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amandacanwrite · 7 months

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The Violet Thread of Fate ||

Reluctant Mentor Gale x Unskilled Wizard F!Tav

Length || About 4,000 Words

POV || Dual Narration, Third Person

Warnings || Descriptions of viscera, age gap (about ten years, both adults)

Summary || After waking up on the craggy shoreline of the sword coast, Elinna and Gale reunite with a new common ground.

A/n || I am feeling sort of on the fence about Gale's eagerness in his attraction to Elinna, but I also feel like it's still at least somewhat in character for him--after all in any playthrough you can wind up being blindsided by his feelings for you since he is usually so subtle about his affections. I also just think it's so fun to get the internal narration of Gale's attraction. He always seems so put together, polite and proper. I just love to see a man precariously balancing his carnal desires with his conscience and desire to be a good man. I hope you like it, I know things feel a little slow right now, but I'm planning on taking some creative liberties in the next couple parts. Please also lemme know what you think if you read it! I am absolutely tinkerbell and need the dopamine to live

Chapter Two: A Nightmare, An Awakening

Read Part One Here • Join Tag List Here

A Nightmare

Elinna thought she had died; thought the disintegration of her bodily form was the end of her short, unremarkable life. Much to her surprise, though when her vision once again returned to her she realized she had merely been spirited away somehow.

It took a few moments for her eyes to properly focus. When they finally did, she almost wished that the contact with the tentacle had killed her. It would have been far preferable to where she had wound up.

She found herself locked in a great chitinous pod, looking through smeared membranous glass at what she could only suppose was the nautiloid she had tried to escape from.

Yes…death would have been a far preferable fate to becoming a mindless thrall on a mindflayer ship. As she squinted through the clear panel in front of her and saw what appeared to be a brain walking on four spindly limbs, she realized that her fate could be even worse than regular enthrallment.

The minutes she spent entrapped in the pod felt like hours. A miserable limbo of wondering what would be coming next for her. What if she was already marked for turning into an intellect devourer? What if the enthrallment had already been put in place and she could simply be ordered to do something whenever a mindflayer so wished it?

She couldn’t just stay here. She had to move.

She tried, in vain, to wrench her arms free of the fleshy brindings within the pod. The sinuous tendrils only tightened more and more, leaving her fingertips throbbing and tingling from the blood flow being cut off. She tried to move her feet next and her boots sloshed in some sort of viscera at the base of the pod. She did her best not to vomit as the viscera eked some ichorous fluid into the fibers of her clothing and through the porous leather of her soft-soled shoes.

The last thing she needed in addition to all of this was to be covered in the contents of her own stomach–empty as it was.

The shock of panic cinched tight around her ribcage, making it hard to breathe. And as she struggled to get her lungs to fill, she also struggled to think.

“Calm down, Elinna,” she told herself. “Think about what you’ve read. Think about what you know.”

What did she know about Illithids? They were hivemind organisms. They required high-moisture, high-humidity environments to protect the mucosal membranes of their skin. They primarily fed on the brains of their prey and used psionic energy not only to fight but to control their biomechanical machinery.

She craned her head forward to look for some sort of control panel–something that could get her out of this cocoon of horror.

As she did, a valve-like door opened on the far side of the room, revealing a dizzying network of corridors. And…and one of them. A mind flayer.

Elinna went dizzy as her heart thumped in her temples. She watched in horror and sickly anticipation as it levitated toward something in the center of the room; a cistern of sorts from what she could see. It waved a four-fingered hand and the vessel opened, revealing a golden, glowing brine pool that may have been beautiful if Elinna didn’t know precisely what it was.

The mindflayer coaxed one of those disgusting tadpoles out of the amber liquid and levitated over to Elinna’s pod. She recoiled away from it as the pod opened, turning her face away from the creature and squeezing her eyes shut. She knew exactly how mindflayers reproduced, and she was not interested in getting a first hand experience with ceremorphosis.

She didn’t have much of a choice, though. Even without the parasite, the illithid was able to compel her to stillness.

It was an atrocious violation of her agency; surreal and nightmarish in the worst ways. Her mind was fully intact as the creature made her muscles release the tension they held and coerced her eyes to open. Her body was still and calm, but her heart was racing like a trapped rabbit’s. She watched uselessly as the tiny creature floated closer to her. She cried to cry out as it latched onto the orb of her eye and started to wriggle and squirm until it could find purchase beneath her eyelid.

She was silent. Infuriatingly, horribly silent as the creature continued to burrow its way into her skull.

Her pulse hammered in her ears as she screamed inside her own body, begging herself to fight, to tear her own eye out rather than let the process of ceremorphosis take place.

But her body was still as the tiny parasite worked its way into her eye socket and back into her brain.

Elinna lost consciousness as she felt the unsettling pressure of her brain matter being displaced to accommodate her unwelcome guest.

When she awoke next, she didn’t immediately know where she was. She only knew that it was loud and it was cold. The sound of air ripping past her pointed ears is what brought her back into full consciousness, and though her eyes were open, she wasn’t actually seeing at first.

There was a vast expanse of stars above her, the smell of salty air, the lingering cling of something far more acrid–like the smell of burnt sulfur woven into her clothes.

She tried to parse what was going on, it felt like she was sinking into the ocean–but if that were the case, shouldn’t she not be able to breathe?

Then she saw the burning wreckage of the Nautiloid and everything came back to her.

The travel to Waterdeep, the encounter with Mr. Dekarios, the parasite and…

And she was falling through the sky!

“Not again!” she cried as she stared at the ground rising to meet her with startling velocity. “No, no, no! I will not–This is not how I die!”

It didn’t go very well the last time, but it wasn’t as if she had any other ideas of what to do. She scoped out the approaching shoreline, selecting one spot and earmarking it. After choosing a point on a craggy cliffside, she shut her eyes and tried to gulp in a breath before it was whipped out of her mouth.

“Inveniam Viam!” she shouted.

That strange, surreal feeling of not moving, yet being in a different place came again, only this time it was followed very quickly by the feeling smashing into the ground beneath her, square onto her back. It wasn’t a far drop, perhaps only a few feet, but it was enough to hurt her. She blinked up at the sky above her, the glow of the stars somewhat dampened by the flaming wreckage of the nautiloid as it loudly crashed into the earth just a few moments after her.

She ached as she stood and looked out over the cliffside she’d misty stepped to, seeing the vast expanse of an unfamiliar coast crawling with intellect devourers and the blazing with fires choking out great plumes of black smoke. She dropped to her knees, feeling utterly defeated.

She had no idea where she was. She had no money. No food. Not even a change of clothes with her. She didn’t even know where she was–and she knew she was more than a little directionally challenged.

Her keepers at The Scribes Nest had told her not to leave; had warned her that there were dangers in the world. That she couldn’t hope to survive on the knowledge she’d amassed from books alone. That the lives of wizards often ended in folly.

She knew this, of course. She’d read extensively about every wizard she could find and more than half of them were done in by their own curiosity.

But the ones who hadn’t been rendered themselves undone…they were amazing. Elminster and Blackstaff. Lorroikan and Sammaster. Karsus and Dekarios.

Wait….

Gale Dekarios–he’d been touched by the tentacles, too!

And if she hadn’t died, then that meant he probably hadn’t either. If she could find him, if she could just appeal to him for one favor…maybe he could help her get back to Waterdeep. Maybe she would have an opportunity to prove to him that she could be a good apprentice; that she was worth the trouble of taking on as a student. Maybe he would know how to get rid of the tadpole squirming in her brain.

But none of that would happen if she just sat there on her knees and despaired.

She would need to get back up and put one bloody boot in front of the other.

She would have to be brave and she would have to trust that Mystra would guide her to what came next.

An Awakening

Hells…it just had to be a pocket dimension that saved him, didn’t it?

