History YMMV / RuleOfRose

* ToyShip: Diana/Meg is quite popular. Meanwhile, it's not uncommon for [[spoiler:Young!Jennifer]] and Wendy to be shipped in AUs.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[DirtyOldMan Mr. Hoffman]], the cruel headmaster of the [[OrphanageOfFear Rose Garden Orphanage]], has the dubious honor of being the only irredemeable character in this dark tale. An egotistical teacher whose incompetence allows the Red Crayon Aristocrat Club to torture other orphans with impunity, the sheer depths of Hoffman's perversion are brought to light with the revelation that he's a SerialRapist, having [[WouldHurtAChild sexually assaulted both Clara and Diana]]. Proving himself to be a DirtyCoward who would rather flee than assume his responsibilities, Hoffman ultimately abandoned the children when they needed him the most, leaving them defenseless when the Stray Dog eventually came for them.]]

** The main four Aristocrats in general can be this depending on how sympathetic you are to them. Amanda is suffering at the bottom of an abusive hierarchy, fears she'll be rejected for her looks, and is generally treated badly by the other characters. Eleanor has trouble expressing her emotions causing the others to view her as creepy, and her pet bird gets killed in one chapter. Meg has UndyingLoyalty towards Diana, but the other girl talks about her behind her back and Meg's feelings [[UnrequitedLove aren't returned in the slightest.]] Diana meanwhile is clearly using what little power she has in the world as the NumberTwo of the Aristocrats to lash out against and control others in a self-destructive attempt to cope with the fact that she's being [[spoiler:sexually abused by one of her caretakers.]]

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Some fans have taken to interpreting Eleanor's extreme introversion and stoicism, combined with her overwhelming obsession with birds and odd rationale thereof (wanting to "sprout wings [like a bird] and fly away") as indicative of an autism spectrum disorder. This is also said of Thomas' obsession with trains, and of his making his toy train's route an eternal loop without a final destination, for - according to Jennifer - reaching the end of the line "would've broken his heart." Some of the other girls' behaviors certainly seem to point at various mental illnesses: Diana may be a [[TheNarcissist narcissist]] (or possibly a borderliner); Clara has [[BrokenBird very obvious PTSD]]; and Wendy [[spoiler:is a textbook [[TheSociopath sociopath]]]].

* JerkassWoobie: Most of Aristocrats due to being (A) orphans, and (B) [[spoiler:getting brutally killed by the end of the game]]. Diana in particular is viewed as such by the Fandom do to the fact that she's also [[spoiler:being sexually abused by one of her caretakers.]]
** Martha is viewed as this by some of the fandom. She's very rude to Jennifer but various pieces of dialogue as well as a set of letters reveals that she did care for the orphans, such as her trying to figure out what's going on with Clara and her attempt to at least get police involved when she saw [[spoiler:Wendy and Gregory having some strange interactions.]] However, she not only fails to protect the children she cares for, but is seemingly murdered by those same children (depending on how you interpret her death scene).

* MemeticLoser: Anthony Dolittle, a character only present in-game via an exchange of letters between him and Martha, is often treated as this due to him being an example of AdultsAreUseless and PoliceAreUseless at the same time due to him [[spoiler:brushing off Martha's concerns, thus contributing to the circumstances that lead to the massacre.]]

** The reveal of Stray Dog can be hard to take seriously too. [[spoiler:We see Gregory crawling on all fours, wearing nothing but white boxer shorts]].

* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: An attempt was made at this, but it completely backfired. The developers hired a publicist to hype up the game in the Italian press by significantly overstating its graphic and sexual content in an effort to cause controversy, alleging that the game had scenes of "children buried alive underground, in-game sadomasochism, and underage eroticism" (which it didn't). It worked a little too well with the game garnering infamy and becoming the center of a moral panic in Europe before it was even released, even triggering a hearing in the EU Parlament on whether the game should be banned from sale and distribution in member countries. Its release in UK, Australia, and New Zealand was eventually canceled due to the ensuing controversy and the game went on to outright bomb in the countries it ''was'' released in. It should be noted that the public officials suggesting the game that should banned had not played the game, only having read about its alleged content or seen the trailer, and the EU's own internal content rating board, the Video Standards Council, would eventually officially debunk all of the allegations levelled against the game, and ended up giving it a +16 rating.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: If you got annoyed by Jennifer's submissive behavior, chances are you'll forgive her by the end of chapter 9.

** The cutscene at the end of chapter 9 that acts as both TheReveal and a WhamEpisode at the same time. [[spoiler:After defeating all the imps, you end up out in the courtyard you were in during the ending of chapter 1 where your sickly friend Wendy gets to meet Brown. Suddenly, both Wendy and Brown disappear. Once you travel to the attic (encountering several torn-apart toy dogs as you go) you activate a cutscene. It opens with imps sweeping a limp, '''dead''' Brown into the corner just before Jennifer walks in.]] As Jennifer approaches the Aristocrats, she falls to her knees upon seeing [[spoiler:yet another torn-apart toy dog]]. Then you suddenly hear a childish giggle. Jennifer looks up and watches as a young girl, '''the''' princess, descends towards her with a bouquet of roses obscuring her face. Once the princess makes it down to Jennifer, she tilts the bouquet to reveal [[spoiler:that she's Wendy]]. Amanda then gleefully informs Jennifer of [[spoiler: Brown's death]], leading to Jennifer to begin hyperventilating. Then [[spoiler:Jennifer's child self appears in place of the Jennifer we've known the entire game, stands abruptly and demands that she be "given back her friend" as she takes slow confident strides towards Wendy. Upon reaching Wendy, Jennifer slaps her hard enough to knock her to the ground and proceeds to give Wendy a truly epic [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat-down]]. Once done, she stands and gives a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech scathing speech]] to the rest of the Aristocrats, telling them that she hates them and that they're scum. She then admits that she hates herself for allowing things to escalate as far as they have and throws the brooch Wendy had given her to the ground.]] The scene (and chapter) ends with [[spoiler:Wendy]] running out of the room in tears and the Aristocrats sufficiently frightened of Jennifer.

