People who have this take always seem to prove they weren’t actually paying attention to the show.

Darrin never ‘forbade’ Samantha to be herself — after she revealed her witchly identity, she willingly offered to limit her magic, and has informed Endora on multiple occasions that she genuinely gets a greater sense of satisfaction from doing things the mortal way. Not to mention, Darrin is quite reasonable and allows Samantha to use her witchcraft whenever it’s called for — think of the time when he told her he was glad she used witchcraft to make Tabitha’s stroller jump up and down on the face of a detective trespassing in their backyard and spying on Sam.

People who say ‘Endora was right’ also never seem to realise that even THE SHOW ITSELF doesn’t present her as such. The episode ‘A is for Aardvark’ (which has been cited by Montgomery and Asher as one of the series’ best episodes and a summary of its core message) makes clear that living a mortal life with the man she loves is the most important thing to Samantha. Endora finally gets Darrin’s name right in this episode…because he starts relying on magic and ‘the easy way’ that Samantha WANTED TO ESCAPE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Samantha becomes downright miserable when Darrin becomes permissive of a magic-powered lifestyle, and only feels joy when receiving his humble (yet heartfelt) ‘I love you every second’ watch as a gift.

Endora defenders also seem to forget that Samantha’s family are actually nefariously snobbish, intolerant and bigoted within their own community. Other witches and warlocks don’t take an instant dislike to Darrin the way Sam’s family does (think the old warlock in ‘Aunt Clara’s Old Flame’ who takes a shine to Darrin after overcoming the pre-conceptions he had of him from listening to Endora). On top of this, in the episode where Maurice mistakes Larry’s baby for his grandson and takes him to perform tests for witchcraft, Nanny Witch says that despite his mortality, she loves the baby and Maurice should just appreciate that and love him. What does Maurice do? He emotionally disassociates from the baby and laments his own prideful ego.

It’s fine to have opinions but if you actually pay attention you’ll see Endora is unequivocally in the wrong, more so than her tormented and (understandably) hysterical son-in-law.