#anti valtor

[lexishoney]

wdym you ship valtor x bloom. bloom x icy IS RIGHT THERE

[all-things-cringe]

We stating a little wierd but also timid, because... who didn't ship this?!

Valtor from Winx Club x Bloom from Winx Club

You see the vision, right? (Okay, I MIGHT started shipping this, because I had a crush on Valtor and I treated Bloom like self intrest, but that's not the point here).

It might not be my fauvorite ship, but I see the potential here. The drama! The feelings! Will she change him or would they work together? The scene when they meet for the first time... it could be in romantic movie and noone would see anything wierd!

But I must say, I loved thinking about possibility of Bloom having a daughter, Valtor returning and them catching feelings. Bloom remembering her crush on Valtor, wanting to protect her child, because of course Valtor wants to use her for revenge, while Valtor might not be the hero, but his actions are now more morally grey, wanting to just be close to her daughter... aaaah, I wrote so many stories about that (unfortunetly it was looong ago and it was mostly lost to time).

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

um anyways so my brother is watching *shudder* fate and made the grave mistake of calling it a good show within my presence (honestly did he learn nothing from shadow and bone🙄) so of course i had to follow him around the apartment for seven minutes and rant about the gross, grotesque even, disservice netflix did to winx club.

first off, the world. what the fuck happened to magix? netflix what did you do to my house?! the best appeal to winx club was fairies and magic existing in a technologically advanced world that is usually almost always found in sci-fi. magix having flying cars and hover bikes and phones that make earth tech look ancient (thx tecna), and fucking laser guns subverted bloom’s expectations! she thought she would see dragons and wands and wizards because that’s what fairy tales consist of on earth AND IT MAKES SENSE BECAUSE EARTH’S MAGIC WAS DEPLETED BY THE WIZARDS OF THE BLACK CIRCLE AND FAIRY TALES WOULD REMAIN THE SAME WHILE THE REST OF THE DIMENSIONS ADVANCED! they took away magix for some harry potter, dark aesthetic vibe FOR WHAT!? where’s the color! where’s the joy, the whimsy?! bloom had fun when the girls took her around magix because it wasn’t what she expecteeedddd! the otherworld (how creative😒) is just like every other run of the mill magical world with dark secrets, cold stone castles, and mind-numbing rigidity. alfea was blue and pink and bright, and ya killed her for some hogwarts copycat, thx a lot.

next up, the most heinous crime in my opinion, bloom and stella’s relationship. ooooh i’m bout to tweak in this bitch. i watched the show’s like first 3 eps and remember nothing but bloom and stella’s relationship is not at all the same. they’re the best friends ok. the best friends. bloom saved stella from knot, she transformed for the first time thinking she was saving stella’s ring from the trix, stella was the one who introduced her to everything. they’re each other’s defenders. stella helped bloom when she was struggling becoming domino’s princess. if bloom committed murder via arson stella’s helping her hide the body. and what did netfucks do to this beautiful friendship? made them adversaries over a guy😐 sky of all ppl, that bland blonde, “mr. i’ll pursue a relationship with a girl that knows nothing about intergalactic politics and won’t know i’m engaged” ALSO keeping on track with their “change things that subvert expecations” netflix made stella into the exact type of character winx did not. this popular princess, fairy of the sun, is a mean bitchy girl? oh who would’ve thought, no one saw that coming. netflix you owe me compensation

NEXT! um where are my magical girl transformations😐 winx club the magical girl show, with magical girl transformations and banger music (harmonix has the best song fight me). what is this hand waving magic in civillian clothes nonsense. GIVE BLOOM HER SPARKLY BLUE CROP TOP AND GOLD WINGS NEOWWWW. glad the show is cancelled now tho cuz i don’t wanna see how they would’ve butchered enchantix

NEXT! the trix. oh my favorite witches. why why whyyyy would they make all three of them into one person and then apparently (according to my brother he’s terrible at describing shows tho so idk) SHE BECOMES GOOD? NO! the trix are meant to foil the winx. how neither group gives up but one fight to save the world while the other fights to destroy it. how both groups are sisters if not in blood. icy darcy and stormy did not serve cunt in season one to get meshed into some frankensteinian mess because netflix wanted to reboot a beloved kid’s show and then took way all the things that made it beloved😐

and finally, valtor. yes valtor or baltor depending on which version you grew up with. um what they did to him. who the fuck is sebastian and why is he in a baseball cap. valtor terrorized the world in a purple coat and luscious hair that he maintains with his carefully curated 22 step routine. he would NOT wear plain bland clothes with a baseball cap. BLASPHEMY!

anyways, yea netflix i hope you’re haunted by the dragon flame

[starrynights23]

The Valtor I wanted in Fate the Winx Saga

Fate the Winx Saga Valtor

[western-magical-girl-confessions]

“I will always find it so weird how people are so determined to make Bloom and Valtor seem like a genuinely good ship. When in reality, their relationship could not be more toxic. We're talking a level that exceeds Musa and Riven. This man was one of the beings responsible for the destruction of her home planet, and why she and her family got separated for so long. To make matters worse, he even kept lying to her about her parents in order to be spared whenever she attempted to eradicate him. 

Not only that though, this man is centuries old! Way older then Bloom whom, at the time, was only 17-18 when season 3 took place. Right off the bat he expressed somewhat predatory behavior. As he had touched her hair during their first encounter, even though she was clearly frightened of him and was uncomfortable. It's just.…gross to me. Does Bloom not deserve better than that?”

[cerisia76]

What do you think of the ship Blootor or Valbloom ? i have seen People say that they would like Bloom and Valtor to be a couple

To be honest I would say I hate it. But in the end I respect people loving this ship even if it makes me uncomfortable. I won't deny there's a tension between them but the fact that he's responsible of so many things about her past that lead to her being the last person alive on Domino... before she discovers her parents again... To me Bloom would suffer way too much in a relationship like this and I feel like Valtor would never be honest.

