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Alright, It's been an extremely long wait, and quite some time ago, I promised that I would propose another character from the JAM series. But life always got in the way. College work, exams, looking after the family, etc. Well, no more excuses. I'm finally going to get this write-up published to the discussion board.
Recently, I've stated that I had my doubts over Nathalie Sancoeur being Near Pure Good, due to her past crimes being too severe. A removal proposal was created, but there weren't enough cut votes, and her page got to stay. Even so, that doesn't mean I have to agree with this, or even sympathize with her.
That being said, I also stated that my next write-up would ironically be about a redeemed villain, only the character's male and actually gets a reasonable amount of post-redemption screentime, to prove he's changed for the better. I personally find this person to be a better-written ex-villain who's redemption feels more natural and earned.
And here's a quick pointer: He's the very first male character from the show I've ever proposed on here.
What's the Work?[]
I've already explained the summary several times, but...
Just Add Magic centers around three girls (Kelly Quinn, Hannah Parker-Kent and Darbie O'Brien) who had known each other since their early years and are best friends and loyal to each other. One day the girls were cooking some brownies at Kelly's house and a series of events leads the girls to Kelly's attic where they come across an old cookbook that used to belong to Kelly's grandmother. After looking through the book and testing out some of the book's recipes —which requires using a super-rare spice — the girl trio quickly find out the cookbook's recipes were magical and that the three of them were the latest in a long line of the cookbook's owners known as "protectors" that would cook supernatural recipes and solve mysteries around their town. (It's like Charmed but with cooking ... and friendship.)
Numerous seasons would shed some intel on some of the previous protectors of the cookbook, who tended to use the cookbook's magic for less than ideal purposes. However -- with a handful of noteworthy exceptions --nearly all of the antagonistic protectors are sympathetic anti-villains who ultimately mean well. And I'm here to discuss one of the most noteworthy examples of this in action: Charles Peizer -- but he's mostly referred to as Chuck Hankins during his villain arc.
Note: For the sake of the hero proposal: I'm going to mostly refer to him as Charles Peizer. Also, the write-up will contain extremely heavy spoilers.
Who Is Charles Peizer?[]
Charles Peizer is a protector from the Victorian Era. His father was one of the original settlers and founders of Saffron Falls. Charles was born in 1851 and grew up in a rich, wealthy family, living in a mansion.
Charles and his little sister Rose were once the protectors of the cookbook, solving mysteries and dealing with threats. But then one tragic day in 1868 when Charles decided he and Rose deserved to keep the book in their possession for all time and accidently got Rose imprisoned in the book as an unexpected side effect of the spell.
Several decades would pass, and thanks to the immortality spell, Charles would stay the same age for a long time, and not visibly age. Eventually, he'd create an alias for himself: Chuck Hankins.
In the mid-1960s, he met up with Becky Quinn, Ida Perez and Gina Silvers during their era as the protectors. He especially gained a strong relationship with Gina, to the point where the latter tells him about the magic (unaware that he already knew about magic). Eventually, Becky and Ida get paranoid over Chuck knowing about magic, and try to wipe his memories of magic during the actual Pluot Festival, only for the spell to backfire and Charles to disappear into thin air.
He'd remain missing for 50 years and became one of Saffron Falls' biggest unsolved mysteries. When he returns to the surface as a result of a magic recipe the girls used to break a curse, he somehow hasn't grown any older since his disappearance and still looks looks a teenager...
While it's true that he served as the main antagonist of Season 2's first half, he wasn't activity malicious, for reasons I'll explain in further detail below...
What Makes Him Close to Pure Good?[]
In General[]
- Even during his time as a villain, he was a sympathetic anti-villain and a villain by proxy, as he never chose to -- or even wanted to -- go down the path he did. He also had a strong sense of honor towards his foes.
- When nobody tried to interfere with his plans, or treated him as a monster, he was usually a pretty nice and civil person.
- Not to mention, he primarily targeted and went after other protectors, and those linked to magic in some way. He never endangered random innocent people with or without magic, and he definitely didn't take any lives.
The Past[]
- Considering he and Rose were chosen to be protectors, this meant there was a mystery to solve within their area. Although, not a lot of details are provided over what the mystery was.
