paigemathews

[paigemathews]

Hey, remember that I had a battle royale poll going on for your favorite minor character? Yeah, me neither, it's been almost a year oops. But here's the other half of season four!

[paigemathews]

Amazing gifset, I love the coloring on this! But also made me wonder if all four of the sisters actually need glasses, especially since we never see Patty, Penny, Victor, or Sam wear them as far as I can remember. Because it does seem a little much for all four of them to actually need glasses when it certainly doesn't appear to be a family trait.

Phoebe canonically needs (reading?) glasses, so I think that she definitely does obviously. I also think that Prue needs reading glasses, especially because all of the gifs she's wearing them are at Bucklands, where she needs to be able to see details on an item and all that. However, I think that Paige is wearing them for style purposes. Piper, I also don't think needs them, but isn't the type to wear them for fashion, I feel like? Maybe she has a fake pair from when Prue or Phoebe got them to support them because one of them was upset/insecure about needing them?

But I love the variety of glasses for Prue and Phoebe! Prue seems to have more similar glasses, and it makes sense that she has a very distinct style that she likes to wear. (As far as I can tell, they're all black, just with some, actually relatively minor depending on the pair, differing shapes.) And then Phoebe's are just constantly changing, she probably has a pair that matches every outfit frankly.

I don't know, just interesting to me!

EMOJI ASK MEME

🧾📚🖋🔖📑📖📔 ➳ the girls all looking studiously chic in their glasses

[paigemathews]

Charmed Characters & Driving

Prue Halliwell - great driver, v responsible and all. Never got a ticket or anything! The default driver of the sisters. Her car is tidy and organized, like there's a little trash can in there and everything.

Piper Halliwell - she's a good driver, but goodness she gets road rage sometimes. People will do something stupid, and she'll be yelling in the car. She's not a fan of letting other ppl drive. Her car is clean, but full of cooking materials, toys, and other stuff that comes with having a restaurant and small children. Y'know the portable DVD players? Yeah, there's at least one in there.

Phoebe Halliwell - no. She has flirted her way out of multiple tickets. It doesn't help that she ran off to New York relatively young and as an inexperienced driver and then when she came back, she got premonitions that made driving a challenge. Her car is disorganized as hell, full of lipglosses, newspaper copies, and whatever else she puts in there.

Paige Matthews - surprising to most people, Paige is actually the most responsible and cautious driver. She was the DD a lot during college, and she does not play with car safety. (It clicks for her sisters after the events of a Paige in the Past.) Also has a super disorganized car, but in the way where she can find exactly what she's looking for and you're like wtf.

Andy Trudeau - look at him being responsible and all- Andy, you missed the turn again. (Great driver! Terrible at actually paying attention to where he's going bc he's focused on a case. Darryl tries to drive most of the time.) It's not that his car is a mess, but this man is constantly toting his files back and forth with him. There's probably like three occult books in the backseat that he's studying for this case. That said, he can have a bag with food wrappers in the passenger floodboard when he's highly focused on a case.

Darryl Morris - excellent driver and can switch between police chase and civilian driving extraordinarily well. He has a very organized car, but the back has DJ and Michael's extracurricular activities, Sheila's gardening supplies, and whatever else they have going on.

Leo Wyatt - genuinely, he's actually a good driver. He's fascinated by cars in the modern era. That said, he drives Piper insane bc while he's a good driver, he is very cautious and slow. He follows the speed limit to the letter. The car is organized, but they mostly use Piper's bc he does a lot of restoring cars that aren't practical for their family.

Cole Turner - technically never actually learned how to drive, so he kinda speeds everywhere. Has super nice cars, and it very much fits the hotshot demon lawyer persona. Surprisingly does not have as much road rage as you'd expect, but he isn't a fan of other people driving. His car is empty, what the fuck are you supposed to put in a car?

Coop - does not know how to drive. Big fan of walkable cities, bike rides, etc. bc it's more romantic. Very little about driving is romantic. He eventually learns, but still. Not really a big driver.

Henry Mitchell - for law enforcement, he sure as hell speeds a lot. He may have done some slightly illegal racing when he was younger. Tries to make sure that he's following all the laws in front of his parolees, but he still slips up sometimes. He doesn't want to talk about the speeding tickets. His car is a mess, but it gets slightly better after Paige calls him out on it. Not intentionally messy, but it's just like... what else is he supposed to do with those receipts?

Chris Halliwell - so, fun fact: the world ended when he was a teenager. He learned to drive on the run through stealing cars. Piper asked him to pick something up for her one time, and never again. (See here.) An absolute menace on the road, and definitely had caused multiple wrecks in the future. (It's okay though, it was witch hunters and Wyatt's forces.)

