Winx Fandom, Why Doesn’t Nex Deserve To Be Forgiven?
Nabu stalked Aisha in Winx season three. It’s something the fandom doesn’t talk about much. Instead, they just say she “had to learn to trust him”. Hmmm…I wonder why.
Some fans don’t even remember he stalked her! One such fan got mad at me when I reminded them. “Nabu would never do that!” they said. Sorry. Just the facts. ?♀️
As for the fans who haven’t forgotten, why don’t they talk about it? For starters, Rainbow downplayed it in the story, so most viewers didn’t see it as a big deal. Yet in real life, Aisha could have gotten him arrested! Stalking is a crime in many countries, including Italy, and the punishment ranges from fines to jail time (as much as 10 years in the U.S., depending on severity).
Of course, the Winx fandom doesn’t see Nabu as a criminal. They forgave him — I guess you could say “pardoned” him — years ago, especially after he died saving the Earth fairies.
Yet they still won’t forgive Nex almost three seasons later for cheating on an obstacle course.
One hold-up is they’re convinced he wanted to injure Roy. Some have even said “kill”. Yes, “kill”, a word Rainbow can’t even use in dialogue. Those fans actually believe a hero — a love interest at that — would attempt murder, in a room full of witnesses (including his crush), in a magical girl show aimed at four-year-old girls. ?♀️
Even “injure” is a stretch. If Nex wanted to hurt him, wouldn’t it have been better to knock him out of the air? Or move the final platform? Kicking the hoop was the least effective option!
“Well, Roy could have gotten hurt,” you say. “Nex endangered his life!”
Fine. I’ll give you that. But he tried to atone for it at the end of the same episode by charging in front of a basilisk, endangering his own life, to save Roy. What happened? It turned Nex to stone.
That could have been the end of his life. The Winx didn’t know how to change him back — or if they could. A life for a life. Isn’t that a fair trade?
If only the Winx fandom remembered this scene. Many, including that fan who wrote the long comment on YouTube, thought he didn’t make up for his actions until randomly in “Legendary Duel” (Winx season 6, episode 24). Strange, isn’t it? The fandom forgot Nabu’s crime, but they forgot Nex’s redemption.
Riven’s Betrayal
We can’t talk about characters behaving badly without bringing up the OG: Riven. Even I’d forgotten how unpleasant he was in Winx season one. And unlike with Nabu and Nex, it wasn’t a few moments here and there. Instead, in almost every scene for the first 20 episodes or so, Riven insulted people, picked fights with the other Specialists, and undermined the team’s plans by insisting on doing things his way.
But his worst offense was his Face-Heel Turn in “Betrayed!” (Winx season 1, episode 8), a.k.a. “Riven’s Betrayal” (Il Tradimento di Riven), when he joined the Trix. Why did he do it? For power.
No, really. That’s what Darcy offered him:
DARCY: You’re a very special person, Riven. It’s too bad, though.
RIVEN: What’s too bad?
DARCY: The fact that your talent, your energy, your ambition and courage should be wasted at Redfountain. You could be so much more! If you were one of us, you could be even more powerful!
RIVEN: Go on…
Not only did he not gain power, but his actions helped the Trix conquer Magix. Cloud Tower became their lair. Redfountain was destroyed. Magix City became a ghost town with windows shattered and people strewn about, covered in ichor.
But we know this nightmare had a happy ending. After he realized Darcy used him, Riven finally saw the error of his ways. He returned to the group and fought by their side to save the realm.
Earning Forgiveness
So, we have Nabu the stalker, Riven the troublemaker and traitor, and Nex the cheater. They all made bad first impressions. They all hurt and/or annoyed people, even their loved ones. But they all made up for what they did and showed their redeeming qualities: selflessness, heroism, love, supportiveness, helpfulness, and the ability to change.
The Winx fandom forgave Nabu and Riven…but not Nex.
No matter how helpful he is to the team, it’s never good enough. No matter how much he risks his life for others, it’s never good enough. No matter how hard he cheers for Aisha, no matter how much he encourages and comforts her, no matter how many times he proves he’ll always be there for her, it’s never good enough.
Yet when you criticize other characters, like Nabu or Riven, the fandom brings up these same behaviors as reasons to forgive them for their wrongdoing.
So, Winx fandom, what does Nex have to do to earn your forgiveness?
I don’t know what, if anything, would make these people see Nex differently. I know there were some people who warmed up to him in season eight, so all we can really hope is more good scenes with them.
We certainly know that Nex won’t be getting more exposure/redemption from the absolute garbage fire that is Fate: The Winx Saga. If you don’t know, they released some new casting for season 2, and we’re finally getting Flora, actually played by a Latinx person. Other than that, they added two guys, named Grey and Sebastian. Honestly, I’m glad that Nex isn’t in that show, because they’ve already mangled Aisha’s character.
