spiderbraids

Previously on Winx Club: Sky invited Bloom to his kingdom's 1000th anniversary party. This prompted Val to come up with a great idea to take Bloom out of the picture, and he gave a potion to Diaspro, who still, after all these years, and a rescue by Sky and Bloom, still holds a grudge against them. Also, the Winx learned about a new final transformation, which calls for them to save someone from their own world. Stella said: "Piece of cake, AS LONG AS IT'S NOT CHIMERA." Of course, if you've watched enough TV and movies, you know that this practically ensures that she'll have to save her, right?

Okay, so we open in dreamtime with Bloom walking around in her casuals. Bloom hears Stella and others calling her name... and then she sees them (minus Layla) circling above her in their fairy outfits. For some reason, this horrifies Bloom.

Stella: "What's the matter Bloom? Why are you so sad?"
Musa: "You can tell us! We're your friends!"

Musa cackles as the fairies start circling faster, and Bloom continues to be horrified. "Leave me alone, I don't want to talk!" At this point in the footage, the dream abruptly ends in the 4K version, without even showing Layla. Here though, the dream goes on a bit longer.

Musa: "You shouldn't be ashamed of what you are..."
Stella: "It's not your fault you can never become a true fairy."
Musa: "An Enchantix, Bloom! That's what they call."
Flora: "Real fairies like her."

Flora being mean. HUH. Anyways, this is where Layla comes in, in her new fairy outfit. She says "Hi, Bloom" (although without any mean-ness in her voice at all)...

as we cut to a RF ship flying in the night sky, and then Bloom sleeping on Layla's lap. I guess that's why Layla was supposed to show up at the end? Layla tells Bloom to wake up, and Bloom is still a bit horrified at the dream.

Bloom: "Oh Layla, I just had a nightmare."
Stella: "You're just nervous about Sky's party. I mean, it's not every day you get to spend quality time with your boyfriend's parents, especially when the parents are the king and queen of Eraklyon."
Bloom: "Well I am worried about what they're going to think of me Stella. What if they don't like me? :-\"
Sky: "They are going to love you. Just like I do."

Sky kisses and hugs Bloom right there, in the middle of the ship's main area, for everyone to see. And then, we see someone that I was expecting to see at Stella's party... Riven: "Hey you two, knock it off won't you?"

We see pilot Timmy noticing some bright flashing lights. Sky explains that this is the enchanted fireworks display welcoming guests upon arrival, and then we cut to show fireworks exploding in a perfect diamond shape.

Brandon: "Well, that's what I call a flashy welcome."

We see more fireworks exploding in a more earthly manner, then the palace on Eraklyon lit up with magic or something. On the ship, Tecna goes to hug Timmy: "Oh Timmy! Isn't it amazing?" Timmy: "Are you happy?" Tecna: "Oh yeah. And I'll be even happier when we land safely. Watch where you're going!" And we see the ship zing by a tree :-D

Musa: "Rumour has it that there's going to be a huge orchestra."
Sky: "That's right."
Stella: "And I heard the cake is supposed to be over 20 feet high!"
Sky: "That's true too."
Riven: "And I heard that every guest is going to get a brand new hoverbike!"
Sky: "Now, where did you hear that?"
Riven: "Well, actually, I made it up, but hey! It costs nothing to dream :-)"

There's another shot of the magically-lit palace, and Bloom calls it absolutely stunning.

Bloom: "I'm so excited! Will you stay with me?"
Stella: "You can manage just fine without us. You're a real princess now."

Fellow princess Layla giggles, and so do non-princesses Flora and Tecna. And we see the ship land in a field behind the palace. The back hatch opens and everyone comes out. Sky has to go because his parents are waiting for him. He does have this to say to Bloom, though: "But I'll see you soon. In fact, I'm counting the minutes."

Stella: "Ugh, that sugar is giving me a stomachache."
Flora: "Oh, I think it's romantic."