Billie Jenkins - lowkey shitty driver, but not like. dangerously shitty. Probably has a speeding ticket and way too many parking tickets. Can't parallel park to save her life. Her car is kinda messy, but more like typical college girl mess with textbooks and clothes and this is why she never studies bc all of her textbooks are just in the backseat somewhere.

[paigemathews]

Very much appreciated your commitment to maintaining the 'P' names for next generation and exploring interesting ways to do so. It's giving early 00s Charmed fanfiction in the absolute best way possible. 🤍 🤍 🤍

Lol, thank you, nonnie! I always wanna at least try to keep them P names, and there are actually a fair number! (Especially bc I like... never give the sisters sons, it's always daughters lmao.) I think that Prue and Phoebe are the ones that I want to try stick to it as much as possible because Piper canonically didn't and Paige doesn't have that attachment to it like the others do, but I like when I can have all of them have it! That said, I am breaking it a little as I do more of them. I've only done one daughter for my Piper/Mark next gen thus far (and she's the only next gen I have for them rn), and her name is Mara. (I was trying to see what sounded similar to Mark, and it had a biblical connotation that kinda matched with their situation so I ended up going for that.) But I genuinely love getting to come up with all of the names! I try to make them make as much sense as possible for the characters and settings, but sometimes, you gotta get funky with it. (My two favorite names are Pendragon, who is the future queen and Wielder of Excalibur and probably Paige's daughter that I've mentioned One (1) time, and Polaris, who I have nothing for besides being Paige's daughter and probably having some kind of divination with the stars going on.)

[paigemathews]

Poppy, Peony, and Primrose feels more Phoebe/Simon coded than Piper/Coop.

👀 Oh my God, nonnie, you are so right!! Forget what I said, bc truthfully, I still wasn't feeling it for Piper/Coop bc the flower thing just feels a little extra for those two in a way that doesn't quite mesh but it would so fit with Phoebe/Simon!! Because Phoebe obviously wants the three girls + the P name tradition, and I think that Simon would definitely name his kids after a theme and that flower thing feels v British, especially Poppy and Primrose. (No, I have no reasoning why, just feels v Brit to me.)

(Ironically, in my next gen canon, Simon's youngest daughter actually goes by Lily! It initially was just a nickname and her actual name began with an A like her older sisters Alicia and Anna, but I may end up making it her actual name or her middle name.)

But yes, Poppy, Peony, and Primrose would def be a Phoebe/Simon trio! (Hmm, might swap out Peony tho bc I do kinda wanna possibly use that for a Piper/Mark kid bc it apparently symbolizes wealth and prosperity in Chinese cultures? And I always struggle with finding good names for their kids... Kinda like the name Posie as well, but I always associate that with Pandora, Paige's daughter in the Warren Witches, who already has a story in my head, so idk if I can reuse it for this. After looking it up, oh my God, some people shouldn't be allowed to name kids bc some of these options, y'all, I stg. I don't really like the name Petunia, but maybe Pansy? One of said horrible options was Plumeria, and maybe have her go by Eria? Idk, we'll see, I think maybe Pansy.)

EDIT AFTER TWO FUCKING SECONDS: PALOMA!! BC PALOMA ROSES ARE A FLOWER AND ITS A CALLOUT TO THE WINDSER ROSES OR WHATEVER THEY WERE THAT SIMON SAID AND THAT IS SO FUCKING PERFECT FOR THEM!!!!!

[paigemathews]

Thinking about the "To Summon the Dead" spell and pondering bc that seems like pretty powerful magic, y'know? Literally calling a spirit from the Great Beyond to appear before you just because you wanted it. And we only see the sisters (and Penny) use it, so what if it's not a spell that anyone can use? The sisters are only able to use it as easily as they do because they're the Charmed Ones, incredibly powerful witches. In contrast, other witches... can't do that. It takes extreme skill and power (that Penny developed over her life) to cast it or specific circumstances, like the Wiccaning, where other witches/spirits lend their power towards the spell. (It's why it's the Halliwell matriarchs that specifically are included in the Wiccaning because of their power and skill instead of just all previous Halliwell witches.)

[paigemathews]

Love the idea of an AU next gen with sisters Poppy, Peony, and Primrose bc I think that'd be cute.

[paigemathews]

Seriously considering the possibility of straight up rolling dice for an episode of my next gen series (yep, still unpublished and yep, still talking about it as if it's not) for pairing up characters, the events, and so on and so forth. I think it'd be a fun tactic.