They were tricky little things–a slice of wild magic that functioned like an oubliette; a place to put things to be forgotten, or to be summoned at a different point in time. He’d used a few in his time, but never for more than storage during travel or to hide the occasional failed potion. He’d thought once that he might use one when it was clear that the orb would no longer be sated by the magic artifacts he consumed; discussed the idea with Tara before she requested not to speak of it until necessary.

“I don’t like think of that eventuality, Mr. Dekarios,” Tara had said to him. “I know I tend to be pragmatic…but it makes me far too sad.”

“Focus,” he scolded himself as he looked around the darkened pocket. He needed to find an opening–or at least find a way to make one, failing that.

It was a mistake that he’d even ended up in one in the first place. A mistake that stemmed from the first mistake when he’d tried to help that girl.

If he’d had any sense, he would have let her run and gone straight to help his mother and make sure Tara would be okay. He could only hope that they were still safely nestled at his childhood home in Waterdeep. At least he’d not seen either of them during his wanderings about the ship.

But then the spelljammer had lurched and started falling out of the sky, and he’d grabbed onto the strongest strand of weave he could find and followed it here. The unfortunate side of that, of course, was that the strength of that thread is precisely what made this particular pocket realm exceedingly hard to get out of. And the parasite so rudely deposited into his brain was not doing wonders for his ability to concentrate.

He held his hands up and closed his eyes, attempting to feel out the strands of weave in this darkened place. Wherever he’d been transported to, it felt very far away from Mystra indeed. Like whatever reality he’d blipped into was one almost entirely devoid of magic at all.

He focused a bit harder, the tadpole in his head wriggling with the effort. He continued to focus, trying not to think too hard about the unnerving sensation. Finally, with some challenge, he managed to pool some magic together. It felt similar to trying to collect enough morning dew on a leaf to drink.

There came a crackle, then a tear. Not nearly large enough to fit himself entirely through, but enough that he could get an arm out.

Perhaps with at least one hand in Faerun, he could channel whatever remaining weave he needed to fully escape this dark corner of nothing.

A sheen of perspiration shone on his brow as he felt around outside of the oubliette. He could feel the familiar moisture of coastal air and it sent a wave of relief through him. He wasn’t far from Waterdeep at all, then. Or at least he’d hoped as much.

Perhaps he could just appear on the main road and hurry straight to his mother to make sure that she and Tara were alright.

He was trying to grasp onto the weave when he suddenly felt the soft, almost tentative brush of fingertips on the palm of his hand.

A person! Perfect! There was no better way to anchor a teleportation spell than to another living soul. It would be a little complex to explain that, though, and he was sure a mysterious arm poking out of wherever he could reach was more than a little unnerving so he settled for simplicity instead.

“Hello?!” He called through the tear in the fabric of space and time. “Is anyone there? A hand? Please?”

He felt the hand withdraw for a moment, then it returned with what he assumed was the person’s other hand. One closed tightly around his fingers, the other grasped a bit higher, accompanied by the sensation of fingertips curling into the fabric of his sleeve. Small, gentle hands. Not small enough to be a child–but perhaps a woman.

He closed his eyes once more and took a deep breath, allowing himself to feel the energy of the stranger on the other side of the opening. He tapped into it, smelling the faint, sweetly lactic scent of peaches; tasting on the tip of his tongue the light flavor of…honeyscotch candy. If Mystra’s energy was violet in color…this energy was the color of the sky during sunrise…a gradient of lilac, rose and cerulean.

Pretty… he thought to himself before slamming the heel of his hand to his brow.

Focus you touch-starved buffoon.

“Whatever you’re doing is working wonders!” he said encouragingly. “I think if you just give me a good pull, I should come right out!”

The stranger pulled and he joined that effort by pushing himself through from the other side with what remained of that pooled bit of magic he’d gathered together.

Finally, he flew out of the pocket realm like a cork from a bottle, regrettably landing right on top of the poor woman who had helped him.

He was quick to shift his weight so he didn’t put the entirety of his considerable heft on the poor thing. Yet, his creaky knees slowed him down when it came to properly getting up. Then again…he couldn’t deny a certain reluctance to rise. He hated to admit it, and if anyone ever asked him he would deny it to the grave…but it was pleasant to feel the soft curves of a woman against him. A year was such a long time to be without it, and to feel warmth beneath him again…

It was a lascivious thought not becoming of a gentleman, he remembered, but one that occurred almost automatically much to his chagrin.

“Hells,” he said. “Forgive me miss. I’m usually much better at this–and usually not so long sedentary that my limbs can’t keep up with my manners. Allow me to–”

He lifted himself up onto his elbows and finally laid eyes on his savior.

It was the girl from before. What was the name? Elinna Inklynn.

She stared up at him with wide eyes and a face flushed with exertion. How hard had she needed to work to pull him out of that portal? Seeing her so close now, he picked up on some of the qualities he’d missed in the dim light of the Waterdhavian evening.

A constellation of mauve-tinged freckles dusted across her flushed nose and cheeks. In the daylight, her skin was almost pale pink. The soft swell of her lips sat slightly parted with a look of surprise. And her eyes…my those eyes were something to behold. Verdant as a sprig of mint and flecked with gold as if she had a vein of ore curling through the irises of her eyes.

“A-allow me to help you up,” he finally stammered. “You’re not hurt are you?”

“Not by you,” she said somewhat breathlessly.

He grunted slightly as he got back onto his feet, now allowing himself to think of the way her soft curves shifted beneath him. He reached a hand down and helped her back up to her feet as well, dusting off her theadbare apron and her slightly puffed sleeves. She was still flushed–perhaps dehydration or fever…or…

“You haven’t happened to have been on the receiving end of a rather unwelcome insertion in the ocular region, have you?” he asked.

The flush could be a sign of the beginning stages of ceremorphosis.

“I couldn’t have phrased it more repellently myself,” Elinna replied.

“No use sugarcoating it, is there?” he asked with a smirk. “I don’t suppose you know what these little passengers will cause if left to their own devices?”

“Ceremorphosis,” she answered without missing a beat. “At least–if we don’t get it handled in a few days…”

Well, color him surprised.

It wasn’t very often that ceremorphosis was talked about among the common man–it was even hard to find books detailing the finer details of the process. The girl may have been a poor magician, but she was clearly learned.

“Suffice to say, it is a process that should be avoided,” he said.

“Agreed,” she said.

It occurred to him that she was behaving…a bit stiff; almost aloof. The young woman he’d encountered in front of his tower had a bit more fire to her than this one did. Then again, they’d just gone through quite the harrowing experience. Both of them were covered in mysterious viscera, they’d been taken hostage on a mindflayer ship and well–the poor girl did just have a strange older man on top of her.

The girl bit down on her lower lip and he found his eyes unconscionably glued to her mouth. She released her lower lip and he watched as the pale pink color returned to it, wondering idly what it would feel like to–

“Are we just—are we just going to pretend that I didn’t beg you to take me on as an apprentice and that you quite sumerilly told me to bugger off?” she asked. “Are we just going to be compatriots now?”

He blinked down at her, his mind catching up with her words.

Good gods, he really was behaving like a lech. He didn’t know where this was coming from. Perhaps it was an undocumented symptom of ceremorphosis–this…uncommon desire he was feeling.

Or maybe he was just, well, desperate.

“Well, I take umbrage with that analysis. I don’t believe I told you to bugger off…At least not verbatim. I do try to not be a miserable ass,” Gale said a bit sheepishly. “But I hasten to point out that we do have a shared problem now–some common ground we didn’t have before. It seems wasteful to part ways at a juncture such as this, don’t you think?”

He looked around in the early morning daylight and frowned realizing that he didn’t recognize anything. “I certainly don’t know the area after all, and judging by the history you disclosed with me, you likely don’t either.”

