Aisha and Nabu: Why Their Relationship Clashed With Her Story
A few weeks ago, GermanSirenix wrote an Aisha/Nex appreciation post on his Instagram. This line about Aisha/Nabu got my attention:
Aisha would have probably settled down with Nabu, but I personally think that’s not really what she desired.
Neither do I.
A Flaw in Aisha’s Story
I realized something about Aisha. It might surprise you, or you might say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Either way, here it is:
Her story was complete by the first episode of Winx season two. That’s right: her debut episode.
What did she want? To escape her prim-and-proper princess life “one way or another”. That’s what she told Musa and Stella in “The Invisible Pixies”(Winx season 2, episode 13).
But by the time she met the Winx, she’d already succeeded.
Let me explain by comparing her to…Nabu. After his parents told him they’d chosen Aisha to be his wife, he ran away from home. How did they react? They sent their guards to drag him back to Andros!
What about Aisha? We don’t know if she ran away or walked out the palace door, but she didn’t wanna go back to Andros, either. How did King Teredor and Queen Niobe react? Did they follow her? Did they send mermaids or servants after her?
Nope.
They did nothing to stop her. They even let her enroll in a school on another planet.
Congratulations, Aisha! Your parents don’t give a hoot what you do with your life! You’re free! Now what?
Obstacle Course
Starting in Winx season three, Rainbow introduced random obstacles and conflicts into her story. Valtor attacking Andros was Conflict/Obstacle #1. The second and arguably more memorable one was her arranged marriage to Nabu.
You’d think an independent girl like her who wanted to choose her own guy would never give in. But Rainbow went with the “Perfectly Arranged Marriage” trope because a Winx can’t be single for more than one season. In Winx season four, her story revolved around her relationship with Nabu instead of her character goal, since she’s never had one.
Then he died. That was Conflict/Obstacle #2. In Winx season five and six, her planet got attacked again, this time by her cousin, and two guys fought for her affection. (because everyone loves love triangles).
Instead of turning Aisha’s life into a series of unfortunate events, Rainbow could have drawn inspiration from Bloom’s story. No, I don’t mean another lost kingdom or missing family member. They’ve done that plot to death! But if you put Aisha and Bloom’s stories side by side, you might notice they’re basically the same, but inverted.
Aisha vs. Bloom: A Tale of Two Princesses
Bloom grew up as an ordinary girl on a non-magical planet. Because of her love of fairies, she dreamed of an extraordinary life. As she told Faragonda and Griselda in “Welcome to Magix” (Winx season 1, episode 2):
I’ve always wanted to be a fairy with all my heart, and now I can make my dream come true.
Not only did it come true, but she also discovered she was royalty: the long-lost princess of Domino. Plus, Prince Sky of Eraklyon fell in love with her and asked for her hand in marriage. That never would have happened if she’d stayed on Earth. Thus, she got the “happily after ever” she thought only existed in fairy tales.
Meanwhile, Aisha already had a fairy tale life — and she couldn’t stand it.
She grew up as a fairy princess on a magical planet. Because of her restrictive childhood, she wanted to feel what it was like to be an ordinary girl. Remember what Stella told her in “The Invisible Pixies”?
Don’t worry. We’ll make sure you get to have fun…
So, to recap:
- Bloom grew up as a normal girl on a non-magical planet (Earth). Aisha grew up as a fairy princess on a magical planet (Andros).
- Bloom had a normal childhood (plenty of freedom). Aisha had an abnormal childhood (no freedom).
- Bloom wanted to be extraordinary (a fairy). Aisha wanted to be ordinary (a normal girl who gets to have fun).
Bloom accomplished her goal by becoming a fairy princess, what Aisha started off as (and still is, of course). Marrying a prince is a bonus that fits Bloom’s story. He can help her get used to her new life as a princess, since she doesn’t have formal training in royal etiquette.
How can Aisha, a fairy princess, become an ordinary girl like Bloom was? Technically, she can’t. She’d have to give up the throne of Andros, but we know she doesn’t want to.
What she can do, however, is marry an ordinary guy. He can’t make her ordinary, but he can balance out her life with some normalcy and a fresh perspective.
The Ordinary is Extraordinary
Was Nabu ordinary? No. Sure, being a wizard is ordinary in the Magic Dimension — you know, where most people have magic powers — but he had the same abnormal background as Aisha. He came from a rich family, had strict parents, and grew up with little freedom and few friends.
