Charmed: Difference between revisions

 

The series successfully returned in comic book form in 2010 thanks to company Zenescope, receiving mixed to positive reviews from fans & critics alike.

* [[AB Negative]]: This is Piper's blood type.

* [[Above Good and Evil]]

** And Piper finally gets the daughter she'd foreseen all the way back in Season 2.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Phoebe, before she got "active" powers on par with her sisters.

** Occasionally justified by the fact that powers are tied to a specific emotion, and it is hard (though not impossible) to do good things with a power that is powered by hate.

** It's also occasionally justified by the way one gets those powers. Evil powers generally get given to people who will abuse them while good powers end up with good people. That was the selection criteria for the Whitelighters and Darklighters.

* [[Battle Couple]]: Piper and Leo (after he becomes an elder). Lightning bolts and explosions everywhere!

* [[Bazaar of the Bizarre]]: There is a market for magical goods. It's run by demons, naturally.

** Also happens between Leo and ''his'' [[Evil Counterpart]].

** And again at the end of Season 8 {{spoiler|with the Halliwells on one side, and Billie and Christy on the other, with everyone boosted by the power of the Hallow.}}

** Season 8: The Triad{{spoiler|, succeeded by their protegé, Christy.}}

* [[Birth Death Juxtaposition]]: [[Kid From the Future|Chris]] dies and is then born. ([[It Makes Sense in Context]].)

** To break it down: witches are good, demons are bad. More specifically, anyone who are allies with the Charmed Ones and they like them, they are good. Anyone else is bad. Even the neutral ones because you can't trust anyone who is neutral.

*** Also, all witches after they first get their powers, must decide if they are good or evil within 24 hours.

* [[Domino Revelation]]: Witches are the first we learn but then we get demons, ghosts, angels, and others to come out.

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: Another whitelighter, Natalie, briefly serves as this in "Blinded by the Whitelighter" for the sisters when she prepares them for battle.

* [[Drunk On the Dark Side]]: Phoebe, in the S6 episode ''Witch Wars'', where she gets a crap-ton of demonic powers and promptly goes on a demon murder spree. [[Evil Feels Good|And she enjoys it]]. Of course, she had been going though active power withdrawal for some time and it ''was'' completely awesome but you can kind of see why the [[Powers That Be]] [[Brought Down to Normal|depowered her]] in the first place...

* [[Dueling Shows]]: With ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.

* [[Feminist Fantasy]]

* [[Fetus Terrible]]: Played straight for Phoebe's child, who was the offspring of a Charmed One turned (temporarily) evil, and the Source of all evil. It was slowly corrupting Phoebe, even granting her a power she had in her past evil self. Inverted with Piper's, however. Not only would hers become a powerful force for good, but Wyatt would protect Piper even when he was still in the womb.

* [[Finger Snap Lighter]]: Many, many demons. However, the very first flaming finger seen was being used by a good witch to light candles, all the way in the first episode.

* [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]]: Not all the underworld looks like this (most of it being just dark caverns and tunnels), but select places do.

* [[Healing Hands]]: Whitelighters and Elders. Inverted for [[Evil Counterpart|Darklighters]], who can kill through touch.

* [[The Heartless]]: The Shadow, the Source and the Hollow. Cole became host to each power once.

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]: Cole/Belthazor.

** This trope is justified. It is explained early on in the show that [[Bishonen Line|upper-level (i.e. more powerful) demons tend to appear human]] so as to be able to hide in plain sight. It would make sense that as the sisters grow stronger, more powerful demons would come after them.

* [[Heroic Wannabe]]: Billie (she sucks at being a hero and a {{spoiler|villain}}.)

* [[How Do I Shot Web]]: It usually takes the sister a variable length of time to master their powers when they're revealed. Particular credit goes to: Phoebe, who never was able to fully master her empathy power before it was taken from her; and Paige, who took ''5 whole seasons'' before she learnt how to heal.

* [[Human Mom Nonhuman Dad]]: It depends on whether you view the sisters as human or nonhuman. If they're nonhuman, the trope is inverted in the case of Prue, Piper, and Phoebe (human dad/nonhuman mom). If they're human, the trope is played straight in the case of Paige (human mom/nonhuman dad). If they are human, Piper's sons and Phoebe's children have this trope apply to them, as well. Whether they're human or not, the trope is inverted in the case of Paige's children, since she married a "mortal" human, Henry, and is half Whitelighter (and thus, technically, nonhuman). Of course, Paige, as well as Piper's sons Wyatt and Chris, is half dead person, so I'm not sure how that works, but their fathers are still nonhuman. Brandon, the half-warlock from the first season, played this trope straight as well. It was inverted in the case of Cole, whose mother was a demon and his father a human.

