Aisha and Nex: Wind and Water

Posted On June 22, 2020

I planned to publish this years ago on my old blog, but I guess I waited too long. A lot of this isn’t relevant anymore, but I still think this was Rainbow’s original idea for Aisha and Nex. So here we go!

This post is a follow-up to “Yin and Yang”, which explained how Aisha and Nex are like “Zutara”. Now let’s talk about how they are — or were — “Kataang” as well. (Wow, they’re so versatile! Everyone wins!)

Aisha is a water fairy. No, she doesn’t call herself The Fairy of Water, but she gets her power from water, her symbol is a drop of water, and the word “water” appears in some of her spell names. Plus, in “La Prova di Nex” (Nex’s Test), Winx season seven, and World of Winx, we ~~finally~~ saw her “waterbend”.

If we stick with the Avatar: The Last Airbender theme, Nex was an “airbender”. He wielded the Halberd of the Wind, which generated wind gusts and tornadoes to blow his enemies away. Ideally, his element should have been fire, but we can’t have two firebenders in the group, can we, Bloom?

Thankfully, wind wasn’t taken, and it was the perfect alternative. In fact, it added a layer to Aisha and Nex’s symbolism that fire couldn’t have. To quote myself from “Yin and Yang”:

Not only does [wind] complement water as well as fire does, but it also enhances Aisha’s character concept of “Life”.

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Feng Shui

No, I’m not about to talk about interior decorating. Feng shui is more than that. Here’s how Chinese-American YouTuber Mikey Chen explained it in one of his videos:

The Chinese words “feng shui” mean “wind” and “water” [respectively]. Wind and water are two natural elements that flow, move, and circulate everywhere on Earth. They’re almost the most basic elements for human survival.

Read that last part again: “the most basic elements for human survival”. All living things on Earth need air and water. Without either of them, we’d die. What is wind? Moving air. Voilà.

Mikey Chen then talks about “qi” (a.k.a “chi”). According to Chinese philosophy, qi is the vital energy that exists in all living things. “Wind and water are the direct carriers of this qi,” he says, “and all living elements contain them.”

“Them” means all three forces: wind, water, and qi. So to sum it up: “wind + water + energy = life”.

Wind (air) and water are everywhere, even in each other! Along with keeping us alive, they make waves, regulate climate, and shape the earth through erosion. They’re an underrated team, just like Aisha and Nex. ?

But these two elements can also interfere with each other. For example, if your lungs fill with water instead of air, you die. Water doesn’t belong there. And the wind can dry you out, which means you lose moisture (water) from your body. So wind and water have a life/death dynamic, too, but everything’s fine as long as they stay balanced.

Bottom line: not only does Nex’s name (“death”) complement Aisha’s name (“life”), but his element (wind) also complemented her power source (water). That’s one reason why I chose March 22 as his birthday. I wanted to support their wind/water theme.

Final Thoughts

Rainbow ditched Nex’s Halberd of the Wind in Winx season eight, so he and Aisha aren’t wind and water anymore — at least for now. Who knows what’ll happen if there’s a season nine? I like to think some of these changes, especially to the Specialists, were just for the space theme.