The Wizard Competition in Wizards of Waverly Place Makes NO SENSE 

Wow never expected so many people to see this video, just had a lot of thoughts after rewatching the series. If you like these types of videos be sure to subscribe for more videos on tv shows and movies from our childhood. Also shoutout to the Justin sympathizers, never meant to bash your fave stay strong ❤

Honestly the discrepancies of the final season are most likely because the original creator left the show after season 3 and was replaced by someone who didn't understand the show

Honestly, I agreed with Stevie. I think it's total BS that only one wizard per family gets to keep their powers. It's an arbitrary rule that seemingly exists for no reason except to create division between families.

Actually, Justin's character in later seasons is not consistent to his character. He was caring in earlier seasons. It's like the writers decide to kill his character to make Alex look better.

Max was done so dirty at the end. I know he’s supposed to be kind of dumb but theres no way he was actually content with losing his powers while the other 2 kept them. If the rule was for only one sibling to keep their power then the writer had to stick with that. Giving Justin powers too seemed like it was done out of pity.

Wait so all three of them spend their lives studying magic, when only one of them is guranteed to keep them? And the elder siblings have a HUGE advantage? AND they decide who you can and can’t date based on if you win or not? So if you lose you just lose everything your life has been building up to. That’s incredibly immoral.

Ngl, in retrospect, I'm surprised ALL the siblings aren't as toxic as Justin is in the final season. Imagine telling 3 kids that only one of them gets to have future by competing with each other. The high stakes, high stress, and low maturity would be a breeding ground for the most vile family dynamics you could think of.

The big thing is that there was no way Max was going to win. While he was on his 5th lesson they were in the 300's. Does Max get a handicap, extra time, or are his siblings preventing from training so he can catch up? No! He has a *crippling disadvantage* right from the start, because he wasn't born sooner. People are complaining that Max was ok not keeping his powers while both his siblings got to keep theirs, that's cuz he had his entire life to get used to the idea.

What happens if mom and dad have another kid? Say Max is 13, and suddenly they get a baby sister. Do they have to wait for the baby to grow up to do the competition? What if the parents have another kid After the competition is done? So after the series finale, after Alex wins, they have another kid. Does the kid never get power at all?

Can’t lie tho Justin did work the hardest out of his siblings 😭

They replaced the writer and producer in season 3. The original creator told Disney that Alex was to give up her powers to stay with Mason because in the previous seasons wizards can only be with wizards. Alex was supposed to have a redemption arch where she realizes that she doesn't need to have powers to live happy. So that's why season 4 is a mess they basically replaced everyone for final season to wrap it up.

Wizards: You are no longer allowed to have these powers you have spent literally your entire life at this point mastering. Me after losing bc I tripped: Are you going to erase my memories? Wizards: No Me: ... Wizards: ... Please don't tell anyone about us or try to get revenge. Me: No

Really weird how they leaned in to making Justin the villain. Especially as the oldest.

The fact Juliet his VAMPIRE girlfriend cared more about his sister and her best friend almost getting their blood sucked says what I need to know about him

you are SO RIGHT for all of this! i was always so surprised at the ending of the show. i thought it was going to be something where the Russos dismantle the competition system as a whole and allow all wizard kids to keep their powers, especially since it's proven time and time again how much it destroys everyone's family relationships. AND MAX GOT COMPLETELY SCREWED OVER, i'll never get over it

Justin is a prime example of Look how they massacred my boy.

What confuses me is why don't the Wizards just have one kid? It seems almost cruel to force your children to compete against each other. If you want to raise more kids, what if two people were wizards, and they got married, but then they decided to have a kid with other people (Father with a mortal, mother with a mortal, but the two wizards raise the kids together), technically, those two kids would be step-siblings. Does that mean they don't have to compete in the competition? That way, you can have two kids and they both keep their powers. Or what if you adopt a wizard kid? Does your adopted wizard kid have to compete with your biological wizard kid in a competition? If it doesn't matter whether or not the kids are biologically siblings or not, does that mean if you are a wizard and you have a kid, but you adopt a non-wizard kid, does that kid have the opportunity to become a wizard just because they are step-siblings with a real wizard? Or are you not legally allowed to adopt a non-wizard kid because you'll expose wizards to a mortal? But then Jerry's wife is a non-wizard and she's allowed to be exposed to magic because she's married to Jerry. I have too many questions and no answers.

Something I’ve always thought might have been a cool idea for an ending was that only one of the children wins and then they get the full magic but decide to split it between the three of them. They wouldn’t be able to do extremely difficult spells unless they were all together and harnessed the power together but they all would have magic and could use it in everyday life. I’m still mad that max got nothing so this was the only way it worked in my head.

