Aisha/Nex New Edit #1: “To Love Despite”
I’ve decided to make Aisha/Nex edits again. Here’s one I made yesterday based on a quote from The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss:
Anyone can love a thing because. That’s as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/362241-anyone-can-love-a-thing-because-that-s-as-easy-as
Aisha’s Flaws
The grayscale screenshots represent the couple’s flaws. For Aisha:
- The Squonk scene represents her impatience. She couldn’t wait for him to get comfortable around Amarok on his own, so she tried to force them to get along.
- The next scene, from season eight, represents how she tends to push people away. Independence is a good thing, but not if you won’t admit when you need help.
- The third scene shows how Aisha acts recklessly when she’s afraid. Because of this freak out in “The Light of Gorgol” (Winx season 8, episode 9), the other Winx got captured by the anemones. Nex tried to stop her, but she ignored him.
- Finally, after what happened in the third scene, she unraveled even more. Once she loses control of herself, it can take her a while to get a grip.
Nex’s Flaws
These are the flaws I picked for Nex’s showcase:
- The top scene represents his arrogance: how he sometimes thinks he’s better than the other Specialists. He bragged that he’d “give these guys a run for their money”.
- The second scene relates to his arrogance, too, but I meant it more as him getting too aggressive, especially when he’s showing off. Aisha first scolded him for it in “The Flying School” (Winx season 6, episode 3).
- The third scene shows how he likes to tease people just to get on their nerves.
- Finally, the last scene shows his temper. When someone steps on his ego (which he needs from time to time), he loses his cool and doesn’t think before he speaks.
To Love Despite
If you’ve read my post “Two Imperfect People”, you know why I chose this quote. No one is perfect. As Timmy said in “The Crystal Labyrinth” (Winx season 3, episode 22): “Everyone has a dark side to their character.” The more you get to know someone, the more you’ll see of their darkness.
Loving someone because is loving them for their light. That’s easy. Even a stranger can do that.
But true love is loving someone despite their darkness. That’s one of the things I love about Aisha and Nex’s relationship. They’ve seen each other’s worst traits, but they still love each other.
Why is this a purer love? Because they have no delusions or unrealistic exceptions of each other. They accept each other as they are, the good and the bad.
The best part is Aisha and Nex have both grown since they met each other. They don’t feel pressured to change in order to keep each other’s love, yet they wanna become better versions of themselves. That’s the power and beauty of loving each other despite.
Confession: Normally, I wouldn’t write something like this. When you mentioned some of Nex’s flaws, I am put off by some of it. I can sort of understand the hater’s perspective on him.
But, just letting you know that Aisha/Nex is still better. Yeah, I don’t like his flaws, but I am pretty accepting of the story line for them.
I understand what you mean. But here’s one of the things that bothers me about how the Winx fandom reacted to Nex: they love characters who have the same or worse flaws.
Stella is vain. It’s played for laughs most of the time, but she is. Rainbow described Brandon as vain, too, in his character description, and of course, we know he was a Casanova in the past seasons. Aisha was described as “prideful” (orgogliosa) in her first character description, and her temper was out of control in World of Winx. And don’t get me started on Riven, who’s a fan favorite despite being a misogynist, which they think Nex is (he’s not) and hate him for it.
Any professional writer will tell you that characters must have flaws. Why? One, because real people are flawed. But there’s another, more important reason that people ignore: the characters need something to change about themselves. Flaws often exist specifically so the character can get rid of them.
I believe that’s why Nex has — or I should say, had — these flaws. They created conflict between him and Aisha (and other characters) at first, but they also allowed him to mature alongside her. That was the whole point.
But the fandom wasn’t willing to wait and let him grow. I bet if he’d been introduced in the early seasons, they would have been more forgiving and patient.
You know when you mentioned that Riven is a misogynist, I remembered watching an episode from season 1 that really showed that when it comes to women, he really had a nasty view of them. This scene is when Riven told Sky that Bloom gets along with different guys and stated that he wouldn’t be bothered with a woman as such. ( In other words, to him, Bloom is an “easy” girl.)
Personally speaking, Nex’s comment about women seemed to likely be how young boys viewed girls ( it’s mean) but Riven’s comment , I would say just takes the cake.
You know something: Ironically speaking while we are talking about both Nex and Riven, we are actually comparing men who take on the ” bad boy” persona. The only difference is the fans (some) like the one who is really mean while they hate the other one just because they couldn’t get over Nabu’s death or Roy not being the “one” for Aisha.
I am not really sure what you mean by ” they love characters who have the same or worse flaws.”.
