#s4 nabu was genuinely just like.. a perfect dude but so much so that it got rid of his flaws from s3 but with no actual character growth

[floralovebot]

screaming crying shidding

this is so good!!! i especially love your thoughts on musa and riven you're so right bestie

like such a huge aspect of their relationship drama is them not knowing how to communicate. and yknow i think there are a lot of reasons why (musa shutting people out after her mom died and her dad doing the same, plus not having friends when she was younger) (riven's mom leaving them, being really defensive, etcetc) but i also feel like they didn't really know how to,, fix that yknow? after some time they do try to communicate better, but they don't know how and it usually ends up biting them in the ass. it's just,,, so many people hyperfocus on the jealousy issues (which like. fair. that is very canon) but their internal issues that spill out into the relationship make them so much more interesting!!

and like,,, yknow in TRUE florelia brainrot fashion i have So Many Thoughts!! i so so so agree with helia just not fucking caring. and i don't think it's particularly malicious or him being pretentious, i think he just doesn't care unless he needs to (ie family, friends, partners, team members, etc). unless he Needs to think about someone, he just,,, doesn't. and yesyesyes to flora being extraverted!!! like so many people feel like her characterization in canon is hard to pin down or like super random/all over the place but no? the only person she gets shy with is helia aldgh and there are plenty of people like that! but it's so weird to me when people think oh flora being shy with helia goes against her previous characterization like have you never had a crush on someone (saying this specifically to allo people aldhg)

and helia not really initiating things is SO interesting to me! i agree that usually he doesn't. he tends to go with the flow and let other people decide how their relationship with him goes. but flora brings out a side of him that actually wants to actively participate and do things first (the kiss!) and it's so fun to me! i know there's a theory that it's because he knows she has a hard time deciding to do things first because she's worried he won't take it well/feel the same way, but honestly i think it's more than that. he actually wants to,, Help the relationship basically. you can even see this when he gets closer to the specialists! instead of just letting them decide what the friendship vibes are and following along, once he gets close to them he starts to initiate things! he's so splunky,,, ough,,,,

it's interesting that you see helia as more of a black and white moral thinker because i've always seen him in a slightly different way! i'd love to hear more thoughts about that if you have them!! but like,, personally, i think helia's morality meter has a lot more to do with the situation and Trust rather than a strict moral code. we've seen in canon that he's willing to do things that aren't necessarily "good" and that he's willing to defend his friends when they do something that's not necessarily "good". and this could be him having a more weird moral stance that doesn't align with the typical thoughts, but i think it has a lot more to do with how much he Knows and Trusts a person.

like the comic where he completely ignores trix and gives them the silent treatment when they're pretending to be good is SO interesting to me. like you could def argue that it's because he's decided they're Completely Evil, but i think it has more to do with him knowing they can't be trusted and that given the opportunity, they always try to hurt people.

but more than all of that, i think a lot of his actions on missions are actually partially separated from morality. like i think emotionally he agrees with flora about not hurting the possessed animals, but logically he knows that not dealing with them "properly" can be the reason one of them dies. like,, flora's fluidity with morality isn't naivety, but it definitely has undertones of her being more hopeful about the outcome of the situation. giving the trix the benefit of the doubt when they pretend to lose their memory, not wanting to hurt possessed animals/people, etc. and flora Absolutely knows the risks of this, but i think helia is a lot less willing to actually weigh that risk during missions. so it's not really about him genuinely thinking the trix can't change or that they couldn't really lose their memories, but more about him not wanting to risk the chance yknow? (i think this also goes into him having a more pessimistic view of the world compared to flora! it's not that he's Super Negative or anything, but he doesn't want to risk being hopeful and then get got because of it ajdhg)

