bramblewatchescharmed
the power of three will set us free
Commentary on The WB/CW drama Charmed (1998 & 2018).
73 posts
Last active 2 hours ago
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
Last Seen Blogs
katyasjellyplatforms
help me, i’m dying
mariixc
Mari
rockysavannah
Rockysavannah
hikarielizabethbloom
Everything happens for a reason. 5🍕&💍
zolanski-r
K-wndi
Text
I love Charmed (1998) as a cosmic horror story.
You are a powerful witch destined for Good. You are descended from the one Actual Witch killed by the Salem Witch Trials. You live in a house, an ancestral home of a century or so, where her descendants eventually fled to escape persecution. It sits on a powerful Nexus of magic power, which hides from plain sight in the basement. It draws evil like moths to a flame. These evils have haunted you, literally, since your earliest childhood memories. They can appear suddenly in your home at all hours, on any day, and attempt to slaughter you all without warning.
You have a book. It is written by the hands that came before you. Written in their blood, in their sufferings, in their death. Tips and tricks, potions and spells, marking out methods to defeat each of the almost innumerable horrors that stalk you and yours. For they cannot be truly killed. Only banished, for months or decades, before they come again. Come again to invade your home and take your power. To eliminate you to the last.
This book is considered the greatest of its kind in the world. Witches of other lines covet it. But do they know what it cost? The suffering that begets its necessity? This book is magical, and it’s essence it tied inextricably to yours: if it is stolen, corrupted, so are you. It is also tied to the house. It cannot be taken from the premises by any means not by your hands. You can sense if it’s gone. It is part of you, your blood, and your line. Just as the house is. Just as the Nexus you defend is.
It is your family’s duty to protect them from falling into the wrong hands. You stay. Generation after generation stay, write new entries in the book, and raise their families inside the walls of The Manor. The power of the Nexus seeps into their blood, your blood, each generation gaining more and more power. Power to face the evils that come to take it. They come with poison and knives, crossbows and fire, all intent on murdering a suburban San Francisco family in their home. They invade, plot, scheme, work their evil magics on your bodies and minds. You fight and fight and fight for your lives. You live and you learn. You die and you learn. You suffer and you learn. But in the end, you are powerless against them. They are too numerous, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, decade after decade.
The evils came, and they killed your ancestors. But they did not get what they came for, so they tried again. And again. They killed your mother. They killed your grandmother. They killed your sister. They killed your memories, your childhood, your friends, your lovers, your guardian angels, your spouse, your children. They killed you. Over and over. But they do not win what they seek. At least not permanently. So each time, the power of the Nexus, steeped in blood and in your blood in return, drags you back. It bends the laws of dimension and time, forcing you through endless sufferings only you and yours remember, and it brings you right back to where you started: living in your ancestral home, fighting for the power, set in place as sentinels to shield it from Evil.
Sometimes, one or more of you will move out, try to make a life away from magic, the book, The Manor, and the Nexus beneath it. Sometimes, a child of your line is given up for adoption the day they are born. Sometimes, your memories of magic are erased and you scatter to the winds to live mundane lives. Sometimes, you move across the world to be with the one you love. It never works. None of it ever sticks. You always return. Like moths to a flame. Drawn in by death, the collapse of a relationship, by attacks or spells or magic gone awry or signs that appear to be from the very Universe Itself. Every Warren Witch ends up returned to sender. Always, a Halliwell must remain in the Manor. So you stay, and you protect it. (The House always wins.)
There is a Final Battle. Everyone you love is dead. You are dead. The house lies in ruins. Until it doesn’t. And everything returns to the way it was. You think it is over. That Good has won, once and for all. That the Evil has been defeated, the Nexus destroyed. But your children have power. The Nexus is in their blood. So the Evil will come. Like moths to a flame. And someday, you, and they, will die. Your unending string of death and resurrection will cease. You become another generation sacrificed to feed the great beast that waits below. And another generation destined for Good will in turn rise to protect it. And someday they too will die. But the line, book, the house, and the power will continue. And so too will the sacrifice.
That is the story of Charmed.
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
Honestly, my favorite thing about the Charmed (2018) series finale is all the in-universe implications this has. (I hate that it's a blatant hook and desperate move to keep the cancellation axe from swinging, and that the reboot crew did this without consulting anybody from the original series, but I digress.)
Look, canonically, the reboot ends with the Vera-Dansos in the Halliwells' universe.
This means that they can easily encounter every single demon, evil witch, and warlock in the original series' universe that do not exist in their own 'verse...
