by Wendy shortly after she was “deposed” as Princess of the Rose and violently dumped by Jennifer.

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Tags: Amanda, Brown, Doolittle, Gregory, Martha, StrayDog, Susan, Wendy