and like,, something that's so interesting to me about helia is that he kind of always carries that mission thinking with him. he's always on guard (a lot of the main characters are tbh!) so i feel like, even in their personal life, if he genuinely feels like someone can't be trusted and flora goes "well i think they're fine", there's so much internal conflict in him after hearing that. because he wants to trust his gut but he also wants to trust flora! and there are tons of times when he decides to trust flora first, but like,, on actual missions, it's a lot harder for him to do that. again, i do think flora is perfectly aware of the risks, but i think she's also a lot more hopeful about what can happen and willing to take the risk even if it means she and or someone else will get hurt because of it (which is a Huge source of conflict between her and the winx), but helia isn't willing to do that. so like,,, i really do think it's less about morality and more about caution for him. he's,,, Really cautious and sometimes that translates into him not wanting to trust people or change his mind about them (regardless of their actual morality).

i.. will stop rambling now alhgdjlag

ACTUALLY i really love your thoughts on tecmy! i mean it's Literally canon so why wouldn't i but Still. i just,,, tecna really liking timmy but having high standards that are also super unrealistic and kind of mean </3 comparing him to others being a projection of comparing herself to others and him </3 wanting to communicate with him more and talk about their feelings for each other and not just computers </3 timmy thinking there's nothing wrong with talking about technology most of the time because that's their shared interest </3 they are just so OUGHHHHHHH

okay,, now i'll stop alhdg thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!!! i'm gonna send an ask about the platonic couples aldhg and maybe non canon romantic ones if you're chill with that 👀

please tell me about the winx and specialists dynamics 🙏 (also do you have any thoughts on the platonic pairings like bloom/timmy or tecna/riven!!)

AAAA ty for letting me ramble omg. this isn't meta so i'm not sure if there is much of a basis for these in canon (i'm planning on doing a big winx rewatch + comics reading um. sometime when i have the time lol) so this is more abt how i characterize them in fic in a way that is hopefully both true(ish) to canon while also expanding on those traits. (and ignoring the canon characterizations i don't like, like too much emphasis on jealousy bc that's bo-ring 😊)

i'm going to put this all under the cut because i started rambling a Lot, just a fair warning LOL

also. YES i do have MANY thoughts about other winx/specialist dynamics because i am a slut for platonic relationships but i CANNOT make this post any longer than it already is. so. if you're still interested just send me an ask or something afadlsfj;kasf

okay, buckle up. starting with the canon couples:

musa/riven:

okay so they have one of my fave dynamics just because i think the back and forth + all the tension is so interesting dsfjakl.

i think that a lot of the initial conflict in their relationship starts from musa not really knowing exactly what she wants and only really knowing how to react to something that, like, rubs her the wrong way? and it's harder for her to express affirmation/affection when she's happy with something riven's done bc her instinct would be to act sort of cool about it.

on riven's part, i like to think that initially he isn't super emotionally available for whatever reason -- ig in canonverse it'd be him coming down from dating darcy & her manipulating him -- but musa (in her giggly crush phase) piques his interest anyway and they tentatively get together.

i figure at some point in their relationship, riven realizes oh, i'm actually really into this girl she has a lot of qualities i respect and admire and he consequently gets a lot more open and sincere, although still awkward about his affection. like, he just tries harder. musa gets flustered by this kind of attention but she'll kind of play it off.

still, riven will sometimes make thoughtless mistakes/fuck-ups that really piss musa off and she has, like, zero idea how to communicate the what and the why. like she just knows she's upset and she will make sure riven knows she's upset, but she has difficulty explaining herself. & with riven's quick temper, he lashes out when he doesn't understand why musa's acting a certain way toward him / the act of having to communicate makes his hackles rise automatically.

i think most of musa's difficulty communicating and playing at coolness comes from her not really knowing how to act within a romantic relationship and like. not knowing what level of sharing burdens and insecurities is appropriate.

i view riven as more action-oriented when it comes to showing how he feels & musa more easily expresses herself through music and isn't as good as being outward with her affection. so when they're trying to figure out how to articulate how they feel + how they feel toward each other, there's a lot of bumps in the road. but they get there!