“Well…no, I don’t. Aside from Waterdeep I’ve not been anywhere other than the Moonshae Islands.” she said.

“And you seem to not have a very strong sense of location judging by our time in the alleyways,” he pointed out.

“That’s true…so then… does that mean you’ll do it?” she asked. “You’ll take me on as your student?”

He grimmaced.

“No,” he said with not a moment’s hesitation. “Not a student–an ally. An equal. It’s best that we tackle this issue together, don’t you think? It makes no sense to travel separately when our searching will likely lead us to the same places. And besides that…”

Besides that, if he started to change into a mindflayer, he wanted to be sure he had someone nearby who could…put him out of his misery and get his body somewhere safe before it leveled a city.

“But I could be more helpful if you teach me,” she pleaded. “I’d just be a liability without your help.”

“I have seen your magic,” Gale said with a bit of a teasing gaze. “And I don’t know if there is much I can do for someone who casts Misty Step with their eyes closed. It seems you’d be more of a liability with the magic than without.”

She blinked up at him like he’d grown a second head.

“Oh, please,” he said. “You must know that it’s a spell that requires a clear line of sight.”

She shrank a bit. “I…didn’t know. No,” she said.

“How could you not know such a thing? You must have read a scroll to learn the incantation,” he said.

“I mean this with the utmost respect, but when is the last time you’ve read a scroll, Mr. Dekarios?”

He inhaled, lifting an index finger. Then he closed his mouth and looked off to the side.

When was the last time? It must have been ages.

“Well,” she said without waiting for his answer. “Most spell scrolls assume a certain basis of classical training, or at minimum an innate understanding of how to channel the weave.”

“I see,” he said. “I’m to assume you’re not a sorceress then?”

“Not to my knowledge,” she said with a sigh.

He clenched his jaw as he looked down at the younger woman. Gods, she really did need a teacher. Maybe he could at least talk to her about theory–or give her a few simple exercises for manipulating the–

No. No.

He had more than enough on his plate without adding a poorly self-taught mage to it.

“Elinna,” he said. “Tell you what. I have a deal to offer–a concession if your like. If we make it through this and…make it out of wherever we are and back to Waterdeep, I promise I will introduce you to some colleagues that will help you get your start as a novice wizard. How does that sound? Fair?”

To his great surprise, she still looked disappointed by that answer. The girl really was an ambitious thing–coming right to his tower to seek his tutelage and no one else's? The poor girl had no idea what she was trying to sign herself up for; a depressed, anti-social, explosive wizard. A depressed, anti-social, explosive and impatient wizard. As far as teachers went, he was not the best candidate for the job.

“Alright,” she finally said. “Let’s see if we can go find a healer together…or maybe some other survivors…of a bath.”

“Oh, to find a bath,” Gale agreed. “Ah, but–before you think you’re journeying with most ill mannered a man–”

Gale gave the young woman a slight bow. “Thank you for pulling me out of that stone.”

When he stood up to his full height again, the young woman was smiling at him, her pretty viridian eyes crinkling at the edges. She tucked a pale copper strand of hair behind one of her delicately pointed ears and looked a bit sheepishly down the craggy shore.

“Ah–it’s almost a dead end over here–I think there might be more ground to cover if we cross through the wreckage…but I didn’t want to do that on my own,” she said.

“A wise choice, I think,” Gale said. “No telling what you would have run into. Not to imply that you can’t hold your own, of course–”

“No, you’re right,” she said, looking away from him a little timidly. “I’ll feel better with you there–it’s nice to have a friend.”

He huffed a soft breath and found himself smiling at how willing she was to call him her friend. Even after all the ways he had been a bit of an oaf to her, he felt in her he had found a bit of a kindred spirit. Someone else who sought camaraderie in perhaps…unworthy places.

She looked up at him and bit the swell of her lower lip again. “Shall we go then?” she asked him.

He gestured to the road ahead. “After you,” he said with a magnanimous smile. “Consider me your ever faithful guard dog, ready at the first sign of trouble.”

She snorted a little laugh and shook her head.

And as he followed after her, for the first time in the last year, he hoped the pang in his chest was because of the orb.

Taglist || @auroraesmeraldarose @thoughts-of-bear @cherifrog @puckprimrose @drabblesandimagines

#writing #authors #writeblr #my writing #bg3 #romantasy #writers on tumblr #writing community #bg3 fanfic #gale fanfic #gale headcannons #gale x tav #student x teacher #professor! gale #Gale dekarios #dekarios clan #violet thread of fate

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dragonfly0808 · 2 years

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An Incredibly Long and Wholly Unnecessary Disection of How Fate: The Winx Saga Missed the Mark on What Made the Winx Club Special

So, I decided to make this cause I have way too many feelings on this and I saw someone make something similar about a different franchise and loved it so here goes.

DISCLAIMER: If you’re a fan of the Winx Club and enjoyed Fate, I have nothing against you, these are just my feelings and I 1) am really glad you were able to enjoy it and 2) genuienely sorry a show you loved got canceled cause I know how much that sucks

SPOILERS FOR FATE AND THE FIRST 3 SEASONS OF THE WINX CLUB (AND A BIT OF SEASON 4)

One more thing: I’ve only watched Fate once since I’m not about to make myself rewatch it for this so if I forget any certain scene I apologize.

With that out of the way, the themes I will be discussing in this essay will be divided into 4 categories: The Problems I Have In General. Questions That Will Never Be Answered. Character Deep Dives/Character Rants. And finally, How Fate failed to capture the Essence of Winx Club.

These will be the themes of every category (feel free to skip any that may not interest you).

The Problems I Have In General:

The Abandonment of an Amazing World and Dimension for a Hogwarts Rip-Off.

The Erasure of Good Adoptive Parents

Polyamorous My Ass (Srsly What the Fuck was that?)

Fake Feminism and Pitting Women Against Each Other

The Love Triangle Took Years From My Life and I’m Tired

Why Glitter and Love was Essential to the Feminism of the Winx Club

Questions That Will Never Be Answered

What Makes the Specialist Special?

Where are the Witches?

Why are Riven and Sky friends?

Character Deep Dives/Character Rants

From Naive but Loyal and Heroic to Boring and Annoying (A Bloom Deep Dive)

How Stella Became Everything She Stood Against (A Stella Deep Dive)

Why Musa Kinda Works but Really Doesn’t (A Musa Deep Dive)

Was Terra Necessary? What made her unique? (A Terra Deep Dive)

From Hero to Zero (An Aisha Deep Dive/Rant)

Why Sky Somehow was the Most Interesting One but Still Boring (A Sky Deep Dive)

Why Riven will Always Get the Short End of the Stick (A Riven Deep Dive/Rant)

Bea Could’ve Saved the Show, BUT- (A Beatrix Rant)

Why Flora Mattered (A Flora Deep Dive/Rant)

A Retrospective Look at Soft Boys (A Helia and Timmy Deep Dive/Rant)

The Forgotten Protectors (A Brandon and Nabu Rant)

Why Tecna is Often Discarded and Why She Shouldn’t Be (A Tecna Deep Dive/Rant)

How Fate Failed To Capture the Essence of the Winx Club

How Fate Forgot the Most Important Aspect of the Winx Club: Friendship Amongst Young Women

Now with that out of the way, let’s get to it, cause this is gonna be a long one.

The Problems I Have In General

The Abandonment of an Amazing World and Dimension for a Hogwarts Rip-Off

So. I think we can all agree that the world of Winx Club is one that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also very unique and magical.

We have Magix, where the three schools of magic are, all with very different but equally interesting aesthetics and designs that make sense for what the schools teach. We also have the city of Magix, where we have magical ships and a cool toned color pallet that makes us feel like we’re in a futuristic world, Red Fountain also feels right out of a sci-fi movie, whilst the clothing, stores, Cloud Tower and Alfea remind us of the magical aspects of the world.

