Winx Club / Tropes M to R

Tropes A-F | Tropes G-L | Tropes M-R | Tropes S-Z

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Winx Club provides examples of:

M

• Mage Species: 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 be more specific, since Bloom has the Dragon Flame (the "flame of life"), she would automatically be a fairy; a fairy with power over mundane fire could become a witch.
• Mage Tower: The Cloud Tower school for witches is a tall tower. It can change its own structure, and the presence of dark magic in it makes Cloud Tower bad for fairies to stay in for a long time.
• Magic Is Feminine: Most of the magic users seen in the series are female. The most prominent male magic users are Nabu (the Token Wizard of the Specialists) Lord Darkar (the main villain of season 2) and Valtor (the main villain of season 3).
• Magic Skirt: All the girls who wear miniskirts (especially in their fairy forms). Despite the action, panties are usually not visible (with few aversions in the first season).
• Magic Wand: The Mythix scepters.
  • Lockette, Bloom's bonded pixie, uses one to navigate.
• Magical Girl: Fairies and Witches are these. They get several sets of transformation sequences of course.
• Magical Land: Most kingdoms/planets, though most of them have advanced technology.
• Make My Monster Grow: Whenever Darkar sends his pet Kerbog to fight the Winx, expect this trope to happen.
• Male Gaze: The early transformations were full of these, perhaps climaxing with Enchantix. Then the show was retooled to appeal to a younger crowd, and the costumes understandably become much more conservative.
  • In one episode, one scene cuts from a close up of a supporting character to a shot of Stella's rear as she is trying out a skirt.
• Male Sun, Female Moon: Stella's parents currently provide the page image. Her father King Radius has a sun motif while her mother Queen Luna has a moon motif.
• Mama Bear: Somewhat off-screen in Winx Club and crossing with Papa Wolf is Marion (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.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • The Winx and Taboc have a big one in Episode 13 of Season 3 after Tecna is sucked down the Omega portal.
  • In Episode 17 of Season 4, the Winx and Roxy have the biggest one of all when they realize Morgana, Nebula, and the Earth Fairies declare revenge on all of Earth for forgetting them.
• 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.
  • The fifth season has the subtitle "Beyond Believix". Fittingly, as it is the first to introduce new higher fairy forms after Believix.
• Mecha-Mooks: Hagen has a guard made up of these in his castle. They're fairly tough, but go down when Bloom destroys their control unit.
• Mid-Season Twist:
  • In the 13th episode of Season 1, Bloom finds out she's not the biological daughter of Mike and Vanessa, as the former saved her from a fire when she was a baby and Happily Adopted her. Now Bloom wants to find out where she came from, the identity of her real birth parents, and where her birth parents are.
  • Episode 17 of Season 4: The Winx have freed Morgana, Nebula, and the Earth Fairies, only to realize too late they've grown vengeful after being shut up so long and everyone losing their belief; now they have to stop the Earth Fairies from destroying Earth.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Every season has the Winx receiving a new fairy form halfway through.
• Million Mook March: The Trix's Army of Darkness during Season 1.
• Mind Control:
  • Darcy has hypnotic powers that she uses frequently to control people.
  • In the 4Kids dub, Riven is controlled by Darcy in season 1. He follows the Trix of his own accord in all other continuities.
  • Bloom is controlled twice by Lord Darkar in season 2.
  • Diaspro makes Sky fall in love with her in season 3 with a Love Potion.
  • Riven gets brainwashed by Mandragora in The Secret of the Lost Kingdom.
