Manuel

Manuel is a Specialist from Red Fountain in his second year. He only appears in the comic series, and he makes his first appearance in Issue 82: Forbidden Magic.

Appearance
Manuel is a fair-skinned young man. Like the other Specialists, he has a well-built body. His eyes are olive green unlike his strawberry blonde eyebrows and long hair. He is described as handsome by some of the boys.

Uniform
He wears the traditional Red Fountain uniform with a pin during missions and class time.

Civilian
He is usually seen wearing a blue T-shirt with a red jacket on top and blue jeans sometimes bound by a yellow belt. He also wears a dull grayish-green sleeveless shirt under his usual blue T-shirt as seen in Issue 83 when he takes off his T-shirt to tend to Roxy's sprain.

Maintenance Uniform
Like all Specialists, Manuel has to wear the same pale yellow/peach jumpsuit with blue accents. As his maintenance uniform, Manuel also wears light blue gloves and boots.

Personality
Manuel is a very caring and friendly person, though, whenever he feels strongly for something or someone, he can come off as somewhat of a pushover with tunnel vision. This is apparent when the Winx first learn about Manuel and try to talk to him for Roxy's sake. He does whatever he can to stay close to Rachel, even if it means missing out on events he may find interesting or possible friends, making him akin to that of a "people-pleaser." He can get attached fairly quickly and, when upset, can become easily discouraged and hung up on past events. Manuel's "relationship" with Rachel greatly affects him in this way as even after he begins to grow strong feelings for Roxy, he is still too scared to tell her. Though, with a big enough push from the Specialists, he is able to gather up enough courage to plan out his confession.

While Manuel's strong feelings can make him vulnerable to people like Rachel, they can also make him strong in his own right. This is apparent when Manuel confronts Mikos on his bet and his lies about Roxy with little to no hesitation. This can also make Manuel seem a bit hot-headed and rash when it comes to the people he cares about. He is also very affectionate to Roxy before and after they become an official couple as he makes her well being his main priority in Issue 83 and wastes no time holding Roxy close by his side towards the end of Issue 84.

Season 4
In Forbidden Magic, Manuel is first seen in a picture on Roxy's phone and, after a week of struggling with her classes, the Winx step in and learn that she has a crush on a guy named Manuel.

Thanks to Timmy, they learn that Manuel is a Specialist at Red Fountain and that he is a second year who is often seen hanging out with Cloud Tower Witches. Aisha remembers that Manuel has a crush on Rachel, a witch who garners a lot of attention from various guys, but the girls believe that Roxy still has a shot with Manuel and try to plan for a way to get them together.

That Saturday, the Winx see Manuel huddled near Rachel along with many other guys. Stella tries to invite the crowd over to organize a party but Rachel storms off, refusing to associate with fairies. Manuel follows her and the Winx begin to doubt Roxy's chances as Manuel is fixated only on Rachel.

Next week, Roxy helps Bloom around the café and uses a love potion on Manuel. The two quickly hit it off and even hold hands at the end of the day. The next day, Roxy and Manuel hang out together at the White Horse, which ticks off the Trix as they thought that Manuel was Rachel's boyfriend. Manuel leaves Roxy for a bit to get snacks but when he returns, he finds Roxy trying to slip something into his drink. Thanks to the Trix butting in, he learns that Roxy had been deceiving him with a love potion and storms off, never wanting to see her again.

That night, it turns out that the events from the past two days have all been a dream that the Winx put Roxy through in order to show her what would happen if they went ahead with making a love potion for her, meaning that Manuel still has never met Roxy.

Next weekend rolls around and Manuel catches Rachel kissing one of her admirers and walking away with him, breaking Manuel's heart. He is then interrupted by a small puppy fairy pet which belongs to Roxy. The two of them then introduce each other and become friends.

Manuel appears again in the very next issue, where he is first seen hanging out with Roxy around the Winx Clubhouse, confessing that he still cannot get over what happened with Rachel. Shortly afterwards, he is introduced to Bloom, Brandon, Stella and Sky by Roxy and offers to accompany Roxy on her trip to Jessie's animal shelter in the mountains.

A few hours later, the two of them arrive and Manuel is introduced to Jessie and Paul, but their time is cut short by sudden tremors. The tremors begin to get worse and Manuel accompanies Roxy and Paul as they go out to check the forests for any major damage. Soon enough, Manuel and Roxy split up from Paul in order to make the search go faster and the two of them end up locating the epicenter of the earthquakes. Unfortunately, a more powerful tremor occurs, which causes the ground to split open from below Manuel and Roxy, causing the two to plummet into the new crevice.