Nabu would have made more sense as a love interest for Bloom, since she craved an extraordinary life. Marrying a rich wizard would definitely count to a girl who grew up on a planet where wizards are nothing but fictional characters from novels and D&D. Plus, he was a prince in the Winx comics.
But Aisha already had an extraordinary life. She wanted the opposite: the ordinary. Coincidentally, so did Nabu, so neither of them could have fulfilled the other’s deepest desires. They may have fallen in love because of how similar they were, but they needed people who differed from them.
For Aisha, that’s Nex. They have enough in common to bond over, but he also adds something new — and ordinary — to her life. And to her, the ordinary is extraordinary.
When I look at screenshots of Aisha staring lovingly at him — the sheltered fairy princess and her commoner boyfriend — I think to myself, “It’s about time.” This feels like the most natural direction for her story. She may have taken four seasons to get there, but better late than never.
I might have found a flaw in Aisha’s background story, too.
In Season 2 she hated being a princess, because of her helicopter parents.
They were extremely strict, dominant, overprotective, freedom taking, etc).
But in the Seasons after that, especially in the newer ones, she seems ok with it!
What happenend? Maybe it’s just me, and i missed something,
but is there really a step missing here? :/ In Season 5 for example, she’s back to Andros palace
with a big smile on her face and is happy to see her parents again.
I thought she despised them. Suddenly she acts like a
responsible princess, while she ran away from it earlier.
And what happenend that made her parents switch from helicopter parents
to loveable and understanding parents? Where’s the build-up?
In most cases, toxic parents are just flat out toxic, and don’t change.
I remember you wrote about that on your blog. Yeah, that is a good point. Why did she have such a good relationship with her parents if she hated them for how controlling they were?
I can understand them actually being loving parents, though. It’s not that they were controlling or toxic people. They were just too conservative and cautious, but they truly loved Aisha. Regardless, we should have seen them butt heads with her a lot more.
Maybe Rainbow was afraid to have the Winx fight with their parents because it might send a bad message to kids. (Of course, they’ve sent other bad messages, but never mind.) Musa’s really the only one who’s had a big argument with her parent, but that lasted one episode.
I have noticed this too with the inverted stories, however I never thought that Nabu would have made a better potential Bloom love interest (and maybe that would have cost her some plot armor) , but it makes sense.
Also I could see Aisha relinquishing her title provided that since the two kingdoms of Andros are united…Nereus could be ruling both with unlimited tail/leg switching ability at some point, but Aisha is in the category main characters that don’t get everything they want because they need somebody to give a cardboard box to since they can’t really knock her or Bloom out of the sky without it being dramatic.
I’m just saying Nabu fit better into Bloom’s story than Aisha’s, given Bloom’s attraction to the fantasy world. I’m not saying Bloom/Nabu would have been a good pairing. He was chill enough that her clinginess may not have bothered him, but what would they have had in common to bond over? (Granted, Bloom and Sky have nothing in common, either, but I won’t go there right now.)
I went back and watched the scene with unification moment in season five. Neptune says, “From now one, we will no longer be divided between sea and land, but united as one family….” Not “kingdom”. “Family”.
Now, I don’t know if that makes a difference. I mean, they were always one family. Maybe it doesn’t mean the kingdoms were united, but just that they’ll start supporting each other more — more like an alliance. Neptune also says they’ll be united “with all the planets of the Magic Dimension”, and obviously that doesn’t mean all the kingdoms becoming one.
I don’t know. It’s vague and never explained (as usual).
I really hate the vagueness. Although I do agree that Nabu does fit better with Bloom’s story than Aisha…but their commonness probably would be misperception of the magic world outside their storybook, but yeah…Nex is still the best suitor of Aisha overall…and Bloom wouldn’t have that much else in common. Next, sometimes ordinary can be extraordinary. Now with that angle of Aisha…that would parallel to Morgana. It was the reason Morgana left for Gardenia afterall….Klaus was just the final push.
Also…I really dislike the insistence of Muri even within the universe itself. Though at least this time *Spoiler warning for those not keeping up with the English Winx channel every Friday or not following on RAI Play…* … Ho-boe is implied to have been through this before…so does that mean Matlin was just as difficult somehow? Nice to see a parental perspective, but good grief…would it be possible to have Musa stay single for once? Well at least now their willing to talk, but it seems…too little, too late.
Maybe a couples analysis series would be something fun for Valentine’s week in February…with only the existing couples as they are now. Everyone needs to ask Tecna and Timmy for relationship advice. That would solve so many issues.
