Empathic Mimicry is the power to mimic the powers of other beings via empathically understanding them. It is a branch of the power of empathy.
Overview[]
An empath's powers can potentially expand to allow them to temporarily replicate the magical abilities of other beings. As the power is derived from empathy, users require an emotional understanding of the other being in order to mimic their powers. Another requirement is they need to be touching the person in order for the mimicry to be successful. If the empath is in a negative emotional state, their power will be affected, such as the mimicry lasting longer than usual.
When mimicking powers from particular species of magical beings, the users may develop certain physical characteristics from the being from which the power was mimicked. For example, when mimicking the claws of a Nekomata, the user's hand(s) will transform to resemble that of a Nekomata, and when mimicking the adhesive toxin abilities of a Loveland frog, the user's hand(s) will transform to resemble the webbed, sticky fingers of the frog-like being. Additionally, when mimicking the power of flight from a pixie, the user will manifest pixie-like wings in order to propel themselves through the air.
History[]
Maggie Vera first developed this power in "Cats and Camels and Elephants, oh my…", when trying to reawaken Harry Greenwood from his trip into the Veil. She expressed that she understood how Harry felt about the death of Macy Vaughn, and after touching Harry, unwittingly mimicked his power and entered the Veil herself. Later on, while fighting Sunny, Maggie understood her anger and fear, which allowed her to mimic Sunny's claws during their scuffle and accidentally cost Sunny one of her lives when she was impaled on them.
In "Unveiled", Maggie accidentally mimicked the powers of a Loveland Frog while in his shop. This transformed one of her hands into a webbed one that could produce a toxin that is lethal to humans. Maggie later accidentally poisoned Kaela Danso's birth parents, Zephyr and Carolyn Vales, but the two of them were able to cure the poison. Because she was holding on to negative emotions inside her, the mimicry lasted much longer than expected and didn't vanish until after Maggie did her own recording via a GemCast to tell the viewers that, despite being famous and powerful witches, the Charmed Ones were still people. According to Kaela, it was likely due to her holding onto her own feelings that made the process last longer.
In "Hashing It Out", while fighting an Unseen member who tried to electrocute her, Maggie mimicked her power and struck the lightning back at her. The shock was enough to knock her out.
In "Divine Secrets of the O.G. Sisterhood", Maggie gets trapped in Daphne Periwinkle's memory by Inara. After getting an idea to fly out of the memory, she asks Daphne's sister, Chloe, on how to manifest wings, and then proceeds to touch memory Daphne to copy her power and fly out of the memory.
In "Be Kind. Rewind.", after Mel Vera was fatally impaled by Inara, Maggie mimicked Mel's time power in the hopes of using it to travel back in time and warn their past selves. With great effort, Maggie managed to send a videotape manifested by Kaela back in time to send a warning message to their past selves.
Known Users[]
- Original Power
Powers Mimicked by Maggie[]
- Adhesive Venom Secretion (from Unnamed Loveland Frog)
- Claw Extension (from Sunny)
- Electrokinesis (from Unseen member)
- Flight via Wing Manifestation (from Daphne Periwinkle)
- Necromancy (from Harry Greenwood)
- Temporal Displacement (from Mel Vera)
Trivia[]
- This ability is similar to Power Mirroring. However, unlike this power, an empath does not need to be affected by another's power first in order to mimic it. Also, Fiona Callahan seemingly gained the powers permanently that she mirrored, while Maggie Vera only temporarily mimicked the powers of others.
- In the original series, Phoebe Halliwell, who had developed the power of Empathy, learned to channel the powers of other beings by tapping into the emotions associated with them. Phoebe could only do it when the power was being used and she did it from a distance, while Maggie needs to touch someone to copy their power, which she has access to for a longer amount of time.
- This ability was never shown being used to mimic the powers of a demon. Although, since the power is able to mimic the abilities of numerous other types of beings, it stands to reason that users would be able to mimic demonic powers as well. As a demonic power was never shown being mimicked, it is unknown if it would cause any side effects to the user. A theory suggests that mimicking a demonic power could cause the user to lose control and/or experience urges toward darkness as a side effect of mimicking the dark magic of a demon. This could be a possibility, as this power is empathic-based.
- However, this possibility is incredibly unlikely due to the fact that the darkness within a demon most likely comes from their demon blood or rather demon nature in general, although this was never explicitly indicated. As simply mimicking a demonic power for a time does not give the user demon blood or suddenly turn them into a demon, it doesn't make much sense for the user to suddenly develop any dark tendencies. Additional examples of this would be: Maggie did not develop any of the cat-like quirks or psychological traits associated with Nekomatas after mimicking Sunny's power. Also, after mimicking electrokinesis from a maddened Unseen member, Maggie did not suddenly develop the enraged mindset of the Unseen member. There is no evidence to support that using this ability to mimic another being's power will affect the user psychologically in any way.
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