The long-running Italian cartoon about a group of best-friend fairies, Winx Club, is one of the few explicitly girl-focused shows to make the transition to a darker, edgier live-action. Fate: The Winx Saga by Netflix casts the same spell on the bright, visually vibrant cartoon that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale did on their family-friendly Archie Comics counterparts. It has a surprisingly nuanced plot that delves into the consequences of war across generations — but it comes at a cost, both for the characters and for that familiar sense of friendship and mutual support. In the first episode, we see Bloom (Abigail Cowen) moving into Alfea, a boarding school for fairies and specialists (male fairies) in the Otherworld. The first person she speaks with is a specialist named Sky (Danny Griffin), who discovers that Bloom is from the "realm" of California and that she had no idea she was a fairy three months ago. She meets her roommates, including Stella (Hannah
The long-running Italian cartoon about a group of best-friend fairies, Winx Club, is one of the few explicitly girl-focused shows to make the transition to a darker, edgier live-action. Fate: The Winx Saga by Netflix casts the same spell on the bright, visually vibrant cartoon that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale did on their family-friendly Archie Comics counterparts. It has a surprisingly nuanced plot that delves into the consequences of war across generations — but it comes at a cost, both for the characters and for that familiar sense of friendship and mutual support.
In the first episode, we see Bloom (Abigail Cowen) moving into Alfea, a boarding school for fairies and specialists (male fairies) in the Otherworld. The first person she speaks with is a specialist named Sky (Danny Griffin), who discovers that Bloom is from the "realm" of California and that she had no idea she was a fairy three months ago.
She meets her roommates, including Stella (Hannah van der Westhuizen), who is assigned as her mentor. She explains to Bloom that fairies' magic is dictated by emotions and that controlling those emotions is key. Each of her other roommates possesses a unique ability: Bloom can create fire, Aisha (Precious Mustapha) has water control, Musa (Elisha Applebaum) is an empath, and Terra (Eliot Salt), who grew up at the school because her father works in the greenhouse, has plant manipulation abilities.
We then learn that headmistress Farah Dowling (Eve Best) tells Bloom that she has "no other choice" but to be here, no matter how much Bloom wants to learn to control her powers and then return home, Dowling believes that if Bloom embraces the learning process, she will be among those graduates who "shape the Other-world."
There's a reason for the barrier around campus, for beyond it lurks creatures known as Burned Ones, ready to attack anyone who passes through. Bloom goes outside the barrier to learn how to control her powers, and at various points she flashes back to life at home just before she left, where she had become so enraged with her mother (Eva Birthistle) that she had set fire to her parent’s bedroom, nearly killing her mother. This essentially shows that Bloom is not in control of her powers.
Aisha speculates that Bloom is a changeling, because her origin is still unknown, which is a fact that bothers bloom throughout the series. Stella, who is jealous of the attention her ex, Sky, is giving Bloom, gives her a portal-opening ring to Bloom when she expresses homesickness. After her visit, she comes across a Burned One near the portal, and Dowling looks after the being while she is away in the "real world."
Final Thoughts:
In contrast to the brightly colored animated series, the new show takes a more grounded visual approach but fails to define its distinct look. The characters are more mature and edgy than their animated counterparts; similarly, to how Chilling Adventures of Sabrina transformed the plucky sitcom lead into a stubborn, defiant witch, Fate: The Winx Saga gives the family-friendly heroines tougher edges. The glamorous Princess Stella deals with her controlling mother, Aisha's confidence deteriorates into abrasive brashness, and Bloom's plucky protagonist attitude drives her to extremely risky decisions.
It's what the more dramatic plot requires, and it's a stark contrast to the cartoon's generally nicer characters. The girls' generally antagonistic attitude stands in stark contrast to the original show. The power of magical girl-based shows stems from the characters' camaraderie. Friendship feels forced in Fate: The Winx Saga. There are some touching scenes, such as when the girls join Bloom outside the cafeteria to eat when she doesn't want to face the gossiping students, but even in those scenes, the protagonists appear to be barely tolerating each other. Because so little groundwork was laid to cement their friendships, the teasing comes across as catty and mean-spirited rather than playful.
A forced love triangle between Stella, Bloom, and bland
sword-wielding Sky (Freddie Throp), a student at a nearby school, only serves
to aggravate matters. It's not because they care that they save one another;
it's an obligation: "Ugh, I probably shouldn't let my roommate get
killed." Brian Young, the creator, and his team appear to believe that
maturing feminine friendships entail transforming them into thinly veiled
rivalries. Even though the characters and their relationships suffer, Fate: The
Winx Saga, creates a compelling, nuanced plot. The world-building is exciting,
taking a different approach to the animated series, the world of fairies and
non-magical, sword-wielding Specialists (a fancy way of saying, knights).
Magic school is a tried-and-true story setup
and uses the fairies' classes to explain how their world's magic works are both
efficient and intriguing.
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Well explained. Thanks!
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