[paigemathews]

Last year, I was scrolling through the Charmed tag and saw someone say how they disliked the s7 finale as the series ending, and I wanted to elaborate on why I a hundred percent agree. (They asked for no spoilers, however, so I wanted to make my own post and also this was initially a draft from last year, so I don't even remember who it was anymore unfortunately.) Both as finales can make sense, but they definitely follow up on different plot threads/arcs with different implications of the future and would definitely land differently with fans.

The season 7 finale would have culminated in the sisters fully shedding their magical lives, a responsibility and, frankly, burden that they never asked for but has cost them a lot. I think that kind of finale actually kind of works with the vibe of season 7, which was kind of philosophical and had a lot to do with the ideas of free will, utopia, the like. It also had the characters hit some of their darkest moments/be faced with great loss (Leo's journey with the Avatars, Kyle's death, the aftermath of Chris's death, Phoebe's series of premonitions of those they've lost, the entirety of Death Becomes Them, etc.) With that in mind, that ending would be the sisters' freedom from their destiny. The Charmed Ones would be dead, and they could finally live their lives the way that they wanted to. It was kind of a definite end to their lives of Halliwells, which was inescapably tied to magic, and you can kind of see that in how it wraps up. They lose access to the Manor (at the beginning of the episode) and destroy the Nexus, a coveted magical power that their family protected. Darryl, who was their known friend and ally, is able to walk away. I mean, as a finale, it pretty firmly establishes that they'll be able to get normal lives, which is one type of ending.

Season 8, however, focuses on the girls reconciling their responsibilities with their desired lives (being able to achieve their deepest desires while facing magical battles!), finding a balance and discovering the beauty in magic once again. (I think that there's something there with the ultimate antagonist being Christy, a sister who never asked for her power and experienced great suffering bc of her magic, potentially being a foil to the sisters.) I mean, frankly, a big part of the overall arc of s8 is the sisters take on the next stage of their loves (Paige and Phoebe finding love, Phoebe starting the family she wants, mentoring Billie and passing on their knowledge of the craft) while still handling their magical lives. (Idk, I just feel it's noteworthy that Paige gets married in the midst of all of this magical stuff.) There's also this theme of continuation with the next generation (Wyatt, Billie, Leo's students) and passing the torch (again, Billie) that leans towards the idea of continuation and legacy. Especially bc the finale is basically incorporating this idea of past, present, and future working together and the idea that magic is entrenched in the Halliwell line for all time. It's the reclaiming of these spaces (the Manor, Magic School) and deciding to protect it. It feels like the sisters have finally settled into their destinies and responsibilities while also having that balance they wanted. Plus, frankly, fans of Charmed are people who like magic and witches and the escapism of it all. You can make it work, but I don't think it'd be as satisfying of an ending to its targeted audience.

[paigemathews]

Kind of wondering if anyone has any recs for resources for organizing a lot of series' info? I'm kind of looking into something that makes organizing all my next gen series stuff a bit easier, but I'm not really sure of the best resource.

I have been using OneNote, which isn't too bad. I have Notion as well, but I don't really know how to do a planner like what I'd need (except for basically a repeat of my OneNote) and all of the existing templates are geared towards traditional stories instead of something like this, a series. (Love both platforms but kind of want something different.)

For context, I have season outlines, episode outlines, arc outlines, character sheets, bits of worldbuilding, etc. that I kind of want to try to have designated spaces for.

[paigemathews]

42 character development questions!

PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE. 1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy? 2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest? 3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd? 4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? 5. How do they dress? What styles, colors, accessories, and other possessions do they favor? Why? 6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these? 7. How do they physically engage with other people, inanimate objects, and their environment? What causes the differences between these? 8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell? 9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions? 10. What energizes and drains them most? 11. How are they vocally expressive? What kind of voice, accent, tones, inflections, volume, phrases and slang, and manner of speaking do they use? 12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands? DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT. 13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? 14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed? 15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives? 16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like? 17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person? 18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why? CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS. 19. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why? 20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships? 21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why? 22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ? 23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult? 24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference? 25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it? 26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does? ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES. 27. What do they strongly like and dislike, in any category? Why? 28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why? 29. What kind of activities, interests, and hobbies do they have? What significance and impact do these have in their lives, both positive and negative? 30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much? 31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why? 32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why? THINKING AND LEARNING. 33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things? 34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why? 35. How and why do they internalize knowledge? What effect has that had on them? 36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this? 37. Have they had any special education or training that colors their means of learning about or understanding the world? Conversely, do they lack some kind of education considered essential in their world? What kind of impact has this addition or lack had on them? 38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why? 39. What sort of questions or thoughts recur in their lives, either specifically or as a theme? Why are these never answered, or answered permanently to their satisfaction? 40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is? FREE FOR ALL. 41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why? 42. I have a question of my own!

