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Xena: Warrior Princess is an American television series which aired from 1995 to 2001. It was a spin-off from The Legendary Journeys.

Description

A historical fantasy set in ancient Greece, the series told the adventures of former The Legendary Journeys villain Xena (Lucy Lawless), a reformed warlord on a quest to redeem her past sins. Xena was accompanied on her travels by Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), a young woman who became her best friend and most trusted ally. A large number of fans believe that Gabrielle was also her lesbian lover. The series was filmed in New Zealand.

The show freely borrowed names and themes from various mythologies around the world, primarily Greek mythology, adapting them to suit the demands of the storyline. Real historical figures and events made numerous appearances, and the main characters are often credited with resolving important historical situations. These included an encounter with Homer (before he was famous), in which Gabrielle encouraged his storytelling aspirations; the fall of Troy; and the capture of Julius Caesar by pirates, with Xena cast as the pirate leader. This quirky mix of timelines and the amalgamation of historical and mythological elements fueled the rise of the show to cult status during the 1990s.

The show was a mixture of styles, ranging from high melodrama in one episode to slapstick comedy in another. Although ostensibly set in ancient times, the themes of the show were essentially modern: taking responsibility for past misdeeds, the value of human life, personal liberty and sacrifice, and friendship. The flexible fantasy framework of the show accommodated a considerable range of styles, including an original musical episode, The Bitter Suite. Although the show often addressed ethical dilemmas such as the morality of pacifism, the storylines rarely sought to provide unequivocal solutions.

In addition to Xena and Gabrielle, the show also featured a wide assortment of recurring characters, including adversaries Ares (Kevin Smith) and Callisto (Hudson Leick), and trusted friends Autolycus (Bruce Campbell) and Joxer (Ted Raimi).

List of Xena episodes

Characters

Main

Recurring

Story arcs

Through the early seasons the show's episodes were stand-alones where the conflict of the week was usually resolved by the end of the episode. Season 2 marked a change in atmosphere when the show started adopting story arcs that could span a season or more.

Xena's backstory

The Season 2 episode Destiny was the first in a series of episodes filled with flashbacks to Xena's past. Although her earliest history was established in the introductory Xena Trilogy on The Legendary Journeys, there was a gap of about a decade between the time that Xena initially leaves her village to form an army and the crucial moment when she crosses paths with Hercules and becomes good. The flashback episodes reveal various journeys or milestones in Xena's past that define the woman that she becomes. (See Xena.)

The Amazons

In Xena's warrior past, she was responsible for separating the Amazons. They were originally a single united and powerful nation, but Xena caused them to split into small factions and scatter all over the world. Hence, many Amazons do not trust Xena, although they respect her abilities as a warrior. Gabrielle, on the hand, during her first encounter with an Amazon tribe (1.10 Hooves and Harlots) threw herself over an Amazon named Terreis to protect her from falling arrows. Although Terreis was already dying, she was impressed by Gabrielle's bravery and gave her the Right of Caste. Turns out Terreis was the next in line to rule over her tribe, and by giving Gabrielle the Right of Caste, Gabrielle was effectively an Amazon Princess.

This chance encounter leads to Gabrielle's acceptance into the Amazons, along with all the complications that come with it. Although Gabrielle decides to continue to follow Xena on her adventures, she is occasionally called by her Amazon sisters in times of need or to fulfil her duties as princess.

The Dahak arc & The Rift

The most unique of the show's story arcs involved the god Dahak, a villain created for the show. In the Season 3 episode The Deliverer, Gabrielle meets a group of religious disciples that worship "The One True God". Attracted by their apparent piety, Gabrielle follows them to their temple, but her curiosity leads to tragedy when she discovers that this god (Dahak)'s religion is one built on death and destruction. Gabrielle was lured there because of her innocence, and when she is tricked into murdering another, she completes a dark ritual that leads to her impregnation with Dahak's child.

Gabrielle's ensuing pregnancy (3.05 Gabrielle's Hope) is unnatural. Xena recognises the child for what it is and insists that it be killed as soon as it is born. Gabrielle, however, is overcome with motherly instincts and names the child Hope because she believes that is what her child represents. After giving birth, Gabrielle tricks Xena into believing that she dropped Hope off a cliff, when in fact she has placed Hope in a basket and set her down a river. This betrayal of trust starts what many fans call The Rift, a crucial period in Xena and Gabrielle's relationship where a chasm starts to form between them.

