Charmed/Headscratchers

In season eight, how did Phoebe get a positive on a pregnancy test and then not? Pregnancy tests do not give false positives.
- Actually, sometimes they do. They are very rare but they can happen.
When Paige told Phoebe and Piper about her suspicions about Cole, why didn't they use the magic glasses shown earlier to show that Paige was wrong? They had just used the glasses before to see the source. Paige could have remembered it and suggested it.
- Forget the damn glasses, what about the Elders? They're so omnipresent that in season 3 the sisters and Leo had to avoid saying the word "marriage" because they'd be overheard, yet the Elders never noticed Cole doing any of the aboveground stuff he did when possessed by the Source? In the Underworld, they're blind, but he wasn't always there, was he now?
- Remember the half-demon baby a couple of seasons later? The Elders said he was a demon and could not be raised to anything else. They probably saw what was happening and chose to let it continue so that the sisters would vanquish Cole, thus ensuring that children he would presumably have had with Phoebe would never exist and "pollute" the Halliwell line.
Why didn't Leo mention the Magic School before Season six? He knew how much the sisters were struggling with magic.
- The damn Magic School was only created to mooch off the popularity of Harry Potter.
- Well yes, but also because Magic School seems to be geared mostly to teens and a younger generation of magic users. There probably wasn't a program for teaching older witches how to use their powers.
Season 4, 'Saving Private Leo'. The brothers Mandylor kill a potential Whitelighter who goes on to be an actual Whitelighter, according to prior show mythology, but the show treats it as if she'd been vanquished. WTF?
- The woman probably didn't go on to fulfill the good she was meant to in order to become a whitelighter. And Leo takes it hard because she was his charge, remember whitelighters have specical connections with their charges.
Why in the first three season, 99% of the male characters using magic are evil? Even the ~~Distaff Counterpart~~ Spear Counterpart of the Charmed Ones is evil! FGS...
- This is more of a complaint than Fridge Logic but whateves. Most of the magical men are evil is because the show was trying to go for the 'empowered women' schtick but delved too far to "women are good men are evil" sexist cliche. There is a difference between the two.
  - Although, ironically enough their most Anvilicious episodes in that regard were the ones that went against saying all men are evil. Take note of Grams and Billie learning their lesson about sexism.
Andy's death in season 1. The Charmed Ones had plenty of time to avoid his death, yet they grabbed the Idiot Ball HARD and let it happen. The result? Prue ended up having the worst storylines from that time on.
- I'm guessing you're a fan of Andy/Prue (Prandy?) The mistake was Andy's not the girls'. He was warned of his possible death and risked his life anyway. Sure the girls could've let time rewind and do it all over again, but why take the risk? There would've been a higher chance of all three of the girls being killed on the next reset. It was better for them to end it then then risk another life.
How did Phoebe get away with riding naked on a horse in the middle of San Fransisco? I know that San Fransisco is liberal but there is such a thing as public indecency laws. Also, why didn't she have Piper sue the cafe or some other legal action?
- Because then no one would see Alyssa Milano naked.
  - Considering how thin she was at that point, who would want to see her naked?
    - The masses that like (busty) thin girls?
The Black and White Morality in general. I'm a shades of gray fan, personally...
- More like if you are born evil, you will stay evil. If you are good, you will stay good unless you are turned evil and you cannot go back to being good.
- That's even worse. That's like saying only certain people have free will to choose what side (if any; what about the neutrals?) they're on, and if they don't choose to walk the straight and narrow - as decided by, who, the Elders? - they lose it. WTF? I mean, that doesn't even make sense.
- This was particularly annoying when Cole tried to subvert this, but ended up getting told, "You're evil and you always will be evil no matter how you feel or what you do!" repeatedly.
- Exactly! Between that and having powers that weren't his - which we already knew was very bad - no wonder he went batshit. This is why I wrote a fanfic in which he wises up and gets out of town after Sympathy for the Demon.
  - Uhhh... link to fic?
  - It's an OC-heavy crossover, but here.
  - The Black and White Morality of the show bothered me too which is why I propose a sister series with more shades of gray.
- Actually, I think its more like a Black, White & Pink morality, but because the lead sister is also the Moral Guardian it leads to jarring double standards. Compare and contrast: Phoebe's Demon ex-boyfriend, her half-demon baby & Billie? OMG, so totally Evil. Prue's ex-boyfriend, Piper's (potential) infant terrible and the Chimaera family Piper found? Redeemable.
