maelindas:

CHARMED: POINTS OF CANON DIVERGENCE.

charmed s01 - s04:  the first arc of the charmed ones’ story, focused on them fulfilling their destiny and defeating the source of all evil /  the leader of the underworld. in part 3 phoebe ends up trapped in the underworld after making a deal with the source to save her sisters and reverse the exposure of magic.   recently discovered half-sister paige, being half-whitelighter / a nephilim and a powerful witch in her own right, is able to stand in during phoebe’s absence, and later helps her sisters when they call upon the warren ancestors to vanquish the source.  cole isn’t vanquished in the end, though he is possessed by the source for a period of time. the seer takes the source for herself (and not phoebe’s unborn child lmao) and is vanquished, the source going along with her.  [ an alternate timeline where prue halliwell dies at the end of s03 leads to a future where wyatt halliwell is born in melinda’s place. ]

charmed s04.5, witch way now?  more of a special than anything, where the charmed ones are given the chance to give up their magic and live mortal lives now that they’ve defeated the source.   [ an alternate universe where they take the deal leads to a reboot universe, where paige remains a witch & joins the s’arcana while piper, phoebe, and prue pursue ‘normal’ lives. melinda, conceived while her parents still had magic, is born a whitelighter-witch / nephilim-witch. ]

charmed s05:  beginning of their second arc, dealing with the girls finding their place now that they’ve vanquished the source. the sisters are at last introduced to the remainder of the magical world when they’re invited to a party at a fellow witch family’s home. they find themselves missing the days when the source was all they had to deal with, because magical politics is annoying and the way non-humanoid magical beings are treated pisses paige off. they eventually tell the other witches to go screw themselves when they have issue with them calling upon their grams’ spirit because nEcRoMaNcY !!! while they’re dealing with the karens of the witch community, the underworld is a mess because their leader is dead, and demons are scrambling for the throne. one demon unearths the prison of the titans: ancient primordial gods.  he awakens two of the titans, is vanquished by them, and then the titans turn their attention to the elders & their whitelighters. melinda halliwell is born on march 21st. 

charmed s06:  the sisters go to war against the titans, who are targeting whitelighters and stealing their powers. halfway through s06 the titans succeed in reaching the heavens and taking out most of the elders. some whitelighters, including leo / the charmed ones’ whitelighter, turn to more defensive measures to protect the remaining elders. armed with empyreal swords, they help the charmed ones in their fight against the titans, until the charmed ones are able to use the power of three + help from their allies to imprison the titans again.

charmed s07:  the avatars want to turn the world into a utopia; no demons, no evil, no pain. the price is free will. i need to develop this one, but paige getting leo’s avatar storyline? paige getting leo’s avatar storyline lmao.

charmed s08:  the government reveals to the charmed ones that they know about magic, and become a thorn in their side. haven’t thought this one out completely whoops.

charmed comics s09-s10:  followed very loosely. prue is not dead in this canon, therefore that entire comic storyline is gone. neena tries to take out the powers that be, and fails in the end. witches begin turning their backs on the elders around this time, because of the whole ‘it’s time to make our own destiny’ thing, which leads to the beginning of the apostates & of knox academy: a neutral school of magic. 

maelindas-deactivated20220729:

melinda isn’t raised with her family in forever charmed canon :) since she was erased from the timeline but she still exists??? she just kinda gets a second chance at life that the elders’ spoil lmao. she doesn’t even know she’s a halliwell until she’s older and manages to learn about the past timelines.

maelindas:

HEADCANON: sensing other beings with magic.

melinda can sense and almost ‘hear’ magic.  it’s an ability she shares with her aunt phoebe, granted by their connection to the nexus beneath the halliwell manor. where phoebe’s ability presents itself as a strong feeling, drawing her to other magical beings, while she too is drawn to other beings with magical or supernatural abilities, melinda’s presents itself as a tinnitus. the more powerful the being, the more noticeable it becomes; furthermore, when they’re doing magic, the ringing seems to get louder. within the halliwell manor, she’s gotten used to the dull hum or ringing she gets. she eventually reaches a point where she can tune it out, after years of practice and living with it. 

maelindas:

HEADCANON:  past life, m. bowen

⋅  m bowen is born in 1955 in salem, massachusettes. she’s raised in a household with her grandmother, p bowen, and her father, patrick bowen.  her mother was a witch practitioner named margarete who died during childbirth.

⋅   a warlock targets the warren witches, starting with the ones in salem; in may of 1970 all but m. bowen are killed. at her grandmother’s / p bowen’s instruction, she travels to san francisco, where she rejoins the other surviving warren witches: p. baxter, penny halliwell & her daughter, patty (1950 ~ 1978). 

⋅   the warlock arrives in san francisco months later, and kills p. baxter / patty’s grandmother / penny’s mother in december of 1970. desperate and seeing it as the best option, m bowen casts a spell to summon the nexus from beneath the halliwell manor, allowing it to possess her and augment her powers. with these abilities, she defeats the demon targeting her family. 

