Rule of Rose Mysteries

See this YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keaWPpHpwE4

This is a video illustration of a previous blog-post of mine: Watching Susan and Olivia from the Broom Closet

Tags: Olivia, Susan

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In the Perrault version of Cinderella, in the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, and in the Disney animated movie version of Cinderella, there are only two step-sisters for Cinderella.

In the “Rag Princess” storybook, however, the illustrations show that the rag princess has three step-sisters. Why this change in the number of step-sisters? I propose that there are three step-sisters because the story here is depicting the relationship between Amanda and three orphans: Diana, Meg, and Eleanor.

In the airship, during the “Unlucky Cloverfield” chapter of Rule of Rose, after coming up the stairs and entering through the door into the First Class Guest Sector, one can find a sign hanging on the wall to the left which describes “Social Rank”:

Social Rank
Refined Class
Duchess…..Diana
Countess….Eleanor
Baroness….Meg
—Lower Class—
Poor………..Amanda
Beggar…….Jennifer

The text of the Rag Princess storybook tells us:

Her stepsisters wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball.

The girl stayed at home and her jealousy festered

I propose that the “real life” situation being described is this: in the Aristocrat Club, the girls Diana, Meg, and Eleanor are ranked socially as “Refined Class (“wore beautiful dresses and went to the ball”), but Amanda is ranked “Lower Class” and desperately wants to move up to “Refined Class” rank (“stayed at home and her jealousy festered”).

We see, in the storybook illustration, a castle off in the distance. This is the site of the ball and indicates that the ball relates to aristocracy.

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Tags: Amanda, Diana, Eleanor, Meg, Olivia, Susan, Wendy

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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Tags: Clara, Martha, Susan

“The Little Princess” storybook text continues:

(Left side):
in the storybook itself:

Until one day, when she was sent away to a strange house.

subtitle given:

And the poor little girl was sent away to a strange house.

The accompanying illustration is of a man pulling the girl by the arm as he walks, and the girl is holding the little princess doll by the hand with her other hand. An interesting feature of this man is that he has a mustache. This is interesting because neither Gregory Wilson, nor Mr. Hoffman, are depicted as having a mustache at any point in the Rule of Rose game… and those two men are the only adult males that we ever encounter during the game.
The illustration also shows a couple of trees to the left, near one of which stands Stray Dog (standing like a man, but having the head of a dog). In the distance is what appears to be a house behind a wall… presumably the orphanage.

This is where the storybook ends when Jennifer is at the bus stop during “The Little Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose. The page on the right doesn’t appear until Joshua (in the attic of the orphanage, during “The Little Princess” chapter of Rule of Rose) asks Jennifer to read more of the storybook. Now the page on the right will temporarily mark the ending of “The Little Princess” storybook, until the text once again extends. See my blog-post: “The Continually Growing Storybook (‘The Little Princess’)”
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(Right side):

At her new home, the Aristocrat Club lived by the Rule of Rose. But the girl found herself very much alone.

The accompanying illustration shows seven girls standing amidst seven long-stem roses:

The tall girl with a kerchief-tie is Diana.

The girl with the birdcage is Eleanor.

The girl wearing glasses is Meg.

The rotund girl is Amanda.

The girl with pig tails is Susan.

The small girl remaining is presumably Olivia.

Clara is not depicted here, or anywhere else in this storybook.

Wendy is not ever depicted in this storybook, at least not as a little girl. Does the little princess doll, later on in the storybook, represent her? I’ll discuss that question in a future blog-post.
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There are a number of mysteries that we now face in trying to explain the story of “The Little Princess” storybook:

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Tags: Amanda, Diana, Eleanor, Gregory, Hoffman, Meg, Olivia, storybooks, StrayDog, Susan, Wendy

The story written in “The Clover Field” storybook reads as follows:

The Clover Field

Once upon a time, there was an unlucky girl.

All she wanted was to be happy.

So she went to a clover field.

She found a one-leaf clover, but she dropped it on the road.

