The cast of The Little Red Lie.
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Red
The heroine, as always. She's the Player Character who's visiting the forest to honor her dead grandmother, but upon being told that she is alive, she decides to save her from the wolf.
- Everyone Has Standards: Her reasoning for not wanting to carry a bucket full of wine? She thinks that "savage"-like, something she doesn't want to be.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Kinda. If she brews the potion incorrectly, it results in her death, as the instructions warn.
- Little Dead Riding Hood: As always, little Red is in danger of beating eaten by the wolf. This time, she is risking life and limb to rescue her grandmother from the wolf.
- Little Red Fighting Hood: While not a traditional brawler, she does decide to take down the wolf herself with stealth and finding a way to seal it inside its cave.
- Nice Job Breaking It Heroine: In the Bad Ending, she unseals her dear old grandmother so she can be with her again. Unfortunately, she ignores Ascat’s warning that grandma is the wolf who’s been trying to eat her, with the clear implication that Grandma is going to eat her soon and the fact she'll likely continue eating more innocents.
- Red Is Heroic: She's the heroine of this game who sports a red outfit.
Ascat
A strange talking cat who Red feeds. He decides to help Red in her mission to save her grandmother from the wolf.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He decides to help Red save her grandma because Red was kind enough to feed him a bird.
- Big Good: He is Red's mentor and ally in surviving the woods, fighting the wolf, and finding her grandma, dispensing helpful advice all the way.
- Cats Are Mean: Downplayed. He's a cat who's helpful to the titular heroine, and while he can be blunt and snarky, he is a good person at heart.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: He refers to this by saying that while cats have nine lives (which implies this trope applies to him too since he's a cat), Red has but one, so she better be careful.
- Talking Animal: A talking cat. According to him, all cats can talk.Ascat: All cats can talk. We just don't find most humans with talking to... ...but you fed me a bird, so I will give you some advice.
Grandmother (unmarked spoilers)
A cat... says I'm a wolf? Are you feeling all right my dear? Stop this silliness and let me out. It's cold in here.
Red's grandmother who was eaten by the wolf. Turns out she was a cannibalistic serial killer who was eaten by the wolf sent by Ascat to stop her rampage. Upon death, she transformed into a monstrous version of the wolf who ate her, and is the one haunting the woods.
- Adaptational Abomination: The Big Bad Wolf is represented as a giant, faceless Animalistic Abomination with eyes on its upper body and its mouth on its belly.
- Adaptational Villainy: Red's grandmother in the original story was an innocent victim of The Big Bad Wolf. Here, they are one-and-the-same while the original wolf was Good All Along.
- Animalistic Abomination: The wolf is a massive creature from another dimension with eyes on its upper body and mouth in its belly.Ascat: ...the wolf that roams this forest is not of this world. It can appear anywhere and vanish just the same. Teeth like daggers, a mouth that can swallow an ox whale... it is covered in eyes yet can barely see.
- Bad Liar: In the good ending, Red doesn't buy her lies.
- Big Bad: She's The Big Bad Wolf out to eat Red and the game's antagonist.
- The Big Bad Wolf: A Gender-Inverted Trope and she's one of two representations of the character; she has a wolf form, is a Child Eater, and tries to gobble up Red, eventually trying to manipulate her into freeing her by pretending to be her kind old grandma much like the wolf in the original tale.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Towards the end of the game, she pretends to be a kind woman who loves her granddaughter, when the opposite is true. Ascat even calls her out on it.
- The Blank: In her wolf form, her head has no eyes or mouth, instead being placed on her upper and lower body. She also seems to lack eyes in her human spirit form.
- Child Eater: She has what are said to be "tiny bones" inside her cabin furnace, implying she is the child-eating Wicked Witch from Hansel and Gretel. She also tries to eat her granddaughter, who looks like she's around fourteen.Ascat: For years I watched as she feasted on children to satiate her appetite. I asked the wolf to help stop her, but her cursed spirit lives on.
