The term fairy was once used as a homophobic slur. In the world of Fate: The Winx Saga, though, fairies are proudly embracing their queerness.

🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

In Season 2, earth fairy Terra (Eliot Salt) comes out as gay — first to her cousin Flora (Paulina Chávez), then to the rest of her friends. Winx Club, the animated series from which Fate is adapted, is known for attracting a strong queer fanbase, especially young viewers struggling with their identity. As the Winx Club theme song goes, “We’ve got the style, and we’ve got the flair. Look all you want, just don’t touch the hair.” It’s campy but also instills a sense of power in viewers.

Although Fate takes a much darker direction than the cartoon, it preserves that queer magic through its characters (and all those big needle drops from mainstream pop artists like Taylor Swift and Charli XCX). “Do we think [Fate] is a very camp show? Definitely,” Salt says. “Using your power to love and to experience joy, and also the difficulty in using all of your internal feelings to create beautiful external magic that helps people and makes the world a better place — that sounds quite queer to me.”

Terra (Eliot Salt) comes out to her cousin FloraShe's perfect.

Fate’s showrunner Brian Young agrees. “We feel very, very different. The manifestation of having powers feels like that,” he recently told Tudum. “LGBTQ+ storylines in general, it’s all about taking that thing that makes you different and making it powerful. The whole show is a little bit analogous to a gay storyline.”

For Salt, getting to portray Terra was more than just a role — it was also a privilege. “It was such a joy and privilege to do a story that I so wish had been around when I was growing up,” the actor shares. “It’s really lovely to see a coming out story that is really difficult but isn’t ridden with angst. She has a lovely experience. It’s important to tell all kinds of coming out stories, but it’s really nice to see a positive one.”

Shortly after coming out to her friends, Terra quickly dismisses the moment, but they all stop her and go in for a group hug. “Just having the scene where they all hug her, I love it so much,” Young says. “It’s what I wish had happened when I was coming out.” Even for Chávez, getting to be Salt’s scene partner was pretty moving. “[Eliot] made me tear up. Even watching it now, I tear up. It’s such a powerful scene, and I think everybody’s going to feel it,” she shared with Tudum.

Before Terra’s Season 2 storyline, the only openly queer character in Fate is Dane (Theo Graham), a specialist who falls for his classmate Riven (Freddie Thorp) in the first season. While many shows and films only have one token queer character, Fate doesn’t want to fall into that trope. “In a lot of places, it’s becoming scarier and harder to be a queer person,” Salt says. “Now more than ever, it’s really important that we see some queer joy on the screen.”

Part of Season 2’s queer joy is giving Terra a love interest named Kat (Leah Minto). “Oh, it’s so lovely. I love doing flirty romantic scenes,” Salt gushes. “It really feels like Terra’s being seen by this person and it’s a really empowering teenage flirtation, which is not something I experienced.” On working alongside Minto, Salt adds, “Leah is a delight and a lovely person to work with, so we just have such a giggle and a really lovely time.”

The Otherworld is a frightening place, with new dangers and monsters constantly threatening Fate’s characters. Despite the dark tone, Salt hopes that queer viewers watching the show don’t think of their identities as that. “I feel that I, and a lot of other people I know, grew up with this sense of queerness with a shadow around it or a darkness, threat and a sense of fear. It took me a long time to see it as this wonderful party of joy,” she says. “Being able to see queerness as an opportunity for joy within yourself allows you to spread love within the world.”

Season 2 of Fate: The Winx Saga is now streaming.