HOW TO DISEMPOWER A WITCH

[vandergraafk]

In the Season 2 episode "That Old Black Magic", we are introduced to Tuatha, a good witch gone really, really bad, who was imprisoned in a cave because of her bad deeds. Two hikers accidentally free Tuatha and set in motion a chain of events that leads to their demise as well as the disempowerment of the Charmed Ones by Tuatha. Specifically, Tuatha uses the How to Disempower a Witch Spell, found also in the Book of Shadows, but known to other witches, to accomplish the task, a task that requires, at this time, one fresh human heart per spell per witch. Eventually, Tuatha finds three fresh hearts, including two fellow hikers who are shooting a Blair Witch type documentary.

The How to Disempower a Witch spell resurfaces in A Witch in Time, a Season 5 offering. Unfortunately, the spell is used by a warlock, back from the future and teamed with his present self, Baccara, to disempower the Charmed Ones and thus end the threat of the Power of Three to the demonic underworld. In this episode, Baccara requires only one heart to disempower three witches. Moreover, his use of this spell appears to disempower Paige's whitelighter powers, as some, such as whitelightertony, have argued.

Here's whitelightertony's take on this. He begins with a seemingly innocuous question:

"So if Paige's whitelighter side makes her immortal, then why was she able to be killed by Bacarra's fireball in "A Witch in Time"?"

Later, he answers his own question with his notion:

"I just realized there's an answer to my own question above: Paige was able to be killed by Bacarra's fireball in "A Witch in Time" because she was disenchanted, including her whitelighter side."

As usual, I would have none of this and noted:

"But, Paige's whitelighter powers are NOT disenchanted by any spell cast by Baccara!"

Of course, I expected whitelightertony's rebuff to this statement:

"Um, yes they are. Paige clearly isn't able to orb.

The spell disenchants a witch of all her/his magic. Paige was disenchanted of all her magic - - including her whitelighter powers.

If the same spell was used against any of Phoebe's daughters, they would be stripped of both their witch and cupid powers."

Again, I rejected this logic:

"No, it's a spell to disempower a witch, not a whitelighter. Since Paige is half-whitelighter only her witchy powers are taken by the spell. The scene in A Witch in Time is either a glaring inconsistency or the spell has been modified by future Baccara dark magic to strip both witchy and whitelighter powers.

I know what the scene purports to say. It begs explanation. As I stated above, in Charmedverse the result could be explained in any of several ways."

Armed with an explanation, such as it was, whitelightertony:

"Or, the spell had never been used against a magical hybrid before - - until Bacarra used it against Paige. If used against a hybrid creature, as long as the creature is half-witch it will still strip them of ALL their magic.

The spell was only given the title "How to Disempower a Witch" because, up until the events of "A Witch in Time," Evil had only used it to disempower good witches. None of those witches possessed any powers/magic derived from any other magical species."

[vandergraafk]

Vandergraafk was bewildered by this leap in logic and countered with the following:

"That defies logic as far as I can see. Okay, I can accept the premise that Baccara came from the future where his powers had grown considerably, so much so that the Charmed Ones posed no threat to him. He, on the other hand, posed a great threat to the Charmed Ones, not only because he had future knowledge, but because he now possessed the Book of Shadows. I can also accept the premise that the spell - How to Disempower a Witch - had never been used, as far as we know, on a half-witch, half-whitelighter.

Yet, how do we make the logical leap to a conclusion such as the one you put in your posting:

If used against a hybrid creature, as long as the creature is half-witch it will still strip them of ALL their magic.

Why exactly? We do have some knowledge about another hybrid creature: Cole/Belthazor. We know that Leo's healing ability could only heal his human half (Sleuthing with the Enemy). We are told, but never explained logically, that one whitelighter and a half-whitelighter, can completely heal a Cole/Belthazor nearly mortally slain by the Source (Charmed Again). Better is the trick used in Charmed and Dangerous when Leo's healing power is allowed to flow through Paige in order to heal Leo (since whitelighters cannot self-heal). But, even that begs an explanation, none of which was ever attempted in Charmed.

Now, we could follow your logic - and the show's logic of convenience - and simply transform the Disempower a Witch spell into a Disempower Witches and Half-Witches of all Their Powers, if you wish. Again, where's the logical explanation for this? It's non-existent and simply represents another twist in Kernverse, an expansion of the mythology of Charmed for convenience's sake and no other.

