Hansel
protagonist · human
The one who thinks of the pebbles, keeps his sister calm, and then spends a month in a cage with nothing to offer but a chicken bone.
What they are like
- Kind
- 9/10
- Brave
- 8/10
- Clever
- 10/10
- Honest
- 6/10
- Curious
- 7/10
- Patient
- 9/10
How we meet them
Awake in the dark, listening to adults decide his future, and already thinking. His first line is not fear, it is 'Don't. I'm thinking.'
Personality
Practical and calm under pressure, which he has clearly had to learn. He plans ahead when he can and lies smoothly when he has to. Being helpless is far harder for him than being frightened.
What they want
To get his sister home. Everything he does is downstream of that.
How they change
Goes from being the one with the plan, to having no plan at all, to being rescued by the person he spent the whole story protecting.
How they speak
Very little, and almost all of it practical. He tells one calm lie about a cat on the roof and repeats it without blinking. He does not reassure his sister with feelings, he reassures her with plans.
How the story treats them
The story treats him as the clever one for the first half and then quietly takes that away. Being clever is not enough on its own, which is the point.
One surprising thing
The chicken bone trick works for a whole month because the witch is too short-sighted to see it. Hansel never sees her eyes properly either, from inside the stable.
If they were real today
He would be the child who reads the fire escape plan on the hotel door.
Things they say
- “Don't. I'm thinking.”
- “Looking at my cat. He's sitting on the roof, saying goodbye.”
Key moments
The pebbles in the moonlight
He waits for the house to sleep, goes out into the yard, and fills both pockets with white pebbles because he has worked out they will shine when the moon is up.
“Don't. I'm thinking.”
The cat on the roof
Stopping again and again on the path with the same calm lie, so he can drop another pebble without anyone noticing.
“Looking at my cat. He's sitting on the roof, saying goodbye.”
A month of chicken bone
Locked in the stable with nothing to do but hold out a dry bone every morning and hope the witch's eyes stay bad. It is the longest he has ever gone without a plan.
Who they know
Gretelsibling
They take turns. One of them is capable for the first half and the other for the second.
The Witchenemy
A month of holding out a chicken bone to a woman who cannot see.
The Fatherfamily
A father who cannot look at him, and a son who notices everything.
Characters like Hansel
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