MovieChat Forums > Wizards of Waverly Place (2007) Discussion > Optional Violence in Wizards of Waverly ...

Optional Violence in Wizards of Waverly Place

posted 24 days ago by MAGolding (1228)
6 replies | jump to latest

Recently I saw a thread asking about violent tv shows for children. https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1gie4x3/what_kids_show_has_the_most_murder_in_it/ So naturally I thought about Wizards of Waverly Place(2011-2012).

There are probably a lot of programs for kids which have more frequent violence. But the thing which makes Wizards of Waverly Place(2011-2012) stand out is how optional and avoidable the violence is.

The three teen and preteen kids in the Russo family are studying wizardry to become wizards. Each episode has at least one of the wizards in training taught a powerful magic spell or using a magic spell they learned earlier.

The spells they learn give them great powers.

Several different spells to immobilize people, for examples. Spells to put broken objects back together. Spells to give life to inanimate objects. Spells to travel anywhere instantly, including traveling to other worlds or even into deep space (which apparently also had the effect of keeping thee characters from dying). spells to travel in time, and spells to rewind time so that one could keep trying different ways to make an event happen better.

In real life many people who have been forced to kill in desperate situations have wished they didn't have to do so. But the wizards in training learned many spells which made it impossible for them to ever be in a situation where they would be forced to kill anyone or any living thing. They always had other options. So if any one of them reacted to a situation by killing a person, it be because they wanted to kill that person, not because they had no choice. Therefore, assuming that all Disney kid protagonists were good persons and not evil murderers, the protagonists of Wizards of Waverly Place should never have killed any person, right?

In the 10th episode "Pop Me and We Both Go Down" on January 6, 2008 animation spells accidentally make a zit on Justin's face and a little statuette on a trophy come to life. Including talking like intelligent beings and thus people. But the young wizards still try to deanimate them anyway. And deanimating a persons is murder.

I forget about any other attempted murder by the Wizards in training for a while.

Late in the second season, in "Wizards vs Vampires in Waverly Place" July 24, 2009, Justin starts dating Juliet, whose family opened a rival shop. It is learned that Juliet and her family are vampires. In the next episode "Wizards vs Vampires Late Nite Bites" Alex and Harper get jobs at the shop of the vampires. And even after learning they are vampires, Harper decides to keep on working for them. She says she needs the money so she will risk being bitten and turned into a slave of the vampires. And the wizards don't warn Harper about anything worse that vampires might do to her. So either controlling other people's wills is the worst thing vampires do or the wizards don't bother to warn their friend about any worse things vampires do.

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

In "Franken Girl", the first episode of the third season Justin creates a monster "Franken Girl", who thinks that Justin is her father, In the third episode "Monster Hunter", Justin becomes a monster hunter, and Max releases a lot of monsters from a book into New York City, thus endangering millions of people.

In "Three Monsters" monster hunters come hunting for Juliet and her family, shooting at them with ray guns. If the worst that vampires do is mind control, isn't that using excessive force? And if vampires kill people, whydidn't the wizards warn Harper of that danger? Justin manages to make the monster hunters go away by giving them "Franken Girl", the monster he created and who thinks of him as her father. So much for the love of a creator for their creation. In "Night at the Lazerama" all the other monster hunters have been killed, include the pair from "Three Monsters", so Justin is sent after a mind controlling mummy, but the mummy eventually enslaves Juliet. And I wonder how many other persons beside the monster hunters have been killed by the monsters released by Max.

In "Alex Charms a Boy" she meets a new boy at school, from England, named Mason.

In "Wizards vs Werewolves" it is revealed Mason is a werewolf. In Transylvania they find the mummy and unwrap him, turning him into dust, even though with all their wizard spells they should be able to stop themMummy without harming him. Mason knew Juliet 300 years ago in England, so why does he still go to school with kids centuries younger? Maybe in order to meet - and maybe eat - girls. Mason is turned into a wolf permanently and Juliet is turned into her true age - and she used to date Julius Caesar. So it would be natural for the audience to assume Juliet turned into dust like the mummy soon after the end of the episode.

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

In the episode 'Third Wheel", April 30 2010, Alex and Harper ask Stevie, a new girl at school, if she is a wizard. Stevie says yes and demonstrates by making a portal appear in the floor under a boy who falls through it. Harper says the boy was Jeremy from science who was going to ask her to dance. Alex asks Stevie where she sent Jeremy and Stevie says she doesn't know, and Alex says that is the type of irresponsible wizarding she likes.

Anyone who knows anything about science know that even if human habitable planets were was common in real life as in Star Trek, Teh vast, bast majority of locatins in the universe would still be almost instantly lethal to humans. Even if Stevie's spell transported Jeremy to an unknown location somewhere on the surface of Earth instead of to an unknown location anywhere in the universe, he would have only a 25 percent chance of still being alive at the end of the scene.

I also note that Harper seems a little upset by what happened to Jeremy, but is not seen asking either Alex or Stevie to try to bring back Jeremy alive. My theory about Harper not asking is that in offscreen events Harper has seen Alex and Justin make a lot of other students disappear and so is used to it.

Maybe there is some sort of magic limitation put on the magic abilities of wizards in training which makes their spells unable to permanently harm anyone. So if Alex, Stevie, and Harper know that in "Third Wheel" then their lack of excitement about Stevie sending Jeremy to an unknown location could be due to knowing all spells of wizards in training are essentially harmless. So in that case Stevie would not have murdered Jeremy and Alex would not be an accomplice his murder, but would still be guilty of other murders.

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

I note that in a 4th season episode Harper asked if Jeremy had been found, which implies that he had still not returned home or been contacted. So at the best Jeremy had been separated from and out of contact with family, friends, and home for months, and at worst he had been killed almost instantly.