  • Nebula does this to Roxy in season 4.
  • Stella is a victim of this in season 6, courtesy of Darcy's magic mirror.
• 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 somewhat feels this way with the way the scenes keep switching between dream and reality, to the point where it's a bit difficult to tell which one is which until the Winx get to Cloud Tower.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Done to Riven by Darcy in season one where he was imprisoned in Cloud Tower. See Mind Rape above.
• 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, Marion.
• Modesty Towel: Helia is seen wrapped up in one during "The Red Tower" in season 3. Perhaps it was a little Fanservice, since we hadn't seen him much in that season.
• The Mole: In season 2, the new teacher Avalon is actually Darkar's spy in Alfea. The real Avalon is locked up in Darkar's dungeon. In the TV special "The Shadow Phoenix," Nickelodeon's summary/remake of season 2, Avalon is Darkar.
• Mood Whiplash: Any time an episode ends darkly, followed by the cheerful, happy credits music, but not before an "On the Next" sequence first.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: 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.
• Mouth Screen: Happens several times throughout the show, sometimes accompanied by the characters' uvula.
  • Season 1: When the Trix are expelled, Icy lets out a frustrated yell, with the camera staring into her mouth. Icy also demonstrates this trope when noticing the pumpkin on Mirta's shirt, prior to turning her into one.
  • Season 2: Happens the most often as part of the Charmix transformation. For whatever reason, Flora doesn't have one and Musa is the only one to show her uvula. Stranger still is that the 4Kids dub removed this part of the sequence altogether.
  • Season 3: When Aisha yells "Enchantix" when Sky turns evil. Done twice in "Tecna's Sacrifice", first on Bloom yelling NO(along with an animation error where she's in Enchantix form before obtaining it herself), then on Musa screaming at the camera and showing her uvula before the camera zooms away from her.
  • Season 4: Furious Stella yelling at the fairy pets about a secret party in her room.
  • Magical Adventure: While reaching for food, a student accidentally picks up her bewitched frog friend, then screams as the camera focuses on her mouth.
• The Movie: Three CGI movies. They were aired on TV in most countries, but did manage to get some theatrical releases in Europe.
• Mythology Gag: In season 6, Bloom's flashback with Evil Former Friend Selina in a version of her Season 1 outfit, which hasn't appeared since earlier in season 2. In the Nick continuity, it's the first time that it's ever appeared.
• 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. The next scene shows Aisha crying at a tree, so you can guess how well she took it.
• 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 Marion 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...
• Myth Arc: Bloom's origins and the search for her parents is the overarching arc for the series in earlier seasons. In season 1 she learns she is the princess of the now dead planet Domino and has the mythical Dragon Flame, which is the source of her powers. It takes a backseat during season 2, where the she continues to study her past. It takes front stage during season 3, particularly in fighting Valtor, who fought her parents during the fall of Domino and may know something about their fate. In the first movie, The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, she manages to revive Domino and reunite with her birth parents. The second movie, Magical Adventure, deals with her getting to know her parents while finishing off the Ancestral Witches who destroyed Domino in the first place. Afterwards, the myth arc is done and is not part of the plot aside from a few references in seasons 4 and beyond.

