#also she better get her dragon form in the S4 special.... and it better be silly and noodley and smaller than most dragons..

[beastwhimsy]

she's like if a horse girl was also a dragon.... or something

[imminent-danger-came]

what would your ideal lmk season five look like? specifically for mk's character arc because I love your takes on that

I've said it before I want that boy centrifuged by the narrative

I didn't get the title of "MK death spiral blog" that one time by that one guy for nothing. I am 1000% on the "MK getting centrifuged by the narrative" pain train.

Now, in all honestly my ideal lmk s5 is the one they give me. These writers are so talented and they know more about their story than I do, so whatever they got planned is going to make me lose my mind!

But, indulging myself a little bit, here's a list of some things I'd love to see in s5 (or beyond???):

Sun Wukong V MK fight. Anyone who has followed me for any amount of time probably knows this. I need a SWK and MK fallout and then I need them to build their relationship up stronger.

MK Guilt Over Azure's death. That boy felt guilty for "releasing DBK from the underworld" when it was definitely Red Son who did that. MK arguably had a huge hand in Azure's death, being the one to cause Azure to finally lose his grasp on the Jade Emperor's powers.

Samadhi Fire Part 3. Anyone who has followed me for any amount of time also probably knows this. I want MK to be in the position of Samadhi Fire Mei and Jade Emperor Azure, unable to control his own powers, and needing to be talked down by Mei or someone else. We got one half of a 3x10 parallel in 4x08, and I need more!

Mei Dragon Form. Please for the love of god I want her to turn into a dragon so bad—nonnegotiably while she's protecting the people she cares about, for the sweet 4x05 callback. In my heart of hearts, I want Mei to unlock dragon form while trying to reach MK during Samadhi Fire Part 3. If we don't get another "We will figure this out together" what's the fucking point.

MK Subodhi Training??? Or honestly, MK interacting with real Subodhi in general. Did you see his face after the world reformed in 4x14? That was not a face of confidence.

Sandy Backstory. Which partially includes Pigsy. I just want to know what his 2x08 PTSD flashbacks were all about. *pulls out conspiracy board* I want to say those flashbacks take place at the 1x09 battlefield, which has helmets that we then see in 4x01, but who knows!

Sun Wukong homeless arc. Flower Fruit Mountain was destroyed during the s4 special, and I want to see the consequences of that, especially if MK feels guilty about it! Which he probably will!

MK Spiral! This isn't as much of a prediction/want as it is just a fact. MK is going DOWN next season and I'm here with popcorn and tears. I need a FULL harbinger of chaos meltdown.

Macaque is just there, hanging out. After everything that happened last season I hope we see Macaque around a lot more, because I love him but also because I need MK to yell at him too. Also because "Whatever they're scheming we can handle it."

Yellowtusk helps Ne Zha maintain the seal. Yellowtusk had an important skill in helping Azure contain the Jade Emperor's powers—I'm wondering if he could do the same with Ne Zha's lotus seal.

MK Flashback. You know, how he got to Pigsy's, the circumstances of his birth, an explanation for what the fuck the stone monkey is/all those stone animals were, all that good stuff.

Bye Bye Bandana. If/when MK snaps and completely loses himself to whatever he is, I'd love for the headband to come off. Really cement it.

MK Relives His Nightmares Again. Oops. After going "So we never have to live our nightmares again!" in 4x12 I now need the opposite of that to happen. Sorry MK. I need his new "Better than we found it" resolve to fold like the soggy french fry it is. That ain't lasting.

Hurting The People You Care About Theme. So with "hurting the people who care about you the most" and everything being "to pain", I really want this to go a "hurting people is a part of life" route. We're already almost there with "Mistakes happen but as long as you leave the world better than you found it then it's all good." Like that's SO close. Come on s5 give it to me.

Wukong Killed Macaque Reveal. *twirls hair* This would sooooo not bode well for MK.

MK Gets Out of His "Good Guy" "Bad Guy" Way of Thinking. I think 4x11 as an episode really highlights this. MK views people as one or the other, ignoring the vast grey area that a lot of people fall in. Wukong in his past wasn't just "a bad guy", just like he isn't currently flawless or wholly "a good guy" now. He's just a guy.

I could probably go on forever, so I'll cut this off here!

[charmixpower]

Final thoughts on season 6 despite my better judgment

Okay so this piece of shit has a few good things in it so we'll start with that. It's going to be a very short list, so it won't take too long before we get into the meat and potatoes

Things I liked about S6:

Icy's, Darcy's, and Stormy's dynamic in this season is actually peek. After s5 I was extremely hesitant to see how these three would be written, but it's actually great! They are extremely sibling towards each other, and the way they bully each other after failures is super cute

While I don't like the fashion in this season, tying it all back to Stella's love of fashion and having her passion come though is really cute and makes me wish that the winx were allowed to pursue their interests independently

The Legendarum in concept. I like the idea of stories in a book being animated with magic and going into pocket dimensions. I just like that, it was a fun way to immediately get into a new set piece

The dark witch forms. They had a very Salem energy that I absolutely loved

The specialists new outfits. They are finally wearing armor, Godspeed

The specialist's new weapons. They have weapons that can be relevant in a fight, they're not, but like they could be. Tbh they're already using magic weapons, having magic effects on the weapons was a long time coming

Miele. She's cute and she gets to be a badass and save Flora and be saved by Flora they are so cute 🥺🥰

How Flora got her Bloomix. Is it derivative of s3? Yes, this entire season is a worse season 3 except they don't have the balls to do anything half as cool as the Enchantix sacrifice. Is it cute to see Flora save Miele without her powers??? Yes!

