What Would W.I.T.C.H. Season 3 Be Like? (video script)

Intro:

W.I.T.C.H. was a show that deserved so much better. While I’m not a fan of how often people will try and pit it against its contemporary Winx Club—magical girl solidarity for life—I’ve always felt like W.I.T.C.H. was killed before its time, and that perhaps if it had released in the 2010s… well actually, Disney’s treatment of the Owl House convinces me they just hate having good shows.

But it’s clear there were plans for a season 3, specifically with that weird moment in the season 2 finale with a man, Mr. R, taking interest in the glamour spell the Guardians created while fighting in downtown Heatherfield, and his associate, Raphael Scylla, quickly becoming a computer instructor at their school shortly thereafter.

Most of you likely know this already, especially if you’ve watched my old W.I.T.C.H. Deserved Better Video (from before I knew how to use a microphone, good god, how did it take me seven years?), but W.I.T.C.H. originally began as an Italian comic series, and was later adapted into a TV series.

The comics went on for 11 story arcs, but uh… seem to decay in quality as they go on, from my own reading, as well as this great video by LozTalkz where she ranks all of the comic arcs from worst to best. The show only adapted the first two, and made massive changes in order to translate the story into an episodic, temporally locked medium.

Thus, Mr. R and Scylla are actually antagonists from the third arc: A Crisis On Both Worlds. It’s a very messy arc, in all honesty, with several major storylines going on that don’t really seem to connect all that well to each other, and one which… definitely has aged like milk.

The W.I.T.C.H. franchise is one I’ve always loved, and Lisa Fevral’s recent video deep diving into it has reignited my interest. Seriously, go watch it, it’s great and her looks slay. And so today, we’re gonna dive into the third comic arc, how I feel about it, and how it would potentially work in the world of the TV series if it got adapted.

Shows vs Comics:

The original W.I.T.C.H. comics carry a darker, more somber tone, with more focused on serialized stories through their arcs, and a much more whimsical, saturated art style. Lisa goes into depth about the creators’ style and influences, but suffice to say I vastly prefer the comics’ art style to the show’s.

The comics are just far more unique, with more expressive designs, and more colorful environments. The show, meanwhile, has a much muddier, earthy palette, I assume to appeal to boys, because the fems can’t have anything without us going “But how do we make it less feminine? Because feminine bad.”

But the real differences are in the story, mostly due to the process of adapting the comics’ structure to work in an episodic TV series. Things like there not being only twelve portals, but rather random portals appearing in the Veil to allow for more storytelling opportunities, or fleshing out Meridian as a world with more characters and locales to center episodes around.

Plenty of Meridian characters like Blunk, Miranda, the Tracker, Sandpit, and so on don’t exist in the comics. They were invented for the show to create more conflicts to fill the 26 episodes, and they were so iconic, they wound up entrenching themselves into W.I.T.C.H. lore permanently.

The girls’ powers also work differently. The girls’ psychic powers, for example, are available to them from the start of the comics, but are held off in the show until season 2 to serve as upgrades. Will doesn’t use lightning in the comics, but rather pink energy, which… to me, just feels far too generic. My only complaint is that her lightning isn’t pink.

Oh, and of course, only Hay Lin can fly in the comics, despite the fact they all have wings. Thank God they changed this in the show. Like first of all, wings are shorthand for flight. What are you girls, Eternal Sailor Moon? But also, giving them all flight allows for more dynamic, interesting fight scenes, and also helps them navigate the terrain more easily.

All in all, I generally prefer the show to the comics. My only major gripes with the show are the more generic, less colorful art style, the weird amount of focus they put on Caleb in season 1 (I assume, again, to appeal to boys), and the casual sexism… that comes from Caleb. But my God, season 2 is where the show really comes into its own.

The second arc in the comics is… enjoyable. But the show took its elements and RAN with them. Basically, Caleb isn’t a human, but rather a Whisperer - one of those whispering flowers in Phobos’ court. He was able to break free and live his own life, only to be killed by Phobos towards the end of the first arc. His body then transformed into a flower.

This caused Cornelia to spiral, becoming obsessed with bringing Caleb back to life and quitting being a Guardian. Through shenanigans involving Luba, the keeper of the Aurameres who really hates the girls in the comics, Cornelia comes to wield all five elements. Ya know, like in “N is for Narcissist.” Except here, Cornelia uses it to resurrect Caleb.

