Loveday Writing

The Avatars

Although the Avatars made their first appearance in season five when they recruited Cole and helped him alter reality to be with Phoebe, which ultimately led to Cole’s vanquish, for this analysis, I’m going to be focusing on their appearances and role in season seven. I feel that their appearances and role in season seven truly explores their neutral nature and their agenda.

While they initially appear as floating heads in roughly the first quarter of the season, taunting Leo, they don’t appear in person to him until the seventh episode, Someone to Witch Over Me.

The Avatars in Someone to Witch Over Me:

The Avatars make their first in-person appearance in this episode. Two of them, Alpha and Gamma, appear first by themselves on the Golden Gate Bridge, debating their next move in recruiting Leo, after they accept their floating heads strategy hasn’t been working for them.

After Leo successfully completes a vision quest on the suggestion of Piper and Phoebe to deal with his ongoing issues with his grief over Chris’ murder by Gideon, Alpha, as a floating head, forces him back into the quest. When Leo asks why he’s been haunting him as a floating head, Alpha tells him it was a necessary part of guiding him to the truth that lies beyond Good and Evil, and to them, the Avatars.

Alpha tells Leo that the Avatars are a power that can offer a solution to the “pointless, endless battles between Good and Evil”. He tells him that this duality and battle will lead to death and nothing, and he tells him that there’s a better way that the Avatars can implement but they need his and the Charmed ones’ help (when they’re ready) to create a better world for everyone. Leo asks him what the catch is, Alpha tells him that the only catch is the courage to change. When Alpha pulls Leo out of the quest, Alpha is there waiting for him, and Leo goes downstairs to find Piper and Phoebe dead after a demon attack.

Leo asks Alpha why he did this to them but Alpha tells him that he didn’t kill them, evil did, he says it might not be too late to reverse it but he has to join them. Leo quietly agrees and Alpha gives Leo his Avatar powers, welcoming him into the fold. Alpha tells Leo he can heal Piper and Phoebe, and bring them back to life. Leo does this, as Paige and Kyle orb in.

Afterwards, when Piper, Phoebe and Leo are hanging out at P3, Paige brings up the Avatars to them as Kyle told her that’s what the demon they battled called the ‘new power’, Phoebe tells her that it doesn’t ring any bells. Paige then asks Leo if he’s ever heard of the Avatars, but he tells her he hasn’t and he’ll look into it. He then proposes a toast to new beginnings, leaving the viewers to wonder what’s next, now that he is an Avatar, and at the moment is keeping this from the sisters.

The Avatars in Charmed Noir:

Leo, now feeling at peace due to becoming an Avatar, tries to reignite his relationship with Piper, asking her to have dinner with him as she is working at P3, however she declines as she needs time to get used to the “new him”. Moments after she leaves, Alpha appears, this time with Beta. Beta tells him that even though he doesn’t have Piper back like he wants, right now he needs to embrace his life as an Avatar and help the sisters into the fold.

Later, after Paige and Kyle have been sucked into the pages of a magically conjured book, Leo tries to help by looking inside. Whilst the book does try to suck Leo into it, Alpha and Beta appear behind the sisters and use their powers to stop the book from sucking him into it. Moments later, Piper turns her head to look behind her, but Alpha and Beta have disappeared. When Phoebe asks him how he managed to overpower the book, he says he’s more focused now.

The Avatars in There’s Something About Leo:

The episode kicks off with Piper and Leo fighting in the attic over his recent change and Piper’s awareness of Leo keeping a secret from her. When Piper mentions that the latest demon might be working with the Avatars, Leo tries to convince her that they may not be the threat everyone thinks they are, however Piper brings up when they sent a demon to possess him, Leo tells her that it was their way of communicating with him. In his anger and frustration, he inadvertently goes back in time to the moment he approached Piper before their fight by using his Avatar powers.

When Piper leaves the attic, Alpha and Beta appear. He asks them why they sent him back in time, but Beta tells him that they didn’t, he did. Alpha tells him he needs to be more careful with his new powers as reversing time can be very dangerous. He also reveals to him and the viewers that much like the Charmed One’s powers, Avatar powers can’t be used for personal gain. Beta tells him that he needs to learn to control his emotions to prevent him from using his new powers for personal gain and when he generally shouldn’t, and Alpha tells him that lack of control can make their powers dangerous to others, as well as themselves. Beta also reveals that using their powers like that drains the collective and puts them all at risk. Alpha tells him that they need to remain at their full strength to defeat the forces of evil.

