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Favourite Stella moments? And also Riven moments?

some of my favorite stella moments can be found in this post I wrote a few years ago. there are plenty more moments that I appreciate just as much, though. take, for instance, her standing up for flora, comforting and bringing bloom back to alfea, and protecting the girls from the white snake in the omega dimension. her introduction to the series is also one of my favorites; it immediately sets the tone for her confidence and presence, not to mention her open-mindedness, which affords her the ability to quickly befriend bloom.

this probably won't surprise anyone, but one of my favorite riven moments is toward the end of season one when he's locked up in cloud tower and forced to reflect on his past actions and question who he really is. not only does this moment mark a major turning point for his character and show off his potential, but it also offers viewers a deeper insight into his inner struggles. shortly after, the episode shifts to riven escaping his cell and reuniting with the others in the underground tunnel, which is also another favorite of mine. I'll spare the deep dive and share a short excerpt from the transcript instead:

Riven: Um, Sky, Brandon. I wanted to apologize for all the things I've done. Sky: Don't worry about it, buddy. We'll talk about that later, okay? Bloom: Right. We're on a mission here, let's not forget. Sky: So are you with us? Riven: You bet.

the balcony scene in season two is also up there. it's one of the few times we see riven engage in a sincere, albeit brief, conversation with one of the girls apart from musa, and there's just something raw and unguarded about the way he starts talking to flora. in particular, the moment when flora apologizes for not noticing riven, and he simply replies: "it happens," stands out because it subtly suggests that he's used to people overlooking him. that being sidelined is something he's come to expect. under normal circumstances, with different characters, the line may not have carried as much (if any) weight, but since I've always read this scene as riven feeling disappointed about being excluded from the rescue mission, it hits different.

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Regarding one of the last scenes of ATLA where Zuko gives his speech as a newly crowned Fire Lord: I always felt like it didn't hit nearly as hard as the show wanted it to. It felt anticlimactic, and hollow, and today it occured to me that this is due to the fact that, ultimately, it wasn't really Zuko's place to give this speech - not as the Fire Lord, but as part of the character ansemble.

Like, normally, this would have been the protagonist's place to speak, you know? As in, the person, whose name is in the show's title itself. The person who - supposedly - stands for all the things that Zuko talks about. This was the opportunity to hammer home what Aang's role and destiny is, and why he was the protagonist in the first place.

I find it a bizarre writing choice to say the least, but unfortunately it is just the tip of the iceberg of what turned out to be Aang's disappointing, or rather abandoned, character arc. It's just the last part of a sequence of events that somehow made Zuko a better representation of ATLA's themes than ATLA's poster child itself. By the end of ATLA we had arrived at a point where the big battle between Zuko and Azula is a WHOLE lot more cathartic than the long promised fight between the protagonist and the Big Bad - all due to the fact that one battle had narrative significance beyond plot alone, and had themes and emotions and character arcs attached to it, while the fight between Ozai and Aang was just the ATLA equivalent of a cheap Hollywood fight over-relying on CGI. From a writing standpoint that is bizarre, and was absolutely avoidable if the writers hadn't abandoned Aang's character arc after Crossroads of Destiny.

The scene where Zuko gives his speech does not hit hard enough because ultimately it should have been a fully-realized and mature Aang's place to deliver it, instead of just standing idly during the finale of his own goddamn show. He is a passive viewer, and that is just so odd. He's really been robbed of a positive character arc, and we've been robbed of a more satisfactory ending.

(It's this, and the fact that the show chose to tell us that Zuko and Aang are "actually friends" now, without imo properly showing it. It just crrates an added layer of dissonance.)

I'm hollering - Aang has spend the finale growling in the Avatar state, staying silent by Zuko's side, and then kissing Katara withouth uttering a single word. I??? JUST? WHY. Why would you write it that way?

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cover art I did for @eurekazine

they are having leftover sales right now (•ᴗ•✿⁠)

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Winx Power Show

The Winx Power Show is the first live show and musical ever created for Winx Club. It's in Italian and ran from 2005 to 2007 to great success setting the foundation for all future live shows and musical adaptations. The recording I watched seems to be the official one from the old DVD release. Unlike Winx Club On Tour (which sadly isn't) this still seems to be available in some places so I'll probably be trying to get it. There was also a soundtrack release of the songs on CD that you can still find.

