Mr. Hackington

Mr. Hackington, commonly shortened to Mr. Hack, is a mad scientist~executioner and mad science teacher at Monster High. He was introduced in the webisode "Bad Scare Day".

Personality
Mr. Hackington is an energetic, possibly British man who enjoys his job greatly. He's also slightly insane, having a tendency to burst into maniacal laughter. He is the only teacher at Monster High with a specific set of rules to follow during his class, complemented by a set of harsh punishments for whoever fails to follow them. For instance, if a student arrives so much as a second too late, they are excluded for the entire class and forced to make up for it on Saturday. Another example of his harsh attitude is that he doesn't want his students to have too much fun, as he believes this distracts them from the subject matter.

Nonetheless, Hackington is a very social man who delights in sharing his knowledge. For instance, he's the faculty sponsor for the student creature-watching club and regularly organizes trips down into the catacombs to study the local lifeforms. He also loves to tell interesting stories about his long career and the other scientists he has worked with, which sometimes take up the entire class instead of only the first half. Fortunately, for the students, Hackington considers all his stories as must-know information and will use questions from his stories on his tests. Even better, Hackington has a tendency to emphasize information he finds important by laughing so hard that he starts hacking.

Classic Monster
While it is likely that Hackington is some kind of monster, his horror niche is that of mad scientist, with an appearance inspired by the classical image of executioners. Prior to becoming a mad scientist himself, he's also been a professional Igor for some the maddest minds in science, referring to the tendency of antagonists in horror stories to have a sidekick named Igor.

Since ancient times fear has existed towards those thought of as more knowledgeable, as while they had the power to be an asset to society, they also had the power to bring it to its knees. Traditionally, these people were associated with magic. In the 19th, however, the idea of magic as thé omnipotent power had been replaced by technology. In this climate, the scientist became the new savior-or-menace of society, resulting in the mad scientist archetype. The mad scientist is a person many steps ahead of their sane peers (or so the mad scientist likes to think), making them a savior-type. However, the mad scientist also tends to hold few scruples and arrogantly pursue their ideas no matter what, making them a destructive force.

The image of the hooded executioner is one that came into existence in Medieval times. The hood held both a symbolic and practical function in keeping the identity of the executioner hidden. In a practical sense, the hood prevented family or friends of the 'criminal' from knowing who killed or would kill their loved one and subsequently taking revenge. In a symbolic sense, the hood robbed the executioner of his identity and highlighted he was merely justice's hand. However, by far not all executioners went to work hooded. In some places, being the executioner was a title held in high esteem and in others, the executioner was well-protected by those he served. The image of the hooded executioner is a more powerful one than the Average Joe one, though, so that is the one that has stuck in popular culture.

The "misfigured assistant named Igor" stock character finds its origins in the first stage adaptions and 1931 film adaption of the horror novel Frankenstein. No such character exists within the actual book, and in the adaptions, the character is called Fritz, not Igor. A similar character appeared in the film sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, but called Karl. The first use of the name "Igor" or "Ygor" comes from the 1933 horror film Mystery of the Wax Museum and was later again used in the two Frankenstein sequel films, though while both Igors are disfigured, neither are disfigured in the common-Igor way or are assistants. Exactly what factors made the name "Igor" tightly connected to the misfigured assistant-character are unknown

Family
Hackington's mother made an appearance in the webisode "Freakout Friday". Hackington accidentally caused her to break her back by standing on a crack.

Volume 1
In "Bad Scare Day", Hackington served lunch in the creepeteria when Frankie Stein, who had accidentally put in her bolts wrong, making her a walking electromagnetic disaster, entered. All the iron-containing kitchenware flew right out of Hackington's hands and past him until Ghoulia Yelps fixed Frankie's bolts.

In "Freedom Fight", Hackington intended to have his class dissect a number of three-eyed frogs. Lagoona Blue objected to this, believing it to be cruel. She asked Frankie Stein to create a diversion so she could steel the frogs and bring them somewhere safe. Frankie had fer left hand tickle Hackington and start an eyeball fight, bringing about a chaos that didn't end until the class was over. Hackington grudgingly accepted nothing would be cut open that day.

In "Freakout Friday", Hackington was one of the many to fall victim to bad luck. In his case, he stepped on a crack, breaking his mother's back.

In "Hatch Me If You Can", Hackington showed up with a cyclops assistant and a number of eggs that he distributed to couples of students with the order to take care of them for one week. If the eggs so much as showed a crack by then, the two responsible would fail the test. Peculiarly, he suggested that Lagoona and Gil would chose other partners, because "everyone knows that sea creatures are bad parents". This made the two determined to prove Hackington wrong. By the end of the week, Hackington noticed a crack in their egg and told them they had failed. Lagoona and Gil didn't understand until their egg started to shake. Hackington quickly asked his assistant where the eggs came from, to which he casually replied: "Gargoyle nest at the top of the library." The egg hatched a moment later and the gargoyle baby attacked Hackington.

Volume 2
In "Fear-A-Mid Power", Hackington sold blood sausages during a game of casketball.

In "Screech to the Beach", Hackington drove the bus that brought a large portion of the Monster High student body to Gloom Beach. Upon Cleo de Nile's request he'd bring their bags into the nearby hotel where all the other students stayed, Hackington happily informed her the fearleading team would be staying a little farther away, in a badly maintained cottage.

Mr. Hackington was beset by a plague of frogs in "Queen of the Scammed".

Hackington ran up the stage in "Desperate Hours" to hand Rotter a letter about Toralei Stripe's and Purrsephone and Meowlody's incredible math grades and their arranged trip to math camp.

Fright On!
Mr. Hackington had his students work on a chemical experiment that required the solution to be heated slowly. Heath Burns wasn't patient enough and heated his solution faster, causing a scargoyle to appear and cover him in eyeball goo. Later, Hackington caught Howleen Wolf assaulting the Belfry Prep vampires with garlic, for which he sent her to Headless Headmistress Bloodgood's office.

Volume 3
Mr. Hackington drove one of the busses that'd take several of the students on a class trip to Monte Scarlo in "Uncommon Cold".