History WMG / TheWitches

[[WMG: Granny would become a new GHW in the future]]

[[WMG: The protagonist is [[Literature/{{Coraline}} Mr. Bobo]].]]

[[WMG: The Grand High Witch's "frying" powers are the same as {{Literature/Matilda}}'s telekinesis.]]

[[WMG: The woman with the green snake wasn't a witch at all.]]

[[WMG: The Witches were created by [[WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork Black Hat]].]]

[[WMG: The events of the book and both of its film adaptations take place in a SharedUniverse.]]
By in-universe chronology, ''Film/TheWitches2020'' is the first one. In it, the witches are extremely badass at magic — they cause Grandma's cough, the Grand High Witch is able to levitate etc.; in particular, the [=GHW=] maintains her beauty with sorcery rather than with LatexPerfection.

Fast-forward to in-universe 1983, when the book's events unfold. The current [=GHW=] already has to wear a mask and is a much less impressive sorceress. More than a decade of witch-hunting has clearly paid off: the witches aren't gone (probably they reproduce by some magical means, given they are a OneGenderRace), but they are getting weaker.

Finally, 1990. The [=GHW=] is struggling with her disguise so much that she forgets her own fake society's name and just trying to say "children" makes her grimace (she is lucky Mr. Jenkins, to whom she is talking, isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer). Despite recognizing Grandma as a witch hunter, she does nothing to her except meddle with her food, which Grandma discovers immediately. The witches' organization is crumbling down, and the rats are deserting the sinking ship — hence Susan Irvine's redemption.

No, characters from the 1960s and from 1983 didn't exterminate the witches outright – but they made their magical power dwindle.

Fast-forward to in-universe 1983, when the book's events unfold. The current [=GHW=] already has to wear a mask and is a much less impressive sorceress. More than a decade of witch-hunting has clearly paid off: the witches aren't gone (probably they reproduce by some magical means, given they are a OneGenderRace), but they are weakening.

Finally, 1990. The [=GHW=] is struggling with her disguise so much that she forgets her own fake society's name and just trying to say "children" makes her grimace (she is lucky Mr. Jenkins, to whom she is taking, isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer). Despite recognizing Grandma as a witch hunter, she does nothing to her except meddle with her food, which Grandma discovers immediately. The witches' organization is crumbling down, and the rats are deserting the sinking ship — hence Susan Irvine's redemption.

No, characters from the 1960s and from 1983 didn't exterminate the witches outright – but they made their magical power weaken.

[[WMG: The events of the book and both of its adaptations take place in a SharedUniverse.]]

Fast forward to in-universe 1983, when the book's events unfold. The current [=GHW=] already has to wear a mask and is a much less impressive sorceress. The more than a decade of witch-hunting has clearly paid off: the witches aren't gone (probably the reproduce by some magical means, given they are a OneGenderRace), but they are weakening.

Fast forward to in-universe 1983, when the books' events unfold. The current [=GHW=] already has to wear a mask and is a much less impressive sorceress. The more than a decade of witch-hunting has clearly paid off: the witches aren't gone (probably the reproduce by some magical means, given they are a OneGenderRace), but they are weakening.

By in-universe chronology, ''Film/Witches2020'' is the first one. In it, the witches are extremely badass at magic — they cause Grandma's cough, the Grand High Witch is able to levitate etc.; in particular, the [=GHW=] maintains her beauty with sorcery rather than with LatexPerfection.

[[WMG: The Witches were created by [[WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork Black Hat]].]]

* This only applies to the book, since in the 1990 film she is definitely shown to be a witch from the start and later appears at the meeting.

[[WMG: Elsie usurps the position of GHW [[spoiler:after all of the other witches at the hotel are killed.]]]]
Elsie is a witch who works as one of the hotel maids, and she is not seeing eating the cress soup with the other witches. Due to the other maid seen in the film being affected by Formula 86 after using some (having thought it was perfume), it’s likely that Elsie would’ve had to clean up extra rooms due to the other maid taking off early to go to the doctor (it’s implied that the owner gives her preferential treatment, and she’s been shown earlier to be quite hysterical, even if it was just in response to having seen a mouse).

Elsie would’ve offered to take the lower floors specifically because of room 208, where Eva Ernst/the Grand High Witch was staying. Elsie would’ve peeked through her experiments and notes, and likely would’ve stolen the remaining bottles of Formula 86 for herself (Luke only took one of the bottles).

She’d have to spend a lot of time studying the GHW’s notes, [[spoiler:because there are no witches left in England except for Miss Irvine, and she went turncoat and turned Luke and Bruno back into humans.]] There’s also no doubt that she’d spend time looking for Helga [[spoiler: due to her having killed the GHW and thus being a threat to remaining witches, but there’s no way of knowing if she’s aware of Miss Irvine having gone rogue. If she does know, then she’s forced to devote her time between two major threats. If she doesn’t, then it’s likely that she won’t last very long.]]

[[WMG: The Witches were created by [[{{WesternAnimation/Villainous}} Black Hat]].]]

She’d have to spend a lot of time studying the GHW’s notes, [[spoiler:because there are no witches left in England except for Miss Irvine, and she went turncoat and turned Luke and Bruno back into humans.]] There’s also no doubt that she’d spend time looking for Helga [[spoiler: due to her having killed the GHW and thus being a threat to remaining witches, but there’s no way of knowing if she’s aware of Miss Irvine having gone rogue. If she does know, then she’s forced to devote her time between two major threats. If she doesn’t, then it’s likely that she won’t last very long.]]

[[WMG: Elsie usurps the position of GHW after all of the other witches at the hotel are killed.]]

She’d have to spend a lot of time studying the GHW’s notes, because there are no witches left in England except for Miss Irvine, and she went turncoat and turned Luke and Bruno back into humans. There’s also no doubt that she’d spend time looking for Helga due to her having killed the GHW and thus being a threat to remaining witches, but there’s no way of knowing if she’s aware of Miss Irvine having gone rogue. If she does know, then she’s forced to devote her time between two major threats. If she doesn’t, then it’s likely that she won’t last very long.

* This only applies to the book, since in the 1990 film she is definitely shown to be a witch from the start and later appears at the meeting.

The boy never saw her again, so for all we know, she wasn't at the meeting. And seeing as it was winter and many ladies were wearing gloves, she could well have been a human. Her intentions, if she was a human, are unknown. She could have still been malicious (a child molester, wanting to kidnap him for money, the list goes on), or she could have just been a rather [[CloudCuckooLander eccentric]] woman who [[CassandraTruth really did]] just want him to look at [[UnusualPetsForUnusualPeople her tame snake]]. She could also have been trying to prank him, having heard of witches herself.

[[WMG: The Grand High Witch's "frying" powers are the same as {{Literature/Matilda}}'s telekinesis]]
The Grand High Witch was very clever from birth but, like Matilda, left her brain power unused and began to be able to spring rays from her eyes, like Matilda. The GHW, however, was never placed in an environment where she could use her mental capacities, and she kept her power, bettering with time until she could not only merely push or hold things from the distance, but even burn them.

[[WMG: The Grand High Witch's "frying" powers are the same as [[Literature/Matilda Matilda]]'s telekinesis]]

I know that in the end the unnamed protagonist (this is for the book, I've never seen the movie) is still a mouse, but this is wild. Perhaps becoming a human again made him a crazy old man. This could explain his ability to communicate with the mice. And of course, his childhood dream was to have his very own Mouse Circus. Also, if you merged the universes, [[spoiler: the Other Mother could totally be a Real Witch]].

[[WMG: The protagonist is [[{{Coraline}} Mr. Bobo]].]]