Of course you would, Flora. (And yet her pairing with Helia hasn't been well-received... hmm...) Sky leaves, and we get a wide shot of the others, and speaking of Helia, I just realised something:

Where exactly is Helia, anyway? He already missed the party of the century, now he's missing the party of the millennium? And Flora isn't concerned at all about him being missing? You'd think that with all the negative feedback over their so-called relationship, they'd try to put in some development for them. Anyways...

Bloom: "Sky wait, we don't know where to go!"
Layla: "Now what do we do?"
Stella: "Well, I don't know what the rest of you have in mind, but I am going to put on my evening gown and start dancing!"

And with that, she takes Brandon.

Now we're at the party, with lots of people taking glasses and making toasts. And here come the girls, in mostly familiar looking dresses...

Once again, we have inherent laziness on the animators' part, as we see that out of the 6 girls, only one of them is wearing a new dress, and that's Layla, who wasn't even at the last party. I guess that's why the first close-up shot is that of her and her new dark purple dress?

Okay, now the doorman guy introduces King Winnetka and Queen Lynnlea of Romulea, followed by King Radius, Countess Cassandra and daughter Chimera. Ah, rescue bait, I see.

Stella: "There's my father. I really want to talk to him. He's with my soon-to-be stepmother and stepsister, and I REALLY want to talk to them, too!"
Bloom: "Stella, wait. You're forgetting how your father chased us out of his palace. I'm sure he's under that spell."
Stella: "I don't care! I refuse to let Cassandra dominate my father like that, alright?"

Flora and Tecna have that look on their faces, and go off to stop Stella.

Tecna: "Stella, no! Stop!"
Flora: "Don't be foolish."
Stella: "I am the princess of Solaria, and those wannabe's took my place!"

Next thing you know, now she's face to face with some royal guard: "Is there a problem, miss?" Stella is disgruntled at the guard stopping her, as Layla tells him "It's alright sir, she was just kidding. Think nothing of it."

Doorman guy now introduces the Eraklyon royal family: King Erendor, Queen Samara and Prince Sky. HUH. We get names, the 4K dub doesn't. What's up with that??? The crowd goes wild over their entrance, and Sky is in quite a fetching outfit. I'll have to iconize that. Bloom is in awe. I'll have to iconize that as well.

In some quieter corner of the palace, we see Diaspro, in the dress her hired help showed her I might add, getting all sardonic: "Hooray for Eraklyon, long live the king... and a toast to Prince Sky to a happy and bright future." And then she brandishes the bottle Valtor gave her. OOH!

Back at the party, Sky approaches Bloom and asks her to open the ball. Sky says that after the two dance in front of everybody, he's planning on formally introducing Bloom to the guests and his parents (I think the parents already know her from her last trip to Eraklyon), and then giving his big announcement. Bloom: "Okay, chin up Bloom. You've faced much scarier situations."

We see Bloom and Sky dance, and then the girls in awe of it. Flora is tearing up, while Brandon and Riven are enjoying the festivities also. Sky retires from Bloom, so she decides to take this opportunity to ask Musa and Stella how she was. Musa: "You were magical, Bloom." Stella: "Even better, you were mah-velous, dah-ling." And I'm pretty sure Stella's mock British accent is a reference to something... I'd say My Fair Lady, but I don't know my Broadway musicals.

So Sky's walking around when he runs into Diaspro. Sky: "Oh, hi, Diaspro." Di: "We haven't seen each other in ages. Is that any way to welcome an old friend?" Sky: "Well, I..." Di: "Because we were good friends once, and maybe even something more." Sky: "Listen, that's all ancient history Diaspro, and I really don't wanna talk about it." Di: "Right, right, right. In that case, let's just have one last toast in your honor, shall we?"

And so they toast. Why is Bloom just standing there instead of questioning why Sky's with Diaspro now? Anyways, Sky has his drink, and it looks as if Sky has just realised something: "And now, if you'll excuse me, I have an announcement to make."

Sky goes off to Daddy Erendor, and Erendor tells the guests about Sky's announcement. Flora: "This is it Bloom..." Bloom: "Hold me up if I faint alright? :-)"

Sky: "I would like all of you to meet the sweetest and most sensitive girl in the whole magical dimension."
Brandon: "Wow, he really is in love."

