- "I'm not a kid, I'm a Firestarter."
- — Tyler to a demonic guard.[src]
Tyler Michaels was a foster child with the ability to create fire, adopted by two Demonic Bounty Hunters, Stephen and Annette. Believing him to be a Firestarter, they wanted to deliver him to the demon Ludlow so he could be trained as a bodyguard to the Source of All Evil. After he was saved by the Charmed Ones, Tyler had his powers bound by Piper at the age of eleven.[1]
Tyler's powers were unbound six years later when he was targeted by demons.[2] He began attending Magic School and started dating a male witch named Kareem Scales. When he suddenly gained new powers, it was discovered that Tyler was not a Firestarter, but an Archai instead.
History
Early life
- "I'm not going to boarding school. You can't send me away."
- — Tyler to his foster parents.[src]
Tyler shocked when he sets his bed on fire.
Tyler was born in 1990. At some point during his life, he was adopted by two Demonic Bounty Hunters. During adolescence, Tyler's pyrokinetic powers began to develop. Every time that Tyler was angry, he would set something on fire. When he was eleven, his foster parents found it was time to deliver him to Ludlow, an upper-level demon in charge of a demonic academy. Tyler first thought that his parents were going to send him to boarding school for his bad behavior, and ran away from home.
First encounter with the Charmed Ones
- Tyler: "An extremely rare and coveted magical creature. What does coveted mean?"
- Piper: "It means highly desirable, wanted."
- — Tyler discovers he is wanted.[src]
Tyler and Mr. Cowan.
Tyler ended up at South Bay Social Services. He would not speak to anyone, and ultimately set a garbage bin on fire. Tyler ran out, but was followed by Paige Matthews who took him to her home after seeing his power.
At the manor, Tyler learned that his powers were a gift. He learned to control them with help from Piper and used them to vanquish his foster parents, Stephen and Annette. Tyler felt guilty, as if he did a bad thing, but Piper assured him that he did a very good thing. She showed him the Book of Shadows and both discovered that his foster parents were actually Demonic Bounty Hunters. Tyler wondered if the Book would have an entry on his species. He read the Firestarter entry from the Book and discovered that he was coveted, meaning wanted.
Ludlow and the Academy
Tyler frozen by Ludlow.
Piper and Leo Wyatt went to the Academy to vanquish Ludlow. Tyler jumped the orb and went with them. As they entered Ludlow's office, the demon appeared in a bolt of lightning. After two failed attempts by Piper to vanquish Ludlow subtlety, Tyler had to show Ludlow his power and put him on fire in an attempt to vanquish him. However, Ludlow was immune to Tyler's powers and immediately froze him, before sending Piper and Leo outside.
Piper tried to get back in to save Tyler but the gates of the academy wouldn't let her. Leo went back to the manor to get her sisters. In a failed attempt to open the gates with a spell, Piper got pissed and blew the gate open. The sisters and Leo entered Ludlow's office where the Charmed Ones immediately vanquished Ludlow with a haiku, written by Paige. Leo then healed Tyler.
Binding Tyler's Powers
Tyler drinking the Binding Potion.
Back at the Manor, Tyler decided that he wanted his powers bound. Piper made a Binding Potion and bound his powers. Tyler tried to set something on fire, but nothing happened. Tyler was very content and ran to the living room to play games, like any normal kid. Paige then presumably took him back to social services, where Tyler would eventually be placed with the Michaels'.
Second encounter with the Charmed Ones
Piper and Paige come to rescue Tyler.
About six years later, Tyler was once again attacked by demons. The sudden attack and fear unbound his powers and Tyler began to put several things on fire yet again. Piper and Paige came to his aid and vanquished the demons. It seemed that they wanted Tyler's blood, as one of the demons left behind an injection needle. His blood, as well as the blood of other innocents saved by the Charmed Ones, was needed for a ritual that brings back the Source of All Evil. Piper and Paige took him to the Manor where he and other innocents were taken care of by the sisters. While at the manor, he was reading a comic book.
A few weeks later, Tyler had almost become a student at Magic School. He and the other students were brought to safety when the Source attacked the school. Tyler wanted to stay, saying that Harry Potter let the other students fight as well during the battle of Hogwarts.
A few months later, when Paige's home caught fire, the sisters suspected the connection to Tyler and questioned him about it. He directed them to Knox Academy, another institution for magic. After the switch of magic, he became a powerless mortal, but still demanded to be part of the Charmed Ones' team to defeat the one responsible. He helped fight the Automatons outside of the All while the sisters confronted Rennek.
Discovering His True Nature
Tyler at the beach with Kareem.
At some point in 2010, Tyler began dating a male witch named Kareem. After a date where they discussed their futures, Tyler dreamt of being in Paris with him. When he woke up, there was a flaming portal above him. When Tyler went outside, he saw the entire street was filled with these strange portals. In a panic, he reached out to Paige.
