With New Moon finally opening on Friday (has it really only been a year since Twilight? How are Ironman fanatics dealing with having to wait three years for their sequel?) I have a laser focus. I'm in a twisted joy and fear based swirl of excitement around the supernatural.
So I've decided to write about it. I could write about vampires, (I've been working on a "favorites" list) but New Moon isn't about vampires, I mean, they're there, but it's really about the other.
Today, I'm talking witches. Not real witches, the kind that pop culture has taken and elevated to super status. Here they are, my favorite magic makers here.
The Halliwell Sisters: Charmed
I loved Charmed. I watched season 1 again recently and realized it really doesn't exactly hold up. But for pure The WB late 90s early millenium nostalgia, it's the best. Plus Alyssa Milano is amazing. I personally think the show suffered when Shannen Doherty left and was replaced by Rose McGowan as a formerly unknown fourth sister (not because I prefer Doherty to McGowan, let me make that clear, McGowan is way better! I didn't like the way Piper functioned as oldest sister) The Charmed ones were great and the epic scope of their mission is always good.
Willow Rosenberg: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel
Willow started experimenting with Wicca at the end of season 2, in an attempt to restore Angel's soul. She later developed incredible powers which consumed her by season 6. Willow's magical solutions to Buffy and the rest of the gang's problems proved helpful, even if Giles consistently disapproved.
Samantha Stevens, Endora, Tabitha Stevens: Bewitched
Without Sam, as a pretty good witch on this quasi misogynistic classic there would be none of the others on this list. Samantha's mother Endora was constantly making trouble for poor Sam and her much put upon magic-phobic husband Darrin. Then came adorable daughter Tabitha, who manifested her magic powers early, and also made plenty of trouble.
Sabrina Spellman: Sabrina The Teenage Witch
A direct descendant of Samantha's, Sabrina's magic was much more about hijinks and hilarity than anything else. Plus it was a metaphor for puberty, so that was cool. Sabrina's magic caused her no end of problems, she had to lie to her friends about it, and even when she came clean to high school sweetie Harvey about it, it took him five more years to come around. But didn't we all wish when we were tweens that we could point our fingers and summon up a dance lesson with Britney Spears, and then watching reruns now, wish we could point and get the couture that Sabrina does.
Jean "Jinx" Honeychurch: Jinx
In Meg Cabot's less successful novel, Jean is a powerful prophesied witch who has to escape to New York City relatives when she turns the most popular boy in her small Iowa town into a crazy stalker with a love spell. When Jean's cousin Tory starts thinking that she's the one who's the witch, it spells difficulty, when they have their sights set on the same boy, who really only likes Jean. In the end it's Jean's commitment to not misusing magic that saves her. Personally I'd have rather seen Cabot turn this into a series rather than the too big for it's britches Airhead Science Fiction story.
The Wicked Witch of The West, Elphaba: The Wizard of Oz, Wicked
She struck fear into the hearts of children everywhere for generations, then she was the center of a heady confusing novel, and then she touched the hearts of freaky girls everywhere in her own musical. The shrieks of Margaret Hamilton's green witch are terrifying, right out of play pretends about the mean old neighbor. I've only read Maguire's novel once, but I didn't really get it. Then came Idina Menzel taking on the icon in Wicked. If your heart doesn't break as she sings "I'm Not That Girl" you need to get a new. Thankfully, we're in Oz, which means we could probably find you one.
Hermione Granger: The Harry Potter series
The talent behind the men. Hermione was the one who found the ways for Harry's plans and hijinks to make them legendary. If it weren't for the her and her bizarre ability to memorize thick volumes, (Hogwarts: A History) they never would have found the Sorceror's stone and Voldemort would have come back full force four years before Harry was ready and smacked his ass. Of course then Cedric Diggory might have been spared, but I digress. Hermione's book smarts are absolutely the driving force behind Harry and the success of his adventures.
So those are my witches. Coming before the end of the week, alternate worlds, mythological creatures and of course, werewolves!
2 comments:
Your opening paragraph reminded me of the blog at Theater Hopper today. Lol.
I only watched Charmed occasionally, but I was bothered by the "oh we have another sister" revelation. Wasn't the fact that there were three of them like... tremendously significant? I realize that this means the show wouldn't work with only two, but how could it have worked all along with four? Oh well.
Sabrina was excellent. Nothing else to say about this but hooray for memories of TGIF growing up. Sabrina and Boy Meets World were, I think, the only series I actually followed for a while.
Hermione = awesome.
And that's all I have for you.
Paige's introduction was a mess of "we need to save the plot." Not only was she their secret half-sister, who their mother had put up for adoption (and somehow been pregnant and given birth to without the girls and their grandmother noticing? This was what really bugged me. I mean, Phoebe is supposed to be 4 years younger than Prue, and Paige is supposed to be 2 years younger than Phoebe, which means that Prue was 6, how do you hide a pregnancy from a 6 year old???) Plus she was meant to further prove how impossible the relationship between Piper and Leo was, because her father was also a whitelighter.
And yeah, that there were three of them was super important, but all of that was bound in to them being blessed by the previous generations, and Paige being unacknowledged couldn't share in that destiny. Or that was the rationalization.
Like I said, stupid.
Also, Sabrina kicked soo much.
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