Further into the series, we see the girls’s home planets, which are all very different, creative and fit the girls perfectly. We have Solaria with two suns, Lynphea as an ecologists utopia with hollow trees for houses and giant ladybugs for transport, Zenith as a sci-fi dream, Melody with its glittering oceans and singing whales, etc.

Watching Winx Club, just looking at the world adds so much to the feeling of magic, the setting just helps the story so much. Also it’s just fucking gorgeous.

Now compare that to Fate… where we get a dark forest… and an old Mansion, that serves as both Red Fountain and Alfea…

I would just like to say, I’m a sucker for dark academia, I love this aesthetic, for other shows, but this is supposed to be an adaptation of Winx Club, where there already was an amazing world where the story was set in, so why didn’t they even try to use that? I don’t know, but it really bothers me that they didn’t try even one bit.

Especially when the vibrant colors and fantastical environment were such a big part of what made the Winx Club stand out.

The Erasure of Good Adoptive Parents

I remember watching Winx Club for the first time and when it was revealed that Bloom was adopted I literally was like… but… her parents love her…

Yep.

We very rarely get good adoptive parents in stories (it’s getting a bit better but still, at least as a kid this was pretty much the only time I ever saw fictional adoptive parents that actually loved their child).

So, the fact that in Fate we get Vanessa (the sweetest mom ever in the cartoon) be a maniac who takes away Bloom’s privacy and tries to live vicariously through Bloom just really fucking pissed me off.

Like… what was the need for that? You didn’t need Bloom to be pissed for her to lose control of her powers and accidentally burn her parents.

In fact, I think it would’ve been even more traumatic and dramatic if Bloom had a good relationship with her parents (like she did in the cartoon) but still lost control, maybe in her sleep, and burned the people she loves most in the world, that would’ve been so angsty it would’ve been great.

But no, let’s continue the narrative that adoptive parents can’t be good parents.

Polyamorous My Ass (Srsly What the Fuck was that?)

This just… I’m so tired.

We pretty much never get Polyamorous relationships in shows like this and then we get… whatever the fuck this was.

So… Bea is obvs just using both Riven and Dane (it is Dane right? I don’t care enough to check). Riven, only likes Bea and is very biphobic towards Dane and Dane seems to be in love with Riven and kinda like Bea.

This relationship (if you can even call it that) is weird. Sometimes it’s portrayed as toxic, other times it isn’t and it’s just weird.

This also really fucking pissed me off. Because… why? You could’ve had Dane as a separate character, in the original we already had the Darcy/Riven plotline so why did you have to add Dane?

Honestly, Dane could’ve just had a crush on Riven and become genuienly friends with Terra or smth, he didn’t have to be involved with Riven and Bea, that should’ve been a separate plotline. If you wanted a bi character so badly you could’ve just made one of the girls (Flora- sorry Terra, Musa and Aisha are already largely headcannoned to be bi, they could’ve used that) be bi. You didn’t need to introduce a new character for the sake of diversity, especially if you were going to screw it up that badly.

Cause Riven and Bea are already dramatic enough on their own, we didn’t need this poor, horrible attempt at a polyamorous relationship.

Fake Feminism and Pitting Women Against Each Other

Next up… oh dear…

Where can I even start? Okay, one of the first things we see in the series is Bloom telling Sky he is mansplaining… when he’s very clearly not…

The desire to come across as feminist and be an #womenempowerment show is so obvious it almost hurts. But they never do anything to actually show this.

From the very first conversation between Bloom and Stella in the show, it was very obvious to me that they would be competitors, not best friends like in the show.

Throughout the show, we see the girls berate each other, compete and insult one another, and I don’t see how any of that can be seen as feminism.

Stella literally almost causes Bloom’s death out of jealousy over Sky.

How is this anything like the Winx Club?

The closest bond in the group is probably between Musa and Terra. And even then, a lot of the time I feel like Musa only tolerates Terra, and they feel like roommates, not best friends who would die for each other like they were in the Winx Club.

There is very little support amongst the women of Fate, there are few instances when we aren’t being told to compare them or to see who is best. That is not feminism.

Now, it would’ve worked very well if the girls got off on the wrong foot but we got to see them slowly bond and slowly trust each other and become good friends, but I never felt that. The only time that they join forces is to clean up the mess that they made, and even then it never feels like all 5 of them are on the same page, it’s more like the world (and story) is forcing them together.

This was a tad bit better in season 2 but there were mostly moments between 2 Winx not all of them (the only moments I liked were the sleepover and Terra coming out) in season 2 the strongest bond was clearly that of Stella and Bea.

So yeah, with constant competition, fights and very few moments of actual friendship, almost all of which feel forced, I can say that Fate does not feel like a Feminist show at all.

From the moment I saw they were going to ignore the gem that was Bloom and Stella’s bond in the original I knew they weren’t going to try to actually make the girls friends and support one another.

The Love Triangle Took Years From My Life And I’m Tired

Why? Why? WWHHHHYYYYYYY?!?!??!??

What was the reason? What was the fucking reason?!

There was none.

There was not a single reason why the love triangle between Bloom, Sky and Stella should’ve happened or was needed.

They could’ve easily introduced Diaspro, a character we already know and a character whose only purpose in the cartoon was to create drama and tension between Bloom and Sky.

Love triangles are dead. We all know that. You will never be Jem/Tessa/Will, stop fucking trying.

Okay so, first off, I would’ve honestly been okay if we’d seen Sky and Stella be exes and they like ‘Yeah we tried that was a huge mistake but now we’re friends’ and then Bloom comes in and Sky isn’t sure cause she’s Stella’s bestie but Stella is encouraging, that could’ve been cool. But that is obviously not what we got.

Why do we always pit women against each other over a man? I think we all know the answer to that.

The Love Triangle was bland, boring and useless. Nothing came out of it.

We apparently got Stella and Sky realizing they were codependent and toxic which… duh. But nothing comes from this, we never see them get closer and have a healthy friendship, we get 1 scene in season 2 that is never expanded upon and that’s it.

They threw Stella and Bloom’s friendship to the trash for a Love Triangle that absolutely nobody wanted. And even in season 2, Stella and Bloom? They’re not friends. They’re barely cordial with one another and that pisses me of so fucking much I can’t even describe it.

In the cartoon the girls NEVER fought over a man, if there were moments of jealousy they were passing (I can remember exactly 1 with Aisha and Bloom in season 2. That’s literally it). There could be drama with other girls and even that was very little mostly Diaspro and the messes with Mitzi and Crystal in later seasons but the cartoon almost never relied on that to create drama against the girls because they knew it wasn’t really needed.

This triangle did nothing for any of the characters and the drama was petty and stupid. I just… I honestly don’t think I’m really saying anything of substance here but this particular topic just makes me sooooo mad that I can’t even describe the particulars of how this Love Triangle makes me just so mad cause it was FUCKING USELESS, IT DID NOTHING FOR THE CHARACTERS OR THE STORY IT WASN’T NEEDED, IT WASN’T WANTED AND IT WASN’T…. UUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Why Glitter and Love was Essential to the Feminism of the Winx Club

The feminism of the original Winx Club (especially the first 4 seasons) was honestly very simple. It wasn’t in your face or even really ever called out.

To me, the feminism in the original Winx Club was just… the girls themselves.

We had six very different young women, who were all portrayed as strong, funny, beautiful and just awesome.

We have Bloom, who’s a bit of a girl next door. She can be a bit hotheaded, but she’s crazy loyal and incredibly strong. We see her be naive sometimes and be really nervous and attempting to find her place and we also get to see her step up to the occasion when it’s time for blows.

We have Stella, a fashionista who I will talk a lot about in her section cause I am pissed of what they did to her. We see her be a kind person and try to grow and be dedicated to her passions.

