History YMMV / RuleOfRose

* 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 MoralPanic that ensued, even though such content was largely exaggerated.

** 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.]]

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: the Aristocrat Club's objectives set the goal for the player, and while their methods and punishments are cruel they also drive the gameplay and give a purpose to proceedings. Then consider the mindset that children in an orphanage would have ''without'' that kind of purpose, and you can see how the Club could have formed..

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: when the Princess of the Red Rose finally reveals herself to Jennifer, Jennifer immediately ''slapping the living daylights out of her'' usually draws applause and fist-pumps from even the most disengaged player.

* PlotHole: how did the Aristocrat Club form without Jennifer realizing who Wendy was?

** 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 [[ArmorPiercingSlap 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.

* TearJerker: The [[spoiler:Good/real]] ending.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Susan, Olivia, and the boy orphans get very little content in the game. Susan is particularly noticeable, given her close relationship to Meg. The boys and Olivia meanwhile are just sort of... there.

** 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 friend in the form of a puppy named "Brown" but then [[spoiler: Brown is beaten to death by the other kids on the orders of Wendy]], someone she really considered her friend.
** Clara because, from what's implied, [[spoiler: being sexually abused by Hoffman and, as a result of that, she's implied to have killed herself]].

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

* {{LGBT Fanbase}}: 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.

* {{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.

* LesYay: A ''bunch''. And all those involved are children. Although, unlike the infamous trailer would hint, the examples are [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship quite non-sexual in nature]].

** 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 care for, but is seemingly murdered by those same children (depending on how you interpret her death scene).

** 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.]]

** There's a theory that claims [[spoiler:Brown was only a doll all along]]. This casts [[spoiler:Wendy's]] actions in a somewhat more sympathetic light, and an unfavorable light over [[spoiler:Jennifer's]].

%%* EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory

* JerkassWoobie: Most of Aristocrats due to being (A) orphans, and (B) [[spoile: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.]]

** The Mermaid Princess. So much. Any of the monsters in the game, even the lowliest imp, can be pretty terrifying.

** ''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.

* JerkassWoobie: Most of orphans due to being (A) orphans, and (B) [[spoiler getting brutally killed by the end of the game]].

* They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character: Susan, Olivia, and the boy orphans get very little content in the game. Susan is particularly noticeable, given her close relationship to Meg. The boys and Olivia meanwhile are just sort of... there.

** There's a theory that claims [[spoiler: Brown was only a doll all along.]] This casts [[spoiler:Wendy's]] actions in a somewhat more sympathetic light, and an unfavorable light over [[spoiler: Jennifer's]].

** One forum moderator staunchly refused the idea that Stray Dog [[spoiler:(a.k.a. Gregory)]] killed any of the missing children, insisting that [[spoiler: Wendy]] only blamed him for it while committing the murders directly.
** Some theories posit that the imps are really the other children, and Jennifer only sees them as monsters because she can't cope with the idea of children doing what the imps do, hence the AnimalMotifs linking them to the rest of the Red Crayon Aristocrats. [[spoiler: Which would mean the children killed Martha, and Hoffman ran like hell so he wouldn't be next.]]
** Speaking of the imps, were they representing the children during [[spoiler: Martha's death]] or did [[spoiler: Martha]] fall down the stairs and die in front of Jennifer and her mind simply added imps in while she was reliving that memory?
** Did Hoffman leave the orphanage because he was afraid that the Aristocrats [[spoiler: would try to kill him]] or did he have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment concerning his sexualization of [[spoiler: Clara and Diana]] and wanted to leave before he caused any more damage? One of the storybooks ''seems'' to imply the latter, but most fans prefer the former. There is also the [[FreezeFrameBonus split second]] during The Funeral where [[spoiler: lightning shows the shadow of what looks a hanging corpse]] at the staircase. Since that still alignes with the story of Sir Peter, it's probably him, but it would leave the question: [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide or the Aristocat's Club CreepySouvenir?]]
** There's also the questions of whether or not he also sexually abused Jennifer ([[spoiler:if he tackles you during his boss fight, his movements look rather suggestive]]), and if the rabbit (Peter) represented him. If it does, than one can argue that the entirety of the "Sir Peter" chapter was the Aristocrats [[spoiler: hunting down and killing Hoffman.]]

