#winx broship

[skylaryozora]

Enemies to Friends in an Instant: Riven and Nabu's First Encounter S3 EP21/22 [My Interpretation]

I've been posting comments on S3 episodes on my IG, and at one point I gladly provided a pretty long take on the episodes 21 and 22, where I explained how I have always interpreted the first encounter of Riven and Nabu. I received lots of positive feedback because apparently my view differs from the popular opinions and common interpretations of this scene in the fandom, with which I'm very familiar as well. I decided to post my remarks here as well, since the scene gave me a lot of food for thought.

Disclaimer: This is my subjective view!

To give you some context, Winx girls, Sky, Timmy and stowaway Nabu (at this point known as Ophir) go to a place called Red Tower along with pixies to acquire Water Stars. Unfortunately, they crash their ship and are attacked, first by some monsters and then by Red Tower's pegataur guardians. Nabu eventually turns out to be of help to them, even though the group is still quite wary of him. But before they crash, Flora sends a recording to Helia who stayed at Red Fountain... just to say hello. Riven sees the recording too, and notices that Musa stands weirdly close to Nabu whom Riven has never seen before. He jumps to a conclusion that she might be kissing the unknown, suspicious guy, which sparks his anger. Moments later, Riven sets off to join the group. He encounters Timmy trying to fix the ship, and with Piff's help, he manages to catch up with Winx and Sky but finds them unconscious, and sees Nabu holding Musa. And so, here we go.

Riven: Look right there, see that? Who's that guy? And why is Musa about to kiss him?!

This shot of Musa and Nabu does look kinda ambiguous, it's a bit weird though that she seems to be looking straight at him instead at his hands because apparently she's putting handcuffs on him, but I guess they needed to draw them as suggestively as possible to trigger Riven. Helia also appears to have a sneaking suspicion as to what is going on there.

The question remains whether Riven's reaction is adequate. Riven's development from S2 is said to have been thrown away and he apparently came back to being a jerk... which I don't think I agree with, to be honest. I mean, you could have done some personal progress and still battle with some issues, and frankly speaking, I wouldn't find it credible if Riven started acting all nice and polite all of a sudden. He tends to be viewed as possessive and jealous here, yet I don't find his reaction to be that exaggerated, I believe such scenes are likely to cause some tension, especially when people have abandonment issues and tend to jump to conclusions. I would also ask the following question: how would other characters behave in his place? Still, I have to agree that his impulsive decision to follow them was extra, but what also bugs me is that for some unknown reason he knew in which direction they'd gone. Did they all know the location and the way to Red Tower? Or did he acquire the coordinates of their ship? I like transparency and logic, and I think it is kind of missing here.

I also asked myself how I would write this whole scene, and this is my alternative suggestion: imagine if Helia and Riven got to know from Flora or anyone else that Nabu is a stowaway and he'd been stalking Aisha, but the recording cuts off suddenly with some disturbing glitches when the squad loses control and crash lands. This would leave Riven and Helia utterly concerned, and they would both consider an option that it might be Nabu's doing since he looks sketchy and it would explain his timing. Having traces of coordinates from Flora's recording for example, both guys decide to set off and rescue their friends. Let me know what you think about it, and if that could make more sense.

At the beginning of EP22 we have a shot from above, showing girls lying unconsciously on the ground, and Musa apparently lies the closest to Nabu and that's why he soon runs up and lifts her up. My questions are the following: why exactly are the girls unconscious (and Sky too)? Apart from Aisha, who was thrown on the ground which could understandably cause loss of consciousness, the others were just pinned down to the ground by big forks (pegataur guardians' weapons) which disappeared all of a sudden for no specific reason. If you go a few scenes ahead, you see that they all wake up by themselves and move as if nothing happened, which confuses me to say the least, but the bottom line is that they didn't really need any help after all. Also, Nabu didn't really care about others earlier; let me remind you that he jumped over Tecna and ignored girls falling from the museum's roof, apart from Aisha for whom he made an exception and prevented her from falling. But now instead of looking for Aisha, he goes to save Musa which feels random, unless he got to know that Musa is Aisha's close friend, and he felt it could help him get Aisha's trust if she saw that he tends to her best friend too. That's a possibility, I guess.

Riven: Put her down.

Nabu: Look, she needs help.

Riven: I won't tell you again. Put my girlfriend down, NOW. / Get your hands off my girlfriend.

It's also unclear to me how Nabu intended to help her, unless he possesses some healing abilities, but at this point pretty much everyone appears to need help even though, as I've just pointed out, they're all perfectly fine later on (they're not visibly injured or on the verge of death, and none of them is bleeding). Yeah, I know I'm nitpicking right now but if I am to understand a scene, I do try to pay attention to details and scrutinize if they make sense.

Now, I have seen people mentioning this scene as an example of Riven being ridiculously possessive, blinded by jealousy, and not caring that his girlfriend needs help...

Oh, boy, I strongly disagree with that.

Let's think about Riven's POV. He arrives there knowing there's an unknown guy who looked as if he had got too close to his GF, which made him upset, and he finds his friends knocked out, while this unknown guy, suspiciously the only one standing and appearing fine, is holding unconscious Musa. At this point Riven has no right to know who Nabu is, and what his intentions are. His squad scattered around and not moving a muscle looks very much like Nabu's doing, because the poor guy's timing puts him in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd say that Riven's reaction is very much justified, as from his point of view Nabu could be a villain who just pretends to be helping Musa. Like, what else is he supposed to assume? At that moment, there's nothing to back up the fact that Nabu does mean well. If Riven actually knew that he is a stowaway and he'd been stalking Aisha, I imagine heads would roll even quicker.

