Winx Club "Grounded" Talkback (SPOILERS)

[sag_2002]

Yes, I know it's early Friday morning, but Freedom Fighter usually does these on Fridays, and Rover_Wow posted the talkback for tonight's Rocket Power movie on Monday, so I, too have a right to post this a day early.

Oh, and FF is off at Okatucon, so I'm taking over this week.

All that being said, let's get to another "Winx Club" talkback.

Ya'll should know the story of the past 6 episodes by now, so let's get to this week's ep.

After sneaking into Cloud Tower to retrieve Stella's power ring (without permission), the girls got hit with a dose of "Punishment 4-D" at the end of last week's episode. Now, our heroines are forbidden to attend classes for the next week, and worst of all, their powers are gone.

That's a BIG problem, made even BIGGER by the fact that a HUGE 4-legged bull is on the rampage. With their powers gone, and with Red Fountain sure to get the crap kicked outta them, what are the Winx girls to do?

Ya'll know the rules by now. No discussing this episode until it's airing, spoilers in spoiler tags, and constructive critisim on THIS topic ONLY. No going off topic and bashing other shows.

I'll come back in the morning with my comments.

EDIT: Oops... forgot the poll again. Mods? Freedom Fighter (when he/she gets back)?

[Mighty_Bojingo]

Ba.. consider yourself lucky. You get to see it 1 day early. I dont get to watch it till Sunday. And to make the matters worse, i have to be at work exactly when the show starts.

¦)

[Frank15]

Bloom gets the "I Shut Stella Up" award today for... well, shutting Stella up.

Ribbon is evil, and not just cranky? I mean, there's a difference between being evil, and just being jerkish... right?

Maybe witches aren't all bad after all. Since we saw those two nicer witches, it seems evilness may be more a learned behavior, and not necessarily one they're born with. I'm guessing, as witches, they're more inclined to go evil, though. And they're niceness might not last if wanting to be popular gets the best of them....

Speaking of the witches, maybe it's just me, but Stormy doesn't seem quite as into it as the other two. I'm not sure whether it's because she's slightly less evil, or she just takes their "job" less seriously than the other two. Or if I'm just watching the show way too intently.

Seems Techna may be lacking a little in common sense. All those book smarts can't give her common sense.

Seems Stella is lacking in common sense as well, but that was pretty obvious by now anyway.

Faragonda... she knows something. Not sure exactly what, though....

[sag_2002]

Yeah, those two not so evil witches over there at Cloud Tower was quite interesting.

Oh, and the Dragon Fire powers were discussed a little more today. We all know who has it, it's just a matter of finding its owner.

Spoiler:

Next week looks quite interesting. It looks like we're having a race of some kind, and it looks like Darcy's gonna get involved somehow. Oh, and the song they used this week: "Gonna Get a Little Crazy"... the same song they used to preview "Voice of Nature."

[oranthal]

Ribbon is evil, and not just cranky? I mean, there's a difference between being evil, and just being jerkish... right?

I think he is just brood/moody. Maybe he doesn't like to depend on others. He's seems fine with the other guys because he knows them. He probably sees the girls as kind of outsiders so he shuns them.

Maybe witches aren't all bad after all. Since we saw those two nicer witches, it seems evilness may be more a learned behavior, and not necessarily one they're born with. I'm guessing, as witches, they're more inclined to go evil, though. And they're niceness might not last if wanting to be popular gets the best of them....

Speaking of the witches, maybe it's just me, but Stormy doesn't seem quite as into it as the other two. I'm not sure whether it's because she's slightly less evil, or she just takes their "job" less seriously than the other two. Or if I'm just watching the show way too intently.

I thought they were more mischevious instead of evil. Maybe except for that one witch who wants to get the Solara Ring to rule Alfea.

Someone should put better security on the Witch Tower and the Winx Tower. In the previous week, the Winx girls broke in without a problem and this week, the witches broke into the Winx Tower. Okay, I'm having problem with the actual tower/school names.

Why are there only 4 dudes to match the 5 girls? Tecna, Bloom, and Stella have their boy admirers. Considering Ribbon doesn't seem interested in them, that leaves Flora and Musa without partners. Are they trying to hint at something?

There wasn't enough backstory in this week's episode. The first half of the episode was light-hearted fare which was to be expected. Only towards the end where the old teacher (what's her name) mentioned the Dragon Fire Power. Two and a half stars out of four.

[Mighty_Bojingo]

You forgot to pick the 'quote' of the week. I couldnt think of any real funny ones, but i saw a load of funny stuff going on and funny comments said, just none of them come to mind. I have to say it would be the one with the "Manual" and the "Labor" by techna.

