Winx Club

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Winx Club (2004-2009, 2011-2019) is an animated series produced by Rainbow SpA and Nickelodeon, which are both part of Viacom. It follows the adventures of a group of fairy warriors as they attend (and during the fourth season, graduate from) the Alfea College for Fairies. The show was designed for Multiple Demographic Appeal, mixing fairies and magic with action sequences and mythical villains. Imagine Hogwarts crossed with Power Rangers (or Super Sentai), all tied up in a Magical Girl show.

The Winx world is a veritable mish-mash of magic, modern day, and hip-hop songs. Each of the major characters comes from a different "realm" (or planet) in the "Magical Dimension" (although some realms are called "dimensions" themselves).

The show stemmed from Iginio Straffi's pilot, "Magic Bloom". Straffi outlined the show's story from the very beginning, intending it to wrap up after the third season, in which the characters gain their "final fairy form" and Bloom discovers the whereabouts of her birth parents. Plans changed after the show turned into a Cash Cow Franchise during its first few years, and the show was renewed for a fourth season. The show became an International Coproduction in 2010, with Viacom's Nickelodeon co-producing new episodes at their American animation studio. In 2011, Viacom's Italian branch became a co-owner of Rainbow SpA (Winx Club's animation studio) alongside Straffi.

Financial issues stalled the start of a rebooted eighth season, which eventually premiered in 2019. The new season was restyled to appeal to a much younger, preschool-aged demographic. In a jarring move, most of the show's integral crew members (art director Simone Borselli, singer Elisa Rosselli, etc.) were not even called back to work on the eighth season. If that wasn't enough, crucial sequences from Season 8 are traced from other animations like Sailor Moon Crystal, further showing this season's low budget. Thankfully for the show's older fans, a live-action adaptation aimed at young adults is in the works, retelling the first three seasons' story.

Has its own wiki.

In 2020 Netflix released a six-episode Live Action Adaptation, Fate: The Winx Saga.

Tropes used in Winx Club include:
  • 3D Movie: Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure
  • Academy of Evil: Cloud Tower.
  • Action Girl: The Winx.
  • Affably Evil: It's implied that the witches of Cloudtower are more mischievous than evil, excluding the Trix. Sure, they cause trouble and mayhem, but they wouldn't cross the line into trying to kill someone.
  • All Animals Are Dogs / Non-Indicative Name: Season four -- Cuccioli magici is Italian for "magical pets" or "magical puppies." The English dub (non-4Kids) used the second translation, so all the pets were "puppies" even though there were cats, birds, bears, rabbits and other animals. Of course, most of them acted like dogs anyway.
  • All There in the Manual - The comics explain some things left unanswered in the series, although they are different continuities. For instance, it is explained that Bloom is on scholarship (being a fairy from Earth, and presumably latter from being the princess of Domino/Sparx) and works as a waitress to support herself. It also explains that Bloom still had the Dragon Fire because the Trix could not take ALL of it, which makes a lot more sense than the "believe in yourself" crap in the cartoon, among other things.
  • Alpha Bitch: Mitzi, Diaspro, Chimera and Icy!
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The 4Kids dub has "We are the Winx! We are the Winx!"
  • Amazon Brigade: The Winx again.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Nabu, Anagan (to some extent)
    • Flora can be mistaken for either a light skinned Black or a very tanned Caucasian.
      • Word of God confirms she was based on Jennifer Lopez, so she is meant to be Hispanic.
    • Even Aisha, she has been officially referred to as African, but she is not even from Earth.
      • If it was an official statement, then it must have meant that the appearance of an African girl is the closest to that of Aisha's. Otherwise, it would have to be necessary to state the race or ethnicity of each member of the cast (like, saying that Stella is European, etc). Besides, it appears that every planet in the Winx universe holds the same demographics as the Earth. For instance, the planet Melody, Musa's home planet, has a Caucasian Princess (Galatea) even when its guardian fairy is in appearance Asian. Same with Andros, it only has royalty that look African to us.
      • Officially, according to the main website and the Winx Club Wiki the girls represent the following ethnicities: Stella is meant to resemble an Italian/Italian-American girl; Bloom is meant to resemble an Irish/Irish-American girl; Roxy is meant to resemble a German/German-American girl; Tecna is meant to resemble an English girl.
    • Which makes Tecna's 4kids voice funnier in retrospect, and hilarious in the third season (where her voice was changed to a more "Australian" accent)
  • Ambiguously Gay: RAI version, 7th ep of season 2. Livy was doing a paper puppet theater for Kiko and the Pixie animals. Before it could start, another Pixie animal, known as the Big-eared Bear, arrives, asking forgiveness for being late. Livy noticed he was the only Pixie animal capable of speech, not to mention his feminine mannerisms...
  • Animation Bump: The animation in episode 24 of season four had a darker, more dynamic, comic-book look to it, especially near the end, appropriate since this was the episode where Nabu died.
    • The 1-hour Nickelodeon special, which retold episodes 1, 2, and 7, was presumably animated with CGI. A lot of little mistakes were fixed when it was re-animated.
  • Animesque: To the point it's been repeatedly mistaken for a Japanese series.
  • Anti-Villain: The Earth fairies
  • Armor-Piercing Slap: Edited out in 4Kids version (they had Musa make a wart form on Icy's face. Riiiiight...; oddly enough, they kept the sound effect in). In the RAI version season 1, Icy torments Musa by saying that Riven thought absolutely nothing of her and Musa retaliates by slapping Icy HARD in the face.

Icy: "She... slapped me! She slapped me in the face!"
Stormy: "Whoa! I can even see the prints of her fingers! Does it hurt?"
Icy: "OF COURSE IT HURTS, DUMMY!"