Summary

The story is original and takes place somewhere around S2 (though it incorporates some elements that would later be part of S4). The Winx hear the voice of an Earth girl, Melissa, asking them to prove to her that they really exist and travel to Earth to help her believe in her own magic. While there, they get attacked by the Trix, sent by Lord Darkar, who kidnap Melissa in order to lure Bloom into their trap. Together with the specialists the Winx set out to rescue Melissa and defeat any dangers that might come their way.

My thoughts

The costumes are really good (apart from some of the wigs) even if not quite as well done and detailed as in Winx Club On Tour. There are a few outfit changes for the Winx (Magic Winx, casual outfits, their swamp explorer outfits), the specialists (uniforms, casual outfits) and even the Trix (witch outfits, casual outfits, something explorer outfit like) which is always great to see. Though I would've preferred if the Winx didn't spend quite such a long time in the explorer outfits as they're all the same and not as colourful as their other options. Most of the casual outfits aren't taken from the series (Musa's definitely is though, I remember that short blue dress with the red knee-high boots, that's an awesome choice!) but they did reasonably well in capturing the characters' style with their new outfits.

The general tone of the story is similar to Winx Club On Tour with some serious parts but a lot of funny ones as well. The Winx Power Show has more frequent and longer battles though they often stray into completely unhinged territory as well. A lot of the humour is on the physical side as there are few "calm" scenes with the characters just talking to each other, they are pretty much always doing something else. In that way it feels very different but certainly not less fun to watch! I wouldn't have minded a few calmer scenes here and there as there's so much going on but I don't mind it this way either. There were maybe a few moments where I didn't know exactly what was happening but they were so short and isolated that it didn't really matter. I love the justification of the dragon taking everyone's magical powers away so they try to beat each other into submission via the epic power of dance instead. (And all the dissing that happens before and during the song!) It's ridiculous and it works so well!

The story is somewhat similar to Winx on Ice in that it introduces an original character (Melissa) who falls for the Trix' manipulations, realizes this and gets rescued by the Winx/helps them in the final battle. I much prefer Winx Power Show's approach to that concept though for several reasons. Melissa basically immediately realizes her mistake to the point that you could've honestly skipped it completely and just have her be genuinely kidnapped by the Trix so there's no time wasted on trying to convince her to not be obviously evil which makes her far more sympathetic to me. She's also pretty much irrelevant for most of the story as the focus is very firmly on the Winx and the specialists and the hijinks they get up to in their battles against the Trix - which is exactly what I want to see from a Winx Club musical. Melissa has her part to play in the beginning and the end (where she also gets a song with Bloom) to make the story coherent and that's exactly the amount of importance I'd want her to have (at most) so I honestly don't mind her inclusion at all. She's cool. Darkar is also there (his costume is... interesting), he doesn't do much apart from putting Bloom in a trance to turn her into Dark Bloom but I really like how that final battle against him and the Trix is choreographed so he definitely earned his spot in this story more than Valtor did.

The music is pretty great as well with my favourite songs being the "dance battle" song and the Trix' song. The specialists' song would've been included if it was actually sung by the specialists and not just Helia the whole way through. It's definitely a cool song but it just sounds so weak if you have him going "we are this, we are that" constantly but the only thing you hear is a single lone voice. I get that the choreography is tough to do even without singing at the same time but they could've at least switched characters for the verses so everyone sings a different part and takes a little break from the choreo for that time. And for the refrains just do what Winx Club On Tour did, have everyone do a pose and sing together. It would've been an awesome song for all of the specialists that way! Speaking of though, the choreographies of the dances - especially the specialists', that entire dance battle sequence and the specialists under the spell of the sirens part (the way they move during this is genuinely so creepy) - are pretty damn impressive! So many amazing moves! They alone make this show so worth a watch! The only other "criticism" I have regarding the music is that they could've written one or two more original songs for the show, specifically Musa's song and a love song. I'm honestly so bummed that the Winx Power Show didn't give us another love song for the Winx and specialists. I know Geef Me Vleugels is hard to compete with but I still would've loved one.

Regarding the character portrayals I don't have a single criticism. They all feel accurate (maybe somewhat exaggerated in some places but still faithful) and they're all important to the story in various ways. Each of the Winx gets at least one spotlight moment to shine just to herself with consistent relevance throughout. The specialists work more as a collective than individually but they still get some focused moments on their own and consistent relevance as a group. (Like holding off the dragon with some sort of sleeping spell because... they... can... do that?) Since all of the Winx (and specialists) are on stage for the majority of the time there are a lot of background interactions happening between all of them which is something I just absolutely adore! The recording I watched was rather blurry so it was difficult to see sometimes but I can't even count how many times I rewound some parts just to catch what everybody was doing in the background!

