Charmed Children

[Astral Echo]

I personally loved Phoetus as dark Phoebe was one of my favourite periods during Charmed. Long Live the Queen is still one of my favourite episodes and I think the final quarter of Season Four was stronger than any other season.

As I said, I think S4/5 is too early for a child to be brought into the show but it doesn't mean the theme of children and family can't be introduced during this period. Phoebe losing a child would of been a way to do that, particularly if none of them are trying to have kids. It plants a seed that then eventually gets sprouted when Piper and Leo do eventually start a family in S7.

[Astral Alex]

Ooh I'm glad and same, Womb Raider will always be one of my favourites.

And hmm, I understand your point but in my rewrite we have babies born in Season 2, 5 and 7. I think if the season was written well from Seasons 3-5 then Trish's birth wouldn't affect the show that much, especially seen as though Prue would not shy away from her witch duties and be killed just a few days after her daughter's first birthday.

[StoryGirl83]

Jan 2, 2012 18:16:47 GMT -5 Astral Alex said:

Although I am surprised that nobody apart from me seems to like the Phoetus plot. It's one of my personal favourites.

The plot, not so much, but I am very much obsessive about the baby. Quite frankly I dislike anything where a baby dies, even one possessed of evil (which I don't agree with in concept or anything else) like this one. I feel that the storyline was incomplete and failed to live up to it's potential. The idea had potential, but I believed it could have done better. Of course, it is possible that watched in weekly instalments it might have worked better, but I probably watched the entire arc in a day the first time I saw it. I can identify two episodes that I watched when they aired with one other that I caught around the time it first aired, but can't identify. None of these were in season four.

[Esmeralda]

Jan 2, 2012 13:59:57 GMT -5 Astral Chaos said:

I didn't see Chris and Melinda as Mary Sue's. I thought they were fun . . . I would have liked to have seen them develop more as characters, though. I think there was so much going on in C:RR's last season that development of characters (particularly new characters) was put on the backburner. I miss C:RR.

I do, too, and had they had a chance to develop, I might feel differently, but as is, they just seemed totally unnecessary while totally taking over the show, something that will always irk me.

I wish the authors could've done an entire S6 rather than just a half of one, with the other half a story arc about what happened in the future to bring Chris, Melinda and Bianca back. It would've given the authors a chance to develop the characters and I might have felt totally different about them.

Either that or as I said, let them pop in during the trial, do their thing and then pop back out, leaving everything else for the sequel. SO much better than them hanging around for an entire season screwing up the timeline of every person they run into. It's why I hated Chris hanging around as long as he did. He was there for at least ten months, maybe longer! MUCH too long!

Of couse with 4Ever Charmed not around Charmedom any more and both Astral Echo and Assassin Witch busy with school, I wonder if we'll ever get a chance to find out what happens... If they never do get a chance to write out the episodes, I hope they at least put out a summary to let us know what would've happened.

[StoryGirl83]

Goodness. My ideas for children on Charmed. This is going to be quite different from some of yours. I have two series that are planned where I totally rewrite the families from the show. The first one begins with a rewrite of Centennial Charmed (one of my favorite episodes to rewrite, I can't say I've ever done more than one rewrite of an episode before). Instead of changing Paige's meeting her sisters, Cole changes when he lost Phoebe's faith in him with the death of Janna, the witch in "Exit Strategy".

Cole finds himself in a world where he is still in a relationship with Phoebe, still married to her and they have a baby on they way. Like in the original Paige had orb hickups and still remembers the other reality. Unlike in the original CC, Piper is still pregnant. Besides actually being successful at getting back his relationship with Phoebe, Cole has some shocks to deal with. The first is that Prue is still alive and they have no clue that Paige is their sister (though she is a friend of . . . Phoebe and Cole). The second is that he's powerless and works for SBSS (which is how they know Paige, I believe. I'd have to check.) The third is that the Source has not been vanquished. Cole has one day to make this stick if he wants it to. Someone (Paige I think) points out that magic for personal gain always has consequences and where is the consequence to Cole.

