spiderbraids (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spiderbraids) wrote2023-08-20 06:46 pm
spiderbraids) wrote2023-08-20 06:46 pm
Gone But Not Forgotten: Sites of Winx Fandom Past (Extra)
We interrupt the Editor's Spotlight for this special announcement...
A couple years ago, I made a series of posts on a couple now-defunct high-profile fansites Winxers like me used to visit... Well, as of this past week, we can add another site to that list :-\ (Okay, so maybe it wasn't as high profile as the others, but I liked the site, so there :-P)
The Yin Yang Couple
(August 25, 2018 - August 17, 2023)
The Yin Yang Couple's final front page
The Facts
Created by the Oblivious Prattler of UnaDiNoi-Winx fame just before the demise of that particular blog, this blog focused entirely on Aisha and Nex, a rather-disliked canonical couple (yes, even more so than Musa/Riven :-\) Besides talking about all things Aisha and Nex, she posted fanarts, and even came up with her own fanon daughter for the couple (Renata, Fairy of Rain :-)) In the early days, she also featured a game called "Um, Actually" that was all about showing off Winx knowledge, rather than treating it as something be banned over for being a smart-@ ss know-it-all (yes, this happened to me once) Originally hosted under a Wordpress domain as with UnaDiNoi-Winx, Prattler ended up buying it its own domain name, and as recently as earlier this year, she said she was working on a fanfic rewrite for the couple to make them more likeable :-)
The Personal Connection
I managed to stumble on this blog one day, and well, I liked what I was reading, so I followed it, and I even managed to get a few comments in :-) This one I'm particularly proud of:
Me, responding to a post on how Nabu nullified Aisha's story: As an aside, I remember that back in the day, quite a few fans liked Layla because of her independent spirit, and one particular scene in the 4K dub probably stood out at the time: the part in 2×06 where the girls are walking down a cave passageway discussing marriage, and Layla declares “I don’t see why people need marriage. I’m not getting married.” I also found a contemporary review of 3×09, when the Nabu issue was mentioned for the first time, in which the reviewer hoped that her relationship with him would be slow and difficult. So yeah, there was a time when viewers would likely have been okay with Layla remaining solo 🙂
Prattler: Interesting.
I don’t remember that line, but I’m not surprised. 4Kids Aisha/Layla wanted nothing to do with guys. I do remember an earlier line (ep. 2X03, I think) when Tecna was complaining about the Specialists going on the Pixie rescue mission instead of her. Aisha added, “Yeah, who needs high school boys?” A minor example, but still along those lines. (...)
As for the Nabu issue, I also remember that the fandom wasn’t that happy about Aisha getting a love interest at first. The “slow and difficult” remark is interesting, though. One of the problems I have with her and Nabu (and her and Roy) is that their relationship seemed too easy for her character (or both of their characters, really). A “slow and difficult” relationship makes more sense, given her personality and past experiences.
Of course, Nabu set an unrealistic precedent that’s now difficult for people to think beyond. At least they’re open to her dating now. But people say sometimes that she should either be with Nabu or be single. They say it’s because she “doesn’t need a guy”, but somehow Nabu is an exception. (Have your cake and eat it, too.)
The Demise
Well, this is a particularly saddening one... In August 2022, the site briefly went offline and I wrote to her about it:
Me: I couldn't access the site today on my phone, and on desktop it redirects to one of those domain parking pages :-\ Hopefully you haven't decided to abandon the site...
Prattler, two days later: No, I didn’t abandon it. I just didn’t realize the domain name had expired! I just renewed it, so hopefully, the site should be back up soon. Thanks for letting me know!
In November, she posted her most recent post titled "For Me, the Winx Magic is Gone", which is mostly what you'd expect from the title, but she ended it with "What does that mean for this blog? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll turn it into a site for my rewrite and talk about Aisha and Nex on the side (if there’s anything else to talk about). (...) I’ll let you know. Thanks for being patient with me."
