Fate: The Winx Saga, Netflix’s new live-action adaptation of the classic Winx Club cartoon, has premiered its first season and left a slew of questions and theories in its wake. Season 1 mostly served as a setup for what’s to come (assuming the series is renewed for another), with only six episodes to set up the world, characters, magic, and lore of Winx. Still, the season’s ending managed to pack in some major twists and story reveals to tide fans over while they wait for more.
Though based directly on Winx Club, Fate makes some significant changes to the world of Fairies and magical creatures. The show is set in the Otherworld, a magical dimension paralleled to Earth’s where fairies use elemental magic to interact with the natural world. The story follows Bloom, a young fire fairy, and her group of friends as they study magic and fight evil at Alfea – a Hogwarts-style school.
Most of season 1 is spent setting up backstory for Bloom, her friends, and the world around them. The six main types of fairy magic are explained (water, fire, air, earth, light, mind), Alfea’s complicated military history is unearthed, some previously-vanquished villains return, and each of the core characters grapples with trauma, romance, and growing up. The season 1 finale takes some major steps forward in the story, however, shifting the balance of the fairy world and leaving some major questions hanging.
What Happens In Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1’s Ending
While season 1 of Fate: The Winx Saga mostly serves as a foundation for what’s to come, some pretty major events still happen before it ends. After a long process of looking for information on her birth parents, Bloom learns of Aster Dale, a town that was wiped out by Rosalind – the former heistress of Alfea – in a zealous attack against the Burned Ones. Later in The Winx Saga, Rosalind manipulates Bloom into freeing her and subsequently taking down the magic barrier protecting Alfea. The Burned Ones invade, and the students and faculty all gather in the courtyard and prepare to fight.
Rosalind tells Bloom that Aster Dale was actually destroyed because its residents were evil Blood Witches. Bloom then goes to help her friends, ultimately facing off against a full force of Burned Ones and awakening the ancient power within herself – the Dragon Flame. Bloom grows her wings and unleashes a fearsome display of fire magic to save the school. Rosalind meets up with Beatrix, Riven and Dane – now all seemingly recruited to her cause – and Bloom reconciles with Heistress Farrah Dowling.
With the Burned Ones defeated and Rosalind vanished, it seems like a temporary peace has returned to a, so Bloom takes her friends to Earth to tell her parents about her powers. In her absence though, Rosalind returns, prophecies of terrible events yet to come, murders Dowling brutally, and assumes control of the school with the help of Stella’s mother, Queen Luna. Silva is arrested for the attempted murder of Sky’s father Andreas, who turns out to be secretly alive, having apparently raised Beatrix in hiding. The Winx return to Alfea to discover the major power shift and brace for what’s to come.
What Does Rosalind Want?
Rosalind’s actual intentions remain mysterious by the time credits roll on season 1. She’s pitched as a zealot, willing to do anything to protect the realms from danger, but that could all be a ruse for something more sinister. It’s suggested that she takes down the barrier just to force Bloom into a dangerous situation, hoping that her true powers will unlock (which they do). Rosalind also claims that the destruction of Aster Dale was justified because it was inhabited by blood witches, but that claim has yet to be confirmed.
If the town was actually filled with witches, why didn’t Rosalind tell Dowling and Silva? Why would she save Beatrix, presumably a Blood Witch baby, and have her raised by Andreas in secret? She’s already told Bloom and Beatrix different stories to manipulate them, which calls everything she says into question. And her murder of Dowling clearly casts her as a villain, even if she believes the act was justified to create a stronger Alfea.
A few things about Rosalind’s plans are clear. She knows a lot more about the Burned Ones and the monster's history than anyone else. She wants to help awaken Bloom’s Dragon Flame powers, but it’s unclear why. And she is clearly willing to do anything – even heinous, deplorable deeds – in order to achieve that goal. It could be that Rosalind is using brutal tactics to prepare for the real villains to come, but it’s just as likely that she wants to use Bloom’s abilities for her own malicious ends.
What Will Rosalind And Andreas Do With Alfea?
The coup at Alfea at the end of season 1 sets up a pretty clear storyline for season 2. Rosalind and Andreas will be running the Fairy and Specialist schools, respectively, likely prompting the Winx to more subtle acts of rebellion, akin to the plot of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Rosalind has agents in the student body in Beatrix, Riven, and Dale, but it’s unclear what their purpose will be in her greater plan. Beatrix has already been lied to extensively by Rosalind, and she may have second thoughts after learning that it was actually her who razed Aster Dale.
While Rosalind tries to win Bloom over to her side, Andreas will likely be doing the same with Sky. That will be difficult given that Andreas hid his survival from his son, and that Silva – Sky’s real father figure – has been arrested on Andreas’s behalf. Sky trusts Bloom, and Bloom knows that the new istration seems up to no good, which will likely pit Sky and his father against one another. Still, with Rosalind and Andreas’s real intentions still a mystery, it remains to be seen how the different tensions and allegiances will play out.
Bloom’s Fairy Powers And The Dragon Flame Explained
At the end of season 1, Bloom unlocks Fairy magic though to have been lost – the ability to transform into a winged Fairy form. Powered up, she unleashes a devastating display of fire Magic on the Burned Ones, decimating them in a matter of seconds. After defeating them in this heightened state, Bloom turns the Burned Ones’ bodies back into human form, which are later buried by Farrah.
Before killing her, Rosalind reveals much about Bloom’s powers and the Burned Ones to Farrah. She says that the Burned Ones were soldiers in an ancient war from a thousand years ago, and that their creation is tied to the Dragon Flame – an ancient source of magic that is what gives Bloom her immense powers. The Dragon Flame is brought directly from the Winx Club cartoon, in which it holds the power of the Great Dragon – the universe’s creator deity. Winx Club also has a major villain named Lord Darkar – known by some as the Shadow Phoenix – whose power is also tied to the Great Dragon. Darkar’s cartoon appearance isn’t too dissimilar from the Burned Ones in Fate, and it’s possible that a version of Darkar will be introduced in later seasons as the greater threat Rosalind alludes to.
Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1 Ending’s Real Meaning
With its first season, Fate: The Winx Saga has set up the potential for an extended run, should the series catch on with viewers. The invocation of the Dragon Flame and potential allusions to Darkar are exciting references to the original Winx Club cartoon, and foreshadow much more serious threats to come. The most significant result of the season 1 ending, however, is the concrete establishment of the Winx Club itself. After a full season of drama and getting to know one another, the core five Fairies have grown into a tight-knit group. Despite the first season’s various flaws, that foundation has strong potential if Fate: The Winx Saga continues – maybe with Flora and Tecna making proper appearances down the line.