I firmly believe that Stevie was right about not having the competition it literally broke the family where Justin literally abandoned them max was bitter he didn’t get power and the rest of the family turning on Alex for using magic. But somehow Stevie was evil revolutions aren’t pretty but needed to have big changes

Also, what about AGE??? Imagine if Max was like 2 years old, Alex maybe 7 years old and Justin already 15 years old. Wouldn't it be unfair for Max and Alex to compete with Justin for the competition? Justin would be way ahead just because he's older. So, then what? Until they're all caught up with the lessons and ready for the competition, Justin might already be 26 then. What if he's married to a vampire then but then he ends up losing the competition. Would that mean he'd have to divorce his vampire wife since he's not a wizard anymore?

My theory for why the competition exists is that there is only so much magic to go around. In one episode, it is said that magic comes from a power planet powered by dragons & in another episode they show us that wizards have individual magic generators/conduits in their homes to channel their powers. So magic seems to be dulled out through some kind of energy & maybe too many cant have it.

It seems highly biased against the youngest sibling. Like what if they are large age gap siblings. I had friends in middle/high school that had brothers who were already in college

I rewatched the Wizards finale recently as well and something that bothered me a lot about the part where they all "lose" the competition was not just Justin's behavior(which was horrible of course like bordering on sociopathic. actually) but also how out of character Max acts during that part. My man has just been vibing for most of the show. I'd even argue that he was the best character at times because he had such underrated moments where he actually seemed smart somehow? But the point is, he never seemed to care nearly as much about winning the competition as the other two. Literally at the end of the finale. he's the only one that ends up mortal and is just so happy that Jerry is letting him take over the sub shop one day. Like he doesn't care. He doesn't get mad. That's not who he is. He is the most level headed(if not the only truly level headed) person in his family, maybe even the entire show. So him getting mad at Alex and giving her the silent treatment initially and treating her almost as bad as Justin over the competition like that made zero sense. Zero. I know that they were trying to create a massive dramatic conflict because Jerry had fallen out with his own sister and barely talked to his brother and that was like a thing and they wanted to tease the idea of the same thing happening to the kids to make it more intense or whatever. But like...come on. It just didn't fit Max.

I think for the ending, they should have anolished the rule of "only one sibling can keep their powers".

I think the concept of the wizard competition and the whole idea surrounding the family wizard could have been such a great look into toxic familial structures of outdated familial inheritance. And that Justin's whole arc could have been him trying so desperately to hold onto the idea he's had since he was younger that as the oldest he was destined to be the family wizard, only to see Alex who didn't put as much effort into her studies as he did, catch up since she's resourceful and naturally gifted. And his attitude starts to become more and more angry and self-fulfilling, based pretty much around the superiority and inferiority complex he's been conditioned to have by his parents and most of the high ranking wizards. And why is it a law that they need to battle, if they all agreed to not do it, couldn't they have just agreed to stay partial wizards the rest of their lives. (Unless that was touched on, I aged out of the show before the last season). I kinda don't blame David Henry for not being in Alex v. Alex special since the story and writers completely destroyed whatever semblance of respect anyone had for Justin as a character without giving it a reason other than "he's just an asshole". Could have been better I think...

It's ironic how they always mention the times Alex almost destroyed the world, but they never mention the times Justin almost did.

If Justin is the new headmaster or whatever right, couldn’t he just grant Max his powers back. I wish they showed Max getting his powers back someway, somehow.

I always assumed the wizard competition existed because the wizarding world wants to limit how many wizards there are in the world. Even if your powers are taken from you, you can still pass them down genetically, so the population will grow, but in a controlled manner.

I’m so glad someone finally made the video on the thing that annoyed me the most about the show, I’ve been so annoyed for YEARS that we never got the movie competition in the show

You know this just made me think of something, Stevie in any other show would have been seen as the hero, she was fighting for all wizards to keep their magic instead of handing it over to to their siblings if they lost. A system that says "You aren't good enough to have this power so we're taking it away and you have no chance to get it back even if you change. Oh what's that you were just a kid and didn't know better? Well sucks to be you!" She was trying to change it and she was treated as the villain.

I always prefered the compatition in the movie. It was way more epic and less silly. Like it could be compared to the maze part, but everything else (including that mess of a second round) was just not for me. And since I always loved the one from the movie I just didn't like the show contradicting what they already did. But you gave other great and interesting points to consider. Thank you.

I know Disney usually has horrible fashion but Alex had more outfits that absolutely slayed and still do. I’ve been like “oooh that’s still cute” through out this whole video.