My personal highlight moments

You know, I feel personally blessed by this show in a way because either the directors or the actors themselves have to be huge fans of Musa & Riven because the amount of random background action going on with these two specifically is genuinely insane! Granted, I was focusing more on them than I did on most of the others but still. Going chronologically:

Musa making fun of Stella for losing a "fight" against a piece of clothing

When the specialists search for the Winx in Melissa's room Timmy picks up a pillow from the couch to look under it only for Riven to pick up Timmy still holding the pillow to look in the exact same spot

Riven immediately picking Musa up in a bridal carry when they're freed and carrying her throughout most of the scene (to be fair he's not the only one to pick his girlfriend up in this scene but he's the only one to do so in a bridal carry)

Stella of all people having to drag Musa away from Riven when they want to set out on their mission (he asked if they should join them to which Stella said no while Musa started... cuddling him in response), she stuck to him so closely that Riven stumbles forward a litte when Stella drags her away which makes Timmy fall over (who was leaning on him while flirting with Tecna) and Musa just looks so confused

MUSA OUTDOING THE SIRENS' SINGING, BREAKING THEIR SPELL ON EVERYONE AND DEFEATING THEM COMPLETELY ON HER OWN! I didn't think they'd actually do it but they gave that scene and that entire victory to her and her alone. No help or involvement from anyone else. Yay Musa!

That tight embrace Musa & Riven share when the spell is broken, so adorable~ (and the way he dramatically falls to the ground just before that)

Brandon falling asleep on Stella while Tecna (and Timmy) explain their conclusions about the situation in complicated detail (also Musa putting her head on Riven's shoulder during this)

Helia being like "we didn't find an exit but we found these yellow flowers :)" to which Flora is like "they're called primroses, Helia"

During the long battle sequence against the Trix there's a moment where Riven grabs Musa and runs off the stage with her while she's hooked around his waist - I don't know why, but I love it

Tecna just totally panicking over her PDA being broken until she realizes it isn't

Riven's dance and rap solo during the dance battle (he's consistently the most impressive dancer throughout the show with the most impressive moves, not sure how canon that is but I might adopt it anyway Musa teaches him, it's fine)

Musa & Riven legit have a Dirty Dancing moment during the final dance and I'm not even kidding (Musa be like "You know Dirty Dancing?" and Riven be like "Say no more"). Like?! Why are they so adorable?! I just love them so much!!

TLDR: As a whole I still prefer Winx Club On Tour but the Winx Power Show is amazing and a very close second.

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Happy birthday for Stella and bon appétit for Brandon 🫶👨‍🍳🥂❤️‍🔥 btw this time Brandon in red and Stella in blue and with curly hair, what do y'all think? ✨️

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TLOK’s Healer Katara: Why does she fail so much?

In Korra, we are reintroduced to Katara as a dedicated healer who seemingly doesn’t care about politics or activism anymore, her focus is on her healing huts. But if Katara is “the greatest healer in the world”, as we are often reminded, why does she fail so much?

Season 1:

We never get any canon explanation as to how Amon’s power works but many fans have theorized that he uses bloodbending to break someone’s chakras and that’s how he takes people’s bending. (This explanation doesn’t make much sense because chakras are a spiritual thing, you can’t access someone’s soul simply by controlling their blood, but whatever)

If Amon can break Korra’s chakras using waterbending, why can’t Katara heal them using the exact same method? Seriously, what’s preventing her?

Narratively, Katara had to fail to heal Korra so that (1) the audience could gauge how dangerous Amon was, and (2) Deus ex machina Aang could save the day. There is no watsonian explanation as to why Katara failed, the writers simply needed her to.

Season 2:

Discussing book 2 of TLOK is complicated because that season is, without hyperbole, one of the most nonsensical pieces of fantasy media I’ve ever consumed. Regardless, Katara fails again this season. Jinora’s soul is trapped in the spirit world and Katara doesn’t manage to wake her from her coma, but she does manage to keep Jinora alive. However, this victory doesn’t really stand out because Kya also managed to keep Jinora alive and she did it for longer than Katara- so it seems that you don’t need to be the greatest healer in the world to accomplish this, it was just a trivial task.

Season 4:

In season 4, Katara fails for a third and final time.

Katara: (waterbends the liquid in the healing pool) The poison did a lot of internal damage.

