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spiderbraidsLatest development: Just shy of 3 years of broadcasts on CN Asia, Winx has just left the schedule altogether in mid May.They didn't even get to finish out S2, even though they would have only needed another hour to do so (the last episode to air was 2x24). Thanks for the memories, CN Asia (and at least I got every S2-3 ep on tape).
Just noticed that the title of the episode I'm posting this news with is kind of appropriate... heh. (Might provide a retrospective on my Winx fandom later.)
Previously on Winx Club, the girls freed FG from Valtor's unique transcombination spell, but this week's plotline more about developments from before last week. How far back? Try the season premiere, in which Valtor breached the Omega portal. Turns out, letting prisoners escape from the portal into Andros isn't the only potential danger from the breached portal...
We open at CT, where Val is finding something "Very interesting" about the portal he left open on Andros. We see the Trix enter, and Stormy goes "Wowee." Icy's all, "What's going on?" Val explains: "This was bound to happen sooner or later. It's the Omega portal: it stayed open so long that all the negative energy that leaked out of the dimension is causing the entire world to collapse in on itself." Darcy: "What will happen to Andros then?" Val: "Have a look for yourself..."
We watch footage of Mermaid Guards waiting around the portal on Andros, then prisoners escaping from Omega, as Val explains: "Andros and the Omega Dimension are connected through the portal, so if one dimension is destroyed, the other will inevitably be destroyed along with it." That's right folks, Val's about to destroy two realms for the price of one breached portal. Seriously, what kind of genius tied the existence of two realms to that of each other's?
We fade out from escaping prisoners to nighttime Alfea, where FG tells someone to come in, and that someone is Saladin. FG: "Headmaster Saladin, what could be so important that you simply HAD to pay me a visit in the middle of the night?" Me: "And how are you not in bed, FG?" Anyways, Sal relays what Val already mentioned last scene. FG: "Is it Valtor's work?" Sal: "Only indirectly in that it was his dark spell that opened the passage between the two worlds. The fact that it was never fully closed is what has led to this terrible crisis." Cue footage of Val opening the portal. FG: "I'd better wake Layla and the girls!"
We see the now awakened girls heading down the hallway. Time for some randomness.
Stella: "What in the world could be so important that my beautfiul dream had to be interrupted?"
Bloom: "What was your dream about Stella?"
Stella: "Brandon had his own wings, and we were flying to his manion up in the clouds!"
Musa: "Forget that, in my dream I converted a mansion... into a state-of-the-art recording studio!"
Heh. Back to the plotline. Layla is already in FG's room getting up to speed, as the others join in.
Layla is quite distraught at the news: "My parents: I can't let them down. Ms. Faragonda, I am the princess of Andros, I have to go home."
FG: "I can't let you go alone. It's too dangerous."
Stella: "No need to ask, we'll go with you."
Bloom: "You can always count on us."
Tecna: We're here for you, all of us."
FG: "Alright girls, but you be careful. Don't take unneccessary risks. Saladin says that the situation on the ground is deteriorating very quickly."
Room. Tecna has her portal generator out, and she's put it on her closet. It seems that she's adjusting its orientation to make the portal open or something. Anyways, the portal opens. Tec: "The dimensional passage to Andros is now accepting passengers." Layla: "Thanks Tecna, you're so brilliant." We see Layla, Stella, Tecna, Bloom, Flora and Musa take the portal.
Over to Andros' palace. And hello again, Layla's mom. She's at the balcony, and it's not a pretty sight outside, with the storms and the waves and the funnel. And hello again, Layla's dad. Mom asks "What will become of our kingdom?" Dad just takes her back into the palace.
Mom gets even more distressed when she hears the news from some guard that more monsters have escaped from the portal and the Mermaid Guards can't deal with them. But then we hear Stella's voice saying "Don't worry! We'll deal with that!" We pan over to the Winx coming out of the portal. Mom is glad to see her again, and vice versa. Dad though, not so much, because he doesn't believe that there's anything that can be done to save Andros. (Incidentally, not one word about Nabu is mentioned here. Then again, considering that losing her whole planet would ruin Layla's life MUUUUCH more than her parents setting her up with some guy she hasn't even met, I don't really blame them.)
Layla: "I can't believe you dad! How can you say something like that?!?"
Dad: "I'm sorry to be so negative, but I'm afraid that none of this can be stopped."
Layla takes a look at the funnel: "Never give up hope dad..."
Dad: "Don't be stubborn, please! Go back to Alfea, I can't risk losing you."
Layla: "I'll go back dad, right after all of us fighting side-by-side close the Omega Portal, and set our planet free."
Bloom: "You heard her girls, let's do it! Magic Winx!"
Cue transformations. We get both kinds of transformations to the both transformation music pieces. By this time, the only girls still with a regular Winx transformation are Bloom and Tec, and since it would be most dramatic if Bloom were the last to get her Enchantix... yeah.
Bloom leads the girls: "Come on, we've got a portal to close!"
Layla stays behind for a few words from her dad: "Layla... I'll join you soon. We'll save Andros together."
Layla: "I'm counting on you daddy."
The girls fly off.
We fade out to under the sea. We see a Mermaid Guard kicking some rear end, first batting back a mermaid monster's spell right back at its firer, then blasting away another monster, and then knocking yet another monster into some hole which she seals with a rock. Guard decides to surface, and we see a battle going on right next to the portal.
Val is watching via crystal ball: "Andros will soon become a thing of the past."
Icy: "Doesn't it bother you to know that your lair will also be destroyed?"
Stormy: "She's got a point..."
Icy: "Hah."
Stormy: "And we can't forget about the mermaids you transformed. They've been valuable minions. Who knows, we might need them again before this is over and done with."
Val: "I always assumed that the mermaids wouldn't survive past Stage 1."
Trix: "Wha?"
Val: "Hey, why so shocked?..."