Wait…I didn’t watch the MuRi video. You’re telling me Rainbow justified MuRi by saying Matlin and Ho-Boe had a similar courtship? ? They dragged that love story through the mud to justify this overrated mess?
Ugh! That just ticks me off! No matter how Rainbow wants to paint it, MuRi is just the overdone “heroine fixes the abusive bad boy” cliché. I’ve been watching a bunch of writing advice videos lately, and almost all the writers said that type of love story needs to die.
One, it’s unrealistic. Two, it paints love as a magic cure-all. Question, fandom: how exactly did Riven change? What did he do in one year that suddenly made him a better person? I bet that wasn’t explained.
Also, did he really change? What I saw was not a guy making an honest attempt to understand his girlfriend’s needs. I saw him doing the same crap he did the first time she broke up with him: Valentine’s Day-style romantic gestures…that embarrassed her. And when she confronted him about it, he didn’t seem to care.
Finally, MuRi getting back together sends a horrible message to girls that no matter how badly a guy treats you, you shouldn’t move on and find someone better. You should hang around until he changes. Eventually. Maybe.
Don’t think that’s what the fandom is taking away from this? Why else is Riven seen as a good boyfriend? Why else have some fans said they wanna find a guy like him in real life?
It’s disturbing, and Rainbow shouldn’t have played into it. They almost did the right thing and let Musa escape and heal. But instead, they listened to the fans! ? This is an example of when writers should ignore them for the characters’ sake.
Wait, hold up. The fandom has started harrassing voice actors? Wow. When did this happen, and how bad was it? Do I want to know?
I didn’t think Flora’s VA was even that bad, so it’s annoying that the fandom is just lashing out at people who aren’t even involved in the writing or animating processes.
No, not the voice actress. The actress playing Flora (or Terra) in the Netflix live-action show. I don’t know all the details, but I assume the fandom is mad because she doesn’t look like Flora, and Flora’s personality is different in this show. Whatever the case, they took out their frustrations on her on Instagram. She couldn’t take it anymore and deleted her account.
Congratulations, Winx fandom. Now you’re one of those toxic fandoms. ?
it set me off too. to the point that Muri was stated as perfect in the comments as usual…and also as usual whenever a different idea is presented…how dare anyone presents a different idea…can’t even present a different idea for Bloom dating someone who isn’t Sky either…and the minority gets accused of not watching the show simply because their opinion is different and that any pairing other than the one that is presented wouldn’t work….ever…even though we all know Bloom would be happy with any red fountain student…because she’s Bloom. As for Muri? What could possibly be perfect about abuse and why did they have to make Muri look like some freaky deja vu thing?
I hate losing my love of this show, but I finally am. It’s not just because of the drop in quality or the many plot and worldbuilding problems I’m finally noticing. It’s the fandom, too.
When I heard about them harassing Flora/Terra’s actress and chasing her off Instagram, that was the last straw for me. Watching them bash my favorite couple and romanticize an abusive relationship is painful and annoying enough. But those are fictional characters. Mocking an actress on social media — someone who’s just doing her job and had nothing to do the changes to this show — is disgusting. That’s a new level of toxic I hoped we’d never reach.
It can have serious consequences, too. A K-pop idol named Sulli just committed suicide over all the negative comments she was receiving on social media.
when i first heard about it on the sirenix-winx blog this was my reaction and still is
‘the people who did this to flora’s actress in the winx fanworld should be ashamed of themselves since this is why social media is probably one of the things that brings out the worst in people but this is a new low for the fanworld even after everything we seen over the last few years’
I have heard about Miss Eliot Salt getting harassed and I feel ashamed. We, the Winx fans, could achieve so much if we weren’t so toxic. We, as a human species, could save the planet if we weren’t so fucking stupid. We could live an easy life if we just accepted and respected each other instead of (for example) sending bombs to our neighbours.
Yes, the “social media” stuff has made us more anti-social and more evil.
Not everything was great in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s but at least we – somewhat – knew what was right and what was wrong back then. But now? Now we harass those who were casted as the first live-action Winx fairies because they “aren’t Asian/Hispanic enough” or because they “aren’t skinny enough”. Now we harass them because they get to play the roles we want to play.
Now we go after INNOCENT people while at the same time protecting criminals. Now we cheer for a neo-nazi who views women as trophies, who denies climate change, who can’t even spell his own name right.
Say what you want about Barack Obama, agree or disagree about his politics, but at least this man had DIGNITY and RESPECT, and that alone makes him a better politician than A̶d̶o̶l̶f̶ Donald Trump ever will be.