The source is eventually defeated, but not before he puts a curse, a very successful curse on the firstborns of the Charmed Ones. Two of those firstborns, Piper and Leo's Melinda and Phoebe and Cole's Colette are born soon after, one day apart. And neither of them is twice-blessed. They are born in mid January 2003 and two weeks later all the magic goes out in the world.

Sometime later, Prue marries though all I know is that she is probably not marrying from the show (still figuring some things out). About two years after the two girls are born, Piper is again pregnant. She is with Melinda in the attic when a triquetra opens in the wall and a young woman tumbles out, ramming into Melinda. She tells Piper that Melinda was going to kill her, something Piper cannot believe of her two-year-old. The stranger insists that before she explain Piper get someone to locate Prue's husband and get him out of where he is, because if they don't he will die.

Not believing her, Piper none the less, get's Paige to find Prue's husband and bring him back to the manor. She also collects the rest of the family and the interigate this stranger. Her name, she tells them, is Charlene Gunlock. She is from a future where things are pretty bad and it's all because of their daughters.

Melinda, she tells them, killed Piper on this day. It is believed she did this to keep her sister from being born, though she never explained. They also think it might be because without Piper the power of three was thrown into disaray. The day Melinda turned 21 she went on a killing spree with her cousin, Colette, and Colette's grandmother, Elizabeth Turner. Leo and Phoebe were two of the casulties of this killing spree. Charles Gunlock, Charlene's adoptive father was another casulty that day. (Her adoptive mother is Maggie Murphey.)

Speaking of Colette, she was five when she tried to kill her little sister and nine when she killed her father, Cole.

Anastasia, Prue's only child, finds killing boring and instead goes on shoplifting sprees. She uses her magic to manipulate people into doing whatever she wants. She's chilling and the only one of them who has not killed her parents, although she only has one due to her father's death on this day. Prue doesn't even know she's pregnant yet. Anastasia was born on Melinda's third birthday.

Paige isn't even married yet, but she and her husband had three children. Hailee had just turned twenty-one the day before Charlene left her time. To celebrate her birthday, Hailee killed both of her parents (having prior to that shown no noticable signs of homicidal tendencies) and her siblings, Laurie and Sam (I tend to assume that Laura is named after Paige's adoptive mother and Sam after her biological father. Sam is the only boy in that generation and may be adopted.)

Then, Melinda, Colette, and Hailee successfully convinced Anastasia to kill her mother, but when they chose their moment of attack, Charlene was there telling her about having found Paige and her families bodies and Charlene shimmered the two of them out of there. Between the two of them, Charlene and Prue figure out a plan to try and save all the people killed by the girls including, but not only, their family. Before they can put it into affect the four girls successfully corner Prue and while she's a strong witch, she is faced against four strong young witches, all of whom she has had a hand in the training of, one of whom is her daughter. And Prue doesn't have the power of three. That has been death for years since Phoebe's death at Colette's hands.

I haven't really thought out what happens after that, but they have to figure out about the Source's curse and how to stop it. Charlene is there for less than a day.

Prue and her husband only have Anastasia. Piper and Leo have Melinda and Patricia "Trish". Phoebe and Cole have Colette and (if you haven't figured it out already) Charlene. Paige and her husband (who also works at SBSS) have Hailee, Laurie, and Sam. So that's eight, between four sisters and one might be adopted. The only powers for them that I know are Anastasia's manipulation ability and the shimmer ability of Colette and Charlene.

I've only written part of one of these and there's only seven stories total, some of which can probably be combined.

I have another series which has a totally different set of events and different kids. It starts at the begin of the series and rewrites from there. The way it's written, it may manage two "seasons", the first being about fourteen stories long. I'll write about it later.

Oh, in the above series, the Charmed Ones remain Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. Paige, although involved in her sister's lives, is not Charmed after the first few chapters of the first story, or at least not until Piper's death in the "original time line".

