#because the world building and everything felt *really* spectacularly original and obviously more fae inclined than either

[prosebushpatch]

Was trying to figure out why Hansel and Gretel randomly appeared in a book I was reading, with candy house backstory and everything, in a story that otherwise was not directly informed by a specific fairy tale. At least to my knowledge, it all felt pretty original, until the villainous antagonist started spinning straw into gold and mentioned being betrayed by a miller's daughter and I cupped my head in my hands like, ah, th-the way to defeat him... they gotta figure out his true name... this whole time... he's been rumpelstiltskin.

#rose and rambles #okay but actually im going to agonize over this choice a bit #like i feel like the hansel and gretel was specifically to prepare us for rumpel but if you took out all three of their names #i wonder #i wonder if that could have been better #because the world building and everything felt *really* spectacularly original and obviously more fae inclined than either #of those fairy tales and the main narrative was not rumpelstiltskin the rumpelstiltskin fairy tale was just backstory #and it was kind of jarring when Hansel and gretel appeared midway for a chapter or two but i guess it contextualized the world for me #Because I *hadn't* been thinking of it as having *direct* fairy tales in it #i think having two characters be like 'ya a woman tricked us with a house made of candy' is obviously a reference to hansel and gretel but #i think it could have felt more natural if it wasn't *directly* hansel and gretel #but a bro and sis with different names that fit the main characters better? #BUT THEN rumpelstiltskin's name does come into play and how else are you going to lead up to the fact that a character has been using a fak #name? you can't have a villain just randomly being like CURSES YOU GUESSED MY TRUE NAME #WHICH IS JOHN #like there's no way. you have to build up to it but once the audience is like oh ya we know hansel and gretel were here and the straw into #gold? got it. know the villain has a different name before the protagonists and also *know* the name to boot. Great #but then the name didn't seem............. necessary in the end anyway because they had him with a contract and they used that to get #the name out him?????????? #So maybe it could have been a different name???????? #idk #i will say i did love the main characters #They were pretty incredible actually