When Leo tells Alpha that Piper suspects something is up and that he can’t keep lying to her, Alpha tells him that they understand his position, with Beta adding that if he tells her outright he’s an Avatar, it could cause Piper to overreact and view them as a threat. The sisters must come to the truth in their own time and way, just as he did. When Leo asks if Piper doesn’t come to the truth and still sees them as a threat, Alpha tells him that he needs to help her see it, gently guide her to it.

Later, when Leo tries to talk to Piper about getting the family back together, she doesn’t want to as she’s in the middle of making a potion. When he expresses frustration over Piper not trusting him, he accidentally stops time, and Alpha and Beta appear, to tell him that this can’t keep happening. Leo wants to tell her the truth, but Alpha and Beta try to convince him otherwise, fearing that she’s not ready to hear it. They agree to let him tell her but warn him of the possible risks and consequences if it goes badly, and leave. He then tells her he’s an Avatar, which leads to her accidentally blowing her potion up. When he goes to help her up, she tells him to stay away from her.

When Phoebe and Paige come into the attic to find out what happened, Piper tells them Leo’s an Avatar. Leo tells them that the Avatars are everything they’ve been searching for, a life away from demons, but they believe he has lost it. Piper tells him to take their sons to magic school as she needs time to think about it.

Later, an Elder, Sandra, orbs to magic school to see Leo and tells him that she and the other Elders detected a power surge, a time shift, and that the Avatars must be behind it as no demon has that kind of power. She wants Leo to alert the sisters as she believes the Avatars will be coming after them first. Leo questions why they’re perceived as a threat due to having great power, as the Elders are pretty much the same, he also points out to her that they don’t know enough about the Avatars to fear them. Sandra tells him that if they were benevolent, they wouldn’t hide, they would show themselves. Sandra tells him that they need him on their (the Elders) side.

When Leo orbs back to the Manor, Piper asks him questions about the Avatars. Leo tells her that the Avatars can use their powers to provide a demon-free world and it’s everything they’ve always dreamed about, and they should consider it after everything they’ve been through. Moments later, demons attack them, and Leo manages to kill two of them with his Avatar powers. He kills the third, but doesn’t see the fourth before he disappears. Leo tells her that this will keep happening unless they join the Avatars.

Paige goes to Kyle and tells him Leo is an Avatar, he gets a potion that he has to kill Avatars and tries to find Leo. Paige and Phoebe try to talk him out of it, and that Leo is not the bad guy and he’s possibly been brainwashed. Paige and Phoebe go to see Piper and Leo, and tell them that Kyle knows and is downstairs. Phoebe tells Leo that Kyle thinks he’s a threat, but Piper defends Leo, saying he wouldn’t have told them the truth if it was a bad thing. Piper tells them that they need to think about it, when Paige questions her change of tune, Piper tells them it’s because of the constant demon battles they have to face.

After Piper and Leo leave to vanquish the demons and return the innocent where they found him, Kyle argues with Phoebe and Paige about Leo. When he overhears Phoebe telling Paige to orb the potion away from him, he shoots Paige with a tranquiliser dart, and he holds Phoebe hostage with a gun, intent on killing Leo. When Piper and Leo return the innocent to the alley, the fourth demon from earlier, a different kind to the others they vanquished, kills him. Leo tells her they were tricked.

When Piper and Leo return to the manor, they find Kyle holding a gun on Phoebe, and Paige unconscious. Kyle tells him about his parents’ murder; however Leo tells him the Avatars couldn’t have killed them as they believe in peace. Kyle throws the potion at Leo, as Leo kills Kyle with his Avatar powers. As he’s dying, the Avatars freeze time and tell him the potion’s real, it kills Avatars. Beta tells him again that the truth has to come to them in their own time and way, and even though Piper understood, Paige and Phoebe didn’t, and an innocent was lost. Alpha tells him that they can rewind time back to the moment before he told Piper the truth. It works but Alpha and Beta tell him that he can’t try this ever again, he can’t tell her the truth, until she’s truly ready.

Using his knowledge from the alternate timeline, Leo helps Piper vanquish the demons.

The Avatars in Witchness Protection:

The episode kicks off with Piper and Leo having a family portrait taken with the kids. Just as the photographer takes the picture, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma come to see him.

They tell Leo that they recently obtained information that there may be someone who can help the sisters see their way but she needs protecting from demons. He agrees, but tells them it won’t go over well with Piper. The person the Avatars were talking about is revealed to be the Seer, who has been a minor but overall not too threatening, adversary all season. Leo tells Piper about having to protect the Seer, but tells her that the Elders have put him on the job, not the Avatars.