We have Flora who is the girliest of girls but still portrayed as strong and smart. Her softness doesn’t erase her strength. And she doesn’t have these big stand up moments of ‘I’m strong and I will prove it to you!’ She just is strong.

We have Musa, who’s a bit of a tomboy and slightly more rough around the edges but who has a lot of emotional depth.

We have Tecna, who can come across as cold but who we see literally almost die for her friends and who has such a big heart.

We have Aisha, who’s very sporty and who has to seek out her place in the group and kinda learn how the whole friend group works and who we see grow in season 2.

We have a hotheaded girl next door, a kind fashionista, a girly girl, a musical tomboy, a tech girl and a sporty girl who are all portrayed as different and unique but are also all portrayed as strong.

Yes, we see them occasionally butting heads (if I remember correctly Musa/Flora and Stella are the ones that butt heads most often) and fight sometimes, but we see that their friendship is stronger than all of that.

We see them support each other in so many different ways and be the definition of ride or die.

Something I really like is that they don’t really make fun of each other’s interests despite having vastly different personalities. And they also don’t compare themselves and understand that they’re all awesome in their own ways.

The girls are united in friendship in such a deep way that they could probably never stop being friends even if they tried.

And… none of that is included in Fate.

Which is a fucking shame.

We don’t really see the girls’ interests in Fate, we just see them all acting like angsty teenagers who are either lashing out at pretty much everybody or being a bit of a doormat. They’re not really portrayed as strong either.

I can’t see the uniqueness that was there in the cartoon. The girls aren’t really… they’re just not interesting. Especially when compared to their cartoon counterparts.

Also, this part is a bit more petty and something personal to me but I think a lot of you can relate so…

Seeing girls that were fashionable, girly and weren’t afraid to show off their girlie side was awesome. Especially in a world of ‘I’m Not Like Other Girls’ protagoinsts that just hate dresses and only wear them once.

As a girlie girl myself, looking back on the Winx Club, I love that they didn’t try to make the girls more masculine to make them seem stronger. Even Musa, Aisha and Tecna who are arguably the least ‘girly’ show off their more feminine side in a way that feels natural.

So yeah… that last part doesn’t have to do that much with Fate I just wanted to add that.

Questions That Will Never Be Answered

What Makes the Specialists Special?

First off, I would like to say that I loved that in Fate women could be Specialists and guys could be fairies, I just thought that was really neat. So kudos to you for that Fate. Enjoy it, I won’t give you many.

Now on to the question. What makes the Specialists special?

In the cartoon, the reason I really liked the Specialists was their weapons, they were colorful, creative and straight out of a sci-fi movie. Brandon’s sword, Sky’s boomerang, Riven’s bolas, Timmy’s gun, Helia’s gloves etc.

It always felt like the Winx got magic and fantasy while the Specialists got technology and sci-fi.

And that is, once again, gone in Fate. The Specialists are now generic warrior driving Jeeps and wearing leather.

Where are the capes? The Owls and Wind Riders? Everything that made the Specialists cool even when they didn’t do much in a fight?

Where did that all go?

This one was more of an aesthetic thing but I still feel like it took a lot away from the Specialists and what made them low-key iconic.

Where are the Witches?

Where are they? Seriously I wanna know where my girlies are?

I get that, since they got rid of the transformation and gave us half assed CGI wings it might’ve been hard to differentiate the witches from the fairies but still… you can’t just not have freaking witches!

I like getting to see evil fairies but still. I don’t like this!

I just feel like it takes away so much not having the witches. Can you imagine getting Lucy and Mirta in Fate?… actually no, they would’ve been screwed over but you know what I mean.

Yet another topic that makes me so mad and petty that I can’t quite describe it.

Why are Riven and Sky friends?

Okay so, this is actually a genuine question.

Most of the boys were excluded from Fate (which I’m lowkey grateful for cause if they’d done my boys Helia and Timmy dirty there would’ve been blood) so they kinda had to smush Riven and Sky into bestie status.

Now, looking at this objectively, we know that in the cartoon, Sky’s bestie is Brandon. And Brandon and Riven have more things in common than you’d expect.

They’re both good fighters and work hard at Red Fountain, they’re kinda ladies men, they can be jokesters from time to time but take their duty seriously. They’re also pretty competitive.

I think Brandon is what Riven would’ve been if he had a normal childhood.

The main difference is that Riven has walls. He shuts people out and can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. The Riven in Fate is a straight up asshole.

So… why is he friends with Sky?

I’ll be honest, I really wanted to see more of these two, I think the dynamic could’ve been really interesting and cool to explore but… we got… pretty much crumbs.

With the like… two moments we have with them I don’t see why they’re friends and it ruins my sense of disbelief just that much more.

Character Deep Dives/Character Rants

From Naive but Loyal and Heroic to Boring and Annoying (A Bloom Deep Dive)

Let’s talk about our favorite hotheaded redhead shall we?

I’ll be honest, Bloom was always my least favorite Winx and I actually grew to dislike her post season 3, but… she didn’t deserve this.

I’m honestly not sure how to describe why the Bloom from Fate is just… so fucking boring… I don’t really feel many emotions coming from her.

In the original (at least the first 3 seasons) Bloom has quite a bit of personality, she’s a bit naive and impulsive but also THE ride or die bestie.

She’s fun to watch even if I would sometimes get frustrated when she acted a bit stupid or when she was impulsive.

Bloom worked as a protagonist partially due to her impulsive habits (since they make her take the lead/initiative in many occasions) but I feel like with Fate Bloom that impulsive nature comes across as more annoying since Fate Bloom isn’t as friendly as OG Bloom and doesn’t really have anyone to bounce her impulsiveness off of like she did in the OG.

I don’t know, I just never really felt any connection with her but overall I think she’s still the one that was done the least dirty. And the one I’m the least furious about.

I think the main problem I have with Fate Bloom is that she’s got that ‘I have to do this alone’ attitude and it never really changed, so she doesn’t really have anyone to bounce off of to make her impulsive and stupid moments less annoying.

How Stella Became Everything She Stood Against (A Stella Deep Dive)

Welp… I am fucking furious now.

I think most of us will be able to agree that one of Stella’s main purposes in the original show was to break the Dumb Blonde/Mean Blonde stereotype that was much more prevalent in the 2010′s.

Stella could come across as a bit full of herself and could be mean since she didn’t really have a brain-to-mouth filter but she was never mean on purpose and always made up for her mistakes.

We see that Stella is at her core a kind person and soft-hearted individual when we see that after knowing Bloom for a whole of one day and Bloom helping her once, Stella is willing to risk getting herself expelled to give Bloom the chance to go to Alfea.

We also see there’s more to her than just superficial stuff when, after the Sky-Brandon reveal she tells Brandon that she cares more about the face that he lied than the fact that he isn’t a prince. The quote was along the lines of: ‘My parents are the King and Queen of Solaria, didn’t do them much good.’

And of course in season 3 we learn that Stella is actually very insecure and believes people like her just because of her looks and get one of the best moments/episodes of the entire series.

Yes. Stella cares about her appearance and loves fashion, but there is so much more to her character than that. She is a loyal friend, incredibly kind person and willing to do anything for those she loves.

Now let’s look at Fate’s Stella

………..

I am just… Fate turned our Stella into a bitchy mean girl. That is all Stella really is.

Even in season 2 she still acts like a mean girl to the rest of the girls most of the time. I never felt her bond with any of the girls or even Sky for that matter, her best scenes were easily with Bea.

I just don’t understand how they missed the entire fucking point of Stella’s character and made her exactly into the stereotype she was supposed to subvert. How do you fuck up that much?!?!!?!?!

She tried to fucking KILL BLOOM OVER A GUY!!! The original Stella would’ve killed her with her staff for even laying a FINGER on her bestie.

