Thoughts On Rule Of Rose Being A Game Of A “Men’s Cruel World”

Thoughts on Rule of Rose being a game of a “Men’s Cruel World”

IN NO WAY IS THIS TO SHAME SOMEONES THEORY, FEELINGS OR STATEMENT OF THIS GAME! I JUST WANTED TO GIVE MY THOUGHTS AND OPINION ON A GAME THAT IS EQUALLY NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART

I just wanted to say, I love and adore everyone’s theories and perspectives on this game, picking at each other’s brains is always fun and great, I just saw someone’s post on the Twitter Machine and wanted to give my two sense since it would be a lengthy post.

“A Men’s Cruel World” is a broad statement in my opinion, what could this be leading to? Is it to show that ‘Women’ live in a Men ‘dominated’ world? Is it referring to “The Male gaze” how in some Men’s POVs Women and girls are viewed in an over SEXUALIZED state Possibly! Unfortunately the post I’m referring to was quite vague and didn’t elaborate on their statement or give references on their narrative.

The two men we see in Rule of Rose are Gregory and Hoffman

Gregory to me is equally a Victim and someone who is guilty of his own crimes, while Gregory did take a small Jennifer into his home, dress her up and use her as a “replacement” for Joshua, his son that he lost, Gregory is also struggling with a lot of inner turmoil, we see in his home there is alcohol bottles, alluding to him not being in a clear state of mind, Gregory most likely drinking any form of guilt, sadness, or anger away, he is constantly struggling with reality, Jennifer? Joshua? Jennifer? Joshua? He lost his son, and we wants his son, he can’t come to terms with the reality that his son is gone, his son is here, he looking right at him…no, that’s not Joshua, this is Jennifer, who are you? While Gregory did abduct Jennifer, he never HARMED Jennifer when she was a child, she had a roof over her head, clothes, food, bare necessities, yes. Though his home was unnerving, Gregory never seemed to have any intention of HARMING Jennifer, since he viewed her as Joshua.

You could argue the “what about that cut scene where he hurts Brown and Jennifer!?”

We as the Player and Viewer of the game don’t know WHERE and WHEN this scene is to take place. We see Jennifer and Brown snooping around Gregory’s home, we seen Jennifer as 19 in this scene too, and something to keep in mind with Rule of Rose is Jennifer’s memories are fragmented, she herself is trying to make sense of her past just as much as we are. So I don’t view this cut scene as anything important, more so a “what if” type of thing

But to me this doesn’t fit in with the narrative, in my personal opinion, though do feel free to give your thoughts!

And some may ask, Well what about the Orphanage incident? Gregory caused lots of harm there! As a reminder, Gregory is not in a sound state of mind, easily manipulated and abused. Like Jennifer, Gregory was manipulated by Wendy in this situation, Wendy used Gregory’s love for his son and antagonized the grieving father to cause harm. While he was in the wrong, I don’t view this as anything of “living in a men’s cruel world”

This situation would be for a future discussion on ROR and Wendy’s character.

Let’s move onto Hoffman, since I’ve talked about Gregory enough

Hoffman is a character that I could understand where this narrative or statement of a “men’s cruel world” could come from

Hoffman is a character we see demean the children of the orphanage, Jennifer especially, referring to her as “filthy” or even lazy and trying to get out of her chores. Hoffman is someone we see have his interests on two characters, Diana and Clara, both being hinted at and implied of being victims of his abuse. Clara especially

do keep in mind like I stated with Gregory, we as the Player and Viewer of the game are seeing this from 19 year old Jennifer reminiscing on her fragmented and repressed Childhood. So Jennifer’s memories may also not be a reliable narrative too, since she is technically still a child overlooking these traumatizing memories.

We see Hoffman quite handsy with Clara and Diana, talking down to them on more than one occasion, Hoffman gravitates quite a lot towards Clara do to her more meek and vulnerable nature, an easier target for him unfortunately, while Diana being more bold and less likely to stand down for things, also does have her moments of weakness and being an easy target, the two are children at this time as well.

Clara’s mermaid form does give some look into the torment she’s received, seeing many symbolizing traits of someone who has been harmed emotionally, physically, and even sexually. Her “tail” being her legs tied closed, her “gills” being deep cuts, and of course the bile everywhere, many theorize Clara was given an abortion since she becomes very fearful and disgusted if Jennifer snoops around the med bay, keeping prying eyes away from the drawer, with who knows what lays inside.

While Hoffman was a very impactful moment in the game, and memorable, I still can’t see this as a strong enough argument of Rule of Rose being a game focused and centered around a “men’s cruel world” While these moments are awful and disgusting, like Hoffman, these aren’t the focal points in the game.

Rule of Rose is a game centered around the fragmented and disjointed memories of Jennifer’s past, The Aristocrat Club and Wendy being the source of her torment and what it’s like growing up around cruel children. Children can and are unrelenting, Children are some of the harshest bullies out there in the world because they don’t understand right from wrong, they don’t understand at that early of an age. They’re told they “shouldn’t” do certain things, but do they understand the intentions behind actions?

That will definitely have to be a topic for another post, since this one is getting quite lengthy as it is

But! Let me know your thoughts and opinions!

Remember, be kind to yourself, treat yourself, and stay hydrated~

- Belli