Plus there's the age gap thing that makes me uncomfortable. It's actually the same with ships like Roxy/Ogron or Roxy/Duman. The age gap and the fact that these villains are responsible of the girls' parents disappearance makes it a no for me. But I love to read and write about the terrible tension between them.

That's probably what differenciates a Darcy/Riven couple from the rest for me. Like she's a villain of course but she didn't try to destroy his life before he even knew she existed and even if storyline goes the way it goes, there are possibilities in the writing that I never saw in Valtor/Bloom... adding to that my dislike of Valtor and you have the reasons why I don't like this pairing... sorry if you like them

[rist-ix]

I have a question for you what do you think of the quote unquote age gap between Bloom and Valtor?

I had to do alot of research to understand Bloom age when I started to like this ship better than Mr cheater. So here's a brief information dump:

Bloom is 16 in the first episode and its confirm her bday is December 10 (we don't know the the exact year when each girl was born only the fact Stella is the oldest by that logic Bloom is the second youngest out of the group) when we get to season 3 it is confirmed that the girls is in their 3rd semester so that makes Bloom 19 at point. Valtor's age we do not know however I'm going to say at most early 20s from what we know Valtor working with a younger Griffin before he got Popsicled.

Here comes the tricky part. In s4 the girls just finished their semester and graduated making them 20-21. Up until s5 where Nicklodeon had to reboot their age making them 16 again. Flashforward to s8 and that makes Bloom age 19 if you are following the reboot or 23 if you do not follow the reboot. Since we don't know how long Valtor been frozen his mental age is up for debate.

For me personally I don't see Sparxshipping as an Edward and Bella situation as Edward was aging naturally during his years while Valtor was frozen and couldn't age naturally but only mentally.

Okay okay first of all! Your Bloom math checks out and I just realized that I for some reason always thought Bloom is 18 in s3. Which is still possible, I think, I just dont know why I assumed that. Actually no, it works, if she is 16 in s1 she is 17 in s2 and 18 in s3, but we dont know a lot about how the school years work in Magix so I'm gonna jot her down as 18-19 for the remainder of this post.

Still dont know how I passed math btw.

Anyway. Valtor's age is where the real mystery is at. We've got two possibilities in my opinion.

1. He's pulling the ageless immortal card.

My personal go-to for fics and discussions. Love me some 300 year old mommy issues. He has too much practice being a messy bitch, there's no fixing this man folks.

Evidence: There's a flashback showing him with Griffin as a tween: she looks MUCH younger, he looks exactly the same. Unless he also stole the secret magic of the world's most potent anti aging cream, or Griffin's proximity to Faragonda just aged her by three more decades, he does not age.

2. He is the age he looks.

Which, in my humble opinion, would not put him anywhere near twenty. That is a grown man. He's not college age, unless you count college professors under that word. Even if I were good at guessing ages the very stylized art style would throw me for a loop, but im gonna say 40s, give or take. Look at Avalon, look at Codatorta, look at King Radius if u must. That is the age range we're looking at.

Evidence: I dont have any. We're ballin'. I guess it's never explicitly stated he's immortal, which you'd think would be big enough of a deal to mention. If u got something feel free to let me know.

That being said, the Winx Club Wiki page for the canon timeline (ha, good one) puts the time of Valtor's creation in a rough time frame from "Over 17 years before season 1" to "Under 100 years before season 6". So he could technically be anywhere from 17-97, though I'm not sure the upper limit is as reliable as the lower one, given the check-list format of the website. So make of that what you will.

Now that we've got the question of age out of the way, lets get to the age gap. I have no idea what the situation in twilight was to be honest, so I cant compare that.

Realistically, there's at least a decade between Bloom and Valtor. Possibly two decades and change. And that is just from visible age, we can add a few centuries on top of that if we're sticking with the immortal bit. I'm gonna be gonest, I dont think being frozen for 17 years will make a whole lot of difference here.

If you find that icky, which is fair, you can always change that for fics tho! Either turn him into a twenty year old or put Bloom in her milf-era, the options are endless. Personally, I think the age difference is half the fun though, and also the least of their issues. When you're off making out with the objectively worst person in history, wether he's too old for her isnt gonna rank very high on people's list of concerns.

[devilheartsblog]

Hot Take: Season 1 is better than Season 3 overall

I have to emphasize the overall because season 3 has a better main villain, better world building, and better transformations. However in terms of pacing and overarching story Season 1 is better and thus I found myself enjoying it much more.

Like, season 3 is great. However, when you think about it, Valtor’s only actively seeking out power from other villains when he gets involved with Diaspro and Cassandra. Otherwise he doesn’t do much, well, other than terrorized the Council of Light and turning Faragonda into a tree but not much of a power seeking quest you know, especially since he’s built up as a big threat. Also, the fact Radius was left hypnotized for so long urks me because they show Stella could defeat Cassandra and Chimera at any point but nah, we have other things to focus on. And the fact Valtor puts all of his stolen magic in a box instead of absorbing it is…ugh, so lame! There’s also Musa being toxic but the narrative portraying it as Riven being a problem. They did give us Nabu but he started off by stalking the Winx so uhhh, yeah, Timmy is still best boy!

Meanwhile, season 1 had like an escalation of the threat. The Trix went from mean girls to war criminals and it felt well paced with their goal to get the Dragon Flame. And the filler was fine because it helped us know the characters, while in season 3 it felt like the plot was getting dragged (WE DID NOT NEED THAT DIGIT EPISODE!!) Character arcs like for Bloom and Riven was also so much better in season 1. Bloom mostly learns about magic and having friends instead of being the weird girl with a power fantasy, and her discovering her origins before putting an end to the Ancestral Witches’ descendants. And Riven learns to be an anti-hero instead of a jerk after learning Darcy was using him. He was fun as a villain’s spy and a hero. Also the fights were epic for the fairies, especially the finale, that was really fun. I personally loved it more, my own gripe is the Miss Magix episode but honestly they could cut the racism with the afro hair and I’d be fine with it existing since again, season 1, we get to get used to those characters.