Getting to see other magic schools do indeed exist, that was definitely fun

How the Musa/Riven arc ended. Like literally just the final episode of it where Riven left. That's the only good part of that arc and BOY IS IT GOOD. S4 gave me poisoning and this episode fixed it. Riven fear of not being able to help Musa against enemies, and him doing introspection without being smacked into it (I'm looking at you s3-4, he can do it on his own) is everything to me

Diaspro not being plot integral this season thank God, s5 was enough late season Diaspro. She's the fairy of the dragon flame, therefore fire is good for her was also a hysterical ass line

The trix disguising themselves as freshmen and going on trips with the Winx was funny, though why the fuck were they're only there freshmen I hate it here

Selina poisoning Flora has got to be the Selina and Bloom highlight, very cunning on Selina's end, and Blooms look of horror was peek

The vampires are really funny, but the zombie pirates were hilarious

The fun way they twirl the mythix wands sometimes, mythix can get so silly sometimes and it's super cute

Aisha and Nebula, they are so cute

Tecna and Timmy's fun raft adventure

Helia struggling with Flora's evil plants

Riven howling like a wolf, now bark like a dog boy

The werewolf fight in general was funny and entertaining

Icy vs Flora was emotional and action packed and very good! I loved that nature itself helped Flora recover

The elite girlies of CT fighting eachother and training was always cute

Timmy impressing Tecna's parents was cute

Stormy going mad with power in the Legendarum as Frankenstein's bride

Musa getting voice spells

Things I disliked about S6:

Daphne was characterized so badly here. She's nothing. She might as well have been sleeping beauty of the winx world and her personality would have been the same. There's absolutely no hint of the all powerful Nymph that's literally chiseled into the walls of buildings to commemorate her achievements. Now she's just clumsy, not as strong as the Winx, and is good at history. That's nothing. You could literally replace her with an entirely different character in this season and that would probably make more sense

Special mention to how Daphne is condescended in the beginning of this season. Why'd they do that to her

The beast of the depths. You literally made that one up for this season. It's very obvious that none of this was planned ahead of time nor are they even pretending that they give a shit about the timeline. Set it on fire.

The parties. The parties. The parties. Oh my god the parties. Anytime literally anything happens there's a completely useless party attached to it. Instead of developing literally ANY of the EXTREMELY underdeveloped subplots, they write in two billion fucking parties. I am tired

The fashion in this season is ugly, out of character, and has zero personality. Like. I feel like they were dressed by an AI, fucking randomly generated ass outfits. Terrible layering, over use of colors, and it's like they're always wearing outfits in the same fashion line. They never look like they own their own damn clothes, everything they wear is matching. It's like there's a hive mind, while yes I appreciate the incorporation of Stella's desire to be a fashion designer having them never wear their own clothes just makes them feel flat, like they don't exist outside of eachother

The pixies were more redundant and annoying than ever

Cloud tower being taken over in s1 was cool, it was meh in s3, and it's just plain boring and nothing in s6. Stop doing this over and over again I stopped caring the second time. "Oh well this time we'll make the school flying AND invisible." I hate you

The Legendarum as it was written. I swear to God it could have just been called the plot device machine, it just does whatever the writers want it to do

I just realized how did the pixies survive in the Legendarum that long???? Griffin literally flip flops her morals in this season again too, are you okay with tormenting sentient creatures or not please pick one

Why on earth did the witches of Cloud Tower support the Trix???? Why make witches in this show even more one dimensional. As well as the Trix's elite students weren't even memorable, this was more interesting when s3 did it with the mind controlled witches because they had to find why they were acting like that

Nex

NEX

Thoren

Did you remember that Roxy was in this season because I fucking didn't. She's so aggressively sidelined it's not even funny

The trix just show up where ever the winx are... On accident. Sure, they just have the most insane coincidences. God what even

What is a paladin anyways?? Still unclear on this

Okay I should probably say something more on Nex and Thoren. Thoren is literally a nothing character and the only thing we'd lose if he was removed is Sky being a bit pissy, Diaspro manipulating him specifically and not like... Nex or Roy or whatever. Nex is like. A bitch. He acts like s1 Riven but with less self esteem and paranoia issues. Like Riven is a self absorbed asshole who hates himself and who had an arc realizing that punishing everyone away was bad and that he needed to learn to trust, Nex is just a self obsessed asshole with a desire to embarrass and put people down, even being willing to actually injure them over stupid ass contests. Even when being manipulated by Darcy Riven was never that aggressive, he mostly just gossiped and did dragon fighting. Nex is literally a more dickish, aggressive, self obsessed, competitive, and uncaring, Riven. And you want to convince me that AISHA, AISHA "who said you were driving?" WOULD PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Literally everyone and their mom can steal powers in this season, it's so fucking easy it means nothing

Remember how in s2 there was a large amount of focus on the not Bloom main character because the main characters of Winx were the WINX CLUB and not Bloom, remember how s3 had a lot of focus on the not Bloom characters. S6 wants you to remember that Bloom is the most important specialest baby in the world and doesn't care that there's other main characters. Fuck narrative balance and giving the cast a chance to shine outside of Bloom I guess, Bloomix is a thing

How literally everyone got their Bloomix power except Flora. Triple back flip I'm going to hurl

What stated the Riven/Musa arc this season, like at the beginning he's just dismissive and overly competitive, it's only towards the end he says hes doing this because he wants to be able to help Musa. They should have written him like that the entire time

How quickly they rushed everyone getting their Bloomix, it was giving me charmix flashbacks

DIASPRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???? STOP SHOWING UP!!!