We see Val plundering Andros' spells: "I've already got a hold of Andros' most powerful magic formulas, and I can perform all their spells perfectly. So what more can I get from this miserable planet? Zilch, absolutely nothing."
Darcy sees the Winx in the crystal ball. We head to Andros and see the non-Enchanti surrounded by mermaid monsters.
Bloom: "Tecna, any suggestions?"
Tecna: "Yes. Virtual Shield."
We see them put up the shields they used against the CT vault monsters, and they form into a solid covering, green for Tec, red-orange for Bloom. A monster fires off a shot, and it doesn't do anything (thank you, Virtual Shields). The girls drop their shields, and Tec fires an Electric Beam, knocking her into the drink. Next, Bloom deflects another monster's shot with a Fire Sphere and knocks her into the drink as well. But then here come three more monsters...
Tec: "We can't even catch our breath! They keep coming!"
Bloom: "I know! It's as if there's an endless supply of these horrible creatures!"
On land, we see the Mermaid Guard taking on Team Prison Break. We see another prisoner get out of the portal, but then getting zapped right back in with a Mermaid Guard blast.
Now, some Enchanti action. We see Stella flipping herself over an oncoming monster... and out of nowhere, we flashcut to her fairy dust bottle, replete with the star drawing. Stella holds the glowing dust bottle and says: "Magic Rainbow!" The dust forms a rope, and it strangles the monster. "Stella 1: Monsters 0!"
But then here comes a mermaid monster. She zaps Stella, and Stella's falling. Flora decides to use her fairy dust. The bottle is there as usual, however, when she's supposed to be drawing out the flower outline with the bottle, the outline is nowhere to be seen. Side note: When I first saw this outline-less draw, it was in the 4K version of ep 12 (where the original version did have the outline), and I theorized that 4K had erased the outline for some reason or other (they've erased things before), but when I pointed this out to Lori, she said that it was also here in uncut ep 13. I suppose that since they cut short the drawing part, they wouldn't have been able to show the completed flower outline.
Anyways, back to the action. With the dust, Flo puts up a large Glowing Ivy, and Stella slides down the Ivy. The Ivy disappears once she's done using it. Flo: "Stella, are you alright?" Stella: "Flora... how's it going?" Hmm...
Over to Musa and Layla now, and they're at the portal. We see the Mermaid Guard fighting monsters right next to the portal, and then the funnel pushes Layla and Musa away, with Layla landing right in the path of a monster.
Over to CT now, where the Trix and are Val are watching the situation via crystal ball.
Icy: "It looks like the Winx are well and truly done for."
Darcy: "Yeah, I feel kind of bad."
Icy: "Come on Darcy, have you lost your mind???"
Darcy: "Not at all, it's just that, I always thought that WE would be the ones who would get to destroy them in the end. I mean, I don't know, after all the battles we've fought against them..."
Stormy: "Well yeah, I agree. It does seem kind of like we're getting gypped on this deal." Stormy, you wouldn't be the only ones who feel gypped...
Icy: "Yeah, it doesn't seem right does it?"
Trix: "Let's go!"
Val: "Hold on a second, where do you think you're going?"
Icy: "Valtor."
Stormy: "Why do you want to stop us?"
Darcy: "I thought you hated the Winx as much as we do!"
Val: "Those fairies have almost no chance of survival. The portal is going to give way ANY MINUTE NOW, and the Winx, along with the entire dimension will go spinning into oblivion, so let me ask you this: Why do you want to share their fate?"
Back to Andros, where we last left Layla in the path of a monster. But here comes dear old dad, and a couple guards to fight off the monster. He's having the guards chase the monster while he has a few words with his daughter.
Dad: "Layla sweetheart, are you alright?"
Layla: "Dad, it's so good to see you! You saved my life."
Dad: "No Layla, I think it's you who saved me. You gave me the strength to believe and to keep hoping. I'm very proud of you sweetheart."
Layla: "Oh dad, I love you."
Niiiice.
Okay, poignant moment over. Now we hear the royal guards, and they're being attacked by three approaching mermaid monsters.
Layla: "Dad, if you can keep them busy, I'll try to get closer to the portal, and see if I can find a way to seal it."
Dad: "It's too dangerous. If you get too close to the funnel, you'll get sucked in, and then, you'd be gone forever."
Layla: "But it's our only hope. I have to try."
Dad: "Wait a minute, not yet. Tebok the Wise is on his way. Andros' greatest wizard will know what to do." Here, Dad pronounces Tebok with a "tay" rather than a "tee" sound.
Dad: "Meanwhile, let's deal with the monsters. Layla, can you free those poor mermaids from Valtor's spell?"
Layla: "With my fairy dust, I think so."
Dad: "Good, then I will lure them in for you. Guards, fan out in all directions and give the princess some space."
Dad puts his foot on a stone and raises his sword: "ForNarnia Andros!" Dad swings his sword at the mermaid monsters a couple times, and the princess agilely slips in right between dad and the mermaids. Cut to close up of Layla, whose fairy dust bottle necklace has been drawn with more detail than the usual. The bottle de-attaches itself from the necklace, and we see Layla's waterdrop drawing, then the release of Layla's bottle.
Layla sprays the fairy dust over the mermaid monsters, and they turn back into Mermaid Guards. We see Layla holding her bottle: "Valtor's spell is broken." Okay, now time for dad to rejoin his soldiers and for Layla to wait for Tebok.
Mermaid Guard: "Thank you princess. That spell was a pure living nightmare."
And here come the non-Enchanti to congratulate Layla, plus they've got company: Tebok the Wise. Tecna exposits that his ship was destroyed by Val's monsters, and Bloom finishes that they gave him a ride. Tebok is glad to see Layla... but then here come monsters. Lots of them.