Korra:  Can you fix it?

Katara:  I can help guide your healing process, but whether you get better or not is up to you.

Katara self-admittedly can’t heal Korra, she can only offer physical therapy. We even get a scene where Korra remarks on Katara’s failings:

Katara:  Whenever you're ready. 

Korra:  What's the point?  We've been at this for almost six months and (looks away from Katara) I can barely take a couple of steps without collapsing.

Katara:  I know you're frustrated, but-

Korra:  Of course I'm frustrated! A crazy man poisoned me,  and now I can't dress myself or cook for myself or do anything for myself, and this whole time my friends have been off helping the World while I'm stuck with you, and you can't even heal me! 

Ouch! This is particularly egregious because we saw Katara use waterbending to heal someone’s psychological trauma:

Katara: Maybe this will help. [Takes water and puts it around his ears, using healing to clear his mind.]

Jet: [looks up from the floor and sees an image of Long Feng standing above a lake. Long Feng stares at Jet, and Jet sinks down under the lake into an underground room. He sees an image of a Dai Li agent shining a spinning light in his face.]

Jet: They took me to a headquarters under the water. Like a lake!

But with Korra, she doesn’t even attempt this technique. Why? Did she forget that she has this ability?

Furthermore, considering that we saw Katara heal Zuko so thoroughly that he was able to stand up and walk after getting shot with lightning on the chest, I don’t understand why she’s unable to heal Korra’s poisoned-induced paralysis. Why can she restore Zuko’s mobility but not Korra’s?

Once again: narratively, Katara has to fail in order to prop up Toph, who will heal Korra’s body, and Zaheer, who will heal Korra’s mind and soul.

So what’s the point of all this?

A lot of people have talked about how Katara’s healing skills are used as a Worf Effect:

“The Worf Effect, from TVTropes:

Want a quick way to show how dangerous one of your unknown characters is? Simple, make them do well or win in a fight with a character that the audience already knows is tough. This establishes them as willing to fight and marks them as sufficiently dangerous.

In Legend of Korra, Katara’s healing abilities aren’t there to demonstrate how awesome a character she is, or that she is the master who taught Korra, because we never successfully see her heal anyone and we never see Korra learn waterbending from her. No, Katara’s so-called skills are only there to show us how much of a threat the villains are. Katara can’t heal Korra’s nightmares? Wow, Zaheer must have been a real threat. Jinora’s spirit is drifting away? Sounds like Harmonic Convergence is a big deal. Even Katara can’t undo Amon’s bloodbending? Oh, no, he must be a dangerous villain!” (source) (emphasis mine)

I’d like to add that Katara’s healing abilities aren’t undermined solely to establish the strength of the villains, they are also diminished to prop up the heroes:

- Katara fails to restore Korra’s bending so that Best Boy Aang can show off his cool energybending powers

- Katara fails to wake Jinora from her coma so that the audience can marvel at Jinora’s resilience when she saves herself

- And Katara fails to heal Korra’s poisoning trauma so that we get to admire Toph’s wisdom and semi-redeemed!Zaheer’s spirituality

Overall, it seems like despite the fact that her arc was about combat while healing was just an afterthought, ATLA!Katara is a better healer than TLOK!Katara whose’s whole story revolves around being a healer. Irregardless of Bryke’s intentions to portray Katara as the best healer of the world, what they’ve actually shown us is a massive regression of her skills.

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Love (& Style) will surprise you!

Putting these two trailers into one post because I don't have enough to say about them separately.

The "fashion" trailer is a complete waste. There's barely any new material and the new material that is there isn't particularly interesting. It's mainly random scenes from Stella and occasionally her changing her own and the Winx' outfits via magic. Very unnecessary to make a whole trailer just for that. With the amount of trailers they've put out already I get that there may not be any new stuff that you want/can show at this point but then just don't release another one? How are you gonna show a "fashion" trailer and put in barely three different outfits to show off and all of them we've already seen? That goes completely against the impression your trailer is supposed to make!

I guess I like this little scene of Stella struggling on the forest trip unlike the other Winx because she doesn't want to get any of her clothes dirty and picked the wrong shoes. It's a good sign in terms of showing the individual personalities of everyone again, like it used to be in the early seasons (where Stella was shown to be the only one to have this same issue). But that's about it.

