Why couldn't Chris heal?

[cyma]

Paige wasn't even aware she had whitelighter powers till she was an adult. But what's Chris excuse for not being able to heal? Hatred for his whitelighter father Leo thereby rejecting the half whitelighter part he inherited from him?

[Deleted]

But what's Chris excuse for not being able to heal? Hatred for his whitelighter father Leo thereby rejecting the half whitelighter part he inherited from him?

Once again I think the problem was Chris's story line not being properly thought through.  The writers didn't even know who he was supposed to be until Holly announced she was pregnant.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 10, 2015 5:20:53 GMT -5 cyma said:

Paige wasn't even aware she had whitelighter powers till she was an adult. But what's Chris excuse for not being able to heal? Hatred for his whitelighter father Leo thereby rejecting the half whitelighter part he inherited from him?

I think that's part of it, but I also think that since the trigger for healing is love, I don't think he ever had any love for anyone except himself - he knew how to use people, not how to love them.

Of course the real reason is that it's another way to try to make us feel sorry for the poor, poor, pitiful, lying, whining, murdering brat, just like having him conceived in the middle of an alley.

[adzpower]

I guess he just never learn to do it. Perhaps he could do it but when his family died he lost the ability to do so by not loving anymore? Sounds cheesy but I can't think of anything else. When Piper first discovered who he was he rejected her, almost ignored her totally. He was scared of letting her back in.

[Esmeralda]

If he cared that much he wouldn't have talked so coarsely about the way she was going to conceive him during "I Dream of Phoebe". The only time he seemed to have any emotion towards her was when he was talking to Victor about her death, the same time he proved he'd lied about Paige being killed by the Titans - and we know that that's a lie since the tour guide (only one from the future we can trust) said that all three were vanquished, and the Titans kill by sucking out their life-force; they don't vanquish. Besides, the way she says it makes it clear that they were vanquished together. I think he knew that's what would get to Victor, the same way telling Piper that there was no such thing as family in the future was the best way to get to her.

No, he never loved her at all. And why not? After Prue died she was no longer a loveable person.

[Deleted]

Just as I'm the only member of the Rex and Hannah Fan Club, it seems Es is the only member of the I Hate Chris club

[adzpower]

He might not have lied about Paige being killed by the titans though, as he was changing things in the past maybe his own future was changing, so his memories were changing? he saved Paige from the titans so his future altered to include her.

[Esmeralda]

That makes no sense. The sisters' memories never changed during all of their time travels.

[Esmeralda]

Although this is from a fanfic and definitely not canon, Scifi's characters tend to be more in tune with the ones in S6 than most fanfics. Here's her explanation for why Chris can't heal. In her fantastically wonderful novel, "The Witch and The Assassin", Chris has three much-younger cousins, two of them Phoebe's, one of them Paige's. During an epic battle, these three cousins channel the Power of Three by channeling their mothers in the past when they were casting the same spell. But the cost of that spell is the little girls' lives, so Leo tries to heal them:

“Can you?” he asked.

Leo shook all over. “I don't know. I can try. But I'll need help. Give me your hand.”

Chris joined his palm to his father’s, and they each held their hands over the girls’ bodies. And though he knew his concentration needed to be focused on this task, all he could think of was how he would personally vanquish Tess if it didn’t work.

Nothing was happening, and the anger and desperation built inside Chris to the point that he shifted on his knees in nervous agitation.

“Clear your mind, Chris,” Leo advised, having already calmed himself into a determined stare at Helen’s face.

It occurred to Chris that he was the one keeping Leo from healing the girls, but even that thought, and his kicking himself for his hindrance, had to go. He followed his father’s example and picked a flower on Cassie’s shirt as an innocuous focal point, and started counting his own breaths.

He reached twenty-two before he felt anything -- a warmth like he’d felt all the times he’d been healed, but with more to it now that his father’s power filled him and flowed out through both their hands.

He felt Leo’s trigger and brought his eyes away from the golden glow coming from his fingertips and to his dad’s face, blurred by tears that were the only possible reaction to the overwhelming love stored in that man. Nothing Chris had ever felt for anyone was like this love. It was the love of a man for his wife, a father for his family, but it was even more than these.

Leo’s love for those he protected, for those he guided, was where his strength came from. They could anger him, they could hurt him, but he loved his charges anyway, down into the depths of his soul. Chris felt a glimmer of all this and knew then that he would never develop the power to heal; he didn’t have that kind of capacity.

Then he remembered that Wyatt could work this kind of miracle, and he was awestruck at the depth of feeling his brother must have had for him all these years.