Eventually Xena and Gabrielle cross paths again with Hope (3.11 Maternal Instincts), though due of her supernatural genealogy, she's already grown into a pre-teen. Hope's manipulations cause Xena and Gabrielle to turn against each other, culminating in the death of Xena's only son, Solan. Gabrielle eventually realises Hope's true intentions and poisons her, but the damage has been done.

The Rift is resolved in the surreal musical episode 3.12 The Bitter Suite that features a number of main characters bursting into song and dance in a dream-like world. The Dahak arc, however, continues over the Season 3 finale (Sacrifice I and II) and the early Season 4 episode A Family Affair where Hope finally meets her demise. Uniquely, although it is Xena and Gabrielle that cause the start of the Dahak arc, it is only completely resolved in the show's brother series The Legendary Journeys, where the main characters of that show have to face and defeat Dahak himself.

Influence on popular culture

Xena: Warrior Princess has been credited by many, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, with blazing the trail for a new generation of female action heroes such as Buffy, Max of Dark Angel, Sydney Bristow of Alias, and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Tarantino is an enthusiastic Xena fan, a fact he discusses in an interview on the DVD of Double Dare, a 2005 documentary about Hollywood stuntwomen featuring Xena and Kill Bill double Zoë Bell. *

"Xena" has become a synonym for "tough, warrior-like woman" and is commonly used in magazine articles and film reviews. For instance, Guinevere, played by Keira Knightley in the 2004 film King Arthur as a warrior, was compared to Xena in a number of reviews. Also in 2005, a Chicago Daily Herald review of a production of Shakespeare's Henry IV in which most of the male roles were played by women was titled "Shakespeare Meets Xena". The reviewer noted that today's audiences can easily accept the feminization of the play's power struggles and battle scenes because of "familiarity with battling babes like Xena."*

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been nicknamed "Warrior Princess" by her staff. *

Rachel the Animorph (Rachel (Animorphs)), a beautiful adolescent girl character from the science fiction book series Animorphs, was also nicknamed "Xena, Warrior Princess," because of her sometimes reckless bravery and "Take no prisoners" attitude. *

Xena has enjoyed a particular cult status in the lesbian community. The lesbian fan base sees Xena and Gabrielle as a couple and has embraced them as role models and lesbian icons. A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades. [http://www.warriorprincess.com/Lucy/toptentv_uk_111701.html

References in TV shows

  • The finale of Seinfeld (1998) featured a conversation between Jerry Seinfeld and his father in which the father says that the only program he watched was Xena: Warrior Princess and remarked that Xena must be 6'6" tall. Mr. Seinfeld asks Jerry if he watches the show as well, and Jerry says "Yeah, it's pretty good."
  • In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Halloween", 2x06), Willow says about Buffy's costume: "She couldn't have dressed up like Xena?"
  • On Roseanne ("Pampered to a Pulp," October 22, 1996), past-life regression therapy caused Roseanne to have a dream in which she was a Xena-like figure.
  • The Simpsons references Xena in three episodes: "Mayored to the Mob" (10 x 09) in which a woman in a Xena costume is seen at a sci-fi convention; "Tree House of Horror" (11 x 04), in which one of the storylines features Lucy Lawless; and "Children of a Lesser God" (12 x 20), in which a Xena poster is seen on a wall.
  • The Canadian sketch comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes featured a recurring segment in which character Marg Delahunty (Mary Walsh) accosted real-life Canadian politicians while dressed in a Xena-like outfit as "Marg, Warrior Princess".
  • On March 13, 2006, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno featured a Xena-related skit using a clip of President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. In the news clip, Mrs. Bush talks about how proud she is that President supports strong women and has strong women in his cabinet. In the skit, a bubble showing Bush's appears on the screen with clips of Xena fighting bad guys along with a voiceover of Bush saying that he wished he could get "that Xena woman" in his cabinet because she's the strongest woman he knows, and watching her kick the butt of "evil-doers" makes him tingly.
  • In an episode of Entourage ("I Love You Too"), Vanessa Angel makes an appearance as a Xena parody, whose show overshadowed the program it spun-off of, Johnny Chase's "Viking Prince". This is a reference to Xena becoming a bigger cultural icon than Hercules: the Legendary Journeys. The use of Angel in this role is also a reference to the fact that Angel was originally slated to play Xena. She fell ill and was unable to make the trip to New Zealand for filming, and the role went to Lucy Lawless.
  • In the Dexter's Laboratory episode Momdark Dexter's mom leaps through a window doing Xenas battlecry
  • Through seasons 2 and 3 of the WB drama series 7th Heaven, Ruthie (played by Mackenzie Rosman) plays make believe that she is Xena. In one episode of season 3, her neighbor teases her for seeing her underwear. When Ruthie confronts him, she threatens to bring her older brother (Simon). When they first meet, she cries Xena's warrior cry to attack. Yet Simon refuses to fight. The same thing continues until Matt. The kids get the older brothers/sisters to confront each other and somehow choose not to fight until Matt's confrontation with the eldest brother. With Matt, Mary, Simon, Ruthie and Happy present, and the neighbor's brothers present, Ruthie cries Xena's warrior cry and both her and Simon attack. The older more "mature" siblings break it up and demand that they apologize. But when all was resolved, the eldest of the neighbors makes a teasing comment about the Camden kids' mother. The Camden kids snap and attack with Xena warrior cries from Ruthie and Xena: The Warrior Princess intro music playing.

