Follow-Up: Aisha in Fate: The Winx Saga
As I said in the first post, I refuse to watch Fate: The Winx Saga. I haven’t even seen the trailers. Everything I’m about to say I learned secondhand from readers of this blog, YouTube comments, forums, and reviews.
Apparently, Aisha did almost nothing except bend water and worry about Bloom. She had no character arc (and no character goal once again), and the audience learned zilch about her origin, her parents, or her childhood. Her only personal plot was a brief struggle to control her powers, but she got over it abruptly without explanation.
I knew this would happen. Fate: The Winx Saga season 1 only had six episodes, each about an hour long. That’s the equivalent of about 12-14 episodes (roughly half) of a typical season of Winx Club. You can’t develop five Winx, four Specialists, a bunch of new characters, and the world itself in so little time. And whatever development they get will probably feel rushed. (A lot of fans said Bloom and Sky’s relationship and other characters’ friendships happened too quickly.)
Netflix had to leave someone behind, and it sounds like it was Aisha. If they didn’t have any plans for her character this season (except being Bloom’s sidekick), why didn’t they introduce her in season two like in Winx Club? Of course, I don’t want another season of this mess, anyway. ?♀️
As for Aisha’s character, everything I said in the first post — and worse — came true. Instead of being a rebellious princess, she’s a “goody-two-shoes” and a “teacher’s pet” who snitches on other characters to stay in good standing at school. She also seems to have a problem with peer pressure. Do the smart thing, or follow your friends? One fan on YouTube called her “a walking doormat”.
Who does this sound more like? Tecna! At least one fan said that’s who she reminded them of. Geez, Netflix! I was joking when I said Aisha absorbed her! ?
Just To Be Different
I keep seeing this argument from Winx fans who like Fate: The Winx Saga: “It’s an adaptation! Don’t you know what that means? It doesn’t have to be exactly like Winx Club! Winx is for kids! This is for adults! Duhhhhh!”
Gimme a break. We’re not stupid. No one thought this would be a shot-for-shot recreation of the cartoon.
But here’s a question: Do the changes in Fate: The Winx Saga enhance the characters, world, and story of Winx Club, or do they just make everything different?
Did making Riven a stereotypical bully and a druggie make his character better — or just different? Did making Bloom angsty and giving her a rocky relationship with Mike and Vanessa make her character better — or just different? Did the Burned Ones plot make the story better — or just different? Did making Alfea a co-ed school make it better — or just different?
Did making Aisha a commoner, axing her free-spirited nature, and merging her with Tecna (who they cut from the story) make her character better — or just different?
My problem with Fate: The Winx Saga is that it feels like a different show with Winx characters shoehorned into it. Even the fans who like it realize this. Most of them say, “It’s good, even though it’s not Winx.”
But it’s supposed to be Winx. The word is in the title, for crying out loud! If you have to pretend that it’s not Winx in order to enjoy it, you know the essence of Winx Club isn’t there. That essence is more than the characters, the plot, and the place names. It’s also the feelings the show and even the word “Winx” evoke in us.
Winx Club isn’t just a show — it’s a brand, and brands have personalities like people do. How would you describe Winx? I’d say it’s cheerful, stylish, friendly, optimistic, fun, whimsical, and at times, cheesy or campy.
But Fate: The Winx Saga has a different personality. That’s why it doesn’t feel like Winx, even to the fans who like it. Why did Netflix bother calling it “Winx” if it feels nothing like the original? They could have made a different show instead!
Final Thoughts
I stand by my prediction: Fate: The Winx Saga will only last two seasons. World of Winx only got two, even though it felt more like Winx Club, and fans younger than 18 could watch it. Fate: The Winx Saga is aimed at a sub-segment of the fandom, so it has even less of a chance of becoming a long-running hit.
Also, don’t forget merchandise sales. That’s another reason World of Winx got cancelled so quickly: kids weren’t buying the dolls. Will there even be Fate: The Winx Saga dolls? I bet they’d be boring.