  • Arranged Marriage: Happens to Aisha when she's paired with Nabu, which turns into a Perfectly Arranged Marriage by the end of the season, and S4 appeared to be heading towards putting the "Marriage" into this pairing...that is, until the Big Bads ran their Xanatos Gambit
    • Early in season 2, Brandon almost married Amentia, princess of the Underealm, who had a crush on him, much to his and Stella's horror. Fortunately for both, Amentia made up her mind in the last moment thanks to Amore (Stella's bonded pixie)
    • There was one between Prince Sky and Princess Diaspro but Sky doesn't love her. Lucky Bloom.
  • Aside Glance: In the second episode of season three, Stella wakes Bloom up early in the morning. While Stella is talking about what to wear at her princess ball, Bloom appears to briefly look into the camera.
    • Cut from 4Kids' dub, the RAI version season 1 episode 2 had Bloom turn and smile at the camera just before she and Stella head towards Alfea for the first time.
  • Asleep for Days: After her failed attempt to rescue the pixies from Lord Darkar at the beginning of the second season, Aisha sleeps for four days.
  • Badass Back: In the 2nd movie, Bloom and Sky passionately kiss in the middle of a fight with doppelgängers. Without even breaking off the kiss, they both backfist punch a doppelgänger trying to blindside them.
  • Badass Normal: Subverted by most of the specialists, whose lack of magic abilities makes them very inferior to the fairies in a fight. See also Faux Action Guy below. Played straight by them in the comics and movies.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Winx Club is the absolute master of this trope. You only have to take a look at most of the non-adult female characters' outfits.
    • 4Kids' dub Lampshaded this in a season one episode, when Palladium said the Winx could not go to "Sparx" in bare midriff tops. Surprisingly, this wasn't in the original, and this Lampshade is coming from the company that tried to cover it up (no pun intended) in other shows like One Piece, where they gave Nico Robin an undershirt.
  • Beam-O-War: The Winx plus Nebula against the Black Circle in the last episode of Season 4
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Both played straight and subverted, since there are barely any characters that are remotely ugly.
    • Try none. In the entire series there was only one minor 'human' girl that didn't have a ridiculously hourglass body or beautiful face. However she was a witch, so technically the side of evil had exactly one less attractive person than the side of good.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Riven behaves like a jerk and Musa is prickly.
  • Berserk Button: According to the opening song, "Look all you want, just don't touch the hair..."
  • Beta Couple: Several - Stella/Brandon, Flora/Helia, Musa/Riven, Tecna/Timmy, Aisha/Nabu.
  • Between My Legs: This is done during many of the dramatic situations involving the girls.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Possibly hinted at in S4 episode 24: Brandon makes a comment that he should remember never to make Nabu angry after Nabu destroys Duman.
  • Big Bad: The Trix in season one, Lord Darkar in season two, Valtor in season three, and the Wizards of the Dark Circle (also called Fairy Hunters) in season four.
  • Big Damn Movie: Subverted. While in the previous seasons, the Winx had to save the universe from a Big Bad, they only get to save one planet in the movie.
    • The second movie, however, is shaping up to be one, as the Winx will have to save the entire Magical Dimension from its greatest enemies, the Ancestral Witches.
  • Big No: Bloom does one in season 3 when Tecna gets stuck in the Omega dimension. (Musa also joins in. There are probably other examples of this as well.
  • Bishonen: Helia, although the hair cut he got in season four took a little of his bishie-ness away.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Darcy pulls this on Riven; compare her sweet and cutesy smile in episode 8 to her blatant use of sex appeal and her attempted homicide on a rival for her love interest next episode.
  • Blondes Are Evil: Subverted with Stella, but she is still portrayed as the most flawed out of all her friends, and played straight with virtually every other blonde (Cassandra, Diaspro and in the beginning Aurora) on the show. Icy has white hair, which could pass as blonde.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Stella (blonde), Flora (brunette), and Bloom (redhead). Of the Winx girls, these three are the most popular due to being the dominant subject in most commercial ad art. They also seem the closest since most scenes almost always have those three together. Also are most distinguishable as they all have similar Rapunzel Hair hairstyles, bare their midriffs, and wore high-heel wedges.
    • Those three also qualify as a Beauty, Brains and Brawn trio with Stella being the beauty, Flora being the brains (because she's the strategist) and Bloom being the brawn.
  • Bizarrchitecture: Cloudtower
  • Brainwashed / Brainwashed and Crazy: Happens to both Riven and Bloom; also goes into the Face Heel Turn trope in both cases because of the mind control.
    • Only happens to Riven in the 4Kids dub. In the original, he went with Darcy and the Trix of his own accord.
    • Stella's father got brainwashed into declaring her as no longer being a princess. Fortunately he recovered.
    • Prince Sky got brainwashed into dumping Bloom and returning to Diaspro.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the RAI version when Bloom goes to Alfea for the first time with Stella, she stops to turn and smile at the camera.
    • In season 2 (RAI) when Kiko makes paper cut-outs of the Winx and Specialists, then uses them like dominos. When the Bloom cut-out falls, it winks at the camera before the iris closes.
  • Brick Joke: During the 11th episode of season 4, the Winx are out shopping when ninjas attack the shopping mall. At end of the episode, the girls suddenly remember that they left their groceries behind.
    • And of course, in the ninth episode of season 3, Aisha mentions that her parents have set up an Arranged Marriage for her, which isn't brought up again until episode 18. (Apart from the fact that Nabu is shown stalking Aisha in a few episodes before that.)
  • Brother Chuck: Avalon after season 2 only had few cameo appearances in season 3. Also, Fake Avalon seemed to vanish after kidnapping Bloom.
  • Brought Down to Normal: "Grounded" - the Winx girls have been drained of their powers for going to Cloudtower without permission; also, a whole arc in S1 does it to Bloom.
    • The Trix and Ancestral Witches in the 2nd movie do this to EVERYONE IN MAGIX to give themselves exclusive rights to magic-using.
  • By the Power of Greyskull: "Magic Winx!"; "Go Enchantix!"
  • Calling Your Attacks: This happened less in the early seasons of the Rainbow English dub.
  • Cat Fight: Bloom vs Diaspro. Winx vs. Trix.
  • Chekhov's Gun: This show has an example of a Chekhov's Gun undermined by editing.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: In season 3, before officially debuting in episode 18, Nabu made brief appearances in episodes 11, 12 and 14. Also, Aisha mentions being set up for an Arranged Marriage in episode 9, before that plot gets under way in 18.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Valtor killed Bloom's parents by trapping her mother, and then when the dad tried to free her, Valtor sneaked up behind and nailed them both.
    • At least the in the version he tells Bloom when the Winx storm Cloudtower. Later it is revealed it is not so.
  • Cosplay: Zing the Pixie has been seen cosplaying as famous movie characters. See Shout-Out list, below.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The Believix theme.
  • Cultural Translation: Apparently, Bloom's hometown is in North America. This is never directly stated, but heavily implied throughout the show (characters with Anglo-Saxon names, English writing, the Halloween episode, among other things).
    • This Italian troper had always thought Gardenia was intended to be a stand-in for Gardena, a city in Los Angeles County.
    • This theory is helped in that in the fourth season, they have to travel to Italy to meet Sibyllia, indicating that Gardenia is not there.