Stella’s character in Fate might just be the one that pisses me off the most because of how much they missed the fucking mark with her.

They made her literally everything she stood against and then acted like they did something when she did the bare minimum for her ‘friends’.

And I cannot bring myself to care about the drama with her mom because of how fucking pissed I am about this.

Okay let’s think about it. This could’ve worked if Stella was only acting like a bitch because her mom expected that but, in the rare instances when she was sure no one was watching and no one would noticed, she revealed her soft side to the girls and they were like ‘Oh, this is the real Stella, bitchy Stella is just a mask’ but it doesn’t go like that.

Even after the reveal of her mom, she’s still a bitch!

Our Stella would never and I hate whoever thought this was a good idea, you sir or ma’am are stupid and the whole point of Stella’s character flew right over your fucking head! (No hate to the actress or any actors in the series though)

Why Musa Kinda Works But Really Doesn’t (A Musa Deep Dive)

I was wrong before. Musa is actually the one I’m least pissed off about because I actually kinda enjoyed her character in Fate, especially in the second season. (Doesn’t excuse the fucking white washing though).

I think out of the girls Musa would’ve probably been the easiest to adapt into a more ‘mature’ setting cause she is kinda the ‘angstiest’ of the girls due to her mom’s death and being the tomboy of the group. However… the Musa we know can be a little sassy and get annoyed with the girls from time to time but with Fate Musa, it’s a lot more prevalent.

Which makes sense with the change to a mind fairy (which I hate, can you imagine all the cool visuals we could’ve gotten if they’d kept her as the fairy of music? Also they still could’ve had the empath thing with her being able to ‘hear the songs in people’s hearts’ and just cranking that up to eleven).

I actually don’t have that much to say about Musa. I enjoyed her character, especially in the second season, I feel like she’s the only one that’s reasonably lashing out and it makes sense when she’s annoyed and I feel like we got to see her soft side in a few moments and she was involved with all of my favorite moments of Fate.

The only issue is that she’s angstier than the original Musa but again, it actually makes sense this time.

The only thing I am actually pissed off at is that we lost her dynamics with Tecna and Aisha cause there is no Fate Tecna and Fate Musa doesn’t really interact with Aisha and when she does it’s a far cry from their cool original dynamic and her chemistry with Terra isn’t enough to make up for it.

Was Terra Necessary? What Made her Unique? (A Terra Deep Dive)

So, we all know what happened with Terra. They white washed half the cast realized that we would obviously be pissed and tried to save it by changing Flora’s name to Terra and saying she was a new character… nice try.

Also as a latina myself, fuck you. If you’re going to claim you were going for plus-size diversity you do realize you could’ve just gotten a plus-size latina right? Anyways, fuck you.

So Terra… I don’t really care about her and kinda dislike her. I’ll admit that I am very much biased due to Flora being my fave and my latina rage but I just don’t find Terra interesting.

I don’t know what it is about her that makes her rambling annoying instead of endearing or whatever it is they were going for. They didn’t really give her anything interesting to do, she literally just had the ‘I’m fat self-confidence’ arc. I think I might’ve kinda liked Terra if she’d had something interesting to do.

The only scenes I genuienly enjoyed with her were her conversation with Riven (right before the final fight if I remember correctly) and her talk with Musa while Sam is dying... Coincidentally the moments she reminded me more of Flora…

Then in the second season she had a super weird attitude with Flora, I wasn’t sure if she was jealous or angry or what it just made her that much weirder to me, like, what the fuck was going on there? I don’t really think we ever got an answer for her weird behavior with Flora, cause I’m not buying it was just cause of Riven. That was weird.

The only girl she really bounces off of is Musa, and even then it mostly feels like Terra is following Musa around hoping for some love. None of her friendships really feel reciprocal. And her behavior with Stella is also weird as fuck. Like… you like it when she insults you? What?

Yeah she’s just weird and I don’t really like her. I feel like she brings nothing to the table. There is no real reason for her to be there. If they were going to try and replace Flora, they should’ve at least tried to make her cool and iconic.

From Hero to Zero (An Aisha Deep Dive/Rant)

Pffftttttt… okay let me get this straight. You took Aisha. Icon Aisha who climbed a fortress for her pixy friends, was a Princess that was pretty much a runaway and a sports goddess who challenged the boys and easily had the most depth/cool backstory from the Winx.

You took that Aisha… and gave us *checks notes* ‘Oh yeah, I flooded a hall in my school with literal shit once’ as her backstory.

Okay cool, I see how it is.

But seriously though. They made Aisha into an annoying teacher’s pet who kinda felt a little full of herself from time to time but was also constantly ignored as the voice of reason and had no arc of her own, instead acting as a therapist/scapegoat for the other girls.

Why is that? I think we all know the answer to that…

But yeah, I just… I am so tired. They reduced her to… to nothing really. She doesn’t feel interesting or compelling at all. I felt no connection to her and most of the time it felt like the other girls only spoke to her when they needed something from her.

In season 2 we get a little more about how she feels pressured by her parents to be perfect (which kinda alines with the cartoon) and she talks about not being experienced at relationships, which also makes sense with the cartoon, but it honestly still doesn’t feel like enough.

It still doesn’t feel like she’s actual friends with any of the girls.

They took away a lot… most of what made Aisha into one of the most well-developed Winx. She doesn’t feel fun like cartoon Aisha did, she’s uptight which just doesn’t make sense if she’s supposed to be Aisha.

She was just done dirty. Our Aisha was never so much as implied to be a teacher’s pet. She was more into dancing and sports and exploring.

Winx Aisha was a girl who’d been trapped most of her life, excited to finally get to be a a free soul and explore the world. Fate Aisha is stripped of all of that and we don’t really see why she’s so uptight outside of that one conversation about her parents where we still don’t get any real depth.

My girl deserved so much more and I will die pissed.

Why Sky Somehow was the Most Interesting One but Still Boring (A Sky Deep Dive)

Sky makes me feel conflicted. I think he (along with Musa) was the only one I genuienely liked and enjoyed watching but at the same time he annoys me.

I loved his dynamic with Silva but I just… I don’t even know how to describe what it is exactly that annoys me about him but he’s just not interesting enough. I’ve literally forgotten almost any scene that he is in.

I’m trying to remember right now and the only scenes I can remember are the mansplaining scene, when Bloom drugs him, when he comforts Stella, one or two scenes with Silva… and when he beats Dane’s ass… and that’s literally it.

He’s not that bad, he’s got interesting dynamics and a cool story behind him and with the revelations in the series, he is one of the most affected, so in paper that should get you to be invested but… he’s just not memorable.

Why Riven will Always Get the Short End of the Stick (A Riven Deep Dive/Rant)

One of the things that annoys me the most from the original Winx Club is how Riven is pretty much reset every season to learn the same lesson over and over and over again.

This is because his scene in the Cloud Tower dungeons when he sees himself as a monster and decides to change is one of my fave in the series and probably my fave scene in all of season 1. So having him be reset was just… such a disservice to that awesome scene and to his character as a whole.

I think we can all agree that Riven could’ve been such an amazing and iconic character if he’d been allowed to slowly grow and if we’d seen him mature over the seasons.

So in this aspect… a part of me really likes Fate Riven. He’s an absolute ass and a bit biphobic but I like the possibility of taking this and allowing him to grow after his whole mess with Beatrix (I kinda loved the chaos of their relationship up until they got Dane involved).

The set up is there and we really see him try to move on in season 2 which I love. He still has his moments of being an ass, but through a few conversations with Sky and his bond with Musa we do see him trying to grow.

However, I would’ve loved to see him be more vulnerable. Sometimes it feels like instead of his own character he’s there to bounce off of Bea, Sky or Musa. I don’t know I just feel like he has a lot of potential but for some reason he just doesn’t feel like a complete character to me. Maybe this would’ve been fixed in season 3 but we’ll never know.