Fortunately, we then hear Stella blast a few of them with an Ocean of Light: "Smash hit!" Stella gives that cute arm flex that we've seen before. The other Enchanti are here, and Musa says they're going to deal with the monsters, while Bloom, Tec, Layla and Tebok deal with the portal.
We see the three Enchanti fight off the monsters, as we fade to the others running up the spiral way to the funnel.
Layla and Tebok stop at the platform right in front of the funnel, and Tebok says it's too risky to get any closer. After a short pause, Layla asks Tebok "What's wrong?" Well, turns out Tebok is partially to blame for this, as we head into a flashback...
We see a bunch of wizards (a young Tebok included) on a singular rock column (where the funnel is right now) casting spells and wielding charms, causing a bunch of rock to curl into a spiral around it, before causing the funnel to die down, while Tebok explains: "A long time, I helped to build this portal. In order to make it escape-proof, we designed it so that it could not be opened or closed. It was to be a fail safe defense against the greatest of evils." So THIS is the genius who tied Andros' existence with that of Omega's. BLEH.
Anyways, back to the present. Tebok: "But obviously, we underestimated Valtor's power." The non-Enchanti are now with Layla, and Tecna's all "Hmm..."
Bloom: "Well then, Tebok, why not forget about closing the portal, and try destroying it instead?"
Tebok's ahead of them on that, because he's got some rolled-up parchment: "These ancient scrolls contain enough magic to do just that, but I'll also need your help."
Layla: "What do you want us to do Tebok?"
Tebok: "I need you to converge all of your magic on to these scrolls."
Tecna: "All of our magic? Okay, we'll do it."
Tebok: "This is our one and only hope."
Personally, I'm thinking, how is that supposed to work? We have two girls technically at Charmix level but most likely using base powers, and an Enchantix whose powers are two levels above them. Wouldn't the powers be a bit unbalanced for convergence?
But anyways, the three fairies stand back, and Layla takes their hands. The girls glow orange, pink, and green. Mmm, cross-level convergence. Seems like the girls are concentrating very hard to make it work, because I can imagine it's not that easy, especially since Bloom and Tec are (sigh, but expected) not using their Charmix. (Wonder why the writers didn't explore the potential complications of cross-level convergence?)
Tebok unrolls the scroll and goes all town-cryer as he announces that the portal, "created by the great wizards of the First Triumvirate of Andros", will be no more. We see writing appear on the scroll. "By the power of Medach, the highest wizard in the realm of..."
That's as far as he gets before the funnel tugs the parchment straight out of his hands and knocks over the fairies, sending the scrolls into the funnel. So I guess that the unbalanced convergence won't be an issue after all. Seriously though, you'd think that Tebok should have been a bit more wise to handle those potential realm-saving documents a bit better, or at least stood a distance from the funnel to avoid losing them mid-spell.
Layla decides to fly up to go get the scrolls, and we see them fly past her attempts to grab them. Tecna: "Layla! Come back down here Layla!" Layla seems a bit reluctant, but eventually she spin-cycles herself back to the ground. As Bloom concedes that the scrolls are gone and asks Tebok what they can do now, the ground starts to rumble.
Tebok: "The funnel is growing stronger. We must leave the planet immediately!"
Layla: "What??? We can't leave now!"
Tecna: "There's got to be something else we can do..."
Tebok: "*sigh* I'm afraid the portal is completely out of control. The only way to close it now, is from the inside. To achieve that would require more courage and power than anyone has. Our only real option is to leave the planet."
Bloom: "I'm not going to let another planet be destroyed. I couldn't do anything about Domino (deja vu, anyone?), but I can surely try to save Andros."
Layla: "Bloom, it's my responsibility to save my world."
Bloom: "Well, then we'll do it together."
Layla takes Bloom's hand, and gallantly walks towards the funnel, along with the others. But instead of sucking them in like it did the scrolls (and as King Dad warned her earlier), the funnel inexplicably pushes them away instead. Tebok and the two fairies are knocked over, while Tecna manages to stay standing. Those boots of hers must have some serious traction, since they leave a burning trail. Tecna: "Wait, I can do it." And you can do it because...?
The other Enchanti are apparently finished dealing with the monsters, because they're watching in horror as Tecna bravely marches towards the funnel.
Layla: "No, she can not risk her life for my planet! Tecna, no!!"
Tebok: "You are needed here Layla, to help rebuild. What Tecna is doing takes great courage. We must allow her to live out her destiny."
Tebok, dude. She's not even from here.
Tecna puts up her hand and touches the funnel. We hear some sort of electric buzzing sound, so I take that she's casting a spell to get the funnel to suck her in. Which it does. Musa flies up to Tecna in the portal, and...
Well, there's no easy way to say this: You know the writers clearly aren't doing their job when they never give ample reason for why the funnel pushes away Layla after it sucked in the scrolls, and then why a base-powered complete stranger manages to enter the portal when it's just pushed away the Enchantix-powered native... and why, despite not even the slightest mention of Zenith or any other realms in this mission, Tecna gets her Enchantix upgrade. I know that she's the only person who could logically get her upgrade, but I was kind of expecting her to get it, well, on Zenith. After saving a Zenithian. FG specifically said way back when, "You will need to rescue someone from your own world, and it will require a great sacrifice." No doubt that Tecna's sacrifice is great, but... there's nothing even remotely Zenithian about the plot at all.
Anyways, henshin. We see interlaced lines resolve into a profiled silhouette of Tecna. The background turns digital green as the silhouette turns to face us before the light dies down to show Tecna's face. We see digital meshes cover her eyelids, hair, and lips. The meshes morph her features, most noticeably lenghtening her hair. Her whole body covers itself in wireframe (like in her original transformation) and becomes shadowed as a wireframe sphere (like her Static Sphere attack) encloses her. The Tecnaboots are no more, as we see purple wires draw her leg coverings, and we see a purple fan-like covering fan out over her already-there skirt, and then a yellow fan-like covering fan out over her also-already-there top. We see her fairy dust necklace form, and then her hairpin. (It's a bit chintzy here, but in the CG movie, it looks much better, I'll tell you that.)
