Darkar

Lord Darkar is the main antagonist of Season 2 and is also known as the Prince of Darkness and the Shadow Phoenix. He has also been referred to as Argulus in the 4Kids version. He has only appeared in Season 2, but makes a few cameo appearances in Season 3 and Season 4, and the Season 5 trailer.

Overview
Lord Darkar is an ancient deity of pure darkness who was born in the void from before the beginning of the universe and who is the polar opposite of the Great Dragon. Therefore, while the Great Dragon is a source of light, life and energy, and represents Good, Lord Darkar absorbs energy and is the incarnation of Evil.

It is also stated that he was the master of the Ancestral Witches and Valtor, and was the one who initially sent them to seek the Dragon's Flame from Domino, therefore being the cause of its destruction, as well as the ultimate cause of most of the events taking place in the first 3 Seasons and the 2 Movies and, indirectly, the events in Season 4 since the Winx came to Earth after the Wizards attacked Bloom thinking, that she was the last Earth Fairy, having sensed her fairy energy in Gardenia, where she had been sent because Domino was destroyed on Darkar's orders.

Appearance
Darkar looks glowing red and wears armor over his seemingly skeletal body. He also has torn, red glowing fabric on the back of him. It is not possible to see his eyes during the show but they occasionally glow like fire with small pupils or they momentarily lightens with a red spark.

Season 2
In both "Winx Club: Quest for the Codex" and "Winx Club: Join the Club," in Relix, the Winx battle Darkar in his phoenix form and destroy him once and for all.

Magical Abilities
Lord Darkar is capable of creating his own army of shadow monsters and even shadow clones of people like he does with Avalon. He also turned Bloom into Dark Bloom by using his dark magic/energy. He can fire powerful dark energy beams and create energy shields, and energy bubbles to confine the pixies.

Darkar also has demonstrated the power to summon, create, control and/or manipulate darkness and/or shadows to his own whim and desire like creating barriers, beams of energy or blasts of power, and the power to transform into a giant phoenix-like creature as well as disguise himself. In addition to his magic powers, he has long, razor-sharp claws that deal large damage. The difference between Lord Darkar's power and that of the Water Stars which also oppose the power of the Dragon is that, while Lord Darkar's power absorbs energy and the Dragon's power generates energy and with respect to each other, the former is Evil and the latter is Good, both the Dragon Flame and the Water Stars generate energy, but the energy released by each respectively is of opposing nature and neutral, none being Evil or Good with respect to each other.

Known Transformations

 * Phoenix
 * Cobra
 * Avalon (Nickelodeon version only)