All in all he was one of my fave parts of Fate, especially in season 2. Whether he would’ve been allowed to keep his progress unlike his cartoon counterpart, we’ll never know.

I feel like the more mature setting actually kinda fits Riven. Though I’ll be the first to admit that the writers occasionally tried too hard to maintain his ‘bad boy’ image in season 1 and I cringed a few times at his lines.

But he was one of my fave parts of season 2. So overall I’d say that, in a way, Fate actually improved Riven ever so slightly.

Bea Could’ve Saved the Show, BUT- (A Beatrix Rant)

So, I love Bea. She was my fave character in Fate, she’s just a chaotic gremlin and quite frankly she deserved better.

Her dynamics with Riven, Stella and Bloom were excellent. I love how manipulative she is, it makes her vulnerable moments all the better. When she goes to the Winx dorm crying to ask Stella to hang out but gets rejected and she just looks on at the group having fun like an outsider… That scene got me.

It’s a little confusing how she goes from menace in season 1 to kinda a teacher’s pet in season 2 but it kinda makes sense and she does become a menace again so it’s cool.

I both love and hate her ending. I love her constantly switching sides, being unpredictable, turning around last minute and going ‘I just saved the world, feels pretty great to be a fucking hero’, I love that concept but I hate her just being thrown away and killed like she hadn’t been carrying the show.

I don’t think they saw the amount of potential that Bea had, personally I would watch an entire show all about Bea. Them just killing her shows me that she was only really a plot device to the writers, a way to introduce her mysterious sisters. And I hate that.

Bea was the wildcard of Fate, the character plenty of us thought we’d hate but that ended up being a diamond in the rust. She was cunning and had the best of all the Trix, Darcy’s plot line with Riven and her manipulation, Stormy’s powers and chaotic energy, Icy’s ambition, personality and charisma.

Quite frankly, she’s probably the character with the most depth and motivations. She’s the most interesting.

And they killed her off for shock value.

I hate that we lost the Trix’s dynamic and different personalities but for me personally Bea was worth it, she was an awesome character who deserved to be in a better series. But yeah… I love Bea but even she wasn’t enough to save this shit show.

Why Flora Mattered (A Flora Deep Dive/Rant)

Disclaimer, I am very much biased here, even more than before cause Flora was always my favorite Winx. Now with that out of the way…

I think one of the reasons that Flora mattered so much is that she was never shamed for being very feminine. Flora was a cottage core, soft hearted, kind, soft spoken young girl who was still allowed to be strong and a badass. She was never made more ‘masculine’ to show her being strong. Her transformations always involved skirts and dresses, bright pinks, long flowy hair, bracelets and necklaces and cute tiaras.

She was never shamed for her girlieness nor stereotyped as someone overly shy. Flora could have a few shy moments but they were pretty rare in the large scheme of things.

She was shown to be incredibly smart, especially in seasons 1 and 2 with her love of potions. Flora gives the girls a lot of support and a safe place but we also see her be vulnerable and insecure, but she never changes her girliness nor does she feel the need to ‘grow out of her girly traits’ to gain confidence or confront her fears, she also doesn’t feel the need to ‘toughen up’ keeping her soft heart throughout the entire series.

I love this. I loved that Flora was so soft but never shamed or considered ‘weak’ for it. She mattered cause she was there for the more sensitive girls. The more introverted, soft spoken girls.

The girly girls that can still be just as strong and confident as any other woman despite loving pink and flowers and skirts.

I think that’s a big part of why Flora matters. She’s allowed to be a heroine with a soft heart that is never forced into an angsty personality because of the events that occur around her. She’s a special kind of softness. She’s not the kindness that comes from naivety but the kindness that is forged in steel from tough experiences.

We eventually got Fate Flora but I don’t think she really captured the essence of OG Flora, she just doesn’t feel like the soft, introverted, gentle soul we know.

She feels a little… full of herself? In a way?

I won’t talk much about Fate Flora cause I can’t truly put my finger on what it is that just throws me off about her.

But I’m pissed that they truly thought they could get away with tossing Flora to the side, cause we all know they only included her in season 2 to try and save their asses.

Because soft, sensitive girls deserve to see themselves represented without the whole ‘break-out-of-your-shell-and-become-more-wild arc’. Because soft girls can be complete and happy without becoming party animals. That was what Flora was to me. That’s why she mattered so much to me personally growing up.

That is why Flora mattered.

Why Helia and Timmy Mattered: A Retrospective Look at Soft Boys (A Helia and Timmy Deep Dive/Rant)

Now, I am honestly glad that Helia and Timmy weren’t included because they would’ve botched it.

So, I always adored Helia but, looking back on him and Timmy now I almost find them surprising that these two were incorporated into the show the way that they were.

Helia was the definition of a soft boy, he was into poetry and art, he wore loose shirts, had long hair, was soft spoken, loved to meditate and was introduced as a pacifist, but he was also a Specialist. Something I really liked was that instead of a sword he had his strings which incorporated his way of being a pacifist into his Specialist gear.

There were never jokes about him being Helia being gay and he was portrayed as attractive, the second Flora meets him she’s already blushing and giggling. Helia is a poet, a sensitive boy in a school filled with soldiers and warriors, but they rarely make fun of him for it, and when they do it clearly is meant to be in a teaseful way amongst friends. And we see the boys go to him for advise.

And then we have Timmy. Timmy is a nerd. He has a laser gun instead of a sword and is more of a pilot and tech guy. He’s shy and socially awkward, lanky, and his portrayl is very dorky.

In season 2 we see him doubt himself as a Specialist when he can’t stop the Trix, the same happens in season 4 when he is chasing Anagan.

But we see that at his core, Timmy is an incredibly courageous person. He goes after Anagan even when he’s doubting himself. The boys may tease him occasionally but they never treat him as an outsider and in fact try to help him, even when it backfires, it’s done from a desire to help their friend.

Timmy may consider himself as the weak one, but he is never portrayed as the weak link in the Specialists. We see that his role is a crutial one.

In season 3 we see him break down when he thinks that Tecna is dead, but his tears and despair are never considered to be ‘weak’ or ‘exaggerated’.

We see all the boys break down at the end of season 4.

And that is something important. Especially for a cartoon in the 2010′s.

Seeing soft and dorky boys be portrayed as heroes was a great thing that we shouldn’t forget.

The Winx Club never revolved around the Specialists, they could’ve all been just the generic hero, but we see the small difference between Sky, Riven and Brandon and then we get Timmy and Helia who are completely different and not what you’d first think off when you think ‘heroes in training’.

This is an extension of Flora’s softness and kindness never being something that she is ashamed of or for.

Helia is allowed to be a poet and to love meditating and to be a bit of a pacifist whilst still being strong and a hero in his own right. Saving Flora in his introduction and Sky later in season 2. He is never shamed for being the sensitive one.

Timmy has a lot of self-doubt. But he is allowed to grow, he is allowed to be a nerd and dorky and socially awkward whilst still being a fundamental part of the group. His intelligence is portrayed as an advantage not a freak trait. He may be teased for being the nerdy one from time to time but he is never bullied or shamed for it.

And they are both allowed to have good love stories. Helia and Flora, two gentle souls that find each other and are like Snow on the Beach, falling for each other at the first time.

Then we have Timmy and Tecna, where it seems that Timmy falls first but doesn’t know how to act and Tecna always cares about him but seems to catch feelings a bit later on. That it takes them a long time to officially become something because they are both unconventional in their own way. And when they go on a date and feel stressed they decide ‘Screw doing this the traditional and ‘normal’ way, we’re doing it our own way’.

From what we see in Fate, I can tell they much prefer angsty characters. And Helia and Timmy would never have been allowed to be soft.