Her hairpin expands into a glowing shadow before becoming her wings, which lack lower bits, and have less of a butterfly look than the other girls'. Interestingly, Tec was originally shown in pre-season publicity with butterfly-ish wings, complete with the lower bits, and the glowing shadow is in more or less the same shape as those wings. IMO, removing those lower bits (man does that sound dirty!) makes the wings look more technological, but still, why show the butterfly-shaped shadow?
Anyways, Tecna raises her right arm and uses her left hand to magically put on her spellglove (which looks more or less the same as that on her previous outfit), and then vice versa. Would you believe that some people threw a wobbly over 4Kids cutting out the "vice versa" part? It probably seems hypocritical of me to say that, but I'm sure that I wouldn't have complained about that.
Back to the digital green background, and her wings attach to her back, and as she assumes her finishing pose, they gain a purple glow (as if they've just been "turned on") and start fluttering. I'll miss her old spell-enhanching helmet, but her new outfit's nifty, and I'll probably get tired of adding "But she shouldn't have it" later, but for now... she shouldn't have it.
We see the other girls (bar Layla) a bit indifferent at Tec getting her upgrade, probably because they know that Tec is toast.
Tecna takes her fairy dust bottle off her necklace. Unlike the others', the bottle doesn't have a frame, and it has a hole in the middle of it. The lack of frame means her bottle's opening is as simple as it is digital: we just see a wireframe of the bottle turn into the bottle as a plane whooshes past it, before the top pops off. Cool, even if she shouldn't have it. Anyways, she twirls around and draws... a big paperclip? Honestly, I've no idea what that's supposed to be, but eh.
Tecna holds the full-sized bottle in her left hand, and she has her right hand right under the bottle. "Fairy dust... close the portal." She tips the bottle over, and she's glowing green as the dust flies around the funnel.
Musa is concerned. "Tecna, what are you trying to do?"
Tec flies up to the wall of the funnel, and starts pushing it downwards. Tebok and Layla are in awe, as the dust seems to be forming a shield around Tecna that's allowing her to push the funnel down. Her Enchantix wings are struggling against the wind. Either it's that strong, or since she's never had to flutter her wings before, her body isn't as well-geared to fluttering as the others' are. I imagine it's more of the latter than the former.
Anyways, she finally pushes the funnel down the hole, and we hear a loud explosion. Layla's telling the others to "RUN!"
We see Tebok turn back, and we see the rock platform underneath Tecna (with gaps that weren't there before) open up, and Tecna falls down the hole backwards, as the others are standing on a small ledge that doesn't seem to leave much space for running.
We see Stella and Layla looking horrified, then another shot of the void space Tecna's just fallen into, then a shot of Tebok, before showing the portal closing.
We see an extreme close-up of a blue eye with pink eyeshadow blinking once, then we see Stella and Layla letting the situation sink in. We get another extreme close-up of Bloom crying over the enormity of the situation, and we can clearly see a blue and pink collar that she doesn't have yet. You know that quality control isn't being careful enough, when they manage to make an animation mistake in an extreme close-up shot. Yeesh.
We see Musa running to the center of the (still-gapped) rock platform and dramatically hitting her fists against it while calling out for Tecna. We have a dramatic close-up of Musa. "Tebok, we've got to do something! We have to save her!" "Uhh, I'm so sorry... Tecna has sealed herself away, inside a locked and frozen dimension. There's nothing more we can do for her. Tecna is gone." Somewhere along there, the rock platform has gone back to being fully solid.
We see the Winx girls crying and hugging each other for support. We see Tebok sigh, and we see a nice long shot of Musa taking Tecna's "death" the hardest. Now, between that and Layla's line about how it's her responsibility to save her planet, I took that as a sign that it was really supposed to be Layla who does the sacrifice instead of Tecna, and to me, that would be more dramatic than having a relative stranger save the realm. I mean, Layla always totally believed that Andros could be saved when even her dad thought otherwise, plus (for extra drama points) she also happens to be the realm's princess. So how could you go wrong with a Layla sacrifice? Well, we'll explain that later.
It's night time at CT. Val is watching Musa wailing via crystal ball, and notes that the Winx sure like to sacrifice themselves. Considering how, except for Layla and Bloom, that's how everyone has gotten her Enchantix, I'd be inclined to agree. Uncreative writing, much? The Trix start to gloat.
Stormy: "Good thing, because they'll have to do a lot more sacrificing."
Darcy: "Ooh, I can't wait."
Icy: "With one less Winx to deal with, finishing them off will be a cinch."
Yeah, especially considering how bad the morale is at the Winx camp. We'll find out just how bad next time.
Critique for the episode:
I'm just going to get straight to the point: I'm disappointed (actually, that might be an understatement) that we don't get to see Zenith (we don't even get to hear someone even mention Zenith). For me, the issue's not as much about the ginormous plothole (don't get me wrong, of course I totally notice it) as not completing our Enchantix-facilitated tour of the Winx girls' realms. Leaving out any one girl's realm would have been bad enough, but to me, Tecna's realm was the worst possible one to leave out. The reasoning is that technology and magic seem contradictory (unlike the other girls' magical "concepts"), and I was hoping to see how a realm would reconcile these two conflicting ideas. Not only do we not get to see this, we don't even get to see what other Zenithians look like, and THAT should have at least been a necessity due to Enchantix. I'd say many other fans feel the same way. I was looking for a Zenith connection to this plotline which would have justified Tecna's Enchantix, but I couldn't find any. But even so, the distinct lack of actually getting to see Zenith would still be a sticking point, kinda like Beta Academy. Way to completely gyp Tecna fans, guys... (plus, I totally would have claimed whoever Tecna saved at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
winx_claim)
And besides... after all that she's said and done, Layla doesn't even get to save her own planet? Doesn't make sense to me...