** Also one to ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'', another horror game with a female protagonist who relies on her dog to help fight.

* ToyShip: Diana/Meg is quite popular. Meanwhile, it's not uncommon for [[spoiler:Young!Jennifer]] and Wendy to be shipped in aus.

* ValuesResonance: The reason why the above is often ignored is because the game is one of the few pieces of media prior to the late 2010's (which is still extremely rare even then) to actually acknowledge that minors, including pre pubescent children, are capable of same-sex crushes, with no less than three of the girls in-game, including the main protagonist, being wlw. Added to this, the act of same-sex romance itself is not demonized, it is simply that the aforementioned PsychoLesbian is very mentally unwell due to her implied fear of being alone.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The whole game is rife with a bizarre, surrealist aesthetic that involves, among other things, roses, butterflies, mermaids, stick figure drawings, imps and dead fish floating in mid-air. Not quite all of it makes sense. There are entire websites dedicated to finding and analyzing everything from the order of beds to clutter on a table to deciphering the low-res letters.

** Jennifer because she loses her parents to a plane crash, [[spoiler: gets taken in by Gregory as a ReplacementGoldfish for his dead son]], is rescued but put into an OrphanageOfFear, gets bullied by other kids, briefly gets a friend in the form of a puppy named Brown, and then [[spoiler: Brown is beaten to death by the other kids on the orders of Wendy]], someone she really considered her friend.

* {{Narm}}: While the Mermaid's appearance and implications are quite horrifying, the sounds she makes can make the fight hard to take seriously: "Hooooo! Wheeee!!~ Hiiii-ya!”

* CompleteMonster: [[DirtyOldMan Mr. Hoffman]], the cruel headmaster of the [[OrphanageOfFear Rose Garden Orphanage]], has the dubious honor of being the only irredemeable character in this dark tale. An egotistical teacher whose incompetence allows the Red Crayon Aristocrat Club to torture other orphans with impunity, the sheer depths of Hoffman's perversion are brought to light with the revelation that he's a SerialRapist, having [[WouldHurtAChild sexually assaulted both Clara and Diana]]. Proving himself to be a DirtyCoward who would rather flee than assume his responsibilities, Hoffman ultimately abandoned the children when they needed him the most, leaving them defenseless when the Stray Dog eventually came for them.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack.

* EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory
* EnsembleDarkHorse: The fanart of the game that doesn't depict Jennifer and Brown is usually of Diana.

* NightmareFuel:
** The Mermaid Princess. So very much.
** Any of the monsters in the game, even the lowliest imp, can be pretty terrifying.
** To say nothing of the Aristocrats themselves.

* PlayerPunch: ''Brown''. Oh, ''god'', Brown.

* TearJerker: The [[spoiler:good/real]] ending.
* ThatOneBoss: Most likely [[spoiler:Clara]] from "The Mermaid Princess" chapter.
** ''Any'' boss can become this, as it's possible to get stuck in a perpetual stun-lock due to the wonky combat mechanics from nearly ''every'' enemy. The above boss is just the most notorious.

* OvershadowedByControversy: See above. Years after the game's release, the game is still remembered by many gamers as "the pedophilia game", as well as the [[NewMediaAreEvil moral panic]] that ensued, even though such content was largely exaggerated.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The game is occasionally compared to ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' with its ever-present theme of [[KidsAreCruel sociopathic kids trying to murder each other]]. [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness Maybe]].

* {{Narm}}: While the Mermaid's appearance and implications are quite horrifying, the sounds she makes can make the fight hard to take seriously: "Wheeee!!"

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Wendy ordering the execution of Brown out of petty jealousy. And if that wasn’t enough, then her emotionally manipulating Gregory into killing most of the orphans by dressing as his dead son definitely was.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Wendy ordering the execution of Brown out of petty jealousy. And if that wasn’t enough, then her emotionally manipulating Gregory into killing most of the orphans definitely was.]]

* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: Averted, big time. The developers hired a publicist to hype up the game in the Italian press by significantly overstating its graphic and sexual content in an effort to cause controversy. It worked a little too well once the made-up story reached the UK, where its release was canceled due to the ensuing controversy. Not to mention the game outright bombed in the countries it ''was'' released in.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: The story is among the closest games come to literature in terms of critical regard, but the gameplay is repetitive, the combat is awful, and the level design is confusing. There's a quote from Jennifer that perfectly describes why people still like it: "I came to this room every day to do laundry... The water was so cold, and the soap would sting my eyes, but I didn't hate it, because clean laundry is so refreshing."

* LesYay: A ''bunch''. And all those involved are children. Although, unlike the infamous trailer would hint, the examples are [[PseudoRomanticFriendship quite non-sexual in nature]].
** The primary narrative function of the [[FlowerMotifs blooming]] [[SomethingAboutARose rose]] motif may very well be to indicate the Aristocrats' [[FlowersOfRomance budding]], [[AllMenArePerverts deliberately]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything female-oriented]] [[FlowersOfRomance sexuality]].
* LGBTFanbase: Has a minor one due to the mutual crushes between [[spoiler:Wendy and Young!Jennifer]] as well as Meg's UnrequitedLove for Diana. See ValuesResonance for more information.