Comparison Part 3; Silent Hill 2 and Rule of Rose Monsters

I was trying to compare the monsters of Silent Hill 2 to the Rule of Rose ones… Some seem similar and others not at all…

The important battles for example…

The first creature you meet in both games you’re “led” to. James by sight, Jen by sound. If you defeat Jen’s first Imp, you get continued instructions as if Joshua has continued where he left of explaining what’s going on. For James, however, we recieve a strange radio transmition that says something about “James…why did you… me…” I assume the word between you and me is kill. After James recieves the Radio, he begins trying to find “the special place” again. Jennifer has to get to the Offering Box.

The bosses are similar but in a different order.
I think Hoffman’s bossbattle compares best to James’ fallout with Eddie. You’re trying to move around objects, using them to keep the person away from you, then try to land a hit while they’re not looking.

The Lakeview Hospital boss reminds me of our Mermaid Clara boss. It hangs from the ceiling and tries to grab you. Even the intro to this battle is similar. James is tricked into going into the room and locked in by Laura. Jennifer goes in and is locked into the room by Joshua.

Stray Dog’s battle is basically just like the battle with Pyramid Head(s). The first time you fight him, you can’t/don’t really kill him. The second time, there’s this odd understanding and calmness to it, even though right now you may not really understand what’s going on at all. You find, finally, that the creature must kill itself.

The Angela’s Father boss (which I don’t consider much of a boss because you have to fight those things on their own later) is sort of what kind of boss we would have if we had to fight Hoffman after we found out about Clara… But other than that the comparison would also have to be the Mermaid boss in that the Fragile Emotionally character is revealed after this battle and the protaganist, even though they didn’t do anything to the character, is treated badly.

You’ll notice there is one battle missing that I cannot really compare. Nothing in Rule of Rose comes quite to what James has to experience in fighting the Mary/Maria demon. We never really get the chance to go one on one with Wendy except in the little video which isn’t really the same. But of course, due to ratings that would result in, we can understand why to a point. I think basically this boss battle was virtually replaced in Rule of Rose by that cutscene, since really there was no other way to have Jennifer really confront Wendy on what had happened so long ago. After the confrontation, we see Wendy and Mary fade away into humble acceptance.

Comparison Part 2; Silent Hill 2 and Rule of Rose

I also noticed that the beginning and endings of the two games were unnervingly similar.

James approaches a town in his car and pulls over to get his barings/into town since the road is blocked, chasing after his wife after recieving a letter from her.

Jennifer is riding a bus past an old mansion when she’s handed a strange book. In an effort to return the book, she accidently finds herself stranded.

And so the journey(s) begin.

Also, I find it interesting that both characters seem to have a strange issue with mirrors. We first find James confronting himself in the mirror. Jennifer not only has strange visions from beyond the mirror, but she also talks to herself in the mirror, much like James seems to in the beginning.

That being said… they both seem to spend a lot of time in restrooms. Be it talking to little boys using them, or fetching a wallet from it’s bowels… or bowls… yeah…

Also, Jen and Jim both get to watch their beloveds die and relive their guilt and then are forced to battle their guilt in hand to hand combat, finally realizing what it is they’ve been doing the last several hours/days/whathave you.

Then, finally, the ending. After facing oneself, it’s much easier to face the world.

…or so it would seem.

Sometimes you cannot face the world as it is. Sometimes you must keep the good memories inside you and push back the bad.

Jennifer locks her memories away in her heart, and depending on the ending you get with James, you either keep Mary’s memory alive by fullfilling her last will (take care of Laura) or you “try again” with a new Mary or return to her in a watery grave OR try to resurrect her all together.

This is why I think that Rule of Rose was supposed to have more endings. I think they gave you so many different routes so that, like in Silent Hill, you could choose the ending that most suited your version of what happened. I cannot prove this, but I can’t help but think so…

Also, another common theme between the two games is, “You cannot reverse the past.”

James can no more “unkill” Mary than Jennifer can bring Brown and the Orphans back.

Silent Hill 2 and Rule of Rose; Comparisons

I began doing this on another blog but I like what I found so muh I’m going to put them here. This will probably be a few posts long.

First of all, the cast of characters is surprisingly similar given the circumstances.

Example.

The Punisher:
Silent Hill 2 – Pyramid Head
Rule of Rose – Joshua

They Punisher attacks and baits the protagonist with their own guilt. PH kills James’ Mary replacement over and over. Joshua forces Jen to replay the horrible game until she’s repaid her guilt debt to the orphans.