N

• 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. The show is willing to use die and kill sparingly though.
  • Averted in season 5 episode 15, as the script didn't shy away from outright saying "die". When Stella receives news that Solaria's sun is going out, she tearfully exclaims that her father could die as a result, using those exact words.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: The comic book version has a story where the Winx girls travel to the future. The scientist who invented the Time Machine discourages them from meeting their future selves because of this trope.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers for the final Nickelodeon special The Shadow Phoenix heavily involved Bloom's transformation into Dark Bloom, when that doesn't happen until the last half hour of the special.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Happens twice to Bloom. In season one, she spontaneously develops psychic powers that lets her see a person's true nature, just in time for a subplot involving her mother almost being scammed by a couple of men. The power is subsequently only used once. Similarly, in season two, Bloom conveniently gains healing powers in time to resurrect Sky after the latter is killed by Icy. These powers remain a minor plot point throughout season two and are used a few more times in it. Her healing powers are also used several times during season 4, before seemingly being forgotten by the writers.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Locking the Trix in Light Rock Monastery for treatment to their remaining insanity ended up making them more crazy and evil out of the sheer trauma of the monks trying to force all negative feelings out of them.
  • In The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, Bloom and Sky managed to accidentally free the spirits of the Three Ancestral 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.
  • In season four, the girls manage to free the imprisoned Earth fairies... and Queen Morgana immediately declares war on mankind!
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • In Season 3, Darcy sets the library on fire to trap Galatea and derail the Winx from following her; this causes Musa to sense Galatea is in danger and the Winx come right to her aid, and Musa vows never to leave her behind, which earns her Enchantix, allowing her to restore Galatea's wings and extinguish the fire for good.
  • In the second movie, 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 off said magical abilities, thus the Winx regained their powers back again. Icy's ancestral counterpart was PISSED.
    Ancestral Witch: "YOU STUPID WITCH! Destroying the sapling releases all of the positive magic at once!"
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: According to the creators, Sirenix turns the Winx into "mermaid fairies."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: According to an interview that appeared on an Italian magazine, each one of the Winx is partly based on a celebrity:
  • Bloom is Britney Spears
  • Stella is Cameron Diaz
  • Flora is Jennifer Lopez
  • Musa is Lucy Liu
  • Tecna is P!nk
  • Aisha is Beyoncé
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Bloom in season six. After her friends lose their powers, she splits her Dragon Flame among them — which nearly kills her three episodes later, since she doesn't have enough to sustain herself.
• No One Could Survive That!: Aisha during the season two premiere.
• No-Sell: Once a Season, the Winx discover their current fairy form is not strong enough to fight the season's Arc Villain, and Faragonda tells them of a new fairy form which is the only thing strong enough to match their power.
• 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 (In the non-4K 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 In-Universe lousy camera angles anyway.)
  • Subverted in Season 4, to the point where it's become a secondary storyline.
• No Man of Woman Born: The first movie. According to the prophecy of the Ancestral Witches, the Sword of Oritel cannot be removed by anyone but a "crownless king" and survive as well as restore Domino to its former glory. Turns out Sky had already fulfilled those prerequisites back in the beginning of the film, where it was revealed he had just finished his coronation as the new King of Eraklyon.
• Non-Serial Movie: Magical Adventure, in stark contrast to The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, which ended the Myth Arc of Bloom's missing birth parents. It feels like an Alternate Continuity to season 4, but that just raises up even more questions, like where the girls got their Believix powers, or why Nabu's even here as he's supposed to be dead. There's a reason many fans say that makes much more sense if you imagine the girls in their Enchantix outfits, as opposed to their Believix ones.
• Not a Game: In Paradise Bay, when the place is swarming with zombie pirates, Riven brags to Sky that he's killed more zombies than him. Sky gets angry at his laid-back attitude and tells him this trope verbatim, as they have to focus on protecting the locals.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: The Cloud Tower School for Witches allows its students to cause trouble for other schools as long as they are not caught out.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Fairy transformations (and one witch transformation) tend to be very skimpy, with mini shorts/skirts/dresses and midriff-barring top pieces, especially in the early seasons. This is treated as normal and never sexualized by all of the characters (Love Interests included) and the camera shots. It doesn't hamper the girls' ability to fight, either. Similarly, when the characters go on a Beach Episode, the further lack of clothes is not acknowledged.
• Not Himself: By way of dubbing with Stella, plus a few instances that were also there in the original.
• Not Quite Dead: Season 8 retcons the fact that Valtor had been killed when Bloom extinguished his fire with her fairy dust, allowing him to be the Big Bad of season 8.
• Not Wearing Tights: Inverted in the fourth season. The Winx do superhero things without superhero personas and no one takes them seriously. Tecna researches Earth Culture and decides they have to market themselves as superheroes to get people to believe in them.
• Not What It Looks Like: This happens in episode 21 of the third season after Aisha caught Nabu having snuck on the ship. While Flora was filming a message for Helia, Musa was putting shackles on Nabu. The camera angles made it look like Musa was kissing Nabu, and Riven saw the message and got the wrong idea. The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up in the next episode after a brief fight between Riven and Nabu, and seeing that Riven really cared about her, Musa decided not to break up with him.