they both have moments where they unintentionally close themselves off from each other bc they're not super used to being vulnerable/intimate with another person & in the early stages, a lot of their communication is kinda just. frustratingly beating around the bush and getting increasingly upset that they keep misunderstanding each other. i think this is the stage of their relationship where they experience the most jealousy/insecurity.

once they're in the mature/stable part of their relationship though, i feel like they'll have learned how to be direct. & they're both more blunt people who are used to having to soften themselves in their other relationships/friendships, but they realize that they can be super straightforward w/ each other about how they feel and sidestep the social niceties.

and i think the majority of their relationship would be characterized by snarky banter that's a little mean, but eventually they learn how not to cross any lines & sprinkle in some more sincerity amongst the quips.

stella/brandon

i feel like stella and brandon perfectly complement each other in that they have a lot of traits in common to truly understand each other with enough differences to balance each other out.

they're both flirty, cheerful, loyal (to each other and to their friends), and enthusiastically supportive. stella's more prone to foot-in-her-mouth syndrome though while brandon is more.. reserved? in a way? they're equally extroverted and friendly, but stella's more in-your-face about it almost to the point of crossing boundaries (depending on the person, like when she first meets helia) while brandon kinda gauges where people are at and acts as friendly as he figures they'll be comfortable with.

i think the majority of their dynamic is characterized by stella's outgoing and dramatic personality versus brandon's more laidback and observant demeanor. like stella is quick to jump to conclusions and dramatically overthink & brandon will validate her emotions but also keep her grounded.

affection comes suuuper easy to them in like the "you're my pookie wookie boo bear" kind of way like stella would definitely ask brandon if he would still love her if she was a worm. and brandon would be like "not only would i still love you if you were a worm, i'd start a garden for you to give you a happy home" and stella would be like "AWWWW SCHNOOKUMS. u suck at keeping plants alive."

brandon would take initiative to surprise stella with sweeping romantic gestures that stella goes gaga over. stella almost never stops singing brandon's praises (like over his looks and his abilities) and tries to spoil/provide for him (bc she's a princess and has the money for it and brandon's a squire. lol)

when they have conflict & stella's more mad abt it, brandon will kind of defer to her and try to act how he thinks she would want him to act (giving her space, but still trying to explain himself and apologize when he feels he has an opening). this rarely happens, but if brandon is angry with stella, the dynamic is usually something like. stella is beating herself up and trying really really hard to explain herself, but brandon kinda needs a minute to sit on it so he'll take some space. which makes stella fairly anxious. but he'll always come back to her as soon as he's ready to hear her out & take things in when he has more patience and has more clarity.

i think some initial problems they would have are like. brandon can internalize his feelings and not be as forthcoming about how he feels (and also just outright lie like with the sky/brandon switch but let's just ignore that lol). and stella might initially get anxious and worry if he likes her as much as she likes him. but stella helps him be more easily affectionate and honest (not just toward her but toward everyone) and brandon soothes her insecurities/anxieties & lets her bejeweled encourages her to be her best self.

overall brandon's just happy to be a little planet orbiting stella's shining sun, but she'll never let him forget how important he is for the galaxy/ecosystem lol.

flora/helia

okay so for my fave couples (florelia & aibu) i'm like weirdly intimidated to come up with definitive characterization for them bc i guess i'm afraid of being wrong??? so just a disclaimer LMAO

on the whole, i view flora as someone who is fairly extroverted, socially confident, and friendly -- but she's absolutely overwhelmed by any kind of romantic interaction. like she's only ever able to pine from a distance because actually being in the thick of it is just. So Much. & contrastingly, i see helia as someone who is perfectly capable of polite/friendly interactions with strangers, but he simply does not gaf and will only pour his energy into interactions with people he really cares about/respects. so basically, romance never really interested him Until It Did and suddenly the love poems -- that he would usually skip over in favor of like. poetry about nature and the human (alien?) condition -- have become super pertinent to him and his life.

just like in canon, i think their dynamic necessitates a big dramatic love confession <3 intense pining that builds and builds and builds until it has to spill over and be made known to the world.

