History Series / Charmed1998

** In the second episode one of the shape-shifting demons held onto the book and tried to get it out of the house by carrying it. Never once did it shock him like the evil sensing and shocking book that would come later. It's heavily implied that the shapeshifter's powers confused the book at first: whilst it allowed him to carry it, the book did refuse to leave the house, flying out of his hands when he tried to force it through the door, and sliding away when he tried to reach for it again. Likewise, the book is shown to be connected to the sisters' powers, and it becomes steadily savvier and more aggressive to evil as the series goes on. It's therefore implied that it's just the book's defensive capabilities strengthening as the sisters' powers do, as opposed to a complete non sequitur.

* HumanMomNonhumanDad: It depends on whether you view the sisters as human or nonhuman. If they're nonhuman, the trope is inverted in the case of Prue, Piper, and Phoebe (human dad/nonhuman mom). If they're human, the trope is played straight in the case of Paige (human mom/nonhuman dad). If they are human, Piper's sons and Phoebe's children have this trope apply to them, as well. Whether they're human or not, the trope is inverted in the case of Paige's children, since she married a "mortal" human, Henry, and is half Whitelighter (and thus, technically, nonhuman). Of course, Paige, as well as Piper's sons Wyatt and Chris, is half dead person, so I'm not sure how that works, but their fathers are still nonhuman. Brandon, the half-warlock from the first season, played this trope straight as well. It was inverted in the case of Cole, whose mother was a demon and his father a human.

* TheMaidenNameDebate: Halliwell women keep their last name after marrying. [[spoiler:The comics reveal that Coop the cupid took Phoebe's last name after marrying her, since a court refers to him as Coop Halliwell]].

* StrawFeminist: Penny Halliwell, the trio's grandmother. She outspokenly states her low opinion of men in general, and is openly antagonistic to most of the male characters in the series. When confronted with the fact that [[spoiler: a boy child is the heir to the Halliwell lineage and all its magic she is incensed and tries to convince Piper that the Wyatt is a cosmic mistake.]]

* SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat
** In "[[Recap/CharmedS1E17That70sEpisode That 70's Episode]]", Phoebe suddenly reveals the ability to pick locks. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Prue, who rhetorically asks, "Why am I not surprised that you know how to do this?"
** Despite Phoebe having trained in martial arts, the third season shows auctioneer/photographer Prue surpassing her in martial arts skills she has never learned.
** In Season 8, Paige showed that she knows martial arts as well ''despite the fact that we never saw her train in hand-to-hand combat''.

* BloodKnight: Paige, who's the most vocal about killing Cole in Series 5 and often the first one to suggest resorting to violence to solve a problem. Her tendency to do this lead ''Television Without Pity'' to jokingly [[FanNickname refer]] to her as "[[AxeCrazy Raige]]".

** Type 3: [[WitchSpecies Witches]], [[EvilCounterpart Warlocks]], upper-level Demons, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires]], [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Whitelighters]], Darklighters, Wizards, [[PowerTrio the Halliwell Sisters]], [[FantasyKitchenSink etc]].

* WitchSpecies: There are three known species of humanoid magic users: Witch, wizard and sorceror.

* CompositeCharacter: A variation. When the Greek Gods are recreated in Season 5, only the three sisters get powers - but obviously contain elements of several different gods. Piper is described as an Earth Goddess, which would make her Gaia or Demeter. She also clearly has elements from Athena, as the voice of reason. Paige is the Goddess of War, making her a female version of Ares. She also carries Poseidon's trident and shoots lightning out of it, giving her some of Zeus. She also has a bit of Artemis in her, with the DoesNotLikeMen. Phoebe meanwhile is the Goddess of Love, making her mainly Aphrodite. However she also has some of Hera's queenly ways. While empowered, Phoebe shows a fondness for flowers, likely a reference to Persephone too.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: The appearance of Prue's new form "Patience" in the comic continuation is based on Creator/NatalieDormer.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: This is Cole Turner's final fate - he ends up stuck in limbo, too good for Hell but too bad for heaven. [[spoiler:In the after comics, he is offered a chance at full redemption by working with Prue]].

** Less emphasied than above but the Charmed can fit this too as a witch version being [[TheWeirdSisters a trio of three empowered sisters]] [[ActionGirl fighting demons together.]]

* CompositeCharacter: A variation. When the Greek Gods are recreated in Season 5, only the three sisters get powers - but obviously contain elements of several different gods. Piper is described as an Earth Goddess, which would make her Gaia or Demeter. She also clearly has elements from Athena, as the voice of reason. Paige is the Goddess of War, making her a female version of Ares. She also carries Poseidon's trident and shoots lightning out of it, giving her some of Zeus. She also has a bit of Artemis in her. Phoebe meanwhile is the Goddess of Love, making her mainly Aphrodite. However she also has some of Hera's queenly ways. While empowered, Phoebe shows a fondness for flowers, likely a reference to Persephone too.

* ICannotSelfTerminate: Cole, having absorbed many [[PowerCopying powers from hell]] to return to Phoebe, only causes problems for her and her sisters, so she ends up divorcing him. He also finds that his powers have made him NighInvulnerable and, as such, rendered him unable to kill himself from the grief. So he starts causing trouble for the girls to get them to [[SuicideByCop vanquish]] him. Only to [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] this trope when he explains that [[spoiler:he just wanted to try whether he really was indestructable]] and goes AxCrazy for good after the confirmation. He wanted to die and was quite miserable that nothing could be done to make it happen. Now, he was told by the Avatars that this was the case and cryptically said as much to the sisters, but it was quite clear that Cole was hoping against hope that they were wrong.