O

• Oblivious Adoption: In most versions, Bloom is unaware of her fairy heritage after being sent to Earth as a baby and Mike and Vanessa adopted her, believing they were her parents. The 4Kids dub instead has Bloom already knowing she was adopted, but instead not knowing the how of it.
• Oddball in the Series:
  • Out of all the fairy forms, Charmix, Enchantix, and Bloomix were the only ones that were earned individually rather than as a group.
  • Charmix is the only fairy form that is not an outfit change, and is instead just a pair of accessories.
  • Mythix is the only transformation seen only in CGI.
  • Season 4 is the only season in which the Trix don't appear.
  • Enchantix is the only transformation not seen in the Flash animation style from the specials and Seasons 5-7.
  • Seasons 4 and 8 are the only seasons where Daphne does not appear, while the latter mentioned marks Roxy's first seasonal absence.
  • Seasons 5 and 8 are the only seasons where the Pixies do not appear, having been replaced with Selkies in the former and Star Kids in the latter.
• Odd Name Out:
  • Bloom is the only one of the Winx whose name does not end with an A, and until Aisha's introduction, the only Winx whose name isn't based on her power source.
  • Darcy is the only one of the Trix with a common name.
  • Likewise with the Winx's families; Stella and Flora are the only members of their respective families with regular names. In Bloom's biological family, only Daphne has a common name.
• Offhand Backhand: In the second film during the fight against the doppelgängers, Bloom and Sky do this against fake doubles of themselves. Double points as Sky and Bloom were passionately kissing when they did that.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: In Secret Of The Lost Kingdom, a black goo makes up the gate to a dimension in which the people of Domino are imprisoned. Said dimension is literally called Obsidian Circle.
• One-Gender Race: Fairies are implied to be this, as all fairies introduced within the universe are female. Somewhat subverted with the second movie, Magical Adventure, where what looks like male fairies can be seen in the background of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot. However, due to multiple plot discrepancies with the rest of the franchise, the status of Magical Adventure in the canon timeline has been disputed at length, and it remains uncertain whether it counts as part of the Winx canon universe or not (thus this trope still applies).
• 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 Sane Man: Timmy takes up this role in the middle of Season 3, as he's the only one of the group who did not believe Tecna was dead.
• Only One Female Mold: About the only physical differences between the females are in the hair styles, clothing and colors. It only got worse as the series went on — come season five, it's clear they just reused the same CG model for each Winx girl. The Sirenix and Harmonix outfits themselves all look very similar to each other, much more so than in the past transformations, starting a tread that continued all the way up to season 8.
• Only Six Faces: Several background personages come back in different roles you can't possibly combine without having actual doppelgangers running around.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Only the person who unlocked the Legendarium can re-lock it, in this case, Selina is the only one who can turn the Legendarium key and lock it for good.
• On the Next: Every episode ends with a teaser of the next episode's events (except the finale of the season).
• Orcus on His Throne: Darkar fits this trope to a T.
• Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: All the human characters have brown, black, or blonde as their hair color. Now, of course, there are magical beings sporting those shades too but blue, purple, pink, and green are perfectly common as well —or they have non-dyed strikes of a different color. Furthermore, this trope is used to indicate that Roxy is the last Earth fairy the Winx are seeking in the fourth season. Her bright, pink with yellow tips hair stands out like a sore thumb any time she's in a human crowd.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Ours are Magical Girls with trendy outfits! They are from different planets all around the Magic Dimension. Though they're not always nice, they usually try to help people and protect the realms from evil. They also only have wings when they're transformed.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Ghouls are insect-like imps marginally bigger than cats. Despite having distinctive arms and legs that suggest a bipedal existence, like gorillas, they get around on all-fours. In "An Unexpected Event", a number of them assist the ogre Knut in his attack on Stella and later on Bloom and her family to recover the Ring of Solaria. Both times end in defeat and supposedly they and Knut cut ties hereafter.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Andros' realm has a winged version of mermaids and tritons. They have powerful voices and the ability to fly. Some have also magical powers.
• Our Pixies Are Different: Pixies serve as the titular Winx Club's companions. They are inhabitants of the magical dimension and are small winged creatures who have fairly large heads in comparison to their baby-like bodies. They are able to bond with fairies in order to help them in their quest to become fully successful.
• Our Vampires Are Different: In season 6, Selina summon the "Children of the Night", a group of mythical vampires from Earth. These creatures look exactly like humans, but they are much more pale skin, have sharp fangs and reddish brown eyes. They have super strength and speed and Mind Manipulation powers. They don't change into bats like the common myth and were not shown sucking any blood of their prey.
• Our Witches Are Different: Witches are their own species and the Evil Counterpart Race to Fairies. Both are all-female.
• Out of Focus: Tecna easily gets the least focus and development, especially in later seasons. Sometimes it feels like she's a minor character rather than one of the main ones.
• The Outsider Befriends the Best: Bloom, an Ordinary High-School Student from Earth, stumbles upon and saves Princess Stella of Solaria from some monsters. In the process, Bloom discovers she's a fairy too and accompanies said fairy princess to the Magical Land she comes from. There, she gets accepted at the most prestigious fairy school, develops a mentor-protegee relationship with the headmistress (a senior warrior of the most powerful magical team, the Company of Light), and unknowingly romances the prince of another planet. Two more fairy princesses are added to her friend circle in the following seasons. Bloom's penchant for befriending well-positioned people gets dialed up in the comics, where most of the Winx Club are princesses — like in the series, this includes Aisha and Stella but also Musa and Tecna. The whole situation gets kind of subverted, though, as Bloom is too a fairy princess, but of a lost kingdom. So, she's only an outsider because she was sent to Earth for her protection when she was a baby.
• 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!