The Love trailer I've already talked about but there is some more interesting stuff in the widescreen version. A lot of voiced lines from the characters, for example. I said before that I don't care that much about the English voices as I watch Winx Club in German but the delivery of the lines in this trailer specifically (Stella and Bloom's conversation and Brandon's and Sky's) bothered me. I really hope that it's gonna sound more natural in the episodes with full context (and in German) but in these snippets it just sounded so awkward and stilted. More going through the motions and less the characters actually meaning what they say.

This may be nitpicky but I'm also a little miffed at how these two conversations are written (from what we can tell). Stella has always been someone who'd gush about any kind of crush she had on a moment's notice (her whole relationship with Brandon included) and who was equally curious about everyone else's crushes, too. (We know less about Brandon but I assume he wasn't much different, maybe a bit less overbearing but he wouldn't be as awkward as this.) She wouldn't need Bloom to demand her to "spill" to talk about that. (Unless Stella was heckling everyone else about that topic and Bloom turns it around on her, that's the only context I accept this conversation in.)

Still nothing at all about Tecna & Timmy, sadly, and a little too much of "Sky offering Bloom his hand" in various contexts. I don't mind at all if they go the "Bloom meets her Prince Charming in Sky" route with them but this is a bit too on the nose.

On the more positive side, I love this snippet of Musa & Riven we get! (Apart from some blatant animation errors like Riven wearing Brandon's casual outfit in half of this scene... So they really did copy & paste them, huh? At least Musa's eyebrows are fixed I guess...) We don't know what this scene is about before this but Musa leaves kinda shy or awkwardly saying she'll "catch [you] guys later". Very curious what happens there. But what really gets me is the way Riven follows Musa with his eyes when she leaves - to the point that he turns his head just so he can keep following her which isn't exactly subtle. So adorable! Someone is definitely interested!

And on one last note, is it normal to hang up posters of you and your friends in your common room? Photos I would understand but this doesn't look like a photo they took of themselves, this looks like an artificially created poster. A shame, really, a proper photo wall of the Winx commemorating their friendship would be so cute, fitting and actually look amazing!

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Some simple Magic Winx/Charmix Edits I've had for a while that I wanted to post

Free to use! Likes and reblogs appreciated as usual!

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LORE | REKINDLED - MASTER POST (READ BELOW!)

LORE | REKINDLED is a transformative project dedicated to the S1/Pilot era of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus. Rekindled will attempt to re-interpret and reconstruct the foundations laid by Rachel Smythe in S1 of Lore Olympus' publication, while also remaining true to the themes and messages of the original myths upon which Lore Olympus is based.

We hope you enjoy this re-interpretation of The Hymn to Demeter - also known as The Rape of Persephone - expressed through the lens of a meta re-interpretation of Lore Olympus. Made by the fans, for the fans.

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit transformative fan project drawn and written by @genericpuff. All brushes, textures, and font packs used to replicate Lore Olympus' art and style are sourced legally, and panel art is created from the ground up. All Lore Olympus-relevant character designs and branding belong to Rachel Smythe. All interpretations of Greek characters, mythologies, and themes are purely fictional and should not be used in any factual sourcing when researching Ancient Greek material.

Read the latest episode here!

or...

Start from the beginning!

*Because of Tumblr's link limits, I unfortunately can't use this pinned post as the episode masterlist anymore. So the Dillyhub mirror will now be acting as the full episode list resource:

Full episode list here!

(please reblog / bookmark this post so you can check back to it for new updates!)

Have questions about how Rekindled is made, what tools I use to draw, and why I'm making it in the first place? Please check out my FAQ first!

TUMBLR ASK INBOX STATUS: OPEN

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There’s a post floating around about how Zuko not telling the Gaang how he got his scar reflects him “taking accountability” for his actions, instead of manipulating them by guilt-tripping them and placing responsibility onto Ozai, his adult abuser.

There are some replies to it pointing out that in general Zuko tends to not be manipulative (or lie) even when it would serve him, and explanations offered for this ranging from the Watsonian (largely “he’s autistic” and variants thereupon) to the Doylist (“he’s being narratively contrasted with very manipulative Azula”). Some other comments about him not wanting to share private trauma with people he doesn’t know well.

But in this particular case I don’t actually think it’s any of that, really, from Zuko’s point of view, because the most fundamental thing of it is that he’s an abused kid.

People don’t tend to appreciate how much growing up surrounded by the language of abuse, and/or in a culture of abuse (as Zuko was - dozens of people saw Ozai burn him, and none objected), affects you. It’s not just about the trauma directly. It’s about being forcibly taught that this is normal and deserved to the degree that you genuinely don’t realize most of the world doesn’t.