** Only to [[Subverted Trope|subvert]] this trope when he explains that {{spoiler|he just wanted to try whether he really was indestructable}} and goes [[Ax Crazy]] for good after the confirmation.

*** Cole didn't explain anything. He wanted to die and was quite miserable that nothing could be done to make it happen. Now, he was told by the Avatars that this was the case and cryptically said as much to the sisters, but it was quite clear that Cole was hoping against hope that they were wrong.

* [[Kung Fu Wizard]]: Phoebe is a Kung-Fu Witch. She learns martial arts because she's the only one without an active power (and gets bummed when Prue gets [[Astral Projection|another one before she did]]). Eventually she learned how to levitate, which helped out her martial arts skills a bit.

* [[Lamarck Was Right]]: Wyatt Halliwell inherits both his mother's molecular freezing and combustion powers and his father's whitelighter abilities. Chris also receives whitelighter abilities, but has powers equivalent to Prue's.

* [[Laser Hallway]]: Complete with acrobatics from Phoebe. They were actually moving lasers, but having the power to stop time comes in handy during burglary.

* [[Last of His Kind]]: The last [[Squishy Wizard|wizard]] in existence was trying to kill the Source, who just happened to be Cole.

** Done again in the episode "Just Harried" when Prue's id decides to get a little action via astral projection.

* [[Living Shadow]]: Cole has one.

* [[Love Cannot Overcome]]: After Prue confesses to her first season boyfriend Andy that she's a witch, he admits that he can't handle it and probably wouldn't be able to no matter how long she gave him to get used to the idea.

** This may also have been the reason that the girls' father left.

* [[Making a Splash]]: The Water Demon that killed the sisters' mother, and the sea hag. May or may not be the same person.

* [[Male Gaze]]

** An evil witch possesses a mortal man in one episode, and really does touch himself, albeit briefly.

* [[Masquerade]]: The mortal world cannot know of the magical one. When the Masquerade is broken, the consequences are serious.

* [[Missing Mom]]: Patty was drowned by a Warlock when the main characters were very young. Prue saw her die and Phoebe was too young to remember her at all. Paige never knew her since she was raised by [[Muggle Foster Parents]]. They meet her in the past and some episodes feature her as a [[Spirit Advisor]], though.

* [[Missing Episode]]: On the first DVD of Season 6 the episode titled "Love's a Witch" was listed on the DVD menu but not actually present in the DVD collection of videos, a recall was issued shortly afterward in which you could trade in your 'bad' copy and get a 'real' copy.

** Although, by the time the show was canceled, she did express some bitterness at how the show was treated, so it seems that at some point she did begin to have at least some affection for the show.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The season 4 episode "Hell Hath No Fury". Funny jokes about Paige messing with magic and getting an accidental [[Breast Expansion]] one minute, a serious story about Piper literally losing herself in rage and grief over Prue's death the next. One of the better-acted episodes in the series, oddly enough.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: The aforementioned Cole and Leo are the two greatest examples, and two sides of the same coin. Cole is a [[Our Demons Are Different|demon]], and fits the handsome bad boy type. Phoebe gets to play the fantasy of turning the bad boy good. By contrast, Leo is quite literally an [[Our Angels Are Different|angel]]. He plays the nice guy, and is all about [[Love Freak|love and goodness]]. And yes, both of them have had [[Shirtless Scene|Shirtless Scenes]].

** While Cole and Leo were both fairly developed and well-rounded characters, the pure [[Mr. Fanservice]] would have been Dan from Season 2. Hunky former baseball player turned handyman next door, he seemed to only exist to stand around in tank tops and be that nice guy that Piper saw as her perfect life that she couldn't have with Leo at that point.

* [[Necromantic]]: Inverted in "Necromancing The Stone". Apparently Grams fell in love with a Necromancer, whom she had to vanquish. He was stealing spirits in order to keep himself firmly on the living side of the line between life and death. When he comes across Grams, he tries to convince her to let both of them be resurrected by using the spirits of the Halliwel line during baby Wyatt's christening.

* [[Never Say Die]]: Although "kill" and "destroy" belong to their vocabulary, the sisters seem to prefer to "vanquish" demons.

* [[Nice Guy]]: Leo Wyatt.

*** Phoebe was tricked by the Seer into doing it for Cole and their baby's sake after which Cole takes to poisoning her with evil granted he claims to be doing it for her sake to make her feel less morality concerning the evil things he does but that is not her fault but his. Even after he was vanquished and came back he expressed his rather creepy wish to stick with her despite all her attempts to tell him to leave which he refuses to do until it drives him insane. That does make her a hypocrite for shunning after this.

