REVIEW: Fate: The Winx Saga

Fate: The Winx Saga premiered on Netflix earlier this year, meaning that fans of the original Winx Club were excited to see a part of their childhood being brought back.

I remember religiously watching the cartoon on TV every evening and getting a new copy of the Winx Club magazine every time I saw a new issue on the newsstand. This meant that I went in with many expectations and unfortunately, none of them were met.

Fate: The Winx Saga is a coming-of-age story of five fairy friends who attend a magical boarding school in the 'Otherworld'. Each one of them has a different power. Bloom, the main protagonist, is a fire fairy who grew up in the normal world before discovering her magical powers. She attempts to master her enchanting powers while navigating this new world, along with finding love, building friendships and fighting off monsters.

The show was rather disillusioning to watch, in my opinion.

My favourite character was Flora because as a person of colour, she was the only one I felt an affinity to. To then realise that she was replaced by her cousin Terra was upsetting. I cannot possibly think of a reasonable justification that led the producers to make that call. They also took away Stella’s wit and directness and in turn made her an awful person, for no reason at all. What struck out the most to me was the costumes - where were the amazing transformation outfits??

We saw this trend of darker shows happening with Riverdale, and we all ate it up in the first season. Since then, I have really grown tired of it. I’m not sure what happened with that one, but I know the moment I heard Archie talking about the “highs and lows of high school football”, I had to stop watching it. It surprises me to see it on Netflix’s most-watched list because the only time I hear someone talking about it is because it is being bashed for its cringey script.

Then came Sabrina, which similarly started off really well but has since taken a strange turn and has become unbearable.

Seeing this trope being applied yet again to the Winx Club has become exhausting, and I suppose that’s what pushed me away from it. It makes very little sense to take a show’s name and fundamental concept and then change pretty much everything else about it.

It seems like they were simply trying to jump on the Winx popularity without genuinely wanting to add anything to it and it feels somewhat deceiving as a viewer. The plotline itself, apart from the occasional ‘icks’, however, was not the worst. I do think if I had watched it without the expectations coming from the Winx Club, I might have enjoyed it a bit more.

So to conclude, would I recommend it? No, but I’m probably still going to watch the next season and complain about it anyway.

Edited by Hannah Youds