WINX Club VS Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga, An Unnecessary Adaptation

First of all, Hollywood should stop rebooting every moving image, especially which comes from people's childhood, into a failed adaptation. Please make your own movies with an inspired-by tag rather than claiming it as an original adaptation.

For now, I won’t talk about that. Let’s straight into our fairies problem Fate: The Winx Saga.

 I’m actually not a hardcore Winx fan. Back then my local Tv wasn’t aired it and I watched it somewhere else. So what I’m going to say is probably not that accurate. But after watching the Winx Club first episode on Youtube, I can tell you something.

Fate: The Winx Saga isn’t  Winx Club. It won’t be the Winx Club that we used to now. The newer version is a bunch of “The Edgy Sad Problematic Fairy”.

The original Winx simply tells about Bloom’s life after she becomes a part of the fairies and the Winx Club hard work to learn magic while defeating the evils. Yes, a simple young adult story. It brought us joy, friendship, spirit, hard work, or any positive things you may need to face your own school life.

Well, the edgy fairies bring a way darker side. More mature? Yes. It’s necessary? No. It’s problematic? Even the little things which remind me of the origin Winx that magically exist in the series are problematic.

Watch the trailer and you won’t ever notice this is Winx Club

There’re so many differences between the series and the cartoon origin. By a glimpse, you’ll definitely scream, “Winx Club? No way!”.

The tone, the characters, and their behaviors, the aesthetics, the school, the secret, the evil, the…. Okay so much going on there. You won’t even call this an adaptation by the end. Fate: The Winx Saga is an inspired-by series, nothing else.

First, the series aesthetic didn’t bring justice to the origin. The main reason why Winx Club is a big hit is due to the pretty aesthetic; the fashion and the color. Every fairy is fashionable and has its own color. Somehow Fate’s producer wants to turn Winx into an edgy YA series while also boost up the age demography of the viewers. They changed the YA cartoon into a fantasy movie like Twilight. Did it work? No.

The main target audiences of Fate should be the cartoon’s fans. I know by now they’re adults but bring their childhood come true should be the main reason here. Imagine you create Harry Potter series with a darker and mature cast to reach older viewers. It won’t work. Look at Percy Jackson movies. By changing the YA story which bright and colorful into an edgy one will automatically turn off the origin fans. This also means reduce your profit to a certain exact market.

Don’t ever called this series an adaptation!

Oh, do I mention Flora and Techna are missing from the series? Hell no. Damn, they don’t even make the series right. Imagine Harry Potter without Ron? Or Twilight without Alice? Katniss without the evil Caleb? Heck no. Definitely not.

Fate completely erases Techna the most real fairy with technical ability. Fate changes Flora’s part into Terra who is, as she said, Flora’s cousin. Fate changes Musa ability into some edgy mind-reader fairy.

And they bravely claim themselves as original adaptation. How is it?

I know many novel adaptations usually don’t bring every single part of the books into movies. Even Harry Potter and The Hunger Games didn’t. But the thing is they don’t change the main plot or characters from the novel. The sides plot or unimportant person may be missing but the main story stays the same.

It’s slightly different with an inspired-by movie. They take a main character or event and create a new story based on that. It’s, my dear friend, what Fate is, a mere story based on Winx Club. It’s not an adaptation. Ofc adaptation brings more interest than based-on-story so they buy the Winx Club license and make this Edgy Sad Problematic Fairy series as original adaptation.

All characters are sucks but their behaviors are worse

Another big thing about Winx Club beside their aesthetic is the race equality of the fairies.

Bloom is a red-headed caucasian with American vibes (I think so) based on Britney Spears.

Stella is a yellow-haired caucasian with Italian name.

Flora is a brown-haired Hispanic who inspired by Jennifer Lopez.

Techna is a pink-haired caucasian with British accent (on the American version of the cartoon).

Musa is a dark-haired Asian based on Lucy Liu.

Aisha is an African-American based on Beyonce.

See what Fate is doing? Let’s whitewashed the Winx Club and turn them into British. Seriously, everyone speaks British, except Bloom who is an outsider from Earth. It makes me feel like Alfea is located in England. Such a typical fantasy boarding school that appears in every YA movie.

