Yin Aisha (Winx Club) vs. Yang Aisha (World of Winx)

Back on the old blog, one of my readers blamed Nex for Aisha’s aggressiveness in World of Winx. “His personality rubbed off on her,” they said. (I’m paraphrasing.) That was his personality? I beg to differ. He’s nowhere near as intense and irritable as World of Winx Aisha was!

Also, World of Winx took place in an alternate universe where the Specialists didn’t exist. In “The Fashion Week” (World of Winx season 1, episode 6), Stella pointed out to Bloom a couple of guys who looked like Sky and Brandon, and Bloom called them “excessive”. A lot of fans felt that was Rainbow’s tongue-in-cheek way of writing the Winx’s boyfriends out.

So Aisha’s behavior had nothing to do with Nex, but that got me thinking recently. Winx Club Aisha is yin, and Nex is yang, right? So if World of Winx Aisha seemed more like him (at least to that fan), we could think of her as the yang version of Aisha.

Of course, the Winx fandom thinks she’s already yang. But if we compare her to another version of herself, maybe that’ll help explain why she’s more yin. So here are some differences between Yin Aisha (Winx Club) and Yang Aisha (World of Winx).

Their Personalities

I once got into a pointlessly heated debate with a Winx fan on DeviantArt who claimed Aisha was back to her “true self” in World of Winx. By “true self”, they meant the way she was in Winx season two and three. All I have to say is: what the heck version of Winx Club did they watch?

Remember my post “Did Aisha Act Out of Character in the Winx 8 Sirenix Arc?” I wrote it because of how people see Aisha as some kind of stoic Amazon instead of a normal girl with insecurities. Here’s how she acted in Winx season two. (It’s the same list from that post.)

• She cried at least four times, sometimes in minor situations like when she felt left out or said something awkward.
• She was scared of the dark.
• She freaked out whenever she was alone.
• She panicked and shot Morphix beams indiscriminately at a bunch of gang members at a Gardenia nightclub in “The Invisible Pixies” (Winx season 2, episode 13).

Does that sound anything like Yang Aisha? It sure doesn’t to me! Yes, she was also bad in social situations, but she never cried over it! She dealt with emotions with her fists more often than her tears. (More on that in a moment.)

The debate proved that the Winx fandom has pigeonholed Yin Aisha as “the rough-and-tumble girl”. But that’s only half of her character. By overemphasizing that side of her and downplaying the other, they’ve reduced her to a stereotypical tomboy.

But remember that quote from her moodboard:

Don’t you think a girl can have both a wild heart and a flowing dress?

Just because Aisha loves sports and kicks butt on the battlefield doesn’t mean she isn’t feminine. People are too complex for any label we put on them. We each have a mixture of personality traits, some of which contradict each other.

In Aisha’s case, her contradictions reflect her element, water. Water is both a force of nature and essential to life. It can drown you and destroy buildings, yet the sound of it calms your mind, and drinking it restores your energy and helps maintain your health.

In the same way, Yin Aisha is bold and powerful, yet also tender and nurturing. Think of her relationship with Piff, for example. In “The Shadow Phoenix” (Winx season 2, episode 1), we saw a trait we rarely saw from her in World of Winx: her motherliness. Seeing this baby Pixie made her face light up as if she’d just given birth to her.

Isn’t that funny? This fairy who supposedly needs to be softened up carried a baby in her arms all the time! In fact, she’s great at taking care of baby creatures: Piff, her bunny Milly in Winx season four, and Squonk in season seven. Even that dinosaur chick in “A Friend From the Past” (Winx season 7, episode 5) trusted her more than the other Winx.

Bottom line: Yang Aisha was Yin Aisha with her tough-girl traits dialed up and her softer traits removed or diminished. But since the Winx fandom ignores her sensitive side, anyway, it’s no wonder that some of them saw Yang Aisha as her “true self”. I kept waiting for the real Aisha to show up.

We spotted her in the episodes about the Watchmaker’s niece, Silke. Aisha tried to cheer up the would-be snowboarder, but she was less encouraging and more realistic than Yin Aisha might have been.

AISHA: I know you try really hard, Silke, but…
SILKE: There’s no hope I’ll win the competition. That’s what you think.
AISHA: The final is a long jump, Silke….If you make a mistake, you could really hurt yourself.
SILKE: But if I back out, everyone will think I’m good for nothing.
AISHA: You don’t have to prove anything. When you have the right experience, you can try again. Right now—
SILKE: Aisha, do you believe in me? Do you think I can do it?
AISHA: Silke…I…

I don’t know if Yin Aisha would have told Silke to go for it, but I think she would have been more careful not to hurt Silke’s feelings. Yang Aisha tried, but it was harder for her because she wasn’t as sensitive as Yin Aisha.

Itching For a Fight

Aisha is not a confrontational person.

Let me say that again: Aisha is not a confrontational person.

Yin Aisha, that is. No, she’s not scared to look someone in the face and say her piece, but what does she normally do afterward? She leaves. That’s right. Nine times out of ten, when someone makes her angry, sad, or uncomfortable, she gets away from them — and everyone else — as fast as she can.