I feel sorry for Eliot Salt (and for the other bullying victims as well). Miss Salt doesn’t deserve any hate, she is perfect the way she is (and if I had the opportunity to meet her and the other cast members, I would).
It’s always the innocents that have to pay for the stupidity of the morally-corrupted.
Not only do we humans destroy each other, we also murder animals and plants. How can one species be so evil and ignorant? How can we advance in technological and medical fields, while losing empathy at the same time? Are we destined to become robots just for the sake of technological innovations?
No wonder the Vulcans (or any other alien species that might be out there in the universe) haven’t made contact with us humans. If I were an alien species and I encountered this planet, I would immediately reverse course and go to maximum warp to get the hell out of the solar system, just to avoid making contact with humanity.
And if I, a lowly human, think this way about my own species, how would an advanced alien race think about all of us?
why bring politics to this
honestly i start to wonder if social media wasn’t one of the biggest mistakes our species has ever made
I agree 100 percent. “Social” media has only made us anti-social and more vindictive.
yeah without social media the toxicity in fandoms wouldn’t have a platform
Well, blogs and forums came before social media, so it would still have a platform. Toxic people can make any place toxic. The problem with social media is that it’s quick and real-time. People don’t take the time to process what they’re seeing or reading; they just react to it right away. Blog and forum posts allow a little more time to reflect on your response, since they tend to be longer than social media posts.
Regardless, I think fandom and the Internet don’t mix anyway. It sounded like a great idea, letting fans from all over the world interact with each other. But there’s an important part of interaction and unity that will always be missing in fandoms: relationships.
When you have a close relationship with someone, you care more about their opinion because you care about them. And because you have that deeper connection, you can weather differences of opinion better. But in fandoms, people don’t know each other, so they don’t care about each other. Opinions become substitutes for relationships; in other words, if you agree with someone’s opinion, you tend to like them more. If you disagree with them, you tend to like them less. And if you don’t like someone, you don’t feel as guilty ripping into them or being condescending towards them.
People try to make up for this innate problem with fandoms by encouraging everyone to “respect” all opinions, but it’s a well-intentioned mistake. It’s demanding respect for a person’s thoughts, instead of the person. What does “respect” mean in that case? In fandoms, it tends to mean “treat everyone’s opinions as though they’re right, even if you disagree with them”, which is ridiculous. If you disagree an opinion, you obviously believe the opinion is wrong. So you should pretend it’s right just to maintain some sort of fragile peace? (Of course, part of the problem is people don’t understand the difference between opinions, assumptions, and preferences, but I digress.)
Respecting the person is more important than respecting their opinion. When you respect them, you tend to automatically respect their opinion anyway. That doesn’t mean you agree with it, but you might actually consider it instead of dismissing it right away.
Even when you tell someone, “I disagree, but I respect your opinion”, you really mean you respect their right to have an opinion. You can’t respect an opinion you disagree with, unless you think it might be right. But if you think it’s right, why disagree with it?
Sorry for the long response, but it’s something that’s been on my mind.
My comment didn’t make it. 🙁
I got your comment on a different post. Did you comment on this one, too?
I did comment here as well, about an hour or so after the other comment. It was a bit long and I was mentioning Eliot Salt. Looks like the website might have deleted it automatically. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world.
Found it! Yep, the filter sent it to the trash automatically, but it didn’t completely delete it.
[…] I still think Aisha ending up with a commoner fits her backstory better. She wanted to choose her own guy, so why would she give up her freedom and accept an arranged marriage? Also, if she was sick of her upper-class life, why would she trap herself in it forever by marrying a guy from the upper-class? […]
[…] mentioned this in the Aisha/Nabu post. Aisha doesn’t have a character goal, which means her story has no overarching plot. That’s why […]
[…] childhood, and she left Andros to escape it. What she needed wasn’t someone exactly like her, but someone different to balance her life out with some […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
You know the part where you mentioned ” an independent girl choosing who she loves”? That is exactly what I suddenly I thought of. When you mention this, I suddenly could see how Nex has the higher chance to be her long-time boyfriend compared to Nabu.
1 How she met both of them
Nabu: She caught him spying on her and the others in the shuttle. While Nabu is the kind hearted guy, what he is doing is basically stalking her, which is something that Aisha ( or anyone) finds it weird to be meeting your partner in this way.
Nex: She met him on the Linphea college. Sure, he is somewhat competitive but he didn’t stalk Aisha before this. ( Stalking someone persistently is freaky. Nex didn’t resort to this to meet her.)
