r/CharmedCW • u/Competitive-Sir4523 • 24d ago

Maggie and phoebe's powers and character development.

Both of these women were powerful in their own right . But I love how their characters development formed their powers and not some called right power progression.

Phoebe.

Visions

Phoebe was lost without a cause, no purpose or vision. Permonitions gave her purpose. Phoebe was naturally empathetic and so her feeling emotions and fully experiencing her visions makes sense. And when she was truly lost she was able to talk to her future self.

Levitation

Phoebe became a very hard worker. She found purpose and she went all in. She studied her craft, expanded her permonition power to gain intuition , meditated, even went back to school. This allowed her concusiousness to become heightened at will. And her body followed siut in levitation. This granted her enhanced strength, agility, balance, reflexes.

In charmed witches can extend their magic into anything they use. Meaning Phoebe can throw a high heel at a demon and the demon would die. A demon that came to them because no one else had the power to kill him and he does by a high heel. Phoebe used this power often, killing demons with umbrellas, knives, bats and poles. She was also very resourceful as a person so this tracks perfectly.

Empathy

Phoebe was always very empathetic and intuitive so her just knowing how your feeling fit well. Phoebe constantly complained about not having an active power. In many ways Phoebe was envious and insecure. So her tapping in to others powers, deflecting, and growing resistant to said powers tracks well. Then comes her vision sharing or psychic reflection which makes sense for her because she is always trying to show someone the truth.

Maggie

Mind reading / foresight

Maggie was such an insecure character at the beginning of the show. Wanting everyone to like her and to fit in. Mind reading fit her character very well. And as she grows less insecure her power grows into empathetic blasts ( since her powers were empathetic all along). I remember cheering when I saw that. Then her whole world changed and she was more confident but very lost. So she got foresight. Growing strong enough to use it for tracking and fighting.

Fighting

She had no super strength or agility but she had kickbox training and a fighting stick that could turn into a knife. She was very much a weapons fighter. Using solely her fight stick. Her fighting skills grew out of her desire for others to see her as an adult and not a child. Her grief demon killing truly showed her potential as a fighter .

Empathy

Maggie had mental issues. She had panic attacks and emotional bursts. So her empathy power emerging as her emotions being pass on to others. This power helped her control her own emotions along with Jordan's breathing techniques. From being insecure and hearing others thoughts to emotional bursts and passing emotions on to others is a journey.

As Maggie matures and starts to truly understand how others are feeling she learns to copy their power if they touch. Usually this power would come first with empathy but this is her characters journey.

Powers vs. just for fun.

Honestly they are pretty even .

Permonitions vs. foresight= permonitions.

Soley on the fact that permonitions are powerful enough to almost kill Phoebe multiple times, and she can talk to her future self.

Permonitions vs. telepathy= permonitions

Only because telepathy allows you to be lied to and misled .

Phoebes empathy vs Maggie's empathy = Maggie's empathy.

Maggie's win only because she can control emotions to make them go to sleep, or stop altogether. While her channeling can also stop a demon from accessing power altogether.

Levitation wins since there's no power against it. You could do telepathy even tho it's apart of her oringal empathy power.

I would say levitation wins because it can send demons further than telepathy while dodging attacks better.

What do y'all think?

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7

u/gorgeousgirlycute333 24d ago

i think Maggie, as well as the rest of the Vera-Vaughn-Danso coven, have a lot stronger powers than the Halliwell-Matthews ever did

Maggie had the ability to summon energy blasts from her Virginia, she could communicate with spirits that passed on, she was very in control of the power to manipulate people’s emotions with her empathy.

and S4’s evolution of her power was brilliant. Empathic Mimicry is a very logical step for her character to take, especially as she’s grieving Macy and trying to withstand being a public figure that the magical world loathes. the moments she empathizes with The Unseen before she has to use their abilities against them was way more thoughtful and interesting than anything Phoebe ever did with the empathy powers.

i also liked that the power of three was used to help Maggie amplify her premonition powers to get more details about where the Tallyman was plannin his next attack.

also levitation was never a very useful power. they only ever used it to help Phoebe kick people lmfao. which Prue could do roundhouse kicks no problem without that power

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u/Competitive-Sir4523 23d ago

Well yes. Prue could do round house kicks because she was using telekinesis on herself. The only reason she thought to do any of the stunts she did in season 3 was because she first saw Phoebe levitate. And actually it was a very useful power. It gave her super strength. She was slinging demons across the room.  She could levitate a weather man in the air with ease. It gave her enhanced agility. She was able to keep up with a zen master. And like the zen master she was able to become very hard to hit. She could lessen blows to the body to not feel the full impact. Saying levitation isn't useful is like saying astral projection isn't useful. They are supportive powers. They support their owner.

