Winx Club (season one)

The first season of the Winx Club premiered on June 19, 2004 through December 11, 2004 as part of the current line-up for the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon series.

Overview

The first season of the Winx Club introduces several elements that would be reintroduced in subsequent seasons. Bloom is an ordinary girl living on Earth, until she encounters a girl fighting an ogre. The girl is revealed to be Stella, a princess of the planet Solaria and a fairy. Stella believes that Bloom has magical powers within her, and it is proven true when the two girls confront the ogre again, that Bloom uncontrollably unleashes a blast of light. Stella takes Bloom with her to Magix, the magic realm, and there they go to live in Alfea, an all-girls school for those who aspire to become fairies.

Bloom and Stella are joined by new friends; Flora, a shy girl who loves flowers and nature, Musa, a tomboyish-like girl who has an interest in music, and Tecna, a smart girl who shows her love for technology. Likewise, they are also fairies. Eventually, Bloom discovers her powers and the Winx girls are confronted by the Trix, a trio of witches. The witches, Icy, Darcy, and Stormy, are students at Cloud Tower, the school for those who want to become witches. Icy seeks to find the Dragon Fire, the strongest power in Magix that supposedly belongs to Bloom. On the other hand, the girls also become friends with four students from Red Fountain, an all-boys school that trains specialists. They are Sky, Brandon, Timmy, and Riven.

In filler episodes, the Trix unleashes constant traps to defeat the Winx girls and get the Dragon Fire. The turning point comes in Episode 17, when Bloom discovers that Brandon and Sky had switched identities in order to protect the other. Upset about those events, Bloom returns to Earth, with the Trix secretly following. There, Bloom discovers her true identity - she was the princess of the planet Sparx, and when it was destroyed by the Witch Coven, baby Bloom was sent to Earth and was adopted by her Earth parents. Alas, the Trix attack Bloom on Earth and they take the Dragon Fire, leaving Bloom completely powerless. With the Dragon Fire in their possession, the Trix uses it to summon the Army of Decay, an endless militia of monsters who regenerate even if they are defeated. Everyone struggles to fight them off at Alfea, but no avail. Alas, it is decided that the Winx girls will travel to Sparx to claim the remaining power of the Dragon Fire.

On Sparks, the Winx Club is immediately attacked by vicious monsters, but manages to hold up in the ruined palace that once belonged to Bloom's parents. Guided by the ethereal appearance of her sister Dafne, Bloom is told about final moments of Sparx. After the destructive conquest by the three witches to seize the Dragon Fire, their parents, Oritel and Miriam, endowed their infant daughter, Bloom, with a small portion of the Dragon Fire and was handed off to her sister for safe keeping while their parents used desperate measures to eliminate the witch threat. Oritel and Miriam seemingly sacrifice themselves by using the full power of Dragon Fire, rendering their planet inhospitable. Dafne supposedly uses the last of her magical endowments to send Bloom to Earth. The bestiary of Sparks eventually overruns the palace forcing the Winx Club to retreat without any information on how to acquire the Dragon Fire.

The Winx Club proceeds with a secondary plan to take back the Dragon Fire from the Trix who have now conquered Cloud Tower and turned it into their base of operations but their Army of Decay quickly overpower the Winx Club and their specialist support and are once again are forced to retreat. While falling back to campus of Alfea, Dafne guides Bloom to a nearby lake where she appears and explains to her that the Dragon Fire can never be taken from her and tethered to her self-esteem. By sheer will power, Bloom regenerates her Dragon Fire abilities.

The final battle begins at Alfea, and with the Dragon Fire, Bloom squares off in a duel against Icy, while the others take on Darcy and Stormy. Apparently the three of them have their own share of the Dragon Fire, so when Darcy and Stormy are defeated, most of the monsters disappear, leaving Icy to be defeated by Bloom. After the battle, the Trix is sent to the Fortress of Light as punishment, while a celebration is held back at Alfea. The Winx girls and the Specialists toast to the new year.

Notable Subplots

*Throughout the series, the Winx Club have joined the Specialists, warriors in training from Red Fountain School, in fights against the Trix and their Army of Decay. Their friendships quickly evolve into romantic interests in the following pairings: Bloom with Prince Sky (masquerading as Brandon -his squire- for the first half of the season), Stella with Brandon (masquerading as Prince Sky for the first half of the season), Tecna with Timmy, and Musa with Riven (though they don't get together until late season 2).

*For the first half the series, Prince Brandon and Squire Sky switch identities and titles so that Brandon could attend Red Fountain without having to deal with the expectations of a prince.

*Bloom’s sister, Daphne, appears sporadically through out the series in ethereal form in Bloom's dreams and times of desperation. Her appearance culminated in the episode Sparks of Hope when she guides Bloom through the ruins of their parent’s palace while explaining the final moments of Sparks.

*Pepe, a cygnet, debuts in the episode The Voice of Nature as the result of a spell cast by the Winx against the witches (summoning "that which they hate the most" -somehting cute and cuddly-) and follows Icy believing that she is his mother, much to her chagrin. Pepe appears infrequently throughout the first season eventually following Icy into the Fortress of Light, where he is never seen or heard of again.
*Mirta, a student witch from Cloud Tower, aids Bloom during one escape from Cloud Tower and is turned into a pumpkin by Icy for her tolerance for fairies. As a pumpkin, she is cared for by Flora and even manages to give additional information about the senior witches. After the defeat of the Trix in the final episode, she returned to her former self and transfers to Alfea.

*Princess Diaspro appears as the betrothed bride of Prince Sky in the episode Secrets Within Secrets (Royal Heartbreak in the 4Kids dub) but Bloom mistakes her appearance and interest in Sky for Icy in disguise. Bloom fights Diaspro to reveal Icy but instead humiliates herself and becomes upset with Sky because of his lack of honesty in his identity and their arranged marriage. In the third to the last episode in which the Army of Decay conquers Red Fountain, Princess Diaspro attempts to rescue Sky from the invading army but he refuses her aid in favor of fighting alongside his classmates and tacitly ends any relationship they had.

Episode list