i think for like initial issues in their relationship, flora is just so flustered by the prospect of Romance Happening To Her that she kind of acts like. not super present? because it doesn't feel real? so she still daydreams and acts as if he's out of reach and helia's kinda takes that as her being distant? like losing interest after the relationship happens. which is obviously the exact opposite of the case. so flora eventually learns how to be comfortable in a relationship and comfortable expressing all the mushy-gushy thoughts in her brain to her partner.

i don't view helia as much of an initiator tbh. i think he's fairly passive but not out of anxiety or anything. it's the idgaf quality in him, like if you don't give him a reason to care then he's not going to. and bc of that attitude that he applies generally in life, he's kind of made a habit of waiting for an inciting incident to push him into being more active. now flora is the exact opposite. she's an active friend who will meddle because she cares, and she cares a lot about a wide breadth of things. so i think that while helia is the expert at florid poetry and love letters and paintings and conventionally romantic gestures, flora's the one who sets the stage for open lines of communication and honesty. & she's the one who will ask for things that she wants out of helia/their relationship and is always checking in on him to make sure his emotional needs are being met

i feel like flora inspires helia to GAF care more/open his heart more. and helia is kind of flora's stability and shoulder to lean on to remind her that she doesn't need to stretch herself so thin when it comes to the effort she puts into caring for others. that said, helia's vastly more impulsive in high-stress situations than flora is, so flora's the one who goes. let's stop, think, and strategize. and helia will agree for two minutes before he gets impatient and starts acting on impulse. flora's like "well. i anticipated this" & takes off after him.

in terms of communication, i feel like they're both pretty high in emotional intelligence so they're fairly easily able to pinpoint why/how they're feeling certain ways and are really good at articulating those emotions to one another.

bc i love interesting tensions: i headcanon flora as more flexible in her understandings of good-vs-evil while helia is more rigid and has more black and white thinking. so i think they don't normally argue because miscommunications are minimal, BUT if they do argue it's because of clashing values. i think that flora eventually gets helia to be more openminded on this specific issue but it takes some time & wading thru conflicts. their argument style is just like -- full of passion, but not in a yelling kind of way. more like, frustrated silences and crying and silent treatment (while still maintaining physical closeness). helia shuts down in arguments while flora tries to talk through it until she's in tears.

ermm basically they're just obsessed with each other and will write icky gushy poetry about how beautiful the other person is both inside and out. they'll use a lot of dramatic metaphors that give off the energy of "i don't know how i'd live without you" and yadda yadda. i think helia is also prone to getting teased by flora bc he tends more toward seriousness and flora's more playful and it makes helia all flustered

aisha/nabu

okay tbh i don't have a very strong nabu characterization just yet so this is in development...

aisha is just a very independent person, always trying to prove herself and show that she can stand on her own two feet. she's a princess but she's sole heir and crown princess to andros and until she went to alfea, she essentially grew up in isolation in a highly politicized environment. she's simultaneously used to having a lot of pressure/responsibility on her shoulders as a leader and also having things be decided for her because of tradition, decorum, etc. she's slow to warm, but once she's in she's all in.

nabu is just. offbeat and quirky honestly. he does things that you don't necessarily expect or view as obvious solutions. he's very patient and good-humored, almost to a fault, because he sometimes really just doesn't know or understand why people might react so strongly/negatively to things he takes in stride. he's also a very independent person, does things to the beat of his own drum, but he's very very open and doesn't hold reservations about things or people for very long. (this is the characterization i'm using for justification as to why he thought a good response to getting put into an arranged marriage with a stranger is to. suspiciously follow around his fiancé with the intention of getting to know her/help her and without realizing how he's being lowkey creepy.)

