#hecate hardbroom character analysis

[heathtrash]

What are your thoughts on Mildred and Hecate relationship? I kinda wished the writers toned down Hecate strictness a bit, sometimes it kinda looks like Hecate is being abusive to Mildred.

sO, i'm going to preface this by saying i do not engage with The Worst Witch for Mildred & Hecate content and have no particular desire to see any friendly feelings between them and certainly no maternal affection from Hecate for Mildred. my ideal for them is that they are a student and teacher in the same school and go through a natural growth of mutual respect by the end. Hecate simply wants her to succeed and has a distant level of fondness for her, and Mildred is at first scared of her but develops respect for her. that's not everyone's shared feeling of course! so just bear that in mind.

in book canon, Miss Hardbroom is far more playful with Mildred, though still has moments where she's actively cruel. it's clearly a source of amusement to her to magically sneak up on Mildred & co. while they're up to something, but not for the purpose of humiliating them. narratively, she's set up to be the Stern Teacher to Mildred's Book Dumb/This Loser Is You. (this is loosely the dynamic Constance Hardbroom occupies in 1998, but in general they make her deliberately less effective at commanding a classroom in this to allow more space for shenanigans.)

the 2017 series deviates by accentuating Hecate's strictness, which pushed her more into the Sadist Teacher trope at times. in fact, this was almost the reason i never watched it and decided to give it a miss after seeing the initial trailer (yes, REALLY; i'm sorry Raquel). that wasn't Miss Hardbroom to me, even though i don't really care about Mildred and Hecate being friends.

now i have a better appreciation for the reasons they did this (while i still think it's kind of,,, not wholly accurate to the character and reads as uncomfortable in places) and love Raquel's depiction of the character. to make Miss Hardbroom "scary" for this era's youth and more of an antagonist in select episodes, they overcompensated and went overboard with her cruelty. it's important to recognise that they were really going for nuance in individual episodes, which reflects the intended demographic of the series.

however, Hecate does have scenes where she has more than one side, but these are limited and fleeting (usually with an adult, and only sometimes with students in the life-or-death situations) and the growth doesn't persist between episodes. this is why the arc in S4 with her suddenly becoming the Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold feels a bit out of character with the little to no build-up they provide. suddenly she's okay with random children hugging her, even though she's supposedly the teacher who puts professionalism first, who has always needed to maintain distance because everything that was revealed in S3 (i.e. she could never allow herself to feel anything for anyone because they'd just leave while she was stuck confined to Cackle's)? most forced growth ever.

i think one of the most obvious cases of Hecate's abusiveness is when she sends Mildred to Wormwood's Academy when she herself was allowed to remain at Cackle's after turning Indigo Moon to stone. but - a big but - she is distraught over Ada at this point (plus, this is the big finale and they had to have a "Mildred actually gets expelled" moment, so they can bring her back in time for her ultimate success). this is not to excuse her behaviour, but it is an emotional reaction that she herself acknowledges.

yet the abusiveness is also in the tiny things, like begrudgingly passing Mildred in her exams, constantly telling her students that they're doing badly, etc. and i fully stand behind that. i have some thoughts about the things children pick up from media about how they should be treated by adults, and The Worst Witch sometimes crosses some boundaries there.

there are definitely ways of portraying strictness that don't edge into abuse. this is mostly true of the book, but the 2017 series sometimes gets this right too. i would never want to take away a core characteristic of Miss Hardbroom by simply making her "softer". i think there were sometimes choices that could have been made very differently with Hecate, both in her unkind and kind moments, but that's not something that's very easily explored within each 28-minute episode of a CBBC show. and that's why we write fanfiction!

(also i wrote this in a very minimum effort moment without referencing anything so forgive me for not providing more specific examples. i'll probably talk more about this at some point when i'm not pushed for energy!)

[lesbian-in-leather]

Okay so I just finished watching The Worst Witch (2017) and I've got to say, the amount of people that love Miss Hecate Hardbroom and Miss Ada Cackle's relationship very much confuses me

Like, don't get me wrong people can ship whatever they want and this post isn't even just about them as a romantic relationship, I'm just like super concerned that they have a pretty unhealthy dynamic in general. Like, just off the top of my head, some of the main things about this that are really fricking dodgy:

Miss Cackle repeatedly ignoring Miss Hardbroom's advice, laughing at her misgivings and having a complete disregard for her opinions in several situations (Note: I ackowledge Hecate was not always in the right and, many times, her advice SHOULD have been over-ruled. But Ada rarely gives her the chance to explain, to make her case. That isn't equal to any degree, and shows a complete lack of personal or professional respect)

Miss Cackle could have released Hecate from her Confinement at any time. She just... chose not to? Because a 13 year old girl made a mistake. And it isn't that she felt ut was morally wrong to release her because she does eventually do it so... what was the hold up? The only reason Ada freed her at that point was because Hecate was going to quit so did she just not want Hecate leaving? Did she want complete control over her? Shady. Don't trust it.