Bloom getting her Bloomix last in her own episode is trying to be s3 so bad. Okay Nick writers please sit down. That was so good and impactful because Bloom didn't have a home planet, this time Bloom should have gotten Bloomix first and you could have done something with Aisha's magic rejecting the dragon flame or something. Stop trying to be s3

Thoren/Daphne is underdeveloped, Riven(/Musa) is underdeveloped, Roy v Nex is under developed, Selina is underdeveloped, these are all season long arcs and they suck ass. Please, spend more time on your subplots over PARTIES

Allowing the pixies to have combat spells midagated how annoying and intolerable they are but it was also extremely weird. No Piff cannot attack people your making that up

Eldora's diary

Saying that Bloom had friends on earth, s4 did that too and look how that garbage turned out

Selina's lack of motivation and lack of consequences for her actions

S6 wastes so many episodes showing us places on earth when we could be going to new planets, I wanna see Romeula

Eldora's personality is the most annoying thing I've ever had to deal with

Eldora not noticing the FAIRY OF THE DRAGON FLAME IN FRONT OF HER

Eldora and Selina knowing Bloom, this literally makes no sense. And she was also an Alfea teacher because of course she was

You'd think Bloom would grow out of running to earth whenever she's upset, but no

The girls get into so many arguments this season over bullshit. Like yes I don't want them to be perfect friends but this is a bit much

Why is everything important in gardina?? The winx world conspires to make Bloom the only narratively relevant one

The extremely annoying amount of "Wow!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" The girls do constantly

Eldora can summon counter myths to fight the Legendarum, she does this once and never again

The entire mother's day thing, like they didn't do anything interesting with it, got rid of the day of the rose, and did another stupid party

The mythix wands, they are about as thin as paper, they're excessively pink, and why do they already match the Winx that makes no sense

The way the Winx need to keep proving themselves, like you can bring in conflict other ways. I would love to see a choosey artifact just once be like "oh the winx, go ahead ma'am's" that would be so funny

The 3d in this season is so ugly and I hate everything to do with it. Mythix is extremely ugly and bland and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FLOWERS ITS SO FLOWERY I HATE IT

The time limit on the Legendarum world only exists for fake stakes, the pixies were in there for how long??

The spell "friendship flame" Bloom just being allowed to make people Faries makes me irrationally angry

The two things used to make the Legendarum key are so arbitrary it pains me

Magic just came back to earth but everyone is acting like it's been around forever

Stella being stupid and self centered again. Like Stella was full of herself but she was also usually aware of people's feelings and only accidentally hurt people by not thinking, she also is the glue that holds Winx together!!! She's the one who gets them all together!!!! You don't get it!!! She'd never act like that she does have a brain!!!

God I hate the entire thing around Stella being queen for a day except how Stella looked in a crown, it was all awful

The music cafe was nonsensical and stupid and I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ALFEA

RUMPELSTILTSKIN IS THE MOST ANNOYING AND STUPID CHARACTER IN THIS SEASON AND THE FINAL BATTLE HINGES ON THIS DUMBASS CHARACTER AHHHHHHHHH

Musa not having any spells in Mythix

Acheron feels like discount wizard of the black circle and Valtor with the worst pacing and battle out of all the finale's I've seen thus far it's so bad

Daphne why are you getting married

In conclusion I hate it here

[chicoriii]

Miraculous World: Shanghai, the Legend of Lady Dragon

Again my random, not well-arranged thoughts about a new Miraculous TV movie. I'm surprised that my posts like these are getting some likes, mostly from people who even don't follow me (by the way, I wonder how you find them if they are reblogged by no more than two persons, through tags like "miraculous ladybug" or what?). I very thank you all for reading them. I'm not a good at analysis like many others, so every single person who likes read about my opinions and thoughts makes me really happy.

Personally I have never been overly excited about the specials in general, I'm more interested in the main show, how its plot is going to progress, besides I'm not a big fan of the New York TV movie, so I feel really astonished by the Shangai one. I really, really love it, more than any of already released S4 episodes (well, no wonder if I found both Furious Fu and Truth rather mediocre) and very well-received by the fandom NY special. I guess my opinion is not popular one, as I know some people have been generally negative biased towards it for some reason.

To begin with, I'm gonna explain why I don't see New York special being an amazing episode of Miraculous. I generally liked it but it, but I have some issues with it. One of them is pacing, the first part in Paris and on the plane is too long in comparison to actual action in New York (so it feels so rushed) and it's too much focused on shipping content (and remember I'm a big Adrienette fan), so American superheroes haven't gotten enough screentime. Every character other than Aeon and Jess were portrayed very shallow. Of course I don't think that every character should have been deep, but Olympia and Barbara were just disappointing. I have expected more from women who are Majestia and Knight Owl. But my the biggest problem is how much overly dramatic it is, to the point in which it's just tiring. I especially dislike the scene in which Marinette is chasing Adrien and screams she loves him after the falling off a bike, it feels like taken from very corny romance.

Shanghai was different, much more enjoyable to me. It has better pacing, no over-the-top melodrama, fewer but more interesting characters, more exciting plot. I even like the music more, because I really enjoy oriental sound.