...and they are woefully unprepared for any of it, since they don't even have Harry or Jordan with them. Their Book of Shadows and the Book of Elders will be zero help either, because this is not their universe.
This means that the Vera-Dansos will encounter:
Barbas, the Demon of Fear
the Woogeyman
the Source of All Evil (assuming another Source comes into power by the time the next generation of Halliwells is ready)
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Tempus
Masselin
all the varieties of Darklighter
all the varieties of warlocks
the Brotherhood of the Thorn
the realization that demons have infiltrated law enforcement, the justice system, large corporations, etc.
the paranoia that anybody around them could be a demon or warlock, and they wouldn't know it
upper-level evil witches far more experienced at their Craft, who can easily kick their asses and/or strip their powers
the Triad
the Council of Elder Whitelighters
Face it, the Veras couldn't even take on their own series' Big Bads by themselves; do you really think they'd be able to stand up to and vanquish anything evil in the Halliwells' universe?
Especially since the Warren line Charmed Ones decimated the Underworld so badly during the first 8 years they were active that it's explicitly stated in season 8 the Underworld wouldn't fully recover until the next generation came of age?
0 notes
Text
on "She's a Man, Baby, a Man" in my Charmed (1998) rewatch and
Succubi on OG Charmed: former witches who made a pact with darkness to renounce all human emotions to protect herself from heartbreak and become sexual predators; indistinguishable from other women except for the tongue when they feed.
Succubi on reboot Charmed: she-demons with a tramp stamp as an identifier in the mortal realm of their true form; Macy suspects Galvin's then-girlfriend Summer (a Black woman) is one solely because she has a tramp stamp and is dating her love interest, but she turns out to be human.
me: 😬
that is... not a good look for the reboot, holy cow.
especially since the reason Macy finds out Summer is human? Macy tries the succubus vanquishing spell on her and only succeeds in looking like a jealous, clingy idiot.
0 notes
Text
On season 2 of my Charmed (1998) rewatch, and look:
The other thing that bothers me about the reboot?
There's an overwhelming sense of paranoia, almost, in the original series that anybody the Halliwells encounter could be a demon, warlock, or evil witch. Their neighbors (shapeshifting demons), the elderly man who was sweet on Grams that gave her flowers once a year (Nicholas the warlock), love interests (Jeremy the warlock, Cole the DA), old family friends (Grams's coven of witches/witch practitioners), police Inspectors/Detectives (Rodriguez, Nicholas's disguise/cover), various judges and members of the court/justice system, clients at Buckland's Auction House, employers (Rex and Hannah). Even random people off the street. A later season reveals that the owner of a daycare center Wyatt attended is a demon.
It's a sense of paranoia that the reboot doesn't have, at least not on anywhere near the same level. The closest the reboot gets to that is the internal reveal that Parker is a half-demon when he's dating Maggie, that Abigael is a demon-witch, or the episode where the group that Maggie was volunteering at for a dating app as part of a campus thing all turn out to be demons. There's also the reveal in the pilot where Maggie's on-again, off-again boyfriend is possessed by a demon, or the reveal that the creepy old man professor was a demon (but it's not like the writers really did anything to hide the reveal, given he basically had a flashing neon sign screaming "bad guy and major creep").
Plus, you know, zero surprise that the company who took over Hilltowne University's genetics lab is headed by a demon, considering its name is Morningstar Biotech.
0 notes
Text
I honestly find it hilarious that Season 1 paints Ray as a bad guy in the Christmas episode because he was never around, but then season 2 comes along and reveals that 1) he's a thief using his archaeology job as a cover, so he has Made Some Enemies ™️ ; and 2) he couldn't handle Marisol cheating on him with her previous husband/lover (I honestly do not know if she was ever married to Macy's dad or not) and then expecting him [Ray] to raise the resulting Dexter/Marisol lovechild.
Like . . . yeah, I don't blame him for getting out.
At least Patty waited until after Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were all born & after she was separated/divorced from Victor for her relationship with her Whitelighter Sam to turn romantic and they ended up conceiving Paige.
0 notes
Text
regarding the reboot finale and some reboot fans' reaction to OG fans criticizing it:
the reboot people deliberately ended their show on a crossover with the original series' universe; ergo, I am well within my right to 1) arm myself with OG series canon; and 2) refer to a writer of the original series' thoughts on the matter, as this was (partly) his show that the reboot crossed over with while not consulting with anybody who worked on the original series beforehand.
The fact I even have to explain WHY I'm referring to a writer who worked on the original series when the reboot DELIBERATELY crossed over with the original show on a cliffhanger . . .