Selfish Rival/Good Person Turned Bad:
Silent Hill 2 – Eddie Dombrowski
Rule of Rose – Amanda

The scene where Eddie attacks James and the scene where Amanda wallops the Jen Doll seem to coinside with the idea that, although they were once your friends, they do not have your best interests at heart.

Emotionally Unstable/Frail Girl:
Silent Hill 2- Angela O. (can’t spell her last name for the life of me)
Rule of Rose – Diana/Clara (they both kind of fit this character in different ways)

Injured physically and emotionally, these characters lash out at those around them in their pain and suffering, many times blaming themselves. The tie in seems to be that Diana and Angela both had their revenge, as hollow as it was.

Manipulative Little Pest who doesn’t like you:
Silent Hill 2 – Laura
Rule of Rose – Olivia

Their shared scene seems to be “Attacking a hand that comes into view.” Laura knocks away a key James needs, where Olivia attacks Jennifer for trying to take the butterfly she requires. Interesting how they are introduced the same way, huh?

Beloved Person who was Betrayed:
Silent Hill 2- Mary Sunderland
Rule of Rose – Wendy

Brown also works in this catagory but I think that Wendy has more of a similarity with Mary than with Maria, in that she was sickly and probably not the easiest person to get along with when she was upset. They seem to share the bond that “It was my fault… but it wasn’t really…” in the disasters they share with the protagonist. (In one ending, Mary “asks” James to kill her, saying she’s sorry she made him so miserable.)

Spirit Guide type character/Wishful Thinking:
Silent Hill 2- Maria
Rule of Rose – Brown

These characters seem to have in common that little twinge of hope that “it wasn’t real.” Also, they are there to guide you from point A to point B, and give the protagonist back their memories. Both these characters harbor… Affection… for the protagonist, and each represents something that the Protagonist can never really have back.

To Be Continued…

Color Theory: Important Colors and their Meanings Pt 1 Cont’d

I was going to move on to part two but I feel this warrents some time to type out.

My usual resource, Wikipedia, was overlooked when I wrote that last article/post/whatsoever you wish to call it.  So I’m going to mention some interesting tidbits from it.

Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared, or below red and cannot be seen by the naked human eye. Red is used as one of the additive primary colors of light, complementary to cyan, in RGB color systems. Red is also one of the subtractive primary colors of RYB color space but not CMYK color space.

In human color psychology, red is associated with heat, energy and blood, and emotions that stir the blood, including anger, passion, and love.^[4]

It goes on to say that there are meanings in every culture. This one interested me.

In Japan, red is a traditional color for a heroic figure.^[35] In the Indian Sub-continent, red is the traditional color of bridal dresses, and is frequently represented in the media as a symbolic color for married women. The color is associated with sexuality in marriage relationships through its connection to heat and fertility.^[36] It is also the color of wealth, beauty, and the goddess Lakshmi.^[23]

Color Theory: Important colors and their meanings. Part 1

I suppose you could say this post will be about both Silent Hill and Rule of Rose, as both use colors religously. I’m going to start this off with a quote from, “The Student Handbook Vol. 2″ from Southwestern.

“Besides identifying color by its physical characteristics, the word you use for a particular color has other meanings in literature, art, religion and elsewhere. The colors with the most of these other meanings are *black, *blue, *green, *purple, *red, *white, and *yellow.[...]To be “in a brown study” is to be sunk in a reverie, a dreamlike state.”

(Maybe something on my study of names… Brown?)

Lets start with Rule of Rose because the single most important color in the entire game is fairly obvious.

Red.

Red Crayon Aristocrats, Princess of the Red Rose, “A Bright Red Crayon Just For You!”, Red Bird of Happiness… the list goes on.

So why this color? Purple is a royal color and Gold… Blue… All of these colors are royal and not many of them are mentioned at all. Something else I found interesting was that red’s complimentary color, the color that is opposite of it on the color wheel (consiting of 12 colors, 3 primary, 3 secondary and 6 tertiary), green, is seldom seen and never heard of at all.

In Silent Hill, we all know of the three sacred colors. The Crimson Tomb, the Obsidian Cup and the White Mist (White Claudia); Black Dahlia, Pink Heather and White Claudia, flowers that equal characters’ names; the mention by creators that Maria’s hair has been three colors before; Brunette (black), red and then finally blond (white).

