WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Fate: The Winx Saga, now streaming on Netflix.
In Netflix's Fate: The Winx Saga, as more is revealed about Bloom (Abigail Cowen), it's clear she's destined for greatness. Whilst she starts off as an innocent intake into the school, the show tries to transform her into Alfea's savior in the Otherworld.
It's revealed Bloom is a Fire Fairy tied to the ancient magic of the Dragon Flame. But while she's in such a formative stage at the magical school, there's a horrendous problem with her. Rather than come off as an altruistic lead and a messiah who could usher in a new, mystical era of peace, Bloom is depicted as nothing more than a selfish brat in the six episodes thus far.
It's really hard to glean a lick of heroism in Bloom as she keeps making self-serving decisions, not caring about the consequences of her actions. She doesn't even care about her family as seen when she tried to light her home on fire in an angsty moment of rebellion after arguing with her mom. This mishap can be chalked up to her emotions getting the best of her as she lost herself in her then-undiscovered abilities, but she doesn't mature when she starts training.
Firstly, Bloom sneaks off to Earth using Stella's ring, breaking the rules. While this is understandable because she's homesick, Bloom never considers that the den mother taunting her and mistreating everyone is playing a game. She's just not a critical thinker and it leads to a Burned One tracking her back near the school's barrier, which sets up the raid for the finale.
True, her mistakes humanize her, but what's terrible is that she never learns from them. Later, she constantly lies to Aisha, Musa and Terra about her lineage, which is weird as they're ready to sacrifice it all for her. Instead, she leans on Beatrix whom she barely, all because she promises more info into Bloom's past. Her desire for this knowledge is understandable, but lying to the girls is a juvenile move, especially as they're all trying to protect each other.
This kickstarts the mission that ends with Bloom drugging her crush, Sky, after he opens up to her. It also frees the maniacal Rosalind. Had she just trusted Headmistress Dowling and her friends, this genocidal mage wouldn't have been unleashed. It gets worse as Bloom uses the Stone Circle with Rosalind to power herself up — a testament to how often she seeks shortcuts in harnessing her abilities rather than train and work hard like the other girls. This leads to the barrier being weakened and power going out at the school, giving Rosalind access to send the Burned Ones in.
Bloom constantly acts on her own just to get insight into her past and knows nothing of honesty or being a team player. It's childish behavior and creates minimal character development which is unfortunate as she has such potential. All of this is done to give her a heroic moment where she kills the rabid legion of Burned Ones in the finale, but Bloom's so unlikeable at this point, it doesn't resonate. It gets worse as all these dominoes end with Dowling's death and a coup at the school. This installs a sinister regime, so even though Fate portrays Bloom as a naive person honing her craft, she's ultimately to blame for dooming Alfea.
Executive produced by Brian Young (The Vampire Diaries) and Winx Club creator Iginio Straffi, Fate: The Winx Saga stars Abigail Cowen (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Bloom, Hannah van der Westhuysen as Stella, Precious Mustapha as Aisha, Eliot Salt (Normal People) as Terra, Elisha Applebaum as Musa, Sadie Soverall as Beatrix, Freddie Thorp (A Discovery of Witches) as Riven, Danny Griffin as Sky, Theo Graham as Dane and Jacob Dudman (The Stranger) as Sam. Eve Best (Nurse Jackie), Robert James-Collier (Downton Abbey), Josh Cowdery (Legends), Alex Macqueen (Peaky Blinders) and Eva Birthistle (The Last Kingdom) also star. Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
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