Winx Club S4 E24

## Plot

The girls prepare to leave for Sibylla's cave to get the wizards, and the guys join them. Nabu talks to Aisha, who is worried about the mission. Once it's all over though, the two of them can get married and live on Earth. Whoever came up with the idea for what happens at the end of the episode… fuck you, asshole. And did they really have to rub it in? *Luca* was right, most Italians are bullies, mobsters, and murderers that don't have feelings. They're completely empty inside and corrupt. Anyways, when everyone gets to Sibylla's cave, they discover that Duman has gotten worse. The guys will take him to Gardenia so Nabu can heal him, and the girls will take the rest of the wizards to Tir Nan Og. Riven and Timmy hold Duman down while Nabu tries to find the cause of his illness. It turns out that he can't control his powers anymore, and he starts shape-shifting frequently. He somehow short circuited his powers. Nabu has figured out how to heal him, but Duman has shape-shifted into a monster that throws Riven and Timmy off of him, and he grabs Nabu and flies away. Timmy gets the other Specialists while Riven chases after them. He tosses Nabu his staff, and he's able to blindside Duman. Riven grabs Nabu and the two crash land in the park, where the other Specialists are waiting. Why did they change clothes? And how did they get there so quickly? Duman refuses to be cured, even though this illness will inevitably kill him. He fights the guys, and reveals the wizards' plan to use the black circle to recapture all of the Earth fairies. Nabu, ticked off at the betrayal, uses his magic to *kill* Duman. By disintegrating him. Whoa, Nabu, you're the man. Seriously, that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen on this show. Now they have to get to Tir Nan Og and warn the girls. At the ceremony, Morgana puts on the black circle. However, this opens up some sort of abyss/chasm/inter-dimensional rift thing. It starts pulling the Earth fairies towards it. The Winx save them, but they can't do that and fight the wizards at the same time. Luckily, the Specialists show up to give them some much needed back up. They also help fight the wizards while saving fairies. Morgana orders all of the fairies, including Nebula, to get inside the castle, where it's safe. However, Roxy stays to help her friends. Not that she or Morgana or anyone besides the Winx actually does anything, but I guess it's the thought that counts. Nabu heads for the chasm to close it, despite how dangerous it is. The black circle was destroyed, so he needs another magical object powerful enough to hold the energy. Aisha suggests the white circle, but Nabu insists that since it's the last key to the fairies' realm, it needs to be protected. His staff is a magical object, which he uses to close the chasm. However, the effort it took to do so exhausts him to the point where… it kills him. He says goodbye to Aisha and dies. Everyone is devastated. Bloom reminds them of the last gift of destiny. Aisha tries to use the gift of life, but Ogron takes it and wastes it on a flower. Remember how all throughout the season, whenever Bloom healed someone, I told you to remember it? This is why. She doesn't even try to heal Nabu. The thought never crosses her stupid mind. Not while he's still barely alive, or after he dies. The remaining wizards escape. The Earth fairies come out, and Morgana notes that Nabu was the first wizard to help them. Nebula tells her that if she had gone after the wizards, none of this would've happened. She offers Aisha the chance to get revenge and join the warrior fairies. Aisha, blinded by grief and rage, accepts and advises the others to join her. They refuse, pointing out that this isn't what Nabu would want.

## Review

So, on a not at all somber note, the Ethereal Fairies prophecy was complete and total bullshit. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this was a fantastic episode. The animation and voice acting are amazing, especially in the Cinélume dub, since these actors had plenty of experience voicing the characters. That's not a knock on the Nick dub, it's fine, but the actors could've been directed better. I loved the physical fight scene between Duman and the guys. It's like watching a comic book come to life. Yes, sometimes even more so than watching an actual comic book movie, live action or animated. I have a very love-hate relationship with this episode though. I hate it for killing Nabu off and stifling any of his potential character growth or story opportunities, along with Riven's (his best friend) and Aisha's (his girlfriend/fiancée). But I also love it for its ability to turn something mediocre into something so good. Yes, I'm changing my opinion of this season, and it's all based around one episode. This… was a good season. It had a very rocky start, but an absolutely phenomenal finish… Except for something I didn't realize until years later: Nabu is the only major male POC character, specifically Indian coded, and he dies. And while I may love Aisha specifically *because* I think that her suffering has made her stronger and given her more depth, and also because I love angst, no other major character has gone through anywhere near the same amount of trauma. And Aisha is the only main female black character. Do you see where I'm going with this? That, combined with the (hopefully unintentional) whitewashing from the new animation styles of World of Winx and season 8 of the main show, as well as whitewashing two main character roles (Flora in name only [or Fino] and Musa) in the live action show, plus the current climate of race relations in the United States, and it doesn't paint a great picture. So, I've decided to change my opinion of season 4 all over again. It had some interesting ideas, but the execution just reeks of unfortunate implications. They don't even have the guts in either English dub to say that Nabu actually died, Morgana just says she'll "take care of him until he wakes up again", even though her line literally right before that one goes like this: "Many fairies **died** in the fight against the wizards." So it can't solely be a problem based on the never say die trope, and it's not just one of Nick's stupid Standards and Practices policies in place, since the Cinélume dub is also like this, and in a later season 5 episode, which was both produced and only dubbed in English by Nick, an illusion of Nabu says that he died. Three times, no less! If there's anyone out there that can understand Italian, I'd appreciate it if you could try and find out if the original Italian dub of the episode was also like this.