[Freedom Fighter]

Back from Otakon at last! So, I watched my tape of Saturday's episode, which wasn't in very good quality, mind you, and also was set up wrong (as storms Wednesday and Thursday night reset the TV's clock... and I ended up setting it at the wrong time), so I probably missed anywhere from the first one through three minutes of the episode.

Onto the episode... which wasn't really all that good. "Grounded" gets only a disappointing 2 out of 4 from me. The review:

Pluses:
+ The episode succeeds in advancing the plot, as the Senior Witches are looking for payback after the Winx girls snuck into Cloud Tower last week. More on the hunt for the Dragon Fire, too.

Minuses:
- On the other hand, the episode was just an excuse for the girls to get to be able to hang out with the Red Fountain boys.

Other Observations:
* Riven, as usual, being tempermental towards the girls. But the fact that he has dark energy in him is a driving point that could be dived into as soon as next week.
* At the same time, we learned that all the witches at Cloud Tower aren't evil, as evidenced by that freshman girl. On the other hand, maybe it's just that she hasn't been influenced by the dark side yet.

Favorite Quote:
In an episode where once again finding a memorable quote was like finding a needle in a haystack, I came across this one just prior to the last commercial break.
"Well, hello there! He's not the source of the Dragon Fire, but there's an awesome dark energy coming from this boy. Can we take him home, Icy? Icy?"
- D'Arcy, referring to the at-the-time unconscious Riven.


Sure, last week's episode was full of puns, but it was interesting enough to get a good grade. Couldn't say the same for this week, which was just a piece of blah-blah-blah. Whomever thought having the girls without their powers would be a bad thing? Next week does look interesting, with the racing and all. Racing fanatic here, yeah!

[Darcy]

I joined this community solely to talk about Winx Club, since you guys have more in depth discussions than other groups I've seen. If I do something wrong, please tell me. I'm not sure what exactly counts as a spoiler. I mean, if it was in the episode and we're discussing the episode, it's not a spoiler, right?

I enjoyed this week's episode a lot more than last week's. The whole point of last week's episode seemed to be to remind everyone that Bloom has a mysterious origin. Oooooooo. Like we could forget that, being that we're only a handful of episodes into the series. That episode was also rife with plot holes. This week at least proved that plot points could be worked into a storyline, even if the storyline was rather weak.

Highlights:

TECNA: Tecna's my favorite Winx girl. I love how she can be so smart about some things, but so clueless about much more simple things, like cleaning supplies. It gives her character more depth than just "the smart one."

FLORA: Flora again shows her patience and sweetness by not making fun of Tecna in the broom and bucket scene. I like her second outfit in the show, too. Cute.

MUSA: She didn't annoy me as much this week, since she only had one moment of obnoxious three-year-old slang. I love how she always calls Stella on not helping out. It shows she may be a princess, but she's not lazy or spoiled. And I liked her "sonar ears."

BLOOM: By effectively ending Stella's whining, Bloom had risen in status. She's still one of my least favorite characters though.

STELLA: My least favorite, but she had two good points from this week. When they were running from the minotaur and Flora tripped, Musa ran right by her, but Stella grabbed her. Stella's distraction plan was also a success. (for once she had a good idea.)

THE WITCHES: The witches are my favorite characters. They're great villains. They're nasty and they don't pussyfoot around. I love their infighting, too. And Icy getting freaked out by the duck was a priceless scene.

Lowlights:

THE BOYS: I'm not a big fan of any of the boys. Riven's the best one because he's got more depth in that he's a jerk. The other ones don't interest me at all. And their fashion sense? Blech!

TIMMY/TECNA: I'm so not wanting them to get together. Tecna's too strong a female character to need a stupid relationship. And it's lame to hook the smart one up with the smart one. Too stereotypical.

Musa's vocabulary is also always a lowlight.

My favorite quote is Tecna's "Good thing I figured out how to use the bucket."

That said, I'm highly looking forward to next week's episode. Darcy's my absolute favorite.

[oranthal]

I joined this community solely to talk about Winx Club, since you guys have more in depth discussions than other groups I've seen. If I do something wrong, please tell me. I'm not sure what exactly counts as a spoiler. I mean, if it was in the episode and we're discussing the episode, it's not a spoiler, right?

Welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay. The Toonzone boards are a great place to talk about almost anything. I would recommend that you look at the other forums as well.

TECNA: Tecna's my favorite Winx girl. I love how she can be so smart about some things, but so clueless about much more simple things, like cleaning supplies. It gives her character more depth than just "the smart one."

FLORA: Flora again shows her patience and sweetness by not making fun of Tecna in the broom and bucket scene. I like her second outfit in the show, too. Cute.

MUSA: She didn't annoy me as much this week, since she only had one moment of obnoxious three-year-old slang. I love how she always calls Stella on not helping out. It shows she may be a princess, but she's not lazy or spoiled. And I liked her "sonar ears."

