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moonlightreal · 2 years ago

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Fate season 2-6

As we enter the penultimate episode of Fate: Tales From Elemental Academy, many questions are still to be answered.

We need to track down Bloom’s birth family, bump off Sebastian so everyone can get their powers back, see what Grey’s up to, and find out what the Blood Witches are really after. That rebel camp lookin’ scene really made me wonder. With luck Terra will get the girl, and I’d really like to see Stella finally get some revenge on her abusive mother. And yeah, who is gonna run the school now? I feel like Dowling would’ve come back if the actress was available but she’s off to other things.

And is Rosalind all the way dead? Yeah, she was fried but it seems not-unlikely that “fried by the Dragon Flame” is how you get Burned Ones.

Episode title: Poor Unfortunate Souls. Which may refer to us viewers, pulled back and forth by this show! Or to Beatrix, who has been quite unfortunate. Or to everyone.

We open with Riven giving Sky a book.

It’s still night and the girls seem to have gone straight to Silva and told him everything. He wants to keep quiet because “no one can know any of the fairies at this school no longer control the Dragon Flame.”

What? Bloom said she lost control but did the power go out of her? I missed that completely. So ok, reference to when Icy stole the Dragonfire near the end of season one but here it wasn’t stolen and didn’t seem to go anywhere. But the point is, everyone was counting on the Dragon Flame to protect them from the blood witches and because it’s now gone somehow there could be panic. Right?

Stella is wearing a hideous fur coat and it’s very distracting.

Terra politely suggests that Rosalind being dead and Rosalind having Murderized Miss Dowling!! is maybe a bit more important.

Silva says they don’t know for sure about Dowling. He seems very calm about the possible loss of one more comrade. Yay Silva, showing skepticism and waiting for evidence! But it is going to suck for the poor guy when it sinks in, it’s only him and Ben Harvey left of their whole adventuring party.

Sky brings in… it’s not a book, it’s a box containing magical handcuffs like they put on Beatrix last season. Aisha calls them torture devices and says Bloom only lost control because of the mixupo with the crystal; if Bloom puts her magic back into it she won’t be a risk. Wait they’re worried because Bloom lost her powers and also need to stop her from using her powers? I guess her fire powers and the Dragon’s Flame are separate things but it’s still not totally sense-making. But if Bloom doesn’t put on the handcuffs she’ll get arrested and locked up.

Bloom has been staring at the ground in shock this whole time. She speaks up to say she’s fine with getting handcuffed. She did the murder after all. Silva holds out the two bracelets and they wrap around Bloom’s wrists, with claws digging into her skin. Aisha and Stella flinch away in sympathy.

So Bloom has to wear antimagic bracelets-- they’re not chained together so they aren’t really handcuffs, but they are the spirit of handcuffs so that’s what I’ll keep calling them—until she has her trial, presided over by Queen Luna. that’ll go great.

In fact the queen has a speech to make now! Silva gets out this crystal pyramid on a little Christmas-tree-stand lookin’ thing. A prop created for the show! Or borrowed from another show. It projects a hologram of Luna wearing a dark red tunic. She says she has tragic news, Rosalind is dead, she was one of the bravest fairies the Otherworld has ever seen, respected by her peers, feared by her enemies, and the guilty party will be brought to justice… the blood witches! While the hologram spoke we saw other stuydents, normal people in Blackbridge, and I think the Blood witches in their rebel hideout all watching.

Luna continues, “attack carried out by their leader Sebastian Valtor.”

Ahahahaha! That is so dumb seriously Fate, Valtor? Him? Also Luna puts the emphasis on the last syllable, ValTOR. Why, Fate, why even do it? Fate: Tales from Elemental Academy is a perfectly fine show, why must it slap names from my favorite Italian cartoon on random characters?

Also the release date for season 9 is now January 2024, we have a whole year to wait and it is just too much. Yeah, season 2 of my beloved Carnival Row is coming out soon and there’s going to be a Fallout TV show so it’s not like my spirit will starve for lack of shows, but Winx is MY show and I need my show!

Ok, ok, back to the show I’m watching…

Luna says any Blood Witch following him is an enemy of the crown, which means some blood witches are A-ok, but Luna is going to send her army after the rest. This means war!

Opening!

Bloom’s asleep in her bed with a photo of her parents on her nightstand. Sky’s text doesn’t wake her but Stella opening the curtains (bringing the light, very Stella!) does. Aisha brings coffee. They ask Bloom how she is and she is clearly suffering from trauma. She keeps flashing back tob the graveyard but everything’s blurry. Stella offers to clear things up: Sebastian took advantage of Bloom in a vulnerable moment, revealed a terrible truth, and when Bloom confronted Rosalind, she attacked and Bloom defended herself. That fits my memory of the last episode and Bloom says it makes sense.