I will say that in the earlier seasons and mainly the first one, Alex came across as much more clever than Justin. Even though he was book smart, she often outsmarted him. She also didn't seem as lazy or laid back as she did in final seasons.

yeah, i mean i love the series but continuity was never its forte. they even introduced a teleportation spell into the lore but apparently no one thought to use that to just teleport themselves to the end of the maze

Justin being a jerk about the competition actually came up in the episode “Retest” when Jerry & his siblings needed to retake the test. The kids go to find Aunt Megan & when they bring her back to do the test she leaves & Justin blames Alex for Megan’s actions. He can’t handle it if loses or can’t compete in the competition. U can kinda see it in the movie as well but he definitely had a better attitude than the “Retest” episode & season 4

The fact that the original creator left makes me wonder what we saw in the movie was meant to be the Wizard Competition. Since how it involves the Family Wand makes the competition more grand and meaningful. Since its what's used to start the competition.

I kinda like the idea that the selfless act thing is something that most wizards check off early in their studies and she was selfish and used magic to solve problems.

You know what I don't understand, how come the Wizards council specially Professor Crumbs acted like Max didn't help save the Wizards World against Gorag... Alex and Justin alone wouldn't defeat Gorag by themselves if Max isn't there to help them... It's the reason why Gorag sent Max to that summer camp because he knew that Max would give him trouble as well for completing his plans to take over Wizard World... Alex and Justin got their credit for saving the Wizard World and Wiz tech but Max didn't receive any credit Edit: Professor Crumbs should have also made an exception for Max to keep his Wizards powers because of what he did against Gorag and how cleverly he tricked Gorag offguard so that the Russo siblings can finished him off... It was definitely his idea to do that trick and pretend they would side with Gorag just like how he has the smart idea when he saved Justin and Alex from falling from their deaths before

Obviously as the viewer we can judge Justin for suspecting his sister sabotaging his class, but in his position it makes sense. The closer to the competition date, the more they need to see each other as rivals as opposed to siblings. Why would you blindly trust someone when they intervene and conveniently that's exactly the time things go badly for you? He was right to be suspicious but wrong to not be remorseful in finding out the truth. Not all families are trustworthy my guy. Honestly trusting your family blindly in the real world is a very great way to get a knife in your back

Justin is the biggest contradiction in the show. They really tried hard to make him a villian and for all his studying and teaching, Alex can still best him. He got nerfed in character development and in his ability/knowledge, just to prop up Alex.

The wizard competition is just made to destroy relationships. You spend years of your life studying magic, and if you lose, you lose your powers, so everything you learned and all the time you’ve spent will have been wasted. You need to restructure your whole life because you lost the powers you’ve been allowed to rely upon for as long as you can remember and your sibling becomes a constant reminder of the thing you lost. How WOULDN’T the wizard competition create at least some animosity in the family?

I don’t understand how Max just got the sandwich shop while Alex gets to be the family Wizard and Justin got to be the Professor 🙄🙄

The wizard competition was always really weird to me. Not the actual competition, but just the concept. This has to break families. Theres no way it doesnt. If i grew up my entire life building my future based on magic, and lost it, i dont think i could handle that. But also, why can there only be one family wizard? And what are the parameters of family in this case? Does it stop at siblings? Or is the whole family?

I am a Justin apologist through and through. Yes of course he has some terrible moments (the Wizard of the Year episode especially) but everyone who hates on Justin fails to consider 2 things: 1. the writing took a turn in character development for everyone after the first couple seasons and 2. Justin has been the butt of every joke, the center of ridicule for Alex his entire life. Alex is naturally talented when it comes to magic and spends most of her time in the series playing around and getting away with everything under the sun because Justin always helps her out or she just gets lucky. Of course I am not blaming either child for everything since their parents handle them poorly, but if I were in Justin's shoes (which I completely understand because I too have a brother who can "do no wrong") I would also loathe Alex at times. Their parents only worsen their relationship with their treatment of each child individually. Justin is seen as the golden child, the child who does everything right and who is perfect at everything which is an incredible amount of pressure and Alex is the usual trouble maker with an added bonus for being daddy's little girl, she is essentially expected to not succeed but loved and forgiven regardless of what she does. In the episode where we get introduced to the genie, we learn that Alex is likely the way that she is because people expect her to be like Justin which is clearly upsetting but not Justin's fault. Alex gets away with so much because her parents have no way of punishing her properly. In the end, she always makes the same mistakes and feigns learning a lesson. WOWP fans despise Justin for acting as someone in his place would and praise Alex for being an icon which does not absolve her of her actions which often times harm others more than herself. Most episodes follow the same order: Alex uses magic selfishly for personal gain, ruins something for someone, or makes things harder for herself, she asks for Justin's help or he helps her naturally, Justin fixes the problem, Alex "gets in trouble", and then this repeats. From my perspective, both characters were frustrating for different reasons at different times. Alex litterally separated Max's conscience from his person because she was falling further behind and instead of putting in the work and studying to advance herself she does something despicable. Alex, too, has many reckless and bad moments throughout the show, fans just forget or forgive her too easily (as the characters themselves do) because she framed in a more likeable way. Fans are molded to like Alex's antics and enjoy Justin's pain or discomfort when in reality, no one would be happy in the receive end of Alex's jokes and mistakes. P.S. Forgive the apparent word vomit, Justin hate riles me up

