I ran this idea by Marty a while back and he gave me the okay for it, so here goes... Here's a somewhat unpopular opinion: I think season 3 is weakest season of Winx Club.
Sure, it didn't help that it came off the heels of the best season ever, but I think season 3 wouldn't stand up well against any season, except maybe S5... Back in the day, a review of the S3 finale commented that "It feels like Rainbow concentrated all their talents on the movie (the first one - SB) and gave us a bunch of badly-written, trite episodes that are frustrating because they could have been so much more." (Emphasis mine)
That's the problem with the season, many were expecting S3 to be "so much more" based on the promise of the early episodes. These problems probably aren't as apparent if you're binge-watching, but when you're looking forward to how the story plays out on a weekly basis, many of these probably made viewers go "...That's it?"
No Florelia (tm http://www.unadinoi-winx.com/season-seven-u.s.-premiere-delayed-again/)
Back in season 1, when Timmy and Tecna were paired off, the fandom was more-or-less like "Pairing off the nerds? Really?" By the end of season 2, though, developments involving the two made them more accepted by the fans (though I'll let you decide for yourself which dub did it better )
Season 2 saw Helia's arrival at Red Fountain, and he eventually paired off with Flora. Once again, the fandom were indifferent about the pairing, but if S2 could make us care for T/T, S3 was going to give us a reason to care about Florelia, right?
Well, after appearing in the season premiere, Helia proceeded to disappear until... http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/Rover_Wow/screens/3x14/3x14-RivenAndTimmy.jpg By the time the two went together on the Tecna rescue mission a few episodes later, it took one reviewer quite a bit of time to remember their relationship
Now, I'd never want Florelia to become the next MuRi or Bloom/Sky, but IMO they never got a decent storyline until S6's Snow Queen arc (And even then there was this sense of "They're arguing about vines??")
Nah, I totally agree. Season 3 was.... bad. Really bad.
Mainly because it had potential at the start. The girls having to sacrifice for someone of their own realm? Stella getting a new stepmother and sister? Valtor? It all had me pretty hyped for some great story opportunity.
Which they squandered almost immediately.
For me personally, it didn't help that they really heaped on the 'I don't have a planet to protect anymore, wah!' angst for Bloom. Because *Points at Earth, Mike and Vanessa* yeah, apparently they didn't count. But that's a rant for another day.
Then there's the plot holes. Valtor's underwhelming and out of nowhere final form. The cheap copout ending..... Yeah. Season 3's my least favorite Season too.
This was one of my bigger gripes with S3...
Enchantix sacrifices
Let me directly quote FG on getting Enchantix: "You will need to rescue someone from your own world, and it will require a great sacrifice." To put things in perspective, the only previous power upgrade at this point was Charmix and each girl had gotten theirs doing different things, so naturally, this prompted many viewers to speculate away on how the girls would get theirs, and one frequent expectation I remember was that Musa would lose her voice. I mean, giving up a potential career in music would be a big deal, right?
The plot almost seems set up perfectly for this to happen, I might add, with the fire in the library... Just have Musa inhale too much smoke while rescuing Galatea, and there you go, suddenly Aisha's sacrifice is no longer the odd one out As was pointed out in the 7x12 talkback, there was some variety in how the Winx got their fairy animals, and this is what inspired me to make these posts in fact
My personal beef with Enchantix, is that it didn't really grasp what a sacrifice means, fiction-wise.
A sacrifice has LASTING consequences. And because they sacrificed their lives and immediately jumped back, more powerful then before, fixing the problem at hand, it felt... hollow. Only Tecna really explored what a sacrifice of that calibre would mean, and she got back eventually, too. (And again, squandered potential. What if Aisha stayed blind? Interesting story potential and she would be one of the few disabled magical girls around. Heck, one of the few disabled girl characters, period)
I mean, say about you will about Nabu, but that was a real sacrifice. He gave up his life to save Earth and he stayed dead, showing, however flawed, what such a gesture would mean, for both good AND bad.
Oh yeah, that dropped plot point. I forget due to all the others it holds company.
Speaking of variety in sacrifices.... wouldn't it have been cool if Diaspro earned her Enchantix by seeing how Sky and Bloom really love each other and decides to step aside? Would've been a nice send-off...
Going places
This season had plenty of traveling, with visits to many of the Winx girls' realms (Andros, Solaria, Linphea), plus a few other places (Omega, Golden Kingdom), and this was one of the reasons that S3 is http://ask.fm/UnaDiNoiWinx/answer/133470665885. And indeed, getting to see new places (and faces!) is always good, so what's the problem?
Well, the problem lies with where they didn't go... Other than the aforementioned Beta Academy, another place we expected to see was Tecna's realm of Zenith. Reason being that since everyone was going to save someone from their home realm to get their Enchantix, that should have automatically ensured at least meeting a Zenithian, right? And then Tecna didn't even do that (!) Say what you will, but I think there were two good reasons behind this stipulation: to give Bloom angst about her situation, and to have the Winx go places
Last one...
Fairy Mirta
As these past few posts have hinted at, the main issue with season 3 is that it keeps coming up with interesting ideas and then proceeding to flat out ignore them, and here's another one...
While the Trix (and the "possessed" Cloud Tower witches) were attacking Alfea, one of the fairies fending off the attack (remember when the other student fairies actually did that? ) was a certain redhead who had transferred over from Cloud Tower a while back, and she was distressed to see Lucy among the other witches. Next ep saw Mirta and the Winx head over to Cloud Tower, and while the Winx transformed to fight the monsters they ran into, Mirta... just stood there in her casuals This did not go unnoticed by the viewers, and I imagine it would be as if Miele just stayed in her casuals during the "Beware of the Wolf" fight this past season...
And the show has pretty much forgotten about Mirta's existence since then, since her most recent appearance (AFAIK) was when FG was introducing Roxy in S5