- The issue with the morality of the show isn't so much its color as its Halliwell-centeredness.
Why did the elders give Phoebe Coop as an apology? Shouldn't they had given something to Piper instead since they had bothered her the most? It felt like kinda wrong to give a perfect lover as a gift.
- Considering the above with Phoebe and Cole, it's actually quite fitting. Phoebe has a history of falling for guys both good and bad and simply not being cut out for whatever relationship she's in when it came down to it, so once everything wears on her to the point she just wants to write columns and find a baby daddy, she gets a mail-ordered man from the sky. Really she's got the most superficial happy ending of the sisters, if you think about it. And Piper? There's nothing the Elders could give her that Denise Dowse as the Angel of Destiny didn't conditionally curb-stomp when she agreed to freeze Leo instead of having him killed off.
  - I think that's a bit unfair towards Phoebe's [completely valid] career choice. After all, column writing was good to her - in fame & fortune if nothing else - and acted as her humanity chain during her Queen of the Underworld arc, not to mention putting her Psych degree to good use. Aside form that its also implied she was pre-destined for something like it anyways with her Empathy power. As for the baby thing, well she has always been good with babies & she was getting to "that point" in her life....
  - It wasn't necessarily her career choice itself that I was attempting to bring attention to, in fact I could've left it out entirely. It was part of the fact, though, of what she became in good time due to her string of failed relationships and, yes, getting to "that point" in her life. She basically wanted to be a mother so badly she occasionally jeopardized her magical duties to have more time to do so, and finding love with a cupid who was explicitly sent for the purpose…kind of underwhelming compared to Piper and Leo, and even Paige and Henry (as he had to actually earn his way, being a Muggle and all).
  - How about the fact that Phoebe and Coop decided they were in love and got married just because Future!Chris called him Uncle Coop? 'Here's your We're Sorry guy, don't spend time getting to know him before marrying him?'
It's pretty well known that the Elders really don't like it when their Whitelighters date their charges. Paige had to be hidden after she was born. However, in the last season there's a a half-Whitelighter witch from Britain, trying to woo Paige. Why does he get a free pass? Also, why does he get to use magic against mortals without the law of three affecting him?
- Had Simon actually done real damage to Henry or managed to steal Paige from him, we maybe could've seen problems with the Powers That Be. Besides, they've mellowed out since Piper and Leo proved a point.
- Maybe the British Elders are a bit more relaxed...
My memory is a little foggy since, specially about secondary characters but, Paige's Avatar-hating boyfriend becoming a whitelighter/angel or whatever they made him. I mean why? don't his intentions matter? He didn't do anything because he wanted to do something good, he was 110% just out to get revenge on his parents and just out of luck he did a good thing. What about when he tried to kill Leo just because he was an Avatar? he doesn't want to kill the Avatar that killed his parents, he want's to kill AN Avatar, period, in fact not even that, he wants them all dead. What kind of message is that? it's like an orphan going on a killing spree on white/black/Asian/etc. because their killer was of that race. So you're a racist douche, but you did manage to do one good thing even if it was by accident and for the wrong reasons and intentions, so we're gonna reward you.
- Agreed. Also, he became a whitelighter. Piper and Leo dated, why couldn't Paige and Brody do the same?
The casting choices for loads of male characters in the show: an ordinate amount of them are lantern-jawed white guys with a suspiciously similar set of features. This (white!) troper has a hard time keeping male characters straight because they all look so similar. I wasn't even sure who was Andy and who was Jeremy in the pilot episode sometimes. What's up with that, casting directors? Did you think the people watching the show had really limited tastes in what they considered attractive?
- Now that you mention it, this troper can't remember a single love interest of the sisters that was ethnic in any discernible way apart from the Character Of the Day Mark Chang for Piper (S1) and even he ended up passing on by the end of the episode...
Season 4, a de-powered Cole buys a gun for protection, which in the Halliwell Manor makes perfect sense because demons really like to show up and take potshots at the residents. Yet everyone acts like it's this terrible thing. He bought it to shoot at demons, and the sisters kill demons (oh, sorry, "vanquish", but it's really killing) regularly. Shooting one probably won't kill it, but doing so would give Cole a chance to get out of the line of fire, not to mention the sound of a gunshot would bring the rest of the house running. So, what the hell?