She found a two-leaf clover, but it slipped into the shadows.

She found a three-leaf clover, but a witch hid it away.

She wanted to find a four-leaf clover, but she was too unlucky.

The story of this storybook closely reflects the events associated with Jennifer finding (or not finding) clover-leaf keys in the course of the “Unlucky Clover Field” chapter of Rule of Rose.

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Tags: Martha, Meg, Nicholas, storybook, Susan

Now we take Jennifer to the left from the front gate, following the wall. As she rounds the corner, we are shown the location-text: “Fence Road”.

As Jennifer travels along Fence Road, alongside the wall, the heads of three orphans are peeking over the wall. As she nears each one, that orphan giggles and the head disappears behind the wall. These three orphans are (it appears to me), in order: Thomas, Susan, and Meg.

Jennifer once again rounds a corner of the wall, and she now arrives at the side gate.

Pressing “x” at the gate, Jennifer tries the door but can’t open it. We are shown a view of the sign over a slot in the wall. The sign says: “NO ONE ALOUD WITHOUT A PASS”. We are, at the same time, shown a subtitle which says: “NO ONE ALLOWED WITHOUT A PASS”. Pressing “x” at the slot itself shows us a different view of the slot and the sign, with the same subtitle.

The orphans are using the slot in the wall as a place to present a pass. But for what purpose was the slot built? I propose that it is a mail slot. And I think that this is an important identification to make. The easy accessibility of mail, at the place where mail is left, is important to a theory that I have regarding Martha’s “disappearance” ( I think she was murdered by the orphans). See my blog-post: “The Mystery of Martha’s Letter“.
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Tags: Brown, Martha, Meg, Susan, Thomas

It doesn’t seem to me to have been straightforwardly explained in the Rule of Rose game why it was that Wendy was deposed as Princess.

Because it followed immediately (or so it seems in the game) upon Jennifer’s rebellion against the Aristocrats in general, and Wendy in particular (with Jennifer slapping Wendy repeatedly), it certainly seems that Jennifer’s rebellion is connected with Wendy being deposed. But how did that particular cause produce that particular effect?

It also seems that Wendy’s fall from being Princess may relate to the inscription on the classroom’s chalkboard in the “Stray Dog and the Lying Princess” chapter:

The Stray Dog Legend

That is Just Wendy’s Lie.

But how exactly does Jennifer’s rebellion lead to the Aristocrats coming to disbelieve in Stray Dog?

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Tags: , Diana, Gregory, Meg, StrayDog, Susan, Wendy

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Who wrote the storybooks?

Did the storybooks actually exist in Jennifer’s forgotten past? Or have they only existed in her dream?

If the storybooks have only existed in Jennifer’s dream, then the true author of the books (despite the attribution within the dream to anybody else) would be Jennifer herself… Jennifer’s dreaming mind would have written them.

I think that there are some examples in the game (in synch with the above idea) where it seems to me that Jennifer’s dreaming mind speaks to her through other characters in the dream:

In “The Bird of Happiness” chapter, Eleanor says to Jennifer (at the beginning of the chapter), “Have you found what you’re looking for? Something dear to you?”

In the “Mermaid Princess” chapter, Diana says to Jennifer (at the beginning of the chapter), “You should be looking for your own precious thing.”

In “The Goat Sisters” chapter, Meg says to Jennifer (at the beginning of the chapter), “There must be something very important to you… why don’t you go find it?”

Could it be that the storybooks of Rule of Rose are actually a way for Jennifer’s dreaming mind to speak to her through the guise of being something written by Gregory?

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Tags: Diana, Eleanor, Gregory, Meg, storybooks, Susan, Wendy

Near the end of the “Goat Sisters” chapter, there is something that you can do that many players of Rule of Rose miss.

If Jennifer tries to enter the Filth Room at this time, Susan and Olivia force her out and shut the door.

You can watch what Susan and Olivia are doing in the Filth Room by taking Jennifer into the Broom Closet and having her look through the peep-hole.

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Tags: Olivia, Susan

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