In conclusion I think season 1 is better because of the character arcs for Bloom and Riven, the story escalation and the fight scenes, as well as not having as many inconsistencies or annoying parts as season 3, not to mention the Trix utilizing the Dragon Flame’s power while Valtor puts the second sun of Solaria in a jewelry box.

[winxbutbetterimo-ovo]

rating winx club seasons

coz im bored. worst to best

Season 7 - too much filler. its so childish. goddamed swan. really hurts to watch all the way through. also i dont like that their voice actors dont really match (no hate to them) also techa sounds so bored when she says techna, fairy of technology.

season 8 - i hate the artstyle. also too much padded stuff like the unpacking of the band equipment, the cosmix transformation, the spEcialiSts sequence. at least icy got a backstory finally, 7 seasons too late.

season 6 - i love how bloomix looks. transformations take too long. wand useage is meh. mythix bleh except techna's wings are gorgeous. i do like selina as a charachter but the trix in this season are meh. last 5 episodes are hard to get through.

season 5 - hooray anti pollution message. hootay trix are here! harmonix is gorgeous. musa's mom and nabu shd have come back. i know musa's decision is good and mature and all but honestly i hate that they teased it and just didnt do it. even daphne got to come back "to life"

season 4 - roxy slay. first half is a little slow and boring, but second half is buckwild i love it. the extra wings for believix is eh. also ogron wasting the black gift honestly, i like it. let aisha be angry. but they didnt let her kill him which is sad to me. shd have shoved the lily into his face as he died.

season 1 - establishes charchters, good character driven plot. how tf did bloom get into alfea without money or a spot there? faragonda i know you are the headmistress but she is a stranger who showed up out of nowhere. you should be more suspicious. aisha isnt here :(

season 2 - AISHAAA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH that is all

season 3 - enchantix. best stakes. valtor scary. yeet

[darkpoisonouslove]

I love how you mentioned the prejudices against witches in your posts!

I always think that it was totally overlooked and doesn't get enough attention. In my story I make Eraklyon as one of the last kingdoms that still practiced the burning of witches when Griffin went to school. It's just stopped a few years before Griffin started to work with Valtor and the ancestral witches. But at that time witches and other beings of dark magic were still considered as lower people.

Besides that, after Griffin had left Valtor and joined CoL, I used Errendor as someone who still totally shows his dislike for Griffin and her kind and that he doesn't trust her.

It really was overlooked! (Tbh I don't think that the writers cared if they even noticed the anti witch undertones that they put in the show.)

I also wanted to address this in my rewrite but I feel like we've seen enough witch hunt and witches being burned, plus, it somehow doesn't make as much sense to me in a world where magic is part of everyday life. Instead I've decided to mess around with my worldbuilding a little. Spoilers for the rewrite I guess:

Stormy was taken from her family because she developed volatile dark magic while she was too little. It didn't depend on her or her family but since she was considered a threat to herself and others, she was separated from her family. The same principle allegedly applies to light magic users as well as for dark magic users but it's obviously biased.

Hard agree on Erendor disliking and not trusting Griffin. However, since he betrayed Oritel and didn't show up in the final battle while Griffin was there, fighting along the rest of the Company to help save the world, he kind of helps her out with something important later on (but I'm not going to spoil that). They are still very much not on good terms, though, and I have planned a fun conversation for Sky and Bloom's visit (official visit; they won't be sneaking in) to CT in 1x14. Sky is afraid of Griffin because she and Erendor got into an argument at one of the RF events a few years prior and since then he considers her scary because she's the only person he's seen actively arguing with his father and yelling at him. XD

[trashcankitty12]

Howw as the relationship between Griffin and her mother while she was working for the circle?

So I'm going to answer this based on my "main" verse because I have no idea about this with canon and it's irrelevant in my "Left in the Aftermath" verse due to her being already dead.

Before she joined the Coven, she and her mother were sort of strained because of the death of her father and the fact she'd been getting into so much trouble at school and with authority figures.

Theodora was terrified that Griffin was going to end up taken to a Dark Magic Camp or sent somewhere else because of how unapologetically anti-council and anti-Dragon (yeah) that Griffin had become.

(Which, the woman understood. Things were awful for dark magic users during this time and it was anger-inducing. But Theodora was more willing to bow her head and bide her time, whereas Griffin was determined to make changes right then and there.)

(And so was Salvador, who had already been secretly working with the Coven here and there on projects before being an official member. He was never Inner Circle though, as his power level wasn't considered "there" and he was better suited for working as one of their few healer specialists.)

When Griffin joined, her mother wasn't informed. She had no idea at first what Griffin and Salvador were up to, thinking they were working with a magical research group. That is, until the police started getting involved and she saw different news articles.

Theodora was pissed.

You see, the Ancestral Coven had already tried tapping her late husband, Edgar, into joining their ranks, intrigued by his work on Magic Theory and the Balance Theories. (Which Griffin would later complete and publish, with him as a posthumous co-author.)

But they had rejected the Hags because Theodora could see through their guises. (They claimed they wanted to "reunify" the dark realms and make things more "equal". But she has a future sight ability and could see the destruction and chaos the Ancestral Witches wanted to cause and had saw a past vision of them being the ones to murder the monarchy of Obsidian. Needless to say, she was quick to inform Edgar and have them sent off.)

So now her children are in their clutches and then it gets worse. Her daughter is also now involved with their "son". Fan-fucking-tastic.

Now, Salvador and Griffin would visit discreetly during holidays or other important events, and she would try to keep her feelings in check because these are her babies. But damn seeing Valtor in her house... That had her hackles raised in ways she didn't think they could be. Even her familiar had it out for him.

(She would try and talk her kids out of being involved, would try and open their eyes to the situation they were in and how the Ancestral Witches were lying. But they thought they knew better and could handle it. "We're changing the realms, Momma. You'll see.")

Her children are smart though, so she knew it was only a matter of time before they'd see through the bullshit and come to their senses. It took years, but it would happen. (And she had her escape plan ready because she knew those bitches wouldn't let there be any peace when Griffin and Salvador finally left. And she was not going to be their victim.)

