I watched Fate: The Winx Saga recently. From when I saw the trailer and read that it will be quite different from its original material and aimed for older audiences, I knew I had to level my expectations. I can’t exactly organize my thoughts and I am just one of the several others who were disappointed in seeing our beloved childhood series turned into yet another mode unnecessarily edgy teen drama (hello, Riverdale).
Winx was such a fun watch, I was always amazed by its world building that combines both magic and advanced technology, as well as the diversity of the main characters. I am especially drawn to Musa because as an Asian girl growing up, I did not see enough representation from people that look like me on television and film. So imagine the disappointment when I saw that her character was whitewashed. I have no ill feelings to the actor who played her I think she has done a decent job given the material she was given with. In fact, one of the few parts I liked about Fate,was the dynamic between Musa and Terra, who is based from the original character Flora.
Apart from the character changes, I also found some of the dialogue funny, like, they’re supposed to be teenagers, right? But they did not really sound like they were. I also cannot believe that Bloom was born in 2004. I mean we’re not actually surprised that we see actors who don’t actually look like teenagers play teenagers.
And the clothes? Winx was extra charming because of the clothes! They were everything! Tell me, at one point, you would have wanted Stella’s wardrobe or Flora’s? I did not really see that in fruition in Fate, at least they had to do that.
I think showrunners in general, should not downplay the idea that audiences are willing to see their favorites (think Archie comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, W.I.T.C.H.) in their original charm. Forcing them to just become dark without promise and keen execution is just meh. All these felt like nostalgia-bait.
