Aisha’s Relationships in Winx Club as Stages of Life

(This is an edited repost from my former Winx blog, Una di Noi Winx.)

As you know, the name “Aisha” means “life” or “alive” in Arabic. I think her relationships with Anne, Nabu, Roy, and Nex represent four condensed stages of life: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood (the college years), and adulthood. How she acted around each character — and what was happening in her life at the time — paralleled her growth throughout the series.

1. Anne: Childhood (Winx season 2)

Winx season 2: Aisha dancing with Anne

During season two, Aisha was terrified of two things: the dark and being alone. Those are two of the most common childhood fears. We don’t know why she was scared of the dark, but we know why she couldn’t stand being alone.

It all started when her friend Anne moved away. Anne was a commoner from a nearby village who taught Aisha how to dance, which became her passion. And since Anne was her first friend, she taught her about friendship, too.

How and Why This Stage Ended

Aisha still missed Anne when she met the Winx. She worried that her new friends might leave her, too, so she clung to them. If she felt left out (ahem, Stella), she ran off crying. Whenever she was alone, she panicked, cried, and called out to them.

This child-like behavior lasted for most of the season. Finally in “Danger in the Wildland” (Winx season 2, episode 22), Aisha herself had had enough. She knew that to be a helpful friend and teammate, she needed to let go of her “stupid fear”. That’s when she earned her Charmix and grew out of her childhood stage.

2. Nabu: Adolescence (Winx seasons 3 & 4)

Winx season 4: Aisha and Nabu

Teenagers are rebels. They crave independence and strive to define their own identities. When Aisha’s parents told her they picked a guy for her to marry, she rebelled even more than before.

But her fiancé Nabu was conveniently like her in every way. They both came from rich families, had lonely childhoods, liked the same music, and enjoyed the same hobbies. Wow! It’s like someone made a male version of her! ?

His similarities helped her see herself from the outside. For the first time, she understood that her parents meant well. She apologized for rebelling and accepted the arranged marriage, which their parents put on hold for them.

Thus, Aisha hit another teenage milestone: first love. You remember how smitten she was. She spoke in a cutesier tone, she used flowery language, and she wore girlier clothes. Whenever Nabu did something cool (even if she could do it herself), she fangirled over him. Then, despite her father’s advice to wait and enjoy their youth first, Nabu proposed to her and sent her straight to cloud nine.

How and Why This Stage Ended

Winx season 4: Aisha fangirling over Nabu

Here’s how another Winx blogger summed up Aisha’s time with Nabu:

We can’t [deny], however, that he had a great influence on her. The rough-and-tumble girl softened up considerably and became more feminine…

Time out. Why does she need to soften up and become more feminine? I see this idea a lot in the Winx fandom, and it makes no sense to me.

Has everyone forgotten Aisha is a princess, the ultimate feminine stereotype? She didn’t need Nabu or any guy to tame her because her parents shoved traditional femininity down her throat! Being feminine was the only thing she was allowed to do!

Nowadays, she switches on her princess side only when she needs to. Watch the four scenes linked below for examples:

Maybe her parents wanted someone to stifle her “rough-and-tumble” side — could be why they chose Nabu — but that’s not what she wanted.

So Nabu helped her reconcile with her parents and gave her the experience of first love, but he also turned her into a generic princess. She lost a significant part of her personality. His death forced her out of this stage and taught her another lesson: fate doesn’t care about your wedding plans.

3. Roy: Young Adulthood/The College Years (Winx seasons 5 & 6)

Winx season 6: Aisha rollerblading with Nex and Roy

When you become an adult, you’re tossed into the real world and expected to build your own life in the next few years. Where will you live? What college will you go to? Who will you date/marry? What career path will you follow?

Choices, choices, choices. That’s what the young adult years are about.

As a princess, Aisha had little control over her life. I bet she didn’t even choose what she ate for dinner until she went to Alfea! But she told her mother in season three, “When the right time comes, I’ll choose my guy.” (This could have been her biggest life decision and a step towards autonomy, but Rainbow downgraded it to a weak obstacle between her and Nabu.)

Roy seemed like a good choice at first. Aisha might have liked him because he seemed somewhat like Nabu, came from Andros, and worked for her father. In other words, Roy felt familiar and safe.

How and Why This Stage Ended

But didn’t she wanna “break free” from her sheltered life? Roy was too safe. Why did she leave Andros if she was just gonna stay in her upper-class inner circle?

Plus, he was just like her father: overprotective. That’s why the love triangle happened in the first place. Roy got jealous and tried to protect her from the guy better suited for her.

Winx season 6: Aisha, Nex, and Roy windsurfing on Morphix boards

Here’s a thought. In “Up to Their Old Trix” (Winx season 2, episode 2), Wizgiz said that to balance yin and yang (good and evil in his example), sometimes a third energy is needed — “a dynamic energy between the dominant force and the recessive one.” Coincidentally, Roy started the love triangle, which set off a chain of events that led to Aisha and Nex falling in love. What if Roy was the “dynamic energy” needed to bring them together?

