Why The Winx Fandom Assumes the Worst About Nex
Talking to the Winx fandom has made me realize one of the biggest problems with Nex’s character: we don’t know him. Rainbow rarely lets us get inside his head or feel his emotions. The only time I can think of was in the first Sirenix arc in Winx season eight, when he tried to help Aisha. We saw his disappointment, his fear, his determination — his humanity.
But that was it. Unless you can think of another time, that was it. To make things worse, he doesn’t have a backstory to explain his behavior. Because of this, the Winx fandom makes assumptions about him — negative ones, of course.
Why did he pursue Aisha? He saw her as a challenge. Or he wanted to beat her at sports. Or he wants to become king of Andros. (Huh?)
Why did he call her “beautiful” during their date in “A Friend From The Past” (Winx season 7, episode 5)? Because he only loves her for her looks.
Why did he become a Paladin and later a Specialist? For fame and glory. Or he’s secretly a villain trying to destroy the squad from the inside.
These fans never consider what Rainbow intended for Nex’s character. They don’t even care if what they believe is canonically accurate or not. All that matters is they don’t like him, so anything negative about him is true.
That’s why one of my priorities for my Aisha/Nex fanfiction is to humanize him. Something that will help is letting my readers see the world through his eyes. What does he really think of Aisha? What does he really think of himself? Does he enjoy his life? What does he struggle with internally?
Instead of assuming, they’ll know — and hopefully, they’ll relate to him for the first time. They’ll root for him for the first time. They’ll care about him as a character and as a person for the first time.
One can only make informed assumptions formulated into arguments becouse said blackwhole
What’s inside his head? for me it’s something around what he thinks it would be right to be done for each situation depending on how much information he has to formulate a course of action and the goal to archive.
Example: thinking it would be fine saying hello with a flirting line to some random fairies hanging around training area who he might not even stay in touch with would be a fine ice breaker and might actually be normaly responded with a “hi random guy I’m “X” mission is this, help with it cause it’s your job to do so” or a “sory, I have boyfriend, mission is this” and not a scene with the boyfriends of those random fairies and the one who is single…
That unesesary dramma is what bothers me of the whole situation, In this scene Nex didn’t had the entire context to begin with and he is expected to catch up without adding anything else than one more reinforcement for the operation (like Roy) so since the start paladins felt like some new talented guys (like Roxy or Mirta) who were set up to fail in staying at the team (like Roxy and Mirta) and it felt like it because Thoren and Nex talked and had diferent views than the stablished teams.
Why is he a paladin?
Assumption one: that was his goal and he archived it
Assumption two: That is the education he was given to work with.
I asumed the second one because Helio was prone to arts and aparently he had no option but to study in the military, Sky should have been in Politics school of Eraklyon but Red Fountain was safer and has great status in tge magic dimension, Timmy is a computer tech and likes programming and startegy over fighting and nothing is said of why he is in the military, Nabu prlbably had no other thing at hand than learn magic because yes.
That and the fact they were minors didn’t leave a choise for them to refuse going to the prestigious schools they were signed in before turning legal .
I don’t think Musa would chose Alfea over “Golden Auditorium school for musicians” if it wasn’t for his father trying to acomodate her in the most prestigious school neither.
For the looks of it he seems fine with being paladin so it is more probable that he chose to become what he is.
Why he chose to persue Aisha?
The italian description and ALL oficial descriptions points out that he came to be impresed by Aisha’s attitude. Futher elaboration can be found in this website.
That, this is where fandom gets Berserk, the official pages make canonicall the fact he likes her for her personality and not because [Incert some conspiracy teory here].
Will follow up Nex character-arc, good luck with the project and forgive the /toughtsrant , I just like well written characters and minor suport characters with deep motivations.
That’s a good point. Nex didn’t know the Specialists (or the Winx), so it’s not like he already knew Roy had any interest in Aisha. Only we, the viewers, knew.
Of course, she didn’t tell Nex Roy was her boyfriend, which means…he wasn’t. That Aisha/Roy fan’s “mutual connection” argument is weak since Aisha herself didn’t treat the supposed connection as enough to disqualify Nex as a potential boyfriend. So saying he should have stepped aside for Roy’s sake is sexist. It cuts her out of the conversation, as if the guys (specifically Roy) had the right to set the table for her. If she didn’t have her heart set on him, he couldn’t make another guy, especially a stranger, back off.
Winx Club doesn’t have good worldbuilding, does it? We don’t even know what the Specialists and Paladins are. Are they magical beings? Griffin called the Specialists “wizards” in season one.
We also don’t know the education system in the Magical Dimension. Alfea is a three-year college (high school), but in season one, Griselda said five years. (Retcons out the wazoo!) Do fairies learn math and literature, or do they only learn magic? I assume it’s the latter, since we have seen other non-magic schools. But if that’s the case, the Winx are missing a chuck of fundamental knowledge!
As for the Specialists and Paladins, we only know they learn how to fight monsters. Is Redfountain a private or public school? If a guy doesn’t want to be a fighter or a wizard, where does he go? And what are guys like Timmy and Helia, a computer nerd and a pacifist with some magic ability, doing in a military school?
Nex probably had no choice like you said, but we have no way to know.
As for Musa, how did she get into Alfea if her family was poor? Come to think of it, her financial situation has never come up in the show except in her parents’ backstory. And in season five when we met her father again, we saw that they own a nice beach house. That didn’t look like poverty.
The fandom doesn’t care about the canon and official statements from Rainbow. They only care about details that support their negative opinion of him, and the distortion of his character is getting more and more out of control. I even saw a fan suggest Roy disappeared at the end of season six because Nex “did something to him” — i.e., killed him or something. They think he’s so depraved, they don’t even put murder past him!
I know his name means “death”, but guys…seriously? Seriously? In a kids’ show? And I thought I had a wild imagination.
Redeeming and humanizing him will be nearly impossible, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try. The fact that they compare him to Riven means they know Nex has that same kind of growth and story potential. He could be an amazing character, and he deserves a chance to prove it.
As for the Specialists i go by what was stated in the Arthur Dub (as i like to call Cinelumè for obvious reasons) trailer for seasons 1 and 2. They’re Knights and Specialists is what Sky’s squad calls themselves since it makes more sense (even if Winx continuity is along the lines Wonder Woman Wonky) and the paladins? 4kids has the only description for them (apparently the magical equivalent of the Specialists that are also medics) and since we know so little about the guys we can count it.
Then there’s the Avalon plot. Fake Avalon was literally a puff of smoke according to Darkar. Darkar. Now that was insidious. The Bird-Darkest Knight actually villified thin air….definitely more horrible than anyone else the Winx would ever face. Although the Black Circle and Valtor are also the other best villains. I mean these 5 are the only ones who actually directly interfered with the Winx lives…and only Darkar and Valtor ever succeeded in almost defeating the Winx. If the L-Word hadn’t been said….well…Magix would be seriously messed up….and i would rather not think about Tecna potentially being permanently defeated. If anyone dares try to hurt Stella though just to get back at Bloom, that’s going nuclear as the minimum.
In regards to Nex, you go girl! If anyone can put a positive spin on this guy, you can!