anyways i think that being in a relationship with nabu gives aisha the space to just. relax. she tries so hard to be strong (and she is!) but she's also constantly trying to position herself as reliable and independent. the friend you can always go to for help but who doesn't ever need yours because she just has it all together. (obviously her friends know better but this is the image she tries to project) and nabu is just a safe person for her. so she allows herself to be more vulnerable around him, more reliant on him, just sillier and sweeter than she normally allows herself to be. she shows her weaknesses more readily and admits to when she doesn't know what to do or how to do something -- because nabu is always very nonjudgmental and kind.

i think that initial conflicts they have is that aisha feels like nabu's sweetness just. comes with strings attached? i hc that andros is one of the few patriarchal realms in the magic dimension so aisha just doesn't super trust men, or at the very least she hates how men on andros have often undermined her and questioned her authority. and for a while it takes nabu a hot minute to understand. why. aisha would think that he has ulterior motives. because having an ulterior motive, or at least a malicious one, isn't something that ever crosses his mind. (tangent but -- he's a little naive in that he generally assumes everyone he meets has the best intentions until they prove to him otherwise, in which case it's hard to win back his trust.) so even after their feelings for each other are known, aisha kinda closes herself off to him/subconsciously rejects him until she realizes how genuine he is, after which she just fully trusts him and feels safe neough to rely on him.

arguments are far and few between after the initial roughness of their relationship and i feel like if they do have some kind of conflict, it's either petty and negligible or it's a short and sweet conversation and then they move on. they're really good at direct communication because it's just an extension of the way they already express affection toward one another.

the way they express affection isn't as cheesy as like brella or florelia, they're just very candid with each other all the time about how much they love another and how much they mean to each other.

i think nabu learns from aisha about more realities of the world because i do assume he's fairly privileged/spoiled with his position on andros (like... a nobleman or something) so he becomes a better judge of character after her & has more sympathy for others and their thought processes even when their line of thinking is baffling to him. and i think aisha learns to trust or to have more faith in others on a baseline level from him.

tecna/timmy

i really enjoy tecmy's canon progression so this won't deviate too much from what i feel they're already established to be... (ignoring s5 and after)

so obv tecna starts off not being super in touch with her emotions. she doesn't really know how to talk to timmy (and vice-versa) and also at times she resents him for not being as traditionally brave as other specialists and eggs him on in that respect, which kind of prods at timmy's insecurities. tecna eventually does realize timmy has always been brave but this friction does also push timmy out of his comfort zone into acting more heroically.

eventually, they realize even though their relationship is not conventional, the fact that they can communicate through nerd-speak is fulfilling for both of them and it conveys their care and affection for one another more than adequately

i think that timmy has always thought the world of tecna but that just speaks to how he always tends to view things/people in good faith and with lots of optimism. hence why he never lost hope that tecna was still out there after she sacrificed herself to the omega dimension, but everyone else literally believed she was dead.

they really just understand each other on levels that no one else really does while also balancing each other out. tecna tends toward negative assumptions and cynicism while timmy tends toward hope and keeping an open mind. tecna lowkey externalizes her anxieties/insecurities by lashing out (and kind of justifying it through her logic schtick) while timmy internalizes his insecurities and lets them weigh on him more in silence.

timmy's got JOKES! and tecna isn't so good at being humorous but she thinks timmy is hilarious and they have a way of communicating both positively and negatively that is very unique to them and hard for outsiders to really comprehend

i think the way that they overcome the initial issues in their relationship is just. tecna shedding her preconceptions and really seeing timmy for who he really is and just appreciating his present qualities. and while i don't really think that timmy puts tecna on a pedestal per se, i do think he learns to stop giving her more credit than she's due and stop undermining himself and feeding into his lower self-esteem. once they really just accept themselves and each other for who they are, they're able to just co-exist very harmoniously. and they figure out how to validate and support one another!