** Cole's [[Face Heel Turn]] in Season 5 is even worse. Prior to it, Cole is generally trying to do good - either helping the sisters outright or just keeping to himself. However, the sisters (especially Phoebe) don't trust him and repeatedly make that clear to him no matter what he does. Unsurprisingly, this all helps wear down on his willpower and sanity. When Cole reveals his [[Face Heel Turn]] has in fact happened, [[Jerk Sue|Phoebe even has the nerve to ask him why]].

*** His trying to do good revolves around him trying to win back Phoebe even after being firmly told by her that for both their sakes he should move on yet he continues by his own volition to muscle in on her life with good deeds which are heavily laced with creepy stalker tendencies that exacerbate the sisters' distrust of him. He even openly admits after coming back that he'll never give up on her which is more than a little creepy. Phoebe asking him why is not her being a [[Jerk Sue]] when you take into account that she gave him the chance to leave and he didn't take it.

**** He was halfway out the door to leave the city forever thinking Phoebe turned into a mermaid out of hatred for him until ''Paige tugged him back and said Phoebe loved him'', and it can very well be argued that nobody who Cole encountered since then even treated him like a person rather than as something to be feared or a tool for power.

** An invincibility spell shows up in the episode "Little Monsters". Paige cast it on Darryl, and it made him pretty much [[Immune to Bullets]]. While one wonders why they don't use it more often, it also had the side effect of inflating one's ego, reminiscent of when Prue was infected with the sin of Pride nearly killing her. Plus it turned his strength up to beyond Herculean levels and when we last see him before Paige goes to fix it is surrounded by his broken things in his office because he couldn't control his new found strength.

* [[Nipple and Dimed]]: Part of Phoebe's nipple actually made it on the air in the episode "Sight Unseen". In a scene at the club, the dress she's wearing fails to cover her up and part of the nipple is visible.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: They have social hierarchy similar to bees.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Complete with [[Missing Mom]], [[Disappeared Dad]], [[Raised By Grandparents]], and [[Muggle Foster Parents]].

* [[Personal Gain Hurts]]: [[Anvilicious|Oh, how they drill this one in...]] It's practically the [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Pirates]]: Type 1. They're also [[Pirates of the Caribbean|magical undying cursed pirates]], of course. To be fair, the films are given a [[Shout Out]] when Phoebe asks if they're "hot [[Johnny Depp]] pirates".

* [[Psycho for Hire]]: A lot of the later demons.

* [[Puberty Superpower]]: Some powers manifest at puberty, such as the firestarter kid in "Lost and Bound".

* [[Put On a Bus]]: Darryl who was present in all seasons but the last.

** Also, Leo who left the show during the middle of the final season.

* [[Series Continuity Error]]: In "Desperate Housewitches," the sisters have to face the threat of a resurrected Source. Paige asks Piper and Phoebe how the Source was vanquished last time... as if she wasn't there... which she was... [[It Makes Sense in Context|for technically three times]]. No one on the writing staff caught this?!

* [[Series Fauxnale]]: End of Season 7. It ends with Darryl promising his wife he wouldn't help the Charmed Ones anymore, them {{spoiler|destroying their own source of power}} to kill the [[Big Bad]] and finally {{spoiler|changing their faces}} and starting living normal lives! Also Prue was mentioned a lot, and even the episode title was a mirror of the title of the pilot episode. But then [[Post Script Season|they got renewed]]...

* [[She Fu]]

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Many ''many'' demons simply eschew upper body covering. Mortals and warlocks sometimes even get in on the action too.

* [[Signature Spell]]: Initially it was the power of three spell ("the [[Rule of Three|Power of Three]] will set us free"). As the series continued they began using the "To call a lost Witch" spell more and more.

* [[Single Line of Descent]]: A rare female example. The Charmed Ones are three sisters who are the descendants of 17th century witch Melinda Warren. Apparently, up until the birth of the protagonists, there never were three daughters per generation.

* [[Smith Will Suffice]]

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Averted. An illusionist wizard was actually quite competent in battling a sword-wielding Cole with his staff. Of course, being the [[Last of His Kind]] may have given him a lot of determination.

** Type 3: [[Witch Species|Witches]], [[Evil Counterpart|Warlocks]], upper-level Demons, [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampires]], [[Our Angels Are Different|Whitelighters]], Darklighters, Wizards, [[Power Trio|the Halliwell Sisters]], [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|etc]].

** Type 4: [[All Your Powers Combined|The Power of Three]], the Elders, the Cleaners, [[Ultimate Evil|the Source]], the Triad, the Nexus, Zankou, [[Nigh Invulnerable|the Tall Man]], [[Chosen One|Wyatt Halliwell]], [[Reality Warper|Billie Jenkins]]

** Type 6: The Angel of Death, The Angel of Destiny, Shakti and Shiva together

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Paige, when Prue left the show.