I will say I was always fine with Max not getting powers since he was always the one that had non magical side plots, and was honestly content with life as a non magical person. His entire personality was that of someone who was happy no matter what, and the fact he could live a life external to his powers even before actually loosing them really showed he was happy to not have them. Hell he’s probably the most deserving of powers since unlike Alex and Justin he never really over utilized his powers. Also they did Justin so dirty in that last season. From the lovable booksmart not streetsmart nerd to a jealous older brother it really fucked up his character arc.

Did anyone notice they kept rewriting similar plot lines like Alex dating a warewolf, Justin dating an angel, Justin dating a vampire etc

Everything Justin was and did was a direct product of the wizard family system. His character getting more and more unlikeable as the show got closer to the wizard competition was one of the few things that was consistent in the show. He was Alex foil because although he was the most amenable to authority and rules, it made him the least intrinsically moral. Alex on the other hand was a delinquent and some how ended up having the better set of values. It was probably necessary to make the wizard competition because it was difficult to actually regulate people who could bend the laws of physics at a whim. The goal of the wizard competition must therefore be to both constrain the number of wizards while also selecting for the wizard least likely to abuse their powers (with great power comes great responsibility and all that jazz). I will say it does fail from time to time. For example, jerry was probably the sibling least likely to misuse magic, however external factors like wanting to marry a mortal caused the most likely sibling to keep the powers.

Remember how Justin had this great character growth early on where he started to become popular at school and had a bunch of friends and was more than just the smart nerdy kid? And they even made it consistent over multiple episodes. Then they said ehh F that let's change Zack's name to Zeke and make them laughably unbelievably nerdy like in every other non unique sitcom

Honestly, I think a sequel series following Max could be really interesting. He always used magic more responsibly than his siblings, but was never going to keep them due to the age gap. For that reason, he feels the most connected to non wizards. Max was always the most neglected character of the three, and they could provide the reason for that being that Jerry wishes that he still kept his powers, so he lived vicariously through Alex and Justin while ignoring max. The sandwich shop could serve as a metaphor of what he has vs what he wants, essentially viewing it as a consolation prize. The series could be a spin on the original, as the originally largely followed Alex using her powers for personal gain and causing problems, a new series could revolve around Max gaining new powers and using them to help the people while trying to keep it hidden. Also it would be nice to have an episode where Max reunites with Dragon and has to teach him to act like a dog.

I thought the term "Full Wizard" was all of the sibling's powers coming together in one person.. like.. There is a max power and all of them are sharing it until someone wins and gets all of it.

Justin was my favourite character. He was fully focused on the goal and only ever tried his best. He didn’t want to deal with his sisters antics and was always annoyed having to deal with them. I hated how forcefully incompetent they made him in the latter two seasons, however. And the wizarding rules made absolutely zero sense.

The fact that Justin had to be begged to go save Zeke and Harper but Max not being friends with either of them was like yeah sure I’m down😂

i wonder if there are movements in the wizarding world to abolish the wizarding competition because the competition obviously influenced and hurt the siblings' relationships could have ruined alex and mason's relationship so i can't even imagine how else it hurt people's lives. The tests could have also traumatized people so there are probably wizard activists against the competition

My personal theory about why the wizard competition is even a thing is because the magic is divided between the brothers when they are born, so in order for one of them to become a full wizard, they need to take their siblings magic. That's my head canon, and in my opinion makes sense. That's why Professor Crumbs touches Justin with his wand, is kinda like transferring his powers to him so he can become a full wizard.