Later, the Seer tells them and Kyle that she knows the Avatars are coming and she has information on them. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma appear and Leo asks them why they didn’t tell him that he was rescuing a demon. They tell him there wasn’t time and they couldn’t take the chance he would say no. They also tell him that Kyle is a threat they didn’t count on. The Avatars also tell him that they need to get the Elders to give the Seer what she wants, so she’ll show the sisters what the Avatars want them to see. Meanwhile, Paige and Kyle go to his apartment, where he gets the Avatar vanquishing potion.

After they bond, Phoebe asks the Seer (whose real name is Kyra) for the information she has on the Avatars. Kyra says that she can’t tell her but she can show her. They join hands and Kyra shows her a vision of the future where demons don’t exist anymore thanks to the Avatars, and the world is a utopia beyond Good and Evil. As their hands separate, Phoebe has a premonition of another demon, Zankou, vanquishing Kyra.

Afterwards, Leo admits to being an Avatar, Phoebe is supportive of Leo due to the vision, although Piper isn’t too pleased. Meanwhile, Paige doesn’t want anything to do with the Avatars as they apparently killed Kyle’s parents.

The episode ends with Zankou vanquishing Kyra, with Leo, Phoebe and Piper witnessing it. They ask Leo to summon the Avatars, with Piper telling them that they’re listening, ready to hear them out.

The Avatars in Ordinary Witches:

The episode starts with Piper having doubts about the utopia the Avatars are offering and changing the world, and she admits to not having reached Leo’s level of faith in the Avatars yet. Moments later, Kyle sneaks into the house to kill Leo with the Avatar potion, only for Alpha and Beta to freeze time. Alpha says he needs to do something about it as it’s the second time Kyle’s tried to kill him. When Piper brings up Kyle’s parents’ murder, they tell her that they didn’t kill them. They also warn Leo and Piper about Zankou and take the potion away, before unfreezing Kyle.

Afterwards, Paige orbs to the manor and tells Leo and Piper that she told Kyle the truth at breakfast, but didn’t know he would try and kill him. Phoebe suggests that Kyle be sent back in time to find out the truth about his parents’ murder. Leo uses his Avatar powers to send them back. Meanwhile, Zankou tells the Elders that Leo is now an Avatar. The Elders call him and he admits to them that he is an Avatar. They tell him what the Avatars are offering isn’t possible but he won’t back down and the Elders try to kill him, only to discover they can’t. He tells them he’s not an Elder anymore and the fate of the world is no longer in their hands. Meanwhile, Kyle sees demons, not the Avatars, kill his parents.

The episode ends with Piper and Paige fully open to the Avatar’s utopia, and Kyle hiding an Avatar potion he got in the past in a briefcase.

The Avatars in Extreme Makeover: World Edition

The episode kicks off with Kyle and Paige arguing over the Avatars, with Kyle telling Paige that just because the Avatars didn’t kill his parents it doesn’t mean that they’re not a threat. However, Paige dismisses him because they all want a utopia. It’s also revealed that the sisters have been vanquishing as many demons as possible before the Avatars make “the change”. When Kyle tries to reach the Elders and offer to help stop the Avatars with his potion, Zankou brings him down to the underworld.

At magic school, Alpha tells Paige that they need to vanquish Zankou before the change. Paige asks about how the spell to change the world works. Alpha tells her that the spell will put everyone on Earth to sleep for a few hours, long enough to erase the duality, Good and Evil mindset. Paige tells the sisters about this and expresses her doubts. The Avatars tell them they won’t be going to sleep with the rest of the world as they’ll still need to kill any straggler demons, who also won’t be asleep.

The Avatars also reassure the sisters as the transformation starts as they, unbeknownst to them, are under a paranoia spell. Once the spell has been cast and everyone but the sisters have been put to sleep, Beta and Leo walk around town with the sisters to find any straggler demons.

We then see Beta (who is really Zankou in disguise) tell Paige and Piper that Kyle didn’t go to sleep, which leads to Paige orbing to see him, and Zankou sending Piper off to fight a demon. When Paige gets to Kyle’s apartment, he tells her that Beta is keeping him awake, not Zankou. Paige then calls for Beta and when she arrives, she asks why he’s still awake, Paige tells her that she said Zankou is keeping him awake, but Beta tells her she didn’t. Kyle breaks the paranoia spell before he throws the potion, Beta strikes him with lightning as he does so, but the potion bottle breaks and kills her anyway.

When Paige calls for Leo, Alpha and Gamma show up and tell her that he can’t hear her as he’s been affected by what’s happened. Paige asks them to rewind time to fix it but Alpha tells her that they’ve come too far to go back now. Alpha and Gamma decide to put the sisters to sleep to complete the transformation, with Phoebe falling asleep in front of Leo. Leo orbs to find Piper asleep in an alley. Alpha and Gamma tell him about Beta and Kyle. Leo criticises them for not talking to the sisters first, but Alpha tells him that they need them on their side and their power now more than ever, and that anyone who brings conflict into the world can’t be tolerated.