Are they playing at Bloom being confused because something else is actually what happened? Can’t tell.

And Stella intends to prove that’s what happened, at the tribunal. Stella has studied Solarian law! She has binders full of it! She doesn’t say that. We see the binders.

Aisha says Bloom is lots of things, some amazing, some annoying, none murdery. That was sweet.

Bloom asks what happens if she loses. Could be confinement or banishment. Bloom lies back again and Stella says moping isn’t useful and “You’re the Dragon Flame, Bloom, and you did nothing wrong. The realm needs you.” Yay, friends acting like friends!

Outside specialists pack things on the black jeeps. Riven is there. Dane wants to get out and fight but Silva says they’re still students. Dane says they’re training to fight and Silva says yeah, they’re training to fight after they graduate and the best thing to do now is impress the Solarians with a well-stocked supply depot. Riven claps his ex on the shoulder and says, “Basically, we’re fucking grunts.” and Silva says, “Language! And attitude, both of you!” heh.

Musa comes over and offers to help. She’d like to become a specialist as a way to stay at Alfea now that she has no magic. Silva starts to say this isn’t a good time but Dane steps up and says since they’re just doing supplies there’s plenty of time, he can train Musa in their spare time. Riven says what spare time and “this isn’t fucking daycare, no offence.”

Musa: “that wasn’t clever enough to offend me, no offense.” and she’ll literally do anything.

Then we see Musa, Dane and Riven looking at a giant pile of poo they have to shovel. Where they’re shoveling it to, how it got piled up, and what creature it came out of is unclear. Horses, presumably? Fertilizer? But it is a very tall pile so I prefer to think some very large flying creature dropped it off.

We cut to a potion lab! The new teacher, Aimee something? Aimee LeRoy I think. Is there with Terra and Flora, they’re making green potion for the army. Flora’s anti-puppeteering potion? They’re not entirely sure it’ll work. While she’s distracted Flora pockets a test tube that’s either empty or full of some slightly cloudy potion.

Then they're outside headed for the graveyard to find proof that Dowling is buried there. Thankfully they don’t actually have to dig. But they can’t do anything because the graveyard is full of specialists. Terra blushes and says hi to Kat. Terra fumbles for an excuse as to why they’re there and Kat says no roaming around; Blood witches could be anywhere… but she’s alone on duty tomorrow morning so that might be a good time. Terra says to Flora, “Disappointing. But somehow still promising.” Terra with a crush is so dang cute.

Back inside Bloom is… packing? I’m not sure. Sky comes to the suite door and asks if since Bloom is laying low, maybe they could lay low together. Bloom doesn’t answer and Sky waits a minute or two outside the door and then leaves.

Outside Aisha is leaving a message for Grey. Who, remember, is a Blood Witch. I guess he vanished after trying to leave and not being able to. Aisha says sorry she couldn’t talk before when Grey wanted to, things got out of hand, but she’s going for a swim now.

And we go to Grey getting the message. Just as he arrives outside the Blood witches’ lair and Sebastian welcomes him home with a half hug.

Inside and later I assume, Bloom is doing the most Bloomish thing ever and running away. She was packing! She passes Stella asleep on the couch among her law books.

Bloom heads through the woods to a house I don’t remember seeing before. Furnished, with electricity. She has a flashback to when she burned down her parents’ house before season one as she sits in this house reading her old journal. Then Sky comes in! He followed her I guess. He makes a quip about getting away from Aisha’s snoring and she says she wanted to give Aisha a break. He asks if it’s not dangerous out here without magic and Bloom confesses she’s scared she’ll hurt someone with out-of-control magic like before.

Literally “you have no magic” and “I’m afraid I’ll hurt someone with magic” back to back. Am I missing something here? Maybe Bloom’s afraid she’s strong enough to do magic despite the cuffs? Everyone has been telling her how powerful she is. Maybe that’s it?

Bloom is afraid she’ll hurt Sky, since her emotions hurt people and she has a lot of them about him. If they have a lovers’ quarrel she could accidentally burn him up. Sky says he’s not afraid but Bloom shuts down the attempted comfiort and says she needs to get some rest, she’s going on trial tomorrow. Sky says, “We’ll fix this.” and leaves her for now. Sad music plays as he walks away, but not far. He sits on a treestump to keep watch.