Anyway, Aisha spend her whole childhood shielded from the “dangerous” world around her. Now that she’s getting a chance to see it for herself, the last thing she needs is a boyfriend who acts like a bodyguard. She even said that about Nex in Winx comic #131: “La Prova di Nex” (Nex’s Test).

Nex was a different kind of guy than Aisha was used to. Thus, the love triangle wasn’t just a clash between two suitors. It was her comfort zone vs. the unknown — something old and restrictive vs. something new and liberating. Just like in real life, the choice that seemed riskier was the most rewarding (and not as risky as it looked).

So Roy indirectly helped her get over Nabu’s death, but he was the wrong guy for her going forward. This princess didn’t need a knight in shining armor. She needed a guy who would hand her a sword and say, “Let’s slay the dragon together.”

Aisha’s “college years” ended when she fell in love with Nex.

4. Nex: Adulthood (Winx season 7 to Present)

Winx season 7: Aisha/Nex and Stella/Brandon

Aisha is now a confident, resilient, and serious young woman — and that’s why Nex fell in love with her. Their relationship surprised some Winx fans, but it was inevitable. After all, there’s no life without death.

The word “nex” means “death” in Latin. Life fell in love with Death? That sounds creepy, but it’s not supposed to be. While some cultures view life and death as enemies, others see death as a part of life. To quote the Daoist philosopher Lao Tzu: “Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.”

Death is an ever-present reality, especially when we reach adulthood. The older we get, the closer it gets. Eventually, we learn to accept it and make peace with it. When we’re not scared of death anymore, we can live our lives to the fullest.

Why She Ended Up With Nex

Aisha and Nex’s relationship is more than symbolic. She’s been searching for something missing from her life — and from herself. But because she’s a sassy, energetic girl, the Winx fandom thinks she needs mildness and tact. So her ideal boyfriend should have those traits.

But I’ll say it again: Aisha is a princess. She grew up around tons of tactful, mild-mannered people and was raised to be one. The sassiness and energy she has now reflects the inner self she suppressed when she was little.

Back then, she restrained herself from running around, and she spoke only when spoken to, like a proper princess. When Anne taught her how to dance, she also taught her how to express herself. But she said that after Anne left, she had no one to dance with anymore.

Winx season 7: Aisha and Nex dancing together

Dance is a metaphor for what was missing from her life: fun, wildness, and freedom. Nex is a fun, wild guy who likely wasn’t weighed down by social expectations like she was. He keeps her out of her comfort zone and brings out more of her wild and free side. But as the saying goes, “Wherever you go, there you are.” Her princess training kicks in when he gets too reckless, and she scolds him for it.

Did you notice something? They’re attracted to the traits in each other that they need to cultivate in themselves. Nex is the one who needs mildness and tact, which Aisha learned as a princess. Aisha craves fun and freedom, which Nex adds more of to her life.

Equals

Nex isn’t just her playmate. He’s her partner — similar enough to bond with her, but different enough that they can learn from each other. They match each other’s strength and energy, they work well as a team, and they challenge each other and help each other grow. (The key phrase is “each other”.)

I think this exchange between them from “Into the Depths of Andros” (Winx season 8, epsiode 8) explains his role in her life:

NEX: Don’t worry. I’ll make myself useful.
AISHA: Forget it, Nex! I can take care of myself!
NEX: I know that. I wanna stay by your side anyway.

Nex doesn’t wanna soften her up or be her bodyguard. He wants to be her ally. That’s why Aisha doesn’t swoon over him: they’re equals.

What About the Winx?

Winx season 3: The Winx hug after Aisha cures her blindness

Without some stability, life would be chaos. The Winx have been one of the few constants in Aisha’s life. They’ve stuck with her through most of these changes, supported her, and helped her recover.

Unfortunately, they won’t always be with her physically. Like Anne, they’ll move away someday. But we can hope they’ll stay in touch with her while they raise families and rule kingdoms.

Final Thoughts

Is all of this canon? I don’t know. Some of it I’m confident about, but I don’t work for Rainbow. But this organizes Aisha’s story nicely and puts the spotlight back on her. After all, to paraphrase her character song, she’s just living her life.

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Will N.
Will N.
December 3, 2019 7:48 pm

What a nice throwback. I still don’t get why the Nabu fans think Aisha should be with ”Philip” when it’s been established that she would rather be with a ”Shang” and ”get down to buisness”.

Also another issue i have with Roy is…5×06. He must have thought even Bloom was a wimp (some days he would have a point with Stella…like days where Aisha and Bloom feel like physical training should be practiced, but he has no point with Aisha or Bloom). Why? Isn’t it known throughout the Magic Universe that the youngest princess of Domino grew up as an Earth Girl and saved the princess of Solaria by beating a ghoul with a stick and flame shield and that Earthlings tend to be sparky in their determination? Seriously… ”What Planet are you from if you think The Winx are Wimps?”