- Flashbacks have shown that Charles was a supportive and loving older brother to Rose Peizer.
- While he did try to craft a spell to make him and Rose the permanent protectors of the cookbook in 1868, there's no implications that he wanted to do any harm with the magic, or use it for personal gain.
- After Charles accidentally made Rose disappear into the cookbook as an unintended side-effect of his spell, he felt great remorse for what he had done, feeling ashamed of himself for what he did to Rose and he'd spend nearly a century studying spices and recipes and trying to find a way to reverse the effects and free Rose. This just goes to show how much he loved and cared about Rose, as most people likely would have given up after a few days, weeks or even months.
- In 1965, he was a very close friend of Gina Silvers and her boyfriend once -- even before learning the latter was a protector -- which would lead to Gina being the only member of the OCs to see the good in Chuck and that he had a hidden heart of gold.
- He convinced Gina to keep playing piano when she thought about giving up, while also saying she could be a concert pianist. This would lead to Gina becoming a musical prodigy in the future.
- While he did use magic to steal money from the store where Ida's father worked, which in turn would subsequently get Ida's father fired from his job, he was simply trying to scare Ida into giving him the cookbook back. He didn't even know Ida's father, and he certainly didn't know his actions would destroy the Perez family and ruin Ida's life.
Season 2[]
- He saves Buddy Quinn's life by pushing him out of the way when the latter was skateboarding and nearly got run over by a speeding car.
- He's shown attending Mama P's grand re-opening, and gives some money to Gina Silvers after hearing her beautiful piano performance, even saying she was as good as he remembered. This showcases that Charles still has a hidden heart of a gold underneath his rough exterior, and was still Gina's friend.
- While he places the girl trio and the OCs under a sleeping spell that made them all tired, and would have them sleep for a full year that moment they fall asleep, he promised to give them all the cure for his spell if they gave him his cookbook and morbium seed back. Then, when both trios eventually cave in and return the stuff back to him, Charles actually keeps his promise, claiming he had the counter recipe ready for all six of them and he gives them the Wide-Awake Beef Wellington.
- Keep in mind, that Charles could have easily gone back on his word and left them to succumb to the year-long slumber after getting his stuff back, which would have been very beneficial to his plan, as nobody would have been able to stop him. The fact that he doesn't go through with this showcases he's got a sense of honor.
- In spite of him hijacking Jake's body, the process was shown to be painless, and Jake himself never suffered during this time.
- When Charles (in Jake's body) arrives at Mama P's, and Ida discusses how glad she was about Chuck seemingly being trapped in Lavender Heights, saying he deserved it for everything he had done, Charles would tell her not to take joy in someone else's misery, no matter how bad she thought he was (serving as subtle foreshadowing of Chuck having good intentions).
- And then when Mama P states Chuck was a horrible person, Charles reminds P that it wasn't too long ago that everyone thought SHE was horrible. This would actually leave her conflicted.
- When Mama P explained the main reason she hated Chuck -- not because he stole her morbium, but because he got her father fired from his job and tore her family apart -- Charles (as Jake) would state he didn't know about her family and apologize, and that he understood how important family was, while still managing to not blow his cover. It makes sense why Charles would feel pity for Ida's family being broken, especially since he knows what it's like to have a broken family.
- While still in posing as Jake, Chuck was shown to be very friendly and affable towards the main three girls.
- For Hannah, she told "Chake" she was worried about her new school, and "Chake" states that he knew Hannah for a long time, and consoles Hannah by telling her he didn't think he'd make friends on his first day of grammar school, but he did and that she'd be fine. Hannah would even admit that "Chake" was a good listener.
- After Kelly forces him to revisit various carefree, happy moments with his sister Rose, prior to the latter being imprisoned, Chuck/Charles backs out from his plan and starts crying, expressing his true feelings and intentions and opening himself up to the heroes. It turns out, this was just what was needed to break the immortality spell and free Rose.
- After Rose is freed from the cookbook, Charles would instantly hug her, and thank the gang for helping him and seeing the good in him, right before he and Rose return to 1868 as their immortality spell wears off. Once back in their time, the two of them would start up a new timeline where Chuck never cooks the immortality pie, and Rose never gets imprisoned and gets to properly live her life.