[paigemathews]

see, this is absolutely a hundred percent true, but i feel like jenny was also such a flop bc like. they literally had no idea what to do with her lmao. even now, like. i can pull something out of billie, even though the writing for her character made her annoying as hell, but jenny? she literally was just there in the first two episodes, a victim in her third, and relatively helpful in her last. they never really gave her anything to work with.

frankly, i think that adding her in through dan was kind of... destined to fail? bc dan was obviously never gonna bc piper's endgame, so you lose her through him as soon as that's clear. if they'd brought her in through some other way and gave her literally anything interesting to do, i think that they might have been able to land her at least a little better as an escapist character but i mean. her plots were: not wanting to tell dan that she needed tampons, dan trying to pawn off the sex ed talk (that she already knew) on the sisters, her being a temp. victim to a demon (and being memory wiped after), and being the manic pixie dream girl for kyle the seventh son lmao. only two of these were really even remotely plots.

bc it's hard but i think that you can make a tween girl like a tween girl character but that ain't it. instead of being an escape from their mundane life (bc look at the sisters! they're powerful and beautiful and badass and such), jenny was literally just them in their most annoying form (i say with love but do you get what i mean? you add in a character to appeal to a specific demographic, but the depiction of said demographic includes literally none of what makes the show fun to watch with magic or love interests or close bonds or whatever.)

it’s sooooo funny that they clearly added jenny to appeal to the growing tween girl crowd completely forgetting that there is notoriously nothing a tween girl hates more that another tween girl

[paigemathews]

do you think in the altered future timeline the relationship between leo and chris has improved much? because watching the show post reveal and post og!chris death it seems to me that leo is driven mostly by guilt but once chris is born, baby chris is kinda relegated to second thought and not doted on and worried over as much as baby wyatt ever was. the only person who seems to put him first is piper as though she's the only one who's really learnt her lesson

i feel similarly about paige and phoebe and how they look (or don't look) after their new nephew in contrast to how protective they were/are over wyatt. leo is there for chris like piper is but ultimately i think he's still prioritizing wyatt so when we see glimpse of an adjusted chris in the altered future i'm like okay so how did we get here because i don't think the show really earns it, i don't look at leo and go he is transformed and would def put both his sons first now

Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't really think that Leo prioritized Wyatt over Chris. (The only thing coming to mind was when Chris was dying, but seeing as Gideon was the only one who could heal him, Leo had to go for both of them.) I mean, yes, there was the discussion of the unchanged future, but that wasn't current Leo, so I don't really see why he would need that character development. Tell me if I'm missing something, but I didn't really get the idea that Leo prioritized Wyatt over Chris. (More on that below bc I want to talk about their relationship in the changed future first.)

I think that Leo and Chris's relationship is definitely improved, but I think it has new and different tensions! (Who is Chris without daddy issues?) Because Leo has that regret and trauma and doesn't actually manage to overcome it, but even if he had, watching your child die in front of you is going to impact that relationship. I feel like Leo has this extreme overprotective streak that would drive Chris crazy because I mean, Chris is pretty hyper independent. From Chris's perspective, without context, it comes across as Leo thinks that Chris is less skilled and more fragile, which definitely pisses him off bc it just brushes up against the whole complex with the Twice-Blessed as an older brother. I think that he definitely takes it as a comparison thing between Wyatt being so powerful and Chris not. Mel definitely gets some overprotective tendencies as well, but I think it's easier for Chris to get over that bc a) since Mel isn't a hybrid, she can't teleport out when she gets in over her head so it makes sense to worry a little more over her and b) Mel doesn't really seek out demons with any kind of the same frequency that Chris does (and demons seek out Wyatt), her power is freezing, and both of those things mean that she doesn't actually get injured that often.

However, Chris's issue is primarily rooted in that he feels like Leo doesn't think that he's as capable of Wyatt. If it would work, it might have led to Chris trying to prove himself, but instead, it's much more on that Chris just doesn't... tell his dad when he's going demon hunting and will go out of his way to make sure that he can't find out. (I'm pretty sure that's actually how we get our introduction to Magic School library assistant/Wyatt's coworker Kaila (and future med school student) in the main series is Chris getting her to fix up a few scrapes from a demon attack instead of getting healed lmao.) It definitely upsets Chris, but it's something that he's more used to dealing with bc he's Wyatt's younger brother and a lot of people genuinely view him as less capable. It definitely vastly improves their relationship actually lmao because at least this time, it's Leo's excessive worry over him instead of indifference or apathy.

