A RESTRICTION IN SEARCH OF DEFINITION

[Scott]

Personal gain as a concept was a heavy-handed tool frequently employed by Prue as a way to keep a boundary testing Phoebe in line. After Prue died, it became a cudgel for both Piper and Phoebe to keep an equally defiant Paige in line. Yet, curiously, personal gain is never really defined in Charmed. Its application seems spotty and whimsical. Sometimes, personal gain results in backfire. Sometimes it does not. Just what is the personal gain restriction and why it is seemingly so important in Charmedverse?

[vandergraafk]

Personal gain is such a broad concept, perhaps it should be broken down and examined at a micro level. At its highest and broadest level, personal gain means deliberately chosen action that results in great personal gain in the form of financial earnings, job promotion, a dream come true, or "true" love. At this level - and in every instance - someone else must pay a price. By that I mean, getting a promotion means someone else does not. Achieving a financial windfall means someone else does not. A dream come true for one person is a dream deferred for another. And, finding "true" love may benefit the recipient, but may doom the giver to a state of involuntary servitude, as the love was not given freely, but coerced by virtue of a spell or potion.

At an intermediate level, personal gain again involves a deliberate action that results in some positive result for the actor. However, it is not apparent - at this level - that someone else pays a price for this positive result. Flicking a door shut with one's finger by dint of magic may save the witch the time and energy of walking to the door, but it does not seem to bode ill for anyone else. Nor does using magic to help with the drudgery of everyday tasks seem to entail the cause of harm to an innocent third party.

Between these two levels is perhaps an upper level type of personal gain whereby a deliberate action is involved, e.g., using magic to help a third party, that has the consequence of providing an unintended benefit to the actor and causing an unintended loss to a fourth party.

Finally, we can examine instances of personal gain whereby there is no deliberate action, but action nonetheless that may or may not result in harm to a third party. A witch unwittingly exercising her powers without intention may cause harm to a third party. The thought may have been present, but it was never intended for this thought to be carried out. A nascent witch, unsure of her powers and unable, perhaps, to control them may engage in such random acts of apparent personal gain through punishment of a third party.

Here are the six levels of personal gain, presented as a ladder from the uppermost level to the lowest level. The criteria selected for differentiation were as follows: the intentional state of the application of magic; the amount of gain involved; and the presence of injury to another party.


UPPERMOST LEVEL: DELIBERATE ACTION, MAJOR GAIN TO PRECIPITATING PARTY, INJURY TO THIRD PARTY


UPPER LEVEL: DELIBERATE ACTION, GAIN TO PRECIPATING PARTY OR TO A THIRD PARTY, INJURY TO A THIRD OR FOURTH PARTY


UPPER MID-LEVEL: DELIBERATE ACTION, MINOR GAIN, NO INJURY TO THIRD PARTY


LOWER MID-LEVEL: NON-DELIBERATE ACTION, MAJOR GAIN, INJURY TO THIRD PARTY


LOWER LEVEL: NON-DELIBERATE ACTION, MINOR GAIN, INJURY TO THIRD PARTY


LOWEST LEVEL: NON-DELIBERATE ACTION, MINOR GAIN, NO INJURY TO THIRD PARTY


Throughout Charmed, there have been plenty of instances where actions took places that fell into one of these categories. Episode 1 is rife with examples of the lower types of personal gain. Piper unwittingly freezes Chef Moore and discovers that she can finish her demonstration dish by placing some of the special dressing on the sample Chef Moore is about to taste. (Lowest Level) Several times Prue wishes harm to come to Roger. She unwittingly causes his pen to explode in his faces. She thinks about strangling Roger after another of his attempts at manipulating Prue and almost succeeds in carrying this out without even being aware that her powers nearly choked Roger to death. (Lower Level)

Paige was certainly "guilty" of a level two personal gain action. In Charmed and Dangerous, she used magic to clear the battered and bruised face of Caroline so that Caroline could impress the judge and win custody of her children. Paige never intended to personally gain from this heroic deed. Yet, she learns later that this great effort on her part played an instrumental role in winning a promotion to social worker that she acquired by leapfrogging over the candidate next in line. True to her Wiccan rede, Paige declined the promotion.