Guess Rainbow will have to sell coke instead. “Get high just like Riven!”
…Sorry. ?
Anyway, back to Aisha. Let’s call the Fate: The Winx Saga version of her “Jade” from now on. This is Aisha:
Often imitated, never duplicated.
I need to add this:
What is funny that some people thing making Winx liveaction adult is original which IS NOT. RIVERDALE DID IT EARLIER. Yep, the name “riverdale” and all the main squad are from ARCHIE COMICS franchise that CW/Netflix Riverdale is actually adapdating! Fate DOES LITERALLY THE SAME!
By the way, I just wanted to confirm this: Aisha actually IS the teacher’s pet and Bloom’s helper *sigh*
Also, did someone REALLY think that changing a vicious Riven into a druggie makes Riven better? NOPE.
I know that people will scream “you don’t like Fate and like Season 8?!” but at least unlike in Fate, Aisha in newer seasons is the most developed! The plot about learning and move on with life, meeting Nex, and all their interactions that I won’t mention because it would be so long… She got even more developed than Bloom (and Stella, by the way Stella’s S8 portrayes divorce in a bad way which is bad. Parents’ divorce isn’t an end of the world!!!)
After a mid sopiler alert I must add that that Aisha was like the diference of 4kidz vs Rai… there are some similarities but the lines and all are changed from what cartoon Aisha would say, was that how she was suposed to be in the first place with all her royal train? she didn’t had that background in that series, so I really don’t know why someone that age could still want to play teacher’s pet, then again it’s soooooo comon to meet at least 3 of them that chosing a main cast to portray that troope wasn’t surprising at all, even if she was the original true rebel of show, they just..remake her into a new similar character, it didn’t felt like a reboot to me mostly cause I grew up calling her Layla so I actually see her as an another dimension alterego.
Honestly the Riven weed part was meh.. 3 of every 4 persons I have met in university are on weed and special brownies so I couldn’t care less of that being portrayed as it being something that common, and the beatrix riven and dane trio was also meh… from my experience it’s a 50/50 chance someone ends dating in a trio, or more involved, cheating is so common that is an alternative so to stay save and pretend that none is harmed, the other dormant troope that’s common to find is a Sky being a Sky flirting with others that ain’t his actual girlfriend and then moving on the other until an “another” comes.
[Of course that won’t happen in any adaptation of Winx’cause Bloom×Sky 4ever .. so much wish they moved from their drammas and be a real secure couple for at least one season as they are advertised.]
I don’t call that a 100% Dark undertone, it just felt like a copy paste from actuall highschool and university life with fairy names instead of other names and they actions aren’t even nesesary for the real plot so they just fillers.
Also I’m not into live sitcoms and drammas mostly for how they cuatriplicate every single action into something worth the end of the world, I like down to earth plots, maybe with some fantastic lore included, the main reason of season 4 being my fav season of winx, but this series had something that made incoherent the actions portrayed, that being the school security and diciplinary actions, I missed Griselda the most from all lore characters of the 8 seasons, movies and spin-offs, if only she was there then all that tiny “adult?” fillers spiked over the episodes couldn’t have happened in the first place.
Overall the show ain’t that down to earth but it has it’s appeal that is completly unrelated to the Bloom’s photoshop transformation and Sky being a Sky (There is no Brandom so the fact that Sky is with Stella makes sense as the alliance between the main kingdoms -prior Domino’s resurection if taking the canonical winx series into acount- is something the political families and themselves might want even if they are almost oposite personas in the winx cartoon) and yes, I don’t like Sky at all.
Bottom lines: Terra would have made an excelent protagonist, she knows a lot of lore, won’t let others take her down even while taking s**t from the others, can make usefull potions, makes some of her dresses, has interesting family and relatives and knows how to use her plants to self defence. Yes, Terra doubting the motives of her Dad hidding Alfean secrets and being quiet of the events of season end could have moved the plot to the same direction if she was the protagonist.