BLOOM: By effectively ending Stella's whining, Bloom had risen in status. She's still one of my least favorite characters though.

STELLA: My least favorite, but she had two good points from this week. When they were running from the minotaur and Flora tripped, Musa ran right by her, but Stella grabbed her. Stella's distraction plan was also a success. (for once she had a good idea.)

Flora would be my favorite; she is sweet and cute. I'll put Bloom slighty ahead of Tecna. Musa and Stella bother me.

THE WITCHES: The witches are my favorite characters. They're great villains. They're nasty and they don't pussyfoot around. I love their infighting, too. And Icy getting freaked out by the duck was a priceless scene.

I think these 3 witches are not "villain" enough. That one witch wants to take over Alfea, but I think that is just too big a task for only 3 witches to take on. If the entire Witch school gets in on, then it would be epic.

That said, I'm highly looking forward to next week's episode. Darcy's my absolute favorite.

You like BAD girls, eh?

[Freedom Fighter]

One of the Senior Witches is here! Take Stella, but leave the rest of us alone!

Just kidding! Welcome! Any and all "Winx Club" fans are welcome here, no matter which character, good or bad, is your favorite! I'm the one who usually runs the talkbacks for the show, but I was predisposed this week.

Oh, and for the record, for the purposes of this talkback, it's considered a spoiler if you have seen episodes later in the series already (because you live in Italy or another country that's already aired the show) and are sharing that information before the said episodes premiere here in the US [without putting them in the appropriate spoiler boxes, of course].

Oh again, and for everyone here... I'm a guy. Just wanted to point that out, sag_2002. And I don't have the power to add a poll, but we can skip it this week. Unless there are any real objections out there.

[Frank15]

BLOOM:...She's still one of my least favorite characters though.

I think you're the first person to single out Bloom as a not-liked character. Anything in particular you don't like about Bloom? I guess she can come off as a bit smug at times... but then again, so does Techna.

THE WITCHES: The witches are my favorite characters.

I mighta' guessed that. Your name kinda' gave it away . I mighta' gone with Stormy over Darcy, but eh, whatcha' gonna' do?

Musa's vocabulary is also always a lowlight.

Heeeeyyyy... some of us actually do like Musa. Actually... I think I may be the only one here who likes Musa.

[Darcy]

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone!

Oranthal, yes, I do tend to like bad girls. I think if the witches just wanted to take over Alfea, they'd be more boring. But they want to get the dragon fire power and use it to rule over everyone, witch and fairie alike, it seems. At least, that's my take on it. I admire their ambition and how they'll do just about anything to achieve it. I think they'd have no trouble killing one of the fairies if this weren't a kids' show.

Freedom Fighter, thanks for the info on spoilers. Now I don't feel so in the dark!

Frank, Bloom suffers from Lead Character Syndrome. I'm one of those who rarely likes the lead character. (I was bored by She-Ra, Jem, Lion-O, etc. in cartoons when growing up. I always preferred the background characters.) I didn't mind her so much until last week's episode. How she endangered all the girls just so she could try to find out information about herself really plummeted my opinion of her. And she was dumb enough to fall for the very obvious set up with the book. Walking around a corner and seeing a book with BLOOM written on it in huge letters? No, no, that's not a trap at all. I was so happy Tecna saw through it, even though Bloom ignored her. It's her recklessness that makes me not like her so much.

I do like Musa, too, just not some of her vocabulary. She seems to be a year or so behind in slang. Otherwise, I do like her. She's visually very cool. I almost always love short-haired girls, being one myself. :anime:

[Mighty_Bojingo]

Frank, Bloom suffers from Lead Character Syndrome. I'm one of those who rarely likes the lead character. I didn't mind her so much until last week's episode. How she endangered all the girls just so she could try to find out information about herself really plummeted my opinion of her. And she was dumb enough to fall for the very obvious set up with the book. Walking around a corner and seeing a book with BLOOM written on it in huge letters? No, no, that's not a trap at all. I was so happy Tecna saw through it, even though Bloom ignored her. It's her recklessness that makes me not like her so much.

I think Bloom knew good and well it was most likely a trap. She DID mention that she had to check it because it might have the answer to all her problems, it could have been her only chance. If i was in her shoes, i would have done the same thing. Knowing that there wont be any book like that in Alfea and that you wont be taking a field trip to cloud tower every night.

Bloom is my favorite character, with Flora and Techna coming in 2nd. Stella's ok, its just the only thing that bothers me is her spoiled attitute. Musa's in dead last for me. I dont like her outfit. But i love some of her comments.

