Ranking the W.I.T.C.H. Comic Arcs from Worst to Best! || W.I.T.C.H. Wednesdays

[@loztalkz8749]

CORRECTION: someone pointed out that all the girls joining the Jensen Dance Academy happened in arc 7, not arc 6 like I thought. It doesn’t affect the ranking - it just means arc 6 was slightly better than I remembered and arc 7 is even worse 😂 Second correction: my brain keeps confusing the scene in issue 2 when they go into Elyon’s basement with the scene where Medina and McTiennan go to the basement which is actually issue 10.

[@Green-Fish-8]

11: Arc 7 1:23 10: Arc 10 6:24 9: Arc 9 8:29 8: Arc 8 10:28 7: Arc 3 15:59 6: Arc 11 29:32 5: Arc 5 31:07 4: Arc 6 34:38 3: Arc 4 39:24 2: Arc 2 42:09 1: Arc 1 48:40

[@mat_deb5821]

When I was a kid I stopped reading the comics after arc 2 - judging by this I was quite lucky since I still can think of the series fondly

[@Kattlarv]

One part I recall about the fast world is "Oh no! My SENTIENT clothes got stuck on a shard of ice! ... Better TEAR it lose!" I even blinked slowly at that. Like... that's your FIRST thought? No other attempts? Don't wait for the lamia to wriggle free? The banshee arc is also notable for being kinda dumb. Like, the guardians give up their magical stamina to "cure" him and... then its never mentioned again. As... apparently they can get really sick now, along with being massively fatigued. And that was like... apparently a big deal for like, 2 more issues? Speaking of autism speaks: Disney did do a rather ironic "PSA" a while back. A parody song called "Anxious". Which was made for some mental health awareness month... but ALL the characters are kinda implied to be neurodivergent... and ALL are the "butt of the joke" characters we are *supposed* to make fun off. So it's like... you trying to say something here, disney? Though, I can say... it's a kinda clear decline of quality the longer it went on. I know it got a massive overhaul, just a few issues in, with it being made "safer" for kids. Elyon not being evil, etc. But, I can say the quality kinda tanked after they fired the original writers for wanting to make Irma gay. The later arcs really miss the small details. Like Will's fear of death, her E-D, etc. And the just... really, really weird story choices. Seemingly ruining a good story by making it dumber.

[@FeraNelia]

I agree, New Power arc just SCREAMS forced reboot where they almost completely wiped off characters and settings from the previous stories, as if they gave the series to completely new writers and tried to turn it more "cool". The change was so sudden, like if there was a whole arc missing inbetween! I dropped out already during the Ragorlang arc and I'm so glad I did because I'd have been MAD PISSED at New Power. I read the rest of the comics only years later, so I can just ignore them and stick to arcs 1-5 + 6 :') I hated everything they did with the characters later, like Irma suddenly having a lover that literally appeared out of nowhere for cheap plot, Taranee being retconned as adopted for drama and then IT'S NEVER BROUGHT UP AGAIN, previously important characters disappearing almost completely, Oracle suddenly acting like a tyrant again while Endarno has disappeared off the universe, and so many, many more... As for Matt, I think he wasn't actually immortal, if I remember correct he apparently was hired by Kandrakar in secret after he found out about magic, which is plain dumb. It reeks "quick, we need a cool male character with fighting abilities, retcon Matt as a secret agent!!" You also can notice how the magical elements started to give more and more spotlight to the teenage glamour, like eventually the covers were basically all just the girls looking pretty in glitter :') Gone were the epic covers portraying plot elements. At the end they've completely given up plot wise too, just throwing magical bus and magical children there. Out of 1-5, I agree that the 3rd arc was the weakest even, I remember it basically kept going "girls go to Arkhanta, they fuck up, they return, rinse and repeat" month after month. However, while I def agree that Maqi was a bad take, the "problem" with him wasn't just that he didn't speak, it was that he was completely in his own mental bubble, barely interacting with anyone, barely showing any positive emotions and not having interest in really anything around him, and that overall was deemed the "problem". I think he's originally more close to a person with an emotional disorder rather than a mute - which then gets "cured" by magic, hurray! :'))) It was a very tone-deaf story, yeah. (But I did enjoy Orube right from the start, since even as a child I knew she was gonna go through the usual trope from-arrogance-to-friendship, and I was happy she stayed so long with the girls! I hate the sad ending they gave her, though, she deserved a better send-off) //Oh, I didn't even know there was a final 11th arc, since in my country the comic was discontinued maybe midway arc 10 I think. I should check it out, I'm so glad they remembered Elyon exists and brought her back!