No doubt that this episode has the saddest moment of the series thus far, but between the animation mistakes, plot holes, and broken promises (there'll be a few more I'm afraid) that accompany the moment, this is probably the exact point where S3 went off the rails.
Just noticed that the title of the episode I'm posting this news with is kind of appropriate... heh. (Might provide a retrospective on my Winx fandom later.)
Previously on Winx Club, the girls freed FG from Valtor's unique transcombination spell, but this week's plotline more about developments from before last week. How far back? Try the season premiere, in which Valtor breached the Omega portal. Turns out, letting prisoners escape from the portal into Andros isn't the only potential danger from the breached portal...
We open at CT, where Val is finding something "Very interesting" about the portal he left open on Andros. We see the Trix enter, and Stormy goes "Wowee." Icy's all, "What's going on?" Val explains: "This was bound to happen sooner or later. It's the Omega portal: it stayed open so long that all the negative energy that leaked out of the dimension is causing the entire world to collapse in on itself." Darcy: "What will happen to Andros then?" Val: "Have a look for yourself..."
We watch footage of Mermaid Guards waiting around the portal on Andros, then prisoners escaping from Omega, as Val explains: "Andros and the Omega Dimension are connected through the portal, so if one dimension is destroyed, the other will inevitably be destroyed along with it." That's right folks, Val's about to destroy two realms for the price of one breached portal. Seriously, what kind of genius tied the existence of two realms to that of each other's?
We fade out from escaping prisoners to nighttime Alfea, where FG tells someone to come in, and that someone is Saladin. FG: "Headmaster Saladin, what could be so important that you simply HAD to pay me a visit in the middle of the night?" Me: "And how are you not in bed, FG?" Anyways, Sal relays what Val already mentioned last scene. FG: "Is it Valtor's work?" Sal: "Only indirectly in that it was his dark spell that opened the passage between the two worlds. The fact that it was never fully closed is what has led to this terrible crisis." Cue footage of Val opening the portal. FG: "I'd better wake Layla and the girls!"
We see the now awakened girls heading down the hallway. Time for some randomness.
Stella: "What in the world could be so important that my beautfiul dream had to be interrupted?"
Bloom: "What was your dream about Stella?"
Stella: "Brandon had his own wings, and we were flying to his manion up in the clouds!"
Musa: "Forget that, in my dream I converted a mansion... into a state-of-the-art recording studio!"
Heh. Back to the plotline. Layla is already in FG's room getting up to speed, as the others join in.
Layla is quite distraught at the news: "My parents: I can't let them down. Ms. Faragonda, I am the princess of Andros, I have to go home."
FG: "I can't let you go alone. It's too dangerous."
Stella: "No need to ask, we'll go with you."
Bloom: "You can always count on us."
Tecna: We're here for you, all of us."
FG: "Alright girls, but you be careful. Don't take unneccessary risks. Saladin says that the situation on the ground is deteriorating very quickly."
Room. Tecna has her portal generator out, and she's put it on her closet. It seems that she's adjusting its orientation to make the portal open or something. Anyways, the portal opens. Tec: "The dimensional passage to Andros is now accepting passengers." Layla: "Thanks Tecna, you're so brilliant." We see Layla, Stella, Tecna, Bloom, Flora and Musa take the portal.
Over to Andros' palace. And hello again, Layla's mom. She's at the balcony, and it's not a pretty sight outside, with the storms and the waves and the funnel. And hello again, Layla's dad. Mom asks "What will become of our kingdom?" Dad just takes her back into the palace.
Mom gets even more distressed when she hears the news from some guard that more monsters have escaped from the portal and the Mermaid Guards can't deal with them. But then we hear Stella's voice saying "Don't worry! We'll deal with that!" We pan over to the Winx coming out of the portal. Mom is glad to see her again, and vice versa. Dad though, not so much, because he doesn't believe that there's anything that can be done to save Andros. (Incidentally, not one word about Nabu is mentioned here. Then again, considering that losing her whole planet would ruin Layla's life MUUUUCH more than her parents setting her up with some guy she hasn't even met, I don't really blame them.)
Layla: "I can't believe you dad! How can you say something like that?!?"
Dad: "I'm sorry to be so negative, but I'm afraid that none of this can be stopped."
Layla takes a look at the funnel: "Never give up hope dad..."
Dad: "Don't be stubborn, please! Go back to Alfea, I can't risk losing you."
Layla: "I'll go back dad, right after all of us fighting side-by-side close the Omega Portal, and set our planet free."
Bloom: "You heard her girls, let's do it! Magic Winx!"
Cue transformations. We get both kinds of transformations to the both transformation music pieces. By this time, the only girls still with a regular Winx transformation are Bloom and Tec, and since it would be most dramatic if Bloom were the last to get her Enchantix... yeah.
Bloom leads the girls: "Come on, we've got a portal to close!"
Layla stays behind for a few words from her dad: "Layla... I'll join you soon. We'll save Andros together."
Layla: "I'm counting on you daddy."
The girls fly off.
We fade out to under the sea. We see a Mermaid Guard kicking some rear end, first batting back a mermaid monster's spell right back at its firer, then blasting away another monster, and then knocking yet another monster into some hole which she seals with a rock. Guard decides to surface, and we see a battle going on right next to the portal.
Val is watching via crystal ball: "Andros will soon become a thing of the past."
Icy: "Doesn't it bother you to know that your lair will also be destroyed?"
Stormy: "She's got a point..."
Icy: "Hah."
Stormy: "And we can't forget about the mermaids you transformed. They've been valuable minions. Who knows, we might need them again before this is over and done with."
Val: "I always assumed that the mermaids wouldn't survive past Stage 1."
Trix: "Wha?"
Val: "Hey, why so shocked?..."