It’s about casually mentioning things about your childhood and everyone responding with shock and horror, and you being confused, because you had no idea that was yet another thing about your life that wasn’t normal. It’s about how you eventually realize you just can’t talk about the first couple decades of your life at all without being accused of trauma-dumping and guilt-tripping and manipulation, being punished again for failing to protect others from the discomfort of hearing second-hand about something you had to live through with a child’s body.

And the thing is? Zuko isn’t at that last sentence’s point yet, when we see him with the Gaang. He’s before that, at the “does not yet realize this isn’t normal” point. We know this, because of how he responds to Iroh at the end: kneeling in front of him waiting for punishment. He doesn’t think abuse is abnormal; he thinks it’s a natural and deserved response to his poor behavior, so thoroughly that he believes even Iroh would do it. All the way to the end of the show! (After he’s had any opportunity to say anything to the Gaang!)

Whether he would choose to explain his scar to the Gaang if he knew it would make them like/forgive him is a moot point. He had no idea that it would. With his frame of reference, he assumed their reactions would be somewhere in the range of “yeah, why are you whining about something that normal and mundane, I don’t bore you with stories of how Gyatso used airbending to punish me” to “dang, how badly did you fuck up to deserve that? you must be even worse a person than we realized” to “he went easy on you and should’ve done worse”.

It would never occur to him to share the scar story to get the Gaang to like/forgive him, because he has no way to know that they would react with shock and horror instead of dismissal or putting even more blame on him.

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One thing I love about Ema's inclusion in the Investigations games is that they find pretty natural ways of why she's needed despite her presence being very blatantly fanservice. I always like using Ema's science gadgets and the doing (most of) the minigames related to them so I'd take pretty much any excuse but Miles being unable to investigate the official way is a surprisingly good explanation for why her skills are used (instead of the typical forensic department). And it just warms my heart that Gumshoe immediately thought of Ema when Miles is in such a situation (apparently knew that she would be coming) and called her and her science stuff in as additional support. Anything for Miles!

Big brain move from him, I would say.

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I kinda love that Ema is completely unaware that tracking someone's footprints with one of your science gadgets to follow them to wherever they are because you just missed them at the airport is not... normal behaviour. And Miles doesn't even suggest this point to her, he's just like "this is fine :)"

Better be careful not to give the wrong person any ideas, Ema. Like Oldbag, who's conveniently in the very same area...

I do have to wonder though how Ema was able to pick out which were Miles' footprints specifically and at an airport of all places at that where so many people are walking about. I wouldn't put it past her to know exactly what kind of shoes Miles is wearing, that honestly seems like something she'd note and remember, but are they such specific ones that you can identify them among so many others?

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A scene in S1E10 that annoyed me

We all know Winx Club is too Bloom-centric and doesn't give enough time and attention on its other characters away from her, but here's a moment that could've been really cool for one of the others but in typical Winx Club fashion, they didn't do it.

In S1E10 - Bloom Tested, Bloom enters the simulator for her exam, whilst in it she's attacked by the Trix who are trying to figure out if she has the dragonflame or not (in which they learn she does). Meanwhile Palladium outside is trying to stabilise things as he can see something is wrong. It takes him a good while to fix things whilst Bloom is still being attacked, she eventually destroys the Trix on her own eitherway and shortly after things return to normal.

But here's the thing: Palladium struggles understandably to get things under control, but consider: Tecna is literally right next to him and even better the girls are asking her what's wrong as she's the one who would know. What if in this scene Tecna jumped into help him to try and shut the Trix down, taking an active role alongside him? Maybe even she figured something out that Palladium didn't and then ended up being the reason Trix were dealt with? Wouldn't that have been such a good moment for her and it would've made so much sense? The Winx are shown to be exceptional in multiple ways and this would've been a great way to show that. Not just exceptional because the show needs them to be, but because they have real skills that are actively useful and they use them smartly. Tecna could've gotten a huge dub out of this scene which would've been awesome for her.

It's disappointing because it's not just this scene, there's so many moments in this show where there are missed opportunities for character development and the show almost never takes them. Too many moments where the show prioritises Bloom when it really needs to give others the spotlight. It's not one scene or one episode or even one season, it's a problem in every part of the show no matter where you look that Bloom is oversaturated. It's the little things like this scene that add up overtime to cause what I would probably argue is Winx Club's biggest problem.

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