Forcing Hecate to not only be the one to deal with adult Indigo Moon when she comes to bring her daughter to Cackle's, but tricking her into going without any warning. For Hecate, she had just applied to be Indigo's mother because she loved and cared for her so much. Indigo changed the ENTIRE course of her life and she's been dealing with the reprocussions for 30 years and then she is pushed, completely unprepared, to an adult version of Indigo who grew up without any knowledge of who she is. Who's life was better because Hecate herself wasn't in it. And she just had to process that in about five minutes becase Ada wanted to... what? Make a point? Dick move if you ask me

These are the main things I can think of right now but my point is, while I do enjoy their interactions sometimes and they have an interesting dynamic, it's not a healthy relationship. A lot of the time, both of them still act like Hecate is more of a pupil then Deputy Headmistress

Tldr: Miss Hardbroom and Miss Cackle have a pretty unhealthy relationship and I want to talk about it

[cassiopeiasara]

Ok I have a question: I'm thinking of starting The Worst Witch because it keeps popping up on my dash and I'm here for gay witches but what's the tea on all the ships? From what I can gather everyone ships the really uptight goth witch (Hecate?) with just about everyone but mostly with a preppy, pink witch who I think is Amanda Holden? But then also she seems to be married to another, older witch who wears glasses and possibly has an evil twin?

Hi there anon! In my experience the “tea” refers to calling out, in depth analysis of problems and tension but I feel like you might just want information so that’s how I’m going to approach this answer. Now I’m not much of a multishipper (I’m Hackle ride or die mostly) but I will try to break down the various f/f ships in The Worst Witch (2017) (bc I’m assuming that’s the series you mean. I’ve seen a few eps but am not as familiar with the ‘98 series). Below a cut to spare my non TWW followers. Also bc this will probably get long:

This is Hecate Hardbroom, Deputy Headmistress at Cackle’s Academy for Young Witches:

The first ship you referred to, the one with Amanda Holden’s character Pippa Pentangle is Hicsqueak:

They were friends in school, had a falling out and in s1 their ep is “The Spelling Bee” I recommend reading all of @amillionmillionvoices fic as well as @matildaswan, @fanchonmoreau and @troiing. It’s not my ship but I know these are some of your awesome big contenders for that ship (also lovely peeps).  

Now the next ship you referred to is Hackle which is Hecate and Ada Cackle, Headmistress at Cackle’s:

Ada and Hecate are pretty close and most people at the least understand them as best friends from canon. Also Ada isn’t that MUCH older (it’s never stated in canon but the actresses are only 12/13 years apart and it’s implied that both of them taught a lot of the girls’ mothers together). If you fall into Hackle, feel free to send a follow up question and I’ll give you some recs. I would say Hackle and Hicsqueak are your two biggest ships but there are more! 

Ada does have an evil twin named Agatha:

There are a few people who ship Hecate with Agatha and the ship name is Hagatha. 

Now there’s also love of my life Dimity Drill and some people ship Hecate with Dimity and I think the name is Starbroom:

Then there’s Mildred Hubble’s (the girl that “the worst witch” refers to) mom Julie Hubble and their ship name is Hubblebroom I believe:

You got your OT3s: Hecate/Pippa/Ada, Hecate/Pippa/Julie, Hecate/Pippa/Dimity, others I’m sure. 

Then there are the non Hecate ships like Dimity Drill/Julie Hubble (Hubblestar), Dimity Drill/Marigold Mould (Dimigold I think?), Dimity/Pippa (Pippity). I realize there’s a common theme of me knowing only the Dimity ones, someone with knowledge of any others feel free to chime in. 

It’s a sweet show full of lovely stories, I got some issues with season 2 but it’s worth a watch and the fandom is quite talented. 

Feel free to send me an ask about anything. 