We see Val plundering Andros' spells: "I've already got a hold of Andros' most powerful magic formulas, and I can perform all their spells perfectly. So what more can I get from this miserable planet? Zilch, absolutely nothing."
Darcy sees the Winx in the crystal ball. We head to Andros and see the non-Enchanti surrounded by mermaid monsters.
Bloom: "Tecna, any suggestions?"
Tecna: "Yes. Virtual Shield."
We see them put up the shields they used against the CT vault monsters, and they form into a solid covering, green for Tec, red-orange for Bloom. A monster fires off a shot, and it doesn't do anything (thank you, Virtual Shields). The girls drop their shields, and Tec fires an Electric Beam, knocking her into the drink. Next, Bloom deflects another monster's shot with a Fire Sphere and knocks her into the drink as well. But then here come three more monsters...
Tec: "We can't even catch our breath! They keep coming!"
Bloom: "I know! It's as if there's an endless supply of these horrible creatures!"
On land, we see the Mermaid Guard taking on Team Prison Break. We see another prisoner get out of the portal, but then getting zapped right back in with a Mermaid Guard blast.
Now, some Enchanti action. We see Stella flipping herself over an oncoming monster... and out of nowhere, we flashcut to her fairy dust bottle, replete with the star drawing. Stella holds the glowing dust bottle and says: "Magic Rainbow!" The dust forms a rope, and it strangles the monster. "Stella 1: Monsters 0!"
But then here comes a mermaid monster. She zaps Stella, and Stella's falling. Flora decides to use her fairy dust. The bottle is there as usual, however, when she's supposed to be drawing out the flower outline with the bottle, the outline is nowhere to be seen. Side note: When I first saw this outline-less draw, it was in the 4K version of ep 12 (where the original version did have the outline), and I theorized that 4K had erased the outline for some reason or other (they've erased things before), but when I pointed this out to Lori, she said that it was also here in uncut ep 13. I suppose that since they cut short the drawing part, they wouldn't have been able to show the completed flower outline.
Anyways, back to the action. With the dust, Flo puts up a large Glowing Ivy, and Stella slides down the Ivy. The Ivy disappears once she's done using it. Flo: "Stella, are you alright?" Stella: "Flora... how's it going?" Hmm...
Over to Musa and Layla now, and they're at the portal. We see the Mermaid Guard fighting monsters right next to the portal, and then the funnel pushes Layla and Musa away, with Layla landing right in the path of a monster.
Over to CT now, where the Trix and are Val are watching the situation via crystal ball.
Icy: "It looks like the Winx are well and truly done for."
Darcy: "Yeah, I feel kind of bad."
Icy: "Come on Darcy, have you lost your mind???"
Darcy: "Not at all, it's just that, I always thought that WE would be the ones who would get to destroy them in the end. I mean, I don't know, after all the battles we've fought against them..."
Stormy: "Well yeah, I agree. It does seem kind of like we're getting gypped on this deal." Stormy, you wouldn't be the only ones who feel gypped...
Icy: "Yeah, it doesn't seem right does it?"
Trix: "Let's go!"
Val: "Hold on a second, where do you think you're going?"
Icy: "Valtor."
Stormy: "Why do you want to stop us?"
Darcy: "I thought you hated the Winx as much as we do!"
Val: "Those fairies have almost no chance of survival. The portal is going to give way ANY MINUTE NOW, and the Winx, along with the entire dimension will go spinning into oblivion, so let me ask you this: Why do you want to share their fate?"
Back to Andros, where we last left Layla in the path of a monster. But here comes dear old dad, and a couple guards to fight off the monster. He's having the guards chase the monster while he has a few words with his daughter.
Dad: "Layla sweetheart, are you alright?"
Layla: "Dad, it's so good to see you! You saved my life."
Dad: "No Layla, I think it's you who saved me. You gave me the strength to believe and to keep hoping. I'm very proud of you sweetheart."
Layla: "Oh dad, I love you."
Niiiice.
Okay, poignant moment over. Now we hear the royal guards, and they're being attacked by three approaching mermaid monsters.
Layla: "Dad, if you can keep them busy, I'll try to get closer to the portal, and see if I can find a way to seal it."
Dad: "It's too dangerous. If you get too close to the funnel, you'll get sucked in, and then, you'd be gone forever."
Layla: "But it's our only hope. I have to try."
Dad: "Wait a minute, not yet. Tebok the Wise is on his way. Andros' greatest wizard will know what to do." Here, Dad pronounces Tebok with a "tay" rather than a "tee" sound.
Dad: "Meanwhile, let's deal with the monsters. Layla, can you free those poor mermaids from Valtor's spell?"
Layla: "With my fairy dust, I think so."
Dad: "Good, then I will lure them in for you. Guards, fan out in all directions and give the princess some space."
Dad puts his foot on a stone and raises his sword: "For
Layla sprays the fairy dust over the mermaid monsters, and they turn back into Mermaid Guards. We see Layla holding her bottle: "Valtor's spell is broken." Okay, now time for dad to rejoin his soldiers and for Layla to wait for Tebok.
Mermaid Guard: "Thank you princess. That spell was a pure living nightmare."
And here come the non-Enchanti to congratulate Layla, plus they've got company: Tebok the Wise. Tecna exposits that his ship was destroyed by Val's monsters, and Bloom finishes that they gave him a ride. Tebok is glad to see Layla... but then here come monsters. Lots of them.
Fortunately, we then hear Stella blast a few of them with an Ocean of Light: "Smash hit!" Stella gives that cute arm flex that we've seen before. The other Enchanti are here, and Musa says they're going to deal with the monsters, while Bloom, Tec, Layla and Tebok deal with the portal.
We see the three Enchanti fight off the monsters, as we fade to the others running up the spiral way to the funnel.