In the process, she winds up breaking a seal entombing Nerissa. She’d been sealed away until all five elements inhabited a single entity, which… okay then? But that’s how Nerissa breaks free and begins wreaking havoc in the Guardians’ lives. Immediately, it makes her feel way less interesting than the show, where she’d already escaped her prison, and was living in hiding on Meridian, plotting and scheming for ages.

So Nerissa’s plot isn’t to gain various mystic hearts to accrue power. Actually, there are no mystic hearts of all the worlds, so… all the intrigue that comes from her finding ways to snatch them up without being able to take them by force are gone. Instead, Nerissa’s one and only goal is getting revenge on Kandrakar.

Sure, Nerissa in the show wants revenge, but she’s also delusional in thinking her way is the only way. She believes she will bring peace and order to the universe, but that is through an authoritarian rule where she and only she has all the power, driving her to the point of killing, manipulating, and ruining lives. Comic Nerissa, by contrast, is not a schemer in the same way, which kills most of the appeal she had in the show.

So Nerissa creates the Knights of Vengeance, which you’ll recognize as the Knights of Destruction from the show: Ember, Tridart, Khor, and Shagon. Sidenote: Matt isn’t Shagon here, and Mr. Huggles isn’t Khor. Instead, Shagon and Khor are… some random scientist who uncovered Nerissa’s tomb, and Khor is his dog. Immediately, way less emotionally compelling, and takes away Nerissa ruining the Guardians’ personal lives in the show.

So Nerissa invades the Guardians’ dreams to destroy their mental states, which I do enjoy. It’s a more insidious version of what she does in the show, forcing them to try and stay away to the point of exhaustion, all the while they try and investigate who Nerissa is.

Nerissa manages to trick Will into giving her the Heart of Kandrakar by disguising herself as Matt, then uses it to fill Kandrakar with darkness. The Guardians manage to stop her, and… yeah, then it’s over.

It’s kinda obvious why the show changed so much of this. They made Nerissa a far more compelling, threatening villain, and they gave her several arcs through season 2 for different stages of her plan: the Knights of Vengeance Arc to tie up loose ends on Meridian; the Knights of Destruction Arc to focus on building up Nerissa herself as a threat; and then the final arc, with all the plot twists bringing Phobos and Cedric back into the mix.

They even kept Halinor alive, making her a member of the Council of Kandrakar, compared to her having passed away in the comics, while Kadma - who was living on Earth in retirement - instead rules the show-exclusive world of Zamballa. The show continually expands the universe in order to tell a more dynamic, compelling story.

And season 2 also deals in themes to do with power and permission. Characters like Nerissa, Kadma, Phobos, and Cedric who are obsessed with accruing power at any cost, or just think they’re the best people to wield it, while our protagonists are focused on distributing power and protecting the powerless. It’s a natural evolution of season 1’s story, forcing the girls into higher-stakes situations that now encroach further upon their ordinary lives.

So with how different the show and comics are, I thoroughly believe they’d have a field day with everything going on in the third comic arc. And thank God, cuz uh… while I find the elements of this arc interesting, the execution leaves a LOT to be desired.

The Guardians Exposed:

We’re gonna delve into each major storyline from the third comic arc one by one, the first of which being the arc where Mr. R and Raphael Scylla, those dudes from “Z is for Zenith,” try to expose the Guardians’ magic to the people of Earth.

So Scylla is the henchman, while Riddle is the mastermind… kinda? Theodore Riddle is a psychic detective who works for… the government? A government agency? It’s not exactly clear, but it’s a branch of people who investigate paranormal activity, with Riddle himself possessing several psychic abilities, like mind reading. No, I don’t know why. He just kinda does.

Which… I guess is fine? Earth is a nonmagical world, and yet there are a few traces of magic here. In the show, that’s through Lillian as the Heart of Earth, and in the comics, it’s in the existence of… water shadows? Basically water people that only exist for one issue. No, they have nothing to do with the rest of this arc.

But this agency’s goal is to investigate the girls and uncover their magical secrets, with Scylla becoming a teacher at Sheffield Institute to keep tabs on them. It’s… fine? It’s not all that compelling, honestly, because we don’t really understand Scylla and Riddle as antagonists. Like, why’re they doing all of this? Who are they, even?

And then there are other figures involved with their agency, like this Nora lady, and… this guy? Oh, and the detectives from “C is for Changes.” But honestly, I don’t care about all the interdepartmental conflicts going on, cuz I don’t care about any of these characters. Really, the only issue they have is who’s gonna expose magic to the world, which… is boring as hell.

During the arc, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin go on an exchange trip to Redstone Academy, during which Taranee’s power over fire is discovered by Scylla when he goes after Hay Lin’s astral drop. Later on, Will uses an astral drop to escape Mr. Riddle, who then kidnaps the astral drop with his mind control powers.