** [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What exactly happened to Clara?]] Did she just simply leave at some point? Was she [[spoiler: killed with the rest during the massacre?]] Was she [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide as the markings on her arms during her boss battle]] may indicate?
*** Also, was Clara [[spoiler: raped]] or - more specifically - did she [[spoiler:have an abortion]]? The sick room and the [[spoiler: slash across the Mermaid Princess' stomach]] point towards it, but it's never made fully clear.
** For all characters: is what can be seen in the final sepia chapter false or [[spoiler: how everyone actually was]]? If it is the latter, then it could easily be that [[spoiler: Jennifer's bullying wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed, there had never been any sexual attacks from Hoffman and Gregory was a friendly, if shy and confused man before getting manipulated]].
*** The question of what the final chapter actually ''is''. Is it [[spoiler: the memory of a day before the massacre]] or is it [[spoiler: all in her head, the way Jennifer wants to remember the orphanage and her friends]]? If one believes the theory that the Bucket Knight [[spoiler: is a therapist working through her trauma]], it could be the latter.

* CryForTheDevil: After playing the epilogue, you'll feel deeply sorry for the two people largely responsible for all the bad things that happened in the story - [[spoiler:Wendy and Gregory. It's utterly heart-wrenching to watch Wendy plead for you to stay when you know it's impossible, and listen to Gregory trying to put together a happy story to read to his dead son.]]

* DracoInLeatherPants: All the Aristocrats get a bit of this, though Diana's the most frequent. She's attractive, has the most tragic backstory (and her current life isn't much better) and Jennifer notes that when away from the others, she occasionally showed kindness and empathy towards her. This doesn't, of course, excuse the fact that she's normally their ringleader in tormenting Jennifer, and that she's horrible even to her friends.

* ItWasHisSled: Due to TheReveal being one of the two [[SignatureScene signature scenes]] as mentioned below; the event of [[spoiler: Brown's]] death and that [[spoiler: Wendy, the only nice person in the game, is the main antagonist and the fact that Jennifer was actually just a little girl all along]] are all well known facts to people who actually know of the game. If walkthroughs are anything to go by, then this isn't nearly as bad as other examples due to the genuine reactions of surprise gamers have during their first playthrough. It probably helps that people who have already played the game genuinely try not to spoil TheReveal for the people they recommend the game to.
* JerkassWoobie: Most of orphans due to being (A) orphans, and (B) [[spoiler: getting brutally killed by the end of the game.]]

** 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.]]

** 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 [[ArmorPiercingSlap 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 truly 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.

* 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 over clutter on a table to deciphering the low-res letters.

** 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]] [[LoveBubbles female]] [[FlowersOfRomance sexuality]].

* 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."

** JerkassWoobie: The rest of the orphans due to being (A) orphans, and (B) [[spoiler: getting brutally killed by the end of the game.]]

* EverybodyIsJesusInPurgatory
* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: The game's fairy tale narrative is rife with these, and each chapter's storybook is an increasingly appalling version of this, all to drive home what [[HumansAreBastards monsters human beings are.]] [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, as the final, picture-only storybook closes the story on a [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]], but uplifting note.]]

* MostAnnoyingSound: Olivia's crying. You only hear it two or three times but dear god can it get on your nerves quick.
** The loud, looping music that plays during cleaning time in "The Funeral" chapter.

** Did Hoffman leave the orphanage because he was afraid that the Aristocrats [[spoiler: would try to kill him]] or did he have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment concerning his sexualization of [[spoiler: Clara and Diana]] and wanted to leave before he caused any more damage? One of the storybooks ''seems'' to imply the latter, but most fans prefer the former. There is also the [[FreezeFrameBonus split second during The Funeral where lightning shows the shadow of what looks a hanging corpse]] at the staircase. Since that still alignes with the story of Sir Peter, it's probably him, but it would leave the question: [[spoiler: DrivenToSuicide or the Aristocat's Club CreepySouvenir?]]