Interview with Pat Shand - Charmed Season 10 #18

INTERVIEW

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Ben and Kyra are together. How much will we see their relationship develop and unfold in the following 2 issues?

PAT SHAND: The next two issues don’t focus on Ben and Kyra’s relationship, but there is closure for them at the end. That was always the design of their arc, though. Get them to a certain place, and then we watch that all play out in the last arc.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Prue annihilated the new tribunal and I am confident to believe there won’t be many extremely sad over this. In the end, they were pointing fingers at the Charmed Ones (as they always do) without being very helpful. Did anyone survive, and what does their death mean for the universe in general? Characters like Mother seem vital.

PAT: No one survived that, no. And yes, there is a void left behind, and I did so for something beyond the shock value of seeing Prue lash out in this way, of course. If we do a Season Eleven, a lot of that will be in response to three distinct absences in the magical world. Because when something is missing, if there isn’t something new to fill in, that creates an imbalance. Bad thing, that.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Mother had the spell in her ready for examination right before Prue killed her. Is this information gone now that she is dead?

PAT: Someone else has that information, but she came about it in a very different (and more pained) way.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Piper mentions Aldar Kose here and Prue followed exactly the same plan Aldar had in #7. In hindsight, was Aldar Kose possessed by/merged with an Old One, maybe even by Heremus himself, back in #7?

PAT: Aldar was influenced by an Old One, but not in the way Prue or Knox’s body are. The seeds were incubating in Aldar’s body, rather than truly taking route.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Paige is trying to excuse Prue for what she is doing, Phoebe is ready to vanquish her and Piper seems to be in the middle. Will there be a split, an argument between them on how they want to deal with Prue moving on?

PAT: I wouldn’t say that Phoebe is ready to vanquish her. I think the way it’s shaking out is that Phoebe has thus far received the worst of Prue’s torments, so she knows she has to play for keeps. Piper and Paige, their reasoning behind their beliefs regarding Prue’s situation plays out over the next two issues. Essentially, Piper is attempting to protect herself emotionally while Paige refuses to believe that she’s already lost her sister.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: There is not much we know about Dominus. Will we get to know more about the Old One and will more Old Ones be introduced with the coming of the Advent?

PAT: Maybe!

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Prue takes Tyler, Kyra and Ben. Are the 3 of them key pieces that Prue needs for the Advent to happen?

PAT: All of those reveals are in #19, but take a look at Prue’s actions throughout the whole season. It’s all there. That’s why I’m really surprised that everyone is trying to guess the ending. It’s never been a mystery. Literally everything has been an intricate puzzle that we’ve built upon since #1. Prue’s motivation, the truth of what she is, and the core theme of the season, it’s all right there. #20 is where it all comes together in a celebration of what I feel is the core idea of Charmed. After it’s all done, I think people might look back and go, “Oh, of course this is what happened.” It might take a re-read, but yeah – yeah, you’re not off base about Tyler, Kyra, and Ben. It’s all there for a reason!

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Amelia is a new character from your novel, Charmed Social Medium, which hasn’t been released yet. Was your plan for her to make an appearance in the comics first?

PAT: Oh, no way. I thought for sure Social Medium would be out by now.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Without of course asking for spoilers from the upcoming novel, what can you tell us about who Amelia is and what her role moving on is?

PAT: Not much. I can say that writing her is a challenge, that she went through a hell of a character arc in Social Medium, and that she is in a very weird emotional place with Phoebe in particular. Thankfully, because of her role in #19 and #20, none of that really matters, so you all not having read Social Medium isn’t a big deal. It was supposed to be like “Oh, cool moment, she’s from Social Medium and this feels organic” when now it plays out like “Oh, here is a random medium that Phoebe knows!” But Charmed has done the latter before, so I’m not sweating it.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: I wonder how Andy and Amelia found each other. Is this something that starts in the novel or will we find out how they came to help each other through mentions in the next issues?

PAT: No, that doesn’t start in the novel. She’s a medium! It’s less how she found him and more why she found him that is important.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Andy coming back is extremely intriguing. He’s the main character we haven’t seen in the longest time. How did you decide to bring him back?

PAT: Hard choice. I had to make sure it was emotionally real and that I wasn’t pandering to the fan desire to see him. Because honestly, and this might piss off some readers, but the absolute worst thing that a writer can do is look at the comments and think, “Okay, I see a lot of people saying _____, let me give them ____, or let me avoid this plot point because of ______.” That way leads to boring stories, to the death of art. So yeah, I was scared that it was too much of a fan moment, but when when I figured out arc of his role here, it was too good to not do.

That’s a hard part of the comics, because all readers want to see everyone back at first. But if you bring everyone back, then you get rid of the stakes. My mission statement for this season was re-establishing the stakes as very real, so I was very selective with who I brought back.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Andy went to Darryl not just to see him because he is his old friend but also because they are both being called to help. Darryl no longer has powers as he did in the magic reversal. In what way will we see Darryl helping Andy?

PAT: Darryl won’t be helping Andy. He’s going to help the world. Or at least try.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: The summary of next issue is interesting as it mentions Prue asking Tyler for help to save the world, something that doesn’t quite fit Prue as she is now. Should we perceive it as hope that maybe she comes back to her senses, freed from Heremus’s influence, soon?

PAT: Those summaries are probably my best and meanest writing. I think on those for so long. They make perfect sense once you read the comics, but always in a way that you’d never expect. So the short answer is I can’t tell you! I have to say how silly I feel about being proud of writing solicitation text, but I really do it this way to actively mess with readers’ heads. To keep them guessing and then get that “Oh, hah!” moment later on when the issue drops.

 

CHARMEDCOMICFAN: Once again, thank you so much for your answers, Pat!

PAT: Thank you! Two to go.