I've seen people complaining about Marinette chasing Adrien instead of just wanting to spend time with her uncle on his birthday and learning more about her roots, that it's "bad writing". It's not new that Marinette is crazy about Adrien and it's not uncommon that people are not interested in learning language and culture of one (or even both) of their parents if they live in a completely different country the whole life. I actually liked that Tom and Sabine haven't been forcing her to that and they have been waiting for the moment in which Marinette would be ready. It also shows how good and understanding her parents are. Of course her motivation to go to Shanghai was bad and shallow, but she was punished for it by getting lost and robbed in a big Chinese city without chance to speak to people. And I find it funny that her future husband wants to learn her Chinese despite of not having Chinese roots (but maybe he has, who knows?).

I never would have thought that I would like Wang Cheng as much as I liked him the special. Especially his scenes with Adrien. I should not have been that much attached to fictional character, but seeing how happy my boy was during his time in Cheng's restaurant melted my heart. I don't remember him laughing out loud that often before (I know only about the umbrella scene). He really fits to the Dupain-Cheng family. It's sad when you think about terrible parenting of Gabriel, but his future with Marinette is going to make him happy, also because of her lovable family. I miss Adrien so much, because we have barely seen him in only one of two released S4 episodes till now, so I really treasured those moments with him we've gotten in this special.

I also loved Bastille, the adorable grey parrot (I'm not sure, but Miraculous Wiki agrees with me) and I want to draw him as well. He reminds me character designs in Dreamworks animations. That's funny than he immediately noticed that Adrien loves Marinette.

I need to say that I love Fei so much. I'm happy that she's the main character of the special (along with Marinette, I think both girl got more or less the same screentime), it made me really care about her, unlike the New York characters. I liked some of them like Jess, but not that much to make me want to see them again so badly. Fei is a cool, but still a flawed character, her story is both sad and thrilling. We've seen her good and bad sides and I think she's well-balanced. I see her a very good protagonist material for a series. Besides, I love her design as well and I'm gonna draw her one day.

Renren and Renlings concept is also interesting and fresh, I like all magical creatures in Miraculous so they are not exceptions.

But my favourite creature design is Mei Shi in his Kwami-like form. I really, really need to draw this thing.

I want to write something about the merchant of pawnshop, because I find him interesting character as well.The bad guy from the New York special was bland as hell, but Cash was really intimidating. The man obsessed with money, but very intelligent and smart. I also like his style of speaking,  I think he was more dangerous as a normal human than as an akuma villain.

I've noticed that Tikki has some sort of pinkish vision, so I wonder if Plagg sees in green. ;)

I also enjoyed the atmosphere in this. Shanghai looks beautiful and the oriental music adds more soul to it. I'm surprised how serious and brutal it was for a kid's show in few moments . I would never have expected that they would show three adults who are chasing two teens with a stick (civilian, not superheroes, there's a difference). We haven't seen of them hitting any of the girls or boys, but still. It has some dramatic moments, but they are better balanced and more subtle than in the New York special.

I'm sure I forget about something I wanted to write about, like always, but I can't see it in that moment, so I'm keeping it the way it is. This post is already way too long. ;)

[nymphixdevelopmentarchive]

What changes will you be making in your Au? I crave the knowledge

Woah hi anon!! Thank you for all the questions so far! I would be really excited to share with you all the lore I can offer (without giving out too much ;) )!  I hope you didn’t mind the long wait as I wanted to get really deep into this so I hope you enjoy it!!

Nymphix: Dragon's End is a canon-divergent au (which for those who don’t know means after a certain point in canon I cut off from there to begin a new point of lore, writing, and story) which cuts off after season 6's midseason finale and completely erases s6.5 (Mythix) to s8 (Cosmix) in order to place Nymphix in an easier time frame. 

This is basically how ill be sectioning off this entire answer, apologies for how long it is I get really encouraged to write when people as me this stuff: 1 will be basic pre-nymphix lore, explaining how the au will break off from canon, 2 will be changes to designs for each girl/guy/and parents (only really the main two ill be using: Oritel and Marion) and finally 3 the new additions to Winx lore and explanations of them. 

Pre-Nymphix Lore

So how will this au break go about? Well in order to implement Nymphix smoothly, I had to do one rewrite which is for the s6 midseason finale. After the entire Vampire invasion of Gardenia, Selina promises the Trix that her best chapter is yet to come. Selina is planning to summon Archeon at last in order to finally get rid of the Winx and maybe even the Trix to absorb their energy into the Legendarium to free her master. So long story short, the Winx confront Selina and the Trix and they fight. The Trix cover for Selina as she reads from the Legendarium and Archeon slowly starts to climb out of it, sucking in magical energy from all except Selina. That is until Bloom talks to Selina and tries to convince her to stop which causes Selina to do a double-take and stop reading and decides to use the magic energy she gathered and sacrifice herself in order to save the others and to hopefully undo all the damage she's done. Yet she can't, as Eldora finally reveals herself and grabs the Legendarium from Selina and uses her Mythix and stored Fairy Godmother energy to seal herself and Archeon back in the Legendarium causing it to be safe. 