As I have argued elsewhere, the problem stems from poor writing. Instead of having Paige try to orb to safety, since her instinct now would be to stand and fight as against her earlier fear response (Hell Hath No Fury/Charmed Again, etc.), why not have her try to orb an object at Baccara, perhaps to distract him. Had she discovered she were powerless in this regard, unable to use her witch power of telekinesis, modulated as always by orbing, then she might have attempted to orb Piper to safety. Or, we could have Paige momentarily stunned by her inability to telekinetically impart momentum to an object at rest and fail to respond in time to Baccara's fireball. She would have been killed, not because her whitelighter powers had been stripped away rather non-sensically, but because a momentary perception of powerlessness had made her extremely vulnerable. Or, we could have Paige, though stunned by her inability to send an object at Baccara, nevertheless orb to safety without taking Piper along.

Obviously, the only one of these options that does not require a re-writing of the denouement is the second option. Paige still dies, but not for the hokey reasons you wish. She dies because she's human, too, and the profound shock she must have felt when she realized her witch powers were gone - and Phoebe was dead - surely would have left her vulnerable as a deer in the headlights so to speak.

All the drama is retained without the bitter after-taste that does remain if we accept your logic. But, I understand why the chosen path was taken: rush for deadlines, lack of time to reflect on how an action fits with respect to previous developments, lack of understanding of "Charmedverse", etc. I just don't think ad hoc decision making and rule invention should be allowed, especially when it's not very convincing."

[vandergraafk]

Whitelightertony presented a very compelling counter-argument, one which vandergraafk ultimately rejected. Whitelightertony noted:

"If I remember correctly, the spell reads:

"Before the passing of this hour,
take away all their power!"
(the human heart used in the spell ensures that it is directed at a witch, since witches are considered to be mortal)

"All their power" means any magic possessed by the creature whom the spell is being directed against.

In Piper's case, her only magic comes from her witch side
In Phoebe's case, her only magic comes from her witch side.
But in Paige's case, she possesses both witch magic and whitelighter magic. So both are taken away when she becomes one of the targets of Bacarra's spell.

However, it would also mean that the spell is only effective on someone who possesses witch genes.

So, for example, the spell couldn't be used to disempower Coop, because he is a full cupid with no witch heritage...nor could it be used against Leo, who is a full whitelighter with no witch heritage. And although Cole/Belthazor was a magical hybrid, his only magic comes from his demon side, so it would have had no effect on him either since none of his heritage comes from witches.

However, the spell could be used against Wyatt, Chris, Phoebe's daughters, or Paige's children to strip them of ALL their magic, because they are witches and the spell can apply to them. Piper's sons and Paige's children would also lose their whitelighter abilities, and Phoebe's daughters would also lose their cupid abilities...an unfortunate drawback of being a hybrid creature: you have double the power in terms of variety, but double the risk in terms of vulnerability.

The point is that Piper and Phoebe (and Prue, in "That Ole Black Magic") didn't have any other magic (aside from their witch-based magic/powers) to be stripped of...so before "A Witch in Time," we'd never seen what effect the spell would have if used against a creature who was part-witch, part-something else."

Vandergraafk replied by noting:

"That's one reading of the spell. And you do provide a compelling argument for your interpretation. I prefer to view the whole issue as something that arrived accidentally as the result of poor writing and unfortunately has landed us in a situation where an explanation is required. At least, this attempts an explanation, one that, I say, is compelling. However, it does hinge on what all means!

Clearly, we know that future Baccara knows that Paige is both half-whitelighter, half-witch. Does this mean, then, that he has modified the spell in some way to ensure that it strips magical creatures of all their powers? If so, then I suppose there is nothing to prevent your interpretation of the word "all" from holding sway. But is this convincing enough?

It might be, but I'm disinclined to go this route since we know from Chris Crossed that even Bianca, a powerful Phoenix witch, can only strip Chris of his witch powers. She cannot strip his whitelighter powers. All she can do is warn him that using his whitelighter power will merely accelerate his destruction.

True, these are two different alternative futures. But I would need to know a lot more about the future world of Baccara to simply make the leap your logic requires."