Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is back with a bang, and our girl Sabrina Spellman is better than ever in part 3 of this endlessly fun Netflix series. Maybe someday watching the adventures of this half mortal, half witch will get old, but today certainly isn’t that day. Sabrina has been entertaining and enchanting audiences for decades now, and this comic-book-turned-TV heroine is a lass that the whole world can enjoy.
If one thing about fantasy television is clear, it’s that witches are always a fan favorite topic for any TV show. From Bewitched to Charmed, the world has been obsessed with the idea of magical ladies since the dawn of television. But is it possible that Sabrina Spellman is the most iconic of them all? Here’s 5 reasons why she is, and 5 reasons why she isn’t.
Best: Because She Has It Both Ways
Honestly, if anyone in the world could be a witch, why wouldn’t they want to live a life like Sabrina Spellman? Unlike most of the other witches in her church, the half mortal Sabrina is blessed with the ability to live in the world of magic while still maintaining a life in the human world.
Granted, for most people going to mortal high school isn’t exactly a dream come true, but it’s awesome that Sabrina doesn’t have to sacrifice any of her human experiences for the sake of her life as a witch in the world of magic.
Worst: Because She Wants It Both Ways
Now on the other side of that coin is Sabrina’s insistence that she gets to live two different lives at the same time. Yes, she’s living the dream, but she wants it all, and sometimes it seems like too much.
More importantly, her existence in the human world seems to put a lot of humans in danger, and it’s really unfair that Sabrina prioritizes getting as much experience out of life as possible over the literal lives of people around her. She has definitely saved Greendale more than once, but it stands to reason that it might not always need saving if it weren’t for her.
Best: Because She’s A Woman Of The People
Sabrina may be a witch who brings a lot of unnecessary mystical trouble to the humans around her, but she deserves credit where credit is due. She really does love humanity. She relishes in her own humanity even when the witches around her ostracize her for it, and she is always willing to put herself on the line to help people.
If most people were gifted with magical powers, they probably wouldn’t care as much about their mortal side, so it’s lovely and inspiring that Sabrina is so enthusiastic and ardent about her affection for the human race.
Worst: Because She Literally Serves Satan
This may seem obvious, but one of the most unappealing aspects of Sabrina as a character is that she is quite literally a servant of Satan.
The revelation that she was actually the daughter and intended bride of Satan was a bit of a shock, but she was a knight in Satan’s service long before that. That is the deal that witches have made in order to gain their power, but if there were ever an example of “ill gotten gains” it seems like trading yourself to the Devil would be a picture perfect definition of it.
Best: Because She Does What Everyone Dreams Of
A lot of fictional witches are portrayed as heroic and selfless. And Sabrina undoubtedly falls under that umbrella as well, but what makes her stand out from the rest is that unlike many others, she also knows how to have fun.
The notion of having magical powers and using them only to help people while never actually enjoying them yourself sounds pretty miserable, so it’s fun seeing Sabrina do whatever she can to help her friends or just enjoy life. It doesn’t always work out in her favor, but she’s more than willing to try to make the world a more fun place with her magic.
Worst: Because She Doesn’t Learn
Sabrina Spellman might just be one of the most stubborn and bullheaded leading ladies in the history of television. On one hand that is a trait that is to be admired, but on the other hand you’d think that she might learn from her mistakes every so often.
Sabrina wants everything to be exactly how she wants it, and she is completely unwilling to compromise or even listen to another point of view sometimes. Sabrina finds herself in sticky situations more often than not, and while she does typically find a way out of them, she might have an easier go of it if she learned from past experiences.
Best: Because She’s Badass
The witches in the world of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina might be powerful and intimidating, but very few of them are as bold and brave as Sabrina herself is. It doesn’t seem like any one of Satan’s followers has ever really rebelled against him.
That is, until Sabrina. Sabrina was resistant to him from the get go, and it seems like that rebelliousness is contagious (or maybe it’s just that Spellman spirit), because once it was clear that the Dark Lord intended to make Sabrina his bride the rest of her family stepped out of line too.
Worst: Because She’s Selfish
Sabrina has a tendency to project her personal feelings on to everyone around her, sometimes to the extent that she thinks that her personal desires or opinions are a representation of morality itself. And once she has decided that she wants something or needs to do something, she will do it regardless of the consequences.
Clearly Sabrina is kind, but even her benevolence tends to be selfish. She uses her magic to help her friends and punish people that she dislikes, and often times her self-centeredness does more harm than good. It wouldn’t hurt her to get a little broader perspective.
Best: Because She’s Iconic
At this point it feels like the label iconic is a little overused, but when it comes to Sabrina Spellman it really does apply. There are a lot of fictional witches in the world, but there really aren’t any that are as ubiquitous and well known as Sabrina.
She’s been a comic book heroine for decades, and she has been the star of two wildly successful TV shows. Even people who aren’t into the magic of fictional witches know who Sabrina is, and they probably like her a lot too. It seems safe to say that she’s at legend status at this point.
Worst: Because She’s Barely A Witch
So, probably the biggest downfall of Sabrina Spellman as the most iconic TV witch of all time is that there is a pretty fair argument to be made that she’s not really a witch. Sure, she has magical powers, and she comes from a family of witches, but is she really a witch?
She’s the spawn of a mortal woman and the Devil himself, which might make her a witch, but might make her something altogether different. So if just calling her a witch might be a bit of a cheat, is it fair to say that she’s really the most legendary TV witch ever?