    • Plus, the intro to season 4 shows them descending onto California.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Once Bloom unlocks her Enchantix form, she immediately proceeds to show the Trix that they aren't a match for her anymore. Winx Vs. The Wizards of the Black Circle (First Battle). So much for all their training at Alfea. In the 2nd Movie, the Trix clearly had the advantage over the Winx due to their magicless state, but once they got their Believix powers back...
  • Dark Action Girl: The Trix
  • Darker and Edgier: Some fans have said this about season four due to the death of Aisha's fiancé, Nabu, which was the first hero death of the series. Also, there was a scene at the very end of episode nine with Bloom and Sky holding hands while sitting on her bed, in which Sky says, "Sometimes it's better not to talk." Some fans have interpreted this as sexual innuendo, but the show doesn't necessary support this conclusion.
  • Dark Is Evil: Practically every villain, with some exceptions, are dark magic practitioners. In fact, Cloudtower witches started out as outrighteously evil.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Mirta. All the witches (other than the Trix) after season one.
  • Dead Little Sister: Bloom has a dead older sister.
  • A Death in the Limelight: Nabu suddenly got a lot more attention leading up to his Heroic Sacrifice in episode twenty-four of season four. This episode featured the most badass moments of his entire existence in the show.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Icy in the short story where she falls in love. Of course, re-freezing by the next story is inevitable.
  • Demonic Possession: Near the end of the second movie, the Ancesterral Witches take control of the Trix's bodies. Also, at an episode of the second season, Darkar makes Bloom Dark Blooom, and does not change back till the end of the season.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Fairy Dust.
  • Did They or Didn't They?: I bet some fans are asking this question in response to the scene at the end of episode 9 in season 4 where Bloom and Sky are having a conversation while sitting on Bloom's bed...
    • Despite that there was no sexual implication.
  • Disney Death: Happens to Sky in season 2, and Flora and Tecna in season 3. Partially averted in season 4 with Nabu and a straight example would be Sky's father, Erendor in the second movie after taking an attack that was meant for Bloom. Oritel uses some of the remaining magical energy that was still on his sword to revive him.
  • Disney Villain Death: The Wizards of the Black Circle (except Duman)
  • Co-Dragons: The Trix in seasons two and three.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: In season 3, when the Winx girls and Specialists were searching for the Water Stars, they get ambushed by monsters. TENTACLED monsters. And yes, the girls DO get tangled up in them. Hmmm... tentacled monsters using their tentacles to ensnare scantily clad girls?
  • Driven to Suicide / Taking You with Me: Nebula, but Bloom manages to talk her out of it.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Tecna, the evil teacher, and the sphere of truth; plus others.
    • It was also said that Musa was a princess in the season 1 4Kids dub (even had Icy taunt Musa that her father and his "hip-hop palace guards" aren't there to protect her), but was later revealed she and her dad are middle class citizens in the concert episode of season 2. Dubbers simply Did Not Do the Research.
    • 4kids altered Aisha's personality a little. Originally, she had trust issues due to her strict upbringing. 4kids kept this, but also turned her into a feminist who took a dislike to the guys for no good reason. Thankfully, they did fix this later on.
      • Actually, in the original, Aisha was a feminist. She just wasn't so opposed to the guys. In the comics, her personality is actually a little closer to the 4kids one.
    • Not exactly a "plot hole", but on season 2, Aisha goes away crying after Stella refers to the group as "the five of us" (prompting Aisha to feel rejected) (see My Friends and Zoidberg below). In the 4kids dub, Stella instead suggest to have a sleepover that night and talk a bit, which Aisha's / Layla's reaction is a WTH moment.
      • That could possibly be explained as Aisha being nervous and feeling left out because she had no stories to tell (Stella suggested they have a sleepover and tell their best friendship stories. Aisha had none).
  • Dub Name Change: MANY in the 4Kids version. The most notable change is Aisha to Layla, which was due to copyright reasons.
    • Between RAI and 4Kids, names of the girls' home planets, the 4Kids dub tending to be needlessly long...
    • Domino/Sparks
    • Linphea/Fifth Moon of Marigold (perhaps by accident, 4Kids called it Linphea in season three)
    • Melody/Harmonic Nebula
    • Zenith/Third Vector of the Binary Galaxy (what a mouthful...)
    • Andros/Realm of Tides
    • Only Stella's planet of Solaria was spared a needless name-change
    • Other things include Army of Darkness/Army of Decay, the Trix/the Witches (sheesh... how general...), and the biggest idiocy of all, the Patchamen/Wrong-Righters (UGH!)
    • Before Nickelodeon got the rights to the show, Aisha was called Layla in every dub except the original Italian one. Nickelodeon reverted to the original and is calling her Aisha.
  • Elemental Eye Colors: Stella, Flora, and Layla/Aisha.
    • Icy as well.
  • Elemental Powers: Although it is less straightforward than most...
    • Bloom has dragon powers, which represent fire
    • Aisha has power over plasma, which is taken as water
    • Stella has power over stars, which represents light
    • Flora has power over nature which represents earth
    • Musa is sound, which represents air
    • Tecna is, well, technology, which represents energy
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite occasional quarrels and insults, the Trix are very close to eachother.
    • Subverted with Valtor: Once the Trix realize that he has toyed with them all along not to mention that he is in fact a demon, they don't even bother fighting the Winx with him in the final battle and comment on how stupid it was to let him get between them.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Griffin used to work for the coven, but balked when she learned that they were planning to destroy whole worlds.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Stella, Bloom, and Aisha in all versions. Musa was originally one in the 4kids dub, but was hand waved that she was a commoner of royal blood. Tecna is a princess in the original Italian version, but directly said not to be one in the 4kids dub. Flora calls herself the princess of Linphea in Magical Adventure. Roxy turns out to be one too, but her mom abdicates the throne before she gets to do anything. Subverted with Diaspro and Chimera, of course.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: The outfits the girls wear in their fairy forms, the Enchantix have slightly less sparkles then their original outfits (their wings are pretty sparkly in that form, though), while the Believix outfits have both sparkly outfits and sparkly wings.
  • Evil Overlord: Lord Darkar.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Season 1, the girls went to a snowy Domino in full winter gear. Even when transformed in their skimpy outfits in Fairy form, the arctic conditions don't hamper them. In season 4, they fight against Aurora and her warrior Faries in her arctic base of operations in their skimpy Believix outfits with no discomfort.
  • Face Heel Turn: Riven. Twice. Although the second time was because of Mind Control. Bloom in season two, twice, yet again, under Mind Control. Also, Aisha for a couple of episodes at the end of season four.
    • He took yet another one in the comics, but it turns out that this was for an undercover mission.
    • Helia also took one in the comics, but this was also for an undercover mission.
  • Fairy Companion: The Pixies. and later the magical pets of S4.
    • The pixie pets serve as fairy companions to the pixies.
  • Fallen Hero: Morgana, and Nebula even more until their Heel Face Turn.
  • Fallen Princess: Diaspro was exiled for her role in Prince Sky being brainwashed.
    • Bloom was born a Princess but had to live as a normal Earth girl when her family's kingdom fell.
  • Faux Action Guy: In spite of the fact that Redfountain is portrayed as a military academy, while Alfea and Cloudtower are supposed to be more scholastic in nature, the cast's sword and gun-waving male romantic interests are complete pushovers in every fight. The girls even go so far as to lampshade this in one episode where the boys are supposed to bodyguards for them, but when a ski lift breaks down, they can't come up with an idea to save everyone fast enough and thus incur being called useless right to their faces.