- Knowing the sisters, they'd try to rationalize it in some way such as, "Making demons/warlocks/blacklighters spontaneously combust is different than shooting them". Or it's possible they just didn't like the idea of Cole having anything dangerous a his disposal.
- Maybe it was a warning that guns are bad?
The characters aren't supposed to be rolling in cash - they often talk about the problem of having enough money to maintain and keep the manor, among other things. Yet in every episode, they're shown wearing spanking-new clothing and jewelry. They apparently even have enough money to replace Piper's shoes every time they get a stain. Sorry, but if you can afford to be a fashion plate 24/7, I seriously doubt you're in very dire financial straits.
- I you think about it, that's probably why they're in such financial straits, and that Grandfather Clock won't just fix itself every time they vanquish a demon with it...
  - It's also not incredibly difficult to be a fashion plate, especially in a place like San Francisco. Between outlet malls, vintage clothing shops, and the internet, it's pretty easy to find clothes on the cheap (The same question was asked about Kurt Hummel on Glee.)
    - Apparently, you've never been so poor you had to choose between new clothes and paying the bills. If the sisters still have enough money to buy new clothes or jewelry (even "on the cheap") whenever they get a stain in something or just feel the urge to buy something new, they really have no room to complain about not having enough money to pay the bills.
    - Let's face it, the Halliwells are a little more vain than you'd think in some ways given that they're the main characters in a relatively successful show. The amount of times they get turned evil or end up holding the Idiot Ball should show that a bit.
I never understood all the hype over Wyatt. Supposedly, it was because he was "thrice blessed" as a whitelighter/witch/charmed. But Chris was conceived when Leo was an Elder, so shouldn't he be more powerful and important than Wyatt?
- Its mentioned in the first season that the first born is always the strongest, which is why Prue is superwitch (and why Billie has stronger powers than Christie). Also, Wyatt - like Phoebe - was born in the house, on top of the Nexus, which gives him a boost too, I believe. So all in all, Wyatt still has more going for him than Chris does. Besides, we don't even know if the Elder thing is taken into account.
Whitelighters are, by definition, dead. So how can anyone be half-whitelighter? Doesn't that imply that they're half-dead?
- No - Whitelighters are created by Elders giving the souls of the deceased a new body with whitelightery powers to do their bidding, so they are, in fact, alive (again).
  - Which leads to something that's bugged me: why don't the Elders restore whitelighters who have been killed, like Natalie? Is there some kind of rule about it?
    - Hmmm, that gives me an idea...(to WMG!)
- It's possible that the Elders respect death to some extent and continuously saving fallen Whitelighters would be cheating it...even though they were already dead, in a sense.
Sometimes the Book of Shadows frustrated me. Occasionally they went for Rule of Funny/Drama/Cool over basic common logic. For example, the spell to Track a Banshee. Could none of the previous witches that wrote in the book have written a little note in the margin that said, "Warning: This spell will turn you into a dog?"
- Perhaps none of the previous witches had any experience with the spell. It's possible they just plucked it from another witch friend of theirs and knew that it could track banshees but didn't know how.
- The spell might be different depending on who uses it, or the witch who made it had a dog who she enchanted, and since the sisters didn't had one, it did the next best thing.
- That doesn't make any sense. If the witch had a dog she wouldn't need to cast the spell, the dog would be able to hear the banshe's call and be able to track it down.
Okay, in the episodes involving Valhalla and the Valkyries, where the heck are the Muggle female warriors of the past or modern times? Is the show saying women cannot be brave enough to earn the honor of helping fight in the final battle? Or do the brave Muggle women just become Valkyries who have extreme dominatrix tendencies running through them?
After rewatching All Hell Breaks Loose I've just wondered about this one thing. How the hell did Alice, the woman who shot Piper, managed to sneak a rifle in board daylight right through police notice? It wasn't like she was in the crowd. She got pass the blockade the police made and climbed onto a van. How could none of them have noticed a woman with a rifle running pass them and climbing onto a van until it was too late? And if say she happened to have kept that rifle in the van the whole time and got it from there instead, why didn't the police think to check out what was in the van in the first instance? I know it is difficult to deal with a whole crowd of people, but these were just a group of fans and haters. There wasn't an indication that they were rioters so they shouldn't have been so distracted to not have notice a woman running pass them with a rifle.