Although it seems fairly obvious, it should be made clear that actions taken in self-defense, especially if they result in a demon being vanquished, ARE NOT instances of personal gain, even if they would otherwise seem to fit the definition as deliberate actions that result in major personal gain and injury to others. Thus, those instances when magic was used to protect the Charmed Ones do NOT count when assessing the use of magic for personal gain.

[vandergraafk]

Keith Topping in his excellent book Triquetra takes a swipe at Piper for using magic for personal gain in Episode 1. As a passing commentary, it couldn't be any more wrong. Indeed, his comment shows that to understand personal gain the concept needs to be fleshed out in the way I have indicated above.

Topping states that Piper's accidental use of magic to squirt the port on the sample food portion is a clear example of personal gain. How so? Clearly, she did not intend to "freeze" Chef Moore. She didn't even know she had this power. Once she saw him frozen, she did, of course, take advantage of the situation and was able to present the serving that she would have otherwise prepared had Chef Moore not been the pompous lout that he was. Under any definition, her use of magic was non-deliberate. Was there any gain?

Of course, Piper did gain an advantage from this accidental use of magic. How important was that gain? On the one hand, it might be asserted that without the application of the port to the serving Piper might never have gotten the position. Were others vying for the position? We don't know, but we may presume so. Were they as qualified as Piper? Again, we don't know. Perhaps they were, perhaps they were not. It is not clear whether any third person was injured, though we might conclude that there could have been. Consequently, we might elevate this instance of magic leading to personal gain from the lowest level to a higner one. Certainly, though, this can go no higher than a lower mid-level action.

On the other hand, there might not have been any gain at all. She may very well have been the last candidate standing. This test may have been the final step before winning the job. Even if she did not have opportunity to dip the serving in port before presenting it to Chef Moore, this might not have cost her the position. A more understanding evaluator might have allowed her the ten seconds or so required to finish the end product.

Whether personal gain was involved or not, whether it was major or minor, we find out that Piper's reward was not as she had anticipated. She did not become a chef at L'Opera Ristorante. She became manager of the re-christened "quake" after Chef Moore left to open his own restaurant. Was this the backfire that Piper deserved? Perhaps. Again, if this was the backfire, then it was relatively minor. Piper was looking for a position in a restaurant, found one, but grew dissatisfied because the position was not the one she thought she had been applying for. Consequently, the "penalty", if you will, fit the "crime". Minor gain = minor consequence.

[vandergraafk]

With the criteria for personal gain clearly in mind, let's examine penalties associated with the use of magic for personal gain. Again, in Charmed, these penalties are vague at best. Oftentimes, they are imagined to be real to such an extent that the expected penalty may cause behavior to be altered.

One of the most common concepts associated with personal gain is backfire. But, what is backfire anyway and how is it related to personal gain? Is it only limited to instances of personal gain? The answer would seem to be no. For in Hell Hath No Fury, nascent witch Paige casts several spells seeking to remedy problems in the workplace. One of these spells causes the office male chauvinist to be assaulted by a gaggle of gals from the office. Though Paige herself gained nothing from this spell, she did receive a penalty. Her breasts increased rather enormously so that she too would become an object of attraction/lust. Piper pointed to the obvious backfire to Paige's spell, castigated Paige as a result, and reminded her that the reason the sisters don't invoke spells willy-nilly is because of the potential backfire to any given spell.

Yet, backfire can be related to personal gain. In Season 6, an over-worked Paige conjures a sex toy for repetitive 24 hour periods. Personal satisfaction is the aim of Paige's use of magic. The backfire is clear. Paige has to work harder to vanquish all of the demons that Mr. Wrong unleashes as he reads Paige's thoughts. Mr. Right reads Paige's thoughts only to please her. Mr. Wrong does too, as Paige does indeed gain satisfaction from the vanquishing of myriad demons, but also intense puzzlement as she searches for a pattern to explain this sudden outpouring of demons. The ultimate consequence remains for this spell gone bad, as Paige will be kidnapped by Mr. Wrong in the hopes of freeing her from the shackles of her sisters. Had he succeeded, Paige would have been well along the path of becoming a warlock.