Lets start from the obvious similarity.

Red: (As quoted from the “Student Handbook Vol. 2″)

“Like *black and *white, red has many meanings. Many are based on the fact that it is the color of blood. In *Christianity, therefore, red often refers to the blood of martyrs. Red is also a warning color, from the red in the traffic signal that tells you to stop to “red alert,” meaning that an attack is imminent. Since the mid-19th century, red has been the color of revolution [...]. Red also expresses excitement and heightened activity, as in “red hot,” “red handed,” “red-blooded,” “to see red,” and “red in the face.” On the other hand, if your business is “in the red,” you are losing money. [...], You can think of red as standing for the army and black for the church. Or, perhaps, you will believe they stand for liberalism and reaction.”

To Be Continued…

Further Thought: Names and Meanings and Referances Pt 3

Sorry it’s been a while. I have been continually debating on another blog run by PokerNemisis, who I think a good friend.

Now… back to what I was discussing. The names and their meanings.

Amanda- Worthy of Love; Amanda strives very hard to be loved but never seems to get her wish. Poor Amanda.

Brown (obvious)- to brown someone is to depress or irritate them… a possible referance to Wendy’s feelings on this matter?

Basil- King; Kingly … I don’t remember any king in this story…

Clara- Illustrious; Clear; bright; famous; Well… we now have confirmation of her intended role in Hoffman’s eyes. And Famous… all the children know her as their caretaker after Hoffman accepts her back into the orphanage?

Diana- Divine; Goddess of the Moon; Discussed in previous thread. I think that she was named after the goddess of the moon.

Eleanor- Greek: Pity; Arabic: God is my Light; French: “Meaning is Obscure/unknown”; the “obscure” part stands out to me. No one ever knows what Eleanor is thinking.

Fanny- Free (diminutive form of Frances); From France

Gregory- Vigilant; Watchful (Watchdog?) He did watch over Jennifer for the time before she came to the oprhanage but after the airship…

George- Farmer; Earth Worker

Hector – Anchor; Steadfast

Ida- Hardworking; Scholar(?)

Joshua- God is Salvation; God Rescues; I can’t help but hope this is wishful thinking on someone’s part, maybe Gregory’s, that Joshua will be saved by God from his tragic illness.

Jennifer-White; fair; smooth; Fair Phantom Or White Wave; She was handsome, even as a child.

Leo- Lion; Dear Friend; Dear Ruler; Clear/Bright

Margaret (Meg)- (both) Pearl (Makes me think of the saying, “Pearls of Wisdom”)

Martha- Lady; the lady of the house, obviously.

Nicholas- Victory of the People

Olivia- Elf Army (hehehe… Olivia Imp anyone?)

Paul- Small; Humble

Peter- Rock

Susan – Lily (Susanna means “Lily; Rose”)

Thomas- Twin

Xavier- New House

Wendy – (“From the phrase ‘Friendy-wendy’ invented by J.M. Barrie for Peter Pan”) Friend; also translates as a short form of Gwendolyn, which means “White.” Both Jennifer and Wendy’s names can be translated as white and they both where white pinnafores when they lived in the orphanage. Coincidence?

Rule of Rose: Names, meanings, referances and personalities: Pt 2

For this next part, lets venture into the realms of mythology.

Diana:

Meaning: Divine.

Diana was a goddess of the moon. Wikipedia says:

In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, in literature the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, though in cult she was Italic in origin. Artemis was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, daughter of Zeus and Leto. Diana, on the other hand, was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona.\

Diana was the hunting goddess, associated with wild animals and woodlands. She also later became a moon goddess, supplanting Luna, and was an emblem of chastity. Oak groves were especially sacred to her. She was praised in poetry for her strength, athletic grace, distinct beauty and hunting skill. In practice she made up a trinity with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god. In her etymology, “Diana” is simply :”the Goddess”, with a Greek parallel in the name — though not the cult practice — of Dione at Dodona. She was goddess of fertility and quick to anger.

Sound familiar to anyone? I should hope so.

And it would seem our dear Meg or “Maragret” has a tie in with the British Monarch.

Meg/Margaret:

Meaning: Pearl

Princess Margaret was always a controversial member of the British Royal Family. As a young woman, she was a figure of glamour in post-war Britain and the Commonwealth. However, her private life was plagued by romantic disappointments, including her politically-thwarted love for a divorced older man in her youth, a subsequent, often unhappy marriage to a commoner, an acrimonious divorce beset with accusations of adultery, and, in her later years, a public affair with a much younger man.

