Layla (Winx Club)

Layla (also known, originally, as Aisha in the Italian version) is a fictional character from the Winx Club animated series. Layla first appears in the first episode of Season 2, La Fenice D'ombra (translation: The Shadow Phoenix) (4kids dub: Back to School). She will be voiced by Monique Coleman in the live-action/animated version of Tom and Jerry (1-12). She will be played by Leeza Gibbons in the live-action film of Winx Club from Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures.

Personality and History
When we first see Layla in the first episodes of season two, it is apparent that she is determined and fearless. We observe her trying to rescue the pixies that will later become bonded to the individual members of the Winx Club. Through her conversation, we get a glimpse of her powers and receive a few hints about the villain of the season, Lord Darkar.

After escaping with only one pixie, baby Piff, she stumbles to Alfea, where she is found by the members of the Winx Club, and faints. She shows a deep love and caring for the pixies, who are obviously her close friends. The Pixies trust her very much - Layla is one of the few people who know of Pixie Village. Layla gives practical advice and always provides a shoulder to cry on.

She continuously shows this caring nature throughout the show, comforting Musa after her conflict with her father, and calming Flora's nerves when she experiences qualms about her feelings for Helia.

She has tried to develop independence. She appears to be a feminist, sometimes conflicting with chauvinistic Riven, and can perform any task that the specialists can. She even, at one point, takes control of the Wind Raider from Riven.

Layla was raised in a very traditional setting. Her parents believed that princesses should conduct themselves in a strict orthodox manner, and scrutinized her every movement and thought. As a result, Layla had a very isolated childhood, excepting the times when she escaped from the palace. Because of this, Layla has not had many friends. After her best friend Anne had moved away when Layla was young, her only friends were the pixies of Pixie Village.

In most of season 2, the show seemed to revolve around Layla instead of Bloom and the other girls, but at the end, it focused on Bloom again because Lord Darkar tried and succeeded temporarily to turn her evil.

Layla loves sports and dancing. She is 17 years old when she is first comes to Alfea and her birthday is June 15.

Her first interaction with girls her age comes when she arrives at Alfea. Having been so isolated for such a long time, she held back at the beginning and worried that she didn't know how to be a good friend. As the months progressed though, she slowly opened up and became good friends with all of them.

Layla is extremely opinionated and open minded. She is as intuitive as Stella and when asked to, gives practical and pragmatic advice. She is also a talented dancer and speaks 100 languages she learned as a kid. She is called Aisha in the original Italian version.

As a child, Layla's parents, who were very old fashioned, taught Layla to believe that a princess should be obedient, always seen and never heard. In Season 2 episode 13, "La Dama Del Ballo" (Italian)/ "The Gangs of Gardenia" (English), we see several flashback scenes from Layla's childhood, including a nightmare of her life back on Tides/Andros as a child and all of her servants surround her with overbearing commands. When she was little, she makes a mention that her parents never allowed her to pick out her own clothes, so she was always forced to wear long dresses (she wears the same one throughout all of her flashbacks) The dress was white and gold, with a huge hoop skirt underneath and her crown was a teal net-like wrap that criss-crossed all over her head and down her ponytail.

Layla is a very talented dancer, and was taught to let loose with her dancing by a young peasant girl names Anne who she befriended as a young child, when Anne escaped from the village and went into Layla's castle.

She is strongly against romantic entanglements with boys, as seen in episode 18 of the 3rd season. This was likely because of an arranged marriage from her parents, mentioned in episode 9, but only brought up again in episode 18. Her parents had wanted her to marry a man called Nabu, but under the name Ophir he helped her various times throughout season 3. When she found out he was Nabu, they already had fallen in love, and by the end of Season 3, they were in a relationship.

In the fourth season, Nabu asked Layla to marry him and she happily accepted. However, when the Wizards of the Black Circle attacked Tir Nan Og and threatened its Queen, Morgana, Nabu sacrificed his own life to save everyone. Feeling distraught and frustrated over losing Nabu, Layla accepted an offer to join Nebula and her "Fairies of Vengeance" in an attempt to destroy the Fairy Hunters once and for all. Later on, she rejoined the Winx Club.In Indian version,Layla was voiced by Manjula Madhavan in season 4. Layla's signature color is green in both civilian and Winx form, but her Believix is turquoise blue instead since Roxy's Believix color is green too.

Appearance
Civilian Layla is of African descent with long, slightly curly (wavy in the CGI movie) dark brown hair and cerulean eyes. Her daily outfit is a mauve midriff top with blue wave design, green denim miniskirt, purple leg warmers and sneakers. Layla also has pierced ears. She wears a pink hoody, 2 arm bands with blue and green combat trousers, with pink hiking boots. 