The girls fail to save her, which then results in a conflict when Riddle goes to examine her, and is confronted by Scylla and the detectives, who basically fight over who gets to dissect her. The girls don’t step in to save the day, nor does Astral Will save herself. Instead, the Oracle just… intervenes himself. He uses a spell to erase their memories, and I hate it.

It’s an aggressive deus ex machina that prevents the girls from having to step in to solve the problem themselves. The Oracle just… handwaves it away. I’m assuming this is because it was used against him in the next arc, but like… it’s not worth it, y’all.

The only benefit here is that it leads into our next section…

Rogue Astral Drops:

So in both the comics and show, the girls are able to use the Heart of Kandrakar to create astral drops: clones which can cover for them on Earth while they go do Guardian things. In the show, they’re lifeless mimics who are quite goofy. They aren’t truly living things, and are simply reabsorbed into the Heart when they serve their purpose. They serve a practical purpose, though there is a risk to using them, since they’re quite… stupid.

During season 2, we see that when exposed to quintessence - the fifth element which gives life to inanimate objects - astral drops become altermeres: living things with access to their original’s memories, emotions, and powers. Nerissa turns Will’s astral drop into an altermere, trying to use her fear of being reabsorbed to make her replace the original Will. And later, Nerissa creates an altermere of Yan Lin which will serve her when she reforms the old Guardians.

It allows for more nuanced, interesting stories where these clones, once considered to be nonliving, unfeeling objects, are now their own people. In the comics, meanwhile, that’s not how it goes. Astral drops are living things from jump, which… makes me wonder why the girls even have this power to begin with? That seems like a really terrible, abusive power to be giving your Guardians.

So the girls’ astral drops rebel against them. They don’t wanna be reabsorbed and sent back into oblivion, and in the end, they’re allowed to go off, assume their own identities, and live… somewhere other than Heatherfield.

I don’t know, seems like it’d be pretty easy for them to be exposed as magical, especially considering the girls are only 14, maybe 15? Like how’re they gonna survive out here on their own? Especially because it’d allow Riddle and potentially other people like him to expose the Guardians down the road.

But that said, I do like that the comics tried to explore this more nuanced story, and how they integrated it into the Riddle storyline. Especially Astral Will’s resentment for being thrown away by Will to save herself.

I absolutely love the way the show handled both astral drops and altermeres, and I would’ve loved to see that fear of astral drops potentially becoming altermeres make the girls wary of even using astral drops in the first place. Especially given Yan Lin’s altermere, now going as Mira, is able to live a normal life as Yan Lin’s “long lost twin sister.” Really opens the door for what kinda stories you can tell, again about agency and autonomy.

Ari, Lord of Ableism (cw: Parental Ableism):

So the third and arguably main story primarily takes place on the fantasy world of Arkhanta. We don’t know… much of anything about this place, aside from the fact its people are farmers, and it’s also home to banshees who live in swamps, are scary, and can grant wishes. They are swamp genie ladies.

Now, Arkhanta is home to this arc’s main antagonist: Ari. Ari’s wife died in childbirth, and his son Maqi is… well, he’s nonverbal. He can’t speak, and apparently this really upsets Ari, who thinks his son is diseased, and it’s very uncomfy.

Now, if the story called out his belief that his son is inherently broken because he can’t speak, that’d be fine. It could actually be an exploration of how a lot of parents hold ableist attitudes towards their neurodivergent, disabled kids, but uh… it doesn’t. The story treats Ari not as incorrect for thinking that his son is broken, but as “going too far” to fix it. Because the story agrees that something’s wrong with Maqi, was we’ll see in this story’s finale.

So to try and fix this, Ari kidnapped a banshee named Yua, using her wishes to give himself a fortress in the Scarlet Citadel, making himself the lord of his world, and lavishing his son with luxury. But of course, this doesn’t make Maqi speak cuz that’s not how this works, and so Ari, upset, uses his last wish to make Yua his permanent slave. The Anti-Aladdin, if you will. Not sure why there wasn’t a rule to keep someone from doing that, but ya know, we didn’t think through the banshee lore or rules.

Anyhow, Ari then went to the Oracle for help to “fix” his son, and the Oracle refused. Not because Ari is an idiot and his son is fine as he is, but because the Oracle states it’s not his role. Which, yeah. I get him saying his role is to observe from afar and guide the Guardians in protecting the universe, rather than fixing individual problems. But again, would love it if the Oracle asserted that Maqi being nonverbal isn’t a problem in the first place.