[heathtrash]

prefacing this by saying that these are all headcanons, the original post was tagged as being headcanons, and that no one needs to agree. but if you're going to disagree in a reblog, that was your choice!

we have SO many options for maternal characters in TWW, and absolutely none of those need to be Hecate. i've spoken previously about this in this post, which is a brief dive into my thoughts on Hecate and queer monstrosity.

Hecate's personality aside, upon which i think we respectfully disagree in terms of our interpretation on a fundamental level, it's so important to me that we have representation of childless women on television. i'm so grateful we have that representation with Hecate (and that it coincides with a canonically queer character who is known for her rejection of norms of femininity and practically canon neurodivergence, but would also be thrilled with any rep).

also, as a child of people who are not naturally nurturing, who has suffered because of that, i'm absolutely begging for representation of traditional gender roles being forced on people to end for good. we really don't need any more generations of kids growing up in unloving families, purely because the nuclear family is constantly being forced on us as this sparkling ideal. it's far from ideal for everyone, and Hecate proves that to us time and again. (no, not everyone needs to be a born expert, but like,,, consider the effect on the children who have to grow up and live with the effects of starting a family out of narcissism or a sense of duty)

Hecate isn't a representation of every woman, and nor she is typical in the ways she approaches things. she is designed to be queer, Other, and to challenge our preconceptions of what women are and what we expect women to be like. assuming she will be able to adapt to circumstances is to sand off her edges, and assume a level of neurotypicality that i'm personally very uncomfortable with, as a neurodivergent person who identifies a lot with Hecate.

to bring this back to my original point, Hecate's shame in this scene in Happy Birthday, Indigo Moon is such a valuable piece of television for a children's show!! it's not just "I'm sad I don't get to be a mother". Raquel's performance gives us so much more than that; it layers her unfulfilled sacrifice, her grief over her own lost years, her brief entertainment of adopting the role that she offered as a last-ditch resolution out of her own martyr complex. i feel like it's so important to recognise and celebrate this kind of nuance and intelligence in children's television, which was my intent with my post.

i welcome people to have their own "maternal hecate" headcanons if they so choose, but please consider before reblogging obviously anti-maternal hecate headcanons with maternal hecate headcanons! this is pretty personal for me and a lot of others. i'm keen for more people to express their headcanons and have their own voices heard, but those shouldn't be pitted against each other like it's a war of the Most Correct Headcanon. the point of fandom is to enjoy and explore your own interpretations and interpretations that fit with your own, and to think about and be respectful of other interpretations if you're interested in doing so. this was the sort of thing that would be better received in a separate post for the sake of fandom harmony! :)

the tragedy of 4x03 Happy Birthday, Indigo Moon is not that Hecate is sad that she never had the chance to become Indigo Moon's legal guardian.

the real tragedy here is that Hecate was so desperate that she challenged a part of herself that she has never had to deal with before - that of being in a guardianship role - even though it goes against every bone in her body.

the utter, gut-wrenching shame that she feels here is that of personal debasement, when she would have forced herself to go against her instincts and "embrace" a maternal role that she never wanted. it was the only way she saw of absolving herself of her deadly mistake in the past, but it would have been a terrible existence for them both. in this moment, she's processing the role she would have diligently lived even though it would only remind her of her crimes constantly, and also mourning the life she would have lost. she would never have been able to have a romantic relationship with an adult in quite the same way if she had had Indigo Moon to show responsibility for foremost.

she knows she could never "make a wonderful parent", despite what the Great Wizard wrote. it's just something people say when they find out you are having or adopting a child; a statement of willing the "good parent" traits on someone. responsible people do not always make good, loving parents. Hecate could never give all of that to any child, and especially not Indigo Moon.

an emotional outburst like this is also very expected, given that Hecate just was faced with her best friend not knowing her - but she still remembers those thirty years of emotional trauma and self-torment. she almost had her best friend "back", but their relationship was changed irrevocably by meeting as teacher and student. sending her back was a sign of so much greater strength, because she acknowledged that motherhood would never have been a good option for her, and that she was not going to give the child the upbringing she deserved. as a consequence, Indigo Moon had to opportunity to give her own child a "magical" upbringing enough that she was accepted into Cackle's.

nothing ever positive could have come out of the Indigo Moon affair, and there was no outcome that would not have hurt Hecate or involved her sacrificing herself in some way. it's genuinely a tragedy in that sense, but never because Hecate wanted to be anyone's mother.