Comparison to Buffy

What bothers this troper is that yeah, Charmed wasn't the best show, but it was at least entertaining. Why are people always calling this like the badder cousin of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, why are they compared at all as if Charmed was copying Buffy?
- Same era, basically. Same network. Supernatural show with female leads. It's only natural for people to see a resemblance. Heck, this troper sees Supernatural in a similar realm to Charmed, because it deals with various supernatural/occult topics with the leads being siblings carrying on a family line, and also, same line of networks.
  - Which is disappointing, as beyond a few superficial similarities, Charmed and Buffy are two very different shows.
    - According to Wikipedia, Charmed was created because the network saw how popular Buffy was and decided to create a supernatural-themed show of their own.
    - Same goes for either show and Supernatural, but that's never stopped imaginative viewers from seeing crossovers.

Prue, the Hypocrite

Seriously, season three had Prue being a major hypocrite.
- Examples, please. Aside from the "Brendan and Cole" and "Idiot Ball over Cole's love" examples.
- Specifically the episode when her former high school bf Tom turns out to be a demon and is going around killing people. Phoebe even calls her out on the fact that they're saving a human turned demon even though a few episodes earlier Prue refused to listen to Phoebe about Cole being half-human and half-demon.
- Ah, yes. Tom. That was the episode Prue found out Phoebe faked Cole's death too, right? I think he was the example of the same hypocrisy I was referring to with Brendan and Cole that Phoebe actually called him out on. In fact, like you said, it's even worse. Cause he's actually going around killing people. And she doesn't even love him anymore, so why is she even doing this? Really, compared to Tom, Brendan is just background when it comes to Prue's hypocrisy over Cole.
A minor one but in "Chick Flick" it really bugged me when Prue says to Phoebe she's not supposed to see her favourite movie. Seriously piss off Prue she can see whatever film she wants. And then again when Prue says "we so have to monitor your viewing habits". That just really bugged me.
- Character Development. Prue had to come to grips and accept that Phoebe wasn't the irresponsible "Freebie" anymore that had to be scoffed at or ordered around all the time to avoid wrecking things up. Annoying bossy comments like this were actually stock and trade at one time. Not sure what's exactly hypocritical about this one, though.

Charmed Sons

Charmed Sons campaign bothers me, it seems like they're just holding onto an idea that'll never be.
- Well, there is a shift in tone within the forum. It seems more concentrated on griping about the Protagonist Centered Black and White Morality of the show these days. This troper knows a member that's actually left because of that.
- It's just sad now, I was actually trying to help them out by posting a topic on who the characters would be, what episodes or seasonal arcs they would have, what was the premise of the show, basic televisions series things and they deleted it. Not like I was being belligerent or anything wither, I was just asking what their plan for the show would be if it ever was on air but they removed it. Oh well It's pretty much nothing but pointless fan forums now.

