Gideon (Charmed)

Template:Infobox Charmed Character Gideon is a fictional character on the television show Charmed.

Character's background

Gideon is one of the most powerful Elders and, like Albus Dumbledore, is the headmaster of Magic School, an institution similar to Hogwarts where young magical beings learn magic. He is also Leo's mentor; Paige Matthews even refers to Gideon as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He originally pushes for the Elders to allow Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt to marry, but once Wyatt Halliwell is born, Gideon's attitude toward the couple changes drastically. He fears that Wyatt's vast powers will turn him evil and become an unstoppable threat. His belief is only strengthened by Adult Chris' arrival from a future where Wyatt is the king of evil and ruthlessly rules over the entire world. With this new "evidence", Gideon vows to "correct" the mistake of allowing Wyatt to be born.

Gaining the sisters' confidence, Gideon uses his position as a friend of the family to get close to Wyatt as he plots to destroy "the threat". He even hires a team of darklighters to get Leo out of the way. However, his efforts are slowed often by the very thing that seems to confirm his fears about Wyatt: Chris. The young half witch/whitelighter is determined to find and stop the person or persons responsible for his brother turning evil, causing Gideon to tread lightly around him.

When the Charmed Ones nearly catch on to his plans, he conspires with demons who run a gameshow where demons kill witches and steal their powers for their own gain. He has the hosts and their henchmen attack the sisters, Leo and Chris in hopes of leading them off his trail, which works temporarily. This "for the greater good" leads to the death of an innocent witch. There have been multiple edits stating that "he also attempted to kill Elder Sandra when she nearly discovered his plot," but there is no script evidence for this statement and Sandra does not appear until the following season. A reference to any episode where this is stated would be helpful.

Through a magic mirror, Gideon communicates (and even plays a game similar to Wizard Chess) with his evil counterpart in a parallel dimension to distract both the good and evil Charmed Ones so that he might kill Wyatt. The existence of an evil counterpart clearly indicates that the normal Charmedverse's Gideon is by definition good, and this interpretation is confirmed by the fact that he is seen touching the evil-repelling Book of Shadows as he casts a spell on the knife intended to kill Wyatt. Realizing Gideon is the one after Wyatt, the sisters, Leo and Chris are able to stop him, but not for long. Conspiring with Barbas, who uses his powers to distract the sisters and Leo, Gideon manages to kidnap Wyatt, killing Chris in the process.

Grief stricken by his son's death, Leo tracks Gideon down in the Underworld and kills him just as the Elder is about to kill Wyatt. As he dies, Gideon curses Leo, saying that he doesn't realize what he has done and that Wyatt must die "to save the future." Leo immediately counters that it's because of Gideon kidnapping, keeping him away from his family and attempting to kill him constantly that turned Wyatt evil in the first place. Whatever Leo's motives (grief or revenge), it is clear based on the script that his act of murdering Gideon was indeed "an act of great evil," as it reversed the good/evil imbalance in both the good and evil worlds. As the Charmed Ones kill evil beings on a weekly basis, this makes it clear that how ever misguided Gideon was, he was not evil.

According to Barbas, his greatest fear was that someone would discover that he was the one who was after Wyatt. Some Charmed fans suggest that this is because his affiliation with demons and darklighters would lead to the end of Magic School, his career as an Elder and his life, but this is contradicted by the script. In "The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell," Gideon decides to close the school after the magical Headless Horseman escapes and beheads an armed mugger. He only agrees to keep the school open after Paige makes a strong and impassioned case for keeping the school open. It is more plausible that he fears having his agenda revealed because he truly believes that Wyatt is evil and knows that he is incapable of fighting the Charmed Ones and Leo now, and, more importantly, a grown-up Wyatt as evil and murderous as Voldemort (this story arc heavily references the Harry Potter series) in the future.