Here are several examples throughout Winx Club:

• “Win-X Together!” (Winx season 2, episode 12): When Stella accidentally left her out by saying “the five of us”, Aisha ran away crying.
• “Charmix Power” (Winx season 2, episode 21): Aisha questioned why Stella didn’t wanna write a postcard to her parents. After Bloom explained that they’re divorced, Aisha suddenly wanted to go for a walk in the woods.
• “Valtor’s Box” (Winx season 3, episode 18): When the Winx caught Nabu eavesdropping on them, she yelled at him and then ran off.
• “Winx Club Forever” (Winx season 4, episode 11): After Stella confronted her about spending too much time with Nabu, Aisha spent the night at Love & Pet instead of the Winx’s loft.
• “Secret of the Ruby Reef” (Winx season 5, episode 8): When Stella tried to play matchmaker at the party at Alfea, Aisha smoothie-bent the boys’ drinks into their faces, then walked away. Later, she tried to back out of their Sirenix mission.
• “Bloomix Power” (Winx season 6, episode 4): After yelling at Nex for his “little stunt” on the obstacle course, she stomped out of the gym.
• “Into the Depths of Andros” (Winx season 8, episode 8): After Nex accidentally distracted her with his Emojix, Aisha left to practice on her speech all alone.

It’s not surprising that Aisha does this. She may be a tough girl, but she’s also a princess. Why would she forget 16 years of etiquette training as soon as she left Andros?

Also, remember her attachment style? People with Avoidant attachment don’t handle intense emotions well, positive or negative. Their instinct to withdraw, hence the word “avoidant”.

“But wait a minute,” you say. “Hasn’t she threatened violence on people before?”

Yes. Threatened. If the person wants to hurt her or her friends, then she’ll attack. But if the person is just annoying, she’ll walk away.

Yang Aisha, however, didn’t have as much self-control. When someone got her nerves, she couldn’t wait to knock them out. The other Winx had to physically hold her back or block her!

Here are a couple examples:

• “The Shaman” (World of Winx season 1, episode 8): Aisha shoved Lorelei out of nowhere while WoW! was live.
• “A Hero Will Come” (World of Winx season 2, episode 9): After Matt kept calling the Winx his assistants in the art gallery, Aisha finally lost it and stomped at him with her fists balled.

I’ll admit I laughed at these scenes, especially the second one, but I was also confused. Rolling up your sleeves and charging at someone isn’t princess-like behavior. Maybe since this was an alternate universe, Yang Aisha wasn’t a princess. ?

The reason she acted like this became clear in season two when she fought her nemesis, Sinka. Aisha needed to learn to control her impulses. It’s a lesson Yin Aisha learned in the first Sirenix arc in Winx season eight.

What’s the difference? Yin Aisha doesn’t fly off the rails at the slightest provocation. Stress and fear trigger her impulsiveness. But Yang Aisha just seemed angry all the time, and we don’t even know why! You shouldn’t have to change a character that much for the sake of development. It should come naturally from their established personality.

Their Powers

What do their powers have to do with yin and yang? More than you think. Yin is fluidity, mutability, and softness, while yang is solidity, rigidity, and hardness. 

In World of Winx, Yang Aisha was still the Fairy of Fluids. She controlled water, foam, mud, and even rain. But how she did it differed a lot from Yin Aisha from Winx Club. For starters, Yang Aisha could shape water into any form she wanted — a sphere, a fist, a hose, etc. — but she couldn’t change its state. It wasn’t solid in these shapes; it was still liquid and fell apart on impact.

More significantly, Yang Aisha didn’t seem to have her Morphix. Her waterbending was a nod to it. We saw one scene in season two where she used a pink glue to mend a bridge, but that was the only time she used it. Also, it took on the form of the bridge itself — i.e., it turned to stone. That’s not how Yin Aisha’s Morphix behaves.

Long story short, Yang Aisha’s powers weren’t as flexible as Yin Aisha’s. Morphix can change state from a liquid to a solid or even a gas. (Morphix itself is plasma.) And unlike water, it holds its form as long as she wants it to. She’s used it to make shields, surfboards, spears, cushions, rivers, clouds, air bubbles, cages, people, and an entire set of gym equipment.

Not Enough Yang?

Perhaps Yang Aisha’s powers were more advanced than Yin Aisha’s. After all, she’s always wanted to control all liquids. It seemed like Yang Aisha could.

What’s interesting, though, is this also fits into the concept of yin and yang. Besides Morphix, we’ve only seen Yin Aisha bend water and…smoothies. We’ll ignore the smoothies; besides, they’re mostly water, anyway. I guess technically, that was the first time she controlled water, but not on a massive scale like in “La Prova di Nex” (Nex’s Test).

But she hasn’t gotten far with waterbending. In Winx season seven, she used her Butterflix special power to make a waterspout, and she also poured water from her hands. But in season eight, she only used Morphix again.

So, yes, Yin Aisha is an underdeveloped Fairy of Fluids, but what if it’s not just because of a lack of training? What if it’s also because she doesn’t have enough yang energy?

Here’s what I mean. First, some substances Yang Aisha could control weren’t really liquids. Take the foam in season two. According to Dictionary.com, foam is “a collection of minute bubbles formed on the surface of a liquid by agitation, fermentation, etc.” So it’s more air than water.

As for the mud that she, Tecna, and Flora got stuck in in “The Alligator Man” (World of Winx season 2, episode 3), it was even thicker than Morphix in its plasma state. Even Yang Aisha had to strain herself in order to manipulate it.

Do you remember in Avatar: The Last Airbender when Toph said Earthbenders need to “be like a rock” in order to move rocks? Maybe it’s the same for viscous liquids in the Winx franchise. To move something more stubborn and solid than your average liquid, you need to be stubborn and solid yourself. Those are yang traits. Yin Aisha has them, but not to the same extent as Yang Aisha.

So maybe Yin Aisha can’t bend anything besides water because she’s still stuck in her yin. Having yang types like Nex in her life could help her. I talk about that more in a future post.

Final Thoughts

It should be obvious which version of Aisha I like more. I couldn’t stand her in World of Winx. She felt like a parody of the real deal. Aisha in Winx Club is more interesting — and a lot less angry.