A short while later, Manuel comes to and finds that he is at the bottom of a crevice. He looks for Roxy and rushes to her side once he finds her. It turns out that Roxy had sprained her ankle due to the fall and Manuel soaks his shirt to wrap around the sprain. After a bit of nervous small-talk, Manuel helps Roxy up and the two of them look for a way out.

Some time later, the two of them have managed to find an exit. After another tremor, Manuel climbs up a nearby wall of vines and helps Roxy up when they make it to the top. The two of them are shocked to see two Stone Giants emerging from a nearby cliffside and deduce that they are the cause of the earthquakes. Manuel quickly realizes that the Stone Giants are headed off in the direction of Magix and fears that they may be seeking to destroy it.

As the Stone Giants loom closer to Magix, Manuel and Roxy are still trying to escape the mountain range. The two of them come across a cave and find that Kamud has been hiding out inside. They hide behind a rock and listen in as Kamud boasts about his plan to use the Stone Giants to take over Magix. The two of them try to escape until Roxy accidentally kicks some rocks over, notifying some of Kamud's trolls that there is an intruder. Manuel then tries to ease Roxy out of the cave before they are caught.

Once outside, he and Roxy spot four of the Winx flying by and Roxy uses her magic over animals to have nearby quagli birds to spell out her name. The Winx catch the signal and find Manuel trying to defend himself and Roxy from some of Kamud's troll slaves. Manuel and Roxy are saved by the Winx but the troll's scream alerts Kamud of danger. Manuel and Roxy then wait outside of Kamud's lair as the Winx handle the rest. The two groups reunite once the four Winx fairies escape the crumbling lair with Kamud's jar of magic balls. Manuel and Roxy are then carried back to Cloud Tower by the Winx.

At Cloud Tower, once the Stone Giants have been defeated, Manuel and Roxy are seen holding hands at the back of the cheering crowd. Manuel realizes that he never thought of Rachel once throughout their adventure and reveals that he had been thinking of "more beautiful things." He insists that the most beautiful thing on his mind was Roxy and kisses her on the cheek to prove it.

In Issue 84, Manuel, along with the rest of the Specialists, have finished the routine maintenance on their shuttles.

Sky, Brandon and Timmy invite Manuel to eat dinner with them but he does not have much of an appetite. That is when Brandon starts teasing Manuel over how he would have no problems if Roxy were serving him dinner. Sky gets Brandon to stop teasing Manuel but he agrees with Brandon about how Manuel really has fallen for Roxy. Manuel believes that he does not have the courage to tell her as he does not know what to do if she were to say no. He also does not want to ruin the friendship he has with Roxy by making things awkward between them with his confession, however, Manuel cannot get any sleep thanks to his feelings for Roxy. He then gets some rather confusing advice from Timmy and agrees with him in order to avoid another explanation.

The next day, Manuel overhears a braggart named Mikos bragging about Roxy, the Alfea Fairy he had been partnered up with, and he makes a bet with his friends that he will be able to win over Roxy in three days.

A short while later, as he wanders through Red Fountain by himself, Manuel is stopped by Timmy, who tells him over Mikos' bragging. Manuel reveals that he overheard Mikos already and that he already made plans to talk with Roxy at the White Horse Café during the upcoming weekend.

Soon enough, the weekend rolls around and Manuel paces around the outside of the White Horse trying to figure out how he will confess to Roxy. As he continues to pace about, Manuel turns a corner and thinks that he sees Mikos kissing Roxy. He then storms off, feeling rejected.

A short while later, Manuel is just about to leave the White Horse until he overhears Mikos' friends teasing him and Mikos claims that girls always do what he says. Enraged, Manuel confronts Mikos by calling him an arrogant idiot and demands that he stay away from Roxy. As he continues to berate Mikos, Manuel confesses that he does like Roxy and Roxy overhears all of it. Roxy kisses Manuel on the cheek as thanks for defending her and the two leave Mikos to be made fun of by his group of friends. The two of them continue walking down the beach in each other's arms as Stella and Bloom catch sight of them from a nearby balcony.

Trivia

 * The name "Manuel" is of Spanish origin. It is the short form of the name Emmanuel, which is of Hebrew origin and means "God is with us".
 * Manuel shares similarities with some of the Specialists.
 * He and Sky both date fairies who were raised on Earth and later learn that they are princesses of kingdoms that were once lost.
 * They are also similar in appearance, though Manuel has been described as being physically similar to Brandon in Issue 82.
 * He and Riven date and end up being used by witches before they end up dating a member of the Winx. Though, in Manuel's case, Rachel was never a major antagonist, unlike Darcy.