    • The Specialists get to see a lot more action and to be a lot more useful in the Italian comic books.
      • The trope works according to plot depending on the situation. For example in the otherwise dire episode "Operation Boyfriend Rescue", Sky is able to hold his own quite well in a fight against the magically powered Bloom. Granted, it may have been down to the fact that he was under Diaspro's spell, but still. Also Nabu in the fourth season episode where he dies completely subverts this and is totally badass. It should be noted, however, that although he mostly uses hand to hand combat, Nabu is an illusionist and therefore has some magic abilities, so it's debatable.
      • Also subverted in season 3 when the Specialists storm and retake cloud tower military-style.
  • Fan Service: Usually avoided. Except for...
  • Femme Fatalons: The main female antagonists all have long nails that match their outfits.
  • Five-Man Band
  • Five-Bad Band
  • Forgot About His Powers: In season three, the crooks in the Omega Dimension manage to force the Winx off a cliff. The girls' Enchantix wings, which some episodes back were able to withstand gale-force winds, are suddenly useless.
    • Apparently, Bloom forgot she had healing powers in S4 episode 24. Sure, it might not have worked under those circumstances, but she could at least have tried to save Nabu.
    • There's also an episode in the first season (towards the end) where the girls go to Domino/Sparx. At the end of the first part (it's a two-part episode), Bloom, who's currently powerless, is about to fall into a chasm. Stella was transformed at this time and could've easily flown over and grabbed Bloom, yet she didn't!
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: A few, see entry.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Roxy, the fairy of animals.
    • Flora could count for this as well.
  • Frilly Upgrade: Subverted and not. Their Enchantix are all new outfits and wings. Their Believix falls under this as well, but their Charmix in season two qualifies; it's the same outfit as Winx mode, just with a brooch and a purse. Also the Trix' Gloomix.
  • For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: The winx were as themselves in their transformation outfits to a halloween party.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Both Tecna and Timmy qualify, since they both created rather useful devices.
  • Gecko Ending: Necessitated in an episode through dub editing.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: The Halloween Episode in season 2 features many guests at Mitzi's party dressed as several movie, cartoon and anime characters, although with more-or-less slight modifications. One of them looks a lot like Sawaru Ogekuri, the doctor from Ogenki Clinic, a classic Hentai manga and anime. And just to be sure it's not dismissed as mere coincidence, he presents himself as "the best doctor in town". (4Kids cuts out many of them, though.)
    • In the episode where princess Amentia tries to force Brandon to marry her, they at one point end up in her bedroom while Brandon is trying to avoid her. He falls onto her bed, and Amentia crawls close to him saying "Why wait until the wedding?" Apparently, she just wants him to kiss her, but still...
    • When the girls are late for self-defense class, Stella says, before looking into the classroom, "The professor could be a looker like Avalon, and we're about to get physical." Of course, she didn't mean it like that, but...it's Stella we're talking about.
    • On a different note, the school for warriors is called Red Fountain. That's unusually potent imagery for the young teen demographic.
  • Girl Posse: The Trix - Icy, Darcy, and Stormy. Icy being the leader, or aka the Alpha Bitch, of course. Mitzi's friends.
  • Gold Digger: Countess Cassandra and Chimera try to marry into Stella's family to gain the influences and power of Solaria.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Before Nabu died, he smiled at Aisha while telling her that he would always be with her and that he loved her.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid
  • Good Guy Bar: The Frutti Music Bar for the Winx Club.
  • Gratuitous English: All the fairy transformations are based on English words, as is the word Winx itself (from "wings"). Then there's the main character Bloom and minor things like "Love & Pet" in season four.
  • Green Thumb: Flora.
    • In the fourth season, there was also Diana and her warrior fairies.
  • Guess Who I'm Marrying: Stella's dad to Chimera's mom.
  • Hair of Gold: Stella, naturally.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Roxy is half-fairy from her mother, Morgana.
    • Mirta is half fairy half witch, but this seems not to have anything to do with her descent.
  • Halloween Episode: Once, in season two.
  • Harmless Freezing: No one's really hurt after Icy's attacks.
    • Debatable; in one of the first episodes of season 1, Stella needed to actively warm Bloom after Icy froze her, suggesting that Icy's attack did cause her some harm. However, it's pretty clear she wasn't really hurt. She showed no signs of frostbite or hypothermia and Stella seemed to warm her up in about 5 seconds.
    • Also, in the next episode, Icy freezes her again and assumes she's dead. Not too much later, we see Bloom crawl out of the ice and while she is cold (she even comments on this), the minute she notices her friends, she suddenly seems to have no feeling of cold left.
    • Icy herself is an example too. As shown early in season 3, getting frozen has little to no effect on her.
  • Hazel Eyes: Stella.
  • Heel Face Turn: Riven after his two Face Heel Turns. Bloom in the season 2 finale. All the witches (sans the Trix) after season 1. Morgana has this in season 4. Griffin did this when she was a teen, due to Even Evil Has Standards.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Sky and Bloom. Diaspro too, though she's not exactly a "hero".
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the fourth season Nabu, already proven by single-handedly defeating Duman, exhausts himself to close the dark abyss, and dies as a result.)
  • Hive Mind: The comic mentioned under Ungrateful Bastard below hints that the Trix are mentally connected in some way.
  • Hope Spot: And one that directly leads to a Face Heel Turn, if only for a couple of episodes.
  • Hostage for McGuffin: Twice. Bloom lets the witches take Stella's ring in S1 to save Stella, and the Winx let the season's Big Bad take a magic box in S3 to save a guy who's interested in Aisha, who later turns out to be Nabu.)
  • Hot Dad: Mike, Oritel and Klaus
  • Hot Mom: Vanessa, Miriam and Morgana
    • Both the above can be justified by the fact that there are no remotely ugly people in the series, making virtually every mother/father count.
  • Hourglass Hottie: Have you ever seen the girls' hips? To get that in real life, you need to miss some ribs. Winx Club is the perfect example for this trope.
  • Human Aliens: Almost everyone.
  • Human Dad Nonhuman Mom: Roxy has a human father and a nonhuman mother.
  • Hypocrite: Icy calls out on Flora, Musa, Tecna, and Aisha ganging up on her (after she had snuck-attacked Bloom seconds earlier). Never mind the fact that she, Darcy, and Stormy had ganged up on Bloom A LOT in the past when she was alone, one of those times Bloom wasn't even able to fight back. Tecna also calls Icy out on this, saying a convict like her has no right to gripe about fairness when she fights dirty anyway.
  • Ice Queen: Icy, taken to its literal extreme. Season four, in absence of the Trix, has Aurora, the Ice Fairy.
  • Important Haircut: Inverted. In the third season, Musa gets an important hair GROWTH.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: "Mini winx!"
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Despite being the creator of the Magical Universe and its flame's being the source of Bloom's power, The Great Dragon isn't important to the story. Bloom could have easily been a fire fairy without being the "fairy of the Dragon's Flame." Then in season three, Bloom trained on a random, dragon-inhabited island in order to earn her Enchantix, though improperly. The Specialists are also dragon riders.
  • Insult Backfire