The episode ends with Piper and Phoebe telling Leo that they feel great about the change, and Paige orbing in. Piper and Phoebe express their condolences and Paige says that it’s sad, but Kyle has gone on to a better place. The final shot of the episode shows concern on Leo’s face, before we fade to back and the words ‘to be continued’ appear.

The Avatars in Charmaggedon

The episode kicks off with Alpha and Gamma showing Leo the effects of utopia on mortals, Leo expresses his concerns about Paige’s reaction to Kyle’s death, but Alpha tells him to go to the sisters and gauge their reaction. Gamma tells him to return to them once he’s satisfied with the sisters’ response, due to Beta’s death weakening the collective. After Leo leaves, Alpha and Gamma witness a man arguing with a police officer and make him disappear. Phoebe and Piper tell him that they feel great and are throwing a party to celebrate. After he goes to see Paige at Kyle’s apartment, Zankou goes to see Leo and tells him that they have the same problem and they need to fix it.

Zankou tells Leo that the Avatars were around thousands of years ago and created utopia, however it was eventually discovered that people don’t have free will in utopia and the Avatars were defeated over this. Leo then go to see the Avatars, Alpha asks how the sisters are, and he says they’re okay. Alpha shows him how utopia is maintained and monitored for conflict. Alpha also reveals to Leo that they’ve modified people’s belief systems, the way they think, so they can more easily accept a world without evil, however some have been damaged beyond hope, and their inner demons surface and cause conflict. When the conflict reaches a certain threshold, they have to deal with it, which involves removing people from the world. Alpha tells him that they can’t let anything threaten the world they’ve created.

Later, Zankou tells Leo that even if he manages to decipher the ancient carvings listing the ingredients of the potion to kill the Avatars, they’ll need the sisters help to make it. Leo leaves and tells Phoebe the truth behind utopia, and that to see the truth she needs to “feel the loss”. Leo takes Phoebe to Kyle’s apartment to get her to have a premonition of what really happened to him. However, Phoebe doesn’t want the world to change and dismisses him. Alpha and Gamma observe their interaction, Alpha tells Gamma that he needs more time, but Gamma says that they’re running out of time and Leo could turn the sisters against them.

Leo and Zankou have demons attack at the party to cause a great conflict so the sisters can learn the truth, with Alpha and Gamma watching on. Leo tells Phoebe not to let the Avatars forget why he did this, to go to the Book of Shadows, remember the losses, and go to Zankou, before he disappears. Later, Phoebe touches the Book and has a premonition of all the losses over the course of their time as witches.

Afterwards, Phoebe shocks Piper into grieving by pointing out to her that the Avatars killed Leo and that they took him away from her. Piper and Phoebe get Paige to orb them to Kyle’s apartment. Phoebe tells Paige about her premonition of Beta killing Kyle, forcing her to grieve as well. Alpha and Gamma watch this take place from their headquarters. The sisters then go to see Zankou, who tells them about the potion.

The sisters and Zankou go to the see the Avatars, keeping them at bay with the threat of throwing the potion. They tell the Avatars to put the world back to the way it was. Gamma says that they aren’t ready for them, but Alpha says someday they will be and they’ll use their remaining powers to reverse time to before utopia was created. Leo will come back but Kyle won’t, as it will take more time to reverse to bring him back. Alpha and the other Avatars agree to revert the world back to the way it was before.

The episode ends with Kyle coming to see Paige, revealing that the Elders made him a whitelighter to reward him for trying to stop the Avatars.

How Neutral were the Avatars?

The Charmed Wiki website states that the Avatars were “the only neutral ‘big bad’ the sisters faced”. While they were neutral in the sense that they didn’t engage in the cosmic battle between Good and Evil, and they previously recruited Cole in demon form as well as the Charmed Ones in season seven, I feel that they weren’t completely neutral as they worked with the Charmed Ones to rid the world of the Good and Evil battle, going as far as to assist in finding demons for them to vanquish, as the world was transitioning to their utopia. They also wanted to create utopia at any cost, ridding the world of free will, removing people from the world without a second thought, and not being completely honest and transparent with Leo and the sisters. They also got rid of Leo without a second thought.

However, even though they had their own agenda, they didn’t outright force it on the sisters and the world, to the point that they waited for the sisters to be ready for them and honoured their request to revert the world back to the way it was when they realised utopia came at the cost of free will. Once the Avatars reverted the world back to the way it was, they peacefully retreated.

The next part of the Charmed & Neutrality analysis series will be released next week and will focus on exactly why the Angel of Death, the Cleaners, and the Avatars failed.