If you think about it, Riven's reaction is kinda natural, because survival instinct is in general much more likely to suggest that someone is a threat rather than a friend, and Riven looks like the type to rely on this kind of instinct.

Besides, let's assume you find yourself in the same situation: you arrive to a place where a random person towards whom you already feel animosity is standing among your unconscious friends and holding your significant other, claiming they're here to help. Are you sure you'd believe them and be like "Oh, thank you so much for taking care of my S/O, are they okay?" which apparently is what people expect from Riven...? I'm afraid that such naivety might be deadly if you meet someone evil, assuming the best of people and not taking into account that they might take advantage of your gullibility and hurt you too can get you in serious danger.

Riven: Nobody takes down my buddies, and nobody hits on my girlfriend!

Nabu: You got it all wrong, man!

Here Riven clearly emphasizes that it's not only about Musa, he actually thinks Nabu hurt all of them, and so he attacks him. Nabu tries to tell him it's not how he thinks it is while fighting back in self-defence, but Riven is not likely to believe him anyway.

On this occasion I would like to say that you absolutely don't have to like Riven, we all have our preferences, interpretations etc., but please refrain from cherry-picking the bad (and what you consider as bad) in him without understanding the context and his POV as well as without remembering he does have issues and insecurities, like every human being. In his case, there seems to be a panoply of rough life experiences which has shaped him the way he is.

Off-topic, but I genuinely love their fight, the whole sequence is well animated, dynamic, and lively, I could watch it all the time.

Sky: Riven, Ophir's a good guy!

Riven: Hey, I thought you were all out cold. (...) Okay, and what about him and Musa?

Riven expresses my point, and after Sky assures him it's all good, Riven inquires about the relation between Musa and Nabu, still with suspicion, but without aggression.

Nabu: What? If anything, it's... Aisha. Uhm, look, nothing's going on with me and Musa.

When it becomes clear that Riven misinterpreted the situation (but honestly, how could he know?), he looks apologetic and relieved when Musa walks up to him. In the original Italian dub he actually says "I'm sorry", so he is aware that his reaction was way too extra, and I don't like that they cut it out in Rai, because it shows that Riven knows how to take accountability and be humble. Also, he believed Nabu right away and didn't even question his statement, or ask Musa the same question (!), which, in my opinion, isn't something an insanely jealous and possessive person would do.

Musa: Nice to see you go to bat for me, Riven.

Riven: Really?

Musa: Yeah. I'm so glad you decided to join us.

Riven: Me too.

As for Musa being impressed with what Riven did, I find myself asking if she, like, understands the whole picture. She appears out of nowhere, doesn't even ask why and how Riven got here, and doesn't know what Riven assumed when he saw the recording, and that he was fighting with Nabu because he thought he took all the group down. But it's implied she knows all of that, or at least that he was mainly fighting for her, and that she appreciates it. Here her reaction is interpreted as unhealthy because it romanticizes jealousy (and allowing it now might be to blame for all the jealousy drama in S4). Speaking from my personal experience, jealousy to some extent might be desirable for some people, because it ensures them that their partner doesn't take them for granted and is uneasy about the possibility of losing them. Several episodes earlier Musa admits that she doesn't feel like she had got closer with Riven recently (I won't go into details now, but that scene confused me as well, since apparently a lot of things in their relationship happen off-screen...), so I guess she considers Riven's behavior an evidence of him not being indifferent about their relationship after all. Still, I do admit that S3 Musa is quite a mess (unnecessary bike drama flashbacks), and it's sometimes hard to follow her train of thought. However, I'm inclined to think that this might be an option why she likes what Riven did.

Nabu: So when you see me trying to get over your defence, it's just an illusion, I'm actually trying to come from under.

Riven: Nice!

Nabu: You see, the trick is: never let your opponent anticipate your battle moves.

Riven: You're a cool dude, I like your style, where'd you learn all this?

Nabu: Well, I grew up on this island where there were no kids my age and I had no friends to play with, so you see, I spent a lot of time hanging out with the security guards who taught me all the battle tricks.

Riven: Sounds kinda lonely.

Nabu: It was.

A minute earlier they were like enemies, now they're already spending their free time together and enjoying it, which is honestly so cool to watch. They clicked right away, Riven got rid of any prejudice or animosity towards him, to the point he even admits that Nabu's style appeals to him, and doesn't mind actually being tutored by him (he would never allow that if it was someone like Sky)! Riven doesn't like losing, and yet he smiles brightly when Nabu "defeats" him, while Nabu feels comfortable enough to disclose his tricks to a brand new friend and share his childhood story. I mean, isn't that crazy, but in a good sense? They seem already kind of attached to each other, Riven gets to know about Nabu's feelings for Aisha and promises not to spill the tea (together with Bloom and Sky), and to top it all, he shields Nabu from Icy's spell!

To sum up, if Riven had been salty, distrustful, and passive aggressive towards both Musa and Nabu still after all the explanations and discovering the truth, that would have been very nasty and I wouldn't like it at all. But instead he did a 180 degree turn immediately, and got himself a good friend as a result. If you remember his first impression of Nabu, who would have expected what might happen later? Friendship does sprout in unexpected contexts, and that's what I truly adore about their unique, maybe I'd say even wholesome, relation.

Thank you for sticking until the end of this short essay <3