Emotional Inception[1], also known as Pathokinesis, is the power to manipulate emotions and feelings. This ability seems to work primarily by projecting one's own emotions onto another being, causing them to feel the same emotion, but with time and practice, the user can learn to channel and project any emotion they want.
Maggie Vera developed this expansion of empathy after her other empathic powers were rendered dormant.
Overview[]
The users of this ability are able to project all types of emotions, including happiness, sadness, rage, fear, etc., as well as more abstract feelings, such as the feeling of power, causing short-term change in emotions. The exact length of this change in emotion is currently unknown. This power can be used through touch or from a distance.
Besides altering moods and temperaments, this power can also cause physical reactions through feelings, such as to put someone to sleep, presumably through waves of calmness, or affect other forms of mental states, such as break people out of magically induced trances. It is possible for this power to create a psychic link between the user and the target, which can allow the user limited access to their emotions.
So far, the maximum number of beings shown that can be affected by this power at any one time is two.
History[]
Maggie Vera's powers expanded in "Don't Look Back in Anger", allowing her to cause other people to feel whatever emotions she does. In a heated confrontation with her father, she unwittingly sent out a large blast of energy that affected two guards, causing them to become enraged and fight each other. The guards fight each other so brutally that they are both shown laying on the ground, either dead or knocked out.
In "Unsafe Space", when Macy Vaughn and Maggie were stuck inside a tiny marble from the Command Center, Macy began freaking out. Maggie was able to consciously use her power to transfer a feeling of calmness into Macy, which allowed her to relax. Later, Harry Greenwood asked Maggie if she could use her new power on him, presumably to not be in love with Macy anymore, so that his emotions will not interfere with his duty as a Whitelighter.
While still new to her power in "An Inconvenient Truth", Maggie attempted to calm Mel Vera down, but accidentally used her power on her and caused her to become extremely happy and chipper. In her attempt to figure out what happened and reverse the effect, Maggie ended up causing Mel to become depressed instead. Maggie's final attempt to rectify her actions ended up making Mel act extremely hopeful, which in turn helped her and Maggie realize how to negotiate with Harry's Darklighter, Jimmy.
At the same time, Macy found out about Harry's request to Maggie, and Harry explained his reasons, before revealing that Maggie had been contemplating whether to go through with it. In the end, they both decided to not have Maggie change Harry's feelings for Macy.
In "Bruja-Ha", Maggie was emotionally and physically worn down from all the continuous monster chasing after Macy and Harry accidentally activated the Tomb of Chaos that allowed multiple monsters to come through the rifts. To help herself, she continuously incepted herself with confidence so that she would be ready to face a monster. When she was chasing a Doppelgänger, she had a vision of it that freaked her out, so she incepted confidence in herself again. During the fight against the monster, it broke through her confident state when it mimicked her moves and parried her attacks. She tried to incept herself again, but this time, it failed due to being overworked.
In "Spectral Healing", Maggie incepted Antonio Garcia with sleep after he witnessed a spirit coming out of her body to convince him that he had hit his head and was dreaming of the entire incident.
In "Perfecti Is the Enemy of Good", Maggie, disguised as Abigael Jameson-Caine, incepted the demon, Fenric the Vile with the feeling of power to fool him into believing he had regained his powers and take the password needed to bring the golem to life.
In "What to Expect When You're Expecting the Apocalypse", Maggie tried to use this power on the Whispering Evil, that had possessed Jordan Chase. The Whispering Evil proved itself to be immune to her power.
In "Not That Girl", Maggie incepted Kaela Danso with calm to keep her emotionally steady.
In "Unlucky Charmed", as Frank was freaking out about being blown to pieces, Maggie hurriedly incepted him with calm to stop him.
In "The Tallyman Cometh", after Ray Vera suffered a heart attack, Maggie incepted him with calm to keep him steady before attempting to call an ambulance, but Ray was adamant about helping her with her anger management therapy session.
In "Truth or Cares", after an animated Trunksie attacked by Dexter Vaughn and Ray, they and Maggie played a game to draw it out. When it showed up, Maggie attempted to incept it with sleep, but due to Dexter's presence causing magic in the area to work in opposite ways, it incepted him with extra agitation.
In "Divine Secrets of the O.G. Sisterhood", Maggie used it to break Daphne Periwinkle out of a trance.
Known Users[]
- Original Power
Trivia[]
- In the comic book version of the original series, Phoebe Halliwell developed a similar power, calling it "Psychic Reflection", which allowed her to manipulate people's emotions, including intensifying them so high that it could kill them.
- According to Carrie Williams on Twitter[2], this power and its name is derived from the movie "Inception". In the movie, inception is the act of entering someone's subconscious mind, through dreams, and implanting an idea. That idea will then bloom in a way, which will make the subject think it's their own.
- Similarly with Maggie's power, when someone is incepted with an emotion, that emotion grows, such as when Maggie incepted two guards with her own anger and caused them to not only be angry, but also fight each other.
- Initially, it was theorized that the visual effects of this power depended on whether the power was used from a distance or through touch. Ever since the power was introduced, when used through touch the effects had blue hues, while when used through distance the hues traveled through the air in purple, red and pinky shades. However, that was disproved in episode "Unlucky Charmed" when the power was used from a distance and it was blue.
- Additionally, the VFX team tweeted that the colors depended on the specific feelings that were being incepted.[3] However, that also proved to be inconsistent later on.
- Blue: Hope, Bravery, Calmness (sometimes white)
- Purple: Anger
- Pinky Shades: Apathy, Sleepiness
- Red: Sense of Power
- White: Psychic Link, Calmness (sometimes)
- Note: Calmness was said to be white on one occasion, however, the color appeared more like a light pink shade.
- An exceptional moment about the visual effect of this power was when Maggie used it to psychically link herself with Julie Hoffman and break her out of a trance. It was used from a distance, but it was not represented as waves traveling through the air, only a white-colored glow on Maggie's hand and Julie's chest that moved up through her head.
- Additionally, the VFX team tweeted that the colors depended on the specific feelings that were being incepted.[3] However, that also proved to be inconsistent later on.
- This is the only empathic power that has been shown to be used from a distance.
- It is also the only ability out of all of Maggie Vera's empathic powers and expansions, that she can use without having to touch the target. It is unknown if any other users of empathy can use their abilities without the need to touch their targets.
Gallery[]
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ Joey Falco's Twitter Broken link: In the fall of 2023, Joey Falco deleted his Twitter account through which he gave most of the information about the show.
- ↑ Carrie Williams' Tweet
- ↑ Visual Effects Tweet Broken link: Kerrington Harper, visual effects supervisor, has deleted his Twitter account.