P

• Paper Tiger: The Specialists can be considered this. They are young men with tall, athletic and muscular bodies and attend an elite paramilitary boarding school where they are trained to fight against the forces of evil. Having said that, their win ratio is actually abysmally low as they seem to do anything but win, and more often than not display mediocre athletic ability and combat performance when they are in action.
• Parents Suck at Matchmaking: Sky is the crown prince of Eraklyon so his parents betrothed him to Diaspro, the princess of a vassal kingdom, since their births and hammered the idea on their heads to the point Diaspro becomes obsessed with the idea and Sky absolutely loathes it. Growing up, the pair is implied to have been good friends but Diaspro's classist and high-maintenance attitude prevents Sky from ever becoming romantically attracted to her. When Sky's true Love Interest, Bloom, appears on the scene, Diaspro becomes a Clingy Jealous Girl and even pulls a Face–Heel Turn when she fails to gain Sky's affections, which only serves to sever their bond. Meanwhile, Sky's parents don't accept Bloom until they learn she's a princess too. This doesn't make the situation a subversion, though, as Sky's preference for Bloom has nothing to do with her royal status but with her kindness and heroism.
• Pep-Talk Song: Several of the transformation songs for each season talk about Believing In Yourself. Examples being the Charmix, Believix and Dreamix transformation songs.
• 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:
  • While Flora (whose signature color is pink) doesn't have as much screen time as Bloom or Stella, she is featured on almost all merchandise alongside those two.
  • The Believix transformation added more pink to everybody's outfits, even though pink is Flora's color.
  • The Enchantix redesign in Season 8 adds a lot of pink details to all the outfits.
• Power Crystal: The Ultimate Power in season 7. The Stones of Memories also qualify.
• Power Dyes Your Hair:
  • The Enchantix transformation causes some of the Winx’s hair to either change its hue or gain lighter streaks.
  • Happens when the girls transform into their Sirenix forms and dive underwater.
  • Also happens to a lesser extent in the Winx's Tynix forms.
• Power Incontinence: Bloom suffers this after earning her Enchantix, encountering side-effects where her spells sometimes turn on her or loses control, and she cannot miniaturize. According to Faragonda, because she did not earn her Enchantix through sacrifice but by pure force of will and belief to defeat evil, her Enchantix is rendered "incomplete".
• Powers in the First Episode: In the first episode Bloom accidentally discovers and uses her magic powers. She doesn't transform for several more episodes.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Tecna, the only main character to still have short hair, has shoulder length hair in her Enchantix form. Happens to the other already long-haired girls too, as their hair tend to grow to thigh or ankle length in their fairy forms.
• The Power of Creation: A standard magic power is to turn objects into something else, such as turning a rock into a goblet, or just creating objects from nothing. Living creatures can also be created, but that takes either a group effort or someone with a lot of power.
• The Power of Friendship: While trapped in an energy-draining sphere by the Trix with no way out, Bloom realizes her love for her family and friends is her strength and channels it into enough willpower to free herself and defeat the witches.
• The Power of Hate: In Season 4, Episode 15, when Mitzi and her friends are turned into dark fairies by Ogron, their magic is amplified the more people start to hate fairies and fear the Winx. When the cityfolk start believing in the Winx again, the dark fairies lose their power.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Because 4Kids is one of those Never Say "Die" companies, they didn't let Sky die when Icy attacks him at Red Fountain in the 4Kids dub. This accidentally solves a future Plot Hole, where a character truly dies and Bloom is unable to save him.
  • 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 dub 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...
    • The Nickelodeon version changes this completely to have the Winx just go out for a night on the town, and they don't get caught sneaking out at all.
  • In the original version, the Winx Club was formed in the second episode. In the 4Kids dub, 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.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Bloom before she destroys Valtor in the Nickelodeon dub:
  Bloom: Goodbye, Valtor.
• Previously on…: Every episode begins with a recap of what happened in the last episode before the title card. In addition. All episodes end with a Pre Cap of the next episode before the credits roll.
• Prodigal Family: Downplayed. While she's by no means estranged from her father, Musa's reaction to finding out that Ho-Boe has been invited to attend her concert at Red Fountain is one of displeasure and fear. The reason is that her dad has associated the music the whole family once loved creating with the tragedy of his wife Matlin's death. Both husband and daughter still grieve the woman but Musa has embraced music as a way to connect with her mother while Ho-Boe disapproves of her musical endeavors. Musa's reaction is even more understandable after we learn that Ho-Boe destroyed all the musical instruments in their house after Matlin's passing—Musa fears her father will ruin her show.
• Prone to Tears: The cry-cries from season 7. Pretty much anything can make them cry, specifically being called "ugly", having to say goodbye to another cry-cry, or seeing someone else cry.
• 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. When Nickelodeon did their recaps, he was left out completely.
  • In season 6, Riven breaks up with Musa and leaves the Specialists. He comes back in season 8.
  • Also in season 6, Roy after Nex comes out on top in their love triangle.