Let's just cut through the filler to the most important part, as Bloom starts to walk out towards Sky: "My friends... let me introduce you to... Princess... Diaspro."

Cue shot of Valtor's mark in Sky's eye, and then Diaspro running to embrace Sky, and she's satisfied that Val's potion worked. Bloom, totally unaware of the truth, is all WTF? and wonders what happened, as tears run down her face. We see the Specialists reacting.

Timmy: "I can't believe this! It's totally bizarre!"
Brandon: "He's insane!"
Riven: "Not cool dude."

Then back to the girls.

Bloom: "He totally misled me! How could he do such a thing?"
Stella: "Hang on Bloom, there's got to be an explanation behind all this."
Bloom: "Diaspro used to be his girlfriend. Maybe all this time, he was just pretending to be in love with me but he was actually thinking about her..."
Stella: "If that's true, Sky's messing with the wrong people! He'd better get his royal self down here and give us all an explanation... RIGHT... NOW!"

Stella runs into the royal guard guy from earlier, but she just uses a freezing spell on him. Musa un-freezes him and says, "She didn't really mean any harm. She's just really upset." Layla: "We're ALL upset."

Diaspro sees Stella approaching, and tells Sky that the girls are dangerous. She calls them witches, minions of Valtor, and tells Sky to do as she says. Sky orders the guards to arrest the "witches", so dad asks for an explanation. Sky points at the girls (I think he means to point at Bloom) and says, "That girl is one of Valtor's spies. The others are her friends. We have to stop them." The girls are bewildered, and Bloom calls it a lie, but Stella just says, "You expect them to believe you? We gotta get away from here, and fast!" With that, she drags Bloom, tears and all, away from the scene.

We cut to the Solarians. Cassandra: "Stella and her friends seem to have a gift for getting into trouble. (Me: "Quite true, Cass. Quite true.") Obviously that school for fairies doesn't offer lessons in proper behavior." Chimera giggles, as Erendor orders the guards after them. After they run past two random guests:

Musa: "All of a sudden, everyone thinks that they're witches. It's gotta be dark magic."
Tecna: "The same kind that was used at Stella's party."

It's complete mayhem as the "witches" run towards the hedge maze, while the Specialists are just trying to get around with all the guests running everywhere. While the "witches" keep running from the guards, we cut to Val's hideout.

Val: "Fear and lies. The most powerful weapons of all. And all it took to launch them was a dark potion that perfectly meets the wants of an ambitious girl. That Diaspro would make a perfect fourth Trix." The Trix seem unimpressed with that comment. Val: "Don't worry, I'm just teasing. Really. Now, just relax and enjoy the show." Oh, Val. You have no idea how much better it would be if Diaspro got more involved in this.

Back with the girls. Guard: "I order you to stop right now!"
Stella: "Or else what???"
(Another guard fires his weapon)
Musa: "Did you really have to ask?"

HEH! Layla thinks they need to fight back, but Flora says it's not the soldiers' fault, so they can't hurt them. (The peaceful kind, aren't we, Flora?) Tecna agrees, since they're just following orders.

Bloom: "That's right. Anyway, I know we can get out of here without fighting."
Musa: "Oh, and how? By asking permission like well-mannered little fairies?"
Bloom: "Do you remember what Palladium taught us about navigating an unknown environment? I say we put that into practice!"

Er, and what exactly is "that" supposed to be, Bloom? I mean, really. Their strategy seems to involve running across a big junction of walkways, so that the guards end up having to randomly pick one path when they come to said junction. Guards reach a dead end, so they start simply firing through the hedges. Show the girls running, show the guards firing through the hedges, lather, rinse, repeat.

Flora: "I'm going to try to slow them down, the all-natural way."

She casts a spell, and vines appear in front of the hole the guards just blasted. The guards can't stop the vines, and decide to retreat. Layla: "Well done, Flora." Stella: "Peaceful environment 1, nasty soldiers 0."