I know I’ve said this before, but Nex has had a lot of things going against him from the beginning: being introduced late in the series, the love triangle, Aisha’s previous relationship with Nabu, Rainbow toning down the relationships after season four, the silly comparisons to Riven, Rainbow lowering the target audience of the show.
Nex has just never had a fair chance. ? I don’t hold much hope that future season(s) will make a difference, since he’s already been in the show for three seasons, and things have stayed practically the same. But who knows? Maybe something even more amazing than the first Sirenix arc will happen with him and Aisha in Winx season nine. I’ll keep crossing my fingers.
As for Fate: The Winx Saga, that show is already dead to me. Those guys’ names sound stupid (also, wasn’t there a Sebastian in World of Winx?), and I don’t get why they keep adding new characters instead of introducing the existing ones. And still no Tecna. Go figure. Thanks for nothing, Netflix.
I have no interest in that pile of crap. Even though I don’t follow Winx news anymore, I care more about what’s happening with Winx Club.
A running gag about Tecna’s absence in Fate is that she deleted herself from it when she saw how even the Omega Dimension gets a warmer reception than fate. Also fans of Winx had a good idea about how they could have casted Tecna without necessarily having to involve her directly in the action, but more in a Daphne style role. Simply put take notes from Aelita Hopper and Winxify that. I mean Tecna and Aelita look like they could be sisters so why not?
Nex has everything against him, including his name. Actually that’s the biggest thing the Nabu shippers hate about it. Nex being representative of death. They’re so afraid of it (which is understandable as the topic is uncomfortable, but also part of life.), but I don’t think that the Winx fans should view him as Peter Pan because he’s not otherwise Aisha would be considered his Wendy Moira Angela Darling. He’s way too nice, because as we know in the original story, Peter Pan is A) A Kid and B) A less frightening version of an Endsville Resident. Nex is neither of those things. He has more in common with Spanish traditions concerning death personality wise. Maybe if Rainbow accented that? I mean Nex even looks Castillian Spanish.
It’s frustrating. If not for Nabu, maybe the Winx fandom would think Aisha and Nex’s life/death symbolism was clever. It still is, but they’ll never be able to appreciate it. Nex should have been her boyfriend from the get-go, as he really is Rainbow’s best concept for her love interest. They even worked the idea of being afraid of death into his character. But unfortunately it took them almost a decade to come up with this, and now it’s lost on this fandom. ?
Now I know the answer, we are watching complete diferent shows !!!
Sory beforehand for writting this much, after seing this absolute joke of image I can’t tell why am I expecting something: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/716072409494762431/ I mean, SilverWinx hasn’t updated, LiveJournal Winx Comics and Tumblr shot down, Michaels Winx Club closed, even WinxClubAllSpain aint posting more than once every two months or so. Tbh even the fanfic world is disapointing, most next gen and reboots [like almost magical] pretends Nabu never died and seasons 6,7 and 8 to never had hapened.
My conclusion is that everyone is on a great denial after the shock factor of season 4 the collective desided a magical fairy show can’t be in a diferent line than the classic disney formula so the “guardian fairies ” must revive Nabu and retire to live married and with kids while the planetary defence forces deal with the season 5 to 8 villians. If season 8 new art didn’t work as a conversion terapy to show no matter if the art is bad the past happened and time goes on even if they return to previous transformations they are older and will change gradually their dressing code/ prioritys and jealously relationship problems then nothing would. Perhaps that was the realisation of the creative team if the reboot rumor is true, they can’t repair the fandom’s issues so dividing them into Fate followers and Cartoon CGI followers and no guys apart from the fan favorite (Sky/Riven) might get things easier to handle cause that will also make the stuck in the past fans drop the show entirely.
The bush stalking arranged marriage guy was forgiven in season 4 for being usefull.
Riven was forgiven because of hot (?) helping Bloom in the sewers and being the only one woth no bias againts witches.
The yacht driver over protective guy never did something memorable but got in a bad spot by getting jelaous in a horrible written love triangle.
Sky got forgiven of cheating Diaspro with Bloom because Diaspro is a toxic person.
Thimy didn’t fight back at a lost cause in a classic heroic sacrifice moment to get the charmix and it shouldn’t had been a big deal and it got forgiven in my point of view by being treated badly in Alfea. [ still think he is the one to need compensation from the others or at least an apresiation day]
Thoren got forgiven of running away as a kid from armored ninjas and talking to princess Diaspro who he didn’t knew beforehand because those were lame points to have a grudge againts.
Now Nex in the other hand only had a small rivality with Roy just like Riven and Sky but it never got to obsesive fights .. *sight* then we wonder why guys never get character arcs.
Ironic is there are more Valtor shippers and Black Wizards are cool artist than fanfics making character arcs for the specialist.
To answer the last question of the post I really think there is nothing to ask to be forgiven in Nex arc, what it might lack is to have him a solo Gary-stue moment to show-off his character to the fans. Just like what they did with Helia and Nabu.