This year, I was determined to avoid a repeat of the year before, so I emailed her in late July, expecting it to be sufficient advance notice, also informing her of an issue with most of the emoji on her site turning into question marks (Prattler's comment mentioned above originally had a "thinking" and a "roll eye" emoji) but unlike the year before, the weeks passed without any response or even any indication of activity from her (I knew she was busy with her job, but "not checking any of your emails in weeks" busy? You can't exactly do a wellness check over the web either :-\) so for good measure I tried contacting her through her main blog, apparently to no avail, since as of the date given above, it went to a domain parking page again :-\
Now the very nature of these posts don't really allow for anything but sad endings, so let me leave you with a colorized version of one of my favorite fanarts from the Prattler: A cute picture of Aisha and Nex snuggling on a couch with Amore looking over them :-)
ETA:
As of 26 August, the website is back online :-) but the emojis still haven't been fixed, so I don't know what to make of it :-\
A couple years ago, I made a series of posts on a couple now-defunct high-profile fansites Winxers like me used to visit... Well, as of this past week, we can add another site to that list :-\ (Okay, so maybe it wasn't as high profile as the others, but I liked the site, so there :-P)
The Yin Yang Couple
(August 25, 2018 - August 17, 2023)
The Yin Yang Couple's final front page
The Facts
Created by the Oblivious Prattler of UnaDiNoi-Winx fame just before the demise of that particular blog, this blog focused entirely on Aisha and Nex, a rather-disliked canonical couple (yes, even more so than Musa/Riven :-\) Besides talking about all things Aisha and Nex, she posted fanarts, and even came up with her own fanon daughter for the couple (Renata, Fairy of Rain :-)) In the early days, she also featured a game called "Um, Actually" that was all about showing off Winx knowledge, rather than treating it as something be banned over for being a smart-@ ss know-it-all (yes, this happened to me once) Originally hosted under a Wordpress domain as with UnaDiNoi-Winx, Prattler ended up buying it its own domain name, and as recently as earlier this year, she said she was working on a fanfic rewrite for the couple to make them more likeable :-)
The Personal Connection
I managed to stumble on this blog one day, and well, I liked what I was reading, so I followed it, and I even managed to get a few comments in :-) This one I'm particularly proud of:
Me, responding to a post on how Nabu nullified Aisha's story: As an aside, I remember that back in the day, quite a few fans liked Layla because of her independent spirit, and one particular scene in the 4K dub probably stood out at the time: the part in 2×06 where the girls are walking down a cave passageway discussing marriage, and Layla declares “I don’t see why people need marriage. I’m not getting married.” I also found a contemporary review of 3×09, when the Nabu issue was mentioned for the first time, in which the reviewer hoped that her relationship with him would be slow and difficult. So yeah, there was a time when viewers would likely have been okay with Layla remaining solo 🙂
Prattler: Interesting.
I don’t remember that line, but I’m not surprised. 4Kids Aisha/Layla wanted nothing to do with guys. I do remember an earlier line (ep. 2X03, I think) when Tecna was complaining about the Specialists going on the Pixie rescue mission instead of her. Aisha added, “Yeah, who needs high school boys?” A minor example, but still along those lines. (...)
As for the Nabu issue, I also remember that the fandom wasn’t that happy about Aisha getting a love interest at first. The “slow and difficult” remark is interesting, though. One of the problems I have with her and Nabu (and her and Roy) is that their relationship seemed too easy for her character (or both of their characters, really). A “slow and difficult” relationship makes more sense, given her personality and past experiences.
Of course, Nabu set an unrealistic precedent that’s now difficult for people to think beyond. At least they’re open to her dating now. But people say sometimes that she should either be with Nabu or be single. They say it’s because she “doesn’t need a guy”, but somehow Nabu is an exception. (Have your cake and eat it, too.)
The Demise
Well, this is a particularly saddening one... In August 2022, the site briefly went offline and I wrote to her about it:
Me: I couldn't access the site today on my phone, and on desktop it redirects to one of those domain parking pages :-\ Hopefully you haven't decided to abandon the site...
Prattler, two days later: No, I didn’t abandon it. I just didn’t realize the domain name had expired! I just renewed it, so hopefully, the site should be back up soon. Thanks for letting me know!
In November, she posted her most recent post titled "For Me, the Winx Magic is Gone", which is mostly what you'd expect from the title, but she ended it with "What does that mean for this blog? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll turn it into a site for my rewrite and talk about Aisha and Nex on the side (if there’s anything else to talk about). (...) I’ll let you know. Thanks for being patient with me."
This year, I was determined to avoid a repeat of the year before, so I emailed her in late July, expecting it to be sufficient advance notice, also informing her of an issue with most of the emoji on her site turning into question marks (Prattler's comment mentioned above originally had a "thinking" and a "roll eye" emoji) but unlike the year before, the weeks passed without any response or even any indication of activity from her (I knew she was busy with her job, but "not checking any of your emails in weeks" busy? You can't exactly do a wellness check over the web either :-\) so for good measure I tried contacting her through her main blog, apparently to no avail, since as of the date given above, it went to a domain parking page again :-\
Now the very nature of these posts don't really allow for anything but sad endings, so let me leave you with a colorized version of one of my favorite fanarts from the Prattler: A cute picture of Aisha and Nex snuggling on a couch with Amore looking over them :-)
ETA:
As of 26 August, the website is back online :-) but the emojis still haven't been fixed, so I don't know what to make of it :-\