(But speaking of regret, I have an next gen series episode idea floating around my head that I'd love to do if it I can fit it into the storyline logically. A demon who takes the form of your greatest regret attacks the Halliwells, and Leo walks in during the fight and Wyatt and Melinda (who have no idea of the unchanged future or the time travel for the necessary context) see it transform into Chris. Mel might try to punch their dad. (Leo's regret is failing to save his son.))

But honestly, I think that a lot of the relational differences to Chris and to Wyatt are less in-universe and more as a result of the show overdoing it when Wyatt was a baby and not wanting to repeat basically the same exact stuff with Chris again. And I mean, even with Wyatt still getting plotlines, he's a toddler and has more storyline options than Chris (who is basically a potato at this point) does since they kind of used all of them. Plus, there's the difference that Wyatt was the firstborn so it actually makes sense that he got a lot of the "Oh God how are we gonna keep this thing alive/safe from demons" elements that weren't as necessary with Chris. That was also around the time that both Phoebe and Paige had more separate plotlines/independence in comparison, so it makes sense that they weren't as intertwined around then to me. But I think it's really mostly an out-of-universe thing bc we already did baby plotlines in all honesty.

[paigemathews]

I don't think it's about sexism. I think it's about sexuality. The majority of the Charmed fandom is attracted to men but not women. I'm sure Wyatt, Chris and Cole wouldn't have as many fans and apologists if the men playing them were ugly. Because they're cute/sexy, that makes it easier to fall in love with them and want to focus on them and hate anyone who is mean to them or takes attention away from them.

I get what you're saying, but I feel like that's a bit of a overgenerous argument tbh. While yes, there are fans who prioritize focus or defend male characters exclusively because they're attracted to them, it doesn't mean that those justifications or arguments aren't sexist, regardless of intent. Because those ideas (Phoebe owing Cole a relationship because of everything that he did for her) or tropes (reducing women to love interests, damsels, or bitches and excluding them from primary or powerful roles) are still sexist, even if that's not your intent. Frankly, I don't think that a lot of those fans realized that they were even using sexist arguments and tropes (ah, the internal of internal misogyny), but it still was.

Additionally, there's the level of vitriol that was frankly unnecessary at the characters themselves but also towards other fans. If you're actively lashing out at real people over the mention of a female character, it's a problem. Because I get what you mean when you say "takes attention away from them," but I need to reiterate that the issue is that they aren't. Using my own writing as an example, I have fics that Mel never appeared on-screen receive hate because I mentioned her in the author's note, not even the actual fic.

It's also just worse because this is a (very 90s but still) feminist show. You'd think that people would be better about it, and some were to an extent, but it was still a reoccurring pattern for years.

[paigemathews]

Melinda deniers are very possibly the worst of the Charmed fandom.

Honestly, I think that they're tied with the Cole apologists/Phoebe haters for me, but both have similar sources of sexism/misogyny! Also, nonnie, I am so sorry because you did not ask for this rant, but you'll be getting it anyways. The one thing that Mel deniers always get stuck on is that Piper doesn't explicitly mention her, but that doesn't actually mean that she doesn't exist! Phoebe doesn't explicitly mention forgiving Billie, but we get the idea with the fact that we see her watching Phoebe and Coop's oldest two daughters. Paige doesn't explicitly mention that the twins are girls, but we can see that they are. Piper doesn't explicitly mention Melinda, but we can see that she exists. I have actual categories for my reasoning on why she exists in fact.

Practicality

Firstly, there's just the element of conservation of detail. We don't see Piper's restaurant because it's more effective to just tell us. In contrast, Phoebe doesn't explicitly tell us that she continues working at the Bay Mirror because they can just show us that she does. Generally the same setup for both sisters but different executions bc of sets they already have and what fans will recognize on screen.

Additionally, a lot of the voiceover is dedicated to the way that the sisters' lives change or stay the same. Both Phoebe and Paige mention their kids because none of them were born during the show's run. Nothing about any of the individual kids are really discussed, as much as it's "I'm a mom now!" (Ironically, Paige shares the most about her kids with Henry Jr.'s name and the girls being twins, but that's still it. (Probably because Paige was forever shafted on storylines, so her entire flashforward is basically the kids and her still being a Whitelighter.) We don't know shit about Phoebe's kids.) Piper doesn't really refer to the kids specifically at all. She transitions into her voiceover by saying that Paige passes knowledge down to more than her own, Piper's, or Phoebes, but Piper doesn't actually talk about her kids literally at all. (Even the Chris and Wyatt flashforward is meant as a general the next generation taking over, not specifically Piper's kids.) Because Piper was already a mom! It's not a change that she needs to discuss.