Now with Eldora out of the picture (both literally and plot-wise), the Mythix arc cannot happen setting off a chain of events causing s6.5-s8 to not happen and instead causing Nymphix to be slowly rolling into action. After the Battle of Cloudtower v.3, the Winx decide to take some personal time off from saving the universe for almost 6 years straight to focus on themselves. So for a year, the girls have been pursuing either their royal duties or personal dreams. Bloom is learning more about how to be a Dominoian Royal, learning under her mother, Queen Marion. Stella is back in Solaria going under rigorous training to become Queen of Solaria which causes her to be in isolation from Radius as he hones in on her training. Flora is with Helia in Lynphea with her parents planning a wedding while Helia is learning under Flora’s Father to become a medical wizard. Meanwhile, Musa is with Roxy on Earth working at Frutti Music Bar and working on her music career. Aisha is currently ruling over Andros as Interim Queen due to something happening and Tecna is working on a big project for Zenith with Timmy. Sky and Brandon are on Erakylon as good ol’ King Erendor is attempting to retire, making Sky king and Brandon his right-hand man.       2. Design Changes (cause the Dragon knows we need them) First of all: I’m doing more look changes, giving the girl’s different body types and heights as I just feel like that makes each girl a lot more different. I’ve also changed how some hair looks, probably just on how I draw hair but Bloom and Tecna’s are the most different in a sense of length and style. Here’s a height chart for reference (this is an old one so please forgive the shitty anatomy and other things, I haven’t had a chance to make another yet!):

  I’ll go into each girl’s differences stylistically briefly. Bloom has much longer and wilder hair than her canon s6 counterpart, I honestly didn’t like the whole thing she had going with her hair so I brought the old style back and made it a bit longer and crazier with a lot of waves. Stella is a lot shorter and has longer hair, keeping more or less everything the same. Flora is chaotically different, having a much much taller form and making her bangs not look like they can cut you on impact, similar to Bloom’s bangs. Tecna has a lot of changes as well, mostly with her hair, giving it a very unkept manner but longer than the pixie cut we’ve first seen her within S1-s5, making it as long as her Bloomix hair. Musa has the second shortest hair, keeping it tied with Aisha. Musa is also the shortest in the group, but can still kick your ass. Lastly, Aisha is at the same height as Bloom, but I decided to keep her original hairstyle from s2 and s3 as I feel like those are the best representations of her hair but added the salmon highlights into her hair cause I think those look amazing on her. One other thing I have changed for the girls is their Bloomix designs. I honestly didn’t have to redesign them but I couldn’t help myself as they have a lot of problems aesthetically and efficiently, especially for a webcomic. I went for a still-looking good, but less sharp design and got rid of that shitty side ponytail from Stella’s Bloomix. I’m also giving the girls a lot of unique outfits to wear based off of previous transformations so look forward to seeing that and the Bloomix designs!  The guys have a lot more fixes than the girls, giving them a better glow-up than whatever the fuck s4/s5 did to them (rip Sky and Helia’s hair). Sky and Helia get their glorious locks back in full swing and made them longer, while the entire boy group gets new outfits and armor! The parents also have modified designs and personalities, especially Oritel and Marion. Marion, or The Dragon Queen of Domino, is a feared royal to most of her enemies and even some of her allies but a soft mother and kind leader to her subjects from those who know her best. She’s the current guardian of the Dragon Flame, having the “guardian form” of the Flame giving her a special transformation. Marion is also known to have a fiery temper during Alliance debates and talks with other kingdoms. Oritel rules by her side, gifted “The Key of the Flame” (the sword from SOTLK and MA and other times) by Marion when they were first married. Oritel is a lot calmer and much more level-headed during debates than his wife and usually takes care of these affairs as well as ones closer to home. Also no more bucket helmets and weird half-circle hair for them, they get new designs.        3.  Added Lore 

This is gonna be a bit shorter than 1 and 2 since some of the stuff in the added lore section are MAJOR spoilers. However, I can give you somethings that I think you will like anon! First off we have The High Council of Fae which is a council containing guardians of all canon transformations including Nymphix. This council is the main place where Fairy magic is tested, kept safe, fairy-involved history is recorded and stored, and trails of fairies happen. Daphne is apart of the High Council, being Lady Sirenix (Harmonix included). No one except the Council themselves and their close family knows the guardian’s true identities (except for the royals of Andros due to a loophole in sentencing) and are kept secret at all times. Each guardian looks over their respective transformation and guides those who want to gain it in the right direction or protect those who are involved in said transformation (Like Mythix with the Legendarium, Tynix with the Mini Worlds, Butterflix with the Fairy Animals, and Cosmix with the Cosmic star energy that is used by the Queen to bless fairies who are worthy). Another thing added to the lore is a small thing, Fae is used to reference Earth Fairies as its used in common folklore to call fairies of Earth Fae, especially since the Earth Fae have an almost entirely different magic system and way of life. Lastly, the Dragon Flame isn’t just Blooms, it's also been given to Daphne and Marion. Due to Domino’s past, a girl or son born in Dominoian royalty is usually blessed with the Dragon’s Flame as when they become Queen/King, they are seen and trained to be the protectors of the Flame. Queen Marion is one of them, as stated earlier, having a special fairy form of the Dragon Flame especially suited for Queens and Kings. Daphne, however, is very unique. Due to Daphne also being Lady Sirenix (basically having pure sirenix energy straight from the Heart of Sirenix), combining it with her Flame created the Water Flame which is a special type of Dragon Flame that is so enhanced by Sirenix magic that it becomes the Water Dragon’s Flame. Bloom has the purest form of the Dragon Flame, having the chance to basically become God. Each holder of the dragon flame also has a special Dragon that is gifted to them after being blessed with the Flame, coming in different forms that suit the user. Marion has a ram-horned Dragon, Daphne has an Eastern-Dragon-inspired dragon, and Bloom has the dragon we all know and love. Also as a fun little addition, in times of great fury, power or distress a Dragon Flame user can have horns in the shape of their dragon appear on their heads. 