⋅   the power ultimately drives m bowen mad. it was too much for one witch to handle. it was too late to help her, and ultimately the magic overwhelms and consumes her. by the time an elder intervenes to separate m bowen & the nexus, the damage had already been done to both her mind and body. she’s committed to a psychiatric hospital in the aftermath. (note: the same aunt that piper mentions in s01e01:  “ and we have a cousin who’s a drunk, an aunt who’s manic, and a father who’s invisible. ” 

⋅   m bowen is killed by a demon looking for information about the nexus beneath the halliwell manor. before her death she would occasionally talk to those attending her about the escape of ‘archdemons’ or ‘the old ones’, warning them of danger. after dying and learning that most of her family had moved on and been reincarnated instead of remaining in the afterlife, she too chooses to move onto her next life. six months later, she is reincarnated as melinda halliwell: a nephilim-witch, meaning she can handle the power of the nexus & do what m bowen couldn’t do. 

maelindas:

HEADCANON. whitelighters & their powers.

it takes a LOT of power to cross between different planes and realms. the higher the realm, the more difficult it is to get to. whitelighters (technically ‘made’ angels) have an infinite well of magic within themselves. demons, mortals, etc do not. it’s still extremely taxing on lesser angels, and it’s a noticeable tax when they’re newer to being angels. they regenerate the energy again fairly quickly, but they’re still ?? a bit tired after initially orbing / teleporting.

meanwhile demons, gods, etc who try to blink, flame, smoke, or otherwise teleport to higher regions will be killed in the process. they can only survive teleporting themselves there if they have their own limitless well of magic, which they can obtain by killing a whitelighter and taking their powers. but also,,, killing a whitelighter and taking their powers will have an impact on the demon.

more reasoning to that: whitelighters are magic, they don’t just have magic. so when you take their powers, you have to kill them, because you’re basically absorbing the whole whitelighter. many will hear the whitelighter in their head, or see them in their reflection.  they’re released to their next life or afterlife when the one who takes their power is killed, but they can also be freed and allowed to continue their duties as a whitelighter, if they aren’t killed / vanquished with the demon / warlock first.

healing is ALSO a very taxing power. it’s ‘big’, as chris puts it when asked why he can’t heal the charmed ones. the more serious the injury, the more taxing the healing process can be. which is part of why leo couldn’t heal both prue and piper, assuming prue is alive when he arrives: they both had serious, fatal injuries. he simply didn’t have the power to heal them both on his own. he’d need to wait a bit between each sister, because it simply isn’t possible. the healing wouldn’t work on the second person he healed, and if it did, it probably wouldn’t work completely. it’d be a partial-heal kinda like when leo tried healing cole on his own, but his half-demon side meant a half-heal.

tldr; when healing someone, teleporting, or in the aftermath of coming back after their light forms are destroyed, whitelighters are weaker and able to accomplish less with their powers. they use magic at a faster rate than they generate it. they also generate magic at a faster rate than any other being, since they are beings of pure magic and energy and light. other beings can’t teleport to the heavens unless they possess the energy or magic required or are being brought by a whitelighter, otherwise they will be killed in the attempt.

maelindas:

HEADCANON.  pets, past & present

PERSEPHONE ‘PERS’.  female tortoiseshell cat.

mel didn’t choose pomelia, pomelia chose her. she found pom in the middle of a job, and when the cat took a liking to her, she decided to bring the cat home with her. coolest, bravest cat she’s ever met, and pom is just her bestie. once scratched a demon’s face which distracted the demon long enough for mel to be able to vanquish him, so 10/10. 

PEACHES.  female guinea pig, short-haired brindle.

a guinea pig that melinda got in her junior year of high school, and her longest lil buddy. if she’s relaxing at home, you can expect that there’s a guinea pig running around her space, or hanging out on her desk or lap, or doing guinea pig things. absolutely ends up being friends with her cat.

PIERRE & PEPPER.  grey/white fancy rat & grey fancy rat.

brats that liked to keep her up at night. she had these pets in high school (sophomore year), and had actually hidden them from the rest of her family for the first two months of her having them. piper did not like her rats. 

PAPRIKA, POPPY, PARSLEY, & PARSNIP.  fawn/red, grey, black/white, & white mouse.

four mice mel had adopted in college, and were her ‘buddies’ while she was doing homework, studying, etc. they were also (in her opinion) going to be easier than any other pet at the time.   she got them in her freshman year of college, and the last had passed by the end of her sophomore year. 

maelindas-deactivated20220729:

when the charmed ones cast a spell to banish the nexus, they weren’t interested in destroying it. they were interested in vanquishing zankou. therefore, that’s exactly what the magic did, following their intent: it turned the nexus into a magical bomb, ravaging its ‘body’ (the location) and leaving the ‘soul’ (the shadow) harmed but alive, while successfully vanquishing zankou. and even if the girls did want to destroy the nexus, they couldn’t. and even if they did and could, they’d also destroy magic on earth.

maelindas:

HEADCANON. juvenile years.

education.