I think the idea of making Stevie a villain is so fricking funny because she didn’t hurt literally anyone. They could’ve at least made her do something horrible like the villains in the special episodes. But in the end that episode was just “Stevie is a baddie because… all this time… her evil plan was… _UNIONIZING_ 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 (bam bam baaaaaam)”

the last question is why i could never *really* get on board with WOWP - the idea that only one wizard in a family got to keep their powers seemed so nonsensical that i'd honestly assumed that the show would somehow end with all of them being able to keep their powers. finding out now that two of them got to keep their powers for b*llshit reasons, while one got screwed over, seems a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

i LOVED justin as a kid, he was like my first male crush on TV lol. so i never noticed how much they butchered his character, i remembered loving justin so much because even though he was uptight he ALWAYS came thru for his sister and i wanted a sibling relationship like that, so it’s so disappointing looking back at the final season as an adult and realizing he became so selfish and honestly more immature than even alex. still the best show from disneys hay day in my opinion though

For me, probably the most upsetting thing with Justin's character is that he could've been great, like Alex. (Poor Max, left out..) They do touch upon his self importance and not 'pure' intentions in the movie but he does become self aware and a little ashamed of it, as well as him feeling like he needs to be perfect all the time in order to get his parents' love, which ends up making him have more depth. I really love the convo between Alex and Justin on the rocks, both expressing their insecurities and then reassuring each other. I think it's been said that the WOWP movie was done very much for monetary reasons, which is kinda funny cause it's my fave WOWP property. Then, S2 is my fave season. I think Justin and Max being cruel to Alex in the finale is very like.. Exaggerated for Dramatic purposes, which is like a huge slap in the face to me. Sacrificing characters and relationships for Drama, yeah they're all at each other's throats to mirror Jerry, Kelbo, and Megan as well as to fulfill what the show's been saying over and over about the wizard competition: that it tears families apart. But I feel it could've been written so much better, where the audience is able to empathize with all of them rather than turn against 2 of the show's protagonists. The finale is SO messy and I kinda hate that people take it so.. in stone? For a lack of a better term. I for the most part turn away from it. Also the test is SO ridiculous because it's really a gamble on if people will pass it or not since a lot of families end up not talking to each other anymore?? With the way season 4 was written, I'm not sure if a better finale would've saved Justin's character. At least for many people, esp the people that have hopped on the Justin hate bandwagon. I'm rewatching WOWP for the second time and I CAN'T bring myself to go past S4E12, I don't really like most of the episodes after that point, they feel weird to me. I cling to Justin's earlier characterization as he became my fave on my 2nd rewatch (Max on my 1st). I will also say, Justin's character isn't the only one that suffers by S4, the parents become very one trait and Max is still pushed to the side and even dumber than before, not that can't be entertaining but I wish they'd done more with him. This stuff tends to happen when a show gets to a certain point, but doesn't make it any less disappointing. Also.. Alex and Justin's dynamic possibly changed post movie because of.. shipping that the WOWP creatives and Disney executives were aware of... I think a Wizard Revolution would've been the way to go, but this is Disney.. and the original showrunner already seemed to be struggling with the channel creatively before his departure after S3. I'm hoping for a movie, or more preferably maybe a mini series in style of the WOWP movie with a focus on the Wizard World and the injustices there, mostly the Wizard Competition. I think they can very much take a Dystopian route with it. But, I'm hesitant any revivals/sequels tbh. Oops, I got so carried away, I have been sitting on these thoughts for a WHILE

I'd love for David and Jennifer to cover this video on Wizards of Waverly Pod. Getting their thoughts on the whole wizard competition and the rapid characterization changes in the seasons would be interesting.

Imo the wizard competion should’ve been modified. In Naruto that have something called “the scroll of sealing” a scroll that contains all the ninjutsu and other skills forbidden and otherwise collected in the leaf village and only the hokage ( head ninja ) can use the scroll but you do have other ninjas in the world. The wizard competition should’ve been for the status of head wizard of the family and the head wizard would get and protect the family’s “magic book” or a family version of the “scroll of sealing” that makes the head wizard the strongest wizard because only they may have access to the family book. The point of the competition is that the family book isn’t a birthright to the oldest but all siblings have a fair opportunity to become head wizard and should the head wizard have a family of their own then their children will compete for the title. That at Alex can become head wizard and has access to all the spells in the family book, Justin becomes the head of wizard tech and even if he doesn’t have the family book he can still grow as a powerful wizard and maybe make new spells that the book doesn’t have, and max can run the shop but he’s still a wizard just on a lower level so something like this Alex with the book is a S Rank Wizard Justin as the head of wizard tech is a lower teir S rank wizard ( Alex edges him out by having the book ) Max could go to A rank but he’ll never be able to higher

My main issue with the show was the idea that only one member gets to keep their power. In families of multiple kids, that would create a lot of animosity among siblings, not to mention some hate for the parents deciding to force their oldest to have to compete with their own sibling to keep their powers. It just seems so unfair.