* [[Take That]]: In season 3, they seemed to be throwing these toward Shannen Doherty as Prue is [[Put On a Bus To Hell]]. In "Sin Francisco," she was possessed by the Deadly Sin of Pride, turning her into a raging egomaniac. "Look Who's Barking" turns her into a literal female dog, and she also was responsible for destroying Piper's wedding in "Just Harried." It seemed like everybody was grateful to see her leave.

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Especially pronounced in the season 6 finale "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World", where [[Mirror Universe]] [[Evil Counterpart|Evil Counterparts]] of characters interact with good ones.

* [[The Social Darwinist]]: [[Bad Future|Evil Future]] [[The Chosen One|Wyatt]].

* [[The Three Faces of Eve]]: The sisters fit the trope after Paige joins the cast, with Piper as the mother, Phoebe as the seductress and Paige as the child.

* [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]: The Grimoire, which is the [[Evil Counterpart|demon equivalent]] of the Book of Shadows.

* [[Took a Level In Jerkass]]: As Alyssa Milano got more creative control, Phoebe went from a likeable, well-meaning [[The Ditz|ditz]] to a self-obsessed, selfish [[Jerk Sue]].

** You could probably also count Prue's funeral and {{spoiler|the funeral Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had when they faked their deaths}}.

* [[Ultimate Evil]]: The Source of All Evil, The Triad, The Ultimate Power...

* [[Unholy Matrimony]]: Quite literally if someone wants to remain aligned with Evil in marriage. It must be performed with a Dark Priest, at night, in a cemetary.

* [[Unlimited Wardrobe]]

* [[Vain Sorceress]]: One shows up and soul-swaps herself into Phoebe's body. She has a lot of fun looking at herself, especially since her original face is terribly ugly.

* [[Valkyries]]: Yup, they exist too.

* [[Villain Teleportation]]: Demons usually either shimmer or use flames. Warlocks would just disappear or 'blink'. Also, note while villains have the most varieties of teleportation, it's the good kind of teleportation - orbing - that appears most often.

* [[Wedding Smashers]]: "Prue, get your astral ass ''back here!''" yells Piper, just as Prue ruins the wedding.

** And Gideon, don't forget [[I Did What I Had to Do|Gideon]]. Agent Brody and [[Smug Snake|Odin]] also count.

** Dr. Williamson after he became infected with the sisters' blood.

* [[What Do They Fear Episode]]: Whenever Barbas is the [[Monster of the Week|Demon Of The Week]], this is the basis of the episode. Well, he ''is'' the [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Demon of Fear]].

** Also inverted in Its A Bad, Bad World, where Barbas is the Demon of ''Hope''

** Played straight (painfully so) in a later season, with a demon [[Heel Face Turn|trying to help the sisters]] in return for a soul. [[Stuffed in The Fridge|Needlessly killed]] by the [[Big Bad]] before she can become human again, but [[Redemption Equals Death|after holding up her side of the bargain]].

*** Kyra actually did turn human again, apparently resulting in missed fanservice (her demonic clothes were implied to have disappeared offscreen before Piper gave her a nice little dress). This only made her vanquish even more painful.

** Completely subverted in an episode where the sisters were hunting what they thought was a demon going after an innocent baby. Turned out the 'demon' [[Monster Is a Mommy|was actually the baby's father]], who had learned magic and transformed himself [[I Did What I Had to Do|so as to have the power to protect his son from his mother and her kind]]. (This baby would be the half-manticore child mentioned just above here.) Not only did the sisters give the fellow a chance to explain the truth (despite him being willing to kidnap and endanger them), they stopped the real demons, saved his life (after his brush with death [[This Was His True Form|restored him to his human self]]), and got his son back for him. All of this despite the Elders telling them that 'the baby was a (half) demon and [[Always Chaotic Evil|can never be raised to be anything else]]'. Score a major hit for the heroes, [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|idealism]], and [[Happy Ending|Happy Endings]]!

* [[White Magic]]: All good beings like good witches, white lighters, elders, fairies, and so forth use some form of holy-based spell casting in one form or another.

* [[Widow Witch]]: Grams for her first husband, Allen.

* [[Wizarding School]]: The latter seasons featured one shortly after ''[[Harry Potter]]'' started getting popular. Young witches just coming into their powers in the earlier seasons had to do without it. Or did they just not know about it for some reason?

** There's also a [[Evil Counterpart|demonic training academy]].

* [[Your Worst Nightmare]]: The episode "Sand Francisco Dreamin'" pits the protagonists against their worst nightmares come to life after the [[Monster of the Week|Demon Of The Week]] gets his hands on some Sandman sand.