Of course, she was reunited with her daughter and son at the Fortress of Light after their "trial" had ended. They were alive, on some form of parole or probation period, and it was great.

(And then she discovers she going to be a grandmother and "great, now we're tied to him forever." Which isn't so bad in her mind after she starts having visions about Valkyrie and who she'll become. Really puts her mind at ease.)

(There's a lot of difficult mother-daughter and mother-son conversations during this time period. Lots of regrets and guilt. Nightmares. Worries. Heartbreak. But Momma Sylvane will always come through for her kids, even when they're deadass wrong and fucked around and found out.)

Now, after all this has passed, they have a much better relationship. Much better.

Though there are still moments in which certain mistakes are brought up front and center. ("We get it, Mom. We joined a cult and nearly lost ourselves into it. Can we please drop it now?" "Not on your life.")

[moonlightreal]

Fate season 2-7

It’s the end!  And I don’t think the writers knew the end was near so will the story be wrapped up at all?

It’s been a while since I visited the world of Fate, I was swept up in the less pleasant world of school and then the more pleasant world of Christmas, neither of which led to wanting to write long episode recaps.  

So when we left Fate: Tales from Elemental Academy, Miss Dowling just visited from the afterlife (and House of the Dragon being her afterlife is 100% my headcanon.)  and told the girls the secret of transformation?  Is accepting all emotions?  Which works emotionally, it feels very Jedi, acceptance and balance.  But narratively, it’s an awfully simple secret to be lost for so many years.  Maybe every school did like Ms. Dowling and concentrated on positive emotions to avoid people like ragebucket Bloom happening, but it strains credulity that no individual reached enlightenment in thousands of years.

Also Valtor and some lore about the ancient past that I already forgot, and Beatrix is now working with the baddies and I can’t really blame her after how much the plot has been kicking her this season.  And she let a bunch of scrapers into the school.

How will it all end?  let’s find out!

Last episode: All the Wild Witches

It’s dark.  The power has gone out. The general is looking for Bloom, who just busted out of jail remember.  She’s on the phone with Silva, who says Bloom isn’t dangerous.

Musa and Flora are returning.

Scrapers attack pretty much everybody!

Flora gets knocked over and there’s Beatrix and Sebastian.  They catch Flora, but Musa is hidden in the shadows and Beatrix either can’t sense her or pretends she can’t. Hard to tell with B.  So Flora is caught and Musa escapes.

Opening!

Morning!  The school has been taken over!  All the specialists have been puppeteered, apparently.  Bloom is reporting this to Silva, Dale and Riven, Kat, and a few other specialists.  The team that went to capture the blood witch lair is safe, but they used all their anti-puppeteering potions.  The fairies are locked in the school dungeon so Sebastian can steal their magic one by one.  Musa is hiding in the school and sending video and info to Bloom.

Silva says some soldiery things about their plan of attack.  Bloom says she’s going after Sebastian and Silva invites her to “walk with me” to discuss more tactics.

Terra, Stella and Aisha are still in the random cottage where they met with Miss Dowling so they are also not captured.  Aisha watches a video of Grey and another blood witch hauling Flora off.  Aisha can’t believe the nice guy she knew would work for Sebastian.  Terra says there must be a reason.

Otherworld bigotry seems to be the reason.  Seriously show, why didn’t you go with “Blood Witches are an extremist group, they’re healing fairies who chose to use their magic to control instead of to heal.  They chose the name ‘Blood Witches’ to symbolize their hatred for all other fairies.”

Oh, and about Grey?  On their date, he made little bugs in the water light up, using his blood witch powers to manipulate life.  There was foreshadowing!

Terra’s guess is that maybe Sebastian’s just really persuasive.  Stella’s guess: “Or maybe the people we care about are really just shitty people.”  Ouch! Also Stella is looking at her phone, a list of unanswered texts to Beatrix.  Ending with “of course. you're working with Sebastian.” and “I don’t know why I ever expected more from you.”  This show is giving me emotion and it’s anger at the writers for being this unrelentingly cruel to Stella’s character.

Bloom and Silva talk and it’s quite wholesome.  Bloom says Sebastian wants the Dragon Flame and Silva says he definitely shouldn’t get it and the one who should have it is Bloom.  They’ll have to fight.  Together.

Thank you, season 2, for giving Silva at least one good moment!

Then Bloom realizes Sky isn’t there. I had forgotten, but he tried to bust Bloom out last episode and landed himself in the dungeon.  Where he probably still is in the taken-over school!  Yikes!  Silva says, “Before you go nuclear remember, Sky is resourceful.  He’ll be fine.”

Sky has managed to sit himself in a corner of his cell that’s not visible from outside.  When a female soldier comes in, he’s got himself up hanging from a grate in the ceiling.  He smiles hello then drops on her.  A brief scuffle later Sky walks out of the cell.

Back with the girls, Aisha doesn’t want Bloom going in alone.  “What if you accidentally set someone on fire?  I could be there to put them out.”  Aisha says.  Uh, it’s a battle, setting people on fire is kind of what you’re there for? Yeah I know, don’t hurt innocent people but still, weapon. Battle. Bloom is checking her phone.  Sky has not texted back.

The girls don’t want Bloom going alone, and they have good points.  Terra is a medic, Stella can do invisibility, and Aisha is on top of extinguishing.  But there are scrapers so everyone with magic is in danger, also a good point. Bloom says she’ll be safe because she can transform and be stronger and faster.  The other girls say they know how too, but Bloom doesn’tv think they have time.

Bloom also says, “that’s Silva’s plan, not mine.”  Bloom, you do know this is supposed to be a friendship show about a team of fairies, right?  Not Bloom,  Lone Wold and Edgelord of Elemental Academy?

Edgelord Bloom summons a handful of dragonfire and says she has to do it alone because only this power can take down Sebastian.  And she says, “I love you, I do.” but she has to do it alone.