Season 3/Mystery City[]
- In the new timeline, it's shown that he fully regretted his actions, as he shedded nearly all of his corrupting factors, and became a Western-style ranger in Saffron Falls catching and apprehending several criminals.
- He'd also put his vast magic knowledge to good use, and when the girl trio travelled to his time, he informed them about how magic spices have patterns on their leaves, which was how one could tell magic spices from normal spices.
- He frees the main trio when they get wounded up in 1875 and get locked up for being unfamiliar outsiders, using lockpicks (claiming Ida taught him how to use them back in the 1960s) as a way to repay them for helping him with Rose.
- In 1875, he'd work alongside Ian Maddox to protect a powerful spell from getting into the wrong hands of his rogue partners the Wessons. With him personality taking the hands off Ian's pocket and putting a spell on the hands claiming whoever held the hands, held the secret.
- He also gave Ian the idea to hide the box somewhere into the future, where the Wessons couldn't access it, and he overall played an indirect, posthumous role in Zoe Chua and her partners becoming the new protectors and being able to save the city from the Hamilton family, descendants of the Wessons.
Other[]
- Sometime after their protector era ended, he and Rose would go on to become philanthropists who would use the family's wealth to improve the lives of the poor. A noteworthy act of theirs would be that they developed a program to curb hunger, and they've used their amazing culinary skills to form one of California's first soup kitchens, where they fed hundreds of impoverished citizens.
Preventions[]
Now, for this section, I could easily talk about a lot of Charles' actions and corrupting factors in the original timeline and in Season 2. But that wouldn't really be fair, considering he abandons nearly all of said factors after returning to his period. Not to mention, his strong sense of honor and affability. However, even though he does turn off a new leaf, he still not quite Pure Good material for the following reasons:
- While he gets a reasonable amount of post-redemption screentime and definitely has a defined personality, he doesn't get a lot of onscreen interactions with other characters, making it unclear whether he subverted all of his corrupting factors, or gained some additional ones during the time skip. For instance, his job as a local ranger isn't given a lot of context, and we never see any of the criminals Charles caught or arrested onscreen.
- His actions of starting a program to curb hunger, and one of California's first soup kitchens take place entirely offscreen. The only context for this is a poster explaining the history and legacy of the Peizer family.
Further Comments[]
I love a good redemption story as much as the next guy, but the redemption needs to feel earned and unforced. That sadly isn't the case for a number of ex-villains I've came across. And considering I've proposed nearly every other potential candidate from the show, I figured I could at least try doing this guy as well. Charles went through a personality change that felt natural and unforced. Plus, I've previously stated that Charles was basically the Jean Valjean of JAM.
Keep in mind, that Charles had possibly the highest resources of any villain on the show: A century's worth a magic knowledge and experience, as well as access to the cookbook, and every magic spice that existed at the time. He could have easily become one of Saffron Falls' biggest and most fearsome threats, doing basically whatever recipe and spell he wanted. The fact the he never even considers doing any of this showcases that he was never a real villain, and had several morals and standards. (Saving Buddy's life; reversing his sleeping spell, even though he didn't have to; encouraging Gina to keep playing piano; consoling Hannah over her new school; etc.)
When it ultimately comes down to it, everything he did as "Chuck Hankins" was all just one giant heating-up period. (I'll be sure to give him a Villainous Benchmark page in the future.) Even in the present day, Darbie doesn't consider him a villain. In fact, if he had more screentime to showcase just how much good he had done, he'd probably become a full Pure Good - a first for the franchise. Especially with the hunger-curbing program, and soup kitchen. You're not gonna see Mama P doing anything that altruistic. She's gonna be so pissed when she finds out Chuck became NPG, while she's stuck as Inconsistently Admirable. In fact, she's the only character to be Inconsistently Admirable.
The Near Pure Good wiki has plenty of former villains who got pages on here, so anyone who pulls the "Charles used to be a villain" card when trying to downvote him, is missing the entire point of this wiki. (Just ask Megamind and Mr. Wolf) So please refrain from doing so, useless you have a real reason.