- Composite Character: Grandma and The Big Bad Wolf are the same being here. She's implied to also be the Wicked Witch from Hansel and Gretel, as her wooden house which contains the bones of her child victims has a sign on top saying "Maison de pain d'épice", which means gingerbread house, and has two candy canes on either side, clearly alluding to the story.
- Decomposite Character: The role of The Big Bad Wolf is split between her, the Child Eater who turns into a werewolf after death and tries to eat and manipulate Red, and the actual wolf who ate and killed her.
- Everyone Has Standards: She seems weirded out when Red tells her a cat was talking to her.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: In her wolf form, her upper body is dotted with eyes all over, and in her human spirit form, her head turns out to have eyes in her hair and mouth area.
- Gruesome Grandparent: She was secretly a child-eating witch who, in her werewolf self, has no problem trying to ear her beloved granddaughter alive.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Turns out she used to eat human children while alive.Ascat: What of all the tiny bones in her oven? Those are not chicken bones I'm afraid.
- Karmic Death: She was a cannibalistic serial killer in life, so Ascat's punishment for her was to be eaten herself by a wolf.
- Lack of Empathy: Attempting to eat her own granddaughter alive? Not an issue with her. Also, Ascat states towards the beginning of the game that she's done this to many other people. He later even reveals she's a Child Eater too.
- Light Is Not Good: Sports some white and is a child-eating villainess who tries to eat her own granddaughter.
- Manipulative Bitch: When finally meeting Red as herself, she attempts to manipulate Red into breaking her seal by pretending to be a kind old lady who wants to see her granddaughter again. Ascat even lampshades it.
- Master Actress: She tricked Red (and possibly other characters) into thinking she's a Nice Gal, when the opposite is true.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: She's pure evil, wears red in her more humanly forms, has red eyes, and is partially colored black.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Exaggerated Trope. She's the game's villainess and both of her forms (more notable in her wolf-like one) have several red eyes.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Her fate in the good ending is to be trapped in her cave by the Potion of Confinement, with Red ignoring her attempts to manipulate her into freeing her.
- Villainous Breakdown: Should Red refuse to unseal her, her Wise Old Folk Façade starts cracking and she resorts to guilt-tripping.Grandma: Red? Where are you going?
Ascat: Don't listen to her.
Grandma: Please, Red. Don't leave me...
Red: Grandma...
Ascat: Red. She's trying to trick you.
Grandma: [Transforms into witch form] Red! Come back here this instant!
Ascat: Ah, finally letting your true colors show.
Grandma: Does family mean NOTHING to you? What would your mother think? NO. RED. STOP!
Red: Grandma, why did you let this happen? - Villains Want Mercy: She pleads with Red, who she tried to eat alive, to free her when she imprisons her in a cave. In the good ending, it didn't work and Red leaves her to die.
- Walking Spoiler: Discussing her without revealing she's actually a Big Bad Wolf and the game's Big Bad is tricky at best.
- Wicked Witch: She's implied to be the one from Hansel and Gretel as her house is called the gingerbread house and has the bones of children in it. Also, she somehow transformed into a wolf-like monstress after death, implying she has magical powers.
The Big Bad Wolf (unmarked spoilers)
The wolf who ate grandma and got killed by a hunter.
- Adaptational Heroism: The original wolf is one of the classic fairytale villains, a lying, manipulative embodiment of stranger danger. This wolf was specifically sent to kill a child-eating witch.
- The Big Bad Wolf: The original version, he's a wolf plus the one who ate Red's grandmother.
- Decomposite Character: The role of The Big Bad Wolf is split between him, the actual wolf who ate Red's grandmother, and the grandmother herself.
- The Ghost: The wolf we encounter turns out to be Red's grandmother- the original wolf who ate her is only mentioned by Ascat.
- Good All Along: Initially, he seems to be the Big Bad who ate Red's grandma and is coming for her too. However, he actually ate Red's grandma to punish her for being a Child Eater, and the wolf hunting down Red is actually the grandma.
