IMPRUDENT PRUE TAKES A HIT!

[vandergraafk]

Prue was the leader of the Charmed Ones. It was to her that Piper often turned to for advice and guidance. Phoebe tried to avoid tangling with Prue, but realized that she was a very capable witch. Yet, Prue was the first to die! Forget the fact that Prue died because Shannen was fired. Who is to blaime for Prue's demise?

In the Charmed Cafe, a debate has ebbed and flowed for several months. Just recently, it surged forth again, prompted once again by ljones' insistence that Prue was to blame. Here's what she wrote, along with my replies. What do you think?

[vandergraafk]

"At that point in time, Shax wasn't after them he was after the doctor, so if she had just stayed behind and waited, Shax would've killed him. "


I think you've forgotten the lesson that the sisters learned in Season 1 - "the best offense is defense". And the sisters realized that they were able to do this the best way inside the manor.

After Shax's first failed attempt, they should have remained at the manor with the doctor and prepare for another attack by Shax. Instead, Prue dragged Piper out of the house, where they faced Shax on the street . . . and in full view of a news camera. This act eventually led to the events of "All Hell Breaks Loose" and Prue's death.



Quote:Nicely said. I've always felt that Phoebe was, in part, to blame for Prue's death.


Ljones wrote:

Prue and her inability to overcome her pride had led to her death. Not Phoebe. Before her death, Prue had even admitted that it was stupid of her to drag Piper out of the house and go after Shax. And Prue did give Phoebe the OK to find Cole.

I realize that many of you want to blame Phoebe and her romance with Cole for Prue's death. But Prue has to bear the responsibility. She became her own worst enemy in her rush to go after Shax. It nearly cost Piper's life . . . and it eventually cost Prue her life.

vandergraafk replied:

Why does Prue's death have to be "the" responsibility of one person? Prue and Piper were foolish to pursue Shax into the street and to risk the exposure that resulted. Phoebe was foolish to let her obsession with Cole distract her from the main attraction: Shax was the personal assassin of the Source. Cole could wait; Shax couldn't! By opting out of her Charmed responsibility, Phoebe placed herself in a position that caused Leo to be detained in the underworld unable to heal both Prue and Piper nor to serve as a messenger to warn Prue or Piper in advance. Each of the sisters bears responsibility for the death of Prue when looked at purely in terms of the show. Of course, we all know that Prue died because the show's producers pink slipped Shannen!

Ljones retorted:

Because the whole situation began with Prue's decision for her and Piper to leave the house and go after Shax. That's why. And even when Phoebe had insisted that she was going to the Source's Realm to find Cole, Prue did not raise a fuss about it. She had expressed her belief that it was perfectly okay for Phoebe to leave. Nor did Leo argue against it. He thought that Piper and Prue had been successful in getting rid of Shax.

I've always thought that Prue was the best of the Halliwells, even if she was rather annoying at times. But her decision to leave the house and go after Shax was one of her worst decisions, ever.

vandergraafk agreed, but suggested that responsibility is nevertheless shared:

Agreed, it was Prue's worst decision ever. She compounded that mistake by failing to recognize the importance of Shax and the probability that vanquishing him might require a power of three solution. To allow Phoebe to pursue her side-project was irresponsible. Yet, I fail to see how you can assign blame based on who started it. My goodness: isn't that what kids do all of the time? When do we allow them to grow up?

[avallach]

Yup, what was Prue thinking of going after Shax in public? When Piper called her on it, Prue retorted that it was better than having Shax going after the innocent. This implies that her plan was to lure Shax away from the doctor. This appeared successful at first, when it seemed like Piper had exploded Shax. Of course, in the end, this decision resulted in profoundly altering the Charmed Ones and their destiny (SD's firing nothwithstanding).

I always found it curious that Shax would attack in the open anyways. Aren't demons also fearful of exposure? Perhaps the Source was behind this brazen daytime attack; it did initiate the sequence of events that lead to the death of one of the Charmed Ones.

As far as Phoebe is concered, she was determined to see Cole and undo the effects of Raynor's spell. I think Prue saw that and trusted in her judgement.

Going back to the exposure, why the Elders didn't send the Cleaners to undo all the damage? Of course, we know that the Cleaners were added in the later seasons, but had they been around in AHBL, they would have been the deux ex machina solution and we would not have had such an intense and dramatic episode. This is one of many reasons why in my mind I don't consider anything after Season 4 to be canonical in the Charmed universe.

[vandergraafk]

Well, in part you've answered you own question. Since Shannen was being axed from the series, her character had to be killed off. Thus, even if the Cleaners had been around, they would not have been able to undo a decision made external to the series.

But, your question also pertains to the show itself. At the time, the only available demon who could have reversed time was Tempus or Tempus' powers channeled through the Source. Interestingly, to eliminate the possibility that Tempus on his own might simply reverse time and undo the exposure caused by the Source, the writers had his weakened powers mediated through the Source. Thus, the Source could engage in his double-dealing that could have cost the lives of Piper, Prue (in the manor), Phoebe (in the underworld), any two of them, any one of them or none of the Charmed Ones. Unsurprisingly, many fans have written to the Charmed Cafe and wondered where the missing episode is, namely, the episode that shows Prue's death. It doesn't exist! All Hell Breaks Loose is a season cliff-hanger that turned into Prue's death only because Shannen was axed.

In the Charmed Cafe, Prue's character has been flogged endlessly for risking the exposure that ultimately killed her. Why, however, do we never seem to fault the Source? It was the Source who sent his personal assasin to kill a prominent doctor in broad public, not once, but twice. Suppose we admit that Prue was foolish to ignore Piper's warning about pursuing Shax despite Prue's good intention to have Shax busy with the Charmed Ones rather than willy nilly waxing innocents. Wasn't it incredibly foolish for the Source to have Shax do this in public. If Piper had not flexed her powers on the sidewalk when Shax appeared, the film crew would have caught the appearance out of nowhere of Shax. How was THAT going to be explained? Yes, Piper was foolish to blast him in public. But, all of this goes back to the Source.

The second incident is even worse. True, Prue was naive in believing that she and Piper could drive undetected to the hospital to take the good doctor once again into protective custody. Maybe Prue should have suspected that enterprising reporters would plant a lo-jack device on the Halliwell vehicle of choice. The point is: Shax attacked the sisters and the doctor in full public view. Exposure now was compromised more than ever. Why wasn't the Source taken before the Tribunal? Oh, that's right. The Source was vanquished not long after. And, the Tribunal was not invented until Season 6.