After an exciting season two premiere on Netflix last week, many fans of Fate: The Winx Saga are already campaigning for a season three. The second season of the show was leaps and bounds better than the first, especially if you came into it as a fan of the cartoon on which it was based, Winx Club. Premiering in 2004, Winx Club follows young Bloom as she learns she’s a fairy and transfers to a magical school, Alfea College. While there she makes friends and realizes just how powerful she, and the power of friendship, truly is. This basic description makes the two shows seem pretty similar, with Fate adding in a bit of a darker and more mature vibe than the cartoon originally had. In reality though, there are quite a few stark differences between the two that some fans want to see added in, should the series get renewed for a third season.
The biggest complaint from Winx Club fans is the lack of one of the main six fairies, Tecna. Tecna is known as the fairy of technology and is the brains behind most of the groups’ winning plans.
She’s an important part of the group and to just see her character tossed aside was almost insulting to fans of the cartoon. While it seems that Tecna’s personality lives on in characters like Aisha and Musa, it still doesn’t make up for her not being there at all. Hopefully, if Fate is renewed again, we’ll get to see an iteration of her character in the future.
Some of the most iconic characters in Winx Club were the villains and there’s no Winx without the witch trio, the trix.
Made up of Icy, Darcy and Stormy, these three witches were constant villains throughout the seasons as they fought with the Winx Club. They were style icons and demanded the attention and respect of Bloom and the rest of the Winx, Fate feels like it’s missing something without them. However, Fate does have Beatrix (see the ‘trix’ in her name?) who is an air fairy that specializes in lightning, like Stormy. Perhaps they’re saving this plot for another season? If so, there’s also a theory going around that Musa isn’t the actual Musa from the cartoon and instead is Darcy, a witch with mind powers, in disguise. If this is the case, then I’d have to applaud Fate’s creators for the creative intro to the Trix.
After the announcement of the first season, people were already complaining due to the casting of Musa and Terra. In the cartoon, Musa is based on Lucy Liu and is of Asian heritage. So when a white woman was cast for Fate, many fans were rightfully upset to see a lack of representation for the Asian community. This was a similar situation with Terra, the Earth fairy. In the original cartoon the Earth fairy of the group is named Flora and is of Latinx heritage. However, Eliot Salt, who plays Terra, is also white. It seemed like the creators of Fate were simply changing the name to make it okay that they cast a white actress.
In season two however, we were introduced to Terra’s cousin, Flora, who is played by Paulina Chávez, a Latinx actress. It seemed the creators of Fate were taking into account what the fans wanted. It was a positive step forward, but we’re still lacking the Asian representation that we saw in Winx Club, which is something that also needs to be remedied.
As of right now, it seems like the Fate creators are beginning to take the original cartoon into consideration more. In season two, they included an original villain, Valtor, and he was very similar to the character he was based on. With the Flora fix and more fairy transformations this season, it seems it’s slowly going in the direction of the cartoon. Hopefully, we’ll see the Trix and Tecna soon as well.