Winx Her Winx outfit is a sparkly lime green, midriff-bearing gypsy top, a micro-mini skirt with a slit atop short-shorts, and lime green boots. She also wears a sash connecting her top and skirt, and several silver rings around her outfit and on her arms. Layla's wings are sky blue with mauve tips.

Charmix is a small pink raindrop pin with silver outlining and a pink waist bag in the shape of a water gourd. She earned her Charmix by conquering her fear of being alone. 

Enchantix



Layla's Enchantix outfit consists of a frilly (likely a reference to seaweed), cyan strapless top decorated with magenta and yellow, a matching skirt, and banana yellow above-the-elbow translucent gloves. Her wings are outlined with her signature lime green, decorated with pink pearls (referring to her ocean-based powers), and filled in with yellow and magenta to match her outfit. Being narrow, they do not resemble butterfly wings and the shape is unusual; the forewings are as if doubled and the bases of the tailed hind wings are lower. Her hair grows a few inches and gains streaks, and is braided around a cyan forehead tiara (also bearing pearls that are the color of Morphix), before flowing into pigtails. Like the other Winx Club girls, Layla has blue barefoot sandals, connected by flower-shaped buttons. Later in the season, her outfit changes back to her usual spring green color, possibly due to the introduction of Bloom's Enchantix, which is similar in color, since Bloom's Enchantix is incomplete. The design of her outfit also changes. Her skirt no longer has frills but little beads dangling from the bottom. Her gloves change to translucent purple, her wings become spring green with magenta ovals towards the outer margins(Movie only). In the cartoon Layla's green and pink frilly outfit appears but the wings and gloves are unaltered. She is the first member of the Winx Club to earn her Enchantix. Her fairy dust vial is an aqua-marine bottle surrounded by a green ring w/an aqua-marine knot on top.

She earned her Enchantix In the 6th episode of season 3, Mermaid Queen Ligea promised to Layla that she could use her staff's healing powers to cure blindness that Valtor had cast on her. Despite this, Layla elected to use the staff on Ligea herself after a kraken attacked her. Layla would later cure her blindness herself with the powerful fairy dust on her wings (noted as one of the most powerful healing substances in the magical universe).

Believix



Layla's Believix outfit consists of a beautiful turquoise blue tube top, of sorts, with a lime green elbow-length right sleeve and a pair of turquoise blue pants that stop below her knees with lime green tutu-styled ruffles on both the bottom of the pants and around the waist below a teal waist band. Her feet are covered in a pair of shin-length, teal and pink high-heeled, lime green platform boots. A lime green choker with golden diamonds hanging down from them are around her neck and a turquoise blue band atop her head. On her left arm in an elbow-length, handless peach-colored glove white a lime green bangle is on her right wrist with a light fuchsia bow hanging from it. Lastly, in addition to her hair being at ankle-level and the pink highlights in her hair, Layla's wings are now arch-shaped and lined in turquoise green, with a shifting sea green and ocean blue-designed background in the wings.

Relationships
In the second season, which is the first one in which she appears, Layla does not have a love interest but seems to be very close to Sky which sometimes makes Bloom jealous of their relationship. Layla states that her best friend is Flora. Layla becomes friends with Flora when she helps her get Helia's attention. Layla becomes best friends with Musa after Musa tells her about her mom, but their friendship seems to fizzle a little in season three and four. She is also quite close to Stella. Layla and Tecna were not close at all in the second season but they become close friends in season 3 and Tecna volunteers to sacrifice herself for Layla's home realm.

In the third season, Layla gets a love interest: Nabu. He is seen in most of the episodes spying on Layla but later on is captured. He and Layla once get stuck on the Specialists' ship cell where they find out that they have a lot in common. Layla still does not trust him, but comes to after he saves her from a monster. She has fallen in love with him at this point and the two kiss in the last episode.

In the fourth season, Layla and Nabu seem to have grown closer. He asks for her hand in marriage, to which she replies: ''Yes! I can't wait to walk down the aisle. I'm the happiest girl in the world!'' Sadly, on Episode 24, Nabu dies, causing Layla to get very angry and sad. She joines Nebula to avenge him, but in the end, she goes back to the Winx.

Magical abilities
Layla is from Planet Andros. She has the power of Morphix, a pink fluid that she can morph into any shape she wants and she wishes to Alfea, while her friends help her.