Mirta: You're mean!
Icy: Just mean? Try diabolical!

  • Ironic Fear: Early in season 2, Stella is shown to be afraid of heights, despite being a fairy. Later, she seems to overcome it.
  • I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Through dub editing.
  • Kick the Dog: The Trix do this so many times it's not even funny. Considering that their crimes have bordered on attempted murder you have to wonder why they were never expelled until episode 16.
  • Killed Off for Real: Nabu, we hardly knew thee. Lord Darkar in season 2, Valtor in season 3, and the Wizards of the Black Circle in season 4.
    • Although Nabu does return both in-season (aside from flashbacks) and in the next Movie... Explanation, Rainbow???
    • His appearance in episode 26 is just an animation error. We still need an explaination for his appearance in the second movie though.
      • Apparently, they made the second movie and fourth season at once and decided pretty late Nabu had to die, but by then, had already put him in the Movie.
  • King Incognito: Prince Sky and his squire were living each other's lives until the middle of Season 1.
  • Lethal Joke Characters: The Wrong-Righters
    • They're called the PATCHAMEN!!!
  • Limited Wardrobe: Although everyone's single casual outfit did change some time in season two; subverted in season four.
  • Live Action Adaptation: 2020's Fate: The Winx Saga.
  • Locked Out of the Loop / Is That What He Told You?: Bloom does not know about herself and her powers until the Trix mention it.
  • Love Triangle: With Kiko of all characters. In season 4, he's the sign of affection for Aisha's Pixie pet, Milly the Rabbit, and Stella's Pixie pet, Ginger the poodle. More of a comical thing, though, as the two Pixie pets would fight each other for Kiko's attention.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father : Roxy discovers that Morgana is her mother.
  • Lull Destruction:Taken to an extreme in this video, in which all the previously silent nightmares of the Winx have had plenty of dialog added to them.
  • Magical Girl
  • Make My Monster Grow: Whenever Darkar sends his pet Kerbog to fight the Winx, expect this trope to happen.
  • Mama Bear: Somewhat off-screen in Winx Club and crossing with Papa Wolf is Miriam (Bloom's Mom). After both she and her husband think both their daughters to be dead, they, according to one account, went completely berserk at the ones responsible; the Ancient Coven. Considering how high they are in among others', Faragonda's and even Valtor's regard, that says something about the power which was unleashed. Ouch...
  • Manipulative Bastard: Darcy, and later Valtor.
  • Meaningful Name: Stella means "star" in Italian, and she has sun and moon based powers (or could be a take on "stellar"). Flora means "flowering," and she has plant-based powers. Musa is Italian for "Muse," a Greek goddess of the arts, particularly music. Tecna has technology-based powers. Icy has ice based powers, Darcy has powers based on darkness, and Stormy has storm / weather and electric-based powers. Bloom's name is more of a pun, though, as her fairy heritage started to "bloom" once she met Stella and enrolled at Alfea. Roxy's name as well because "Roxy" means "dawn", which could mean "dawn of a new beginning" in reference to the start of season four or the girls having to live a new life on Earth (there's also a rumor that Roxy was originally going to be named Dawn).
  • Million Mook March: The Trix's Army of Decay during Season 1.
  • Mind Control: Happens to both Riven and Bloom; also goes into the Face Heel Turn trope in both cases because of the mind control. Same goes for Sky when drugged by Diaspro.
    • Only to Riven in 4Kids dub. In original, he followed the Trix of his own accord.
  • Mind Rape: Darcy does this to Riven when they imprison him in Cloud Tower once he outlived his usefulness. She had him think six dopplegangers appeared in his cell, seemingly taunting him, then they melt and merge to form a horrifying monster, scaring the crap out of Riven. He then noticed the monster was copying his actions, like a mirror reflection. This was basically forcing Riven to take a long HARD look at himself as the monster served as a reflection of his soul, considering his past actions against his real friends.
  • Mind Screw: The first part of season 3's episode 24 feels kinda like this.
    • And there's also Morgana's line about looking after Nabu until he wakes up... I'm probably not the only one who can't figure that one out...
    • Trying to figure out where in the show's timeline the second movie fits in. (Until Word of God clears things up, I'm just going to guess that it takes place in a different continuity.)
  • Missing Mom: Musa's mother passed away, Roxy's mother is later revealed to be none other than Morgana. and, for the first three seasons, Bloom's birth mom.
  • Moses in the Bulrushes / Changeling Fantasy: Bloom thought she was Mike and Vanessa's daughter, but the truth is that Mike found her in a burning building. Bloom's actually the princess of a dead planet. Her older sister, Daphne, took her to Earth to save her from their planet's destruction.
  • The Movie: And even two all-CGI one to boot.
  • My Friends and Zoidberg: Fairly early in season two, Stella used the phrase "the five of us" to refer to the group....AFTER Aisha joined them. [1]
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Oritel in the 2nd movie. He banishes Sky from Domino for supposedly toying with Bloom's feelings and breaking off the engagement (for reasons known only between Sky, his dad, and Bloom), even forbids Bloom from ever seeing him again. Bloom angrily storms off, leaving her kingdom to stay at her Earth home as she can't stand being with Oritel for the time being. He again blames Sky for Bloom's abandonment, but then Miriam shows him the confession letter of Sky's father that explained everything, which Sky tried to show him earlier but refused to look. Once Oritel finally read it, he realized that he screwed up BIG TIME. Not only did he condemn an innocent young man for something he didn't do, he also may have permanently damaged his relationship with his daughter he had so longed to see due to his irrational overprotectiveness. Now Oritel fears that Bloom may never want to speak to him again for what he's done. This could have be avoided if Oritel had simply read the letter...
  • Never Say "Die": We have Flora trying to find a pulse on Prince Sky, and Morgana promising to look after Nabu until he wakes up.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In season four, the girls manage to free the imprisoned Earth fairies...and Queen Morgana immediately declares war on mankind!
    • In the first CGI movie, Bloom and Sky managed to accidentally free the spirits of the Three Ancient Witches by destroying their prison dimension. This frees them up to seek out and possess (or team up) their descendants the Trix at the very end of the movie. This ends up being the Sequel Hook for the 2nd movie, rather than S4.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Trix and the Ancestral Witches sealed off all magical ability in everyone in Magix. Near the end, Icy, in her obsession with wanting to kill Bloom, is tricked into accidentally destroying the tree sapling that sealed of said magical abilities, thus the Winx regained their powers back again. Icy's ancestor was PISSED.