2. How her relationship develop with both of them
Nabu: He started off as the man her parents arranged her to be married off too. After that, they eventually fell in love with one another because of their similarities.
Nex: He slowly developed his relationship with her through doing activities with her and trying to know her ( bear with me, I might be wrong cause it’s been a long time since I watched season 6).
For this one, my point is that Nex is the guy who she met with in her own freewill ( of course, it also has to do with his persistence.), unlike Nabu who was arranged to be marry to her in the beginning. So, if she were to continue on with Nabu, it doesn’t feel natural to me. I mean yes, they are compatible with one another. But, wouldn’t this love story be just another arranged marriage gone perfectly scene? Also, like you said, continuing on with this love story clashes with her ” I want to choose the person I love” mentality? I also think that Rainbow would want to avoid the arranged marriage story. ( In real life, these things happened.) to emphasize that a woman gets to choose who she wants to spend her life with.
As for Nex and her, the way the relationship starts was based on freewill from both side. As in , he is not arranged by someone close to her to marry her. She found him on her own freewill. Isn’t that a more natural love story then continuing on with a man that she fell in love with who isn’t what she choose in the beginning?
So, yeah. Nex x Aisha seemed more natural to me.
Exactly. With Aisha/Nabu, Rainbow tried to have their cake and eat it, too. They knew an arranged marriage is a violation of free will, which contradicted Aisha’s story about wanting freedom from her parents’ control. So they tiptoed around the problem by having her fall in love with Nabu and saying, “Well, it was her choice.”
On the surface, it seemed like a good compromise. But between the arranged marriage and Nabu stalking her to “get to know her” (from afar?), Aisha showed little agency in this love story. Even the moment when they discovered they had a lot in common was forced on her. She and Nabu got trapped together in a cell on the Owl, and he took advantage of the situation. “Since we’re trapped in here, we might as well get to know each other.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Sure, you can argue she didn’t have to talk to him, but that’s awkward when you’re stuck together in a tiny space.
Also, even if their parents freed them from their obligation, we can’t pretend the fact she was engaged to him before didn’t influence her decision. In fact, we know it did. She apologized to her parents for rejecting the arranged marriage! Why did she need to apologize for that?
Then in season four, Aisha acted like an obsessed fangirl around Nabu. It only served to make him look like better before he died, but it didn’t develop her character at all.
So yes, there was little to nothing natural about Aisha and Nabu’s love story. Most of it at the expense of her free will and character goals.
In contrast, she and Nex met each other the way a lot of people meet their significant others: at a random place while they’re doing something else. Plus, she had more control over the courtship and showed more agency. If she didn’t wanna talk to him, she made it clear and he left. When she interacted with him, it was because she chose to. And yes, Nex took the time to get to know her in person, not by following her around and watching her through a telescope. (Yes, Nabu literally did that.)
So when Aisha decided to date Nex, it was her choice. Nothing influenced it except for the fact that she’d fallen in love with him. She was even the first to admit her feelings!
Aisha/Nex was definitely more natural than Aisha/Nabu.
[…] Why Their Relationship Didn’t Fit Her Story […]
Actually, I sometimes think that the reason why fans prefer Nabu to be Aisha’s one and only comes from their strong desire for a love story gone perfectly. In real life, not everybody ( or even none ) will ever just married the person they fell in love the first place. I guessed the fans just wanted to have that perfect fiction to fall back on because they might not even get such an event happening in their life. If Aisha sticks with Nabu, then voila. You have all six WinX with their respective beaus living happily forever. ( I believed it’s like what you mentioned a love story with minimal conflict.).
The same goes with Musa and Riven too…
I agree with you. Aisha/Nabu was an idealistic romance, so of course, that’s gonna sell better than the alternatives. Musa/Riven is idealistic, too, in the “love fixes everything” sense. But these are the types of fictional relationships that give people unrealistic expectations of love.
Guys like Nabu don’t exist. You might find a guy who seems similar, but he will make you angry sometimes, he won’t always be attentive, he won’t be able to read your mind, and he won’t always say or do the right things. Also, why doesn’t anyone ask what Aisha brought to the relationship? What was she doing for him?
As for Musa/Riven, it’s literally dangerous to look for a guy like him. Love can sometimes heal minor wounds and flaws, but he has major issues. He’s not even emotionally available to Musa, yet the fandom thinks they’re soulmates? Huh?
I’m scared for the people in the fandom who wanna find their own Riven. I hope they never do.
Amazing article!