The point is Alfea College and the girls’ homes are fictional places. That’s why the fairies also mix-races, not only white. I saw a lot of fans angry because of this issue. As an Asian, and maybe other POC fans, I found that Winx Club able to amuse us by showing that POCs are strong and powerful too. POCs’ children are threatened by a bully at school. Winx Club brought us the courage to face our school lives. Yet, Fate successfully changes the empowerment message of the origin, say hello to another Mulan 2020.

Yes, the edgy fairies characters are sucks. Hold on my friend, their behaviors are worse.

Bloom, the naïve, cheerful, brave, curious, family-girl turns into a sad, angry, and hurtful girl that pushes people away. Like literally she tells Aisha to get the f out of her problem. Winx Club Bloom won’t ever do that. She’s the Winx leader who sticks them together. Her good side is the ones that make her succeeded despite the new surroundings around her power. Making her a sad girl who burns her house due to anger is not right. She loves her family and her mom-dad is supportive. Her family also the second and third person who knows her power, except Stella. Build a deep darker story around her real-life may work but not changing her characteristics.

Fate’s Stella is a basic bitch that I want to slap every time she pops up on the screen. Damn, she’s a manipulative and selfish fairy who sees herself highly. Winx Stella is a princess but she doesn’t act as her status. Stella is like a sun, a bright, warm, cheerful, happy, loyal, and positive fairy. She’s the one who helps Bloom enters Alfea. She’s a fashionable powerful fairy. Fate’s Stella is simply a typical pretty blonde popular bully. She talks trash about her roommates, the Winx Club itself, and mostly to Bloom. She’s a horny jealous bitch who doesn’t like Bloom talking to Sky her ex. The origin story doesn’t even put The Specialist on the very first episode. That’s a big mess up cause the fairy and specialist don’t study in the same place. It’s a YA story and Fate just showing Stella and Sky sleep together? F. They change Stella completely and make her the Mean Girls fairy.

Terra is Fate’s effort to redeem Winx Club controversy about body positivity. Winx originally have a very slim body and claimed to bring negativity to children. Terra tries to fix that in a bad way. Riven bullies her and Terra acts of revenge. Ok, that’s okay. But during 2 episodes, she acts like an insecure nerd who’s doing stupid things and annoying. It makes her character so basic and typical made fun character. Doesn’t she make my sympathy? Not that bad but I still don’t get her motive.

Musa is an Asian music fairy. Fate turns me off from this series mainly due to that. She is suddenly a mind-reader without a deeper story yet. For 2 episodes, her character moves around her ability to read people’s minds and how she tries to reduce it by using her headphone. She’ll probably get more story around her love for Sam, Terra’s brother. Until then, that’s all she’s got.

Aisha is the most likable fairy for me. I only watch 2 episodes and she’s literally the brain and the savior. She sincerely helps the angry Bloom despite her backlash. She facing Bloom’s problem, Stella’s stupidity, Terra’s road to un-insecurity, and Musa’s new bloom love. Aisha is the most unproblematic fairy in Fate. Her role actually not coming directly during Winx Club first season. I do think it’s a good choice to show her immediately because Aisha has the last brain cell of the whole gang.

Besides the main fairies, I don’t wanna talk about it. Beatrix shouldn’t exist because Winx’s enemy is The Trix. The Specialists also don’t study there. Sky is a typical main boy who confused between his past love or new girl (does every man in this universe really that weak to their ex?). Dean is another confused boy. Riven is a fuck boy… All characters aren’t exactly come from Winx Club the origin. One thing for sure, Fate lacks the real thrill that scared the viewers. As an old viewer as their target, I don’t feel any threat at all including “the ash burn monsters”.

Conclusion

Fate: The Winx Saga isn’t suitable to be called an original adaptation. It’s a mere inspired-by series based on Winx Club with edgy changes. As a fan, you’ll be disappointed and so angry until you want to burn Fake Stella’s clothes like how Bloom burns her house. Or literally, burn all their clothes because it downright trash than the Winx Club. The real Stella will help you for sure.

Fate: The Winx Saga is a typical mediocre YA fantasy series that try to act edgy meanwhile ruins the original story.

 

Why all Young Adult movies/series should be edgy?