Ancestral Witch: "YOU STUPID WITCH! Destroying the sapling releases all of the positive magic at once!"

  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: According to a recent interview appeared on an Italian magazine, each one of the Winx is partly based on a celebrity:
  • No One Could Survive That: Aisha during season two premiere.
  • No Loves Intersect: Six couples, but virtually no jealousy? Only twice did that actually happen in the first few seasons; in the first season Riven/Bloom/Sky (never even gets mentioned and Riven was just being a jerk anyway), in the second season Bloom/Sky/Aisha (RAI version, due to Sky helping out and complimenting Aisha during the rescue mission, which causes Bloom to be slightly antagonistic towards her, but Sky was just being a gentleman) and in the third Riven/Musa/Nabu (it was a Not What It Looks Like situation compounded by lousy camera angles anyway.)
    • Subverted haaaaardcore in Season 4, to the point where it's become a secondary storyline.
  • Not Himself: By way of dubbing with Stella, plus a few instances that were also there in the original.
  • Off-Model: Not so much in the cartoon, but in the earlier comics some of the panels are just plain hideous
  • Orcus on His Throne: Darkar fits this trope to a T
  • One Steve Limit: Musa's magic pet Pepe and Icy's pet duck Pepe, who went with the Trix to Light Rock but hasn't been seen since season one.
  • Only Six Faces: About the only physical difference between the females are in the hair styles, clothing and colors. Several background personages come back in different roles they can't possibly combine without having actual doppelgangers running around.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: Ours are Magical Girls with trendy outfits!
  • Out of Focus: The pixies after season two. Oddly enough, however, their A Day in the Limelight episode is in season three.
  • Overly Long Gag: From season 3 episode 20:

Digit: Now I'm going to teach those three to have a little respect for little creatures like us!
Tune: Little you say? But you are much bigger than usual! You are huge! Massive! Enormous! Gigantic! Immense! Humongous! Titanical! Colossal! Monumental! Totally disproportionate!
Digit: All right, Tune! I get the point!
Tune: Well, I was just trying to be precise, Digit!

  • Panty Shot: Courtesy of Stormy. Almost happens in S4 when Roxy is possessed by Nebula - looks like the animators had to jump through hoops to avoid this.
  • Pet the Dog: Darcy, briefly in season one and occasionally in the comics. She is the only one of the Trix who show slight traces of a good side.
  • Pink Product Ploy: Despite the fact that Flora is the main character who appears the least in the series, or talks less than the others, she is almost in about all types of merchandise, along with Bloom and Stella who get the most screen time. The others, who have at least more screen time than her...not so much.
    • The Believix transformation added more pink in every-bodies outfits, despite this is Flora's signature color.
  • Psycho Electro: Stormy.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Because 4Kids is one of those Never Say "Die" companies, they don't let Sky die when Icy attacks him at Redfountain.
    • There's another change in a different episode, where the girls (except Flora) cut school and go to Earth. Aisha, Stella and Musa are stopped by a police officer and asked why they're not in school. In the original, Aisha gives the excuse that they have permission from their parents to be out of school and offers to give the cop the phone numbers, but the cop declines and lets them go. In 4kids, Layla/Aisha speaks a foreign language, making the cop think they're not from Gardenia and so he lets them go. The 4kids version is more believable because, by law, the cop should've taken in all three girls and called their parents (not that he could call them, but you get it) since skipping school (aka truancy) is illegal. Of course, Italy's truancy laws may be different...
    • In the original version, the Winx Club was formed in the second episode. In the 4kids version, the group didn't officially form until the fourth. The latter makes more sense because the girls have actually spent more time together and worked as a group whereas in the former, they're joining together when they've only known each other for one night. In fact, the comic version of this is actually closer to the 4kids way, as the girls formed their group during a field exercise.
  • Put on a Bus: Pepe, Icy's unwanted pet duck in S1, followed her to imprisonment in that season's finale and has never been seen again. The writers seem to have forgotten him, since Musa's pet in season four is named Pepe too.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Trix during seasons two and three could be considered this.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Most of the females qualify, even more so when the fairies gain Enchantix. Helia and Valtor are two male examples.
  • Rags to Royalty: Bloom and Roxy are revealed to be princesses although whether Roxy keeps her title is unknown. Brandon and Timmy will be male examples if they marry Stella and Tecna, respectively. Nebula, of all people, is a Cinderella, being crowned Queen by Morgana after abdicating the throne.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Nebula tries to die with the Fairy Hunters after redeeming herself, but Bloom has averted it.
  • The Reveal: Not surprising, but there was quite some yelling in the fandom.
  • Retcon: In season 3, we learned that Enchantix was the final fairy form. Then season 4 came around, and suddenly there are other transformation levels even higher than Enchantix.
  • Rich Bitch: Mitzi and Diaspro both qualify big time. Even more so in Chimera and her mother Cassandra, whom are basically gold diggers.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The pixie pets, the Love & Pet pets in S4. Kiko as well.
  • Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: In "The Mermaid Queen", it's repeatedly mentioned that one of the one-shot characters in this episode has always been afraid of everything. Having practically let the season Big Bad attack her kingdom and kidnap her mom (the titular queen), she feels ashamed of this, so she swears to be more brave as she's freeing her mom while on a rescue mission with the Winx. The problem here is that everyone who actually fought the Big Bad became one of his minions, so it was only because of her cowardice that there's anyone left to even tell the Winx about this so they could mount this rescue mission. Source.
  • Sailor Earth: The mechanics of the Realm of Magix let the Fandom's imagination break loose with the creation of as many fairies and worlds as wanted.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Valtor sort of counts as "sealed evil in a block of ice". The Coven was locked in an entire Dimension. In the comic, the Trix released a monster in a box to try and control it, but fail BIG TIME.
  • Second Episode Morning: Again, also through dub editing.
  • Shape Shifter: Duman.
    • Darcy can also turn into other people.
    • Wizgiz is a shape-shifting lephracaun who teaches a class on shape-shifting.
  • Shipper on Deck: There's several examples. The most obvious would have to be Amore, the pixie of love.
  • Shout-Out: Zing cosplays several movie characters, as well as say a familiar catchphrase. This includes:

William Wallace from Braveheart (Zing: "TO FREEDOM!")
Dr. Brown from Back to the Future (Zing: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!")
Cooper from Predator (Zing: "I ain't got time to hurt!") The actual line from the movie was "I ain't got time to bleed."
Scorpion from Mortal Kombat (Zing: "GET OVER HERE!")
Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (Zing: "I'll get you, my pretty! And your little Piff, too!")

    • The Halloween episode had several familiar characters people were dressed as, including:

Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street
Darth Vader from Star Wars (the guy even says to Mitzi "Everyone has a dark side.")
Spiderman from Spiderman
Robin from Witch Hunter Robin
There was even a little witch girl seen flying in the sky that greatly resembled Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service.

