I think everyone pretty much agrees that there’s a streak of overprotectiveness or just concern that the sisters and Leo have about Chris in the next generation period. But here’s (some of) my thoughts about it.
I don’t think that the kids know about the unchanged future, Wyatt turning evil, Chris coming back, or anything like that. Hell, none of them even know who Gideon is, so they don’t have any knowledge there to guess around that unless something else happens.
So I think that all of the kids see the difference in the response to Chris. They’re protective about all of them and all, obviously, but when it comes to Chris, there’s a very distinctive edge of worry bordering panic and fear bordering terror, especially with Leo, Piper, and Paige. (No hate to Phoebe, but parents and aunt that watched him die just. has a different vibe to it.)Â
And I mean, there has to be a reason to it, right? It’s not a non-prophesied witch thing either, because Mel is right there and the protectiveness is different. So what’s the situation here?
And if you look at everything from their perspective, I think that it’s because of Prue. Because based off of the stories and the pictures, Chris is the most like Prue. Physically, they both have dark hair and green eyes. They have telekinesis and are both skilled witches. They’re fixated on hunting demons. They’re both incredibly intelligent, stubborn, incredibly loyal to their family, and overly independent. Both of them continually put themselves in danger to save innocents or their family.
That ultimately cost Prue her life, and I think that the next gen think that there’s a concern that Chris is going to be the one to die young because of that similarity. And to an extent, I think that the kids themselves kind of have that worry, because I mean. Have you met him? Along with that, I think that Chris himself is also... kind of convinced that he’s gonna be the one to die? There’s always at least one Halliwell that seems to die young, and I think Chris has resigned himself to it being him, but that’s a different post if anyone’s interested.
And honestly? The kids are right to an extent, because I do think that sometimes Piper or someone will look at Chris and just be caught off-guard by how. Prue something is, and if the unchanged future hadn’t been a thing, I do think that there would have been a level of anxiety about specifically Chris because of his similarities to Prue, even if the dynamics were different. (Phoebe would have some guilt and Paige would have been someone he could bitch to about it, off the top of my head.)
But since they already met an adult version of Chris, saw that disregard for his own life and the eventual result of that, that’s what they see instead of Prue. It doesn’t help that the show didn’t. Actually have them get over his death. It kind of skipped over everyone’s but Piper and Leo’s grief, except Piper just. got over it at the end of the episode while Leo never actually did? They used it as a jumping point for the Avatar arc, and then never actually went back and resolved it, so definitely still an issue in the changed future.
It’s definitely a source of tension with Chris and the sisters/Leo, especially because it’s something he views as unfair. If he knew that it was his alternate self, I think he’d have a different response to it, but just thinking it’s the fact that he’s a lot like Prue? Chris can’t really help that, and it’s not fair for him to be the one always being singled out because of it.
