The idea of a live action Winx Club adaption began in 2011, but it took a decade for that idea to become a reality. Winx Club was undoubtedly one of the best 2000s cartoons. The bright animation, sparkly outfits and fast paced plotline all made for a great show. When the reboot was first announced I was excited, but that quickly changed after watching the trailer. Fate: The Winx Saga is nothing like its predecessor—in an unbelievably bad way. The teen drama adaption clashes with the original material, with characters having their personalities, powers and relationships changed, or being axed altogether. All in all, it was 6 hours wasted. It seems others agree, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a rating of 38%. Their critical consensus of “”Flat, flimsy, and forgettable, Fate: The Winx Saga is a fantastical flop that fails to capture the magic of its source material” could not be more true.
The basic plotline is similar at the start of both series – Bloom, a fairy with fire powers, discovers she has magic and is taken away to a magical boarding school called Alfea to learn how to control them. With the help of her roommates Bloom learns more about her powers and how to use them and attempts to discover more about her past. However, that is where the similarities end. With the new “burned ones” villains, no witches, and missing characters combined with a lacklustre plot, it is no surprise this adaption failed to live up to the original. Predictably, it follows the recent trend of children’s cartoons being rebooted with darker adult themes, such as Archie being changed to create Riverdale. When you realise only one producer from the original series was on board for the adaption, and the rest recruited from teen drama series such as The Vampire Diaries, it becomes less surprising that Fate doesn’t live up to the magic of the original.
Therefore, here are 4 reasons why you should not watch the show.
Number 1: the blatant whitewashing
Fairly diverse for an early 2000s programme, in the original Winx Club 3 out of the six leads were people of colour. Aisha (the fairy of waves) was Black, Musa (the fairy of music) was East Asian and Flora (the fairy of plants) was Latina. However, in the new adaption Flora has been removed completely from the plot, apart from a brief mention by her cousin and replacement, Terra. Terra, strangely, has the exact same powers as Flora and occupies the same role in the group. Therefore, it can be surmised that Flora was removed from the group so that they could replace her with a white actress. While Terra contributes to diversity in that she is plus size, in the series she serves as a lacklustre replacement for her cousin and most of her screen time is spent feeling left out due to her size. Musa, unfortunately, was also whitewashed in the new adaption. Originally East Asian (her character was made based of Lucy Liu), in Fate she was played by someone who is ¼ Singaporean, but white-passing. Aisha luckily avoided the same fate as these two, but still fell into the ‘BIPOC character whose entire story revolves around the main white lead’ trope.
Number 2: missing characters
While Flora was removed from the series, she was at least replaced by a similar character who takes on her role. Unfortunately, many of the most interesting characters in the original failed to escape the chopping block. Perhaps most noticeably, Techna (fairy of technology) was axed. As one of the original 6 fairies she had a vital role in the cartoon, often saving the day with her farfetched plans. However, she was not deemed interesting enough by the writers to keep or adapt and so is noticeably absent from the adaption. The Trix (Icy, Darcy and Stormy) have also been axed, replaced by Bellatrix who is strangely a fairy. Considering most of the original Winx Club’s plotline was essentially fairies vs witches, the decision to remove witches as a whole seems quite strange. Many of the specialists are also missing, with only Sky and Riven remaining.
Number 3: it’s like Riverdale, but worse
The original genre of Winx was fantasy and adventure. However, in the new adaption this changes to teen drama, supernatural and fantasy. In reality, the words “teen drama” sums up the entire season. The scriptwriters created unnecessary friction and awkward moments across the script. Some examples include making Stella Sky’s ex-girlfriend, turning Aisha into a disapproving matron, and making Musa and Terra’s brother have a secret romance. Stella is turned from a spoiled but generally kind fairy into a spiteful, resentful one who does not blink twice at sending other people into danger for her own gain. Terra is gratingly painful to watch—her only personality trait seeming to be whining about why none of the other characters like her. While the dark academia theme works somewhat for Bellatrix, Stella’s outfits make her look 30 (strange for the “queen of fashion”) and everyone else’s clothes are, frankly, boring. Veering from the main themes of friendship and girl power in the original, most of the screen time in Fate is filled by discussing potential boyfriends and petty arguments.
Number 4: overexaggerated archetypes
Each character in the adaption seems like a broken record, with very little character development and embellished attributes. The show tries its hardest to create angsty teenagers with problems that are overwhelming in size. In reality, they create a score of characters who are dislikeable and irritating to watch. Bloom is first portrayed as a loner (very Jughead) and demanding; the typical wounded character trying to find her reason for living. Riven is also hit hard by this personality exaggeration, going from a bad boy in the cartoon to a rebellious troublemaker whose only hobby is doing drugs. Stella’s “popular girl” façade is (predictably) hiding deep insecurity, which she uses as a reason to lash out at everyone in her path. There is a huge lack of character depth throughout the series, with each person seeming to represent one personality trait. This makes viewing frustrating to watch, as you expect the people to improve over the course of the show but they somehow become even more one dimensional.
In conclusion, unless you want to see a tired Riverdale-esque show, skip Fate: The Winx Saga and binge watch the original series instead.