Riven was often rude to the Winx in the first season. Admittedly, he’s gotten better, but his rocky relationship with Musa is an extension of the same problem. He said in his season two character description, “I don’t trust girls”. Trust is essential to a relationship, so it’s no wonder he and Musa don’t get along because he already doesn’t trust her based on her sex alone!
I’ve heard the same view about Nex’s comment, and I somewhat agree. I don’t think it was supposed to reveal that he’s sexist. Instead, Rainbow was doing another of their “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” skits. In the next episode, which was also part of the Middle Ages arc, Stella made a remark about guys.
Also, am I the only one who thought both lines felt random?
Anyway, I agree with you that some of the hate for Nex is just frustration over Nabu’s death or Roy not becoming Aisha’s boyfriend. As long as the fandom believes Nex is a monster, it gives them an excuse not to accept change. And let’s face it: some of this isn’t about missing Nabu — it’s just resisting change. One fan I talked to on Winx Amino admitted it.
As for Nex’s “bad boy” persona, I’m planning to write a post about that, so I’ll save my thoughts until then.
What I meant about “characters with the same or worse flaws” is that the fandom doesn’t judge other characters as harshly as Nex, even for the same or worse behavior. Riven is the best example. He’s the most flawed main character in the show, yet he’s one of the most popular. They’ve forgiven him for rudeness, aggression, over-competitiveness, misogyny, betrayal, jealousy, and emotional abuse (of Musa).
Now it’s true that Rainbow has tried to him changing as a person, but A) it never sticks, B) it’s usually tied to not losing Musa (which is classic for abusers), and C) the fandom loves him regardless of his flaws. But they’ve never been as patient with Nex, despite claiming he’s exactly like Riven and despite the fact that he’s not as flawed as Riven.
In other words, it’s a double standard.
Some potential reasoning for the randomness of the lines – when kids are young, they tend to think that the other gender is “gross” – i.e, girls have cooties, boys are dirty or mean, etc. I think when Rainbow includes these weird lines, they’re trying to appeal to their younger fanbase and make their characters feel relatable. I think those lines are meant to capture the mindset of a kid, not that of the teens/adults that the characters are. I still don’t have a good in-universe explanation for that scene, though.
Ah, now I see the picture. Then again, it’s seriously weird.
Riven was already the jerk of the group and is notoriously known to be having a rocky relationship with Musa. And yet, when Nex suddenly appear with somewhat similar flaws with Riven but is loyal to Aisha, the fans just threw a hissy fit at him because of his flaws? I mean I am put off by it but I don’t see how the others ( Nabu , I used to also fall for the they were made for each other thinking.) suited Aisha.
Actually, sometimes, I felt that the fan’s reaction to the whole Aisha/ Nex and Musa / Riven thing sometimes boiled down to that they think they knew what’s best for both of them. The truth is they are not them. They only think that way because they wanted everything to be perfect.
Exactly. It doesn’t make sense for Nex to get more flak than Riven for supposedly the same behavior, especially since Nex has proven himself to be a better boyfriend. That’s not my opinion; that’s just obvious. Nex treats Aisha better than Riven treats Musa. Period.
It’s so awkward sometimes watching Musa/Riven fans defend Riven while bashing Nex. They call Nex “a jerk like Riven” and say he’s wrong from Aisha. Yet they say Riven is perfect for Musa. But if Nex is “a jerk like Riven”, that means Riven is a jerk, right? So if Aisha shouldn’t date Nex because he’s a jerk, why should Musa date Riven if he’s also a jerk?
“He’s not a jerk!”
I kid you not. I had this conversation with someone before. ? If I recall correctly, they also said Nex’s bad behavior makes him boring, but Riven is interesting because of his bad behavior. Huh?
Anyway, I don’t think the fandom cares what’s best for Aisha or Musa (especially Musa). They’re the ones still in love with Nabu and Riven. Aisha and Musa are nothing but reasons for Nabu and Riven to exist; the girls’ stories and character development don’t matter.
I’ve heard people say they’d welcome Nabu back even if he never dated Aisha again. And of course, they were willing to let Rainbow undo Musa’s healing process just for Riven to be in the show again.
You know something. Nex isn’t the only one getting called boring just because he has personality similar to another character. I read some posts before ( not a lot). One of the WinX was actually disliked because of being boring. Can you guess who is it?
The answer: Flora. They actually think that her nice girl persona was actually boring and that she has a generic and somewhat flat personality because of it. Then again, there is still the difference: Nex has the same flaws as Riven and yet he is called boring and was hated by many.
If what you say about the fandom is true, they really forgotten that WinX club is a show supposed to showed progress in women’s lives. They rather have both the women screwed up just for the sake of two men that they missed dearly. Ironic, isn’t it? How the fandom watching a show promoting girl power put importance on the male characters. They still viewed the women as the reasons for someone to exist and not their own person. This is really sad, to say the least.
