This month we’re going Halloween-themed for our community discussion, because of course we are. I set BFS members a challenge: Tell us about your favourite fictional not-strictly-good witch. This wasn’t about the good and the godly; I wanted the juicy details of all those bad b*tches and morally-grey magickal practitioners lurking in the shadows…
Below you’ll find a selection of the answers from the discussion. See if you can spot the members who got VERY involved and impassioned about this month’s topic!
But who (or what!) are your own favourites? Let us know by leaving a comment at the end of this article, or jump back into Discord to get involved. Are you a member but not yet in the BFS Discord server? Contact us to request your invite.
-Lauren McMenemy, BFS Marketing
@laurenwrites.bsky.social
Comments are presented as they were in Discord, including back-and-forths between multiple members. Where an individual contributor came back with more thoughts separately, those comments have been summarised as one.
‘Good’ or ‘bad’ don’t really come into it (the world is the definition of ‘morally grey’), but Sogolon from Marlon James’s Moon witch spider king is awesome. She is unfeasibly badass (she spends about a century hunting down domestic abuse perpetrators), and takes absolutely zero sh*t — ‘What kind of world is this where a man is trying to tell me something?’ is a typical remark (mangled by my memory).
-Oliver Arditi
Baba Yaga! The original cannibal granny with the best house!
-Lorraine Wilson
Seconding Baba Yaga! I’m also a huge fan of Rowena from Supernatural. She’s independent, sexy, powerful, and takes nonsense from no-one. She’s often on the villainous side of the line, but when push comes to shove, she does the right thing.
-Shona Kinsella
Once Upon a Time there were witches…
Regina from Once Upon a Time. Especially the first few seasons. She does what she wants and doesn’t worry about others’ opinions, but she’s still a good mother to Henry (in my opinion).
-Luna Profir
Ooooh the Wicked Witch from Once Upon A Time!!! Definitely not good at all at the start but has a really interesting character arc and plays well against Regina!
-Katie Bruce
Yessss
-Luna Profir
Also, the villains have the best outfits on that show!!!
-Katie Bruce
Can Rumple count as a witch?
-Luna Profir
100% – he would absolutely own being called a witch.
-Katie Bruce
He’s my fave from the show. A lot of the time, his motivations are purely selfish, but then sometimes it turns out to be… uh… slightly less selfish 😂
-Luna Profir
I love him so much. His ending got me genuinely emotional.
-Katie Bruce
I also find it interesting that everyone classes him as purely evil or purely a villain, but he helps the heroes loads. Most of the good things in the heroes’ lives depend on him, but they still consider him evil.
-Luna Profir
On behalf of Billy, Tommy and Teddy, The Scarlet Mom. Other people may have a kinder view of Wanda, but they are not teenagers.
-Cheryl Morgan
I have so many favourites haha. Here’s three not mentioned so far: Circe from The Odyssey is perhaps one of the first witches who is neither evil or good but complex and so interesting but I love her ability to turn men into pigs haha; Jadis or better known as The White Witch is such a powerful foe against Aslan and her ability to make it always winter! Woah! Lastly, Agatha from Marvel is so conniving and funny.
-Corinne Pollard
Also, yes, Circe! Those sailors definitely deserved being turned into beasts.
-Rosemarie Cawkwell
The inevitable Pratchett appearance
No Granny Weatherwax yet? As far as I remember, her technically not being the good witch was quite an important plot point in at least a couple of the Discworld books.
-Graeme Dixon
I came here to mention her. She’s not nice. She does what’s right.
-Rick Danforth
Granny Weatherwax isnt a bad witch – she’s very good at being a witch but she knows she’s not a good person. Does that make her a ‘bad’ witch? Lily was a bad witch and a bad person. Magrat is a bad witch but a good person, Agnes is similar,and Nanny is Nanny. They’re none of them simple characters, and they do bring into question the simple characterisation of witches as strictly bad or good.
-Rosemarie Cawkwell
Willow from Buffy though I wish there was less tragedy in her story. Also, Morgan Le Fey (in all her spellings) is seldom not good but she is often a fascinating character. First version I encountered was Morgaine in the Doctor Who story Battlefield where she was played by the excellent Jean Marsh.
-Chris Hawton
BBC Merlin’s Morgana (pictured) was such a good version of Morgan Le Fey to me. At first she is tragic and terrified of her magic. Then she is so cartoonish with her little smirks at the camera and big flowing evil capes. By the end of the series she’s utterly unhinged with grief and rage.
-Melody Bowles
Evelyn Poole (played by Helen McCrory) from “Penny Dreadful”, my favourite TV series ever (together with “Hannibal”): runs a coven of evil witches, made a pact with Satan to gain eternal life, commonly bathes in the blood of the young girls she kills… in short, a queen.
-Greta Colombani
General Sarah Alder does quite a few bad and morally dubious things in order to do right by all witches in her version of our world. Nicte Batan and the Spree, including Scylla Ramhorn, do a lot of bad things for what they think are noble reasons. All are from Motherland Fort Salem.
