Princess Amentia of Downland (Queen in 4Kids dub), first appearing S2E4, is the ruler of a small kingdom of people called Trog (which I have a few problems about that we’ll talk on later). She is a dominant, perfectionist that falls madly in love with Brandon, Stella’s boyfriend. She serves as a minor conflict and minor ally to the Winx against Darkar. And while I think Amentia is a unique character that should’ve been explored more, she is also written off as a pitch poor portrayal of women in positions of power and borders on racist stereotypes. It’s unfortunate that I’ve yet to see any posts or articles talking about the inappropriate portrayal of her character and her people.
Not only is she a powerful ruler, she is also an impressive warrior, and so are many of her people. Despite their impressive nature, she and her soldiers are written as brainless brutes. Especially the soldiers. This is a common portrayal of unfortunately several brown people, but especially Indians & Arabians (also Natives, with how they’re written as savage and uncivilized) All of these cultures are stereotyped as being controlling, the same way Princess Amentia is. But I specifically want to talk about her being a woman in a position of power first.
In the world of Winx we don’t often get female rulers, which is strange as the Magic Realm has various societies and cultures but for some reason they’re all Kingdoms? Another rant for another day. But my point still stands, she is, other than the Queen of the Earth fairies, the only female ruler and indisputably the only female warrior. Yet, she’s controlling and doesn’t understand the idea of consent. She’s selfish, self-centered, and uses her position as a way to, frankly, just be a bitch to everyone. While she has good qualities, like being a strong strategist and, of course, fighter. She’s written so shallowly for the sake of being a low-stake conflict instead of a fully-rounded character. It’s sad to see the only woman in power to be written in such a bitchy way as many women with positional power are viewed.
It’s also gross with the way they solved this conflict by forcing her to fall in love with someone else without her consent nor the work necessary to make a happy couple. I know one of the dubs made it where she realized Sponsus is her soulmate instead of falling in love with him on the spot, but I’ve always hated the soulmate trope because, in this case, it just feels like an easy fix.
Now onto the stereotypes, it was always something I noticed even as a child. It’s clear the Trog is a weird mix of Aztec & Orientalist aesthetics. Amentia wears what looks like a dupatta in her military outfit (a strange contrast to her immodest outfit which goes against the usage of the dupatta). She also wears a bindi or a Tilaka, which personally I think it is more of, which isn’t specifically a problem but helps to prove the Trogs are pulling from Indian asesthetics. Her and the other female Trogs dress in what looks like bellydancing costumes or vaguely Aztec costumes. And while I don’t have a problem with her or the Trogs being inspired by various cultures, the fact that they’re portrayed as savages leaves a sour taste when paired with their outfits being poor, sexualized versions or shallow depictions of real cultures.
Not to mention the forced marriage conflict, is strange. I get using arranged marriages as conflict, this happens in several series, it literally happens multiple times in Winx alone. But it feels downplayed for how uncomfortable Brandon was and for how often Amentia forced herself on him. And while this may be a stretch, it just looks like they’re minimizing female-initiated sexual assault and harassment.
Lastly, the name Trog. This is literally an insult in the english language, it being a shortened version of Troglodyte. It’s already a shitty move to name a species after an insult but to have these stereotypes on top of it, is so much worse.
Amentia deserved to be taken seriously as a character and not a gross interpretation of women in power, her being aggressive and forceful are not what make a powerful woman powerful. She deserved to learn how to fall in love and not to pick a suitor based on looks or her perfectionist ideas. Her people deserved to stand as interesting characters without being stereotypical or shallow. Also it would’ve been great to see her pop up again in later seasons, especially S3. As one of the only kingdoms that doesn’t use magic it would’ve been interesting to see where she stood against Valtor.
There is so much that could’ve been done with her personality and a character in her position, yet they threw them in for low-stake conflict and filler content.
In short, Princess Amentia deserved better.