** When Leo is revealed to be a whitelighter, he's able to restore the sisters' magic[[note]]They had given up their powers with a spell[[/note]] by using his healing powers on the Book of Shadows. Whitelighters are later established to only heal injuries and Leo doesn't reference how he healed the book the next time that plot resurfaces. Or how he managed to heal the P3 sign.

* NeverSayDie: Although "kill" and "destroy" belong to their vocabulary, the sisters seem to prefer to "vanquish" demons. Also a clear note of WhatMeasureIsANonHuman.

* ChildOfForbiddenLove: Love affairs between witches and Whitelighters are strictly forbidden. Whitelighters can end up [[{{Reincarnation}} recycled]] for breaking this taboo while witches, their families, and any children born from the union can be stripped of their magic. Whitelighter-Witches are usually hidden after birth, which is why Paige's existence was originally unknown even to her older sisters. Paige was originally thought to be the first of her kind, but Season 8 introduces another Whitelighter-Witch who was born the year before she was; it is implied that Whitelighter-Witches are more common than anyone originally thought, and Paige's part in the Power of Three opened the door for others to come out of hiding.

** Piper's past life in "Pardon My Past" was in a love triangle with Leo and Dan's past lives much like their next incarnations would be. In that life, she chose Dan, and the family tree prop has them as grandma Penny's parents.

** The Council of the Cleaners is made up of two Elders and two powerful demons. Either both or one of them agreed with the decisions regarding [[spoiler:at first letting the Charmed ones off free but at the cost of Morris' life (this was reversed before he was killed) and then agreed to punish Phoebe only for her trying to use magic to short-cut her path to finding a husband]].

* NomDeNom: This is a tradition in the Halliwell family. The elder three sisters' mother was Patricia Halliwell and their father was Victor Bennett. Later, the sons of Piper and Leo (whose last name is Wyatt) are named Wyatt Halliwell and Chris Halliwell. Only averted by Paige, who goes by her adoptive last name Matthews and [[spoiler:after she marries Henry Mitchell, their kids have his last name, though she herself keeps Matthews]].

* MuggleAndMagicalLoveTriangle: Paige has one, briefly in the last season, between Henry (muggle) and Simon (magical).

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Mostly averted. Demons are just as likely to go after male and female victims without discriminating. Any time an innocent is killed it's treated as a bad thing. From season 3 onwards villains are just as likely to be female too.

* MissingMom: Patty was drowned by a Warlock when the main characters were very young. Prue saw her die and Phoebe was too young to remember her at all. Paige never knew her since she was raised by MuggleFosterParents. They meet her in the past and some episodes feature her as a SpiritAdvisor, though.

** Warlocks were the initial threat on the show, with only demons occasionally turning up. The warlocks were the human-looking enemies while demons looked more alien. By Season 4, warlocks were just {{Mooks}} and demons were the main antagonists - often appearing as humans in black leather. This was given a justification in the show; the more powerful upper level demons were the ones able to take a human form. So as the sisters' powers grew, the more evil (and therefore human-looking) demons came after them. However, said justification falls flat as early as season 4 where even low-level mook demons are portrayed as humans in black leather.

** In the second episode one of the shape-shifting demons held on the book and tried to get it out of the house by carrying it. Never once did it shock him like the evil sensing and shocking book that would come later. It's heavily implied that the shapeshifter's powers confused the book at first: whilst it allowed him to carry it, the book did refuse to leave the house, flying out of his hands when he tried to force it through the door, and sliding away when he tried to reach for it again. Likewise, the book is shown to be connected to the sister's powers, and it becomes steadily savvier, and more aggressive to evil as the series goes on. It's therefore implied that it's just the book's defensive capabilities strengthening as the sisters' powers do, as opposed to a complete non sequitur.

** Prue mentions to Andy upon her confession as a witch that her children will only inherit her powers if they are girls. This is before they have interacted with any male witches, and there haven't been any in the family so far.

** Played straight in "[[Recap/CharmedS7E10WitchnessProtection Witchness Protection]]", with a demon [[HeelFaceTurn trying to help the sisters]] in return for a soul. [[StuffedInTheFridge Needlessly killed]] by the BigBad before she can become human again, but [[RedemptionEqualsDeath after holding up her side of the bargain]]. And they were so close to turning her again, too. Her borrowing one of Phoebe's dresses in her last minutes showed just how ready they had gotten for it, and even caused question as to whether they actually pulled it off. This only made her vanquish even more painful.

* FantasticAesop: Too many to count.

* OurWitchesAreDifferent: Witches are implied to be entirely female for the first three seasons (and warlocks entirely male). Season 4 introduces the concept of male witches, and female warlocks are seen occasionally. The show never draws a distinction between evil witches and female warlocks.
* OutsideGenreFoe: Whitaker Berman, the man who called himself "the Dream Sorcerer" from the same titled episode. A completely human SerialKiller, he used science and technology to threaten the lives of innocents by entering their dreams and killing them.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Whitelighters.

** Warlocks were the initial threat on the show, with only demons occasionally turning up. The warlocks were the human-looking enemies while demons looked more alien. By Season 4, warlocks were just {{Mooks}} and demons were the main antagonists - often appearing as humans in black leather. This was given a justification in the show; the more powerful upper level demons were the ones able to take a human form. So as the sisters' powers grew, the more evil (and therefore human-looking) demons came after them.