-SJ Groenewegen
Can we mention Pasiphae? Apart from the messy business with her poor son, she does have her own stories where she’s a powerful witch in her own right (and Circe’s sister, iirc?)
-Luna Profir
I love Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) in the Snow White & the Huntsman film because, well, Charlize is a freaking goddess and she just wallows in the evil. I don’t even care that she has no redeeming qualities.
-Tiffani Angus
Hands down for me it’s Misskaella the sea witch from The Brides of Rollrock Island (released in some places as Sea Hearts) by Margo Lanagan. It’s a beautiful, miserable, uncompromising book, and Misskaella is both tragic and breathtakingly cruel. I also liked Asher Todd in The Path of Thorns by A G Slatter, who’s smart and steely and you can understand all her choices, even the darker ones.
-Sarah Jackson
Ooh Cordelia from Eliza Chan’s Fathomfolk!! “A second-generation sea-witch determined to do what she must to survive and see her family flourish, even if it means climbing over the bodies of her competitors” Tells you everything you need to know and I loved hating her so much!
-Katie Bruce
Cordelia, the sea witch in Eliza Chan’s Drowned World books is a really interesting character. Definitely an antagonist, definitely not a good person, but at times a very understandable one.
-Shona Kinsella
The three suffragist witch sisters from Alix E. Harrow’s The Once and Future Witches are great!
-Melanie Bell
This is a bit of a reach but Felice (aka Raven) from Julian May’s The Many Coloured Land has stuck with me as a witchy character for a long, long time. Definitely in the ‘not strictly good’ sense.
-Stephen Frame
I’ve been re-watching Agatha All Along, and I love Agatha so much. I adore “bad” characters who have tragic backstories so you can understand (although not necessarily condone) their actions. Plus, she’s just wonderfully portrayed.
-Laura Bennett
Has anyone mentioned Charlotte Pettifer in The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton? I suppose technically she’s not a bad witch, if you’re on the side of the witches – but if you rooting for the pirates or Lady Scoundrels as they are called who are the sworn enemies of witches – then maybe she is! Or maybe she moves into morally grey territory! Or maybe we are better focusing on the very morally grey Lady Armitage – a pirate who knows spells and will stop at nothing to steal a powerful amulet? She’s definitely the amusing villain of the piece and unlike Granny Weatherwax – who I’ve always seen as a good witch – there’s no mistaking evil on that score!
-Mel Reynard
I have a few, but to stick to some recent reads: Sophie in Rachel Harrison’s Cackle is such an interesting character. Is she an empowering influence on mousie newcomer Annie, or a manipulative and maybe even murderous frenemy? Is it fear she commands in her small town, or are people just close-minded towards her… or is something else entirely going on? My book group absolutely loved this feminist, cozy horror read.
Another book I adored recently is Joanne Harris’s Broken Light, which is full of rage, revenge, and dangerous power. Bernie Moon, having given her whole life to a man who only deigns to find her boring, is jealous of the woman her husband moons after, her former best friend. However, a local murder and her shifting hormones make her remember that she used to have a special gift, and she finds it reawakening in her now. Pink-haired Iris, a younger woman from the café she frequents, becomes a firm friend and protégée as they bite back at the world that has bitten them, and made Bernie feel invisible. Their anger is forceful, and they provoke reader sympathies and understanding, but how much is too much? A great story full of nuance and a simmering darkness.
-Donna Scott
My favourites have already been mentioned (Circe, Morgana, and Granny Weatherwax) but I couldn’t leave it without mentioning Yennefer of Vengerberg from The Witcher. I never played the game (my husband did and once I’ve seen him play through something I tend to lose interest in playing it myself because I know what happens) but I read the books and watched the first series and I thought she was a great flawed character.
-Cheryl Sonnier
I love Nancy in The Craft because she is just trying to be her best self and disprove peoples’ misconceptions about her – not to mention escape her crummy home life. Witchcraft offers her self-empowerment and freedom, but it also inflames her desperation for justice against those who have wronged her. She ends up exploiting her newfound powers, and that ultimately (sadly) undoes her.
-Josh Winning
Personal fave: The Witch in ‘No Darkness But Ours”, a short story by Gemma Giles from her Collection Kissing Carrion. Also – The Grandmother in Thomas Tryon’s ‘The Other’.
-Charlie Hughes
Erszebet from The Rise and fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland is an extremely enjoyable villainish witch. Somehow I was always rooting for her…
-Oliver Arditi
Ooh! Can I mention Angrboda? (Specifically from Runemark, I don’t have enough stories of her from the original myths, but I’m sure she’s awesome there too).
-Luna Profir
The witch from Man And Witch! She agrees to break his curse, despite not having the power to break curses. She makes a deal to take his firstborn child, for no other reason than to rant to him about the patriarchy She sets him three tasks, giving him hope he’ll find love, knowing full well they’re impossible When he says he wishes for a wife, she asks why. When he says he’s lonely, she tells him to get a pet 😂
-Katie Bruce
Did we miss your favourite? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️
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