The "witches" exit the labyrinth, and we see a nifty bow-and-arrow device being fired. The "arrow" hits the hedges. It's Sky, plus a few more guard guys.

Sky: "You made a big mistake coming here you witches."
Stella: "Okay, now can we use magic on them?"
Layla: "Just leave them to me."
Sky readies his technobow for another go: "Don't think I'm impressed by your tricks either!"
Musa: "You haven't seen what Layla can do yet."

Layla comes out and yells "Enchantix!" (In the US, Layla just comes out and they just white-fade to the transformation. I dunno. The scream looks sweet, and it reminds me of Layla's first transformation in the Underrealm.)

And for the very first time, we hear the Enchantix transformation song. Well, part of it at least, since her Enchantix transformation (blind eye fixing notwithstanding) is almost an afterthought compared to the ones you'll see later. The part we hear sings of "Magical powder, maximum power".

And Enchantix Layla summons the first ever Enchantix-level spell: a large pink glowing wall which easily absorbs Sky's technoarrows. "Some super-powered Morphix should be enough to keep them at bay. I wouldn't do that if I were you. For every shot that hits the Morphix, it fires it back twice as hard!"

The technoarrows fire back off the Morphix. The guards and Sky duck. Stella decides to get back to the shuttle. Bloom tells Flo that she'll join the others in a minute as the others head off.

Bloom walks over towards Sky, with the Morphix wall separating them. Apparently, the Morphix wall does not require Layla to stay behind to maintain it. Bloom: "Sky, what happened to you?" Sky punches his fist into the wall, and it just bends with the punch before reverting back. Bloom: "Oh, why did you do this to me? Where has all our love gone? Where have you gone, Sky?" Sky: "Shut up witch! I don't want to hear it, just shut it!" Sky fires another technoarrow, technoarrow fires off Morphix. Sky: "Why you..." In frustration, Sky throws his technobow against the wall, and unlike firing the technoarrows, the technobow doesn't have much bounce. Bloom wipes her tears and walks off. Sky does the same: "I'll get you yet you witch! You haven't heard the last of me!"

*sigh* You'd think that Bloom would be thinking about dark magic, especially since she was running with the others when Musa and Tecna mentioned it. But instead, she's thinking that Sky has had a genuine change of heart. Not the first time she apparently didn't up on little hints here and there...

RF shuttle. All the girls are heading towards the ship, with Layla using her wings and the others using their legs. Brandon tells them to get on board... when Flora suddenly gets fired from behind. And I mean literally, because there's a big dragon with Sky at the helm: "In the olden days, witches were punished with fire. And that's what I've got in store for you."

Bloom tells the others to help Flora while she goes to deal with Sky, and says "Magic Winx!"

So, Bloom, Tecna, Musa and Stella transform, and Fairy Bloom shoots a fireball at the dragon. Sky directs the dragon and tries using his sword on Bloom. Fairy Tecna, Musa and Stella go over to non-fairy Flora, and fly her over to the shuttle, where Brandon and Riven carry her into the shuttle. Sky sees this and calls them traitors, saying that the witches put a spell on them. Brandon: "I dunno what you're talking about buddy, but you know what? You're acting like a total jerk!" Sky fires his technobow to remind Brandon that they're no longer friends, and the technoarrow rips his RF uniform. Brandon tells Stella, "I'm fine Stella. All that's hurt are my feelings. Whatever happened to Sky?"

The girls gasp, and we see that Sky has been joined by more guards on dragons. Fairy Tecna: "Timmy. Put Flora on the ship and get everything ready for takeoff. Stella, Musa and I will deal with the big lizards!"

The three of them fly off, and the dragons give chase, flying right over the panicking guests. Diaspro: "Those witches have totally ruined my engagement party!" Erendor says that they have to lead the guests to safety. We see Stella trying to get away from a dragon that's hot on her heels. Enchantix Layla flies into the fray and says she'll handle them.

Meanwhile, Riven and Brandon carry Flora.