Then Bloom… hears a psychic voice calling her name from a mysterious tower.?  And faints.

She sees visions.  Sebastian doing some yellow colored magic.  Burned Ones.

Silva comes in to find the girls helping Bloom up.  She says she just passed out from stress and needs a glass of water because heaven forbid the edgelord ask an adult who knows about magic about the strange new magic that just happened to her.

Sigh.  I try not to do Fate-hate but it’s hard not to hate Bloom’s character when she acts like this.

Silva helps the girls boost Bloom up and she says she’s ready to go.  But the plan is for Silva and the specialists to do the first… tactics… to make the scraper-filled school less dangerous for the fairies.  So the girls should wait.

Sky sneaks around the school and has a lucky break!  He comes upon the baddies just as Beatrix asks Sebastian what his endgame is.  Sebastian says telling her wasn’t part of the deal.  But then Beatrix did her bit and can just leave. Sebastian hands her a piece of yellow paper which I guess is the last bit of her payment for letting him in.  Sebastian goes off to continue devouring fairies’ magic.  Beatrix looks thoughtful.  Sky sneaks off in the other direction.

Down in the dungeon many students are unconscious and/or bloody and beaten up.  I guess they dump them back after their magic is stolen.  Flora sits with a boy I don’t recognize—oh, it’s the fire fairy boy!  His name is Nick apparently.  He wants to escape!  They’re not locked in a cell apparently, they’re just in a par of the dungeon with light shining down, because scrapers stay in the dark so if the fairies leave they’ll get scrapered.  Flora says don’t do anything dumb but Nick summons a flame, goes out of the room, and promptly gets scrapered.

Musa is down here too, hiding from some guards by a cell door.  

Outside Silva and the specialists, there are like 20 of them now, head for the school.  Puppeteered specialists are standing guard outside.  So, we’re gonna sneak in and incapacitate them one by one so Bloom and the fairies can go in! Let’s go!

Back at the cabin the girls get a call from Musa, who’s hiding in the suite.  Sebastian may be on to them! A bunch of puppeteered specialists are heading outside.  If they take down Silva’s team the plan is toast.  Musa also knows where Flora is, but can’t get her out.  Terra suggests appealing to Grey, and Stella says she can ask Beatrix again but Musa thinks B left. Terra is upset thinking her cousin’s going to become magicless and there’s nothing they can do!  But Musa has an idea.  That she doesn’t share with her friends, but she does grab her fighting stick.

Stella stands up and walks away, very upset.  I swear this show ships Stella/Beatrix and it is weird.

Bloom is drawing… an eye? An eclipse? Aisha asks what it is and Bloom admits she had a vision and this is something she saw.  Bloom starts choking up and says she’s really scared, after what happened with Rosalind and having to be strong. Aisha says you aren’t less of a badass if you let your friends take care of you.  Aisha learned this because after Grey turned out bad she had her friends to help her get through it.  They hug.

Back at school it turns out Dane texted the guy he’s supposed to take down.  I guess it was one of his boyfriends?  And Riven’s like,. ‘What don’t you understand about the concept of a surprise attack?” and then the guy comes out and he’s big.  Swordplay ensues!  Dane thinks he can wake his friend up from being puppeteered but it doesn’t work.

Also Riven is using two swords.  Cool!

They go down to defeat and Sky jumps in and rescues them.  But more puppeteered specialists are coming!  The buys grab their target and they all retreat.

In the dungeon Flora’s checking the pockets of her passed-out classmates for a weapon.  She finds a fountain pen and then the blood witches come to get her.  She seems to be the last one.

Also the blood witches are dressed in olive green and many layers.  This show was made before Zelensky made that his signature color but the outfits do not proclaim “villain” they proclaim “rebel fighters.”  I can’t tell if this is a deeper message from the design team or just something I’m reading into it from watching, I dunno, Rogue One maybe?  

Outside in the graveyard!  Sky and the boys return.  He’s using the sword that was supposedly his fathers, that Andreas dissed.  Sky says it’s fine.  Silva says the sword is just old, in fact it belonged to his father, not Sky’s. Andreas was probably angry at the deception.   They don’t say any heartfelt words, but it’s clear they have reconciled.

But we can’t talk for long, we have to do strategy!  With the blood witches alerted this small group can’t do much.  Best bet is to wait for the Solarian army.  Riven is not ok with leaving Musa and Flora in the lurch but Silva says it’s not up for debate.

Inside the school Musa attacks the blood witch soldiers transporting Flora!  Musa is badass and knocks him down.  Unfortunately the other blood witch is holding a knife to Flora’s throat!  Musa knocks him down too.  Cool!  Flora still has her magic and they are loose in the school!

Bloom keeps drawing the… portal?  A dark glowing circle.  Sky calls so Bloom knows he’s safe.  Musa also called so she knows those two are ok hiding in the school. Excpet… oh no!  Sky is being puppeteered!  He hands the phone off to Sebastian.

Sebastian of course will kill Sky unless Bloom does what he says, which is to sneak out of the cottage where the other girls are and go with Grey to the school.  Grey is the escourt for Plot reasons, obviously.

Flora mixes up a potion in the suite. She’s gathered all the possible ingredients in the rooms, Terra’s herbs and Musa brings over what looks like some beauty products. Flora is working on a secret project she doesn’t want to tell Terra about so Terra doesn’t get distracted.  Then Musa gets a text that Bloom and Sky have gone missing.

Bloom and Grey go in through the greenhouse and the infirmary.

Stella has gone outside to look for Bloom but instead she gets found by Beatrix.  Stella says, “You’re the villain.”  and Beatrix pulls out the book with info about scrapers and spills Sebastian’s plan.  he’s “obsessed with righting the wrongs of Aster Dell” and his plan involves an “entity in the Realm of Darkness” that can raise the dead.  Well that’d right the wrong pretty thoroughly, if you just bring everyone back to life!  But of course it’s super dangerous and can destroy the world.  Sebastian needs the Dragon Flame to open a portal to the Realm of Darkness, and once the portal’s open you can only close it from the other side.  So it’s very important that Bloom stay away from Sebastian, but too late for that!