Backfire, though, seems only a means to a penalty, not the penalty itself. As we have seen, in A Wrong Day's Journey into Right, the backfire itself is not the penalty. It is, however, instrumental in bringing about the penalty. The luring of Paige to the dark side with the possible repercussion that she will become a warlock is a penalty that has consequences for Piper, as well as Paige.

According to the criteria of personal gain, this application of magic by Paige qualifies as an upper level instance of personal gain. Injury was not confined to just the witch herself, but also carried with it the possibility of severe injury to her sister Piper. Since the gain itself was probably somewhat below that of major gain (the sexual satisfication it brought may have been major, but compared to other possible gains, it was clearly minor). Thus, I am inclined to dismiss this as an upper mid-level use of magic for personal gain. The penalty was real and potentially very damaging, but could be avoided if the gain was undone, which indeed it was.

The clearest instance of personal gain and the major consequence associated with it can be found in Bride and Gloom. Whether one accepts or rejects the premise that turning one sister evil will turn them all as the dark priestess managed to do in this Season 3 episode, nevertheless Piper and Phoebe, while caught in a netherworld between witch and warlock, succumb to the temptation and use magic for personal gain. Annoyance with the wedding planners, as well as Leo, leads Piper to employ dark magic with temporary, though extremely harmful consequences to both the wedding planners and Leo. Indeed, had the dark priestess's endeavors not been undone, it is likely that Leo would have remained scattered into a billion pieces, unable to reconstitute himself. Continuation along this path meant that the witches would permanently become warlocks, no longer entitled to a whitelighter.

Now, the gain - in this instance - is only minor. Yet, it is the repeated application of magic for (minor) personal gain that leads to a major consequence. Indeed, one can easily imagine the tempted sisters using dark magic for even larger personal gain.

In Charmed Again, Part 2, Paige is seduced by the Source into using her magic to punish an innocent. As she tries to orb the heart from the man whom she wrongly believes is a child beater, a dark aura enshrouds her. She will become a warlock if she succeeds in tearing this man's heart asunder.

Becoming a warlock, then, is sort of the ultimate penalty for repeated or major violations of the personal gain clause. Yet, as the ultimate penalty, it oftentimes does not carry the major weight such an ultimate penalty would seem to possess. As a means of deterring the use of magic for personal gain, it seems about as over the top as the death penalty. What lesser penalties exist that might carry greater weight?

Here, it is difficult to state with any degree of certainty what such lower level, but meaningful penalties of greater immediate consequence might be. They could simply be ad hoc punishments designed to fit the "crime". Depending on the degree of severity, use of personal gain might lead to the suspension of active powers for a certain period.

Yet, in Charmed, many of these punishments exist only in the mind. They act as an internal inhibitor which causes the sisters to pause before carrying out acts of magic for personal gain. Indeed, when the sisters do press on and engage magic for (minor) personal gain, the events that transpire next - usually a demon attack - is interpreted as the logical consequence of employing magic for personal gain. Imagined or not, the effect that such internal inhibitors has is great. Akin to Catholic guilt, these internal inhibitors are fairly effective at shaping the behavior of the Charmed Ones, but not always.

If any one sister is prone to internal inhibitor failure, it is Paige. She is forever testing the limits of personal gain and seems quite often to get away with it. Rarely does Paige ever attempt to use magic for major personal gain. She is usually guilty of minor indiscretions that from time to time do have important consequences.

[elder]

I hate the concept of personal gain in the world of "Charmed" and let me tell you why...

When Paige clears up the face of the girl that was battered, she (apparently) did not do it to get a promotion from her boss...that was the furthest thing from her mind at that point because she didn't even know if she would survive the upcoming battles.
That was not personal gain. She should have accepted the promotion and left it go.

Aside from that, the whole idea of personal gain just oozes with icky stuff.
personal gain means deliberately chosen action that results in great personal gain
If that is the case, then it could be said that vanquishing demons to stay alive is (by strict definition) personal gain.