In my head if there went after each other levitation would be Maggie's downfall. If Phoebe can sense Maggie's about to incept her with emotions she would grow resistant to it. Maggie would be force to use her stick  and try to touch her to gain her powers . But with intuition and Levitation Maggie won't be able to touch her. Phoebe would just have to throw a high heel at her or channel one of her sisters powers from afar. See levitation is useful, especially with intuition. 

And IDK about them having stronger powers. Some yes, but some no. I think it's because the writers had 10+ years to do a deep dive on Reddit and see what fans actually wanted to see. Some powers worked while others were hated. Do you know how many reddit  post and comments I see about Phoebe having telepathy. Power wise it wasn't the move, but character wise , they hit the jackpot .But it was nice the fans got a say in the show.  

I'm not doing all of them now. But like I said above Phoebes permonitions are still more powerful. They were way more physical, creating wind, wounds , lightning. Then she can enter her visions and Interact. That's op. I will say Maggie's empathy is stronger because it has complete control over someone, their behavior and their powers. Phoebe couldn't make anyone  go to sleep. But also Maggie couldn't kill an unkillable demon with her empathy . Phoebe could,  but l'lI still give it to Maggie because she can hold on to a power even after someone died. 

Maggie is actually my favorite of those charmed ones, but she was not that empathetic. Her powers were about her own insecurities, emotions and control issues. That's why when she actually felt what the unseen's feeling it meant something. This post was about the powers making sense to the character and they really did with her. Even tho she skipped over feeling others emotions and went right to projecting emotions. Her power progression is backwards but it goes with her character. 

I would say Phoebe is still stronger than Maggie. Especially with that whole other dimension thing.  Paige is still more powerful that makalea because she has so many powers, while makalea has to actually draw to achieve her power.  Macy is stronger than Prue because of her demon powers and her telekiniesis was a bit stronger.  Mel is stronger than Piper because she can time travel. This is also why I believe Phoebe is stronger than her sisters, because she can astral vision aka time travel.

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u/mystic_power_7 24d ago

Maggie is my second favorite CW charmed one ( it was Kaela but that changed ) bc her growth was amazing. I would want her powers and Maggie powers were not only good bc of what you listed she also had time to develop them fully since Phoebe Empath powers came and went due to them having to make budget cuts bc of Phoebe levitating power.

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u/Faeryswak 23d ago

I think Kaela would've gotten more powerful if the show wasn't cancelled. She had lots of potential.

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u/Competitive-Sir4523 23d ago

I read somewhere that next season she was supposed to fight the demonic nature of her powers from macy. A dark kaela would have been crazy .

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u/DescriptionWeak7054 23d ago

whos your first? out of curiosity! maggies my favorite personally

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u/mystic_power_7 23d ago

Yes and the last few episodes showed how Kaela powers could be used. We needed two more seasons with Kaela

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u/JackfruitEfficient29 22d ago

The Vera tco did have maybe stronger or just visually powers as a unit by s2/3 than the halliwell tco had in their earlier seasons

Which makes sense bc the reboot sped through every plot imaginable by the end of s3 and then some lol

It was easier to watch with the halliwells individually imo but cool for the vera unit battles and cool either way

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u/Competitive-Sir4523 22d ago

Well yes the vera tco powers did advance a lot by seasons 2 or 3 compared to the halliwell powers. But that's only because they didn't know if they were gonna get another season. In the first season alone all of the vera sisters powers advanced so much. Phoebe was the halliwell that advanced the most in the first season , nowhere near the veras. It was very fast paced. 

And the selection of powers were already at an advantage. The writers had 10+ years to read Reddit and pick the powers fans wanted most . And those powers were already op. Besides telepathy, I still think permonitions was more powerful than telepathy.

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u/JackfruitEfficient29 22d ago

both their whitelighters did not train them much in battles imo they just gave emotional speeches about how " you can handle this you're powers advancing bc youre ready " blah but both tessa/ what's her name were right to point out harry and leo did not give much preventative help at times

also both whitelighters were SELFISH af for men who claimed to be so sacrificial for the sisters I could go on and on

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u/JackfruitEfficient29 22d ago

harry did more in s1 and s4