Stella reams B out, “You think you can play both sides, don’t you” do some good deeds and that’ll make up for letting Sebastian devour every fairy at school.  B says she did what she had to to survive and Stella says, “Congratulations, you survived.” and turns away

And B says, “I have two sisters.” which she hadn’t known either.  She made the deal Sebastian wanted to make with Bloom, info about her past in exchange for help. Sebastian couldn’t tell her why she was at Aster Dell on the day but he did know about her sisters.  Beatrix starts to cry.  she’s lost everyone, and now she has newly discovered family.

Stella says, “You had me.” and goes back to looking for her friends.

As they walk through the halls of the school Bloom gives it a try with Grey, the straight “It’s not too late to do the right thing.”  But Grey shoots back, what is the right thing?  Fairies killed his family at Aster Dell so is it wrong to steal their magic?

Yes, because Rosalind killed your family pretty much single-handedly so don’t be a bigot, Grey.  But trying to raise the dead back up, if Grey doesn’t know the spell is dangerous, would be a complicated moral question.

Bloom pulls out a less complicated question.  Aisha really liked Grey and he lied to her.

They get to the courtyard and Sebastian sends Grey away and shows off what he’s done to Sky.  Poor dude’s all tied up in vines to the balcony with vines around his neck ready to strangle him.  And unconscious.  Sebastian says it’s a bit dramatic but gets the point across.  Heh.

Bloom’s like ok, you can have the Dragon Flame and takes off her coat so a scraper can eat it.  But Sebastian says that would make a scraper explode so they’ll use the convergence crystal to transfer the power.

Bold of Sebastian to assume he won’t explode.  He’s eaten how much magic lately?

And Bloom starts sending her magic into the crystal.  

Back out in the woods the girls are keen to do something to stop the triumph of evil but Silva still wants to wait for the army.  Terra gives an impassioned speech about how Bloom, Musa and Flora are all fighting and they need to fight too.  She says that’s what Miss Dowling would’ve wanted, all of Alfea fighting together.

That’s what gets through to Silva and he agrees.  Time to go battle!

Dane is worrying about his friend Luke who they rescued and who’s still puppeteererd and passed out.  Dane worries he’ll wake up and tell the blood witches what’s up, and just that he’ll wake up and be scared being suddenly in a different place.  Riven says maybe Dane should stay with him.

Kat tells Terra that speech was very hot.  Heh.  Terra starts rambling about how she learned about empowerment from a TED talk (so TED talks exist in the Otherworld?) and then they share a romantic kiss.  Aaaaw!  They are so cute.

Then we go to… big fight!  Sky and Silva nod to each other and lead the specialists into battle with a great war cry!  They meet their puppeteered comrades in battle!

Inside Flora is working on her potion but needs more solvent.  Musa insists she ask Terra for help and calls her.  Flora admits her plan is… to attract all the scrapers to her, and poison them.  With something that will also poison Flora. Terra of course is very upset!  But Flora says this is her home too and she’s going to do her part.  Terra tells Flora about other things she can use for a solvent, including Bloom’s art supplies and Stella’s vodka stash.

Swordfighting continues!

Bloom sending her magic into the crystal continues!  But they are interrupted when another blood witch comes to report the attack.  Sebastian tries to mindgames Bloom, saying she’s relieved to be giving up her power and she should be able to be an ordinary teenager without the pressure of all this destiny.  Sebastian says he lost his chance at a normal life too, and “Nobody gets to have a normal life when the Dragon Flame is involved.”  

Bloom snaps, “Are you taunting me?” which is a weird phrase but also good point.  Sebastian says he didn’t mean to taunt and Bloom says that since he got everything he wanted Sebastian should at least tell Bloom what he knows about her mother.

And Sebastian does.  Standing in the courtyard with daylight coming in the glass windows.  

Bloom’s mother had the Dragon Flame too.  And that was a thousand years ago!  Baby Bloom was in stasis all that time.  Bloom’s mom was a hero in an ancient war and then she lost control of her power and accidentally killed a bunch of people.  Not being able to face the possibility that her child would end up with the same burden and maybe also lose control, she put baby Bloom in stasis when she was born.  And she exiled herself to the Realm of Darkness.

...or Sebastian is just saying that to get Bloom to open the portal.  Bloom! Your mom is in another castle!~

Sebastian says Bloom’s mother never wanted her to have this burden of power and would basically approve of giving it to him.

And Bloom’s cool with it and goes back to sending her power into the crystal.  She is of course pretty upset from learning that her family lived a thousand years ago so none of them are around anymore.

Outside night is falling and the specialists are still fighting.  they’re having a rough time and the giurls want vto use their magic to help, but tyhey can’t risk distracting the scrapers from Flora, who can draw them all to her and destroy them.  

And Flora’s ready to go!  In the hallway she holds up a bottle that I think is scraper-attractant and injects herself with the poison.  Musa is horrified, but Flora says there’s stuff to do, there are still fairies in the dungeon that need rescuing.  Frightened even in her determination Flora asks if it hurts and Musa says, “Like hell.”

Flora sends Musa off the help the others and makes her final stand against a wave of scrapers.

Outside the fairies from the dungeon make it outside.  If they got out that means Flora took care of the scrapers.  Silva nods at the girls.  They can go in and join Bloom. Musa joins the specialists in their battle and Riven comes to fight beside her.  

Stella, Aisha and Terra enter the greenhouse and of course there’s Grey standing guard.  He tells Aisha he lost a brother in Aster Dell, making him the replacement kid.  Grey says he just wants to be free from all of it, being the replacement kid, doing blood witch stuff.  If his brother comes back the pressure will be off him.  He says Aisha should be able to understand family pressure.  And he says he didn’t lie about his feelings with Aisha.

She says it was only true for him, because he knew the truth the whole time so he gets the memories of a relationship while she gets memories of having been played.  Her memories of her first romance are ruined now.  Grey looks like he finally realizes that, and the girls push past him and go inside.