[vandergraafk]

I would say that self-protection is not the same as personal gain. Yet, since the concept of personal gain is so slippery to begin with, it is hard to see the difference. Had the moral compass begun with the Wiccan rede and avoided the concept of personal gain, the waters might have been less murkier. Or, the writers could have adopted the whole politico-philosophical discussion of just war and placed it in the context of Charmed.

For readers unfamiliar with the tenets of "just war", self-defense is an acceptable reason to engage in warfare. Thus, using Wiccan powers to fend off demon attacks is allowable. "Just war" runs into difficulty when discussing the issue of "pre-emptive warfare". At what point would it have been acceptable under the tenets of "just war" to attack the Hitler regime? Did the Allies simply have to wait until the Nazi's attacked first? Similarly, when was it acceptable to attack the Taliban in Afghanistan? After 9/11 or before when the Taliban were about to blast the statues of Buddha in Bamyan to smithereens? Or, even earlier when the Taliban used the national soccer stadium as a killing fields? With respect to Charmed, was Chris right when he led the sisters in a Holy War against demons one and all who may or may not have had anything to do with turning Wyatt evil?

As many writers on "just war" have noted, there needs to be a sliding scale, if you will, in order to arrive at a "just war". Simply possessing the weapons of mass destruction does not automatically invite a pre-emptive attack. (Sorry, Bushidos!). Simply complaining that the weapons inspectors haven't done their jobs thoroughly isn't enough either. There are lots of ways to trap a mouse. War is the tool of last resort, a lesson the neo-Cons never learned, wished to learn, or even cared about.

For Charmed, the creation of a sliding scale was somewhat difficult since one side was obviously good and the other side evil. Half-measures or diplomatic efforts to dissuade the bad guys was pointless, as both Cole and Piper/Leo pointed out to Demon Queen Phoebe in Long Live the Queen. Saving the Innocent by interrupting the hit satisfied neither Good nor Evil. Evil will simply try again and again, whilst Good will have to spend precious resources in protecting an Innocent over and over again. Still, Chris demon of the day campaign seems way, way over the top. How should he have been reined in? What criteria should have been used to judge his behavior?

[elder]

I think the bigger question with personal gain is... "how much is too much?"

Right from the start, we have the sisters abusing this personal gain concept (remember Piper taking advantage of Chef Moore's freeze to add the wine to the meat in order to get a better chance of getting the job?)

But Piper was never stripped of that power. And it took the tribunal six years to get Phoebe's powers stripped due to ye olde personal gain (and I don't even think they would have taken away the power if Barbas had not brought it up).

[Scott]

This is why I find it extremely important to distinguish among degrees of personal gain or among the levels of personal gain as I described them. Second, the punishing power is ultimate. The Tribunal only intervenes when the threat to magic is very serious and when all other efforts have been exhausted. To recall: the Cleaners had been thwarted by the Charmed Ones not once, but twice. They were not about to tangle with them again. Rather, they would support a referral to the Tribunal. This, I suspect, is what allowed Barbas to gain the attention of the Tribunal. Stripping - or the suspension - of powers must be an ultimate sanction, rarely invoked, but nevertheless still invoked, to rein in wayward magical entities. It would seem that the Tribunal is the only body capable of ordering such sanctions and seeing to it that those orders were carried out.

Short of any extreme abuse of powers, the only "punishment" is self-imposed. If witches believe they will be punished for personal gain abuses, then they will desist from abusing such powers. On the other hand, when witches perceive that there is no downside, then what's to prevent them from pushing the envelope even further the next time? In fact, there is nothing. Paige will push and push these limits until it all blows up in her face during a A Wrong Day's Journey into Right.

Another point to consider is the very unwieldyness of the concept of personal gain indeed allows its very abuse. Since a whole range of behaviors can be subsumed under personal gain and no distinction among them can be achieved without resorting to the type of differentiated understanding I outlined above, then violations of the personal gain proviso will continue to occur until an ultimate sanction is imposed. Backfires will deter to a certain extent. But, here too the Charmed Ones will try to write a personal gain spell in such a way as to minimize the possibility of backfire. Thus, far from discouraging the use of power for personal gain, the personal gain clause as written practically encourages witches to test limits and become creative spell writers. Some restriction, indeed!