Morning over the castle!

The pile of poo has been moved. Riven asks Dane, “Did the shit fairy come last night?” and Musa behind them, says, “Don’t ever call me that again.” which is, ok, a little bit funny. This show keeps almost having clever lines. I guess Musa shoveled long into the night, to make sure the guys had time to train her. She is wearing camo pants, a black shirt and olive green vest… that show off an inch of belly. Someone clearly looked at enough Winx pics to know the girls wear short tops and made that part of Musa’s specialist gear.

Riven and Musa have a sword fight! Very clanging, much swings, lots of twirling. Very different from the real swordfighting lessons I’m taking where there’s much less moving about, many more parries, and a lot more protective gear. But I must say, the way they do it looks a lot cooler!

Riven kicks Musa’s butt handily about three times, in the end knockimng her down. She asks why jhe’s being a dick and Riven kinjhda rants that they’re about to have a real war, and specialists aren’t just “randoms” they’re selected, they train for years. Having Musa just walk in with no experience is insulting, and also she could get hurt. Or killed. Riven really is being protective of her. I can see why the fanbase sees chemistry between them. Riven is a jerk but he’s being kind in his jerkish way. He tells Musa to play dress up if she wants but there are more important things now. And he and Dane leave. Musa looks after them with an expression I can’t read. Determination? Despair?

And here comes a car with a flag! A very colorful flag, large patches of red, green, yellow and blue. If there’s a Solarian flag I want to see it but it’s out of focus. It is not just a gold sun or sun-and-moon, which I feel the real Solaira’s flag would be, if any of the realms had flags.

Stella hasn’t seen her mother since Rosalind too over. She says her mother will probably pretend the gem isn’t there and that’s good, because “that’s not what today is about.” so we know the gem is in fact still there. And dang I like this determined Stella! I want so much for her to get some kind of victory in this story. She lets her mother kiss her cheek and suggests they pretend Luna is just here for a visit.

Beatrix is waiting with Bloom. She says, “Killing Rosalind was the best thing you’ve ever done. She deserved it.” Beatrix has also prepared water for the queen: chilled, four lemons, sparkling. Apparently Stella mentioned her mother’s strange water preference. Stella smiles at thios suddenly very helpful Beatrix. She and Aisha have arrived to I guess take Bloom to be judged.

Stella has plans! To be more tricky than her mum. She’s read up on the law, they have Terra and Flora looking for proof, and Aisha as a character reference. Apparently Aisha’s family supplies energy for half the realm, so the queen won’t want to make them mad. Yay Stella, make plans! Only… your previous plan failed terribly.

Outside Kat patrols the gate to the graveyard. Terra arrives with a bribe, a bento box of… “Tobian rock snails.” Which Terra took a week to gather, hoping to cook them for Kat in a “date type situation.”

Kat curses and Terra is horrified, thinking she misread the situation, but Kat says she didn’t, she is interested… but she got back together with Francesca, her ex we assume.

Terra just does the ‘I’m really happy for you” and she and Flora go into the graveyard. Leaving Kat with a tasty box of snails and a confession of love to think about.

Inside Queen Luna has taken over the headmistress’ office. Bloom, Stella and Aisha come in. Luna says this is a closed tribunal and tries to kick Stella out even after Stella says she’s acting as Bloom’s advocate. (“Advocate” is the best fantasy word for lawyer and should always be used.) Luna says no advocates and Stella whips out a precedent where useless Uncle Arthur acted as advocate for a “companion” found “in a financial scandal.” Bloom says she wants Stella as her advocate since Stella knows more about the system and Luna says “faint praise” because Bloom knows nothing about the system.

Bloom is literally from a different world, wouldn’t there be public defenders or something to deal with First Worlder cases? I mean I know Luna is ignoring all decency because she’s awful, but you’d think there would be a system.

Luna lays out the case: Rosalind, a beloved figure, is dead and Bloom admitted she did it. “so. What don’t I know?”

Back in the graveyard Flora is more interested in convincing Terra she still has a chance with Kat but Terra’s mind is on the mission. Flora explains the magic: when fairies die they release life essence. The test tube is full of magic smoke that will find where a very powerful fairy died. But the smoke smokes around but leaves a gap by the bench where we know Dowling was killed. A powerful fairy didn’t die here!

Yeah, she issekaied into House of the Dragon and is livin’ her best afterlife with Matt Smith! But Luna demands physical evidence. She says Sebastian could’ve lied, which, fair. But Rosalind admitted it, but only to Bloom so that’s heresay. Stella is starting to crack under the pressure.