Bloom is still sending her magic into the crystal.  There must be a lot of Dragon Flame for it to take this long from afternoon into night!

And here comes Beatrix, she didn’t run away like a sensible person, she came back to spill the beans to Bloom about Sebastian’s plan!

Bloom glances up at Sky and asks if it matters what Sebastian’s going to do.,

B says, “Remember you said that.” and zaps the vines with lightning.  Sky falls like a sack of flour and as Bloom runs to him the crystal falls and shatters on the floor!

Bloom cries over her dead-seeming boyfriend and Sebastian crouches over the shards of his plan.  Then he stands up and faces Beatrix.  She grins and says she just saved the world and it felt pretty good, and Sebastian blasts her into a wall.  It doesn’t look like a terrible attack but I know from spoilers that B is in fact dead.  All her possible future plotlines cut off in an instant.

Bloom has reached the end of her emotional rope.  She opens her wings as dramatic music swells…

Sebastian reminds Bloom this is the same thing that happened to her mother and then she killed a bunch of people.  Bloom is rather past caring.  And oh hey, here’s the other three.  Aisha tries to talk Bloom down from going nuclear.  Bloom tells them to get away and summons a ball of scary fire in her hands. Stella says they’re not leaving.

Then Sky gasps!  Grey is there, using blood witch magic to make his heart beat!  See, healing fairies, come on writers seriously…

Bloom’s fire goes out and she runs to Sky.  But Sebastian’s still keen to fight-- and now Bloom can’t, well, get her fire up again.  She’s used up all her power with that last flame-up!

So Sebastian points out that they’re all still screwed and Beatrix sacrificed herself for nothing.  The others hadn’t seen B collapsed in a pool of blood but Stella rushes over—almost to her, and sees she’s dead and turns back with her eyes lighting up.

Aisha calls Sebastian a monster and he says yeah, and he’s stronger than each of them.  Terra asks if he’s stronger that all of them and--

And insipid pop music ruins the moment!

But yeah, they all get wings.  It’s pretty good.  Their eyes light up, they float into the air, magic swirls around their limbs and their wings come out.  Aisha’s are made of splashing water, Terra’s look like green glass and Stella’s are just thin beams of rainbow light.  It is very pretty but it feels incomplete, maybe because their clothes don’t change, maybe because the lighting in the room and on them doesn’t change.  Maybe because seriously, the moment when we need music to catch our emotions and make us feel how epic the moment is, we get this.

Bloom I think pulls some of her power back from the pieces of crystal and summons her wings again and the four of them blast Sebastian from the four directions until he is destroyed.

Appropriately, the way it looks Terra is in the North, Bloom the South, Aisha the West and Stella the East so somebody on the directing team knows their cardinal directions!

In the hallway, Flora isn’t dead! She’s been chewed on by a bunch of scrapers but she’s alive!

In the forest Dane’s boyfriend Luke wakes up and they hug.

On the battlefield Musa’s eyes glow and she knows they won.  She’s not happy with her magic back now, hearing the thoughts of everyone who just went through a traumatic experience!

Bloom hugs Sky, who is alive.  Stella kneels sobbing beside Beatrix, who isn’t.

And Bloom has a vision!  A Burned One? The portal.  The tower.

Then we cut to the girls back in the suite, recovering.  Bloom passes out pillows.  Musa brings snacks. Terra jokes about being sore from flying.  The girls say nice things to Flora, making her a full member of the group.

The other Blood Witches are running away.  Silva let Grey go back to his family.  Beatrix will get a spot in the graveyard.  Bloom says she and Beatrix both did things because they wanted answers, and Stella and Musa mention how Beatrix helped them.  

Leaving the other girls to their post-battle slumber party Bloom goes to her room and looks through the magic book Beatrix brought back.  Then she sneaks out past her sleeping friends to… the portal!

I guess Sebastian already opened it? Anyway it’s somewhere in the dungeon.  Sky followed Bloom down and she tells him it’s a conduit to the Realm of Darkness.  So it seems Sebastian didn’t need the Dragon Flame to open it, he just wanted the Dragon Flame anyway.  Bloom could close it but only from the other side.  She wrote goodbye letters to everyone because she’s going through it to close it from the other side.  Sky doesn’t want her to go.  Bloom says she’s dangerous, the Dragon Flame is dangerous, she doesn’t belong in this world.  She says she isn’t scared.  This is how she saves the world instead of putting it in danger.

Sky tells Bloom he loves her and they kiss in front of the toxic yellow portal but of course Bloom is going through it, there’s no other way the story could go.

She does, and the portal closes.

Aisha wakes up and finds Bloom’s goodbye letters.  The girls hug and cry.

Future montage!  Riven brings Musa some magic-blocking bracelets so she doesn’t have to have her powers if she doesn’t want them.  that’s very sweet.  Kat comes to pick up Terra for a date.  Stella puts a lily on Beatrix’s grave.  Aisha lounges by the river, watching the hawk.  Riven and Musa spar.  Aisha is by the river and Grey comes up to her.  Flora opens her shirt to reveal terrible scars from the scraper attack, and tears up.  Stella unfolds the note that Beatrix carried and… I can’t read it. “Isobel and D’arcy” last name starting with D, hopefully not Dark’ness, and what could be an Otherworld address.  As Stella leaves the graveyard an ominous wind blows through and… something appears.  A dark humanoid figure.  This is what Bloom’s been seeing in her visions, I thought she was seeing Burned Ones but she’s seeing this thing.

And Bloom has been walking through the Realm of Darkness which looks like a slightly less verdant part of Ireland, conveniently enough.  It is empty of people but not actually very dark.  She reaches the tower from her vision and opons the door.

Inside, a human figure is backlit by a brazier of flames.  It could be a woman with red hair.

Bloom asks, “Mom?”

Aaaaand credits!  That is the end of Fate!  Right on the cliffhanger!