So I’m guessing your a Nex stan who thinks all of the other relationships Aisha has had are bad.
What’s wrong with being a Nex stan? I’m sorry but Nex didn’t do anything wrong or morally questionable, UNLIKE RIVEN. Or, even better, unlike Icy. The same Icy who got her stupid redemption arc and the fans suddenly forgot about what was she doing during SIX SEASONS.
Not to be rude, but if Nabu has stans despite Rainbow didn’t develop his character that well (heck, they didn’t probably even plan him as a temporary boyfriend for Aisha!) AND if Riven has stans, then what’s wrong with Nex having stans?
There’s nothing wrong with being a Nex stan. But for me personally, I don’t like it when people say, “Well, you like Nex” or “You’re a Nex stan” because the implication is usually, “You like Aisha and Nex because you like Nex.” And since the Winx fandom tends to judge the couples based on the guys more so than on the relationships themselves, it’s not surprising that that accusation exists.
But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love Aisha and Nex together more than Nex by himself. Yes, I like him, but a love interest exists to serve the needs of the protagonist and their story. If the audience loves the love interest more than they love the protagonist, I think that’s a problem. Aisha is more important than Nabu, Roy, and Nex combined.
Actually I didn’t think of Nex much but I loved the relationship with Aisha but since season 7 I think he’s my favourite.
I didn’t like Nex at first, either. But I started to understand what Rainbow was doing around episode 7 of season 6. That was the first time we saw a softer moment from him: getting tongue-tied in front of Aisha, then walking away heartbroken when she gave him the cold shoulder.
That’s when I realized that was the point all along. Rainbow didn’t create an arrogant character just for the fun of it. They meant for her to be the one who humbles him. That scene combined with their teamwork, their mutual love of sports, how they support each other, etc. — not to mention learning that their names mean “Life and Death” — made me fall in love with them. ? It all clicked for me.
A Nex stan? No, I’m not. Do I like Nex? Yes. But is he the reason why I like him and Aisha together? No. I love the two of them as a couple more than I like him alone.
That’s one of the problems I have with shipping, especially in the Winx fandom. It always comes down to whether or not you like the love interest, not the couple. But a relationship is about two people, not one.
I encourage you to read some of my other posts for the full explanation for why I prefer Aisha and Nex.
Now I see why people didn’t like Nex or Roy. And yes it was because of the fact that they killed off Nabu but more importantly before people see this as oh your just another Nabu stan which I am not, sure I prefer Naisha(Nabu x Aisha) but people fail to understand we had just met Nabu the season before he died and knew a small spec about him and then Season 4 happened right when he proposed to Aisha then he died and to make sure he wasn’t going to come back they wrote in the whole Ogron pouring the Black Gift on a dead flower which was a dick move on Rainbow and Iginio’s part mainly because A. they brought racial things into the matter as to why Nabu was killed off(which is what most arguments between Nex vs Roy vs Nabu often are about or mainly because of their personalities.) And why Aisha suffered more than the other girls. B. Aisha only grieved for one epsiode of Season 5 and then it was like Nabu never existed in the first place and Roy was in the picture and I don’t know why they added both Nabu and Roy to the Specialists when it was made clear they didn’t go to Red Fountain. Then the god awful season 6 and Thoren and Nex were introduced(I don’t like Thoren or the fact they retconned Daphne’s sacrifice to she was cursed by Sirenix.) then Nex and Roy bullshitty love triangle. Roy vanished and Nexisha was born. It would have been a lot more interesting if they killed off Sky or Riven and it would have hit a lot harder because both have been here since the very beginning and with Riven trying to change his ways and Sky being engaged to Bloom also more Roxy screen time to save her mentor. Also Romi Dames doing more emotional scenes for Musa and scenes for Tecna because she’s a Winx too. So this is why I feel indiffer to Nexisha because of the fact of how rainbow executed Nabu and his character arc with Aisha also Roy x Nex would have been a true Yin-Yang couple given their personalities and made for better character scenes well in my opinion watch this video (the beginning) for a more in depth of what I’m trying to get across here
One more thing. You’re basically saying you don’t support Aisha and Nex because you don’t like how Rainbow ended her relationship with Nabu. But what I’m saying is that Aisha and Nabu’s love story didn’t work to begin with.
Three things I look for in a love interest are:
By that last part, I don’t mean gains a partner. That’s a given. I mean that dating the protagonist should benefit the love interest in some way, preferably in terms of character growth.