⋅  melinda attends rathmere magic school until she turns 14. her mother was against the idea, but melinda being too young to understand that she can’t orb home in the middle of the school day makes things difficult. after nearly exposing magic to her mortal daycare’s staff, her mother reluctantly enrolls her at rathmere’s daycare with other magical children. helpful, since it means she doesn’t need to hide her magic before she even understands why.

⋅   when high school rolls around, melinda enrolls at baker high school, attending a mortal school for the first time since she wants to experience high school with her best friend. she and connie end up befriending luke rousseau, and the three become the foundation of melinda’s high school friend group.

⋅   gideon isn’t happy that melinda chose to attend a mortal high school. he’d rather keep an eye on her at rathmere. it’s why he sends a whitelighter to the school to befriend her and report anything worth mentioning back to him. she is unaware of this throughout her time at baker high.

extra-curricular activities.

⋅   at nine, melinda begins attending extra-curricular activities outside of rathmere. it starts with ballet, where she meets her best friend connie silva. it doesn’t work out for either of them, and at ten mel follows connie into a martial arts class, which they both continue to attend together until they’re both fourteen. ( note: i haven’t specified anything bc i have no clue what kinda class they’re taking yet. probably something super common though. ) she ditches it in favor of gymnastics when they reach high school.

social life.

⋅   she wasn’t often home, simply because the halliwell manor is not a good place to hang out thanks to sporadic demon attacks. more often than not she and her friends can be found at connie’s home when off-campus. frequent beach visits.

⋅   the friend group by mel’s senior year was basically: a nephilim-witch, a mortal that loved watching her friends do magic, a baby witch practitioner, a future whitelighter, and a secret-whitelighter (unknown to all of them at the time).

⋅   connie learns about magic early into their junior year when melinda finally comes clean, not wanting to keep it a secret from her best friend after a demon had targeted her. later that same year, their friend jay patel learns that melinda is a witch, too, after he discovers that he’s able to tap into magic as a witch practitioner.

maelindas:

headcanon. college years.

education.

⋅   because of the constant distractions that come with living in a house that demons like to target, melinda moves off campus while she’s enrolled at the university of san francisco as a criminal justice major.

⋅   in her junior year, she picks up a sort of  ‘internship’ with private detective julien martinez, who helps her get the experience necessary to get her own license one day. 

work.

⋅   when necessary, melinda will pick up a few shifts at halliwell’s: her mother’s restaurant. during holidays she’s always helping out because it’s usually a very ‘all hands on deck’ time of year. 

-  during her first semester of college, melinda works on campus at the school’s cafe. after taking a bartending class, she picks up a job at p3 in her second semester, and she stays there until her junior year.

-  in the second half of her third year, melinda meets private detective julien martinez who really, really doesn’t want her getting in the way. unfortunately for said detective, his case was putting him right in the path of a demon; the girl he was hired to find was the innocent melinda was trying to save. after they end up working together to save the girl, he takes melinda on as an intern so she can work on getting the experience required to get her license while she finishes school.

social life.

⋅   most of her friends during this time end up being witches or witch practitioners. she even befriends a couple whitelighters of said witches & practitioners. they’re the ‘witch underground’ of the bay area, and as a member of the crowd, she’s invited to gatherings at the homes of other witches & to a witchy retreat during the winter break of her freshman year. most had no formal training in magic, and never attending a school such as rathmere like melinda had. some were students of knox academy, a small natural school of magic. 

⋅   her mortal non-practitioner friend, connie, is aware of magic, and goes on to befriend the other witches & practitioners as well. she’s their human and if you hurt her they’ll go feral<3  despite being welcome, she doesn’t show up to most parties they have because she’s a nursing student and it’s Painful. 

extra-curricular activities, magic, hobbies, etc.

⋅   she continues with gymnastics until her junior year. she’ll still turn to gymnastics when she wants an outlet that isn’t deadly, but between school and demon-hunting on the side, she eventually just doesn’t have the time.

⋅   in her second semester, melinda starts hunting demons on her own, because you can’t be friends with a bunch of hedge witches and not deal with demons every so often. she doesn’t want to mention it to her family, since the whole point of her moving out for college was so she could focus on her studies and attempt to ignore the demons for a few years.

⋅   obsessed with beach trips still. always a good chance she’ll just want to hop on her bike and ride to the closest beach.

⋅   melinda finds a teacher in hedge witch helen, who teaches her & other witches about combative magic. she learned a lot from her parents and aunts and uncles, but helen has a lot to teach, too. with helen’s help, she learns to use her basic witch abilities in combat instead of relying on her active powers.