Layla shoots several blobs of Morphix at the dragons' heads, and they form a muzzle around their mouths so they can't breathe fire. And then she shoots more blobs to cover their eyes. This disables and grounds the dragons.

Back with Sky and Bloom. Sky takes out his sword. Bloom shoots the sword right out of his hand with a fireball. This only riles Sky more, and the chase continues, as they pass low over the banquet tables and frightened guests. Sky's dragon sets the banquet ablaze before ramming into a wall.

Mayhem, mayhem, and mayhem, as the guards tell the guests to stay calm. Yeah, you try keeping calm when there's lots of fire and lots of dragons flying around. We see fairies flying away from the dragons, and then the Romuleans running to their ship and flying off. Everyone's scrambling to get to their ships, while one of the Morphix-bound dragons grounds itself right into the Solarians. This is where Stella gets involved.

Cass tells Radius to keep the dragon busy, before running on to the ship with Chimera and telling the pilot to take off. The pilot insists that King Radius isn't on board yet, but Cass gives him an order, so he obliges. The ship takes off, Radius is dismayed, and now Stella won't have to save Chimera after all.

As the Winx girls board their ship, Fairy Stella hears her dad, and she flies off to save him. Stella flies in between the fast approaching dragon and her dad and releases a bright sun-ball, knocking the dragon to the ground. The dragon gets up and shakes off its Morphix bondage and gives Stella chase. Stella summons her sceptre to shield herself from the fire.

Stella yells "Sunbolt!" and teleports out of the dragon's way. But now it's heading back towards her dad, so she flies back in between the two, and it takes all her concentration to sceptre-shield herself and her father from the fire. Stella falls unconscious by her sceptre, and so does the dragon.

Radius gets back up. He sees Stella and cradles her in his arms. "Stella! My baby! Answer me! Please! Talk to me! Oh, Stella..." Radius tears up. But instead of dying right there in his arms, Stella transforms.

We see Stella get a small Bloom-like crown on her head and grow pigtails, with her hair flashing into a lighter shade of blonde. Then we see two sparkling pink sleeves form around her arms, followed with her new orange top with a star drawing itself in the middle of her chest. Instead of short pants, she's now sporting an orange and pink skirt, and instead of her old knee-length boots, orange ribbon wraps with a pink gem on each foot. Her new butterfly-like wings sprout, and they fill with sparkling orange and blue butterfly-like patterns. All this accompanied with the Enchantix transformation song, this time in full, singing of "Wonderful dimensions, powerful Enchantix. Incredible vision, incredible power, Winx! Enchantix!" (I bet you're thinking how lame these lyrics are, aren't you?)

And last but not least, the highlight of the transformation is Stella putting her finger to her mouth, and blowing a kiss before assuming her finishing pose. It's sweet, but the 4K dub just edits the kiss out, not too cleanly I might add. Hmm... I guess they see that it's merely incidental to the transformation?

Bloom goes all Captain Obvious on us: "Stella saved her father, and she got her Enchantix powers." 4K spares its viewers from Enchantix Layla also playing the obvious card: "Her sacrifice is what brought it about. That's exactly how it happened with me." We see the guards running towards Stella and Radius. In another sweet moment, Stella briefly embraces her King Dad, and touches his cheek as if to say "Take care" before flying off in her spiffy new blue and orange wings. Radius: "Oh, Stella."

Stella flies into the RF ship, and it takes off. Cue up ominous music as Diaspro lays her head down on Sky and we cut to Val watching it from his hideout: "This is only half a victory. But at least Sky is still under my power. Those Winx are tougher opponents than I thought they'd be, but they don't know yet what I have in store for them."

RF ship. Bloom and Stella are back in their casuals, commiserating over the events on Eraklyon. Stella: "We both left something behind didn't we?" Bloom: "We both left a piece of our heart Stella. But we're going to get it back, I promise you." And... scene. (As you'll notice, unlike in the dub, Stella's dad isn't pretending to be under Cassandra's spell. He actually still is under that spell, and that'll be important far down the road.)