I didn’t know that. I’ve always liked Flora, but I admit she’s a somewhat static character. Rainbow doesn’t develop her much or her relationship with Helia. Instead, they keep recycling plots about her overprotective attitude towards Miele. ?
As for Aisha/Nabu and Musa/Riven, it’s Rainbow’s fault this happened. They made Nabu stand out as the only wizard, whereas Aisha’s one of six fairies. That by itself made him seem more unique than her. Plus, none of the other guys could use magic, which made him seen even more special.
On top of that, he had a better version of her backstory. Instead of giving her love interest the same story, Rainbow could have used some of those details to develop her. (I might write a post about that.)
As for Riven, he’s had the most character growth of all the guys. But the problem is he’s also had more than Musa. Worse, most of her development has been tied to their relationship, which puts even more emphasis on him.
My point is Nabu and Riven are more interesting to the fandom than Aisha and Musa are, so Nabu and Riven have become more important. It’s like Aisha and Musa are their love interests.
Now that you mention it, it suddenly makes a lot of sense why both the men were more important than both the fairies. You know something, for a show that’s supposed to be empowering women, putting character growth and a solid backstory on the men isn’t helping with the theme. Also, Musa’s character development related to her relationship isn’t helpful either. Why isn’t this good? Because in past media, a lot of female characters weren’t defined as their own person. Their definition are being the lovers of the male protagonist. In the social climate for female empowerment, making a woman changing herself for the relationship isn’t exactly helpful ( considering that a lot of the newer shows encouraging women to change for themselves not for the man.) The same goes for Aisha too.
Speaking of Flora, I have a hunch as to how her given traits, powers and signature color made her a static character. The same goes for Tecna too.
1) Sweet vs Smart
Flora’s defining character is her sweetness, which when you think about it is the nice person persona making her static and generic. The other WinX are also nice and the same goes for the Specialist. In other words, her sweetness come off as somewhat a generic character trait.
Tecna’s defining character is her intelligence. Her defining trait made her the special one out of the WinX girls but the flaw with it is that beyond her intelligence, there is not much you can add to her rather than just the smart girl. To emphasis, let’s use the other WinX girls as example
Bloom: we know that she’s obsessed with being a fairy. Aside from that, she loves reading and cooking. Also, she is a great artist.
Stella: Aside from being the fashionista and the cheerful one, we know that she sort of embrace the classic princess life ( I think so.)
Flora: According to guido al magico ( the book where you mentioned in the official character profile), she express her feelings through writing and drawing.
Aisha: I remembered you mentioned something about that she also read books too.
Musa: Hmmm. This one’s tough. I think it would be perhaps she is intuitive aside from being the musician of the group and the snarky one.
What about Tecna then? Did she have other character traits the extend beyond her smart girl persona and affinity for Technology? I don’t quite see it.
2) Nature vs Technology
Flora is the Fairy of Nature. This ties in with being generic when you think about how Nature isn’t just only plants. It encompasses including the oceans, the air and in general the earth. Unlike the other WinX whose powers are more defined, hers is very broad. That’s why her Nature powers is somewhat associated to her generic character, because the powers itself is very broad.
Tecna’s power is Technology. For her, her powers was sort of limited. From my understanding of her powers, she can only manipulate objects with electricity or is digital. She can’t manipulate anything mechanical. With it, it means that her power is limited because when you think about it, digital technology isn’t widely spread throughout the Earth. In other words, you can’t anything that uses digital all across the world. This make her powers more limited as compared to the other girls, who can use their powers in different place and situations.
3) Pink vs Purple
You might find this funny. How is Flora’s signature color make her the generic one? Well, WinX club is a show that was aiming for little girls. Usually (nowadays, not so), cartoon marketed towards girls tend to have one character in pink,right? Bloom is the protagonist ( as much as I hate to admit it). Stella’s her best friend. Blue and Orange are their colors. We then have Flora, who filled in the role of being the one in Pink for marketing purposes. Also, considered that the marketing still used a lot of pink for the WinX brand.
For Tecna, purple is her colour. But, like how I mentioned previously her color still make her the special and rare one of the group. You see, purple is a color associated with royalty, wealth and power for centuries. In the past, purple fabrics are limited to royalty as the fabric dye of purple is expensive and rare. For Tecna, being assigned the color purple in this case made her the rare one of the group. ( This make sense, considering the nature of her powers). Hence, that’s why sometimes it feels like she didn’t have much screen time.
In conclusion, Flora’s generic and Tecna’s uniqueness may explain how both of them didn’t have much story to show and tell.