JFC reboot stans are fucking dense
0 notes
Text
I'm just going to say this real quick regarding all the cast drama that has flared up in the past couple of months:
I do not care.
I do not care about the BTS drama between the four main actresses, other than there was definitely misogynistic treatment toward all four of them from the on-set directors/showrunners/producers/writers and the network executives that no shit leaked over into how they treated one another on-set.
I also do not care why Shannen Doherty was fired from the show at the end of season 3.
I'm watching this show for the characters and the fictional universe, not the actresses' drama queen behavior.
0 notes
Text
The other thing that bothers me so much about the reboot while rewatching the first season of the original series:
Demons in the rebootverse automatically seem to know that the Vera-Vaughn sisters are the Charmed Ones as soon as they get their powers. A possession demon targets Maggie's then-boyfriend to try and kill her; Harry was immediately assigned to them as their Whitelighter and flat-out tells them they're the Charmed Ones; that one professor the girls fight at the end of the pilot knew they were the Charmed Ones as well. Three episodes into the season, Alistair Caine and his two sons immediately zero in on the sisters through Maggie; Mel gets involved bc the Harbinger used Angela Wu (a student who had gone to her for help) as its host; Macy suspects at one point that Galvin's new girlfriend is a succubus. The Elder witches know instantly they are the Charmed Ones, and the Sisters of Arcana coven stalk Mel in an effort to recruit her.
The original series? It's very much not like that, with everybody in the Underworld automatically knowing the Charmed Ones' identities the moment they get their powers.
Jeremy had been stalking the sisters for a while along with killing other witches to steal their powers. He suspected that they might be the Charmed Ones with bound powers, and Piper was his way in after Grams's death. Even then, he had to wait six months for Phoebe to return and confirm for him that they were actually the Charmed Ones. If they weren't the Charmed Ones? Fine by him, and he had three more witches to murder to steal powers from and become even more powerful.
Javna (s1e2) wasn't even aware of the Charmed Ones; he was using Quake as a hunting ground for young women to steal their youth, and Phoebe happened to almost become one of his victims.
The three shapeshifters (s1e3) were deliberately working with Victor (the girls' father) to steal the Book of Shadows. They knew the Halliwell sisters were Charmed, but only through their association with Victor.
s1e4 "Dead Man Dating": the primary antagonists in this episode are a mortal Triad gang; the supernatural threat isn't even after the Charmed Ones--he's after Mark's spirit to take him to the afterlife. Piper and her sisters got dragged in bc they were the only ones who could see Mark's ghost, being witches.
s1e5 "Dream Sorcerer": that episode's antagonist was a mortal man using science to dream-leap; he had zero clue the sisters were witches, let alone the Charmed Ones, and he only targeted Prue because she'd politely sent back a drink he'd ordered for her due to her seeing someone else.
Rex and Hannah are revealed to be warlocks in the same episode they hire Prue for Buckland's Auction House, but the whole reason they hired her was on orders from the Source of All Evil to find out if she was a Charmed One.
In his first appearance, Barbas didn't care so much that the Halliwells were the Charmed Ones and more that they were three more witches he could kill to meet his cosmic deadline.
There was suspicion that Prue, Piper, and Phoebe were the Charmed Ones due to being three sisters descended from Melinda Warren, but it still took Rex and Hannah working undercover for months to have it confirmed without a doubt for other evil beings, at which point they really started to be targeted. Even with Rex and Hannah, it still took several episodes for them to out the Halliwells as the Charmed Ones, and that isn't accomplished until s1e9 "The Witch Is Back".
The few times the Halliwells meet other witches in season 1, it's more an acknowledgement of them being sister witches rather than the Charmed Ones. Aviva only gets close to the Halliwells under Kali's influence, and it's unclear if Aviva even understood the strength of the Charmed Ones' bond and their power: she just wanted a coven to belong to and was taken advantage of by Kali.
1 note
·
View note
Text
What repeatedly baffles me is Charmed reboot fans insisting that it can't and shouldn't be compared to the original show.
Like... yes, it should, considering
the same parent company is behind both shows
it has the exact same name and basic premise as the original, to the point Constance M. Burge is legally credited despite having zero involvement with the reboot
it borrows so fucking many concepts and terminology from the original series while simultaneously downplaying or outright ignoring it (until they did a complete 180 at the last second to connect the reboot to the 1998 show with the cancellation axe swinging)
0 notes
Text
Rewatching Charmed (1998) season 1, and it is yet again hitting me when watching "Dream Sorcerer" and "The Wedding From Hell" that while the Charmed Ones are the protagonists, it's very clear that there are other things going on in the world that don't necessarily involve them (but they end up getting dragged in anyway). Like, there are clearly other stories with other characters going on in this show's universe. The reboot . . . doesn't really have that same vibe, and it feels like everything is so incredibly centered around the Vera-Vaughns.