Unfortunately, this happens near the end of the story:

“What happened to you?” Chris asked when he saw the cuts and bruises that covered his brother -- a sight so rare, the question was not simply a cover.

“I’m fine,” Wyatt answered.

Chris nodded, but he couldn’t maintain eye contact. Wyatt came closer to study his face, then let his attention go to the hole in Chris’s coat at the shoulder.

“You’re bleeding,” he said.

“I’m fine,” Chris imitated his brother’s lie.

Wyatt half-grinned. “Here.” He placed a hand over the still-open wound. But as the seconds passed and nothing happened, the grin dropped from his face. He looked at his hands.

“That’s weird,” he laughed unconvincingly. “Must be some kind of residual portal crap screwing with my powers.”

“Yeah,” Chris concurred outwardly while praying inwardly that he wouldn’t fall to his knees in despair while Wyatt was still around.

Wyatt stared at his hands again, then resumed his mask. “I have some stuff to do. But first...”

He gestured toward the bodies all around them and caused every one of them to disintegrate in a brief burst of flame as though to prove that just because his healing power was messed up, the rest of his abilities were not.

“We’ll talk later?” he offered, almost gently, after perusing Chris’s face one more time.

“Sure.”

He closed his eyes as Wyatt orbed, wishing to God that Bianca would come to him soon. And almost as if she’d heard the wish, she shimmered in beside him.

“Has he come yet?” she asked, then saw that the bodies had been replaced with yet another layer of ash. “Oh.”

“He couldn’t heal me,” Chris mumbled and stared at the ground.

Bianca turned to him. “What does that mean?”

He shook his head and lied to her. “Nothing.”

Only that his hope had just died. But he’d done without hope before.

[adzpower]

The sisters memories wouldn't have changed though, they never did anything to change history or alter it to the point that their memories needed to change to fit a new timeline. Chris was in his past, manipulating events and changing history to fit his needs, it makes sense to me that with these changes he made, sending Leo to Valhalla, saving Paige, protecting Wyatt etc, there would be some kind of change in his future that would alter his current memories.
He came back from the future, and he saved Paige from the titans, she wasn't dead like she was in his future, so his memories changed to reflect that, she's now the aunt that taught him to be a whitelighter, lent him money etc. She still died in his future along with Phoebe and Piper but this time they died as a trio instead of a pair because Chris saved her. For all we know that was probably part of his plan, save Paige so the power of three was still around to help him.

[Deleted]

But would his memories change, since he's currently in the past.  In most time travel stories I've seen, the memories of the time traveller don't change, despite the changes they make to the past.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 10, 2015 15:57:11 GMT -5 adzpower said:

The sisters memories wouldn't have changed though, they never did anything to change history or alter it to the point that their memories needed to change to fit a new timeline. Chris was in his past, manipulating events and changing history to fit his needs, it makes sense to me that with these changes he made, sending Leo to Valhalla, saving Paige, protecting Wyatt etc, there would be some kind of change in his future that would alter his current memories.
He came back from the future, and he saved Paige from the titans, she wasn't dead like she was in his future, so his memories changed to reflect that, she's now the aunt that taught him to be a whitelighter, lent him money etc. She still died in his future along with Phoebe and Piper but this time they died as a trio instead of a pair because Chris saved her. For all we know that was probably part of his plan, save Paige so the power of three was still around to help him.

Of course they did. If they didn't, they wouldn't have had to go in the past. But their memories didn't change as they did things; they always remembered their own timeline, just like Chris did.

When Cole had Ruth change things so Melinda would've been turned evil, that's when the Charmed Ones memories should've changed before they even went into the past. Ditto for "That Seventies Episode" when they should've changed just as soon as Patty and Grams found out that they were the Charmed Ones - knowing that would totally change how the sisters were raised. Ditto when they go back in the past to change what happened with Paige's past life.

No, if you follow what happened in Season Six, rather than Chris' memories changing, if indeed he changed history that much, he should've just faded away, especially when Piper was already pregnant with that timeline's version of him - don't I wish!

No, thanks to Kern constantly changing his backstory, he comes out being nothing but a little liar.

You're absolutely right that he was manipulating things. He was manipulating his family with his lies.

He never did anything to let Paige live after the Titan attack - that was all stuff that the Charmed Ones would've done the first time around - and he would know about that from his mother's and aunt's stories. He chose the perfect time to show up, knowing that he'd appear a hero and be able to get close to Wyatt so he could kill either save him or kill him (which was what I always believed was his original plan, no matter what Bianca told him), with him telling Piper that there was very few families in the future the perfect way to get to her. No, "Oh, My Goddess!" was nothing but manipulation, part of why I can't stand that episode.

