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spiderbraidsToday is the 15th anniversary of the premiere of season 3 of Winx Club, and while many fans regard it as its best, here's a somewhat unpopular opinion: I think season 3 is its weakest season.
Sure, it didn't help that it came off the heels of the best season ever (IMO), but I think season 3 wouldn't stand up well against any season, except maybe S5... Back in the day, a review of the S3 finale commented that "It feels like Rainbow concentrated all their talents on the movie (the first one) and gave us a bunch of badly-written, trite episodes that are frustrating because they could have been so much more." (Emphasis mine)
That's the problem with the season, many were expecting S3 to be "so much more" based on the promise of the early episodes. These problems probably aren't as apparent if you're binge-watching, but when you're looking forward to how the story plays out on a weekly basis, many of these probably made viewers go "...That's it?"
(Originally posted in 2016 at a Winx forum; reposting here Thursdays and Mondays to spread the word and avoid the Photobucket problem, with updates as needed)
No Florelia (coined by a user on the now-defunct UnaDiNoi-Winx)
Back in season 1, when Timmy and Tecna were paired off, the fandom was more-or-less like "Pairing off the nerds? Really?" By the end of season 2, though, developments involving the two made them more accepted by the fans (though I'll let you decide for yourself which dub did it better :-))
Season 2 saw Helia's arrival at Red Fountain, and he eventually paired off with Flora. Once again, the fandom were indifferent about the pairing, but if S2 could make us care for T/T, S3 was going to give us a reason to care about Florelia, right?
Well, after appearing in the season premiere, Helia proceeded to disappear until... episode 14 :-/ By the time the two went together on the Tecna rescue mission a few episodes later, it took one reviewer quite a bit of time to remember their relationship :-/
Now, I'd never want Florelia to become the next MuRi or Bloom/Sky, but IMO they never got a decent storyline until S6's Snow Queen arc :-/ (And even then there was this sense of "They're arguing about vines??")
(2021 update: Still waiting for a more meaningful test of their relationship than their brief tiff in 8x10-11 :-\)
Sure, it didn't help that it came off the heels of the best season ever (IMO), but I think season 3 wouldn't stand up well against any season, except maybe S5... Back in the day, a review of the S3 finale commented that "It feels like Rainbow concentrated all their talents on the movie (the first one) and gave us a bunch of badly-written, trite episodes that are frustrating because they could have been so much more." (Emphasis mine)
That's the problem with the season, many were expecting S3 to be "so much more" based on the promise of the early episodes. These problems probably aren't as apparent if you're binge-watching, but when you're looking forward to how the story plays out on a weekly basis, many of these probably made viewers go "...That's it?"
(Originally posted in 2016 at a Winx forum; reposting here Thursdays and Mondays to spread the word and avoid the Photobucket problem, with updates as needed)
No Florelia (coined by a user on the now-defunct UnaDiNoi-Winx)
Back in season 1, when Timmy and Tecna were paired off, the fandom was more-or-less like "Pairing off the nerds? Really?" By the end of season 2, though, developments involving the two made them more accepted by the fans (though I'll let you decide for yourself which dub did it better :-))
Season 2 saw Helia's arrival at Red Fountain, and he eventually paired off with Flora. Once again, the fandom were indifferent about the pairing, but if S2 could make us care for T/T, S3 was going to give us a reason to care about Florelia, right?
Well, after appearing in the season premiere, Helia proceeded to disappear until... episode 14 :-/ By the time the two went together on the Tecna rescue mission a few episodes later, it took one reviewer quite a bit of time to remember their relationship :-/
Now, I'd never want Florelia to become the next MuRi or Bloom/Sky, but IMO they never got a decent storyline until S6's Snow Queen arc :-/ (And even then there was this sense of "They're arguing about vines??")
(2021 update: Still waiting for a more meaningful test of their relationship than their brief tiff in 8x10-11 :-\)
