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.
I don’t want to sound like a hater but I WILL NEVER understand how some people like WoW Aisha that much.
I heard things like “BUT SHE WAS TOUGH LIKE IN OLD WINX!!!” like, no. There IS a difference between a strong tough female character AND this what we had in WoW. For me, Yang Aisha seemed like a character with uncontrollable temper issues at times.
World Of Winx Season 2 is the first and only time I couldn’t stand Aisha’s some behaviors and even herself. What have you done to that great fairy, Rainbow?
But the most bizzare thing about Yang Aisha is the whole thing with Tecna. Aisha could never hate Tecna BECAUSE TECNA SAVED HER PLANET!!!! And that doesn’t matter to me if this is a spinoff because some things in WoW are recycled from original Winx 1-8.
I know that’s offtopic because it’s Aisha is what is talked about but I’ll have to say: WoW is NOT GREAT for me and I don’t understand the whole praise of it. Because it’s dark and edgy? No, that does not change the fact that there were plotholes and some aspects were badly written. Plus, the “darkness” in WoW seemed cringe to me. I don’t want to sound like “wow sucks because it’s not like Alfea seasons” person but after WoW, I think I’ll still accept season 7. I don’t get why people forgot that WINX IS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR CHILDREN and not adults.
Exactly. Aisha in Winx Club is a strong female character. Aisha in World of Winx was a woman who needed anger management classes. She was never like that in Winx Club in any season. And yeah, I felt the same way. World of Winx was the first and only time I didn’t like her.
As for her and Tecna, I didn’t get the sense that they hated each other. They’re just polar opposites. Aisha is impulsive and relies on intuition. Tecna is patient and relies on logic. It makes sense that they’d clash sometimes. It’s just that Rainbow has only recently started having them interact more.
World of Winx wasn’t that dark or edgy to me. It just felt more serious than most of the recent seasons of Winx Club. But yeah, the plot wasn’t that great, especially the second season.
Still, I wish Rainbow would make a third season instead of wasting their time on Fate: The Winx Saga. At least World of Winx is more in the spirit of the original, whereas Fate: The Winx Saga feels like Rainbow trying to capitalize on a trend, even though it doesn’t suit the franchise.
Sorry but I don’t want WoW3. I mean, it would be cool but I don’t want Yang Aisha again, plus I have a feeling that people want WoW3 JUST because of the edgy cliche cliffhanger. WoW and Fate Winx Saga exist just because Rainbow doesn’t know what to do with their franchise. I bet Fate will have nothing to do with Winx. I just hope the supposed Season 9 will have Aisha x Nex and still Yin Aisha than what we had in Wow.
I’m not saying I want World of Winx season 3. I’d just rather have it over Fate: The Winx Saga, but I don’t really care about either show. Personally, I wish Rainbow would move Winx Club to Netflix or some other streaming platform. Then they could do whatever they wanted with it instead of having to deal with executive meddling, which is part of the reason why the show has changed so much.
Executive meddling. One of the most frustrating things there is. Although i do think WOW S3 would be better than Fate: The Winx Saga. Now this might be a bit strange, but it seems like the Arthur voice cast needs to return to Winx. The Arthur cast kept it all ages at least and probably helped with the plot of s4 (that’s so much like a magic variant of Arthur it’s not even funny)…even if some of the voice choices are strange (depending on what you hear first)…and it still appears Arthur to Winx or Winx to Arthur casting is the case with DHX. (Lucinda Davis now plays Brain’s relatives, one of his cousins actually sounds like an older Aisha at times.) So far the only non-Arthur to Winx related projects voice in that cast is Musa (neither Sara McCullough or Anik Matern have arthur credits to their name)…as Bloom much like Sky is also played by a rabbit (Prunella’s blind friend Marina and Sky’s Buster….now that makes a throway line in the 4kids dub hilarious in hindsight…is Bloom sure she wants to do that considering they make her hopping mad? Bloom also has Mr. Ratburn as her adoptive dad.)
Still think that everyone needs to chill about the Aisha being one way or the other. She’s like her power source…she has her high and low tide moments.
Rainbow actually gives an impression that they don’t KNOW what to do with their franchise. I know I said it before, but jumping from World Of Winx for older children to Winx 8 with lowered age demographic AND huge age demographic jump (to even 16+!!!) in Fate Saga?!
Also wasn’t the age demographic of the first Winx between Winx 8 AND Fate? If so, what are they supposed to watch? I mean, Winx 8 may be too childish for them but Fate would be too adult and scary. Why didn’t Rainbow think about putting this on Netflix to have full control?
The target demo for Winx seasons 1 & 2 was 8-12 year olds. Season 3 was 5-12. Season 4 was 4-12. And of course, the demo has kept falling from there. World of Winx was for the same demo as Winx seasons 1 & 2: 8-12, though Rainbow wrote it with teens in mind, too.
So yeah, now we have Winx Club for 4-8 year olds, Fate: The Winx Saga for 16+, and nothing for the original demographic. Brilliant. ?
[…] recently wrote a post about Aisha’s yin traits. Of course, we know most of them came from her childhood. She grew up in a yin environment where […]
With regards to how Aisha is always being boxed into the role of the “rough and tumble” tomboy and also being aggressive and sporty all the time, I read something that explains her element which is water. If you search water is womanly on tv tropes, you will find that usually… characters that have water as their element are traditionally feminine. This is because water was usually associated with goddesses in the past. When you think of water-related creatures such as mermaids, selkies, undines and so on, they are usually female. Another reason for water’s association with femininity comes from how water is an element associated with healing, purity, calmness, life, creation and creativity. These traits are traditionally tied to women.
So, in Aisha’s case, since her element has always been related to femininity, it wouldn’t make sense to box her into the tomboy role. It wouldn’t make sense in this case for her to have this element if she is the typical tomboy.
[…] out. Why does she need to soften up? I see this idea a lot in the Winx fandom, and it makes no sense to […]