[@charlieedwards4331]

Between the terrible disability representation and the multiple subplots, the third arc was just one big hot mess!

[@NicklasZandeVGCP2001]

Arc 7 sounds like something EDJ would write as part of his Rippaverse series of comics.

[@the_sapphirerose]

I think the explanation as to why magical children (and occasionally older people) kept showing up on Earth is because when the Oracle released the aurameres from Kandrakar and sent them to Earth, it somehow caused people to become magical. It still makes absolutely no sense but considering how hard they were trying to reboot W.I.T.C.H. (likely to lure in a few fans from the Winx Club comics demographic) I can see why Teach 2B WITCH was as it was. They could have at least had the children they taught participate in the final battle against the White Queen though instead of dropping the whole premise the moment W.I.T.C.H. enter the Fast World :/

[@willvandom5105]

I loooved The trials of Oracle when I read it some years ago, it was so enganging I couldn't put it down

[@Ellisepha]

I think the New Powers Arc was the first one I actually read as it was coming out. I immediately ignored the "Matt is from Kandrakar" bs as soon as it was revealed, because... yeah, no. But I do like some chapters a lot, especially the one where Hay Lin moves into a new home and it seems so dark and depressing at first, but she grows to like it. (Also, Hay Lin's the only one who got a legit upgrade with the New Powers look, love that for her). The villain was okay too. I think Dark Mother was part of my gay awakening, so I'm too biased to critisize her XD Oh and the "Taranee is adopted and has always had fire powers" thing? Love-Hate. On one hand, I do like that the Cook family has always loved her, and don't treat her any different, but on the other hand... was that twist necessary? I'm not adopted, so I can't really talk about it, but it did feel kinda shoe-horned into that arc, along with Bad Matt.

[@ptheorist4670]

The thing about making Matt out of nowhere work for Kandrakar the entire time and then treated Will like shit was literally what drove me off reading the rest of the series. I don't know what the hell they were thinking with that writing choice. I had invested in his relationship with Will, and I'd LOVED the chapter where he found out about her powers and Will went like "Do you think we can start over?" and he was like "Nah. I'd rather continue where we left off" and the KISS??? Young me was so excited, because Will had a supportive boyfriend! I could tolerate the way they fought, if they had had some positive development, but then they did... this. For some reason. How to Ruin your Characters 101, for real.

[@juliahyde6112]

Great video! I think my favorite arc is arc 2, because Nerissa is so threatening and scary, but I loved arc 1 as well :D

[@silvermoonies]

Hi! Been a fan of the comics since I was in 5th grade. I’m not sure but I believe the reason why Maki suddenly did not speak was because her Mom died. I kinda forgot about it. It’s been ages and it was a different time. There were lots of societal issues among others back then that wouldn't go well now if not discussed properly. I was not even aware that Maki was in the spectrum or maybe because I was too young back then to know.

[@ionasappy2732]

Kader is so beautiful.

[@victorfurtado5578]

Omg I'm loving to discover more and more w.i.t.c.h content

[@isshel]

We mostly don't agree on why we like and dislike some arcs 😂 But that's interesting to hear what's bothering you. I appreciate you like the Arc 6, I have read some people saying it started to fall off from that one, which I disagree (to me it's from the 7th). Ragorlang was my first full read of Witch, so I cherish dearly and I recall every month buying as a child, such good memories 🥹 I retake a read of the comic since in a long time, in French the comic stopped by the 8th Arc and I thought the rest was never published. However I've found out recently Arc 10 (some of it) and 11 were released later on. I don't know why they paused it for a year, when at that time, I stopped buying the magazine. So I purchased the missing issues online and would probably buy the graphic novel from the Arc 9 in English. Can't wait to see how everything get wrapped ! So far I am the Arc 4, I really enjoy that one and as well the 3, unlike you, I like the multiples storylines especially Orube's one, Sylla's and the astral drops' rebellion. Arkhanta was rather boring unfortunately and just like you, I did not get the issue with Maqi when I first read it as a teen. I often see people really enjoying Nerissa's Arc, I don't, I think the story is too short and unfolds too easily, at the contrary, in the cartoon, Nerissa is great ! Can't wait to get to the Arc 5, I read it only once so I don't remember it well 🤔