Besides, Chris did NOTHING to change history outside of screwing up the lives of everyone he talked to. Wyatt still turned evil in Season Seven. It was Leo who changed it by still being around for Wyatt, something Chris tried to change, since I sincerely don't think Leo ever became an Elder until Chris went back in the past, since all it was was his way of getting Leo out of the way.

[Esmeralda]

And we should get back on the topic of why the little liar couldn't heal. And that's why. He wasn't a loving person, just a manipulator, just like his mother.

The huger question should be - if love was the trigger and Future Wyatt was so evil, how could Future Wyatt heal?

[Deleted]

Paige couldn't heal until someone she loved, Henry, was badly wounded.

Perhaps it was the same for Chris, but given the crapsack future he came from, he didn't have the same chance Paige did.

[adzpower]

Future evil Wyatt could heal because he still loved, he said it in Chris-crossed, he kept the house and its things around as a memorial to his fallen family, who he still loved, he just didn't agree with their morality.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 11, 2015 13:15:29 GMT -5 adzpower said:

Future evil Wyatt could heal because he still loved, he said it in Chris-crossed, he kept the house and its things around as a memorial to his fallen family, who he still loved, he just didn't agree with their morality.

Oh, now there's a fantastically wonderful reason that makes perfect sense!

[Chrisaholic]

Chris said that it takes a long time to learn how to heal and we know that Leo was more there for Wyatt than Chris, hence Wyatt could develop his healing power, Chris not. Especially when it came to heal his Mom when she died on his 14th birthday. After that, he may have never needed it. We don't know that much about the old future. Maybe in the changed one he can heal.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 14, 2015 9:14:47 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Chris said that it takes a long time to learn how to heal and we know that Leo was more there for Wyatt than Chris, hence Wyatt could develop his healing power, Chris not. Especially when it came to heal his Mom when she died on his 14th birthday. After that, he may have never needed it. We don't know that much about the old future. Maybe in the changed one he can heal.

It being hard to learn was obviously another one of his many, many lies. Paige was able to do it right after Leo told him to help her. Had she wanted to and had she had the trigger - the love - she could've. She just didn't love anyone enough until it was Henry who was hurt - not that I blame her. S4-8 Piper and Phoebe weren't very loveable - the reason Chris couldn't heal her.

Remembering how much they loved Wyatt but kept ignoring Chris to the point where we hardly saw him - poor, poor baby! - I very much doubt if he'd be able to heal in the future.

[Nimue]

Maybe being half-whitelighter has more to do with it. Maybe he was more witch than anything else, and as such just didn't have the power to heal. Paige was able to heal, but maybe that's because she was more in tune with her whitelighter side than Chris was, felt more empathy and compassion than he did. Chris was mostly focused on saving Wyatt, and stopping the future from happening... I'm not sure this makes much sense, but I'm not thinking all that well right now, it's just too hot.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 14, 2015 10:53:07 GMT -5 Nimue said:

Maybe being half-whitelighter has more to do with it. Maybe he was more witch than anything else, and as such just didn't have the power to heal. Paige was able to heal, but maybe that's because she was more in tune with her whitelighter side than Chris was, felt more empathy and compassion than he did. Chris was mostly focused on saving Wyatt, and stopping the future from happening... I'm not sure this makes much sense, but I'm not thinking all that well right now, it's just too hot.

That would make plenty of sense *IF* he showed himself to be more witch than whitelighter. But every one of his powers were whitelighter powers - even his TK which was identical to Leo's in Season One.
We never saw him cast a spell or make a potion. Paige was actually more witch than he was, and she could heal.

And I'm still convinced that he was there to either save Wyatt or murder him, just like he was there to murder his father and wanted to do that so much that he totally forgot that doing that would get rid of his own existence - when he first showed up he was obviously suicidal - poor, poor baby.

He very obviously had no reason to love Wyatt, so no reason to save him. If anything, it would've made much more sense if he was the younger jealous dark-haired brother, there to kill the beloved Twice-Blessed Child.

Of course, this isn't him in most fanfics. But we're not discussing fanfics; we're discussing what we saw on the show, and on the show, well, like I keep saying, when I first watched the show I was screaming at Leo not to give Wyatt to Chris, positive that this was when Chris was going to murder Wyatt. To this day, with what we saw on the screen, I'll swear that would've made more sense than him dying so we'd *sigh* just have ANOTHER reason to feel sorry for the poor, poor, pitiful, lying, whining murdering brat.