If you were following along with me live-tweeting my reactions, I’ve already watched all six episodes of FATE and I’ve got a few thoughts.
So…like I said Netflix provided us with only six episodes of the new show and it really is a strike against them. Not the team behind the show most likely but it’s weird how Netflix thought they could world build, introduce a whole cast of characters and have plot in only six episodes. It works with an anthology series like ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’ where the episodes have nothing to do with each other but when you are trying to again build a world and have a story in that world you need more time. That leads us to the pacing of the show.
#1 Pacing
With such a short time to tell the story, it was clear that it was rushed but it also strangely lingered in many places. A big aspect that was rushed was Bloom’s back story. After a cold open of someone getting killed, we get right to Alfea and Bloom going there. We don’t get an introduction to Bloom, what her life was like and who her parents are and how she discovered her powers. We get this information through flashbacks when Bloom opens up to Aisha. This isn’t necessarily a problem if they wanted to have them grow closer but by doing this, Bloom is basically a blank slate. We have nothing to attach to and no reason to really even like or understand her until this moment late in the episode.
Where the pacing is super slow is honestly when nothing is happening. There was a lot of talking and explaining because again they have a short window to tell us they wanted to. It’s clear that the creators of the show were banking on the fact that a lot of OG Winx Club fans would watch and already know the full story but if they also wanted to bring in a new audience, they needed a better balance between the knowledge the OG fans have and what they were going to introduce to the new ones and how effectively they were going to bring that information across.
But as it stands now, it’s pretty all over the place for me.
#2 Characters
This should come as no surprise but the characters are pretty different from their original counterparts.
Bloom
Bloom in the OG show, was happy-go-lucky, believed in fairies; while not having too many friends, people in the community knew and loved her and she had a great relationship with her adoptive parents, Mike and Vanessa. She knew that she was adopted and had a pretty normal, happy life.
What little we see on Earth, new Bloom (Abigail Cowen) may be dealing with depression. Her mom urges her to go out and do something and Bloom lashes out. Vanessa even gets Mike to remove Bloom’s door. She then discovers her power by almost burning down her house and giving her mother three-degree burns. Awkward.
She deals with heavy identity issues once she finds out that she is in fact adopted and a changeling (a fairy that was switched with a human baby). Bloom is given a lot to handle in a small amount of time. Powers, being adopted, going to a new school, meeting new people. It made her a bit snippy and unlikable to me. I wasn’t made to like her as I did in the original.
Depression and other mental illnesses are a good thing to tackle especially in a teenage, young adult show but it wasn’t really handled too well to me, everything that happened before Alfea felt like it didn’t matter besides her being adopted.
Stella
In the OG show, Stella is carefree, a little ditzy, fashion lover who was the princess of Solaria. Her parents, the king, and queen were divorced and she was going to Alfea to perfect her powers and prepare to become the next queen. She was always at an 11 when everyone else was at 2 and I loved it.
The new Stella (Hannah van der Westhuysen) is a lot different and it was not the vibe for me. She was manipulative and rude. She’s still the princess of Solaria and her mom Luna is a piece of work! But as I continued, I got where they were coming from with Stella and where they failed with Bloom they made up for with her.
She needs to be completely held accountable for her own actions because, hello, she made them but once we meet the queen we can sympathize more. Her mother craved perfection and it’s a lot of pressure, especially since Stella is the only heir. She was raised to believe that appearances mattered and it was only second to having extreme power. She was taught to tap into negative emotions to reach her power but it proved to be unstable and she hurt her best friend. Eventually, Stella breaks off on her own and decided to become part of the team. If anyone had an arch, it was Stella and it was well done for the time they had.
Aisha
OG Aisha is also a princess but from another planet named Andros and her power is water-based. She’s introduced in the second season trying to rescue the pixies from the villain that season, Darkar. She becomes apart of the group and we learn that she is sporty, ambitious, a dancer, and headstrong.
New Aisha (Precious Mustapha), isn’t too different from her counterpart. She’s a swimmer, so an athlete. She’s a quick study and has good control over her powers but works to improve herself. She’s not a princess this time around but she proves herself to be the level-headed one and tried to make the girls rethink stupid plans. But as usual, no one listened to her. She also saved Bloom twice which she didn’t receive a thank you for. For some reason, the writers made Aisha like Bloom’s unequal sidekick. She got to work as the headmistress’s assistant to spy for Bloom. She covered for Bloom while she snuck away while everyone was at a mandatory assembly. She also covered for Bloom with her parents.
So far they didn’t give her something to do really except be Bloom’s assistant. She was also doing all of the leg work in their relationship as roommates. I didn’t enjoy that.
