Rule of Rose Mysteries

What do law school exams have to do with solving the mysteries of Rule of Rose? I’ll tell you.

A friend of mine who is in the process of taking law school exams was telling me that every detail within the set-up of an exam question must be regarded as significant. Nothing should be dismissed as random or irrelevant. Of course this is different from real life. In a real life law case, there are many totally unimportant details to be sifted through. But not so with exam questions. Unlike with real legal problems, every detail of a law school exam question is there by some exam writer’s deliberate design, and one disregards this fact at extreme peril to one’s grade.

I think that the mysteries of Rule of Rose are best regarded as being more like law school exam problems rather than real-life legal case problems. One needs to regard the various details found within the Rule of Rose game as being non-random and non-coincidental. The details of the game should be evaluated as being present by the deliberate design of the game-makers. Ask yourself: Why might the game-makers have chosen to put this particular detail in this particular setting? Think like a writer. Ask yourself how, if you were writing the story, you could use this detail as a plot element. Asking questions like these is, in my opinion, one of the main ways by which I have generated so many plot-theories for this Rule of Rose Mysteries blog. It is a very productive mental exercise. I invite you to try it too.

I also use this approach in evaluating competing theories.
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There is no witch in the “Mermaid Princess” storybook. But there is a witch playing an important role in “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale, which the “Mermaid Princess” storybook seems to echo. And there are also some puzzling references, in the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, to the idea that Martha is a witch.

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?
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In the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose, Jennifer can find a paring knife behind the bar in the cafeteria of the airship.

Looking at the paring knife in the inventory, the knife doesn’t look bloody. But if one equips the paring knife, and looks at it as Jennifer carries it in her hand, the knife definitely can be seen to be colored dark red over the tip half of its blade. This can be seen, it should be emphasized, long before Jennifer has an opportunity to use the paring knife as a weapon against imps.

Should this be regarded as a clue?

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I constructed a theory, to explain the dolls on the table in the Cell of Bliss, in my blog-posts:

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?

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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).

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The idea that Mr. Hoffman was murdered at the Orphanage might seem far-fetched to many readers, mainly because of the following entry in Mr. Hoffman’s diary (and Jennifer’s comment on it):

(Jennifer:) “…the last page is particularly interesting… It’s Mr. Hoffman’s last entry before he disappeared.”

11 November 1930

I’m leaving the orphanage.
Clara’s here to look after things, and the children are quickly growing up.
I’ve done right and fulfilled my duty.
…Bloody hell!
All the trouble started when that wretched child arrived…
I’ve done nothing to deserve this!”
(Headmaster’s Room, Hoffman’s diary, “Once Upon a Time”)

(Jennifer:) “…That’s the end of the diary. We never saw Mr. Hoffman again.”

Isn’t this proof that Mr. Hoffman left on his own? And doesn’t Jennifer even tell us in the “Once Upon A Time” chapter that Mr. Hoffman, Martha, and Clara “left”?

Actually Jennifer never tells us that they “left”, as is sometimes claimed. She only tells us, as above, that Mr. Hoffman “disappeared”, and Martha and Clara “soon followed”:

Headmaster’s Closet:

–At the shelf that has shoes:

(Jennifer:) “That day, Mr. Hoffman disappeared, like he was running away from something. He had tried too hard to be someone he wasn’t. The expectations were too much for him… and he wanted to escape those restrictions. However, children and adults live in the same world, and we must both play by society’s rules.”

and

Entrance-way:

–At the portrait of Hoffman:

(Jennifer:) “One day, Mr. Hoffman suddenly disappeared. Clara and Miss Martha soon followed, leaving me and the other orphans alone.”

But doesn’t this still seem to indicate that Mr. Hoffman left on his own, rather than was murdered?

If this was all that we had to go by, I would be inclined to think so. But there are some intriguing other clues that relate to Mr. Hoffman’s “disappearance”.

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In the “Once Upon A Time” chapter of Rule of Rose, Jennifer tells us the following story at the blocked off toilet stall in the Men’s Lavatory:

Once, Susan started a rumor about voices coming from this room at night… It turned out it was only the door creaking in the wind, but one night, sounds came from the room even with the windows shut. Susan jumped out of her bed and screamed. It was really just a prank by Nicholas and Xavier. From then on, the room was believed to be haunted and was considered off limits.

One question that comes to my mind is one of translation. Does “room” refer to the entire lavatory (as would be expected of normal English usage) or does “room” refer to the blocked off toilet stall?

In either case, I wonder if we are missing something if we just assume that this little story of Jennifer’s only exists to give us an innocent “slice of life” from the orphanage.

Jennifer, herself, sees a ghost in the course of the game. She sees Martha’s ghost in Clara’s cabin. And Clara’s cabin is also the location where Jennifer sees Martha alive, but bound and bagged. I suggested previously that Martha died at the location in the orphanage represented as Clara’s cabin in the airship and that’s why Jennifer sees her ghost there. See The Mysteries of Clara’s Cabin (Part 2): Martha’s Death.

Could it be that the orphans are quick to think that the Men’s Lavatory is haunted because they think that Hoffman died (or something happened that led to his death) there?

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In the table of contents of Meg’s Notebook is a section called “Findings on the Land of the Imps“.

Inside Meg’s notebook is also a torn page of which only the heading remains: “Secrets of the Land of…”

What might have been written on that page?

An idea I have about the possible contents of that missing page is that the page might have functioned sort of like a GM’s, or player’s, notes in a role-playing game. The orphans pretended that they were imps when they wore bags on their heads, so perhaps the notes were supposed to help them in the role.

The word “findings”, however, suggests that the information on that page was not from the imaginations of the orphans but rather was somehow found by Meg’s research. Meg might have researched the subject of imps from books in the library, but there were other possible sources for Meg’s information about imps: Hoffman and Martha.

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If the Filth Room was Clara’s bedroom, and no longer a filthy place, how was it that Jennifer—low on the orphan pecking-order—managed to inherit Clara’s bedroom after she disappeared?

The following is, admittedly, a very speculative answer, but it IS one based on a story element of the game: Martha’s ghost.

Because of the following story, told by Jennifer, in the Men’s Lavatory, during the “Once Upon A Time” chapter of Rule of Rose, we know that the orphans believed in, and feared, ghosts:

Once, Susan started a rumor about voices coming from this room at night… It turned out it was only the door creaking in the wind, but one night, sounds came from the room even with the windows shut. Susan jumped out of her bed and screamed. It was really just a prank by Nicholas and Xavier. From then on, the room was believed to be haunted and was considered off limits.

We also know that Jennifer encountered the voice of Martha’s ghost, in Clara’s cabin, during the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter.

Could it be that nobody else wanted to take over Clara’s bedroom (the Filth Room), after Clara disappeared, because there was a fear that it might be haunted?

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Thomas made two drawings of a skull on the floor of the upstairs hallway near the Sewing Room. One of the drawings is labeled “skeltin” but there is really only a skull drawn there, not a full skeleton.

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.

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