At least, what I saw of the reboot's first two seasons, anyway.
The closest the reboot gets to the same vibe of "there are other things going on in the world that don't directly involve the Charmed Ones" is the whole sub-plot with the Scythe of Tartarus, maybe the Sarcana (but they recruited Mel anyway), and that one episode where a pissed-off witch comes barging into Vera Manor bc she wants to kill a necromancer only to accidentally attack one of the sisters instead.
0 notes
Text
youtube
Hmm, gee, this outrage seems familiar, where have I seen it before? Oh, wait.
Charmed (1998) fandom 5 years ago when more and more info about the 2018 reboot was coming out.
youtube
youtube
youtube
youtube
youtube
youtube
youtube
This is barely scratching the surface.
A lot of my Charmed Tumblr mutuals were against the reboot from the get-go due to all the disrespect from the reboot fandom/actresses toward the OG.
Us being treated like shit by reboot supporters certainly did nothing to endear us to the show when it finally aired. And when the reboot finally aired... yeah, it proved itself to be poorly-written, badly-lit, and poorly-acted. The Charmed reboot both as its own show and as a reboot, was not good.
0 notes
Text
I don't know what it is about Charmed (2018) fans and their need to rewrite history surrounding the reboot, but good grief.
Case in point:
0 notes
Photo
He said what we’ve all been saying for years now.
I just… you gotta fucking love how the reboot’s writers ignored the existence of the original show for four seasons (other than one Easter Egg of Melinda Warren that they never intended to follow up on) and then just throw this in at the very last minute (literally!!!) as bait for OG-series fans and to throw out a hook for a fifth season that’s never going to happen and they cannot actually follow up on since none of the OG actors and actresses want to go anywhere near this trash of a reboot.
It’s so blatant. The audcacity. The disrespect. And there are still reboot stans praising this when it’s so very mediocre and the absolute bare minimum.
Also: the reboot’s official writers account on Twitter calling the OG writer who took issue with the finale an asshole when he was talking about fictional characters and NOT real people. That is, as the kids say, not a good look, my dudes.
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
That awkward moment when Blue Beetle (2023) and Desperado (1995) have more Latin representation than Charmed (2018).
0 notes
Text
Me @ the Charmed reboot: I’m sorry, how is it that a four-season show that has over a decade’s worth of source material to work with (between the original 1998 series, books, and comics) manage to fuck up the basic premise and its own worldbuilding that badly?
0 notes
Text
What bothers me so much about the Charmed reboot is that during all the press and media before season one aired, they were all in on how this was going to be Latina representation and how much the writers wanted to explore the Veras’ culture… and then when the show actually aired, they very much Did Not Do That.
Despite Macy, Mel, and Maggie technically being first-generation Puerto Rican-Americans.
I mean, Maggie and Mel were written as such basic white girls that other than their looks (despite Maggie's actress not being Latina at all), you couldn’t tell they’re supposed to be Puerto Rican-American. There’s the flag in Mel’s bedroom, Maggie preparing coquito for Christmas, the girls casting one (1) spell in Spanish derived from Santeria—and that is it for season 1.
I find it very difficult to believe that—with Mel being a Millennial and Maggie being Gen Z—Marisol did not raise her girls to be bilingual. Where are Mel and Maggie code-switching into Spanish around each other? Where is the food their mom made from her homeland they would have growing up? Where is the music? The bright, vibrant colors in their clothing?
How come Macy is given more attention to her more obvious blackness compared to her sisters? Why is Maggie’s sudden struggle with finding out she’s biracial when applying for scholarships and what this means for her personal identity dropped after one episode?
This show hyped up its Latin American representation and then did fuck-all with it.
The writers, actresses, producers, and media promised Latin culture for season 1.
Where the fuck was it?
1 note
·
View note
Text
me getting back into listening to Ricky Martin, remembering he's a gay Puerto Rican man & Latin pop music icon, and that the Vera-Vaughns are canonically of Puerto Rican descent:
wait, so you're telling me that not fucking once was any of his music played during Charmed (2018)? Even though Maggie at least would probably be a fan? Or maybe Mel, considering he came out as a gay man in 2010 and is an activist for LGBTQ+ rights + has his own foundation to help victims of human trafficking?
and that Marisol didn't bother teaching her daughters Spanish, even though she would have immigrated to the USA as an adult in at least the early 1980s?
I call major bullshit.
0 notes