Paige and Tyler checked the Book of Shadows and found an entry of Archai, revealing that Tyler was not a Firestarter as they previously believed.[3]
In the months to come, Tyler learned to control his powers and opened to portal to the Demonic Wasteland to help Coop Halliwell and Henry Mitchell recover Benjamin Turner's soul.[4] Sometime after this, he began to become possessed by multiple evils who were defeated by the Charmed Ones, including Shax, Abraxas, Barbas, Jeremy Burns, Zankou, Javna and Tuatha. The sisters eventually find out that he was splashed with the Old One Heremus's blood, and subsequently became a conduit that served as a portal for vanquished evils to return to life. Prue then astral projected into his body and managed to "free" Tyler from the demon.[5][6][7][8][9]
Battling the Old Ones
It was revealed by Patience that his Archai power was awakened by an unsuspecting Prue, who used him as a conduit to bring about the advent to revive the Old Ones. Prue abducted Tyler to Salem where the ceremony took place, where Dominus possessed him to activate his power.[10]
With Kareem's encouragement, Tyler tries to stop the advent. While he failed to close the portals initially, Kareem destroys the seeds planted in the Knox Academy students, which were the connection to the Old Ones. With the seeds destroyed, Tyler is able to close the portals and save the world.[11]
Powers and Abilities
- "The power is linked to their emotions. It first manifests in adolescence with the onset of puberty."
- — The Book of Shadows on the powers of a Firestarter.[src]
- Pyrokinesis: The ability to create and control fire with the mind. At first, his power was triggered by anger. He would place his hands on his temples and cause objects to ignite. He learned to control his powers while under the care of the Charmed Ones.
- Portal Creation: The ability to create portals to other places or dimensions. As an Archai, Tyler has the ability to burn holes in reality, creating flaming circles with black holes inside. He was powerful enough to cross over to another dimension.
Notes and Trivia
Alex Black and Holly Marie Combs with the Book of Shadows.
- Tyler appeared in the non-canonical novel The Brewing Storm. In the novel, he was targeted by a group of demons sent by Tempest after the previous Firestarter, Christopher Young, died. This made him the substitute Firestarter. The sisters gathered the other Elementals for the Ritual of the Guardians, which is necessary to save the world. The sisters temporarily unbound Tyler's powers until after the ritual and Tempest's defeat.
- Alex Black's portrayal of Tyler gained him a "Young Artists Award" in 2003.
- In Season 10, Tyler became an LGBT character, as his relationship with Kareem Scales.
- Tyler is Paige Matthews's charge despite being neither witch or Future Whitelighter.
- Tyler's appearance in the Charmed Comics was based on Alex Black's look during Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.
Appearances
Tyler Michaels has appeared in a total of 1 episode and 19 comic issues throughout the course of the series.
| Charmed, Season 4 | |||||
| #01 | "Charmed Again, Part 1" | #09 | "Muse to My Ears" | #17 | "Saving Private Leo" |
| #02 | "Charmed Again, Part 2" | #10 | "A Paige from the Past" | #18 | "Bite Me" |
| #03 | "Hell Hath No Fury" | #11 | "Trial by Magic" | #19 | "We're Off to See the Wizard" |
| #04 | "Enter the Demon" | #12 | "Lost and Bound" | #20 | "Long Live the Queen" |
| #05 | "Size Matters" | #13 | "Charmed and Dangerous" | #21 | "Womb Raider" |
| #06 | "A Knight to Remember" | #14 | "The Three Faces of Phoebe" | #22 | "Witch Way Now?" |
| #07 | "Brain Drain" | #15 | "Marry-Go-Round" | ||
| #08 | "Black as Cole" | #16 | "The Fifth Halliwheel" | ||
| Charmed, Season 9 | |||||
| #01 | "Charmed Lives" | #09 | "The All or Nothing" | #17 | "Family Shatters" |
| #02 | "No Rest for the Wicca" | #10 | "Three Little Wiccans" | #18 | "Four's Company" |
| #03 | "Innocents Lost" | #11 | "Last Witch Effort" | #19 | "Crossed, Triple-Crossed" |
| #04 | "Mortal Enemies" | #12 | "The Charmed Offensive" | #20 | "The Old Witcheroo" |
| #05 | "Unnatural Resources" | #13 | "Piper's Place" | #21 | "Reversal of Misfortune" |
| #06 | "Morality Bites Back" | #14 | "Cupid's Harrow" | #22 | "Prue Ya Gonna Call?" |
| #07 | "The Heir Up There" | #15 | "Where There's Smoke There's a Firestarter" | #23 | "The Darklight Zone" |
| #08 | "Oh, Henry" | #16 | "The Heavens Can Wait" | #24 | "The Power of 300" |
| #00 | "To the Warren Born" | ||||
| Charmed, Season 10 | |||||
| #01 | "No Country for Old Ones" | #08 | "Love is a Burning Thing" | #15 | "The Four Sisters, Part 2" |
| #02 | "Magically Malicious" | #09 | "Haste Makes Wasteland" | #16 | "Happy Ending" |
| #03 | "The Perks of Being a Whitelighter" | #10 | "The Curious Case of Benjamin Turner" | #17 | "Effigy" |
| #04 | "Charmed Assault" | #11 | "Fear Always Comes Back" | #18 | "Tribunal and Tribulations" |
| #05 | "Whatever Happened to the Demon with a Soul?" | #12 | "Virtue" | #19 | "Something Old, Something Prue" |
| #06 | "Will o' the Witch" | #13 | "Court of Love" | #20 | "The Reason" |
| #07 | "Hard Knox Life" | #14 | "The Four Sisters, Part 1" | ||
References
- ↑ "Lost and Bound"
- ↑ "Innocents Lost"
- ↑ "Love is a Burning Thing"
- ↑ "Haste Makes Wasteland"
- ↑ "Fear Always Comes Back"
- ↑ "Virtue"
- ↑ The Four Sisters, Part 1
- ↑ The Four Sisters, Part 2
- ↑ Happy Ending
- ↑ "Something Old, Something Prue"
- ↑ "The Reason"
- ↑ List of Charmed novels and short stories on Wikipedia