Another thing that threw me off was how the made magic out to be like electricity?? They could remove these power banks in the wall (in the lair) and their powers wouldn't work. How does this work from outside the home and doesn't that take away from the fact that Wizards themselves are supposed to be magical beings as opposed to some iron/bat-man esque hybrids who benefit from technology. Also, the training wand was never used on Max after his powers came in during season one but it was there in season four. Still love the show though❤

Good points made and as for the ending, I remember being mad when max didn’t get powers but rewatching the show he really showed being the only one would be well off living without magic as shown in multiple episodes he’s capable at running the sandwich shop on his own, it still wouldnt hurt if he still kept his powers tho

I always head-canoned that due to increases in population, the competition was established to keep the wizard population down in hopes of better maintaining secrecy. That could give credence to the “Stevie is evil” nonsense because by the population headcanon, the long term effects of her plan would risk wizard secrecy.

i think it wouldve been a much more fulfilling and sayisfying end to the show if the russo siblings fought to abolish the wizard competition and allow them and all future generations of wizards to keep their powers. because they allude so much throughout the show that the wizard competition can tear families apart (stevie and her brother, their own dad with his sister) that it almost seems like they were going in that direction anyway. they already planted the seed with stevie's character, they shouldve just followed through as the season continued all the way up to the finale. cause then so many good things could come from it. justin couldve had some serious character development and learned that family is more important than wizardry which would hit especially hard because he spent the entire show so focused on wizard studies and the competition. we couldve seen him struggle to let go of it and not let all of his hard effort go to waste but then ultimately redeem himself (and his horrible character lol) by standing with his siblings in the end. we couldve seen an ending where their dad and kelbo reunite with their sister and make up, maybe even get to see the two regain their powers and then we can actually get to see how good of a wizard jerry is!! to see him be able to do magic alongside his kids wouldve been so awesome. plus abolishing the wizard competition completely gets rid of all of these questions we have about it because it would no longer be relevant lol. idk. to be honest i kind of fell out of watching the show when the fourth season came out so i don't remember much about it. i just remember feeling that the end couldve been so much more.

One thing the show has shown time and time again is that the wizard competition creates more problems than it helps. I thought it would lead to the end of the competition, but oh well

also, somehow max became 'famous' in the wizard world for most likely becoming the family wizard but when Justin was most likely, he wasn't famous. also its kinda not fair with their age gaps, probs why Justin is so good. also in the competition, Alex uses the spell that freezes time but she has to stay on one leg but when Justin told zeke he was a wizard, he froze everyone. so that mans there's another spell to freeze without having the hop on one leg, why didn't she use that lol also in the competition, it was like a game show at the start, but that wasn't necessary cuz it was who came out first. they should've let the person who had the highest points, go in first then 20 seconds later, the next, then another 20 seconds, the next. it would've been fair that way.

The show would have been great if the competition was deliberately meant to cause division, but its not. If it was the wizarding competition could've truly been just a test to determine the kids character. Like it could be not to see who deserves power but who doesn't. It should be a way to keep the power crazed from magic but no its made to genuinely make only 1 kid get powers for seemingly no explained reason

It always felt like part of the point was that the wizard competition was ambiguous and made no sense. The whole show has this Harry Potter parody vibe to it so I thought the lack of consistency was highlighting that parody. It didn't even seem like they tried for consistency.

I swear Alex is just Naruto, but as a wizard. Her plot armor is stronger than Batman’s alone. She had her powers taken SOOO many times just to get them back the same episode. She could literally blow up the entire planet, have Justin fix the situation and she’ll still gain her powers back because she “learned from her mistakes.” Justin is my favorite(obviously from my rant). And obviously he isn’t perfect, but he got played way too many times😂. He literally became Peter Parker by S4 and was nerfed like an Overwatch character.

I know it’s just writing inconsistency, but I think Justin’s change in character would’ve made an interesting storyline about him losing his way after making so much progress and suddenly having to rebuild that all, becoming disillusioned (ha) with the wizard test and the wizarding world

"Alex and Justin wouldn't have time to earn enough points" except Max just got his powers like a year before and already got to level 3 and Alex and Justin are both more competent, so why couldn't they? Lol Edit: I can buy Justin thinking Alex sabotaged him... they did prank each other and stuff, right? And despite her always being there for him when he truly needed her, it still seems believable for basically teenagers... I can even buy him not going to save her, because "She always gets herself into and out of trouble" and stuff, it could be plausible... but him not going to save his best friend and Harper? That I'll give you as too far past the line. And not going to save Alex is borderline. I think the movie made the most sense... but whatever.

