Phoebe's empath abilities

[pubesy]

This power really bugged me.

She gains the empath ability in season 7 and has an extremely hard time dealing with hearing people's innermost thoughts, not only that of her family, but people down the street inside buildings etc.

she finally takes the potion so she can no longer hear her sisters, and subsequently chris' thoughts. (assuming leo, young wyatt also drank the potion) All of a sudden phoebe has FULL control of her power, she no longer heard thoughts of others even right next to her, after Nick Lachey, she could no longer read her partner's thoughts.

also phoebe learns to tap into the emotions of demons inorder to turn fireballs against them. it is constantly stated throughout the series that demons have no emotions and are unable to feel, emotionally or physically.

then in the trial episode 150, phoebe loses her active powers including her empathy......she later earns back her powers....yet her empathy is never used again.

she couldn't even read billie's thoughts, or the thoughts of her sister, they never stated her thoughts were shrouded.

to me it seems that this power was never really thought through by the producers. it was a fantastic storyline to start with, the whole struggle to deal with a new power, but then the storyline just disappeared.

what do you think?

[ShantaD]

Phoebe was never able to read thoughts, only sense emotions. But she was so wrapped up in herself, it was just a huge burden to her to sense others's pain, anxiety, fear etc. She never made any effort to master it and apparently just shut the world out. She never could even sense who was evil or lying to her. Or perhaps she just didn't care enough once she was on her single-minded quest to get married and pregnant as soon as possible.

Perhaps it was dropped because the writers decided having Phoebe master any of her powers, whether premonitions or empathy, would have given the sisters a huge advantage and they would have had to write smarter stories and demons to create a challenge for them. Easier to keep Phoebe useless and the sisters clueless.

[~.:Alysha:.~]

Doesnt she gain the empath ability in either end of season 5 or beginning of season 6 cause doesnt she use it in Valhalley of the Dolls??

But yeah i agree it was a good storyline, i dont really know what happened to it!

[ljones]

I must admit that the writers original portrait of Phoebe's empathy abilities was rather ludicrous. I mean honestly . . . she used this ability to tap into some demon's emotions, so that she can use his/her power against him/her? Perhaps this comes from the show's theory that the sisters' emotions were the source of their psi abilities. Which is also ludicrous. Now one's emotions can trigger or affect psi abilities. What the hell were they thinking?

also phoebe learns to tap into the emotions of demons inorder to turn fireballs against them. it is constantly stated throughout the series that demons have no emotions and are unable to feel, emotionally or physically.

What the show was stating and what they were showing were two different things. What on earth made the writers drum up this theory that demons have no emotions? Of course they did! I saw it constantly on the show.

[pubesy]

ljones:

"What on earth made the writers drum up this theory that demons have no emotions? Of course they did! I saw it constantly on the show."

That's what i always thought, the "upper level demons" who spent weeks creating plans to end the charmed ones lives, such as Xanku etc must have had emotions inorder to think so "logically."

unless they meant that a demon's only emotion is anger, but even that wont stand up.

to me it seems that from season 5-6 onwards the writers got sloppy. and its such a shame.

but back to phoebe

She never made any effort to master it and apparently just shut the world out.

but she WASN'T able to block it out. remember her sitting in the basement saying something like "i just wish it would stop." therefore how could she stop it in later episodes?

[ljones]

unless they meant that a demon's only emotion is anger, but even that wont stand up.

I agree. In Season 5's "The Eyes Have It", we saw a demonic father and son pair express familial love for each other.

In Season 2's "Heartbreak City", a demon named Drazi had decided to ruin Cupid's love matches out of revenge, because the latter had interfered with a romance he had with a woman he was in love with.

[pubesy]

not to mention the emotion, fear, when they realise they are fighting the charmed ones!

you know what i find humorous? this is not just with charmed, this is with alot of shows. when the demon or bad guy or whatever finally captures the hero of a show with the intent of killing them they always procrastinate and tell the story of how or why they are going to kill them, leaving time for the hero of the show to be rescued, or escape.
sometime you are screaming at the tv "would you just shut up and kill them already?"

[ljones]

pubesy said:

not to mention the emotion, fear, when they realise they are fighting the charmed ones!

you know what i find humorous? this is not just with charmed, this is with alot of shows. when the demon or bad guy or whatever finally captures the hero of a show with the intent of killing them they always procrastinate and tell the story of how or why they are going to kill them, leaving time for the hero of the show to be rescued, or escape.
sometime you are screaming at the tv "would you just shut up and kill them already?"

