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> Shortcomings of season 3
SpiderBraids
post Jun 5 2016, 8:25 AM
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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 summerautumn @ UnaDiNoi-Winx)

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 icon_smile.gif)

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... episode 14? icon_confused.gif 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 icon_confused.gif

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 icon_confused.gif (And even then there was this sense of "They're arguing about vines??")

This post has been edited by SpiderBraids: Jun 5 2016, 8:32 AM


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P-girl
post Jun 7 2016, 10:21 AM
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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.
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SpiderBraids
post Jun 8 2016, 4:17 PM
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QUOTE (P-girl @ Jun 7 2016, 5:21 PM) *
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.


I will actually touch on some of these in later posts, but for now...



No Charmix

As Faragonda said while introducing Enchantix, Charmix was the goal for 2nd year fairies. So, it would stand to reason in S3 that the girls could call upon it when they really needed that extra boost. Back in the early going (after the first couple eps), I wrote up a bunch of predictions for S3, which included more Charmix and convergence use. One poster replied that it was too early in the season for such things, but I imagine that most fans would have expected to see them both eventually when things started to really heat up... and I suspect that viewers must have realized something was up when the Winx faced the Trix in episode 5 and still didn't use their Charmix icon_confused.gif (though a dub-induced plothole in that same battle may have overshadowed it)

IMO it didn't make sense for the Winx to simply abandon using Charmix without explanation, as not only was it the previous year's goal, but also unlike more recent abandoned transforms like Mythix or Tynix, one gets the impression that Charmix was meant for general use... so why not use them? icon_confused.gif


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SpiderBraids
post Jun 11 2016, 4:38 AM
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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 icon_smile.gif 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 icon_smile.gif


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P-girl
post Jun 11 2016, 11:45 AM
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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.

This post has been edited by P-girl: Jun 11 2016, 11:46 AM
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SpiderBraids
post Jun 15 2016, 4:26 PM
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QUOTE (P-girl @ Jun 11 2016, 6:45 PM) *
(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)


At the time, that was never considered, because the main issue was that the Winx could have waited until the next sunset to heal Aisha icon_confused.gif Still, having a wider variety of sacrifices probably would have alleviated the whole "no real consequences" issue...



Diaspro

She was responsible for one of the most dramatic twists of season one, but in my opinion, ever since Sky dumped her, none of Diaspro's appearances since then have been much good... When she was kidnapped in season 2 and Sky and Bloom had to go rescue her, instead of focusing on the drama of that issue like viewers had been expecting to see, the episode more-or-less ended up focusing on the kidnappers being the guys from Battle of the Planets (!)

So anyways, in S3, Diaspro was jealous of Sky's engagement to Bloom and used some potion from Valtor to put Sky under Val's spell and tricked him into announcing his engagement to her instead of Bloom, and treating Bloom and friends like intruders (!) One return trip to Eraklyon later, Stella lifted the spell on Sky and as the Winx were fleeing, Diaspro was heard yelling "This isn't over! Sky will be mine!" So one could reasonably expect that we'd be seeing more of her later, right?

Well, just a couple of episodes later, Brandon and Sky suddenly returned and told Stella that Diaspro had already been banished, so no icon_confused.gif And even though she did return in S5 and 6, it seems that Diaspro's been obsessed with nothing else but getting Sky back icon_confused.gif


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P-girl
post Jun 16 2016, 6:14 AM
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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...
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SpiderBraids
post Jun 21 2016, 4:30 PM
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QUOTE (P-girl @ Jun 16 2016, 1:14 PM) *
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...


While I did have Di getting her Enchantix floated as a possibility for improving the season, another idea was to have her redeem herself by playing a crucial role later in battle, and prove that "not all 'bad girls' are truly bad" (actual words used)... which could also apply to these next characters icon_wink.gif



(Alternate)

Chimera and the Betas

IMO, Chimera is probably the poster child for the shortcomings of season 3, because her initial appearance showed so much promise, and came with a really interesting concept... I mean, one "bad" fairy was enough, but a whole school (and one we never even knew existed before, no less?) And considering how Valtor and the Trix were going places to steal magical spells (even Alfea), it seemed inevitable that they'd pay Beta Academy a visit sometime, maybe even attracting the attention of the Winx, who'd really have a hard time at a school that apparently doesn't like Alfea...

And it turns out I put more thought into that than the season actually did, because Beta Academy (or for that matter, those two girls Chimera came with) never figured into the storyline at any point. Huh?

Other than completely ignoring the dramatic possibilities of a new rival fairy school, the story always seemed to take the path of least interest with Chimera... Besides the well-trod "evil stepmother" route (in a show that used to make a point about being different from your typical fairy fantasy), here we have a girl with ties to one of the Winx seeking ultimate power, who alliances with the season's big bad. Sound familiar? Except that unlike with Selina, we never get "that moment" where Chimera realizes that maybe it wasn't such a good idea and flips sides, which I know some fans were hoping for... and IMO, the story seemed to be hinting at such a direction:
- Bloom randomly telling Cassandra after Stella's tiff: "It might not look like it now, but this could very well be the beginning of a lasting and beautiful friendship"
- Stella specifically mentioning Chimera upon hearing FG talking about saving someone from her own realm
- Someone pointed out to me it would have made more sense for Cassandra to leave Chimera behind during the chaos on Eraklyon rather than Radius

And that's to say nothing about how she and her mom were eventually dispatched... Seriously, it makes the S4 finale battle look epic in comparison icon_confused.gif


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SpiderBraids
post Jun 23 2016, 3:49 PM
Post #9


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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 Una di Noi's favorite season. 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 icon_smile.gif

This post has been edited by SpiderBraids: Jun 23 2016, 3:50 PM


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SpiderBraids
post Jun 27 2016, 4:18 PM
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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? icon_wink.gif) 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 icon_confused.gif 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 icon_confused.gif


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