One other character full of potential that is not given spotlight.. and that not to mention that Miss Fara was said to be a mind fairy as the forgoten Musa 2 who is told not to direct fight for her powers not being fit when the Faragonda of the show is stated as one of the current most powerfull not Bloom fairies makes a big plot hole also the fact she is one of the less portrayed charcters even while Musa 2 is actually the glue of the group that makes Stella acepted and the one opening to not Flora and… pretending runing away social life while being the one open to all the winx girls in the first place? The Musas are equally treated as a ghost in both cartoon and Fate.
At the end the same problems of the cartoon are in Fate
1. Stella being sometimes mature and sometimes a snob giving her a ? personality in later seasons and fate
2. Musa is a ghost.. also what is a Tecna?
3. Sky is an arrogant prince
4. Bloom is the center of attention
5. The profesors are more interesting than the winx
6. Flora and Terra are suport characters
7. Aisha being powerfull but only used for being usefull for the Bloom plot [except some season 2 and 8 arcs]
8. Can the Trix and BeaTrix be the hero in a certain point of view? [vea=see so see a trix is her name?] how they always know more than the main cast also?
9. Not enough episodes for other characters
10. Maybe Riven is liked because the main Sky is hard to relate and the others ain’t devepolved
So that’s my humble opinion, I didn’t dislike it but it did felt rushed, too rushed, like Nabu marriage proposal and Daphne’s weding, and if there is another season I would be extreamly disapointed if Terra is left behind as a side ghost character like the Musas and Tecna are treated.
Adding to the Riverdale comment, Sabrina Spellman is originally from the Archie Comics as well. She was so popular that they gave her her own comic and an animated series, both called Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That was later adapted into a sitcom (which I grew up watching) that ran for seven seasons, which spawned another animated series, Sabrina: The Animated Series, about her as a pre-teen. After another less-popular CGI animated series (Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch) came out in 2013, we got the darkest adaptation yet: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in 2018…which inspired Fate: The Winx Saga.
TL;DR: Fate isn’t special. This has been done a million times, even by the shows that inspired it.
And yes, I’ll say it: I’d rather watch Winx season 8 than Fate: The Winx Saga. No, it’s not just because of Aisha and Nex. I love the Magic Dimension as it is, without this silly darker tone. Winx Club became a source of dreams for me, dreams where I became a fairy myself. I’d never get that from Fate: The Winx Saga, and it’s obvious that it’s not even trying to be that for the fans. It’s just trying to shock people because horror and angst are apparently more “mature” than lightheartedness and hope.
Same. Also I know I said it before but despite Fate wasn’t what I was afraid of, I DON’T CARE if it gets Season 2 or gets cancelled. I am not invested in it like I usually am when I like something. The only episode I liked is the last one, but it wasn’t that great to me. Unlike Winx/Archie/Precure/anything I like watching, I don’t feel like rewatching Fate ever, EVEN if it airs on TV or whatever. It was “watch it, then forget it” phase to me (which ended so fast)
Also I don’t like the “angst and horror, and love scenes and shock equals mature content!!!111” mentality. THIS is one of reasons why I was fed up with Netflix after I finished WoW season 2 (which unlike S1, I despised it mainly because of what Aisha became). And I still don’t regret it, especially Netflix cancelled/took down some good shows anyway.
[…] wanna change so much of the story that it might as well have nothing to do with Winx Club. (*Cough* Fate: The Winx Saga! […]
[…] Also, preschool shows are big business. From what I’ve heard, 44 Cats is making bank. Rainbow’s just following the money, and they know they can’t make as much off of us older fans because our parents don’t buy us toys anymore. That’s why Fate: The Winx Saga was created: to give us our own “adult” Winx Club. (You know what I think of it.) […]