The guy who best fits those criteria for Aisha is Nex. Think about it. The fandom often talks about how Aisha benefitted from dating Nabu, but how did Nabu benefit from dating her? How did she change him as a person?
She didn’t. Nabu’s character peaked in season three. He gained nothing as a character from being with Aisha. Part of the problem is that he was too similar to her, except that Rainbow removed the flaws that Aisha struggled with.
Have you ever noticed that? Despite having the same backstory, Nabu had none of the flaws Aisha has. A backstory is supposed to help explain a character’s behavior and motivations, but Nabu’s backstory had no connection to his character at all, except being Aisha’s love interest.
The funny thing is he contradicted his motivations by agreeing to marry her. Didn’t he wanna choose his own life? Then why would he marry the princess of Andros, which would mean that his career (king) and the place he would live (Andros Palace) were already decided for him?
As for Roy, he also wouldn’t have benefited from dating Aisha. Like I said, he had already made it to a high station without her. Now, the benefit to the love interest should be internal, such as dealing with their flaws. But Roy’s flaws weren’t holding him back.
To quote author Angela Ackerman of the blog Writers Helping Writers, a flaw is:
Did Roy’s flaws cause him to ignore other people’s well-being? No. As the fandom loves to say, he was a nice guy. Did they damage his relationships? No. People loved him, and a king trusted him. Did they hold him back? Like I said, no.
His character had essentially peaked, too. He didn’t need Aisha. (This is all true for Nabu, too. In fact, what were his flaws?)
Nex is the only one of Aisha’s love interests who benefits from dating her. His flaw is arrogance. Does it cause him to ignore other people’s well-being? Definitely. Does it damage his relationships? Yes. Other people think he’s annoying when they first meet him, so he’s forced to make up for his bad first impressions. Does it hold him back? Yes. It deludes him into thinking he’s better than others, thus he doesn’t need to grow.
Aisha influences him in at least three ways:
This encourages him to become a better version of himself.
At the same time, Nex is more outgoing than Aisha. Remember how she hates being alone? The problem is she’s still not good in social situations. She also has a tendency to push people away when she needs them most.
Season eight demonstrated how because of Nex’s sociability, he’s able to help her open up more and be willing to ask for help when she needs it. I wrote about their relationship development in that season here: “4 Reasons Why Aisha and Nex’s Winx 8 Relationship Development Was Amazing”.
As for how Nex fits into Aisha’s story, I talked about that in these posts: “Aisha in Winx Season 3: ‘I’ll Choose My Guy'” and “You Can’t Hurry Love: Why This Relationship is Different For Aisha”.
Bottom line: this isn’t just about which guy I like more or how Rainbow handled one love story or another. I’m looking at the big picture.
I have a lot to say, so I decided to split it into multiple comments.
Can’t argue with you there. Season six was poorly executed, the love triangle was stupid, and retconning Daphne’s death and marrying her off to Thoren was a bad decision. However, I think I know why they happened.
The love triangle was obviously because Rainbow had settled on Aisha/Nex, but this deadweight they created in season five named Roy was in the way. They had to acknowledge Aisha and Roy’s maybe relationship while transitioning her to dating Nex. So…love triangle. Best option? No, but that’s what they went with.
As for Daphne and Thoren, I think that happened because Rainbow realized they screwed up Bloom’s story. If Bloom had married Sky, as was implied by the ending of Secret of the Lost Kingdom, she would have become the queen of Eraklyon, not Domino. That means Domino would have still been without an heir. Rainbow actually referenced this plot hole at the beginning of Magical Adventure.
Their solution: revive Daphne, the other princess of Domino. Now she and Thoren can rule Domino, while Bloom and Sky rule Eraklyon. Best option? No, but to be fair, Daphne was always an exception to the rules of death. For example, she mentioned needing sleep to restore her energy in SotLK. Why would a dead person need sleep? They’re already sleeping forever!
I agree with you, but the fans would have reacted the same way, especially if Riven had died. Look what happened when Rainbow just wrote him off and sent him away. I can’t imagine how the fans would have rioted if Rainbow had killed him off instead!
Character deaths always make people angry. It doesn’t matter who dies. If the audience had an emotional connection to the character, they’ll be upset. But the audience needs to have an emotional connection to the character in order for their death to matter! So it’s a catch-22.
I’m not gonna watch the video. Sorry. But I’ll still address this.
People think that a yin-yang couple is a pair of polar opposites: two people who are different in almost every way. Nex (yang) and Roy (yin) certainly were. They were the typical “red oni, blue oni”, literally.
