NEXX! vs. Nex, Pt. I: NEXX!, A Caricature of a Character

Back in the Una di Noi Winx era, one of my readers liked to add an extra “x” to Nex’s name. When I asked them about it, they said, “It doesn’t matter. He’s a worthless character. Who cares if I spell his name right?” (I’m paraphrasing.)

Needless to say, they hated Nex. I think they thought he was secretly a villain, or that he should have been one. They noticed his behavior improved in Winx season seven, but they called the change “arbitrary”. He must have been putting on an act — pretending to be a good person — to please Aisha.

In fact, the reader didn’t even think Nex has a conscience. He can’t care about anyone except himself, and he can’t make selfless decisions. Even when he risks his life for someone, it’s only because he wants to impress them, or he’s just doing his job as a Paladin (or Specialist).

Does any of that line up with what Rainbow says about Nex? Of course not. Just read his season six character description…which my reader dismissed as false. It called him “friendly” (amichevole)? Someone must have given the writer the wrong information!

Well, five years later, Rainbow released an official guide to Winx Club with the same information. Looks like it wasn’t a mistake. Whether my reader believes it or not, Nex isn’t supposed to be as horrible as they and many other Winx fans think he is.

How horrible do they think he is? What do they see when they look at Nex? Let’s meet their version of him, shall we? We’ll call him “NEXX!”, in honor of my reader.

Meet NEXX!

NEXX! is a bossy, grouchy egomaniac with a rebellious nature, a dark personality, and a hateful heart — you know, like Riven. Is he one of Darkar’s monsters? Is he an evil sorcerer like Valtor? Did he infiltrate the heroes’ team to destroy them from the inside? We’ll find out…eventually.

Most people hate NEXX!, so he tends to keep to himself. But if someone dares to approach him, they’re automatically his opponent. Everyone is competition in NEXX!’s eyes, so he trains constantly to prepare for the next challenge. But it’s never enough — his desire to perfect his skills is insatiable.

When it comes to love, he’s a hopeless romantic — that is, he’s hopeless at being romantic. Love don’t mean a thing to NEXX!. All he wants is a good time, so he’ll woo any woman who walks by. He wants to be the greatest player in the Magic Dimension!

There’s just one problem: he hates women. He spews misogynistic comments like it’s his favorite hobby, so any self-respecting gal he seduces is gone in a flash. Oh, well. Plenty more cows in the pasture, right?

…Okay, I need to stop. I feel sick. ?

Is this really what the Winx fandom thinks Nex is like? Sadly, yes. I exaggerated it (obviously), but I didn’t make any of it up. It all came from comments and descriptions by Winx fans over the past six years. For example:

• Most of the first two paragraphs came from Nex’s Italian Winx Wiki page. (UPDATE: Not anymore! After four or five years, someone finally fixed it.)
• “Like Riven” came from too many Winx fans to count. ?
• “The greatest player” came from that blogger I often cite. Even though she saw potential in Nex, she also said he courted Aisha “to prove he is the ultimate player”. It may have been a joke, but I doubt it since she also called him “a womanizer and a flirt”. Combine that with all the Winx fanfics out there where Nex is a womanizer.
• “Spews misogynistic comments” came from that Tumblr Winx fan I mentioned in my post about Aisha’s comics-only love interests. For some reason, the fan thinks Nex has “a penchant for misogynist language”.

Final Thoughts

Before comments got disabled, a Winx fan on YouTube declared that Nex is not only wrong for Aisha, but also wrong for Winx Club itself. I agree with the second part of that statement. A character as nasty and immoral as what I described doesn’t belong in this series.

So why would Rainbow make a character like that, anyway?

They wouldn’t. And they didn’t.

The fan thought they were talking about Nex, but they were really talking about NEXX!, the caricature created by the Winx fandom. The real Nex isn’t perfect; he’s said and done some unpleasant things (and so have the other characters). But he’s nowhere near as vile as whoever that guy is.

So what went wrong? How did the fandom get these ideas about Nex, and why hasn’t he been able to override them?

Next time: “How Nex Become NEXX!”.