Layla and Tebok stop at the platform right in front of the funnel, and Tebok says it's too risky to get any closer. After a short pause, Layla asks Tebok "What's wrong?" Well, turns out Tebok is partially to blame for this, as we head into a flashback...
We see a bunch of wizards (a young Tebok included) on a singular rock column (where the funnel is right now) casting spells and wielding charms, causing a bunch of rock to curl into a spiral around it, before causing the funnel to die down, while Tebok explains: "A long time, I helped to build this portal. In order to make it escape-proof, we designed it so that it could not be opened or closed. It was to be a fail safe defense against the greatest of evils." So THIS is the genius who tied Andros' existence with that of Omega's. BLEH.
Anyways, back to the present. Tebok: "But obviously, we underestimated Valtor's power." The non-Enchanti are now with Layla, and Tecna's all "Hmm..."
Bloom: "Well then, Tebok, why not forget about closing the portal, and try destroying it instead?"
Tebok's ahead of them on that, because he's got some rolled-up parchment: "These ancient scrolls contain enough magic to do just that, but I'll also need your help."
Layla: "What do you want us to do Tebok?"
Tebok: "I need you to converge all of your magic on to these scrolls."
Tecna: "All of our magic? Okay, we'll do it."
Tebok: "This is our one and only hope."
Personally, I'm thinking, how is that supposed to work? We have two girls technically at Charmix level but most likely using base powers, and an Enchantix whose powers are two levels above them. Wouldn't the powers be a bit unbalanced for convergence?
But anyways, the three fairies stand back, and Layla takes their hands. The girls glow orange, pink, and green. Mmm, cross-level convergence. Seems like the girls are concentrating very hard to make it work, because I can imagine it's not that easy, especially since Bloom and Tec are (sigh, but expected) not using their Charmix. (Wonder why the writers didn't explore the potential complications of cross-level convergence?)
Tebok unrolls the scroll and goes all town-cryer as he announces that the portal, "created by the great wizards of the First Triumvirate of Andros", will be no more. We see writing appear on the scroll. "By the power of Medach, the highest wizard in the realm of..."
That's as far as he gets before the funnel tugs the parchment straight out of his hands and knocks over the fairies, sending the scrolls into the funnel. So I guess that the unbalanced convergence won't be an issue after all. Seriously though, you'd think that Tebok should have been a bit more wise to handle those potential realm-saving documents a bit better, or at least stood a distance from the funnel to avoid losing them mid-spell.
Layla decides to fly up to go get the scrolls, and we see them fly past her attempts to grab them. Tecna: "Layla! Come back down here Layla!" Layla seems a bit reluctant, but eventually she spin-cycles herself back to the ground. As Bloom concedes that the scrolls are gone and asks Tebok what they can do now, the ground starts to rumble.
Tebok: "The funnel is growing stronger. We must leave the planet immediately!"
Layla: "What??? We can't leave now!"
Tecna: "There's got to be something else we can do..."
Tebok: "*sigh* I'm afraid the portal is completely out of control. The only way to close it now, is from the inside. To achieve that would require more courage and power than anyone has. Our only real option is to leave the planet."
Bloom: "I'm not going to let another planet be destroyed. I couldn't do anything about Domino (deja vu, anyone?), but I can surely try to save Andros."
Layla: "Bloom, it's my responsibility to save my world."
Bloom: "Well, then we'll do it together."
Layla takes Bloom's hand, and gallantly walks towards the funnel, along with the others. But instead of sucking them in like it did the scrolls (and as King Dad warned her earlier), the funnel inexplicably pushes them away instead. Tebok and the two fairies are knocked over, while Tecna manages to stay standing. Those boots of hers must have some serious traction, since they leave a burning trail. Tecna: "Wait, I can do it." And you can do it because...?
The other Enchanti are apparently finished dealing with the monsters, because they're watching in horror as Tecna bravely marches towards the funnel.
Layla: "No, she can not risk her life for my planet! Tecna, no!!"
Tebok: "You are needed here Layla, to help rebuild. What Tecna is doing takes great courage. We must allow her to live out her destiny."
Tebok, dude. She's not even from here.
Tecna puts up her hand and touches the funnel. We hear some sort of electric buzzing sound, so I take that she's casting a spell to get the funnel to suck her in. Which it does. Musa flies up to Tecna in the portal, and...
Well, there's no easy way to say this: You know the writers clearly aren't doing their job when they never give ample reason for why the funnel pushes away Layla after it sucked in the scrolls, and then why a base-powered complete stranger manages to enter the portal when it's just pushed away the Enchantix-powered native... and why, despite not even the slightest mention of Zenith or any other realms in this mission, Tecna gets her Enchantix upgrade. I know that she's the only person who could logically get her upgrade, but I was kind of expecting her to get it, well, on Zenith. After saving a Zenithian. FG specifically said way back when, "You will need to rescue someone from your own world, and it will require a great sacrifice." No doubt that Tecna's sacrifice is great, but... there's nothing even remotely Zenithian about the plot at all.
Anyways, henshin. We see interlaced lines resolve into a profiled silhouette of Tecna. The background turns digital green as the silhouette turns to face us before the light dies down to show Tecna's face. We see digital meshes cover her eyelids, hair, and lips. The meshes morph her features, most noticeably lenghtening her hair. Her whole body covers itself in wireframe (like in her original transformation) and becomes shadowed as a wireframe sphere (like her Static Sphere attack) encloses her. The Tecnaboots are no more, as we see purple wires draw her leg coverings, and we see a purple fan-like covering fan out over her already-there skirt, and then a yellow fan-like covering fan out over her also-already-there top. We see her fairy dust necklace form, and then her hairpin. (It's a bit chintzy here, but in the CG movie, it looks much better, I'll tell you that.)