[Esmeralda]

Hmmm, I'm going to have to think about this one. How can there be that many changes just because Cole doesn't kill Jana? It doesn't really make a lot of sense.

I think you'd do better skipping the Centennial Charmed and just do the Cursed Children parts, because those are fascinating!

[Chrisaholic]

Oh boy, what I read here.

This hasn't concerned my writing yet since I mainly re-write up to the end of S5 with Chris being my favorite character. To some parts they are fine but well, re-writing the complete show would be too much for me at the moment since I have some one-shots (or longer) stories in my head already spooking around. Some parts of the show has once more bothered me but that's my secret still.

[Astral Echo]

I love the cursed children idea as well, particularly if it was something that only occupies a few episodes of the series. Could easily be something slotted in to mine as something done by the evil Elders or Zankou.

[Astral Alex]

Cursed children is a cool idea. But the whole evil Wyatt thing and rivalry with Chris thing bored me in Seasons 6 - 7 was one of my least favourite plots.

I'd be interesting in writing the alternate Season 2 for my plot including Prue's pregnancy, I could imagine some great scenes where Prue discovers her pregnancy and grieves over Andy.

[Esmeralda]

I don't think StoryGirl's plot would be anything close to the brother-vs-brother of S6 and most S6-based fanfics. I'd really like to see more of hers, as long as she leaves out the idea of it being an alternate Centennial Charmed. If Cole can only be there for 24 hours, there's no way he would be able to find out what all happened in the future to make his choice.

I'd truly prefer if StoryGirl writes an alternate universe story that starts with Cole not killing Jana so he doesn't lose Phoebe's love or trust and continue it from there. Then she can take it as far as she wants.

I am afraid that the kids will take over this story even more than S6 or some of the other ones. I'd much prefer if there were only two first-born childen, not four. So as usual, I'd prefer Prue, the leader, with no children while also skipping Paige's kids, so it would just be Melinda, Colette and Charlene. Obviously you'd need something else to happen to send Charlene back in the past, but I'd prefer that having to do with innocents killed (even her being friends with the Morriss children and finding them dead) over finding an aunt, an uncle and two cousins dead.

[Astral Alex]

Hmm, I'd like to see a re-written Season 6 without the time travelling children, although something a bit different - like the Chris storyline was.

[Esmeralda]

How do you do a rewritten S6 story like the Chris storyline was without a time-traveling kid? I would also prefer that and let the Charmed Ones figure out things on their own, but if the problem was one of their own, would they realize it in time to stop it?

I truly don't think so. It's why I think Wyatt ended up evil and why I think the Phoetus would've ended evil if he hadn't died (unless something happened like in Alex's story). The Charmed Ones are just too blind when it comes to their own family, hence why they always try to blame it on someone else--usually Cole.

[Astral Alex]

Jan 5, 2012 13:11:31 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

How do you do a rewritten S6 story like the Chris storyline was without a time-traveling kid? I would also prefer that and let the Charmed Ones figure out things on their own, but if the problem was one of their own, would they realize it in time to stop it?

I truly don't think so. It's why I think Wyatt ended up evil and why I think the Phoetus would've ended evil if he hadn't died (unless something happened like in Alex's story). The Charmed Ones are just too blind when it comes to their own family, hence why they always try to blame it on someone else--usually Cole.

I mean the idea was very different, I didn't mean have a storyline like the Chris one :-)

And what do you like specifically about my Phoetus story Es? I can't put my finger on it, the fact that they kill Cole accidentally when they destroy the essence.

I figured then they destroy the essence, which kills Cole as it inhabits him, but doesn't kill Phoebe's baby as it is protected by her womb and also her position as a Charmed One and a good witch.

[ljones]

But . . . if Phoebe had no baby in her womb, there would be no baby to kill.

[Astral Alex]

Jan 6, 2012 14:05:10 GMT -5 ljones said:

But . . . if Phoebe had no baby in her womb, there would be no baby to kill.