I think that today's writers have watched too many Bond movies.

[pubesy]

haha i reckon!

i love the scenes where phoebe kicks ass in heels. or the scene where cole teaches phoebe to fight in the basement. Drool

[colehellsangel]

pubesy said:

it is constantly stated throughout the series that demons have no emotions and are unable to feel, emotionally or physically.

Not exactly true. Recall Drazi in "Heartbreak City". He wanted revenge on Cupid for turning his mortal heartthrob away from him and to another, mortal man. He then corrects Phoebe when she comments that she thought Demons could not love. Besides power and respect which are obvious he states that a demon can also love what it is they hate the most which is a human being. And Drazi had done just that.

[hisangel523]

i wouldnt say that she shut out the world. just like when piper was learning to control her exploding power it took her a while to learn control it and paige was the same way when she was learning how to orb herself it said through out the series that it would take some work to control their powers

[pubesy]

it would be easy to say she controlled her empath abilities, but she never used them again. no mention, nothing. and she doesnt even sense the emotions of billie, or christy.

[ljones]

Besides power and respect which are obvious he states that a demon can also love what it is they hate the most which is a human being. And Drazi had done just that.

Why would demons hate human beings?

[Esmeralda]

ljones said:

Besides power and respect which are obvious he states that a demon can also love what it is they hate the most which is a human being. And Drazi had done just that.

Why would demons hate human beings?

*roll eyes* Because they're demons. No other explanation needed. That's the way they're set up up in the mythology of Charmed (and in most Judeo/Christian religions, which is obviously what the majority of the Charmed producerswriters are), so that's what is. The fact that it's probably very dissimilar to Wicca as a religion (and I will always insist that despite Grams being a WIccan High Priestess, the sisters are *not* Wiccans themselves--they only use it as an explanation for their powers--it's what happens when people try to write about someone else's religion--it's going to end up sounding like their own) No other explanation needed.

If that doesn't agree with your own explanation of the world, you either have to accept the fact that that's the way things are in Charmedverse or you're going to be constantly frustrated. But then, ljones, I think you like being frustrated!

[woogyinthehouse]

pubesy said:

then in the trial episode 150, phoebe loses her active powers including her empathy......she later earns back her powers....yet her empathy is never used again.

Did she not only receive her premonition power back? or is it just me, (i may be talking nonsense)But thats what i thought, because i dont think she levitated again after that either....

[ljones]

*roll eyes* Because they're demons. No other explanation needed. That's the way they're set up up in the mythology of Charmed (and in most Judeo/Christian religions, which is obviously what the majority of the Charmed producerswriters are), so that's what is. The fact that it's probably very dissimilar to Wicca as a religion (and I will always insist that despite Grams being a WIccan High Priestess, the sisters are *not* Wiccans themselves--they only use it as an explanation for their powers--it's what happens when people try to write about someone else's religion--it's going to end up sounding like their own) No other explanation needed.

[eye roll] I'm quite aware that the show's morality view is basically Judeo-Christian, despite the sisters claiming that they're following the "Wiccan code". I was being sarcastic.

Two, considering her views on demons, Grams is no more Wiccan than her granddaughters.

If that doesn't agree with your own explanation of the world, you either have to accept the fact that that's the way things are in Charmedverse or you're going to be constantly frustrated. But then, ljones, I think you like being frustrated!

I'm not being frustrated, esmerelda. I'm just expressing my usual contempt, because I think that the show's view on morality is a load of crock. That's all.

[pubesy]

i think she does use the power of levitation again.

[Esmeralda]

pubesy said:

i think she does use the power of levitation again.

Nope, she never did after she got her powers removed (when Paige should've gotten hers removed, too--she's the one who didn't orb the gun and also helped murder), due to budget constraints, the reason Paige wasn't punished.

[pubesy]

helped murder? and use a gun? explain please?

[colehellsangel]

esmeralda said:

pubesy said:

i think she does use the power of levitation again.

Nope, she never did after she got her powers removed (when Paige should've gotten hers removed, too--she's the one who didn't orb the gun and also helped murder), due to budget constraints, the reason Paige wasn't punished.

Phoebe's levitation was also written out due to budget cuts.

helped murder? and use a gun? explain please?

Ah ditto, memory block here. I know Paige hit a women with her car because of Cole but when was there an intentional murder?