Max gaining his full powers during puberty could be a sick show all on it's own. Like wizard FLCL.

Im fairly certain the reason justin passed part 2 of the family wizard exam was because his anger towards alex didnt last. Its normal to be angry at someone. Its even normao to lash out of them. What isnt normal is never getting over it. He got over it....

I really don’t understand why they completely undid Justin’s entire character arc in the final season. In the movie he literally admitted to Alex he’s jealous of her and feels like she deserves the competition more than he does. It was a perfect example of an arrogant character getting over their own ego for the sake of family and caring for his sister. But in the final season they pretended none of his moments of caring for Alex happened and they just decided “no we’re gonna make him a dick.” It was completely out of character for him to act this way. In the earlier seasons he literally defended Alex, but the show runners just randomly decided “no no no we need Justin to basically be a villain”

I was thinking Max was going to get the full powers kinda how like Uncle Kelbo has his. Justin and Alex can do fine without powers but Max seems like he would need it more.

Oh ps in 26:27 u mention that the wizard movie was never ever mentioned in the show, but I remember in a episode Alex was naming all the selfish acts she has committed and she mentioned making her parents forget about them or something. I think she was mentioning the events of the movie at that moment.

Someone needs to make a video about Mason, I rewatched lately and he’s just the worst. Mason attacked Justin and Juliet when they said Alex shouldn’t go with him, and he literally ate Dean (attempted murder) just out of jealousy and made Alex feel bad about using magic.

Another part that confuses me is that the winner should by all accounts just be able to give their siblings their magic back. We see so many characters take magic away and give powers to random strangers that is it even worth taking the time to do this if the winners going to give them their powers back, or give them entirely different powers?

Damn youtube has been on fire for me lately on finding good channels to sub to. I loved Wizards of Wavery Place. I loved it's world-building even though it had some confusing lore throughout it's run at some points like you mentioned. I also think they should've been more clearer on how the point system works and how they came up with such thing during the wizard school arch at wiz tech university. Throughout the series I always imagined that somehow it was going to be Max and Justin keeping there powers with Alex being mortal throughout in the beginning. But I was overall happy with how the finale turned out. I also think they should've had the dcom movie be somewhat of a tie-in into the show instead of it's thing because they did a wizard competition in that as well in some different format.

I really feel bad for max even tho he didn't mind. I mean the competition is bullshit. Imagine being a wizard.your whole life and than a normal boy. But even so, he knew only one would win so that he lost his powers was something he knew could happen. Seeing Justin, he probably already knew he would be mortal and only enjoyed his time of being a wizard. He knew there would be 2 mortals in his family. But than Alex wins and Justin can keep his powers. It should be a painful blow. Also what would happen if Justin won? Would he still get the powers of that old man? What about Alex? She was already once the family wizard and only gave it up because of fairness to Max (respect. She really didn't deserve Justin's treatment because of that)

The wizard family competition is so weird to me because not only does it seem pointless but is actually harmful. Siblings are raised in an environment where they view each other as competition like they grow up with the mentality that if they're not better than their sibling then they will lose a part of themself that is inherent to them. They can't possibly expect wizarding families to have healthy family dynamics when they are forced to view their own family as competitors and the show itself demonstrates this. Jerry has a strained relationship with his siblings to the point that his sister no longer has contact with her brothers. Stevie also used to be close with her brother but the competition got between them. Like this shit is ruining families and for what?

I think it could've been really interesting if Justin turned into a villain by the end of the story. He starts out as this really good student who's the best wizard in the family and thinks he essentially has no competition for the title of Family Wizard. But when Alex starts to close the gap between them, his true colors start to show. That's why he suddenly gets so accusatory and distrusting of Alex, because he's projecting his own thoughts and ideas onto her, assuming she sees the competition the same way he does and seeing her as a threat to his success. That way, in the end, Justin ends up losing his powers and being humbled in the realization that he never should've taken his talent for granted.