Trivia

 * Lord Darkar is the first male villain in the whole Winx Universe and is the first main villain to die.
 * It can, however, be questioned whether Lord Darkar is really dead or not since, in "Up To Their Old Trix", Professor Wizgiz said that everything needs to have an equal opposite to continue existing and to maintain the balance of the Universe, and that a power's opposite is automatically created along with itself. This means that the Shadow Phoenix and the Great Dragon were born at the same time and that they also need each other to counter each other's powers and maintain the balance of the Universe. It could be that Lord Darkar is still alive, imprisoned in the Relix Dimension, or it could also be that he effectively died, but that his power or his essence still exists, but in a disembodied form, maintaining the balance of the Magic Dimension by countering the power of the Dragon Fire (similar to the Great Dragon: while the Dragon itself no longer exists, its power still exists in the disembodied form of the Dragon Flame which has been passed down through generations of the Royal Family of Domino). If so, his disembodied essence was likely sealed in Oblivion or in the Relix Dimension.
 * According to the 4Kids continuity, he was once a man named Argulus seeking the Shadow Fire, and stumbled across Darkar's Fortress (Shadowhaunt), the underground castle. Darkar took control of the Shadow Fire. The Shadow Fire obeyed his will and was his servant.
 * Ogron's ability to absorb the Fairies' powers is slightly similar to Darkar's ability to absorb all energy. The Wizards turning Mitzi and her friends in Season 4 is also similar to how Darkar gave the Gloomix to the Trix and how he turned Bloom into Dark Bloom. Ogron's red hair and Darkar's red color also increases this similarity.
 * Lord Darkar is a typical Dark Lord, having the same personality as well as all the attributes of most fictional Dark Lords.
 * His appearance is similar to that of Sauron and Morgoth in the The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion books of J.R.R. Tolkien, especially to how Sauron appeared in the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring movie adaptation, wearing/his body being like a dark armor. Even Darkar's role in Winx Club is somewhat similar to that of Morgoth and of Sauron in the world of Tolkien in the following ways:
 * In the Cinélume dub, Darkar caused the destruction of Domino by sending his servants, the Ancestral Witches there to claim the Dragon Fire, just like Morgoth caused the destruction of the Realms of the Elves and of Men in The Silmarillion, and Sauron caused the Downfall of Númenor in The Silmarillion by corrupting the minds of the people of that Kingdom.
 * Darkar's ability to change his appearance recalls the ability of both Morgoth and Sauron to transform themselves at will.
 * The Gloomix that Darkar gave the Trix also recalls the Rings of Power that Sauron gave to the different peoples of Middle-earth to make them stronger, but to turn them into his slaves as well.
 * Darkar's servers, the Ancestral Witches somewhat resemble the Nazgûl as they appeared in the Lord of the Rings books and films: once powerful and made of flesh and bones like everyone else, but later becoming wraiths (the bodies of the Ancestresses apparently perished during their imprisonment in Obsidian, and were bound to continue existing in a ghost-like appearance).
 * Darkar is also very similar to Unicron, one of the main antagonists of the Transformers franchise.
 * Unicron is an ancient evil God of Chaos who originated at the dawn of the universe and whose goal is to consume the whole universe until there is nothing left around him except the void.
 * Similarly, Darkar is an ancient maleficent deity who originated from the void before the creation of the Magic Dimension and who absorbs and consumes all energy.
 * Unicron's twin brother is Primus, who is also his opposite, with Unicron representing evil and chaos while Primus represents good and order, and their continued existence is necessary for the stability of the universe. Primus later became the planet of Cybertron, the home world of the Transformers, and his name is invoked religiously by both the Autobot and the Decepticon factions of the Transformers.
 * Similarly, Darkar's equal and opposite is the Great Dragon, with Darkar representing evil and darkness while the Great Dragon represents good and light, and Professor Wizgiz implied in Season 2 that their continued existence is necessary for the balance of the universe. The Great Dragon later went to rest on the planet of Domino, and it is invoked with high respect by both the Fairies and the Witches.
 * Both Unicron and Darkar make deals with less powerful beings, giving them great power in exchange for their servitude
 * Unicron has sent his heralds to attack Cybertron so he can destroy the Matrix of Leadership, which contains the essence of Primus, the only thing which stands in Unicron's way.
 * Darkar similarly sent his servants to attack Domino so he can obtain the essence of the Great Dragon
 * Both Darkar and Unicron have the ability to change their appearance and both have at least one robot-like form.
 * Darkseid from DC Comics, especially the version of Darkseid from the DC Animated Universe.
 * Darkseid is an ancient God of Evil whose goal is to acquire a power called the Anti-Life Equation which will allow him to rule the whole Universe.
 * Darkar is an ancient deity of evil whose goal is to acquire the Ultimate Power of the Relix Dimension which will allow him to rule the whole Universe.
 * In the "Legacy" episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, Darkseid temporarily brainwashes Superman and turns him evil.
 * In Season 2, similarly, Darkar temporarily captured Bloom and turned her evil.
 * Lord Darkar's methods of acquiring the Ultimate Power from the Relix Realm is very similar to Arkham's methods of acquiring the power of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda from the Demon World in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.
 * As an evil deity and the opposite of the Great Dragon, who is the benevolent and life-giving creator deity of the Magic Dimension, Lord Darkar is also similar to and might also have been inspired by the Christian Devil.
 * A reference to this might be when Darkar tells the Trix that they belong to him after he gives them the Gloomix and frees them from Lightrock Monastery. This is similar to the myth of the deal with the Devil, where a person sells their soul to the Devil in exchange of favors like power and riches.
 * Another reference might be the underground location of Darkar's fortress, which reflects the popular view that the Devil's realm, Hell, is located deep under the earth.
 * The Phoenix is a supernatural bird found in many legends from across the world.
 * In Chinese Mythology, the Phoenix is a legendary bird symbolizing virtue and grace and which is associated with royalty. Its counterpart is the Chinese Dragon and the pairing of the Phoenix and the Dragon in Chinese tradition is said to represent the Yin and Yang.
 * Professor Wizgiz similarly said in one of his classes that good energy and evil energy exist in a balance similar to the Yin and the Yang. This was possibly a suggestion that the powers of the Shadow Phoenix and the Fire Dragon exist in complete balance like the Yin and the Yang.
 * In Greek Mythology, the Phoenix is an extremely long-lived bird that, when its life draws to a close, builds a nest of spices where it burns itself and is then reborn as a young version of itself from its own ashes. Unlike the Chinese Phoenix, the Greek Phoenix is not associated with dragons.
 * Each time Lord Darkar uses his powers, dark red symbols can be seen in the air around his spells. These symbols are letters from the Alphabet of the Magi, which was used by real-life practitioners of the occult for inscriptions in talismans in the 17th century.
 * Lord Darkar is the most powerful villain in the Magic Dimension
 * Faragonda called Lord Darkar "The Prince of the Darkness" in the original series. But in the fourth Winx Club special, she only refers to him as "the Shadow Phoenix".
 * In Season 1 Darcy said that the level of dark energy in Riven was equal to that of the "Prince of Darkness". It is however unknown whether the "Prince of Darkness" she was referring to was Lord Darkar or not, maybe it was just a metaphor used by her to describe Riven's character.
 * In the original version, his servant disguised himself as Avalon, while in the Nickelodeon special, he himself was disguised as Avalon.
 * Darkar was never seen during season 3 due to his death at the end of season 2. But he is mentioned in a few episodes. First in The Heart and the Sword when Vanessa tells Bloom when he placed her under a dark spell and Sky confessed his love for Bloom to save her, then in Alfea Under Siege when Stormy suggests to Valtor about setting up quarters at Darkar's Fortress when he was not satisfied with his hideout in Andros anymore, and finally in Wizard's Anger when Icy complains to Darcy and Stormy about how they get abused by Darkar and then Valtor. He is also seen in flashbacks to the final battle (mostly his tails as the Shadow Phoenix).
 * A picture of him is also seen at the beginning of Season 4 along with pictures of the other villains, such as the Trix and Valtor.
 * He is the first person to double-cross the Trix.
 * Both he and Valtor are tied with having the least appearances in the Winx Club Comic Series compared to any other villain in the series.
 * Darkar's 4Kids voice actor, Jason Griffith, is the voice actor for Ace, a character from World of Winx dubbed under DuArt.