[drops-of-moonlights]

Winx AU Detailing Part I - Classes of Magi, The Workings of Magic and Transformations

Or, in which I go over all the transformations in the AU and all their changes, as well as the differences between Fairies, Witches and Sorcerers. Plenty of fan-forms abound! This was also partly inspired by @emsartwork ‘s reworking of many forms, @arachcobra ‘s and @gins-potter ‘s worldbuilding in their rewrite ‘fics, and @winxys-written-world ‘s various headcanons, so credits go to them as well. Let’s start!

THE TYPES OF MAGI

Originally, when magic was first discovered, there existed just one magical class: the Fae. They had a singular magical form (now called Psychaix), and they were considered close or as actual deities, due to their grand power. They pulled their magic from all places, and no one had a set Source, or set elemental force. As the years passed, however, as more and more people discovered their powers, experimentation began, and the different types of magi arose:

The first Fairy was a woman named Arcadia, who linked her magic to darkness, water and air. She used her positive emotions as a way to channel her uncontrollable energy, and her form adquired a sparkly sheen over it, elation given a physical form. She spread her knowledge across the lands, and was the founder of Alfea.

The first Witch was a woman named Clariel, who linked her magic to light, fire and earth. She used her grief and anger to channel her magic, and her form adquired a somewhat metallic sheen over it, anguish given form. While people were more recluctant to learn this way of magic, it quickly spread over the worlds. She was the founder of Cloud Tower. It’s thanks to her and Arcadia that Fairies and Witches are predominantly women due to association, but men can become fairies and witches, as well.

Fairies and Witches kept the wings that the Fae had, but they evolved in different ways - Fairy wings keep the see-through nature of Fae wings most of the time, while Witch wings tend to be more solid-looking. Both types keep the luminous effect of the original Fae wings, but they modify it into sparkly dust or metallic dust, respectively.

A man named Muteo, who had linked his magic to the plants, animals and to electricity, went on a journey during the times when Fae started to dissapear, searching for a way to extend his magical reservoir. After years of investigation, he found a solution: by rechanneling the magic spent on forming and maintaining his wings when transforming, he would find his magical reach enhanced, being able to cast more spells with ease. As such, Sorcerers where born. They forego wings entirely, and manage to fly via levitation spells. He was the founder of Epsila, the school of Sorcerers. Due to his influence, most men go the path of Sorcerer, but women can become Sorceresses as well.

These four magi would later become part of the Ethereals (magical beings separate from the rest of the populations and that seem to exist in a different place, and which are believed to the the ones that gave magic to the rest), and while titles did not exist during their times, they were later granted the titles of Fae of Aether (Psyche), Grand Fairy of the Moon (Arcadia), Grand Witch of the Sun (Clariel), and Grand Sorcerer of Nature (Muteo).

THE INNERWORKINGS OF MAGIC

Everyone is born with magic, no matter the planet. Yes, even on Earth everyone has magic inside them. But that amount of magic varies from person to person, and just because you have magic doesn’t mean you can use magic.

To give a random number, let’s say you need to have at least 5 points of magic to actually use basic, generalized spells, and that you need 8 to transform and be a Fairy, Witch or Sorcerer. Most people are born with only 1 or 2 points of magic, so at most, they can activate and use magical objects, but not magic itself. So while magic is universal, its use is not. Magi with the ability to transform are called Morpher Magi, while those that can’t are simply Magi or Casters.

Magic is also present in the atmosphere, and if a planet can hold life, it will also hold magic - but those levels of magic can also vary. Active usage of magic depends on the ambient magic of the place, so the larger quantity of magic in the air the better capability for spellcasting, as well as the opposite. Ambient magic is stronger in populated areas, while weaker in desterted of wildlife-dominated places; it can also stagnate, meaning that it’ll become weaker and weaker the less it’s used to the point it barely allows usage of basic spells. This was the case with Earth after the White Circle was imprisoned, the ambient magic became progressibly worse and worse until reaching nonexistent levels. Stella kickstarting Bloom’s magic at the very start of S1 also slowly revived the ambient magic of Earth, and the girls’ earning of Believix in S4 restored almost the entirety of the ambient magic in a 1000km area around Gardenia. The freeing of the White Circle would have fully restored the entire planet’s ambient magic, making people be able to spellcast again.

Magic is biological, a body creates it in the same way it generates blood cells, for example. Of course, this also means people can experience deficits and illnesses related to magic, and one’s magic energy (refered to as Aura) is also dependent on the atmosphere. People would “leak” magic, so to speak, if they’re in a low-magic zone, and it would give them a feeling of tiredness until they’re completely balanced with the area. Said ambient magic lets people recharge their Aura after casting too many spells, like after a battle or an experiment. Some people experience what is known as Disparate Magic Seeping (DES for short), where they “leak” more magic than usual into the ambient network when using it and making them take more time to recharge their Aura. For people that are able to use magic, Aura also makes the body’s healing rate faster.

Similar to this, there is a special condition that grants someone a way bigger capacity for using magic as well as a bigger reservoir for it, called Dragon Aura or Dragon Soul, after the legend of the Great Dragon. It’s passed by blood, and it gives the benefit of faster and stroger magic usage, but it also tends to cause faster draining of stamina when in use. Those with the condition can access it at will, but abusing it can lead to health issues later in life.

