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the issues with fate the winx saga (with spoilers): a thread
a lot of people love fate the winx saga for multiple of reasons, whether that be for the amazing special effects, the great acting, the darker plot, or the lgbt hints. however, there is a lot of issues with this show that i cannot get behind.
the big issue is obviously the whitewashing. they replaced flora, a latina fairy, with a white character named terra for body diversity. there are so many things wrong with this. why couldn’t they just hire a plus-sized latina in the first place and save all the trouble?
it is clear that terra is meant to be a replacement for flora. they both even have the same nature powers. being able to grow plants with magic, manipulating vines to trap someone. sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
even though they're not the same character, as terra mentions that flora is her cousin (which means she could show up in s2), it is still unacceptable. they blatantly removed a latina from the club and added a white girl instead. i hate how flora is being disrespected like this.
however, this next case is worse. musa is no longer east asian. although the actress is at least quarter asian because of her grandad, this casting is still not appropriate. this is because musa is meant to be FULLY asian. they still whitewashed her because she is white-passing.
why is this worse than the terra/flora situation? because at least that could be fixed by adding flora in s2 cos it is established that they are not the same character. but musa’s character already exists in this show’s universe so we may never see a true asian musa in fate.
another big issue i have with the show is how the characters are treated, especially the main poc characters. they also messed up the girls’ personalities. when i first watched fate, i was taken aback by it. seeing them with different personalities was so jarring.
let’s start with the mistreatment of their poc characters. aisha is a water fairy who spends the majority of the season being bloom’s helper and sadly does not have a proper story of her own. the only arc she has is struggling with her studies and being a perfectionist.
this is a HUGE downgrade from her cartoon version. if you didn’t know, aisha is actually the crown princess of her own realm called andros. winx club was widely praised for having a black princess even before disney had theirs.
aisha’s royal background is all removed from fate the winx saga and andros isn’t even mentioned at all. the only known princess in the show is stella. they really demoted aisha from being a princess to a token black helper of the white main character.
they also tried to villainize aisha at one point because she snitched on her friends about freeing rosalind. this is also completely out of character for her. cartoon aisha would’ve never snitched on her friends or be a “goody-goody” and follow the rules all the time.
cartoon aisha is very practical and opinionated. she is fierce and would be willing to break the rules for her friends. she can also be quite stubborn and impatient which could get her into trouble. aisha in fate the winx saga is nothing like that.
the other main poc character that is mistreated is dane, who is a queer specialist in this show. they also tried to villainize him by leading terra on in the first act of the season and then talks badly about her with riven on a instagram story.
i also want to quickly mention how bad the lgbt representation was in this show. dane was the only queer character but was never expressly labelled. he also escapes to the “bad” crowd to feel more accepted. he becomes infatuated by riven, who is his friend’s fat-shaming bully.
both aisha & dane are the ONLY main poc characters in the show. yes, only two. it is truly sad that they’re the only ones who are not white and both were villainized at some point. they’re carrying the racial diversity of the show on their shoulders & they’re treated like shit.
fate stans keep saying to “not compare with the cartoon because they’re trying to be more realistic”, but this is a live-action adaption so of course comparisons will be made naturally. the show strays too much away from the source material and representations have been awful.
i hope more people will talk about this because i truly cannot enjoy the show at all with all these problems. netflix needs to listen to these criticisms and fix the apparent issues in the new season. end of thread.