Also most important, it's pretty well known that the show has some severe budget cuts for the last session. It's why Leo was frozen and Darryl was written off! It's why they don't show us Piper's restaurant, because another set would be more expensive. It's why we don't have a picture of Prue, because allegedly, it would've been too expensive. (Idk for sure on that, heard mixed things about that.) It's probably even why we see Phoebe going into labor instead of her third daughter because another actress would've required money.

But they hired an actress for Melinda. If it was a cousin like some people want to argue, they would have reused one of the other actresses (because she's clearly too old to be Phoebe's last daughter). It makes no sense to have another actress just to be a neighbor's kid (the other argument I see). They very specifically decided to put money in the budget toward hiring an actress for Melinda, even though they didn't for Phoebe's third daughter. No, they didn't show her in the flashforward with Chris and Wyatt taking over, but that was specifically because... well, why would they? None of the next gen kids are shown as adults other than Chris and Wyatt, and while we can easily figure out who Mel is from the scene she's in, it'd be more complicated to add in other characters as adults in that scene. (Plus, while I don't know if they ever seriously considered doing a spin-off, they definitely had to know that it was a popular idea, so it would make more sense to avoid depicting any of the other next gen characters as adults so that they wouldn't have to worry about keeping them for continuity for a spin-off bc obviously Chris and Wyatt had already been cast.)

Thematically

Look, obviously Chris and Wyatt are basically the most known legacy of the sisters because they're born during the show. However, it is really uncomfortable to have the legacy of a (90s) feminist show and empowered female characters be two white guys. (The Morris brothers, however... (As always, love phoebehalliwell's stuff and everyone should go give her love, especially bc Tumblr is being dumb as hell and shadowbanned her.)) But it's kind of unavoidable that Wyatt and Chris are the legacy bc a) Piper is the heart of the family and b) they're the ones we've met. However, at the very least, it's slightly mitigated by having a sister bc at least then the legacy isn't just men.

Additionally: this is Charmed. It has to be a trio of protagonists?? Like Charmed does a lot with trios across the series, it's magically powerful and a key element of the lore. There has to be a third one. Which you can tell they were thinking about in the flashforward bc every sister has three kids. (It's on the nose tbh but eh.) It doesn't really make sense to have Chris and Wyatt be the only ones when they're doing this pretty obviously.

But mostly that it looks less bad if there's a sister also carrying on the legacy.

Character

Okay, so this isn't actually a reason why it's definitely wrong, but it's a reason to want Mel around. Namely, that a) she's virtually a blank slate and b) already has some interesting storylines prebuilt in?? The funny thing is that Mel is actually the one next gen kid who doesn't have an archetype as far as I've seen. Obviously, Chris and Wyatt have canon personalities, but the other next gen kids are all kinda slotted into similar archetypes, even if they're portrayed differently from author to author. (Which, I'm not dissing anyone for that bc it makes sense! And hell, while my depiction of Phoebe's oldest daughter doesn't actually fit the typical archetype for her, my depictions of the other two definitely do lmao. Plus probably the twins.) But every author has a completely different approach to Melinda, which is cool.

Plus, there's the fact that Melinda is the only pure witch of her generation. All of the others are hybrids, so there's the difference in powers and approach to fighting (because if you can just teleport out if you get in over your head, you'll have a different approach than if you have no option of escape without fighting your way out.) Plus, the interesting dynamics that you can play with Wyatt as the Twice-Blessed, Chris as the time traveler (if you want to bring in him having memories or the sisters sharing this), and Melinda's dynamic with both of them. (Mel and Chris having different responses to being the younger sibling of the Twice-Blessed or Mel being the only true blank slate of her siblings with no real expectations about who she'll become.)

Genuinely, part of why it's infuriating is just that it's such a waste of potential. Because there isn't a genuine reason to dislike her as a character. She doesn't have one. But her specific space in the narrative offers so much potential, and people want to waste it bc they want this feminist show to become a boy's club. And they don't even realize it.

[paigemathews]

i dont think mel being ignored is misogyny, i think its more because fans prefer canon characters over ocs (mel may technically exist in canon but has no personality whatsoever, shes essentially oc if you write her in fics) its the same reason why henry jr is largery ignored in fanfics, and hes a boy, its just that henry jr is more easily overlooked since hes a cousin not a sibling. if mel had been a boy i think fan response would be the same. but i am asking you about bianca, add more words

(referencing this) (Also, I do in fact get to the Bianca part, it's just at the bottom, because I talk a lot.)