Musa
In the OG show, Musa is a singer, songwriter, and musician. Her magic was music-based and she was from the planet, Harmony. Her mother passed away and her dad was so hurt that he begged Musa not to practice music. But she couldn’t because it’s literally who she is. She sweet, rather emotional at times (I mean, the same sis) and is very loyal to the ones she loves.
The new Musa is different. She’s now an empath, a mind fairy. She’s feels everything and to block out other people’s emotions, she constantly wears her headphones to listen to music. Her power is passive instead of active like the rest of her friends so when the big battle at the end of the season comes up, she’s used to gauge how everyone is doing during training while not actually being able to train herself. To avoid this “plot” they should’ve just kept her powers the same. I get they were trying to follow more fairy lore this time around and sticking to only elemental powers but Musa really had nothing to do.
In the OG, Musa was very empathic and that played into her power but it wasn’t her entire gig. In one episode while they were showcasing their powers, Musa’s look like a red mist of some sort, to me, it seems like it would’ve been easier making sound waves or vibrations appear than emotions. Instead of having her own personality with music and it just felt like she was always reactionary to everyone and everything else.
Terra
Now, Terra is not Flora but she’s her cousin. Still, honest to God, it makes no sense to me why Flora couldn’t be in the show but we have to move on. She’s a lot different than Flora who was really soft-spoken, shy, and who sometimes had a hard time standing up for herself. Terra is shy but awkward, sweet, and talks a bit too much. She defends herself against Riven, Dane, and even her father when she had to. Out of all the characters, I honestly enjoyed her the most. We got to see what she’s about, her powers were consistent, she had good comedic moments, and was one of the best-written characters on the show including Stella.
We don’t condone Terra slander in this house!
The other characters were just fine, or I didn’t care for them at all. Sky was just fine, he wasn’t anything special, Beatrix, as I had predicted had no flavor and gave me nothing; she wasn’t intimidating at all. Riven got on my nerves right away and didn’t stop. Dane took a huge nose dive from being sweet to Beatrix’s devoted follower for some strange reason. The teachers weren’t anything special either, they were just there and barely at that to teach. Sam, Terra’s brother was fine he didn’t really need to be in the show but he’s there, not really adding anything to the plot.
#3 Rosalind
Rosalind, the big bad of the season, deserved her own category because her “plot” is all over the place. We learn that she was the one who brought Bloom to earth and told her to find her when the time came. Fine. Sometime before that, the year Bloom was born, a town named Aster Dale was overrun with “burned ones”. Rosalind has Farrah, the headmistress, and the other teachers, including Sky’s father to destroy the town believing Rosalind had evacuated the town. The others go through with it believing her and decimates the town killing a bunch of regular people.
But it turns out that the town didn’t have burned ones in it but regular people or so the other teachers were lead to believe. Rosalind tells Bloom that apparently Aster Dale was actually home to Blood Witches who had captured her because they wanted her dragon flame. I honestly, don’t believe a word this woman has to say either way.
So, Rosalind’s master plan was to manipulate Beatrix into going to Alfea, trying to find a way to set her free, but also for Beatrix to use Bloom’s identity issues against her knowing she’s on the search for her parents then hope Bloom is dumb enough to actually set her free (which she is) and then to take over the school?
She also had the time to hide away Sky’s father who was just revealed to have been killed by his best friend so that he could raise Beatrix so he can have a comeback and somehow had the time to also manipulate the Queen of Solaria into helping take over the school.
We never see when or how she is captured and hidden under the school. So where did she find the time?? I need a timetable people!!
Her motivations, plot, back story make no sense to me. She was ambitious in theory but in execution….it’s no from me.
#4 Magic, where?
And lastly where is the magic, girl? The Other World is supposed to be a separate world from our own, show me that. You’ve got people driving regular cars, wearing regular clothes, barely any fun colored hair and this is supposed to be a magical world? I can look outside my window to see that. When you are introducing a magical place there has to be some way to show how different it is to the non-magical one.
Am I really supposed to believe Bloom can just use her regular T-mobile plan phone in a place with a different time-space continuum? What made the OG show magical was in the way, Magix, and Alfea was presented to us. The girls would let their packed bags float behind them when moving in; small things like that would’ve helped them out instead of just seeing a bunch of freshman on campus waiting to play an embarrassing ice breaker with their RAs (Resident Assistants) who don’t get paid enough to be there.
The team shot in beautiful locations in Ireland and it looks like Ireland. I don’t just want to see the beautiful places you filmed in, I want to see the magical world you created using those locations. Again, I understand they only had six episodes to work with but lengthen the episodes to full flesh out the story you are telling. Just give me SOMETHING!
Welp…all in all, ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’, wasn’t awful or good; it sits purely in the ‘meh’ category. It didn’t bring anything fun, new, or interesting it just brought common small-scale teeny bopper drama that I’m over. Now, that the show has been out, how do you feel about it? Let us know! If you disagree with any of my points also let me know!