Similarly named are the Dragon Scales or Dragon Gems, magical stones that seem to act as outside Sources, which can grant their owners said power. They’re usually embedded into magical artifacts, and can be strengthened if channeled with the same type of magic.

Sources are the certain types of magic that people are more naturally drawn to, from which they’re strongest when using it. Each planet seems to favor different sources of magic: Anthocea and Earth favor plants, earth, water and animals, Solenei favors fire, light, darkness and ice, Daumme favors sound, air, electricity and metal, and Myrari favored void and more spiritual powers. This doesn’t mean anyone coming from those planets will only have powers related to those sources, but those are the more common ones. Certain kingdoms and countries (especially the older ones) also are the most prone to prefer certain elements - Solaria favoring light, Hoggar favoring metal, France favoring plants, to give some examples.

While most fauna does not have the capacity to develop magic, some species have, getting classified as Magic Animals. They seem to also have developed a more advanced mindset as well, and some have been known as being able to communicate with the sentient races. Examples of Magic Animals would be Manawolves, Lectrosquirrels and Digmoles.

TRANSFORMATIONS

Transformations are physical manifestations of people’s Sources in and over their body, which allows them to have a better handling of their magic. There are several different levels of transformations, but the 3 basic ones are Charmix, Glamourix and Enchantix, which grant the base energy and capacity for the most common uses for magic.

Wings are covered in a substance called Essence Dust, which is the physical form of magic. Essence Dust is what allows Fairies and Witches to fly, and is generated by the normal absortion of ambient magic mixed with the magi’s own powers, being turned into a powder-like material. Essence Dust is also very susceptible to the elements, however, and can be rendered unstable given the right conditions or in large quantities, to the point of risking undoing the transformation itself. Direct use of the substance is only unlocked after obtaining Enchantix, where it’s now also channeled into a little vial the user has in some part of their transformed outfit. Sorcerers get a better and larger use of Essence Dust, as all of it is channeled into their vial unlike Fairies and Witches, which divide it between the vial and their wings. It’s used for strenghtening regular and convergence spells, and it can also dispel curses. It’s also used for faster healing. The different levels of transformations will be discussed in a later post.

[nautiscarader]

2019 in animation - very selected summary

So, I dunno if anyone’s noticed, but this year was crazy strong when it comes to animation, both in terms of amount and quality of it. No matter what type you liked - traditional...

...3D...

...cell-shaded...

...hyper-realistic...

 - oh, wait, wait, no, my mistake, that’s clearly live-action. 

Anyway, no matter what type of animation is your favourite, this year gave you something. and I’m gonna go chronologically, listing those that I have been able to see. Keep in mind, day only has 24 hours, so I couldn’t see every new season or premiere (for example, I had no interest in OK KO, or She-Ra). Some spoilers below. And Gifs. LOTS OF gifs.

In January: we were still riding on the Spiderverse bandwagon from last year,, which culminated with an Oscar in February. And though as I’ve said, the movie would have worked better imho as a, say, Netflix series, as only two of the spider-people were properly fleshed out, I have to admit, it was a well-earned prize.

Then we were hit by the finale of Steven Universe, and while some complained about the another redemption of cosmic regime, it was an incredibly satisfying ending to a great cartoon... so much so that a whole movie and an epilogue series was made.

plus, it had a segment animated by James Baxter, so it’s automatic win..

January also blessed us with a reboot of another old-forgotten property, Carmen Sandiego, with her second season arriving in October. And it proved that reboots do make sense, but only if you actually do something with it. The story was fresh, creative, and yet, similar in its serialised form to capture the imagination of viewers. Also, grappling hooks for the win.

February was the month of dragons. Not only we got the conclusion of How to Train Your Dragon franchise, but Netlfix gave us second season of The Dragon Prince. While I still consider HTTYD 1 as the best movie of the franchise, as it cleverly told the story of a conflict without any obvious villain, HTTYD 3 was a satisfying conclusion, strengthened by the Homecoming special in November. 

TDP S2 on the other hand, did everything season 1 did, except better. For once, the studio finally broke their piggy bank and bought a new graphics card, so the choppy 15FPS animation of S1 is gone. The story got darker, more mature, yet whimsical, and it only made us hungry for more. Luckily, S3 was just around the corner.

March gave us season 2 of Craig of the Creek. I have to admit, I missed out on this cartoon in 2018, and it was a humongous mistake. CotC is quite possibly the most wholesome cartoon out there, telling amazing story about a boy, his friends, and his family, glorifying the mundane adventures in the creek to truly epic proportions. The family is especially important part, I do not remember a cartoon where bonds between family members were as well written as here. Definitely a must-watch if you have missed it as well.

On 8th of March, the International Women’s day, DC Superhero Girls 2019, aka My Little Pony But Humans And With Superpowers, started, and it was a blast. Creator. Lauren Faust, has once again proven that whatever she touches turns into gold. The shorts were funny, clever, and changed just enough of the DC universe to feel familiar, yet show us new, interesting scenarios. 

 In April, Missing Link had its premiere, showing that traditional, stop motion animation not only has place in modern times, but it can deliver spectacular scenes, though of course, we expected nothing less of studio Laika.

In May, one of Disney’s long-running series, Star vs The Forces of Evil had its finale, and that brings us to the first screech of the list. Many people complained about the direction the show has taken, some claiming it has gone off-track in S3, some saying it was S4 that dropped the quality. Some, like me, saw nothing wrong with it, but the finale let people dissatisfied. If anything, it was too short, and definitely could use an epilogue movie that would tie some of the remaining plot threads in something bigger than one single pan-shot. 

