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In Black Lagoon, Hänsel and Gretel are deranged children suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.

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Each of them have distinct personalities, but from time to time, they switch places with each other - clothing, weapons, voice, personality, and everything.

In episode 15, both of them are killed. Hänsel (the boy) dies in front of Balalaika after being shot by a sniper. Gretel (the girl) dies at the end of the episode when a hitman headshots her from behind.

But do we know if they were themselves when they were killed? Did Hänsel really die first?
Or were they switched? Are there any clues anywhere?

Mysticial
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  • Doesn't there voice change as well when they change personalities? – TheLQ Feb 02 '13 at 00:19
  • Yes they did and I mentioned that. You really can't tell which is which. And I believe they switch several times in that arc. Gretel even switches to and from Hänsel after Hänsel was already dead. (assuming they were themselves when they died) – Mysticial Feb 02 '13 at 00:21
  • +1 This isn't how I remember the story about hansel and gretel to go down. – Peter Raeves Jun 30 '14 at 10:31

6 Answers6

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While Gretel is on the boat talking to Rock, she says that it's OK that Hansel is dead because they are always together. She takes off her wig and her voice changes into the lower Hansel voice, then puts the wig back on and is back to Gretel's voice. So they are indistinguishable from their appearance and voices.

The only hint we get is right before Rock leaves the cabin Gretel is in:

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Gretel takes off her underwear and lifts up her skirt giving Rock a "view" as a "gift". Rock is shocked and leaves the room disgusted.

So is it:

  1. She is really "Hansel" and Rock is shocked because Gretel is actually a boy. Gretel died first
  2. She is really "Gretel" and Rock is shocked because he's being flashed by a little girl. Hansel died first
  3. Rock isn't shocked by whether she's a boy or girl but that she/he thinks flashing him is supposed to be a "gift". Inconclusive

Other inconclusive possibilities could be that her genitalia was mutilated from all the snuff films, or even she is a hermaphrodite. But it's most likely that we never know who was killed first. They are always interchanging/swapping, it's likely neither of them knows whether they are Hansel or Gretel anymore, so that facet of their character would be undermined if we were to know who was who.

Jon Lin
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    I didn't read the manga, but wouldn't there be a nosebleed if it was 2? – Peter Raeves Jun 30 '14 at 10:33
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    @PeterRaeves maybe if he was a pedophile and actually gets excited about seeing little girls naked. The assumption with 2 is that he's a pretty normal male adult, has probably seen adult women naked before, and here's this 10-15 year old flashing him and this is supposed to be a "gift". – Jon Lin Jun 30 '14 at 14:14
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Hansel died first because in episode 14, they took the Russian man from the bar to the car. "Hansel" (in reality it was Gretel who carried him) carried him and said

He is too heavy; help me

He (she) said it because "he" is a girl and the man was to heavy for her.

The real Hansel said to the real Gretel:

NOW you are the boy; you have to carry him

After that, they change again and the last one in the hotel.

In the end, the real Hansel died as Hansel (himself) and the real Gretel died as Gretel.

Rock was shocked because Gretel thought it's a gift to give him a view (or because Gretel has some injuries there (because the people who make the videos hurt the kids or something like that)).

Aki Tanaka
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SayaSora
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0

I think Hansel died first because it's possible that Hansel might have just been a girl the whole time.

It's possible that Hansel and Gretel suffer from gender confusion or multi-personality disorder, especially after Gretel suddenly took her/his wig off and started to sound like Hansel, and also when Gretel showed of her/his Genitals.

Aki Tanaka
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Mariah
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    If you want to add to an answer, edit your original post instead of making multiple posts. Also "because it's possible" isn't really enough evidence in itself to justify such an answer. – Maroon Jun 09 '14 at 20:01
  • Its a possible chance that Hansel and Gretel suffer from gender confusion or multi-personality disorder especially after Gretel suddenly took her/his wig off and started to sound like Hansel.Also when Gretel showed of her/his Genitals. – Mariah Jun 09 '14 at 19:08
  • you can edit that information into your answer (which is helpful here), which is probably a better idea than having it as a comment. – Maroon Jun 09 '14 at 20:14
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Gretel may have died second. After Rock leaves the room and stands on top the boat, he says

They turned HER into a monster!

It didn't seem to sound that he wasn't really as disgusted as when he was shown Gretel's genitals. Rock's reaction could've been worse if the Gretel in the boat was male, so in my opinion Hansel died first and Gretel died second.

Maroon
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user6422
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  • This is a late comment, but did you mean to say that `It didn't seem to sound that he was really as disgusted as when he was shown Gretel's genitals.`? In its current form (I only edited for grammar and formatting), your answer doesn't quite make sense to me. But maybe that's just because I haven't gotten to that bit of Black Lagoon yet. – Maroon Sep 20 '14 at 14:53
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I believe Gretel died second.

Since yes, Rock did refer to her as a "she" when she revealed her gift. And people have theories it's a dismembered.. gift in attempts to be female as well. Or because of her past- being raped and filmed, she thought that offering herself will make him feel better.

Aki Tanaka
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Radio
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Gretel died second, Hansel died first.

If you watch episode 15 "Swan Song at Dawn", after Gretel exposed herself to him, he continued to refer to the child as a female, stating,

DAMNIT! DAMNIT! WHY? Why did this have to happen? Everyone in 'her' life betrayed her. They turned her into a monster, they turned her into a fuck'n monster. Goddamnit...

Benny steps in and says,

Rock, sometimes its best to look the other way, you have to do that to survive here.

Rock grips Benny and pins him against the ship and says,

I'll

then Benny says,

You'll what?! Adopt her? Forget it; you can't just undo what's been done to her. If only someone had shown them a little kindness they might have gone to school made friends and lived happily ever after. Who knows right? But that didn't happen, now did it? I'm sorry; but stories like this don't have happy endings, Rock.

After this dialog, I would think that if the child had been the male sibling, Rock would've referred to them as such.

Aki Tanaka
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VietnamGrunt
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