    • In the Rai version, season 1 episode 2, when the girls decide on a name for themselves, Stella had suggested the "Fantastic Five" (an obvious shout-out to Fantastic Four), before they all eventually went with the Winx Club name.
    • The Patchamen (Wrong-Righters in 4Kids...) are a direct shout-out to the anime Science Ninja Team Gatchamen, even down to the feather mantles and bird beak visors. Their names are also parodies of the Gatchamen

Ken/Ben
Joe/Bo
Jun/Dunko
Jinpei/Jinpee
Ryu/Kiu

    • Also, when Kiu forms himself, he says "And I'll form, the head!" which references Voltron's combining sequence.
    • An early episode has the Trix wandering the underground tunnels that used to link the three schools together... and their maps uses the friggin' Triforce as a symbol for one of them. Blink and you'll miss it.
    • In the earlier seasons, there is a recurring specialist with gloves that have red blades coming out of them; his name is supposedly W.
  • Slave Mooks: The Army of Decay.
  • Shown Their Work: Tir-Na-Og is actually from Irish folklore
    • The "Angel of Doom" is loosely taken from the Bible warning that Satan can disguise himself as "an angel of light" (in other words, things that seem nice but lead to a greater evil...)
  • So Last Season: Season two had Charmix, season three abandons it for Enchantix, then ditches that in season four for Believix.
    • And now Believix has an upgrade to a Sophix form, and when the Winx girls start to fight Nebula and Aurora, they get another upgraded level called Lovix.
    • At the end of season four, the Winx sppear to return to Enchantix form, but it's debatable if that's just an animation mistake.
      • Though it could be that Believix, gets power from the humans' belief of magic, so it could be because it only works on Earth.
  • Spin-Off: Pop Pixie, which premiered in 2010, is one by definition, but Word of God says it shouldn't be thought of that way.
  • Stripperiffic: Some of the girls' outfits fall under this, especially the Enchantix costumes. Oddly, season four's Believix costumes cover more, but some of the girl's casual clothes are quite risque. And then, in the second half of the same season, the Sophix transformation gives them more revealing outfits once again.
    • Most noticable with Tecna, since she started with a bodysuit that covered everything, and her costumes have gotten skimpier ever since. They have also gotten less technological looking, which is odd since her element is supposed to be technology. The Sophix even has flowers on it!
      • This might be a hint towards the fact that she has gotten in touch with her emotions and depends far less on technology as time progresses.
  • Status Buff: Seems to be advanced magic, used by Faragonda and Griffin in the season 2 finale.
  • Stuck on a Ski Lift: This happens to the Winx and the Specialists in a season 2 episode.
  • Stylish Protection Gear: Aurora's outfit.
  • Suddenly Always Knew That: Stella uses her fashion knowledge / a minor detail from a field trip to solve a puzzle.
  • Taken for Granite: There's a subversion in the season 3 finale, Valtor has captured four of the specialists, and the Winx go to rescue them. Musa finds that Valtor had apparently turned Riven to stone, and uses her fairy dust to free him, but it turns out to be a trap. The real Riven was locked up in a prison cell with the other three captured specialists.
    • Although it was played straight in the movie, it's what happened to Bloom's father and most of the population of Domino/Sparx.
  • Terrible Trio: The Trix in later seasons.
  • That Poor Plant: When Bloom practices using her healing powers, she experiments on some plants. Because she was using a book that the Avalon clone had left in the library as a trap, one of the plants was turned into a monster. Before that, upon Bloom's first arrival to Alfea, she accidentally stepped on a living plant's roots, causing it to howl in pain. It continues when Flora accidentally knocked said plant down with her hips, then finally Kiko's attempt to try to eat it with disasterous results on the bunny's part. Also, this trope is inverted in season 4, when Ogron uses the last gift of destiny on a dead flower to prevent the Winx girls from using it to revive Nabu.
  • The Fair Folk: Earth fairies are quite prone to Disproportionate Retribution...
  • The Three Faces of Eve: Bloom, Stella, and Flora can be seen as this. Bloom is the child because of her initial naivete of Magix and her own powers, Flora is the wife because she has the wise and gentle soul and Stella is the seductress because she is flirtatious and boy-crazy.
  • This Cannot Be!: Lord Darkar screams this at the end of the second season when the Winx defeat him with a convergence attack with their Charmix.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: During her virtual reality exam in the tenth episode of the first season, when Bloom thinks the Trix killed Kiko and she failed to save him, she flies into a fiery rage and unleashes the full force of the Dragon Fire power on them. Fortunately, it turned out that Kiko survived after all.
  • Token Minority Couple: Aisha and Nabu
  • Too Dumb to Live - Quite a few examples. A special mention goes to the Trix, who sometimes are too Stupid Evil to live in the comics. See Ungrateful Bastard below.
  • Transformation Sequence
    • Although witches don't need to transform in order to unlock more powers, the Trix are shown to change their outfits via transformation before going into battle in the comics, but in a more practical and less flashy way than the fairies. In the cartoon, they probably just transform offscreen.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: In season four, the bad guys actually stand around and discuss the "show and dance" while the girls transform.
    • Guess that counts as Lampshade Hanging.
  • Unexplained Recovery: For some unknown reason, Nabu is up and walking about in the second movie after having died in the fourth season.
    • It's possible this is due to the movie having been in production before season four actually aired. By the time the creators decided to create Nabu's death, they'd already placed him in Magical Adventure.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Comic verision, more like ungrateful bitches. The Trix tried to use a drug they developed on themselves to pass an exam, which had nearly fatal results. The Winx were forced to save them, as it is not in their nature to just let them die from their own stupidity. Of course, the Trix were ungrateful for it, only seeing it as a major blow to their pride at being saved by Fairies. The other witch students, on the other hand, who were originally angry at the Winx for making Griffin aware of the drug they've been using to pass exams before and were forced to take them again, were grateful that the Winx did tell their headmistress after seeing what almost happened to the Trix and that they had dodged a bullet.
    • Happened ONCE AGAIN when the Trix steal a supposedly bad luck-cursed necklace in order to extract the power to use for themselves. It didn't turn out so well, resulting in the isolated cabin they were working in to get set ablaze and emit a smoke that messed up their central nervous systems to the point Icy couldn't put it out herself. Bloom, Stella, and Roxy had to literally pull their fat out of the fire before they could burn to death. As usual, the Trix were angry at having being saved by the Winx of all people.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Season four--Few people in Gardenia found plushie-sized zoo animals with big eyes and glittering wings strange...or that the animals could be downloaded to your house! The Winx were trying to help humans adjust to everyday magic, but it happened too quickly to be believable.
  • Up to Eleven: The Believix was itself a "beyond final" fairy evolution, Enchantix being the true final form. Not only did the Winx accomplish that but they later turned it up even higher with super forms of Believix: Sophiex and Lovix.
  • Useless Boyfriend: The Specialists are supposed to be Badass Normal heroes who are capable of fighting the strongest monsters, and are training to be soldiers and princes. That means they should be able to fight well? Right? How about competently? Or at all? WRONG. Any time you see a specialist take to the field, prepare to watch them get captured, beaten, and/or rescued by the main cast.
    • Averted in the first movie when a powered Mandragora almost kills Bloom near the end, until she gets taken by surprise by Sky who runs her through the back with Oritel's sword, stopping her and giving Bloom a chance to finish her off for good. Mandragora made the mistake of thinking him dead for removing the sword since only a "crownless king" could remove it, but it turned out Sky had already fulfilled those prerequisites.
    • Averted again in the second movie where the girls and everyone else on Magix lose their powers thanks to the Trix and Ancestral Witches. The Specialists had to help train the Winx in how to properly defend themselves while powerless. While Aisha adapted easily, the others didn't. Stella in particular had proven to be pretty helpless without her magic as she couldn't even climb up a mast a single foot.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Icy in the Season 1 finale, Lord Darkar in the Season 2 finale, and Valtor in both the penultimate episode and finale of Season 3.
  • Weakened by the Light: Stella shows a complete inversion of this. Being a Solarian, her Weaksauce Weakness is darkness. No, not Dark Magic. The absence of light slowly kills her.
    • More specifically, it's the absence of sunlight that kills her. Artifical light may help her temporarily, but she needs sunlight to strengthen (this is the reason her dorm at Alfea gets the most sunlight).
  • Wicked Stepmother: Cassandra fits the wicked part to a T. Fortunately her true colors were revealed before she married Stella's father. Played straight in the comic adaptation when the girls are involved in a VERY Cinderella-ish scenario with a girl, Milly, and her wicked adopted aunt and her two daughters.
  • Winged Humanoid: Aside from the wings, the fairies look no different than humans.
  • Witch Species: Subverted, sort of. Word of God confirms that all girls from the magic dimension are born with power over an element, and given the choice to be a fairy or a witch, and some (Mirta) can change their position. The exceptions are when their element can only be bad (darkness) or purely good (light, Dragon Fire). However, people usually choose their family's position.
    • To clarify, since Bloom has the Dragon Fire (the "flame of life"), she would automatically be a fairy; a fairy with power over mundane fire could become a witch.
  • What Happened to the Mouse??: Stella is the fairy of the Sun and the Moon, but all her powers focus on the sun (except a few in the fourth season, but these focus more on stars).
    • Although, Nickelodeon seems to have tried to amend this by calling Stella the fairy of the shining sun.
    • Sky had a dog but, aside from a brief flashback in season 2, it has never been seen again after season 1.
    • And why isn't Mirta part of the Winx? At first, it seemed it was because she was a witch, but now that she is a fairy, it does not make sense. It was also implied that it was because she was younger than the others, but so is Roxy!
    • And where did Hagen go after the first Movie? The way he and Faragonda acted indicated that she wouldn't let him go into isolation again, but he never even gets mentioned after the Movie.
    • In the second episode of season 4, the Winx said that, after finding the last Earth Fairy (Roxy), they'd take her to the pixie village so a pixie could bond with her. This never happens.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: The Trix didn't take it lightly when Darkar turned against them and they fought on the Winx's side durring the final battle of season 2. But when the portal to the Realix dimension closed, they just left the Trix behind! Redemption Means A Fate Worse Than Death?
    • The Trix would show up in the beginning of season 3, but how they got out remains a mystery and one of the biggest Plot Holes in the entire series.
    • Another example: The Light Haven is a re-education facility inside an inescapable Pocket Dimension where criminals are taught to live a peaceful life. It works wonders with "normal" delinquents. But woe to every Goth, Emo or other kind of darksider these monks get their hands on! With these, they show their Knight Templar side: Turning them good is not enough, but they will try to reeducate every bit of darkness out of them, by any means. Cue Cool and Unusual Punishment, Good Hurts Evil-style.
      • The Trix didn't burst into tears for no reason when they were told that they would be brought there again at the end of season 3.
    • Here's another one: In the sixth episode of the first season, the girls go to Cloudtower to retrieve Stella's ring. Rather than get the heck out of there, Bloom decides it's a good idea to go snooping around the library to find out about her past, despite Tecna warning her multiple times it's dangerous. Turns out she should've listened, as not only does the group get caught, they nearly get killed. Granted, that was Stella's doing (she mistakenly set the room on fire), but still.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Gardenia. It's implied it's not in Italy, though. Most likely in North America since during the Domino destruction flashback when Daphne was escaping the Coven with a baby Bloom, she goes to Earth, which zooms in on said coninent.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Icy.
  • A Wizard Did It: In-universe example in S4 episode 5:

Some car mechanic: This isn't that car, unless you magically transformed it!
Nabu: Precisely.

    • For the entire universe, the situation "A dragon did it."
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Dark magic does this to those who can't handle it. Bloom got a taste of it when she was infected with the shadow virus. Witch schools like Cloud Tower exist mainly to prevent this.
    • Word of God is that the Trix suffer from this all the time. Depending on how much dark energy they have build up, their mental state slides from Harmless Villain to Omnicidal Maniac. This is more visible in the comics, where they are rather weak, more of an annoyance then a real threat and sometimes even mean but otherwise normal girls. Well, most of the time.
  • Wizarding School: Alfea School for Fairies and Cloud Tower School for Witches (the most literal wizarding school). Third season character Chimera attended another magic school called Beta Academy, but whether it's for witches or fairies isn't clear.
  • Worthy Opponent: Faragonda and Griffin, at least in the first season. They saw no problem in geting their students involved in their rivalry. Faragonda taught her fairies that witches are generally evil and how to fight them while Griffin went one step further and regulary sent her school's worst bullies (the Trix) over to cause trouble. It wasn't until the Trix went over the edge and unleashed an army of demons upon the world that they finally made peace with each other.
  • Would Hit a Girl: The Specialists are smart enough to not recognize genders in a fight as they showed no hesitation in attacking the Trix, especially when their girlfriends are being threatened.
    • Played straight HARD by Riven in the 1st movie when he punches Mandragora in the face for mind-controlling him and causing him to accidentally stab Musa.
    • Played straight AGAIN by Sky in the 1st movie when he stabs Mandragora through the back to stop her from strangling Bloom to death.
  • Written-In Absence: S3 - all five Specialists have RSVP'd for Stella's party, but only two actually appear; the others' absence is explained in the dub with Flora noting that Helia's ship broke down.
  • Xanatos Gambit /ISurrenderSuckers: The Wizards of the Black Circle's surrender and regret of their past actions in the second half of S4 is revealed to be all a plot to ultimately cast a spell that could seal the Earth fairies forever. Nabu stops this but pays a high price.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: You must have noticed by now if you're this far down the page.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Darkar feels that he doesn't need the Trix anymore, he tosses them into a black hole. The Trix also do this to Riven in a well done Break the Haughty sequence.
  • Zettai Ryouiki[context?]
  1. (The next scene shows Aisha crying at a tree, so you can guess how well she took it.)