Gretel and Hansel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Gretel and Hansel is a series of Flash games on Newgrounds, in which you play as Gretel of "Hansel and Gretel" fame. The game takes place in a particularly nightmarish world, in which characters from other Fairy Tales make appearances. In the first game, Gretel overhears her parent's plans to abandon them in the forest and must find enough stones to mark the path back home; in the second, she is separated from her brother and must find him.

The first game can be found here, the second here.

Tropes used in Gretel and Hansel include:


  • A Day in the Limelight: In the second game, Gretel ends up getting her face stolen by a mirror, after which Hansel (with the help of some fairies) has to save her.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: When Gretel falls through the hole in the ground at the start of Part 2. Hansel is standing right behind her, but doesn't notice her falling in - he's too distracted by the pretty, sparkly fairies. Hansel and the fairies show up toward the end of the game to save Gretel when her face is stolen.
  • Ax Crazy: Mom.
  • Body Horror: the victims of the stickman.
  • Big Badass Wolf: The wolf (presumably from Little Red Riding Hood) makes an appearance in the second game.
  • The Blank: Gretel And Hansel 2 introduces creepy squiggly things that steal faces from other people. Their victims are turned into Blanks and lose all motivation and drive along with their faces — they can't even move. This even applies to their ghosts.
  • Bloodier and Gorier
  • Brats with Slingshots
  • Brains and Brawn: Gretel handles the puzzle-solving for the most part while Hansel can be called upon to handle some physical grunt-work.
  • Break the Cutie: In part 1, Gretel loves a little rabbit outside the house (which she can pick up and kiss)
    • In part 2, Gretel has to gut a very similar rabbit in order get past a very cute bear.
      • On another note, try stroking the cute bear.
    • The entire scene with the Wood Waiter.
    • Basically, the entire game series seems based on totally breaking her, especially part 2.
  • Broken Bridge
  • Cain and Abel: Killing Hansel in the first game awards the "Cain" medal, complete with Slasher Smile.
  • Chain of Deals: Some of the puzzles.
  • Crap Saccharine World: The whimsical watercolor graphics do much to hide its otherwise grim and horrifying nature.
  • Creepy Child
  • Critical Annoyance: The mandragora you need to uproot in order to get one of the three pieces of the last puzzle in the second game.
  • Curiosity Killed the Cast: You find a key in the first game after solving a somewhat obtuse puzzle that requires killing Hansel and finding at least one other item beforehand. Your reward for using it? An axe to the face.
  • Darker and Edgier: It's not that much more so, however, considering the original story involved two small children left to fend for themselves in the woods by their impoverished parents, and ended with them kicking a witch into her own oven.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: the kids' mother reacts to Gretel unlocking their bedroom door by hacking her to death with an axe.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Had fun stoning Hansel to death in the first game? Try hitting Hansel a couple of times with the stick in the second one, and he will punch Gretel with enough strength to bruise her face. Aptly named "Revenge". Also, try hitting poor Rufus before using the glasses. He'll strangulate you for trying to make him more miserable.
  • Doing It for the Art
  • Don't Go in The Woods: Not that you had a choice.
  • Dumb Muscle: Hansel.
  • Easter Egg: You can find a few.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The thing in the ice.
  • Evil Stepmother
  • Extreme Omnivore: Hansel.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: The tree in the second game.
  • Foreshadowing: If you set it to night time in a rainy part of a forest, using the glasses, you can make out a wicked figure, you can also find graves, which, if you use glasses on, suspiciously have Hansel and Gretel's faces...
  • The Fair Folk: Averted. Actually, the fairies are playful and helpful, especially after Hansel saves their queen from a face stealer.
  • Final Boss Preview: Your last challenge in Part 2 is to get past the Big Bad Wolf. You'll catch a glimpse of it relatively early in the game.
  • Fractured Fairy Tale
  • Good Is Dumb: Hansel appears to be mentally retarded.
  • Guide Dang It: Good luck figuring out the many, many puzzles.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The stickman offers you a variety of foods when you fall into his dining room, which you may or may not choose to consume. Eating the wrong foods will kill you, while refusing to eat or sticking to the "safe" options will eventually get you killed, anyway. How do you survive? By Taking a Third Option, of course.
  • Henpecked Husband: The mother is scary, so, this is pretty much a given.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: How the stick man dies; perhaps he shouldn't have held that cake with the lit candles so close to you when you have a wine bottle within reach...
  • Idle Animation
  • Infant Immortality: Averted oh so very much. Special mention goes to the poor kids being force fed by a wood-waiter and turning into trees.
  • Just Eat Him: How Hansel gets rid of the face stealer who got Gretel's face.
  • Kill It with Fire: The stickman.
  • The Lost Woods
  • The Many Deaths of You: Most medals are awarded for the various hideous deaths your character can experience.
  • Nice Hat: Rufus's hat. To the point a face stealer swiped it along with his face!
  • Pixel Hunt
  • Plot Coupons: The stones in the first game.
  • Red Herring: The key from a puzzle in the first game. Using it just gets you killed.
  • Scare Chord: Whenever you die. The first glimpse of the wolf is also accompanied by one.
  • Schedule Slip: The second game took about a year to get off the ground, and they even lampshaded it in an Easter Egg, apologizing for it. The third game looks to be going through this as well.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The thing in the ice. Thawing it out completely will cause it to kill you.
  • Slasher Smile: Mom, Gretel if you kill Hansel.
  • Shout-Out: An obvious one to The Shining, among others.
  • Speaking Simlish
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The tome you obtain in the Stick Man's "kitchen", which is accompanied by satanic-sounding whispers and incantations. His "cookbooks" must be something like it, given his "food"...
  • Too Dumb to Live: Hansel, despite being Mentally Challenged he is just too DUMB! There are too many examples to show, but some very prominent ones are that he could literelly swallow a pair of scissors, stand TIP-TOE on a cliff edge, not react to seeing his sister die HORRIBLY and more...
  • Video Game Caring Potential: In episode 2, you have the choice of saving the people that were captured by the tree. Just... Good luck eating the arm and leg.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: The Nonstandard Game Over for killing Hansel.
    • In the sequel, hitting him with a stick results in him punching you.
  • Violation of Common Sense: The stick man allows you to choose what you want to be served... Acorns or an ampuated leg? Pie or an amputated arm? Salmon or an apple on a human skull's jaws? Cake? You must to choose, in each question, the most disgusting answer; the one that most would probably think was the worst idea. Turns out, eating the safer-looking food rises the in-game counter faster than the disgusting-looking food. If you remember the info one of the dining guests told you, eating the food that looked more plant-like would equal death. The arm, leg and fish still look very much natural.
    • Consider also that your host is basically a tree - the acorn, pie, and in fact the apple in the skull's mouth are all made from him. The arm, leg, and fish are not.
  • What the Hell, Player?: In part 1, shooting continually at Hansel. Considering the very painful and heartrending ways Gretel can die in, the same could be said about players wanting to find all the ways to die. (it's just very painful to watch)
    • On a humorous note, Knocking of the heads of the robot creators in the Easter Egg room.
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