Her hairpin expands into a glowing shadow before becoming her wings, which lack lower bits, and have less of a butterfly look than the other girls'. Interestingly, Tec was originally shown in pre-season publicity with butterfly-ish wings, complete with the lower bits, and the glowing shadow is in more or less the same shape as those wings. IMO, removing those lower bits (man does that sound dirty!) makes the wings look more technological, but still, why show the butterfly-shaped shadow?
Anyways, Tecna raises her right arm and uses her left hand to magically put on her spellglove (which looks more or less the same as that on her previous outfit), and then vice versa. Would you believe that some people threw a wobbly over 4Kids cutting out the "vice versa" part? It probably seems hypocritical of me to say that, but I'm sure that I wouldn't have complained about that.
Back to the digital green background, and her wings attach to her back, and as she assumes her finishing pose, they gain a purple glow (as if they've just been "turned on") and start fluttering. I'll miss her old spell-enhanching helmet, but her new outfit's nifty, and I'll probably get tired of adding "But she shouldn't have it" later, but for now... she shouldn't have it.
We see the other girls (bar Layla) a bit indifferent at Tec getting her upgrade, probably because they know that Tec is toast.
Tecna takes her fairy dust bottle off her necklace. Unlike the others', the bottle doesn't have a frame, and it has a hole in the middle of it. The lack of frame means her bottle's opening is as simple as it is digital: we just see a wireframe of the bottle turn into the bottle as a plane whooshes past it, before the top pops off. Cool, even if she shouldn't have it. Anyways, she twirls around and draws... a big paperclip? Honestly, I've no idea what that's supposed to be, but eh.
Tecna holds the full-sized bottle in her left hand, and she has her right hand right under the bottle. "Fairy dust... close the portal." She tips the bottle over, and she's glowing green as the dust flies around the funnel.
Musa is concerned. "Tecna, what are you trying to do?"
Tec flies up to the wall of the funnel, and starts pushing it downwards. Tebok and Layla are in awe, as the dust seems to be forming a shield around Tecna that's allowing her to push the funnel down. Her Enchantix wings are struggling against the wind. Either it's that strong, or since she's never had to flutter her wings before, her body isn't as well-geared to fluttering as the others' are. I imagine it's more of the latter than the former.
Anyways, she finally pushes the funnel down the hole, and we hear a loud explosion. Layla's telling the others to "RUN!"
We see Tebok turn back, and we see the rock platform underneath Tecna (with gaps that weren't there before) open up, and Tecna falls down the hole backwards, as the others are standing on a small ledge that doesn't seem to leave much space for running.
We see Stella and Layla looking horrified, then another shot of the void space Tecna's just fallen into, then a shot of Tebok, before showing the portal closing.
We see an extreme close-up of a blue eye with pink eyeshadow blinking once, then we see Stella and Layla letting the situation sink in. We get another extreme close-up of Bloom crying over the enormity of the situation, and we can clearly see a blue and pink collar that she doesn't have yet. You know that quality control isn't being careful enough, when they manage to make an animation mistake in an extreme close-up shot. Yeesh.
We see Musa running to the center of the (still-gapped) rock platform and dramatically hitting her fists against it while calling out for Tecna. We have a dramatic close-up of Musa. "Tebok, we've got to do something! We have to save her!" "Uhh, I'm so sorry... Tecna has sealed herself away, inside a locked and frozen dimension. There's nothing more we can do for her. Tecna is gone." Somewhere along there, the rock platform has gone back to being fully solid.
We see the Winx girls crying and hugging each other for support. We see Tebok sigh, and we see a nice long shot of Musa taking Tecna's "death" the hardest. Now, between that and Layla's line about how it's her responsibility to save her planet, I took that as a sign that it was really supposed to be Layla who does the sacrifice instead of Tecna, and to me, that would be more dramatic than having a relative stranger save the realm. I mean, Layla always totally believed that Andros could be saved when even her dad thought otherwise, plus (for extra drama points) she also happens to be the realm's princess. So how could you go wrong with a Layla sacrifice? Well, we'll explain that later.
It's night time at CT. Val is watching Musa wailing via crystal ball, and notes that the Winx sure like to sacrifice themselves. Considering how, except for Layla and Bloom, that's how everyone has gotten her Enchantix, I'd be inclined to agree. Uncreative writing, much? The Trix start to gloat.
Stormy: "Good thing, because they'll have to do a lot more sacrificing."
Darcy: "Ooh, I can't wait."
Icy: "With one less Winx to deal with, finishing them off will be a cinch."
Yeah, especially considering how bad the morale is at the Winx camp. We'll find out just how bad next time.
Critique for the episode:
I'm just going to get straight to the point: I'm disappointed (actually, that might be an understatement) that we don't get to see Zenith (we don't even get to hear someone even mention Zenith). For me, the issue's not as much about the ginormous plothole (don't get me wrong, of course I totally notice it) as not completing our Enchantix-facilitated tour of the Winx girls' realms. Leaving out any one girl's realm would have been bad enough, but to me, Tecna's realm was the worst possible one to leave out. The reasoning is that technology and magic seem contradictory (unlike the other girls' magical "concepts"), and I was hoping to see how a realm would reconcile these two conflicting ideas. Not only do we not get to see this, we don't even get to see what other Zenithians look like, and THAT should have at least been a necessity due to Enchantix. I'd say many other fans feel the same way. I was looking for a Zenith connection to this plotline which would have justified Tecna's Enchantix, but I couldn't find any. But even so, the distinct lack of actually getting to see Zenith would still be a sticking point, kinda like Beta Academy. Way to completely gyp Tecna fans, guys... (plus, I totally would have claimed whoever Tecna saved at
winx_claim)And besides... after all that she's said and done, Layla doesn't even get to save her own planet? Doesn't make sense to me...
No doubt that this episode has the saddest moment of the series thus far, but between the animation mistakes, plot holes, and broken promises (there'll be a few more I'm afraid) that accompany the moment, this is probably the exact point where S3 went off the rails.
