Rule of Rose Mysteries

See this YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3znGlfjOzo.

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!

See this video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4zrmCdAycE

Please rate it.

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A blog-post relevant to this video is The Frightened Princess Mystery.

See also the related video, comments, and related links to blog-posts at My Video: Was Clara in Mr. Hoffman’s Bed in the “Mermaid Princess” Chapter of Rule of Rose?

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Does Diana sometimes emulate Hoffman?

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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The “Mermaid Princess” storybook continues:

Before long, she was old and decrepit.

Why should the mermaid that symbolizes Clara be spoken of as ever getting old and decrepit? Clara was only 16 years of age during the time that Jennifer is remembering in the Rule of Rose game.

Jennifer says, during the “Once Upon A Time” chapter:

I wonder if I’ll be like Clara when I’m older… Will I enjoy those days?”

Does the above question from Jennifer imply that Clara did not enjoy those days? Clara does not ever seem to me to be happy or playful in any scene of the game that we see her in. Does “old and decrepit” perhaps refer to Clara having lost her youthful outlook on life?

Why would it have been the case for Clara, that she would have lost her youthful outlook on life? I think that this is likely to relate Clara’s description in the Rule of Rose game as “the frightened princess”. I have written of some of the reasons that I think she was described that way in my blog-post: The Frightened Princess Mystery.

If Mr. Hoffman had sexual relations with Clara, this in itself might affect Clara’s mentality in an extreme way. Even more so, if the hypothesis is true that Clara had become pregnant and then had an abortion.
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The first pages of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook to give us some text, rather than only pictures, read as follows:

A long, long time ago, the Mermaid Princess fell in love with a human prince. But for years, her love went unrequited.

The two accompanying drawings both show the Clara-mermaid alone, and a sailing ship on the facing page.

This echoes the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, “The Little Mermaid” (1836). In that story, the mermaid protagonist also falls in love with a prince that she sees on a sailing ship.

How does such a situation relate to Clara?
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The cover of the “Mermaid Princess” storybook shows a lone mermaid. Her hair is parted down the middle and resembles the style and length of Clara’s hair.

As Clara is the mermaid “boss” that must be battled in order to complete the “Mermaid Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose, the mermaid on the cover of this storybook can be confidently identified as a fantasy representation of Clara.

Turning the page of the storybook, we see another depiction of a lone mermaid. This mermaid has large black spots where the eyes and mouth would be expected to be seen.

Does this second mermaid drawing also represent Clara? I think so.

As we will see later in this storybook, this second drawing depicts what the mermaid princess looks like when she is dead, when the storybook says: “all alone even on the day of her death.”

With regard to the black spots where the eyes would be expected to be seen, in this second mermaid drawing, it is relevant to compare the depiction of Clara as the mermaid “boss” as having dark empty sockets instead of eyeballs. See this short youtube video: Clara’s eyes.

Should we take the death of Clara as the mermaid princess of the storybook as providing evidence that Clara died at the orphanage during Jennifer’s forgotten past?
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The kitchen knife (an equipable weapon) is found, during the “Sir Peter” chapter of Rule of Rose, on the table in the Crew’s Quarters were Diana can often be found sitting. This area of the airship, like the dormitory in the orphanage, can be thought of as Diana’s special area.

The kitchen knife doesn’t look bloody on the table before Jennifer picks it up, nor does it appear bloody as she holds it, but looking at the kitchen knife in the inventory one can see that it is unmistakably very bloody. The blood is thick on the handle and a small area of the blade near the handle. The tip of the blade, and the majority of the blade (except for near the handle), looks shiny and clean. I don’t know how to explain that pattern of blood on the knife. Do you have any suggestions?

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The area of the attic, in which the piles of leaves are found, has an overhead electric light bulb which is turned on.  This light makes the end of the corridor stand out in comparison with the surrounding region of dark attic.

Can we assume that the game developers are drawing our attention to this area by having the light on here?

A different sound is produced when Jennifer walks on the floor where the leaves are, than is heard when she walks where the leaves are not present.

There is something unusual on the wall to the right.  My guess is that it is a speaker for the P. A. system.  If this is correct, then I would imagine that other such speakers can be located throughout the orphanage, but doing a quick and less-than-thorough search for other boxes like this, in places where I felt that P. A. speakers might be located, I failed to see any other boxes exactly like this.  There is, what appears to be, a P.A. speaker (of similar size, but slightly different shape than the proposed attic speaker) in the Main Hall (on the ground floor, in the corner of the Main Hall nearest the Headmaster’s Room).  And one can see that this speaker (in the Main Hall) has the sort of connection leading to it that the P.A. system (in the Headmaster’s Room) seems also to be connected to.  In contrast, there is no visible connection leading to the proposed attic speaker.  Does this mean that it isn’t a speaker?  Or perhaps that it hadn’t yet been connected?

If there is a P.A. speaker in the attic here, I think that there must be a special reason for it.  This area seems like an odd location for such a speaker.

Unless one assumes that an orphan is expected to be sleeping on these leaves.

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Supporting the idea that this shadow represents, at least in part, the figure of a hanging person is the fact that there will be seen, during “The Funeral” chapter, a gallows in the main hall of the orphanage. See my blog-post The Gallows at the Top of the Stairs.

But if the shadow represents a hanged person, who is the hanged person?

I have suggested that Mr. Hoffman may have been hanged. See my blog-posts:
Was Mr. Hoffman Hanged? (Part 1)
Was Mr. Hoffman Hanged? (Part 2)

I have suggested (in Part 1) that this shadow, if truly of a hanged person, is a sort-of ghost shadow. On the subject of a possible ghost of Mr. Hoffman in the orphanage, see my blog-post: Did the Orphans Think That the Men’s Lavatory Was Haunted By Mr. Hoffman’s Ghost?.

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Jennifer was also threatened with hanging. On the “Gift of the Month” poster during “The Funeral” chapter, a there is a drawing of Jennifer hanged. She may also have been threatened with hanging in the Cell of Bliss. See my blog-posts:
The Cell of Bliss Mystery (part 2)
The Tiny Gallows in the Cell of Bliss

Could the shadow just represent a fear that Jennifer had during her forgotten past? The fear of that she herself would be hanged by the other orphans?

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In the web-page entitled Diana & Actaeon from The Classics Pages, I found some parts of the mythology of Diana (aka Artemis) which seemed to have a resonance with the story of Rule of Rose. Perhaps it is just coincidence, but perhaps there was an influence on the author(s) of Rule of Rose?

Some excerpts:

Diana (aka Artemis) was… virgin goddess… protectress of girls evolving from virgin to mother – and killer of women in childbirth.

If Clara became pregnant by Hoffman, I wonder how Diana felt about it.

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At her temple at Brauron on the east coast of Attica (Vravrona) – and probably also at her sanctuary on the Acropolis in Athens – young pubescent girls from all over Attica took part in the strange ritual of “being a bear” – precise details are unclear, but there’s some evidence that they played at being men for part of the time

In Rule of Rose, we have, in respect to “Joshua”, both the idea of girl as “bear”, and the idea of girls playing at being male.

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