Rest in piece, laser puppies

Wait, they’re alive? Well, then... rest in piece, Hekapoo and her puppies.

This month also presented a first contender for this Summer’s line-up, Twelve Forever. The cartoon took us into wild, bizarre land of imagination, and offered quite a few very mature lessons about growing up and acknowledging one’s responsibilities. It also provided much needed representation, both in terms of colour and sexuality. 

Sadly, amidst scandals with its creator, the show was canned, though it’s also Netflix’s fault for not marketing it enough.

A-and maybe the show was just a tad too... creepy....

Also somewhere in May some Games might have been lost and some Thrones burned, but no one cares about it anymore. i think it was popular for a while, though.

However, 12 Forever was just a start. June gave us Amphibia, my personal top-bingeable cartoon of the year. Disney has hit a jackpot, giving us an incredibly creative fantasy show with rich mythology and enough emotional conflict to create fantastic storytelling. The only slight complain was the scheduling, as episodes aired daily, meaning the season was over by the end of the month. But honestly, the amount of humour and adventures with Anne in the forg world we got compensates that thousandfold. Book 2, coming in 2020, can only makes thing more interesting. 

Going for a hat-trick, in August we got the premiere of a cartoon that I was betting would be my personal favourite, Infinity Train... Until I learned of its schedule, even weirder than Amphibia’s. While Amphibia took a right turn, and gave us 20 episodes, a perfect amount for both plot and filler stories, Infinity Train... turned out to be a mini-series with just ten episodes, airing daily, two per night. And that, in my opinion, was a fatal mistake. Not only we now know that the story is not over, as Season 2 arrives in January, but the short episodes and its density gave very little time to leave an impact on us. If it was at least spaced out, then maybe I wouldn’t be so judgemental, but for me it was a blow that deflated the balloon I was clinging to since 2016 pilot. Still, there is more to come, and the story was more than interesting, so we’ll see if I get used to the pocket mini-story arcs.

September. Remember Steven Universe? That cartoon that ended? SIKE, HAVE A TV MOVIE. And by gods, old and new, what a phenomenal movie it was. A musical telling its own, contained story of betrayal, trust and finding yourself, based on Rebecca Sugar’s mis-adventure with a phone that reset itself... I have seen this movie at least ten times, and its OST is one I come back to constantly on Spotify. The songs are amazing, catchy, incredibly-well written, deep, and, as usual, send very adult messages about growing up and finding one’s identity, which SU was already famous for. Must watch.

Continuing the theme of reboots that actually make sense, Ducktales finished its second season after duck-bombs in March and May, with a heart-breaking story of Della Duck and humongous finale, extending DT’s universe to other Disney Afternoon shows. Season 3 promises even more, and DT is a golden standard of making a reboot that stays faithful to a more than half-a-century old material, while adding enough material to keep things fresh and funny for modern audience. What I’m saying is, Disney could really learn from Disney (pictured below).

But while some things start, some have to finish. October saw the end of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a show that has taken Internet by the storm in 2010 and...

...okay, cringy brony things aside, this was a clever re-imagining of the decades-old property, and its popularity, especially amongst the people outside the target demography is a proof of its quality. The ending was perfectly serviceable, nothing that stood out, in my opinion, but it definitely didn’t disappoint either. MLP FiM will live in history as the cartoon about pastel tiny horses that made adult men cry and gave them enough passion to create years of of visual crack. And porn. Lots of porn.

November:  Just In case if one season of human and elf adventures was enough, The Dragon Prince Season 3 arrived in November, and it provided a thrilling conclusion to its first smaller story arc. Though I wish the season was longer, and it dived into the history of Elves’ and Humans’ animosities, I would be lying if I said I didn’t binge-watch it all in one sitting, gripping my chair. 

Do you like Green Eggs and Ham? Yes, yes, I do, Sam-I-am. Question: how do you take a classic poem, made purposefully of limited vocabulary, and turn it into a thirteen episode series with a beginning, middle, and end? The answer: You add bunch of weird stuff and the mother of all complicated backstories... at least by the original’s standards. And here’s the thing: this is the first Dr Seuss’ adaption where it works. Somehow the writers were able to stretch each verse of the famous poem into a surprisingly emotional story about friendship, losing and restoring hope, as well as following your dreams. Plus, it gave us Fargo-esque team of Bad Guys. Come on. 

And just in time for Christmas season, we were blessed with Klaus, a clear contender for a Christmas classic in my opinion. This STUNNINGLY beautiful traditionally animated original Netflix movie is a very, very clever reinterpretation of St. Nick’s mythos, telling a deep, and very realistic story of greed and selfishness, and how can one turn their life around by changing their life, one present at a time.

We’re about to end the year, so HOW ABOUT SOME EMOTIONAL TRAUMA, KIDS? Yes, Steven Universe Future is here, and from the looks of it, Steven’s problems are just beginning, since they mature with him. The show’s too real, man. However, it also provided much needed levity, giving us a familiar taste. Nothing more to say, as the show is still airing, and it will surely give us more emotional moments.   

And that’s a wrap for 2019. As I’ve said, it is not exhaustive by any means, and from the looks of it, 2020 is gonna be as packed as its prequel. So yeah, the world might be on fire, but at least we got some nice cartoon to binge-watch.

Happy new year everyone! At least I have time until 6th of January when the first episode of Infinity Train Season two arriWHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S OUT ALREADY