So Ari’s pissed off, and he now wants vengeance and declares war on Kandrakar… wait. Just last arc, we had Nerissa seeking vengeance on Kandrakar, and now Ari too? Do we have any other motivations to give our villains, or are we just gonna keep repeating this until the end of time? It just makes Ari feel redundant and uninteresting, and Lord knows his lackluster presence and unaddressed ableism makes him more infuriating than actually threatening.

The story then follows the Guardians being ordered by the Oracle to talk down Ari before he goes too far, and we continually teleport to Arkhanta to deal with him, with Ari using Yua’s power to attack us… and that just kinda repeats until this story’s climax. It gets old real quick.

Ya know how Phobos and Nerissa in the show would find unique ways to mess with the Guardians, or had interesting schemes that served for the plots of individual episodes? Yeah, Ari in this arc refuses to do that. It’s just “Teleport in, Ari is pissed at us, he fucks with us, we leave,” wash, rinse, repeat.

So this story, while interesting, becomes not only incredibly poor at tackling the sensitive subject matter it’s trying to take on, but also deeply, horrifically boring, which to me is the worst thing media can be. And it’s so odd, because this arc also explores something similar through Taranee.

Taranee’s been getting headaches more often, then finds that her vision has completely been restored, allowing her to see perfectly without her glasses. The Oracle reveals this is due to the Gift of Xin Jing: a power which heals the Guardians and keeps them in tip-top shape so they can, ya know, save the day. But that also includes Taranee’s eyesight, and she’s pissed.

She’s upset that the Oracle knew about this, and didn’t even ask her if this is something she’d want. And this is paired with her being upset with how much being Guardians has changed their lives after such a short amount of time. And so, Taranee quits being a Guardian as a show of protest.

While Taranee is right to be upset, it really feels like this is only here to sow conflict between the Guardians and the Oracle for the next story arc, rather than explore any theme to do with bodily autonomy, agency, and ableism. And that definitely becomes clearer to me through how Maqi’s story is handled.

So anyway, Taranee is replaced by a warrior girl named Orubé from the Oracle’s homeworld of Basiliade. And she’s… fine. She clashes a lot with the Guardians, but I don’t find her that interesting of a character, especially given the comics as a whole see her not as a major character to join the group, than just another thing to throw into this arc to try and keep readers’ interest.

Eventually, Taranee returns, and right on time, Yua is freed. She kidnaps Maqi and takes him to the swamp to get back at Ari. The Guardians team up with Ari to try and save him. In the process, Maqi is injured and nearly dies, and the Guardians use the Gift of Xin Jing to save him, which… winds up making him able to speak. Thanks, I fucking hate it.

Now, given I’m not disabled, I can’t really speak to this much, but generally, you don’t wanna magically heal characters of their neurodivergence or disability, because you’re basically saying they are inherently broken and need to be fixed. Which yeah, the comic views Maqi that way, and now Ari has been vindicated for continually thinking of his son as broken. I hate it so much.

This arc has interesting elements, definitely. Ari using Yua’s power for his own personal gain could make for interesting conflicts with the Guardians, especially given he’s arguably doing them not to take over the universe like previous enemies, but is doing them for the sake of his family. If you remove the ableism, or actually unpack it competently, it could definitely work.

But the repetitive fights with Ari just… are so boring. So the bland, repetitive execution combined with the ableism make this arc a total slog to me. Ideally, the show would’ve caught this and made it less unbearable, but I also would’ve loved to see how they flesh out Arkhanta the way they did with Meridian.

The banshees specifically needed a lot more to work with. If they’re such powerful, mysterious entities, you’d expect them to be more than just “evil ghost women” who live in a nearby swamp, and who are all nameless save for Yua.

And dear God, please connect it to the Riddle plot. Have them link into one another, have Riddle maybe stumble upon Arkhanta and maybe even free Yua so they can team up, and have them thematically link.

Conclusion & Outro:

W.I.T.C.H. is a franchise that, while it has its cult following, feels very much forgotten. While the comics have their appeal, the show arguably remains the definitive version for a lot of folks, myself included. It’s honestly nice having multiple versions of the same story to choose between.

And so, I’m really sad we never got to see what the show would’ve done with this arc. Given it had such potential, and wound up being such a mess, I would’ve loved seeing how the team adapted it, especially following the gold that was season 2.

Oh also, am totally writing a third season of W.I.T.C.H. with a friend, lmfao. That bit's getting ad libbed into the actual video.