"The Winx Saga" was fated to fail from the start
By Kendra Martinez, Staff Writer
Based on the 2004 animated series “Winx Club”, Netflix’s new show “Fate: The Winx Saga” hit the streaming service in January of 2021. Created by Brian Young, the Netflix show follows Bloom (Abigail Cowen) as she navigates her way at Alfea, the magical boarding school in the Otherworld, after finding out she is a fairy. There she becomes friends with five other fairies, each with a distinct power. They each must learn how to control their abilities while also navigating their friendships. Fans of the original animated show will notice there are significant changes in the Netflix series, and not all of them are good.
The most prevalent issue with the show is the whitewashing of two key characters. Terra (Eliot Salt) is introduced as a cousin to Flora, one of the original fairies who did not make it into the Netflix adaptation. While Flora has brown skin and is believed to be Latina, Salt is a white British actress. The other character who was whitewashed is Musa (Elisha Applebaum). In the original, Musa is a Chinese fairy, however, Applebaum is a British actor who is part Singaporean, but mainly European. The unnecessary whitewashing of these characters takes away from the already lacking representation of people of color in the Netflix series. In fact, the replacement of Musa fits into the typical Hollywood custom of replacing a predominantly Asian character with a slightly less Asian, mostly European actress. Take the live action remake of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” as an example. Since these two characters’ race has nothing to do with the plot, it would not have affected the show in any way to leave them the same as in the original show. To give credit where it is due, “Fate: The Winx Saga” did one thing right and that was keeping Aisha (Precious Mustapha) as the original fairy with black skin color.
Aside from the whitewashing of characters, Netflix took out a few characters from the original series and changed the personalities of some of the others. The erasure of the Fairy of Technology, Tecna made fans upset seeing as she was part of the original fairy friend group. Along with Tecna, the main antagonists, The Trix were erased from the show. The new antagonist was Beatrix (Sadie Soverall) and she has lightning powers. While Beatrix seemed to be the replacement for the evil trio, the ending has fans questioning whether she will be as evil as The Trix. Bloom’s character was also significantly changed for the Netflix adaptation. While in the animated show, she is fun and liked to socialize with the other fairies, the new show characterized her to fit the “not like other girls” trope. Stella (Hannah van der Westhuysen) is the Fairy of Light and she is the heir to a powerful realm in the Otherworld. Along with Bloom’s character, Stella is changed to be a more conceited character instead of the socialite from the original.
Overall, the world of the Winx was significantly changed to appear more serious and gloomy. It’s clear that Netflix’s target audience were the children who grew up watching “The Winx Club”. They assumed that because we are older, we wanted a more serious version of the show we loved as kids. However, they failed to realize part of the Winx charm was how light-hearted it was. Sure, there were evil plots and dark episodes, but in the end the original show was centered around the friendship of the six fairy friends. Meanwhile, “Fate: The Winx Saga” is centered around a serious plot and failed to capture the girls’ relationship with each other. Had Netflix released it as an original show, I think it could have been better. However, when comparing it to the original, it failed as an adaptation.