Interesting… could the creators have taken a bit from Margaret and put it into Meg’s story?

Eleanor:

Meaning: French: Unknown

“Eleonora” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. It is often regarded as somewhat autobiographical and has a relatively “happy” ending.

The story follows an unnamed narrator who lives with his cousin and aunt in “The Valley of the Many-Colored Grass,” an idyllic paradise full of fragrant flowers, fantastic trees, and a “River of Silence.” It remains untrodden by the footsteps of strangers and so they live isolated but happy.

After living like this for fifteen years “before Love entered” the hearts of the narrator and his cousin Eleonora. The valley reflected the beauty of their young love:

“

The passion which had for centuries distinguished our race… together breathed a delirious bliss over the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass. A change fell upon all things. Strange, brilliant flowers, star-shaped, burst out upon the trees where no flowers had been known before. The tints of the green carpet deepened; and when, one by one, the white daisies shrank away, there sprang up in place of them, ten by ten of the ruby-red asphodel. And life arose in our paths; for the tall flamingo, hitherto unseen, with all gay flowing birds, flaunted his scarlet plumage before us.

”

Eleonora, however, was sick – “made perfect in loveliness only to die.” She does not fear death, but fears that the narrator will leave the valley after her death and transfer his love to someone else. The narrator emotionally vows to her, with “the Mighty Ruler of the Universe” as his witness, to never bind himself in marriage “to any daughter on Earth.”

After Eleonora’s death, however, the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass begins to lose its lustre and warmth. The narrator chooses to leave to an unnamed “strange city.” There, he meets a woman named Ermengarde and, without guilt, marries her. Eleonora soon visits the narrator from beyond the grave and grants her blessings to the couple. “Thou art absolved,” she says, “for reasons which shall be made known to thee in Heaven.”

Rule of Rose: Names, Referances, Personalities and Meanings Pt 1

As I am a fan of Rule of Rose, I have become interested in it’s connections to past literature and the personalities therein. Perhaps it’s merely speculation… but I enjoy doing it. ^_^- What good is a game if you do not enjoy playing it and exploring it’s aspects? And I do so enjoy the aspects of this game.

So to begin, I’m going to announce now that there is no particular order we’ll be going in, but only in the order of random interest.

Hoffman- (not given a first name but the surname Hoffman means: Hoff-court and Man-man)

If you have played Rule of Rose, as I hope you have despite arguements against it’s decency, as it is a beautiful story, you have heard of the supposed “molestation” and “lesbian” themes. Hoffman does give us pause to think that the molestation is real. However, the origins of his name may say otherwise, or it may just add fuel to the fire… depending on how you see this peice of information acquired from Wikipedia:

The Nutcracker (Russian: Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik) Op. 71, is a fairy tale-ballet in two acts, three scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed in 1891–92. Alexandre Dumas père’s adaptation of the story by E. T. A. Hoffmann was set to music by Tchaikovsky (written by Marius Petipa and commissioned by the director of the Imperial Theatres Ivan Vsevolozhsky in 1891). In Western countries, this ballet has become perhaps the most popular ballet performed, primarily around Christmas time.

Coincidence you say? But what of this?

Characters (translated from Russian preliminaries of the Soviet ed.)

President Silberhaus
His wife
Their children:
Clara [Marie] (”Клара [Мари]” in the score)
Fritz
Marianna, the President’s niece
Councilor Drosselmeyer, Godfather of Clara and Fritz
Nutcracker
Sugar Plum Fairy, sovereign of sweets
Prince Koklyush [Orgeat]
Major-domo
Harlequin
Soldier
Columbine
Mama Gigogne [Mother Ginger]
Mouse King

Hmm… what was the name of the orphan in question in the theme of molestation… Diana and Clara?

They planted a seed…

Hello and salutations. This is Masqueradia AKA Masq, fan of Rule of Rose and newbie blogger.

~*~*~

Welcome to the grand opening of Withered Roses. Don’t let the name fool you though. Rule of Rose will probably not be the only thing discussed here. (I’m a fan of Silent Hill as well as other games, movies and books.)

So I guess I should’ve named this place something more acceptable? ^^()

~*~*~

Welcome to the birth of a beautiful thorn bush.