Terra reaches her magic into the ground and pulls out… a coconut? Some big seed. Not evidence.

Stella gets the text: there’s no body. She goes for the character witness. Aisha immediately brings up her family’s contributions to Solaria. Then she describes how Bloom discovered her magic with nobody to explain it to her but in spite of that she’s doing great. Then Aisha explains about the spell to help Musa get her magic back and side effects of that spell caused Bloom to lose control. Aisha does very well and the music is hopeful so I know Luna is about to shoot it down because nobody is allowed to triumph at anything in this show.

And Luna pulls out, “Aren’t you dating Grey Owens? ‘cause he’s totally a blood witch so shows what kind of judge of character you are.

Aisha snickers at the idea but yep, Grey is indeed a Blood Witch, his records were forged. And Luna can tell Aisha’s family about that anytime and really mess with her.

Aisha, thoroughly defeated, leaves the room. Outside Beatrix is in the secretary’s chair. Aisha asks to see Grey’s records right now.

Inside Stella tears up and is reduced to “Please. Bloom is my friend.” and Luna says Stella did an “admirable job defending her… but you were correct in your letter.” And Stella begs her mother not to say more. In Stella’s letter asking to borrow the convergence crystal she described Bloom as a “ticking time bomb” and that being friends with her was a good way to keep that power on their side, pretty much. We the viewers know Stella was just “playing the game” saying what her mother would want to hear, but of course Bloom doesn’t know that.

Bloom asks to speak. She says she was indeed defending herself, but Stella was also right in the letter. Bloom knows she could have backed off, and she didn’t. “I wanted to punish her for killing Miss Dowling, I wanted her dead. The Dragon Flame just gave me the ability to make that happen.” She’s ready to accept the consequences.

The verdict is Bloom will be places in stasis for 20 years.

Stella is horrified. She tries to argue. But Bloom says it’s for the best.

And they walk down and stick Bloom where Rosalind was. The general of the army finger-writes some sigils on the walls and says “I’m sorry you didn’t have a fairy mother who could teach you to control your magic.” and Bloom says, “Me too” and the barrier comes up and Bloom is stasised!

But this show is not done raking Stella over the coals! She cries, her mother says the letter was a transparent attempt to butter her up, and there was never any chance Bloom would have been judged innocent. But she was impressed by how Stella managed the trial. she’s very proud.

And she takes the control gem off poor Stella’s back! I think she really is proud, in her own abusive parent way she thinks that “playing the game” is just what royals have to do and she thinks she’s helping by toughening Stella up. Which is the basic thought behind lots of child abuse. “I am sorry about your friend. But being queen means you must look beyond things like friendship.”

And Stella says what if she’s not a princess? Her mother warns her not to go down that road but Stella says, “If I am forced to choose between my friends and my privilege, do not be surprised by what wins.”

And she walks out. Queen Luna looks shocked and worried.

Aisha walks back into the suite. The other girls are there, they want to know what happened but Aisha only has eyes for her phone. She calls Grey, and he picks up! He’s outside the Blood witches’ base. She says she only needs one answer and he says, ‘I’m sorry, I knew you wouldn’t understand” and that’s all it takes. While poor Aisha is in shock-- and the others know what’s up because they heard—Stella comes in to tell everyone they lost, Bloom’s gone. Aisha breaks down in tears and Stella comforts her.

Back with Grey, Sebastian comes over talking about how Romeo and Juliet is a great story but actually very dumb and all the mess could’ve been avoided with a little more communication and “Leo and Claire” is a better story. The movie with deCaprio? Is that what he means? I never was a theater kid so I have no Shakespeare knowledge. Grey asks if maybe peace is an option now that Rosalind is gone. He doesn’t really hate all fairies.

But Grey didn’t hear Queen Luna’s speech. Luna blamed the Blood witches for a murder they didn’t do. Peace is not an option now. “Fairies want us dead. They have always wanted us dead. Now it’s time to fight back.”

Back in the suite Flora is full of ideas for how to break Bloom out. Maybe they can get Luna to change her mind! Maybe they can use the bits of Dragon Flame still in the convergence crystal! Maybe Bloom can break herself out! Stella says Bloom’s given up. Flora says “we’re all scared. But I refuse to live in fear. As long as one person has hope there’s a chance...” and Terra cuts her off with, “Read the room, Flora. It’s over.”

Flora leaves, no doubt to do something ill-advised.