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February 17, 2020 7:00 am

[…] my post “Aisha’s Relationships as Stages of Life”, I mentioned how the Winx fandom seems to think Aisha needs to be tamed. She’s a wild child […]

Secrets
Secrets
February 29, 2020 2:39 am

Regarding your article, I have to say…. I love it. Personally, I didn’t paid much attention to the Aisha/Nex couple.
But, what you said on how Nex allowed Aisha to embrace being ” Aisha” rather than another generic princess made sense.

Funny speaking though, everyone said that Nabu soften Aisha, while most fans started complaining that she had become ” feminine”. I find this contradicting… And also, despite Aisha is a princess, she is a rebellious one. (I just saying is that when they want her to be a classic princess, we already have one in the group. Don’t forget, Stella isn’t just the “cheerful one” of the group. She is the more classical princess as opposed to Aisha. This might also explain why yellow is reserved for Stella. Yellow represents royalty.)

As for the soften up “part”, aside from that being part of Aisha, we already have Flora for being the embodiment of soft. What separates both Aisha and Flora is while Aisha has a soft side, she reserved that part for only people she can trust. Flora, on the other hand, has the tendency to trust maybe everyone. ( I believed that she is the only WinX who prefers fairies and witches to get along and also she tend to perhaps see people positively).

Anyhow, at the risk of being off-topic, if the fans say Aisha needs to soften up, they are forgetting a few things:
1) WinX club is about celebrating women being different from one another. That includes a woman who do not have feminine qualities as her main trait.
2) They are already started to complain that Aisha had gotten girly… Isn’t this maybe contradicting as to she needs to soften up?
3) If they say she needs to soften up, haven’t they forgotten that we have a classic princess and also a softie in the group??

I really love this article. Puts into perspective how Nex is basically celebrating Aisha for who she is. And also, all parts of her.

Will N
Will N
Reply to  Secrets
November 25, 2020 11:27 pm

Wouldn’t Bloom and Aisha also prefer fairies and witches to get along too? I mean they did seem to be the only other Winx besides Flora actually spoke to both Mirta and Lucy regularly. We also see Bloom and Aisha actually having fun with them. Bloom dragged Mirta and Lucy into the yearbook photobomb and Mirta at least got to be in one of Aisha’s activities during season 2. That’s not to say that the other half isn’t friends with them, it’s just that Musa, Tecna and Stella (especially her) might have a few reservations about fairies and witches getting along or don’t know them that well. Of course the Comics say that some cloud tower witches have similar feelings to Stella, though Roxy really punishes these types with what could only be described as the old “you missed a spot” routine, but in the animal bubble bath department, this means if Roxy’s ever met Mirta (maybe by being roommates?) she has the same opinion on it as Mirta, Flora, Aisha and Bloom do, even if as Faragonda so eloquently puts it “the friendship gets tested so frequently”.

Secrets
Secrets
Reply to  Will N
November 26, 2020 6:10 am

Well, I may have probably put the wanting everyone to get along solely on Flora based on my misjudgement. Come to think of it, you might got a point on Bloom and Aisha. But, I think Bloom pulling Mirta and Lucy in for the photoshoot might have to do with how like Stella, she’s the type to include everybody she knows. Flora on the other hand is more on the make sure the peace between fairies and witches stay longer. As for Aisha, while you are right about Mirta being included into her dance, Mirta was technically a fairy at that point ( she transfered to Alfea at the end of Season 1). So, I think Aisha is probably the type to only stick Mirta mainly because Mirta at this point has become a fairy. She didn’t include Lucy though ( Lucy’s still a witch). So, that probably speaks a bit on her.

For Stella, despite being the sociable one, she tends to let her negative perception on witches affect her. So, she might only be her sociable self when she’s with fairies. Musa has a good reason to have reservation about getting along with witches. She was targeted by the Cloud Tower witches, who were led by the Trix in Season 1. Along with her inability to trust others easily, it’s understandable for her to hestitate getting along with the witches. For Tecna, it’s hard to say whether she has reservation because I think she’s neutral. Neither wanting both sides to get along nor wanting both to be at war with each other.

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November 13, 2020 6:10 am

[…] mistress of etiquette? Aisha? Yes! Check out these posts (here and here) for scenes of her using her princess […]

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March 8, 2021 8:35 pm

[…] my post “Aisha’s Relationships as Stages of Life”, I mentioned how the Winx fandom seems to think Aisha needs to be tamed. She’s a wild child with […]

Cami B
July 21, 2022 7:03 pm

Personally, I think that Nex and Aisha are amazing together

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August 24, 2022 11:34 pm

[…] Lisa Fevral’s Winx Deep Dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF33a3Y8dUI Winx Club Iceberg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GseRkC6N_iI Oakwyrm, Disney Fairies vs Disability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJSmEyVp3uQ Mainely Mandy: https://www.youtube.com/c/mainelymandy Yin-Yang Couple, Aisha’s Relationships as Stages of Life: https://yinyangcouple.com/winx-club-aisha-layla-love-interests-friendships-life/ […]