[@bia5141]

I loved Witch both comis and TV series growing up. My favourite arcs are arcs 4 and 5 but that's only because that's when I really started collecting them - everything after that was ok but at some point I stopped collecting after around arc 9 I think otherwise I pretty much still have all comics from arc 3 2nd sub plot to where astral.spirits started rebellion to 9ish (all collected as they came out in my country). Oh ya and I literally everything I know about first arcs are from Tv series lmao I wanted to collect book versions but I only got my hands on one which covers comics 13-18 (pretty worn down after so many rea-reads 😂). I read few light novels too which sometimes I found more interesting than canon ones lol. Still regretting I never get my hands on Shreds of time series (i think thats how its called in English) because premise was cool af

[@maougha]

Glad I found this, cause I wanted to see if I wanted to start buying thses. Found them at my local book store lol

[@w.i.t.c.h.aholic9315]

I don't remember it saying Matt was immortal, but it was still weird.

[@AlexKatzenstein]

As I remember it, Matt said that he was chosen to receive training in Kandrakar but he was still human. Or am I mistaken?

[@christianvandom]

My favorite arc are the Crisis on Both Worlds and Book of Elements.

[@Kattlarv]

On a side note: All the girls were great dancers... EXCEPT Hay Lin, amusingly. That was a sub-plot in the sub-plot.

[@loztalkz8749]

I can barely remember - I just remember she really liked her dance teacher and then the teacher died 😬 rip… whoever she was

[@soveryumble7250]

I mostly agree about Arc 3, but I think you give the Astral Drops storyline way to little credit- or rather, the Astral Will line(the other drops are part of the storyline, but it is Astral Drop Will it is all written around). It is actually a significantly bigger plotline than the Interpol one, and it is spread out throughout the issues. It has pretty much all the most poignant moments of the arc and Astral Will is genuinely compelling. If you pulled this part out of Arc 3 and gave it more time, it would easily make the Top 3, in my opinion. But every other part of that Arc is utterly dreadful (even as someone who like Orube, every issue outside the Astral Drop ones tend to be bad- her Arkhanta introduction issues are dreadful). Appreciate you not writing off the Ragorlang arc as bad, it really isn't. As for the Top 3, I have quite a few disagreements personally, but I understand why you chose those three. I found The Trial of the Oracle the best put together arc by far. The Nerissa Arc has some neat stuff to it, but a lot of it feels halfbaked, not fully realized, and considering it was the first arc after the first, the one where the new team had to really find their footing, that actually makes perfect sense. Still, the halfbaked stuff is good for what it is. I tend to consider this arc about on par with the Ragorlang one(which is criminally underrated.) Arc 1... I agree that the first 6 issues was probably the peak of the comic, but I also personally think what issue 7-12 did to the arc absolutely mangled it. It left questions about the nature of Phobos rule that would keep causing plotholes in multiple arcs later, it wrecked Cedric and Phobos's personality utterly- they do not mesh at all with the earlier parts of the arc- Arc 4 basically took these damaged scraps, and rebuilt them into much better versions- not a return to the Issue 1-6 version, but massive improvements on the 7-12 versions.. I think the strongest continuous period of W.I.T.C.H. was definitely Arc IV-VI, and I ascribe that in large part to the most common writer(main plotter?) of the period, Teresa Radice. For the first three arcs, once the original team was tossed out, the main plotter was Francesco Artibani(who worked with the original team), who would leave around the end of Arc III to work as a writer on the Winx show. The New Power Arc and onwards was more or less written almost entirely by Augusto Maccheto, who as far as I know, never wrote a single W.I.T.C.H. story before that.

[@loztalkz8749]

I appreciate your thoughts and insight! Thanks for taking the time to share them ✨

[@soveryumble7250]

@@loztalkz8749 No problem! Used to collect issues of the comic as a kid, and you don't see many arc rankings of the series on here.

[@mariaaaa1128]

I finished the show but I want to start reading he comics right from the shows end, which chapter should I go for?

[@loztalkz8749]

Hi! Honestly I would recommend starting from the beginning of the comics. The comics and the show aren’t the same, so there isn’t really a way to pick up where the show left off.

[@sunduck1045]

I'm love the 1 and 5 seasons