[winx-reimagined]

I'm sorry if I sound rude, but seriously, I'm really tired of that stuff. I have lived in the Reylo fandom and all the toxicity of the antis and hypocrisy. And I've seen a lot of people praise Icy and Bloom, and complain about Valtor and Bloom and how disgusting and problematic it is. No, both start from the same scheme. It is hypocrisy to complain about one, and praise the other.

I feel like this is the same person over again but I’ll respond anyways.

I never said Icy and Bloom weren’t problematic and I never said Valtor and Bloom were disgusting. It’s a character/relationship analysis and you can still have personal taste outside of what’s canon. I’m not an anti, and I don’t praise Icy and Bloom, I enjoy it, there is a difference.

[gins-potter]

Just curious, why don’t you like enemies to lovers? Not even if it’s written well, with a satisfying redemption arc and character development?

Okay, I wouldn’t say I don’t like enemies to lovers all the time, just that 90% of the time it’s not for me.  Bear with me because I’m pretty sure this is going to get long because I have lots of thoughts on the topic.

If it’s like you said, well written with a satisfying redemption arc and character development I very well may like it.  I just happen to find that redemption arcs that are satisfying for me personally don’t happen very often.  Obviously this is a subjective topic, but personally what makes a redemption arc satisfying is not the villain or enemy having a single moment of repentance 5 minutes before the ending of the novel/movie/tv show.  For me to be satisfied it actually has to be an arc and one that exists away from a relationship.  Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender jumps to mind.  If memory serves, Zuko’s redemption arcs starts at the beginning of season 2 which means that arc is developed across two whole freaking seasons and that commitment to redeeming him is why it’s often characterised as one of the best fictional redemption arcs.  And also why I’m much more open to shipping Katara/Zuko or Zuko/Sokka (I much prefer the latter just because I’m a Kataang girl).

But going back to enemies to lovers specifically, I also find that a lot of the time the “enemy” goes too far to be redeemed.  If you look at the actual definition, an enemy is “a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.  a thing that harms or weakens something else.”  When you have two people on different sides on a (usually moral) conflict who are actively trying to defeat, kill, or harm the other, for me I’m not comfortable with shipping them even if the enemy or villain has been redeemed.  And that’s no shade to people who are!  It’s just part of how I interact with fiction, my favourite characters tend to be the good guys, imperfect and flawed sure but relatively good people who are trying to do good.  And that translates to shipping as well.  

Take Sp*rxshipping or D*rklina for example (just to use two ships I’m relatively familiar with).  With Sp*rxshipping, V*ltor is directly responsible (in part anyway) for the destruction of Bloom’s home-world and the imprisonment of her parents for nearly two decades and then spends a whole season trying to destroy the universe more or less.  For D*rklina he manipulates Alina and tries to take her power to use for his own goals (to sum it up very quickly).  Neither villain have much of a redemption arc imo (the Darkling’s backstory and motives are explained and arguably sympathetic but for me personally don’t justify his actions) but even if they did, how do you redeem an enemy like that in a way where the hero would conceivably forgive them and want to be in a relationship with them?  And again this is just something that I personally need to enjoy a ship like this, some people don’t, some will be satisfied with a redemption arc no matter what’s happened between the villain and hero, some don’t need the redemption arc at all.  And all are valid!  This is fiction, and (generally) liking what you like doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s just that personally for me I don’t find those kind of dynamics enjoyable and why enemies to lovers in the truest sense of the trope isn’t one I typically enjoy.

Now, if you consider other kinds of enemies to lovers ships, because enemies to lovers is a broad category and encompasses a lot of different dynamics (insert rant here about how enemies to lovers should be broken down into more specific categories) I’m much more open to those ships.  Take the category of ships I would call adversaries to lovers for instance.  An adversary is “one's opponent in a contest, conflict, or dispute”, a definition that isn’t all that unlike the definition of “enemy” technically but the cultural implications of the two words create a difference.  To me adversaries might be in conflict or dispute like the definition says but to a lesser extent than enemies might.  

Nessian jumps to mind.  They start out as very opposed to one another and constantly in disagreement despite the fact that they are on the same side of the larger dispute in the series (Prythian vs Hybern).  And then we get that really nice redemption arc for Nesta in ACOSF (I call it a redemption arc for the sake of this post even though I wouldn’t necessarily characterise it as such as it’s more an arc explaining her history and why she is the way she is) where she really grows as a person, in conjunction with Cassian but also on her own.  I never thought I’d ship Nessian and without that arc in ACOSF I probably wouldn’t but it’s because of that arc, and the fact they were never truly enemies just adversaries that I found myself loving them in SF.  Previously they’d hurt each other’s feelings sure, they’d been nasty to each other, but never to the extent of true enemies.  And as I’ve said a couple times now, if they had gotten to that “enemy status” as it were I personally probably wouldn’t be comfortable shipping them even with Nesta’s “redemption” arc in SF.

I’ll finally talk on rivals to lovers the last category of enemies to lovers ships and probably the funnest one imo and the one I ship the most.  Rivals, defined as “a person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.” are two people not diametrically opposed but nevertheless in competition with one another because of a similar goal or desired objective.  Perhaps the softest of the enemies to lovers ships, this category tends to bring out a lot of fun tropes like stupid over the top competitions.  And with this one a redemption arc isn’t really needed at all because neither side really ever crosses a line so much that one would be needed, the two sides just happen to be in competition until they realise “eugh I actually really like them” and have to deal with that which is always fun.  The Hating Game by Sally Thorne comes to mind for this one, and while I didn’t love that book as much as everyone else seemed to, it wasn’t because of the ship.

So I guess the whole point of this was to A). finally have my “enemies to lovers is too broad a category and should be broken down into sub categories” rant and B). show that when I say “I don’t like enemies to lovers ships” I mean enemies in the truest sense of the word.  And that liking enemies to lovers is totally valid!  They’re just something that I personally don’t enjoy a lot of the time.

[duman-anon]

I WONT LET THEM TOUCH MY BOYS

[bloomvalyria]

my depression has released me from its chokehold for one night and ONE night only folks!