Fandom

A subject of much interest and debate among viewers was the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle were lovers. This issue was left deliberately ambiguous by the show's writers. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle was referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply "subtext" by fans.

Xena fandom also popularized the term Altfic (from "alternative fiction") to refer to homosexual romantic fan fiction. Many fans felt the term slash fiction carried the connotation of being about male/male couples only and was not a good description for romantic fan fiction about Xena and Gabrielle.

Another special fandom term is "Uber", in 1997 by Kym Taborn of fan website Whoosh.org, sometimes used with a character's name ("UberXena") and sometimes used as a name for a fan fiction subgenre ("Uberfic"). In Xena Uberfic, Xena, Gabrielle, and other characters are appear in different cultures at different times, from the prehistoric to the far future, through reincarnation or supernatural means. Stories of this kind were first inspired by the episode The Xena Scrolls, which featured look-alike descendants of Xena and Gabrielle living in the 1940s. Later episodes of the show also showed different future incarnations of Xena and Gabrielle in both India and the United States.

DVD releases

Note: Only Region 1 DVD's contain special features, Regions 2/3/4 do not have any bonus material on them.

Season Release Date
Australia Canada/US The Netherlands Norway/Sweden UK New Zealand
1 October 12, 2005 April 23, 2003 April 4, 2005 April 27, 2005 June 6, 2005 June 23, 2005
2 October 12, 2005 September 2, 2003 June 16, 2005 August 31, 2005 August 1, 2005 August 24, 2005
3 December 10, 2005 February 10, 2004 September 22, 2005 October 26, 2005 October 3, 2005 September 22, 2005
4 December 10, 2005 June 15, 2004 November 24, 2005 January 11, 2006 November 21, 2005 November 17, 2005
5 December 10, 2005 October 19, 2004 February 23, 2006 March 22, 2006 TBA, TBA TBA, TBA
6 December 10, 2005 March 8, 2005 April 6, 2006 May 25, 2006 April 3, 2006 April/May/June?, 2006
10th Anniversary Collection TBA July 26, 2005 TBA TBA June 5, 2006 TBA

Video games

Electronic Arts published Xena: Warrior Princess for the PSone in 1999. Played from a third-person perspective, the game play involves slashing, jumping, and kicking through a variety of primitive 3D environments. Xena can also find and use power-ups and her trademark chakram. Once thrown, the chakram becomes a first-person weapon to guide toward enemies.

Saffire published Xena: Talisman of Fate for the Nintendo 64 console in 1999. Talisman of Fate focuses on straight one-on-one weapons-based fighting along the lines of the Soul Blade series.

Astronomy

In 2005, it was announced that the recently-discovered body , a possible tenth planet, had been given the temporary name Xena, in honor of the TV character. On October 1, 2005, the discovery team announced that "Xena" had a moon, which had been nicknamed Gabrielle. Neither name is expected to be permanently applied to either body by the International Astronomical Union.

See also

International

  • In Spain, Xena was first broadcast in the public TV station TVE, and it started to be shown in regional channels in 2005.
  • In France, the show was shown on TF1.
  • In Brazil, the show was previously shown on SBT, and reruns are currently being shown on Rede Record.

External links

1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Syndicated television series | Television spin-offs | Xena | NBC Universal Television shows

Xena (Fernsehserie) | Xena: La princesa guerrera | Xena | Xena, la guerrière | Xena: Principessa Guerriera | Xena: Warrior Princess | Xena | Xena: soturiprinsessa | Xena - Krigarprinsessan (äventyrsserie)

 

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