[oranthal]

I could either way with Bloom sticking around to read "her book" in the Witch Tower. On one hand, knowing that staying around and looking at the book could get her and her friends in trouble, so I would understand if she left; however, if she did just leave, she would have been kicking herself for the rest of her life for not even attempting to read it.

My biggest problem is that there just wasn't enough mystery to Bloom for the story to warrant her trying to find out more about herself. It would have been better if there were more unexplainable events that happened to her.

[Mighty_Bojingo]

I think i've said this already, but my main complaint is how bloom has already mastered her magic already. At the beginning of the 3rd episode, Bloom couldnt even change her hair color. Then boom, she transforms once and she's a master at magic. She hasnt had ANY problems with magic after that, its like she knows magic like the other girls do now. If you ask me, i think they should have had quite a few episodes of Bloom still learning her power. She should STILL be rather new to magic at this point in the series, but alas, she's rather good at it (How is that?).

[Darcy]

Oh, I agree! She's not bumbling anymore. Granted, she's still not doing spells on her own (except for the pumpkin head one in class) and she hasn't had any powers when transformed yet, she's just stood there in her outfit, but she's suddenly really comfortable. I'm not sure how much time is supposed to have passed, but you'd think she wouldn't be so relaxed quite yet.

Speaking of powers, I really want to see more of Musa and Flora's abilities. Tecna's, too. The firewall is neat and useful, but I want more! I love plot episodes, but I'm itching for a fight. Heh heh.

[oranthal]

I think i've said this already, but my main complaint is how bloom has already mastered her magic already. At the beginning of the 3rd episode, Bloom couldnt even change her hair color. Then boom, she transforms once and she's a master at magic. She hasnt had ANY problems with magic after that, its like she knows magic like the other girls do now. If you ask me, i think they should have had quite a few episodes of Bloom still learning her power. She should STILL be rather new to magic at this point in the series, but alas, she's rather good at it (How is that?).

Maybe she's a natural at it. Or maybe (cliche plot coming up) an evil power had a hand in developing her powers quickly so that she can be used for evil later on. And because this evil is responsible for her gaining her powers so quickly, he has partial control of her.

[Mighty_Bojingo]

I know this is off the topic, But i just thought about something.. Methinks Ms.Griselda 'The Queen of Detention' and Professor Codatorta 'The Terrible' would make a perfect couple.

For those who have no clue who Codatorta is, I'll shed some light. He's the professor at Red Fountain. The guy who yelled at the boys for talking to the girls on episode 5.

[Kenny E. McCall]

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone!

Oranthal, yes, I do tend to like bad girls. I think if the witches just wanted to take over Alfea, they'd be more boring. But they want to get the dragon fire power and use it to rule over everyone, witch and fairie alike, it seems. At least, that's my take on it. I admire their ambition and how they'll do just about anything to achieve it. I think they'd have no trouble killing one of the fairies if this weren't a kids' show.

Freedom Fighter, thanks for the info on spoilers. Now I don't feel so in the dark!

Frank, Bloom suffers from Lead Character Syndrome. I'm one of those who rarely likes the lead character. (I was bored by She-Ra, Jem, Lion-O, etc. in cartoons when growing up. I always preferred the background characters.) I didn't mind her so much until last week's episode. How she endangered all the girls just so she could try to find out information about herself really plummeted my opinion of her. And she was dumb enough to fall for the very obvious set up with the book. Walking around a corner and seeing a book with BLOOM written on it in huge letters? No, no, that's not a trap at all. I was so happy Tecna saw through it, even though Bloom ignored her. It's her recklessness that makes me not like her so much.

I do like Musa, too, just not some of her vocabulary. She seems to be a year or so behind in slang. Otherwise, I do like her. She's visually very cool. I almost always love short-haired girls, being one myself. :anime:

I agree with you on the Lead Character Syndrome deal Darcy, What is it with these goody-two-shoes characters that we tend to love so much? Me, give me somebody like Icy or Darcy anytime. Which leads me to this question...

... If the Senior Witches were to make an appearance on Yu-Gi-Oh!, which witch would try their best to snag Seto Kaiba? Icy, Darcy, or Stormy?

Silly question, but one with crossover potential, my dear.

[Frank15]

What is it with these goody-two-shoes characters that we tend to love so much? Me, give me somebody like Icy or Darcy anytime. Which leads me to this question...

I actually kinda' like Stormy the most of the witches. Probably her temperment, her "not quite as level-headedness"ness, her likely being not quite as intelligent as the other two, while still not being "dumb" by any means, and still a real threat. But that's just me.

... If the Senior Witches were to make an appearance on Yu-Gi-Oh!, which witch would try their best to snag Seto Kaiba? Icy, Darcy, or Stormy?

Considering the similarities between Rivon and Kaiba, I'd definitely have to go with Darcy .