But as one source put it:
Nex and Roy were too different from each other. This gives the illusion of chemistry, since conflict is a necessary ingredient for it. But chemistry alone doesn’t sustain a relationship. It has to be balanced out by a sense of unity and understanding, which comes more from similarities or mutual goals. And Nex has more in common with Aisha than with Roy.
Another problem with them — and frankly, with Aisha/Roy, too — is that Roy had nothing to gain from being in a relationship. He had no flaws or struggles that were holding him back as a person. Heck, he had already become the assistant to the king of Andros without Aisha’s help. So it would have been a one-sided relationship where only one partner benefitted. (Aisha and Nabu were that way, too).
Anyway, a true yin-yang couple is one where the partners are somewhat different from each other, not total opposites. That’s why Aisha and Nex are a better example. I’m actually working on a post about this, so I’ll save my thoughts for then.
I suppose you didn’t read any of my other posts.
Anyway, I think Rainbow was never committed to Aisha and Nabu as a couple. Rather, they created Nabu because when the series was about to end — because let’s face it, season three was gonna be the last season — Aisha was the only Winx without a love interest. Rainbow needed a simple, easy-to-digest love story that would imply a happy ending we would never see.
So they took Aisha, gender-bent her, and called him “Nabu”. I say that because, from a functional standpoint, Aisha and Nabu were the same character. They had the same backstory and the same external struggles. He was a wizard, but how is a wizard in Winx Club that different from a fairy? Rainbow couldn’t have made him a fairy, anyway, because he would have been too much like the Winx, and male fairies aren’t well-established in the canon. So a wizard was the best alternative.
Rainbow also made this an arranged marriage. Why? Simple — because it implied that Aisha and Nabu would eventually get married. If season three had been the last season, we would have never seen the couple date on screen, but this way, we could assume that everything worked out.
The problem is the arranged marriage and their love story contradicted their shared backstory. I talked about that in this post: “How Nabu Nullified Aisha’s Story”.
As for Nabu’s proposal in season four, that was only to raise the stakes before his death. Which is worse: losing your boyfriend or losing your fiancé? The latter implies that the characters had plans for their future together, so when one of them dies, those plans are immediately canceled.
This evokes an emotion in the audience called “weltschmerz”. As this writer explains, weltschmerz is “the sadness caused by comparing how the world actually is against how we feel it should be”. In Aisha and Nabu’s case (and often the case for many character deaths), it’s comparing a fantasy of their future together as husband and wife to the reality of his death, thus making the death sadder.
Rainbow didn’t bring racial things into the matter. The fans did.
People often assume the worst when they don’t understand the situation. Saying that Rainbow killed Nabu off because he had dark skin is a knee-jerk reaction that makes people feel justified in their outrage. But does anyone have any proof? Of course not.
Also, since the fandom loves Nabu, they don’t wanna dig into his character and the way he was written for possible answers. After all, doing so might ruin the illusion that he was the perfect love interest. So they look for easy explanations. He had dark skin, so that’s why Rainbow killed him off. There. Done.
She has suffered more…but that also makes her a better character than the other Winx.
Bloom gets everything she wants, even if she has to bend the laws of the universe. Stella is basically just the comic relief. Flora has barely been developed. Musa’s story revolves more around Riven than her own desires. And Tecna has been reduced to the computer nerd.
Aside from Bloom, Aisha has had the most development of all the Winx. But she’s also had to overcome more than Bloom has, making her a more inspiring character overall. Yes, she has suffered more, but what writers understand that fans don’t is that the protagonists can’t have it easy. Things have to go wrong for them.
This post explains my thoughts better: “To Pass Through Fire”.
I’m planning to write a non-Winx fan story about Aisha and Nex. And they will both suffer.
I agree that Aisha didn’t mourn Nabu long enough, and that’s why one reason why I don’t support her and Roy together. It didn’t make sense. The fact that she was still getting over her dead fiancé should have been more of an obstacle for Roy. Instead, it felt like Rainbow was desperately throwing another guy at her because once again, she was the only Winx without a love interest. Gotta fix that fast!
For that reason, I see Roy as just a rebound.
Also someone I could see dating Bloom is Selina literally the have a better chemistry than whatever Bloom and Sky have and It would have given both Bloom and Selina more character and backstory. Also this me saying Bloom is high key bi and was in love with Selina before she left and seeing her again reignited those feelings.
Also I know they don’t have any scenes besides the ones they have but Musando(Musa/Orlando) is my otp for Musa. It was refreshing to see Musa not argue for almost every scene she was in.