R

• Race Against the Clock: For the first half of Season 5, the Winx have to go on a quest to obtain the Sirenix transformation so they can defeat Tritannus. If they don't complete the quest within one lunar cycle, they'll lose their powers forever.
• Rags to Royalty:
  • Bloom and Roxy are revealed to be princesses.
  • Brandon will be a male example if he marries Stella, as will Timmy in the comic version if he marries Tecna, since she is a princess in that continuity.
  • Nebula, of all people, is a Cinderella, being crowned Queen by Morgana after abdicating the throne. Though she is only a regent for Roxy.
• Rain Aura: While this trope is generally averted (e.g., 'The Mysterious Stone' and "Valtor's Box"), there's one instance where it happens. In "The Fall of Magix", the black water that spawns the Army of Decay comes from a black magic-generated storm. As the insectoid creatures that comprise the Army are getting formed for the first time, a grayish, dense fog forms.
• Really Dead Montage: Nabu receives one the episode after his death. It's complete with a sad song and other characters, even Riven, crying over his death.
• Redemption Equals Death: Nebula tries to die with the Fairy Hunters after redeeming herself, but Bloom stops her.
• Relationship Revolving Door: Musa and Riven. There are rollercoasters with less dips and turns than the relationship between these two. It got so bad that Riven not only broke up with Musa, but was also Put on a Bus — only to reconcile and get back with her two seasons later.
• Relationship Sabotage:
  • Diaspro is in love with and originally engaged to Prince Sky. However, Sky falls in love with Bloom and breaks up with Diaspro. Diaspro is still in love with Sky and tries to brainwash him with a love potion. When this fails, she turns to more conventional means such as not letting the two spend time together and feeding the two misinformation in an attempt to drive them apart. She's helped when Sky's father declares her his liaison, giving her some power over Sky.
  • A subplot in season 4 involves Mitzi trying to get between Brandon and Stella, going so far as to stalk Stella and send pictures of her talking to other guys to Brandon. It doesn't last and is mostly played for laughs.
• Replaced the Theme Tune: Since season 4, the theme song has been replaced every season. Before Nick aired the new seasons that they produced, they aired their recaps and seasons 3 and 4 with a new version of the season 4 theme.
• Retcon:
  • In Season 1, Faragonda didn't know anything about Bloom and she passes of as "Veranda of Castillo" to get into Alfea. However, in the first Nick special that summarized Season 1, Faragonda knew who Bloom was from the start.
  • When Bloom was captured by Darkar in Season 2, she learned the Avalon that was teaching at Alfea was one of his minions in disguise, and the real Avalon was captured with him. In "The Shadow Phoenix" special though, Avalon was Darker himself in disguise, and the real Avalon was nowhere to be seen at the castle.
  • 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, or alternate forms better suited for different environments, or forms needed to access certain magical worlds, or, well, anything to get the girls into slightly different sparkly dresses with wings to sell new toys.
  • In season 5, we learn Daphne is cursed to be a spirit, despite everything and everyone else in the series before saying that she was dead.
  • In season 8, Valtor wasn't really destroyed when Bloom extinguished his fire, in spite of it being described as putting out his life force, and Icy is apparently the princess of a realm called Dyamond and has a little sister named Sapphire, and isn't actually related to Darcy and Stormy, despite them having been confirmed to be triplets by the creator of the show long ago, and the Trix calling themselves sisters, and the Winx addressing them as sisters since the beginning of the series.
• The Reveal:
  • Season 1:
    • Sky and Brandon switched identities. Bloom's boyfriend is the actual prince, and he's engaged.
    • Bloom is the lost princess of Domino and its last remaining survivor, and the bearer of the Dragon's Flame.
    • The nymph Daphne is Bloom's older sister.