This is over two years old, lmao, but I want to elaborate on what I meant because I don't think I quite captured why I find it misogynistic in the original post. For context, I've been a Chris girl pretty much since I joined the fandom (like a decade and a half ago), so I've basically consumed nearly every fic including him that I can find, which also, by chance, encompasses every future (unchanged and changed) fic that I can find. And the thing is that it's not that Melinda is ignored (although she is).

It's that she's excluded from the universe entirely. It'd be aggravating, but it would be one thing if Melinda was just ignored. However, it's the fact that people continually go out of their way to justify her in the flashforward as literally anyone else to pretend that Piper and Leo only have Wyatt and Chris. Completely erasing a female character from the universe like this is weird as hell. (Because I am not saying that anyone has to write about Mel, but the way that people try to act like she doesn't exist is often connected with this fixation on Wyatt and Chris as the Charmed legacy. But I'll come back to that.)

Additionally, people would (and still do) actively get upset if you even mention Mel's existence. I've had multiple rude reviews over multiple fics and years about her existence, even though Mel... doesn't really feature in any of my fics (well, the ones that are currently posted). I mean, it's a whole discourse thing as if there's a question on if she exists or not when it's not... really up for debate? I'm not saying people have to write her, but people act like she isn't a canon character when she is.

And yes, Melinda is what I like to call a "canon OC," but she's not the only one by any means. The half-manticore baby (who didn't even get a name) is another example, but he's actually a staple of next gen fics. (I've read pretty much every next generation series that I can find, and there has been only one that he has not been featured in.) Unsurprisingly for this type of fandom, it's popular to have a third character round off Chris and Wyatt's trio. The half-manticore is... probably the most popular option, to be honest. The other two most popular options that I've seen is Henry Jr. and an OC brother. (Is this the part where I point out that the sheer number of OC brothers replacing Mel reeks of sexism? Because you’re right. Mel, like pretty much all of the next gen, is an OC in personality. So why exactly does she need to be replaced with a male OC?)

But Henry Jr. is actually a great example of the sexism. After Piper's kids, Henry Jr. is the most popular next gen character. (This came from looking at character tags on AO3 and FFN back in 2022, which isn't a perfect system but I'm working with what I got.) From my observations when I was doing that, despite Mel having twice the number of character tags, she was much more of a background/secondary character, while Henry Jr. was more likely to be the main/primary character in his tags.

But their differing presence is also weird because the thing is that Mel should have more narrative presence. While she never really appeared in the show like the boys, it was her sibling trio that did. Chris and Wyatt get basically all of the fic, which does make sense, I'll give it that. However, as a Warren witch, as someone who shares a house with them, as their sister, Melinda should logically have at least a little bit of a presence in those stories. (Again, not even saying that you have to write about her, but it'd make sense for her to at least garner a mention once in awhile.) Instead, she's sidelined or minimized in... some really weird ways. (The deaging thing confuses me so much, because people like to make her younger to get out of the way when you could just have her doing her own thing instead.) In comparison, Henry Jr. gets a lot of focus, despite none of his sibling trio ever appearing before the flashforward.

There's also the fact that out of all the cousins, Henry Jr. is the most popular. The crazy thing is that there is actually a next gen character who has a bit of prior sense of existence in the narrative besides Wyatt and Chris. (Mel technically does as well with Morality Bites and s5, but I'll let that part go.) Phoebe's oldest daughter. The first Cupid-Witch of her kind, the daughter that Phoebe foresaw and yearned for so long. The one who is canonically around Chris and Wyatt's age via Phoebe's premonition, which also showed a fragment of her dynamic with Chris. Why isn't she the most popular cousin? Why is it Henry Jr. when both of the girls had more of a narrative presence? It's not that he's inherently more writable than them. (First Cupid-Witch and last pure witch both have interesting narratives without even getting into each of their familial dynamics.) The only big difference is that he's a boy.

I have to stand by that the Melinda haters and Charmed Sons theories are based in sexism. Most of this behavior was up until the mid-2010s, which wasn't exactly the best time for female characters. (A lot of this was in the same era that every female character on Supernatural was hated and killed off because of negative fan reactions.) Plus, despite the show (presumably) having a majority female fanbase, it's never been immune to some misogynistic bullshit, such as the "blaming Phoebe for Cole turning evil and dying" thing even when there wasn't shit she could actually do to save him.