But the child was conceived before Cole's death? And the destruction of the essence would stop The Seer's genetic claims to the child, making it Phoebe's and Cole's.

[Astral Alex]

Bump.

This was such an interesting thread.

[Esmeralda]

Thanks for bumping this, AA; I just realized that I didn't answer this.

Jan 5, 2012 16:15:46 GMT -5 Astral Alex said:

Jan 5, 2012 13:11:31 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

How do you do a rewritten S6 story like the Chris storyline was without a time-traveling kid? I would also prefer that and let the Charmed Ones figure out things on their own, but if the problem was one of their own, would they realize it in time to stop it?

I truly don't think so. It's why I think Wyatt ended up evil and why I think the Phoetus would've ended evil if he hadn't died (unless something happened like in Alex's story). The Charmed Ones are just too blind when it comes to their own family, hence why they always try to blame it on someone else--usually Cole.

I mean the idea was very different, I didn't mean have a storyline like the Chris one :-)

And what do you like specifically about my Phoetus story Es? I can't put my finger on it, the fact that they kill Cole accidentally when they destroy the essence.

I figured then they destroy the essence, which kills Cole as it inhabits him, but doesn't kill Phoebe's baby as it is protected by her womb and also her position as a Charmed One and a good witch.

This is exactly what I like best about the story; the idea that Cole is accidentally killed while the Phoetus is protected and can be born. I much prefer him playing the Evil Child role than Wyatt...mainly because I prefer Wyatt and Chris not existing.

[Astral Alex]

Ahh I'm glad you do. And I agree that it makes so much more sense for the Phoetus to be swayed to evil, much more than the child of a witch and a whitelighter... two forces of good.

[Esmeralda]

Your bringing this thread back got me thinking about it, and I had fun discussing it with some of my friends and doing some editing to make it a bit more consistent and also more the way we would've wanted to see the thing go if we had to include kids for all of the sisters. See what you think:

Season One is the same as the original, introducing us to the sisters, although when Prue sees Andy Up There after his death, she tells him she's not the only one who needs him...so does their daughter. Andy tells her he knows she'll take good care of their child.

Season Two obviously centers more around Prue's pregnancy, but also her determination to not let it stop her career (I could imagine some lovely sisterly moments after Prue becomes overworked and maybe collapses due to the stress of Buckland’s, demons, grief over Andy and her pregnancy).

The pregnancy is dragged out juuust a little -- easing the show into a slightly different direction as opposed to the sudden and completely different one we saw when Wyatt and Chris were introduced.

In late Season Two Prue gives birth to a baby girl who she names Patricia Andrea and calls Trish.

Doing it this way, you can still let Piper and Leo fall in love without needing to resort to the Dan/Piper/Leo triangle. There is also no P3…Prue’s job at Buckland’s and Piper’s as manager of Quake takes care of the bills quite nicely.

Instead of the triangle, near the end of the season, Piper dies like she does in “Awakened” although due to a demon, not bad fruit, and when Leo saves her, Piper proposes to Leo. And unlike the original, Leo doesn’t lose his wings, so Piper wants him to “Take me to your leaders.”

This way Season Three begins much the same way as it did originally with Piper having been away for a month, leaving Prue and Phoebe on edge - especially without Piper's help with Trish (as her maternal side is evidently needed, especially with Prue busy with Bucklands’s) and Phoebe is feeling like Prue keeps palming Trish off on her in order to either work at Buckland’s or try to stop the Triad. When Piper and Leo finally come back, it works much the same as the original, with them getting married after saving the Elders’ asses.

Just like the original, this is also the season when Phoebe also meets Cole, the love of her life. Like the original, he is half-demon, but unlike the original, he was raised by his mortal father and although he has to fight the demon inside, he knows what unconditional love is and that's what he gives Phoebe, spoiling the baby of the family and making her the center of his life, which of course she's always wanted and always needed.