bloom/sky

okay tbh i barely have any thoughts on skoom just because. they're my least favorite winx and specialist respectively DFLJS

i play around with their dynamic depending on my mood (so sometimes i'm like Sky Bad but other times i'm like Skoom Happy) but i guess my most consistent Thing is that i firmly believe sky has been like. raised to fulfill the Prince Charming(tm) archetype. it's a little bit of a case of chicken or the egg/nature vs nurture (is sky just Like This or is he trying to fulfill expectations of what he should be and that's just who he ended up becoming?) but in my mind sky is just Prince Charming But With Flaws.

i think sky has had a lot of pressure to be a perfect young prince all his life and so he's very used to calling the shots but also not needing to think about more mundane, lower-order concerns a lot of the time. (he doesn't figure out how to dress himself until at least a year into his relationship with bloom.) i also think he's somewhat resentful of his position in life and other people of similar stations (so people like diaspro) bc he subconsciously kind of views himself as better than/more noble than the people around him. so he finds bloom to be refreshing because she's very candid and authentic and doesn't have that etiquette training beat into her head like most of the girls he knows.

bloom is just someone who has a lot of wonder for this new magical world she's been introduced to and sky's an extension of that as her prince charming come to life. as bloom comes to understand the magical dimension for all of its dangers and its dark underbelly, bloom also uncovers sky's hypocrisies and mild elitism and avoidant tendencies and other flaws. but just as bloom wholeheartedly embraces being a fairy, she embraces sky for who he is and they ultimately help each other grow and change.

i think bloom and sky both have a strong sense of duty toward the people in their lives, bloom toward the people she loves and sky toward the his family and the kingdom he inherited. this is something that both unites them but also means their interests clash at times.

their arguments would be like. interrupting each other and assuming they already know what the other person is going to say. getting frustrated at that and dealing with the fallout. then realizing that they didn't have as clear of a picture as they thought they did, and ultimately talking through it and working things out.

mmm bloom helps sky down from his high horse and makes him into a more sympathetic and humble leader while sky supports bloom in realizing her full potential as fairy of the dragon flame and princess of domino.

aaaaand that's all the rambling i can handle for now. but i can always talk more more more!!!!! i love all of these characters and their dynamics so much. (and my shipping is hardly limited to the canon relationships ;) )

[lynpheas]

REAL oh god dude i Hate s4 brella drama so much! it doesn't make sense at all!!! stella would not fucking say that ! aldhg it's so unfortunate especially since some people use it as "evidence" for her being a cheater or some shit like Please. and GOD who could say that about timmy 😭 he's literally one of the best specialists in terms of being a good person?? the weird mischaracterization tecmy go through just because they're nerds... nerdaphobia </3

and i completely understand!! like do i think canon flora would kill a bunch of people out of revenge or necessity? no. but are fics that explore how she could be driven to that point super fun? yes!! even with helia there are times where i put him in situations like it's so fun to microwave florelia

and yeah the difference between s3 nabu and s4 nabu is so weird! like,, i'd say he's still mostly the same but s4 nabu was also just genuinely perfect. he didn't have any flaws! and the few he did have you can very easily reason away (like impulsivity with proposing to aisha can be explained away with genuine love and hope for the relationship). but since he did have actual flaws in s3, it can make characterizing him really hard!! at that point it's like,, which characterization do you focus on since they're so different or do you try to merge them despite there being some key contradiction.. OUGH

s4 characterization is sooo weird honestly. i only specifically rewatched it bc i wanted to use the wizards of the black circle for an idea i'm playing around with and i just wanted to remember how they were, and the winx and the specialists are all just SO WEIRD. i heard that at some point the writers stopped using a show bible and it honestly feels like it's s4 that marks the beginning of that.

tecmy go through so much... i was talking abt winx with my bf and i mentioned tecna & they literally had never seen her and no idea who she was bc no one ever popularly talks about her. NERDPHOBIA IS REAL <///3 also microwaving florelia is such a good term for it adsljkfad

and yeah there's at least some contradiction in each of the characters' personalities but with nabu the discrepancy is SO prevalent. i need to rewatch s3 to better develop how i want to characterize nabu generally, but i think s4 nabu stuck in my brain harder after watching the show as a kid.