We saw 2 kinda soft boys in Fate. Dane who was just… a bit of a train wreck to me. He was an ass to Terra and was just super weird with Bea and Riven and was just willing to go along with whatever Bea said and then we have Sam who I wouldn’t exactly describe as a soft boy and well… he almost killed someone in season 2 so… yeah. He’s just boring and with zero depth to me.

If they’d been in Fate Helia would probably be emo or very angsty and Timmy would probably have been bullied a lot more. So I’m glad they weren’t included at all.

Because soft and sensitive boys shouldn’t be erased. They are important, especially when the stigma against them is still kinda strong.

We need this in the media, we need to see boys loving poetry and being proud to be a bit dorky and nerdy. We need to see boys crying and breaking down and not being ashamed or shamed for it. We need boys that are absolutely in love and not be teased for it.

Angsty boys can be fun to watch, but soft boys are also important. We need more of them.

The Forgotten Protectors (A Brandon and Nabu Rant)

When I think about it, I think that Brandon as a character, at his core, is a protector. He is Sky’s squire and is willing to trade places to keep him safe. He tries to keep Stella safe, is willing to risk his life to get Sky back in season 3 and well… he’s a Specialist so this is clearly what he loves.

Brandon was always a support character, he’s never really given a lot of backstory or traits outside of being a dedicated Specialist, being charismatic and sometimes flirty and caring deeply about his friends and Stella.

Brandon is a fun character not because of his depth but because he’s just a great guy. He’s charismatic, definitely an optimist and cracks jokes in the middle of a fight. When Timmy struggles over why Tecna is mad at him, Brandon is randomly punching the air and offers him hair product.

I would classify him as a himbo.

Brandon worked as this protector character, especially since not many of the Specialists had a lot of depth. And I always loved him,

So I’m glad he wasn’t in Fate cause, again, they would have erased his optimism and just, slightly goofy instances for an angstier attitude.

To me, Brandon’s main purpose in the show was to be a protector and a friend. He was the voice of reasons amongst the boys, especially in seasons 1 and 2. He’s there for his friends and would do anything for them.

I think Brandon could have perhaps benefitted from a more mature setting, mainly to get more depth but I think the Fate writers would’ve fucked it up. I don’t think they could handle having a non-angst, let alone an optimistic character.

Then we have Nabu, our second forgotten protector. I call him a protector mainly due to his sacrifice in season 4. All I have to say is… Nabu was a fun character. He was a bit weird in the beginning but we got to see he was calm, had extreme trust in Aisha.

We only had him for a season so I really don’t have much to say about him other than… I cannot see any iteration of Nabu working with Fate Aisha. I just don’t.

I can’t see either of them in Fate not just because they’d be fucked over but also just because I can’t see their characters fitting the ambience.

I don’t know why but to me Brandon and Nabu just emanate happy calm vibes and I can’t see that working with Fate’s desperate need for shitty angst.

Why Tecna is Often Discarded and Why She Shouldn’t Be (A Tecna Deep Dive/Rant)

I think most of us can agree that Tecna is neurodivergent coded. Most consider her to be autistic.

In the OG, Tecna rarely gets to be the center of attention, but when she does, man does she shine. I love Tecna because her arc throughout the seasons isn’t necessarily about changing to fit in, but it’s more about growing into yourself if that makes sense.

Tecna doesn’t change her personality or who she is, she doesn’t try to mask how she is. The only thing she really does is working on expressing her emotions and showing that she cares about her friends, but this doesn’t equal her changing or suppressing her quirks and more neurodivergent tendencies, which I think is just beautiful.

I think that’s a great example on how to write an autistic character growing into themselves (though I myself am not autistic so feel free to correct me on that if you have feelings about Tecna being seen as autistic),

In season 3, we see the way the club literally falls apart when they think she’s dead. We see that they love her and when Tecna reunites with Bloom in Omega, she is crying cause she knew that her friends would find her.

This is the moment that cemented for me that these girls would truly go to the end of the world for each other.

Those episodes in season 3 may be some of the best, and my favorites, in the entire series.

Tecna is the character that is underrated, and who some may believe doesn’t add much to the story, but when she’s gone it hits you like holy shit, in a way she is the glue of the group.

She may not always be the voice of reason but the girls know to always listen to her cause when she’s determined to figure something out, she will do just that. They know that they can count on her.

She is a pillar in the group, just as much as the other girls, even if the show doesn’t always give her a spotlight, we know that it’s true.

And… Fate just threw her out the window.

The fucking disrespect.

I personally think they just didn’t want to be bother with a complex character like Tecna.

I just… I hate that they couldn’t even be bothered to try while another part of me is glad that they didn’t ruin her with an angsty hacker take on her.

But my girl deserved better.

Anyways, on to the final section…

How Fate Failed To Capture the Essence of the Winx Club

How Fate Forgot the Most Important Aspect of the Winx Club: Friendship Amongst Young Women

The final section is something I’ve already touched on a bit but, in Fate, the girls aren’t friends. They barely feel like decent roommates.

I will never forgive the way they disregarded Stella and Bloom’s beautiful bond. They were each other’s person, they were bonded for life and truly they were just THE besties ya know?

And Fate just made them into competitors. There is not a single moment in the entire two seasons that they felt like friends, let alone besties. I cannot picture OG Bloom and Stella EVER acting like their Fate counterparts. Like my girls would rather die than do each other dirty like that.

Then we have Aisha. In the OG Aisha had 2 amazing bonds, Musa and Flora. We all know how big SonicWave is. Musa and Aisha immediately connected, they went clubbing and got into a bit of trouble together and Musa was the first to really understand Aisha’s backstory, and we see Musa trust Aisha with her boy problems.

Aisha and Flora feel like besties, they’re there for each other and have casual chats in the middle of the night.

With Stella, especially in season 4, Aisha and Stella can but heads from time to time but they know that their friendship will always prevail because all the girls are bonded for life.

None of that is present in Fate. In Fate when they butted heads I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to slap Stella because she was being a bitch and I was annoyed by Aisha. She doesn’t really interact with Musa and Terra isn’t Flora so it doesn’t work. And she and Bloom don’t feel like friends. Not really.

There is no Fate Tecna so we have no chance to get the amazing chemistry between Musa and Tecna, those two were perfect as besties, they just worked so well.

It’s just… so many amazing bonds and friendships and dynamics all thrown away for the sake of angst, drama and useless conflict.

The event that sets into motion the entire story of the Winx Club is Bloom running into Stella and choosing to help her. It’s Stella deciding to help this girl she just met get into Alfea because they just immediately bond and that’s who Stella is.

The very first time the girls hang out, when Bloom is attacked, the other girls don’t hesitate to join in on the fight to save Bloom, not necessarily because they’re close at this point but because all these girls would never just stand back when something like this is going on. But as their friendships and bonds grow, we quickly see that they are all ride or die.

They don’t fight over boys, if they tease or take things too far, they apologize. They may but heads and get into fights but they know (and we know) that their friendship will always prevail.

In Fate… they’re not even friends, let alone besties, let alone ride or die besties that would go to the ends of the world for each other.

All of those bonds and friendships are just… nonexistent .

How can Fate claim to be an adaptation of the Winx Club when they throw away the most important aspect of the show?

In the show, friendships always take center stage, romances always felt like sideplots or add ons, not the main drama, or they were rarely the main drama. And when romance was the main drama, there would be an inevitable scene of the girls comforting each other. (Stella comforting Bloom. Tecna, Bloom and Stella comforting Flora about Crystal. Musa letting out her frustrations about Riven with Aisha. The girls helping prepare Tecna for a date, etc.)

Friendship was the bloodline of Winx Club. And Fate somehow… missed that.

I’m too tired and frustrated to make an actual outro and I’ve been working on this for literal weeks so… that… is the end.

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