  • Season 2: The Avalon teaching at Alfea is Darkar's spy. The real Avalon is locked up in Darkar's dungeon.^note  In the Nickelodeon special summarizing Season 2, Avalon was Darkar himself in disguise.
  • Season 3:
    • Bloom didn't earn her Enchantix through sacrifice, but by pure force of will. As a result, her powers are incomplete.
    • Bloom's birth parents are alive, but trapped in a dimension somewhere far away.
  • Season 4:
    • Roxy is the last fairy on Earth.
    • Morgana is Roxy's mother, explaining why she didn't want Roxy to get hurt.
  • Season 5: Doubles as a Retcon. Daphne is what she is now due to the Ancestral Witches cursing her Sirenix powers.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • In Season 3, the Winx rashly decide to go fight Valtor after Tecna seemingly dies. It does not go well.
  • In Season 4, The Earth fairies were so caught up in revenge against the Wizards of the Black Circle and the people of Earth that they were about to freeze Earth over when one of their grievances was that humans had not taken care of Earth. Nebula in particular wanted vengeance even when Morgana and the other Earth fairies had given up on it. Thankfully, they were all convinced by Bloom and the Winx to drop it.
• 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, Bloom's cute rabbit, as well. Icy also had an adorable pet duck in Season 1, although she didn't seem to think so.
  • See also: Pretty much all the creatures in every Mini-World in season 7.
  • The Lumens in Season 8 are adorable, given their chibi appearances.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Tecna grows suspicious of their new teacher Avalon over his lack of wings. Her investigation soon points him to be the evil Angel of Darkness, but most of the evidence was coincidental or false. So it seems Avalon is actually good, except that he was actually Lord Darkar's spy in Alfea, so Tecna was right that Avalon was evil.
• Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Reason: Tressa in season 3. She felt she had been a coward running away from Valtor and his minions while letting her mom Queen Ligea be captured by them. The problem here is that everyone who actually fought Valtor 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.
• Ring of Power: Stella's ring, which turns into a scepter, provides light, and teleports people.
• Rip Tailoring: In 'Alfea: College for Fairies', Bloom is the only girl without a dress (nor the money to buy one) to attend the Alfea Gala. As a result, she scrounges up her meager savings and spends all day looking for a cheap dress in retail sales. She finds a grey and light blue one that's decent but dull. So, Bloom decides to make some minor modifications, such as making better use of the blue laces and making the sleeves more figure-fitting. This process is a Plot Point, as she can't find scissors and is forced to use her yet poorly controlled fire powers. In the PC, she quests for a pair of scissors so Looma, the resident fairy seamstress, can fix her up a dress.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: In a story from the comics, the Trix go back in time to prevent the Winx from becoming a team. As items in the present time appeared and vanished according to the changes in the past, everyone's memories stayed the same, allowing the Winx to figure out somebody's altering their past.
• Rookie Red Ranger: The titular team of fairies forms after Stella, Musa, Flora, and Tecna rescue Bloom from a trio of witches. All of the former already have access to their fairy transformations and know some magic. By contrast, Bloom, who soon becomes The Leader, starts out as a novice who's just learned magic exists, so she doesn't know any magic to defend herself and earns her fairy transformation a couple of episodes later.
• Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe Mitzi has no problem rooting for the Trix when they appear to foil the Winx, even after said witches nearly kill her own little sister.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Bloom (upon realizing her true origins), Stella, Aisha, and Sky. Roxy in Season 4.
  • Nebula, upon being crowned Roxy's regent, converts the royal palace of Tir Nan Og into a school for fairies to guide young fairies on the right path and help them avoid falling into the darkness as she did.

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