Okay, but now, about Bianca: she was the love interest to Chris, the resident pretty boy. Girl was gonna get hate just for being his love interest. Any move she made would have been picked apart. The fact that she technically betrayed him made her a callous villain in most of the fandom's eyes. (Forget that she died saving him; no one cared about that.) I'm going to be honest, I do feel like the fact that Marisol Nichols is pretty blatantly not white had an influence, but as a white girl, I can't really say for sure, so I'll just leave that part at that. But yeah, people weren't nice about her for a good while and always chalked her up as just a one-dimensional villain. (I mean, the thing is that Bianca actually is what Cole fans wanted him to be. Because the main difference between them is that Coles' sins vastly outnumbers Bianca's.)

I'll see if I can try to describe this part well or not, because it's actually been awhile since I've seen Bianca hate, probably bc a lot of my old fics back in the day didn't feature her yet. Chris pretty much always landed a new love interest, who was... kind of painstakingly written to be Bianca's opposite. Someone sweet and open and would never betray him, and it felt like a lot of ppl going "look, here's the superior love interest!" and it was often an OC who was v... flat bc no one really liked that Bianca had sharper edges and wasn't the type of girl that they wanted for Chris. If she wasn't the super sweet "I'd never betray you" innocent type, she was basically diet!Bianca. I think those aggravated me more actually because you're literally just writing a knock-off Bianca bc you don't like that she turned against Chris, even for a moment. if she did appear in those, she was always depicted as a horrible bitch and just. Ugh. (If you've ever read slash fics where the canon female love interest shows up and is mutilated beyond belief, you can imagine that.)

When it came to changed future fics, a lot of the time, Bianca was just... ignored and glossed over? Like pretty much everyone had Chris remembering the unchanged future, and her absence was noticeable when people had him think about it and she's one of the few things we actually know about that future.

It also always kind of stuck out to me that there was this... trope, for lack of a better word, where Chris and Bianca would meet one time in the changed future and Chris would decide against pursuing her and it just felt weird. And I'm not describing this well, but very often when I saw this trope, it felt like Bianca just lacked agency in it. Like it was never a decision that she made, it was just like she was... almost an object that Chris could take or leave, and they always had him leave. And the thing is that I know how this sounds bc I've always been of the opinion that these characters aren't entitled to relationships, such as Phoebe had every right to leave Cole, but it was always the way that it was written specifically that it never really treated Bianca as a character with autonomy or agency but as, like I said, an object.

Those fics also never acknowledged the fact that canonically, Chris did express interest in going back to Bianca in the changed future and that they loved one another. Because Chris did not have to propose to her. They both had to have known that this was a suicide mission and that the odds of them ever seeing each other again was low. Bianca was smart enough to know that, so Chris deliberately choosing to propose to her anyways was indicative of their relationship. And I'm not saying that you have to put them together, but it was never acknowledged that Chris had wanted to be with her. Their sole interaction was always incredibly briefly described and only centered around Chris, with Bianca barely having a presence despite everything. And then she was never mentioned again, even if Chris thought about or had flashbacks of the unchanged future.

On the other side of the coin was unchanged future fics, because Chris was... basically always either the outright leader of the Resistance or one of the top people there. And the thing is that Bianca, while still existing there, was always incredibly minimized and removed. She didn't have power or authority or even really acknowledgement in any kind of Resistance, which was weird considering she was partners with Chris and canonically played an important role in Chris actually getting to the past.

For both Melinda and Bianca, a lot of the reason I call it sexism is because of the tone that these characters were written with/about and the way that their presence was minimized/removed/excluded from narratives. Because you don't have to write about these characters, but when you're writing things that frankly make their absence incredibly obvious and instead replace that spot in the narrative with a man or a very specific female archetype, it has... implications, especially when these were repeated patterns across different authors and stories.

[paigemathews]

While I'm talking about OCs (bc he basically is lmao), I just wanted to say the funniest thing about DJ Morris is that he acts like the sane one and everyone lowkey thinks of him as the voice of reason, but he's probably one of the most batshit of all of them because he chose to go fight demons with upper-level witches like he is not wholeheartedly mortal. No one asked him to do that; actually, multiple people were like wtf, please don't do that?? but nope, off he goes just like, nope, no fear, i'm going to punch a demon in the face and piss them off, and yet i'm the one that's gonna make it through today. if you gave him magical powers, he would actually probably be able to go toe to toe with some of the halliwells bc y'know that saying of "she's doing everything he is, but in heels?" he's doing everything that they are, with no powers.