In Wizards of Waverly Place the Wizard World has a rule that only one child in a family of wizards can win the family's wizard competition. The losing kids in a wizard competition lose all their powers after having been dependent on them for all their previous years of life. And the reason for that rule is unknown and many wizard laws and rules seem rather senseless.

In the next episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Alex" May 7, 2010, they learn that Stevie is the leader of a revolution against the wizarding competition, with thousands of wizard kids behind her. And Justin immediately says that means Stevie is evil. Justin didn't think Stevie was evil from sending a kid to an unknown and probably instantly lethal location, but thought that Stevie was evil for leading a rebellion against a rule which seems senseless and tyrannical to many viewers.

Alex pretends to join Stevie's rebellion, and tricks Stevie into touching the machine which is supposed to transfer Stevie's wizard powers to her brother Warren. And then she magically immobilizes Stevie while transferring Stevie's powers to Warren. She immobilizes Stevie by turning Stevie into non living matter, which is a euphemistic way of saying she kills Stevie.

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

If you had the power to animate inanimate objects like Alex has, you could also use it to animate dead lifeforms. And if you killed someone in order to achieve some goal, and had the power to bring the dead back to life, you would immediately bring that person back to life, once you achieved your goal. Any decent person would do the same. But none of the wizards in training present made any move to reanimate Stevie. Then Max, the kid who released many deadly monsters into New York City, accidentally knocked Stevie over and Stevie shattered into many pieces.

And of course they could have used the spell to reassemble broken objects to put Stevie back together, and then another spell to reanimate Stevie, but nobody indicated any desire to do so.

And that ended the plot of "The Good, the Bad, and the Alex". The episode ended with a final scene, a joke about unrelated matters.

And of course the writers could have made the final scene one in which Alex is told that Stevie is calling from wizard prison, and Alex is asked if she wanted to take the call. And they could have shown Stevie in Wizard prison with faint lines crisscrossing her face. And a passing prisoner could compliment Stevie on her outstanding facial tattoos, and Stevie could snarl that they weren't tattoos but where she was put back together right before being brought back to life.

But they didn't, so as far as the viewers knew Stevie stayed dead forever. So kids who thought that the protagonists were good kids would learn the lesson that it is alright to treacherously kill someone. And also that people with the power to bring dead people back to life have no ethical obligation to do so, even when they themselves have killed them.

And so the episode ended with the young protagonists having a good time while on the floor all around them were scattered the many pieces of the horribly mutilated corpse of the girl they had just killed.

In "Wizards Unleased" October 1, 2010, they free Mason, in wolf form, from a group of "wizbillies", hillbilly wizards. Alex makes a deal with the wizbillies, but instead of keeping her word tricks them through a portal leading to "some void". And I have to wonder how survivable "some void" entered through a magical portal would be.

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

In the fourth season, in "Journey to the Center of Mason" December 17, 2010, Mason turns into wolf form and swallows Dean, Alex's former boyfriend, whole, but the wizards enter his stomach and rescue Dean. And it is implied that if Alex loses her wizard powers she will be unable to be Mason's girlfriend, presumably because Mason would be too dangerous. Note that Mason, the person-eating werewolf, seems to be an accepted member of wizard society, but monster hunters shoot at Juliet and her vampire family with ray guns.

In "Three Maxes and a Little Lady" January 21m 2011, Max is accidentally turned into a little girl, Maxine.

In "Everything's Rosie for Justin" Feb. 4, 2011 Justin's new girlfriend turns out to be an angel. In "Dancing with Angels", Feb. 11, and "Wizards vs Angels", Feb. 18, Rosie turns out to be a dark angel working for Gorog, who is a satanic character. The moral compass is stolen, and set for evil, turning everyone evil. Gorog is defeated, and the moral compass turned back to good, and everyone becomes good again.

In "Pop Me and We Both Go Down" on January 6, 2008, a figurine on Mr. Russo's trophy was accidentally animated and ran away, as mentioned before. Mr. Russo ordered the kids to return it to the trophy and deanimate it. So Mr. Russo's selfish desire to retain his trophy intact made him order his kids to kill a living being, and one which seemed to be a person. In the end the figurine is deanimated, and the trophy restored.

But in the last scene, a joke scene, the figurine from the trophy was seen alive again, so according to that scene the Russo's occasionally reanimated him, which make killing him seem somewhat less evil than it otherwise would be

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1228) 24 days ago

Continued:

So should the joke scenes at the end of the episodes be considered to be part of the canon of the series, events which really happen in the series, or are they considered to be mere jokes about the series and not really happening in the series?

Some people might want the joke scenes to be real, and so make it canon that the kids sometimes reanimated the figurine. But there is another joke scene at the end of "Wizards vs Angels". In that episodes Max, previously turned into a girl named Maxine, brings some little girls from school home for a slumber party. During the course of the slumber party, the little girls are turned into old men, and then into talking fruit. In the joke scene at the end of "Wizards vs Angels", after the moral compass was turned back to good, and everyone has reverted to their normal behavior, the talking fruit, who had been old men, and little girls just hours before the scene, are telling dumb jokes. And one of the wizards threatens to put them in the blender if they tell another terrible joke. One of the talking fruits then tells another unfunny joke, and as the scene fades to black, the sound of a blender is heard.

So there seem to be a number of deaths of people and of magical beings who seem to probably be people, in Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012), And almost all of them are directly or indirectly caused by the teenage and preteen protagonists.

And those young protagonists have many magical abilities which mean that they can never be forced by circumstances to kill. But they kill anyway, in situations where killing is purely optional for them, presumably because they have no ethical objections to killing.