Then, just like the original, Prue dies in "All Hell Breaks Loose"...the Season Three finale.

During Season Four's "Charmed Again", we see Piper attempting to use Trish as a means to bring Prue back - also with Piper and Phoebe likening themselves with Trish; how they were raised by their grandmother, and how Trish will be raised by her aunts. It is easier for the sisters to accept Prue’s death since they still have her daughter as a reminder, and they figure they can honor her memory by raising her daughter the way Prue would’ve wanted her raised.

Paige is introduced in much the same way, but on meeting Piper and Phoebe, she sees that Piper refuses to let her touch or have contact with Trish in any way. But around the middle of the season, when we finally see Piper trust Paige (letting her move in a bit later than in the real Season Four) Piper finally lets Paige hold little Trish, and Trish comes into her power of moving things with her mind upon Paige's touch.

Towards the end of Season Four, Leo and Piper start trying for children, but it fails just as Phoebe realizes she is pregnant earlier than in the real season, around the fifteenth or sixteenth episode. The plot happens much the same way with the Cole/Phoebe/Phoetus storyline, but they realize that Cole is possessed and therefore attempt to vanquish the Source’s essence and not Cole. However, vanquishing the essence accidentally kills Cole, while ridding Phoebe's baby of the essence, leaving the baby the chance to decide if it will be good or evil.

Instead of Piper discovering she is pregnant in the finale, the season ends with the sisters deciding to keep their powers as they feel they owe it to Prue and Cole - and in order to teach Trish and her future cousins how to properly use their magic.

During Season Five, Phoebe is frightened about going through pregnancy and motherhood alone like Prue did, since she remembers the struggle Prue had in both Seasons Two and Three, and is scared that something will happen, leaving Piper and Paige to raise Trish and her child alone without the Power of Three.

This means that while Season Five still has Piper's early pregnancy-related storylines, they are switched to Phoebe - instead of being all half-witch/half-whitelighter-oriented they would be half-witch/half-demon-oriented. Of course, there would be no 'Crazy Cole' since he died and stayed dead during Season Four, since in this version there is no such thing as the Demonic Wasteland…when he died, that was it. There is also no such thing as the avatars in this or any other season.

Instead during the 100th episode, Phoebe gives birth to a girl, Persephone Nicole, who she calls Posey. The baby is a great controversy in the magical world, with some creatures fearing her and some praising her - but basically realizing that she can be either good or evil depending on her own choices and the way she’s raised.

All of this comes out during the rest of Season Five as Leo and Piper continue to try for a baby and continue to not succeed. Little Trish grows jealous of her new cousin and it appears that she might be developing into Evil Wyatt, except as a girl. But the sisters recognize the problem and nip it in the bud before it becomes too serious. Eventually Trish loves her new cousin as if she was truly her own baby sister, and she grows very protective of Posey…maybe too protective…

Also during this season, Paige meets Henry (who takes Kyle's storyline - just without him being obsessed over the avatars, who don't exist, so he doesn't die), who she marries during Season Six.

Also during Season Six, Phoebe attempts to start dating again, but now that Posey's demonic powers are starting to show themselves (with Posey very jealous of anyone who shows too much attention to her mother), Phoebe finds that hard - but eventually starts a relationship with Jason during Season Six - however this only lasts half a season as he is dismissive of Phoebe's daughter and later rejects Phoebe for being a witch. Phoebe then begins a relationship with Drake - who stays for the remainder of the season which is when he dies. During Season Seven, Phoebe will decide to just stick to her career as Ask Phoebe and raise her daughter. (Please note: she has never had any sort of vision-quest…)

Meanwhile, during the latter part of Season Six, the Titans appear and kill off most of the Elders. The remaining ones want Leo to join them, but he refuses, although other whitelighters take them up on their offer. The power of becoming an Elder goes to their head and they all become evil, just about the same time that Piper discovers she’s finally pregnant.