Downstairs it seems the Solarian army has located Sebastian’s lair but instead of going in themselves they want the Specialists to do it! Dane gets to have some war after all! Silva sounds not at all annoyed at this, I kinda think he would be after his last speech. Sky comes to join the muster and Silva has to tell him his girlfriend is now frozen.

Sky goes down to the dungeons where the general (Bavari I think is her name) is with two soldiers. Sky tries to fight past them to see Bloom but they haul him off to a cell as he calls for Bloom. His voice echoes around the dungeon.

Flora’s desk plants have wilted. She says, “Really guys, you too?” and revives them, with magic. Heh. She starts making a list of ideas to get Bloom out. The plants wilt again. Flora revives them again. Very good mystical hand gestures! But they wilt once more. There’s the coconut they found in Dowling’s grave, I guess they stuck it on a pot. Flora calls to Aisha and asks if she still has the convergence crystal. She uses the crystal to direct green magic into the coconut, which is actually more like a tight ball of vegetation. Not a literal coconut, that’s just what it looks like. “We found this thing in the graveyard, we thought it was dead. But it isn’t.”

Down below, trapped in the stasis field Bloom remembers Aisha's speech about growing up with no one to teach her. She… imagines? Wearing fake fairy wings while a woman with red hair uses magic to light candles on a birthday cake. Using magic to light a sparkler under a banner of American flags, with a boy, maybe a brother, beside her. Then her imagining changes to her real first time using magic to burn down the house.

A ghostly hand strokes Bloom’s face and the barrier comes down.

And it’s Miss Dowling! Back from the dead, with the girls behind her!

Oh my gosh she did turn into a tree! Just like we thought! The little plant thingy she put herself in was absorbing life essence, “in the First World they’re called resurrection plants.” A real plant. So the girls fed it the last of the Dragonfire energy in the crystal and it came to life. Dowling knew Rosalind was going to murder her so she used magic to hide her spirit in the plant. She’s not back for long though, just enough time for one final lesson.

Musa says magic lessons aren’t really her thing anymore but Dowling says they’re all fairies and the lesson is for all of them.

Dowling says as headmistress she tried to use only positive emotions and shield her students from harsh realities, while Rosalind believed the opposite. Now Dowling says they were both wrong and “To unlock true magic you must make peace with all your emotions. The reckless joy of the positive and the despair of the negative. There is beauty and power in both.” And she says she’s proud of them all.

Back at school Beatrix is doing secretaryish things when the general and some soldiers come in saying “we have to find her!” and then immediately tell Beatrix not to tell anyone. Gee, how’d she get to be general like that? Beatrix puts down her paperwork to text Stella that Bavari knows Bloom busted out.

The girls are in the random house, by the way. Flora and Musa head back to school to cover for them, saying the other girls should have more time with Miss Dowling.

Oh yeah, and the boys are invading the Blood Witch hideout. This show, always doing so many things at once. Silva is very “murder the lot of ‘em.” for Silva. Also he says there’s not enough protective potion for everyone. He does give the boys a chance to opt out of the war, saying there’s no shame in it. But Riven and Dane gulp their anti-puppeteering potion, ready to fight.

Bloom and Miss Dowling sit on a rock overlooking the castle. Bloom asks Dowling if she’s disappointed at the loss of control. Dowling says taking a life is a serious thing and a burden, and talks about Aster Dell, how she was so angry she wanted to kill Rosalind after the murder of so many (she thought) innocents. Dowling also says the world is objectively better off without Rosalind.

Bloom is very scared, of losing control, of not knowing what to do. Dowling can’t tell her what to do, only Bloom can figure that out. But “anything with the power to destroy can also protect” and tells Bloom she has the power to save the world. Bloom;’s heard that already, from Rosalind. But Dowling suggests a revision: Bloom can save her own world, the people she cares about.

Stella, Terra and Aisha join them and Bloom gives Miss Dowling one last hug as the headmistress melts into streamers of purple light that flow up into the sunset sky.

And we’re back with the boys! Instantly. Riven and Dane have time for a little witty banter as the team creeps towards the Blood witch hideout. They break in and get to the room where the Blood witches were hanging out… but nobody’s home. The Blood Witches knew they were coming!

Beatrix is in the headmistress’ office, at the desk, drinking. Someone knocks on the door and she lets Sebastian in. How’d he get in? He asks b to cut the lights and she summons her lightning and knocks out the power to the whole school.

And a whole bunch of scrapers slither through the halls!

I can’t really blame her for working with the baddies, when working with the… other baddies… wasn’t working out. Was there even a good guy side that Beatrix could have turned to?

#fate the winx saga

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