Hansel & Gretel... happily ever after?

So Madi saw a Little Einsteins episode with a revised story of Hansel and Gretel in it and has been wanting to play Hansel and Gretel all week. The song in Little Einsteins was Beethoven's 5th Symphony, so now, she insists that I put on Beethoven's 5th while we reinact the story. But then I realize that she doesn't really know the story. She doesn't realize that Hansel (which in our story is Max) and Gretel (played graciously by Madi) actually push the witch in the oven at the end of the story and kill her. They have conveniently left that out of the Little Einsteins version where the witch shrinks because they play soft music, then she gets launched into the forest by some catapult-like thing that probably came from rocket. She's still alive, just really small and crawling around the forest somewhere.

Which makes me wonder... is that a better "happily ever after" than the real Hansel and Gretel? Did the real Hansel and Gretel go through post-traumatic stress disorder after they realized they had killed another person? Did they go through remorse? Live to re-live that incident every day of their adult lives? Did they turn into serial killers? dysfunctional parents? Or did it not bother them at all? Did they laugh as they tossed the witch into the oven, then sit around eating the rest of her house while the smell of burnt flesh filled the room? Disturbing. Definitely not happily ever after in my book.

But yet, part of me is sad that Madi thinks the Little Einsteins version is the real thing. There's something strangely fulfilling at the end of all those gruesome fairy tales. The feeling that there's a little less bad in the world and a little more good.

Ah, but I wax philosophical. My two precious hours of peace are over. Better go get the crying kid. :)