This is my theory why the wizard competition exists. We already know wizards live extended lives and see themselves as superior to mortals. I believe that there were several wizards who wanted to rule over the non-magical world but not all wizards agreed with that. So the wizards who wanted total control started a war and discovered they could become more powerful if they killed their siblings and took their magic. So then wizards started killing each other as well to be the strongest and rule over others. Eventually, the war ended and the new wizard council was like, "aight can't ever let *this* happen again" so they devised the wizard competition as a way to not let wizards run rampant and make sure that the wizard who gets the power is "responsible" and "trustworthy". Obviously, there's flaws within that but that's my take, I do wish the show gave us a proper backstory on why the competition was put in place.

i didn’t really put much thought into the wizard competition as a kid, but since i’ve grown up, i’ve thought back at how strange of an idea it was. they set it up in the first episode that it was basically the driving force of the entire series, and i honestly don’t know how far the writers thought ahead after that. that just needed a motivation for the Russo siblings to learn new wacky spells every episode to get into hijinx with. then, whenever the show had something to do with the competition, they just kinda made shit up. i wish we could’ve gotten a more clear and concise set of rules and reasons fir the competition - especially since it was literally set up as the end of the series since day 1. it would’ve been a nice little continuity detail to help keep people invested, instead of Krums bending the “rules” whenever he felt like it.

if I'm being honest, Justin should have gotten his powers taken away when he was working for the angels of darkness. cause if you remember in the Alex vs. Alex movie her powers were taken away cause she was a villain so why didn't they do the same for Justin? also I've heard that the whole reason why the Russo competition was a game show theme was because there famous in the wizarding world but its just a theory.

The Wizard Competition made Justin such a worse person. Any competitive nature he had was turned up to a twelve and proved he didn’t deserve his powers. The way I see it, the competition just destroys families and pits siblings against one another. Stevie was in the right. She shouldn’t have to give up her powers. And even then, The Wizard competition is completely biased towards people with learning and study styles like Justin. I personally see it as a way to discourage wizard families from having too many kids bc if you only have one kid, no wizard competition, and no siblings hating each other

In the earlier seasons, Justin was smug and overly confident. But the one thing he was not was uncaring of his siblings. Justin was constantly shown to also drop everything to save Alex whenever she was in trouble. I think the writers wanted to show like the reverse of roles? With how Alex was always getting help from Justin to Alex always helping Justin in the final seasons. Personally i think with how massively famous Selena Gomez was getting. Disney decided to make her stand out even more which meant the other characters had to take a back seat in development.

8:13 What’s even more messed up about that was the fact that Max did the exact same thing in an earlier season and never got punished for it.

Max deserved the win honestly. He was most improved over the whole series, starting from nothing while both siblings were way ahead, making crazy progress despite the handicap and huge age discrepancy. He showed the most talent, as he wasn't constantly studying and trying so hard like Justin was yet still managed to remain in the running despite years held back. Alex was the most popular character and that's the only reason she won. If anything, Max should have won but I digress

I would have omitted the Justin Russo rant. That should have been it’s own separate video, I’m not entirely sure why it’s here

As someone who only watched every so often, and not every episode, I was always SO CONFUSED by the rules of this world. Glad to know it wasn’t just me 😂

I may have an answer for the entry part: In the UK, we have something called the GCSE, which is basically a series of exams one takes in order to graduate high school. Now, there isn't just one year you can take the GSCE, you can take it any time starting after you're either 16 or in 10th year (11th grade in the US), whichever comes first. The 'punishment' for failing the GSCE, by the way, is that you have to continue high school - although you can simply take it again the next year, at least until you pass the age limit to be in HS. This last part is how I think the Wizarding Exam entry works. The "levels" are roughly equivalent to school year, and 5 may be a sort of "pre-uni" level. Notice that Grade 10 is the *third* year of high school, just like it's implied you have to be at least "level 3" to take the test. Presumably, the reason the Russo's education is so abnormal (them all being taught the same lessons, etc.) is because they're being homeschooled.

Alex did mentioned to Mason in the show that she accidentally made her parents forget at the episode where Juliet and Mason left. So after watching the last episode, I thought the competition was mostly random.

I thought the whole competition thing was so unfair to Max - Justin got to use his wizard powers for... 10 years? While Max only got to use them for 3-4 years, at least on screen. Then they have to compete against each other?!

They did Justin DIRTY in the last season, straight up assassinated his character when the writing changed

I always said that Alex should have won and then looked over at her brothers as they sadly congratulated her then she shakes her head and says no then like pulls the magic out of her and divides it, giving her brothers each a piece. Breaking the rules and having all siblings get magic, ending the wizard competition and changing the way the wizard world works. Alex was always a rebel and was destined to make changes for the better.

Real talk, if Justin had just been more proactive to save his sister AND that's why he gets reinstated would've been so much of a better lesson.

Oh my god I so agree with your take on Justin ! I use to love him so much when I was a child but now I hate him ! He is the worst and the show never acknowledged it ! It is so frustrating.

Considering it’s Disney having them fighting an unjust systems troughs their love and family would have been a pretty good way to end the show. Alex convincing her brothers to fight the system so that no one has to compete anymore and everyone keeps their magic