Darkar

Lord Darkar is the lead antagonist in the second season. He has also been called the Prince of Darkness by Miss Faragonda, but it is unknown whether he is the same Prince of Darkness mentioned by Darcy, when she first sees Riven and says that he has a level of negative energy equal to the Prince of Darkness. He appears in Season 2 only, but makes a few cameo appearances in Season 3 and Season 4, and the Season 5 trailer.

Rai Version
He is the ruler of an underground castle and is an ancient deity of pureness darkness since the dawn of time. He is the polar opposite of the Dragon Flame, and almost equally as powerful. While the Great Dragon is a source of light, life and energy, Lord Darkar absorbs it, thus creating an opposite essence of the Dragon Flame and is a source of negative energy, making him do bad deed.

In the original Rai version, he is described as being an ancient creature which was born from the original void from before the beginning of the Universe. 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. When the Witches were defeated by the Company of Light, the Lord of the Templars of the Fortress of Light fought Darkar himself, cast him back into the darkness and sent him into a deep slumber of sixteen years, until he woke up again (possibly caused by the return of Bloom's Dragon Flame in the Magic Dimension after she used it to defeat the Trix in the first season, since his power is opposite to that of the Dragon's).

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.

Since it has been stated in the series that the Ancestresses were under the orders of Lord Darkar when they destroyed Domino, it also means that Valtor was also serving him at this time. This means that Lord Darkar already had someone with the Dragon Flame serving him, and the only explanation that can be given to his causing the destruction of Domino is that Valtor's Dragon Flame was the Dark part of the flame which was created when a spark from the Dragon's fiery breath had mixed with the Darkness (possibly itself having being created from Lord Darkar's power, since it was stated that both Lord Darkar and the Great dragon were born at the beginning of Time from the Void), and therefore was halfway between the powers of Light and those of Darkness. Darkar needed a power which was the complete opposite to his own power to create a balance between Light and Darkness in order to summon and acquire the Ultimate Power from the Realm of Realix, and the pure Dragon Fire of the Royal Family of Domino was what he needed.

It can also be supposed that Mandragora was also serving Darkar, since she was herself the servant of the Ancestresses who were themselves Darkar's servants. Moreover, from the reactions of members of the Company of Light in the first movie it can be guessed that they had already fought Mandragora when the Company had recently been formed, around the time of the destruction of Domino and hence that she had probably taken part in the destruction of Domino, which was done under Darkar's orders.

Darkar is therefore 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 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 when Domino was destroyed.

4Kids Version
According to the 4Kids continuity, he was once a man named Argulus seeking the Shadow Fire, and stumbled across Darkar's Fortress (Shadow Haunt), the underground castle. Darkar took control of the Shadow Fire. The Shadow Fire obeyed his will and was his servant.

Appearance
Darkar looks glowing red and wears armor over his seemingly 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.
 * Darkar can also transform into a phoenix.
 * Darkar can disguise himself.

Season 2
In Season 2, he planned to obtain the Ultimate Power of the Realix. However, the portal to the Realix realm can only be opened by the four pieces of the Codex (One in each of the schools(Red Fountain, Alfea, Cloud Tower and in the Pixie Village). He held the pixies hostage to get them to reveal the location of the Pixie Village, but they refused. The princess of Andros, Layla, despite her best efforts, could not save them. She then got the Winx Club's help when they rescued her. Unfortunately Darkar also got help from the Trix. He released the Trix from The Fortress of Light (Roccaluce) to assist him in his quest and gave them Gloomix power.

After he obtained two of the four pieces, he made the false Avalon that he had sent to Alfea to put a shadow virus on Bloom to turn her into Dark Bloom. Darkar then used her as his puppet to get the Alfea's part of the Codex. He obtained the final piece of the Codex when he sent Icy after Livy to get Pixie Village's part of the Codex. Icy succeeded with the help of her two sisters: Darcy and Stormy.

He then ordered Avalon's shadow clone to abduct Bloom and when she was in his castle, he cast the Shadow Spell on Bloom again and used her and her Dragon Flame, since he needed a power of Light to counter his power of Darkness, to open the Portal to Realix. But when the Trix confronted him, saying they did all the work, he told them that they had only been his pawns and were now useless to him and sent them to the Dark Void: Oblivion. He almost succeeded in gaining the Ultimate Power of Realix, but as he was absorbing the power, Sky told Bloom that he loved her and the love for him in her heart caused her to use her healing power on herself and the others and broke the Shadow Spell as well as destroying the Power. The Trix, fused into one body, tapping into their Gloomix, took on Darkar, but were knocked out. All six of the Winx members used a Charmix Convergence to defeat Darkar, and, according to Miss Faragonda, destroyed him - they sent him to the dark realm from which he came from in the 4Kids Version. The Trix (still fused into one body) remained imprisoned in Realix, which was then apparently sealed for good since the Codex and its copy had been used and no other Codex has been shown to exist, till they were sent to the Omega Dimension some weeks later (it is not known how the authorities of the Magic Dimension were able to go to Realix to catch the Trix since the only known pieces of the Codex had all been used). His Castle collapsed after he was destroyed, probably because it was his Evil powers which maintained in it.

It can however be questioned whether Lord Darkar is really dead or not since, in the second episode of Season 2, 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 Realix Dimension. Or it could also be that he effectively died, but that his power or his essence still exists 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).

Winx Club: The Shadow Phoenix
Darkar is called the Shadow Phoenix and appears in Alfea under disguised as Professor Avalon.

Powers and Abilities
Lord Darkar is the polar opposite of the Dragon Flame, and almost equally as powerful. While the Great Dragon is a source of light, life and energy, Lord Darkar absorbs it, thus creating an opposite essence of the Dragon Flame and is a source of negative energy. He 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, 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



Trivia

 * One of the creatures serving Lord Darkar, the Spit Monster, has a similar appearance to the Xenomorph from the Alien film series and its ability to spit a slimy substance that recalls the water-like liquid/resin which flows from the Xenomorph's mouth.
 * Lord Darkar is the first male villain in the whole Winx Universe.
 * 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 one.
 * His appearance is similar to that of Sauron and Morgoth in 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 armour. 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 Rai Version, Darkar caused the destruction of Domino by sending his servers, 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. Even 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).
 * He is similar to Hades from Hercules. Both have hot-tempers, are ruthless, use other people for their dirty works, make deals with others and are rulers of underground places. (Underworld for Hades, Lord Darkar's Fortress for Darkar).
 * Lord Darkar's methods of aquiring the Ultimate Power from the Realix Realm is very similar to Arkham's methods of aquiring the power of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda from the Demon World in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.
 * Faragonda called Lord Darkar, The Prince of the Darkness in the original series. But in the 4th Winx Club special, she only refers to him as the Shadow Phoenix. The Shadow Phoenix once controled the Winx but they broke out of his spell.

Gallery
Main article: Darkar/Gallery