Near the end of Season Six, Phoebe has a premonition of the Elders murdering Leo. Even as they try to figure out how to save him, a young blonde whitelighter suddenly orbs in, telling them how to prevent his death. Nora then convinces the sisters that the only way to stop the Elders is to join forces with evil to bring them down. She introduces them to Zankou, who she seems to know a lot about, whereas he insists that he has never met her. Leo is also suspicious of her since he has also never met her, but she refuses to tell them anything about herself.

In the 150th episode The Charmed Ones, Zankou, Nora, demons who agreed to fight, other good magical beings not manipulated by the evil Elders and the last remaining good Elders go to war against the evil Elders.

During the battle, Piper goes into labor, so Nora orbs Piper back to the Manor leaving Phoebe and Paige with Zankou and the others to fight against the evil Elders. Piper and Nora are met by Leo who helps her deliver their baby.

The battle against the evil Elders finally ends with the evil Elders vanquished, and Paige and Phoebe arrive back just in time to greet their baby niece. Piper has gone away from tradition and names her Melinda Nora, after the little girl she saw in the future and the woman who helped bring her into the world but Nora is now nowhere to be seen.

Shortly afterwards, Leo is asked by the remaining good Elders and whitelighter community to form a new council under his guidance. He agrees, but only if he's also allowed to continue to be the Charmed Ones' whitelighter, and they agree, so he receives his Elder powers for the first time.

At the end of the 150th, with his new Elder powers he senses a disturbance in the magical order. His new ultra-sensing powers take him to Nora standing in front of an open time portal.

Confused, Leo asks what is going on. This is when Nora finally admits that she’s from the future which is why she knew when to come back in order to save him from the evil Elders, how to bring the evil Elders down, about Zankou, etc...It’s also why she made sure that she herself never did anything to change anything…she always made sure that those in this present did, preventing any eternal time loops, something which happened many times and that she was determined this time to stop.

He asks her who she really is, so she turns her back on him, pulling up her hair to reveal a birthmark on the back of her neck--the same one we saw moments earlier on baby Melinda. She turns and smiles and tells him that her full middle name is Leonora…she was named after him...and she would suggest he gives it to Melinda. After all, shouldn't he and Piper continue the tradition of giving the first baby a form of her father's name as her middle name?

Before passing through the portal, she warns Leo that although Zankou helped get rid of the evil Elders, he can’t be trusted. She tells him that the sisters in the future told him to warn their past selves that the only way to get rid of him is to get rid of him now, not in the future. After giving him a sad smile, she steps through the portal. Her prophecy comes true when the sisters discover that the only way to prevent Zankou from taking over the Manor and turning the nexus evil is to truly sacrifice themselves. They set up a plan that will let Leo rescue them, but it doesn’t work. Although Paige is able to panic-orb out, without Coop and his ring, which doesn’t exist in this universe, there is no way to save Piper and Phoebe and Leo.

Paige and Henry are left to raise the girls, meaning that although she doesn't have children of her own, she raises three nieces as if they were her own daughters. She raises them so that when they grow up, the Chosen Ones….witch Trish, half-demon Posey, and half-whitelighter Melinda..will finally be able to face Zankou, even if they can’t access the Power of Three because they're not three sisters. But will they succeed where their mothers failed?

That is left for the spin-off.

So?? What do you guys think?

Astral Chaos, I'm still waiting to see what you would've done with the other sisters to see whether I would include any of your ideas in this.

[Astral Alex]

I loved it up until everybody dying apart from Paige.

I loved how you included my ideas on the pregnancies (especially Trish, I love the whole dynamic of how she is an orphan), and the Cole/Phoebe/Phoetus storyline... although I still would've liked the baby to have been a boy, not Posey, shake things up a little - Andrew Cole Halliwell, named after Andy and Cole.

Magically I like the storylines though, just I think that they shouldn't all die at the end, although I like the idea with only being them three and Paige not having any children, then you have a mix of everything. A witch, a half-witch/half-demon and a half-witch/half-whitelighter!