The Cleaners

I fuckin' hated the CLEANERS!!!
- And how could there be a future where magic was exposed to humans if there were Cleaners already existing?
  - Oh, that's just the tip of the iceberg. If the Cleaners already existed, how could Andy, Daryl, Victor or any other mortal know about magic? Their job is to prevent exposure period. They felt the need to intervene when Sheridan stumbled onto something magical. Why? Cause she's law enforcement? So are Andy and Daryl. Plus, one Cleaner specifically stated he had been watching over the sisters when they first got their powers. ...Uh-huh. And then there's "All Hell Breaks Loose" - an episode where the sisters are exposed and neither good nor evil know how to "get out of this mess."
  - Andy, Darryl, and Victor weren't setting out to expose or harm magic in anyway. Sheridan was dead set that the Charmed Ones were evil people worth busting and never took a second to think of any other possibilities even after she stalked them as they were breaking a curse. It's somewhat implied she thought making such a bust would get her promoted and this expedited her gung-ho one-track mind state. Also, Tempus still lived during "All Hell Breaks Loose", so they may not have felt the need to interfere.

The Unmasqued World

Y'know having the Charmed world lose the Masquerade might have made it better.
- The drawback is that without fear of exposure, both sides can just use magic willy-nilly. Without having to bother and hide themselves, all manner of demons and whatnot would be free to constantly attack anyone and everyone. There are only so many witches to defend humanity.
  - And considering the number of demons that have required Power of Three vanquishes in the past...
  - Have to agree there. Superhero comic book worlds don't exactly last very long when there are too many more competent heels than faces. This would be the gothic equivalent.

Witches, what are they good for?

Since witches can't use their power for personal gain, about the only thing they can do with it is do good and fight evil. Yet the vast majority of witches who aren't the Charmed Ones are so weak they tend to drop like flies whenever evil actually shows up. What, then, are witches actually good for if they're so useless?
- We only see the ones that are so weak they become demonic cannon fodder. The ones that are strong enough to vanquish demons on their own are self-reliant enough they don't need the Charmed Ones (who the show focuses on). The witches we see remind me a little of the Paranet from The Dresden Files, a large group of people with very little power, but powerful enough to be visible to evil and for that they need some form of protection.
  - To be fair, not all the witches are useless, some of them were just unlucky enough to come up against threats even the Charmed Ones had difficulty with.
- And not to mention, sometimes personal gain can be cheated, if the witch is specific enough in what they want.

Self-defense skills, why doesn't anyone have them?

Demon society is pretty dog-eat-dog, so you'd think some of them would have learned to dodge those lethal fireballs of flaming death they're so fond of throwing at each other, not to mention phials of liquid thrown by young women. Also, good beings tend to get preyed on by evil a lot, so you'd think they'd have learned a few self-defense skills themselves, especially the ones who are supposed to be protecting something important from evil. (See: Nymphs Just Want To Have Fun.)

- A very good questions considering projectile powers such as fireballs and energy balls don't seem to fly at any super amazing speed. What makes it even more idiotic is that so many demons prefer to get in close, when they could simply snipe their targets from a distance, since pretty much anything coming out of the Underworld has some form of teleportation.

Why doesn't anybody seem to care that the Halliwells are always blowing things up?

While a neighbor brushed off the loud bangs and whatnots at the Halliwell house as wild parties, surely somebody (such as a window repair person) would start getting suspicious after having to repair ballistic damages for the gazillionth time. Seriously, why hasn't anyone sicced the bomb squad on them?

Why didn't the sisters' disguises in season 8 fall under personal gain?

While the sisters have been able to dodge the personal gain clause bullet now and again with clever wording, the forces that govern magic have proven themselves time and again to be nothing if not Lawful Stupid (Paige suffered consequences for repairing a shirt damaged in a fight with a demon!), and well... there's just no way to look at the spell they used in season eight as anything but personal gain. They gained way more out of it personally than Paige would have gained fixing that shirt, that's for sure.

Remember that part of their duties as Charmed Ones was to prevent exposure, and the feds came about (*snap*) that close to exposing them. The glamour spell (which was actually at the end of Season 7) was necessary, as was sticking with it into Season 8.
Maybe it did but the comeback came from Billie seeing this act as big reason for her to side with her sister and take down the sisters.

Gargoyles on Break

It was said Gargoyles awaken when the Source is above ground and keep him out of holy places like Churches. Except when Cole is the Source, he was able to enter the church for Phoebe and his wedding, before it was stopped for other reasons. But the fact still stands he entered.