Her powers are entirely based around the Morphix liquid, but she hopes to control all liquids through magical training. She usually just blasts columns of the liquid from her palms (an attack called "Oceanic Blast") or shapes it into different objects. However, she has done other useful things with her abilities, such as:


 * She can create solid walls of crystallized Morfix for protection and shape it into various shields and barriers, sometimes in the shape of spheres, nets, and cages.
 * She is able to shape Morfix into a number of projectiles, such as needles, spikes, etc.
 * She can trap her enemies with bonds of solid Morfix.
 * She can fire Morfix energy blasts that become solid when touched.
 * She can generate Morfix that travel as water.
 * She can cause Morfix to surround an entire area or person, as well as attack them with a huge wave of the liquid.
 * She can cause Morfix to explode and reform into a continuous explosive attack.
 * She has also been known to create useful but very strange things with Morfix, such as an 18th century cannon hoist for climbing down a cliff, when a simple strong rope would have been much more logical.

Spells
 * Morphix Shield: creates a bubble of fuchsia energy that can either protect her, seal things inside, and also gets control of fire damage, as seen in an episode of Season 4.
 * Plasma Wall: a wall of Morphix that usually takes on the shape of a yin yang.
 * Morfix Wave: a concentrated ball of Morphix power.
 * Spirit of Courage: Layla/Aisha's Believix Power, gives people who are afraid the courage to barrel through whatever is plaguing them.
 * Morphix Tidal Wave: fires a powerful beam of Morphix that grabs the target and delivers a powerful shock of magic to them before dropping them.
 * Andros Hurricane: Layla/Aisha launches a glowing fuchsia and aqua orb of magic at the target.
 * Glacier Gush: She sends a torrent of icy cold, ripping water towards her foes that freezes and severely injures them.

Transformation Sequences
Winx and Charmix

Layla's transformation sequence is rapid (0:09) but surprisingly detailed. First, she screams and flexes her arms, and there is a brilliant white flash. Layla spins and her clothes are replaced by her Winx outfit, bit-by-bit, in a green glow. Finally, she strikes a dancer's pose, flies up out of camera frame range, and lands back within range, striking her finishing pose. Notably, this transformation sequence does not have hands being crossed at any point, nor does she have a background shape or even a theme song playing while she transforms.

The new transformation was not introduced until "Corsa contro il temp" ("Race Against Time") in the original Italian version, but in the 4Kids edit, it was introduced in "The Dark Tower".
 * NOTE: Since she was not always seen wearing her safari ranger outfit, the transformation sequence was altered slightly with a silhouette of Layla coming into focus, and her Winx form's main outfit appearing in a flash of golden light.

In her Charmix sequence, she spins around once in a complete circle, flexes her arms and screams as her pin appears on the shoulder strap of her green top. Then she spins around in another complete circle as the camera focuses on her skirt, where her bag appears around her waist.

Enchantix

Layla's Enchantix transformation sequence is quite short (0:13). First, she tilts her head southeast, and her hair floats and then braids itself. Next, she lifts up her arms as several streams of light wrap around her arms, chest, and waist, creating her outfit, complete with sandals. Finally, a tiara materializes on her forehead, and as she flies away from camera, her wings slowly materialize and expand like those of a newly-grown butterfly. Layla's Enchantix transformation is the only Enchantix transformation that was uncut in the 4Kids edit when it was first introduced in the Season 3 episode, "The Mermaid Queen" and shown again in "Dark Sky".

Believix

Layla's Believix transformation sequence is not the longest of all (0:28) but it is extremely detailed in contrast to both her Winx and Enchantix transformation and it is also the most detailed of all the girls' Believix transformations. Firstly, a burst of magic falls into the water and slowly, the water starts to rise and surrounds her. One by one her clothes start to materialize as she twirls around: First her boots, then her leggings and skirt and finally, her top. Second, bubbles from the water cover her neck and with a brilliant white flash, her choker materializes and so does her headband. Layla then closes her eyes, flexes her ams and her gloves materialize, followed by the formation of her upper wings. She raises her arms and flies down while twirling as her lower wings materialize. Finally, Layla lands, crosses her arms, opens her eyes and strikes her finishing pose, with one hand on her hip and the other on her leg.

Layla was voiced by Vasthy Mompoint in the 4kids version.

4kids changes

 * The 4KIDS edition states that she is able to manipulate water molecules. the end if you wish for more info on the winx club please visit this website {sorry i will pull the link up now}

Voice Actresses (Layla)

 * Italy - Laura Lenghi
 * Singapore - Lucinda Davis
 * Netherlands - Marlies Somers
 * Poland - Brygida Turowska
 * France - Delphine Moriau
 * Israel - Liraz Charchi
 * Spain - Diana Torres
 * USA - Vasthy Mompoint
 * India - Manjula Madhavan(from Season 4)
 * Latin America - Lucila Gainza
 * Germany - Ilona Otto
 * Brazil - Flávia Fontenelle
 * Finland - Elise Langenoja

Notes and references
Layla (Winx Club) Layla (Winx Club) Aisha (Winx Club) Layla (Winx Club)