Gabrielle (Xena)
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Renée O'Connor as Gabrielle, circa Season 2
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- For the singer Gabrielle, please see Gabrielle (singer)
- Gabrielle is also a speculative name for the recently-discovered 2003 UB313's moon, S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1.
When Gabrielle first met the Warrior Princess, Xena, she was a farm girl living in the village of Potidaea. She and her sister Lila, along with several other village girls, were kidnapped by the men of the warlord, Draco, to be sold as slaves. Xena intervened and rescued them. Awed by her fighting skills, Gabrielle decided that she wanted to become a warrior too. She also wanted to avoid the marriage her parents Herodotus and Hecuba had arranged for her with her childhood friend Perdicas. Gabrielle insisted on following an initially reluctant Xena on the road. The two women soon developed a strong bond of love and friendship. Over the six years of the series, Gabrielle evolved from a naive, idealistic teenager into a fully fledged, but deeply conflicted warrior fighting alongside Xena.
Gabrielle became an Amazon when she defended a dying Amazon princess during an ambush. Before she died, the Princess Terreis passed her "right of caste" to Gabrielle, and Gabrielle inherited her rank and possessions. This left Gabrielle the heiress presumptive to the Amazon Queen Melosa. Melosa's adopted daughter, Velasca, became a rival for the position of Queen of the Amazons after Melosa's death, but Velasca's schemes (which included aspirations to godhood) were foiled by Xena and Gabrielle. As Gabrielle wished to travel with Xena rather than rule the Amazons, she appointed her friend Ephiny to act as Amazon Queen in her place.
Gabrielle learned how to fight with a quarterstaff from the Amazons. With Xena's encouragement, she developed a philosophy of fighting for the Greater Good without killing.
About a year after meeting Xena, Gabrielle encountered Perdicas again and decided to marry him. The morning after their wedding, he was murdered by Xena's nemesis, Callisto. Gabrielle's grief and anger tested her ideals of reverence for life, but she nonetheless resisted the impulse to kill Callisto. During this period, Gabrielle's strong commitment to peacemaking and compassion often served as a counterbalance to Xena's warrior nature.
When helping to defend Britannia against Julius Caesar, Gabrielle came in contact with an evil cult that tricked her into killing one of its priestesses, Meridian. Her loss of her "blood innocence" enabled the evil god Dahak to impregnate her. After a pregnancy that lasted only a few days, Gabrielle gave birth to a girl child she named Hope. After becoming convinced that the baby was simply a vessel for Dahak, Xena wanted to kill Hope. Gabrielle managed to save her daughter by putting her in a basket and sending her downriver.
Several months later, Gabrielle found Hope again, now looking like a nine year old, and already in the process of helping her father, Dahak, implement his plan to take over the world. Hope allied herself with Xena's enemy, Callisto. In revenge for Xena's attempt to kill her as a baby, Hope murdered Xena's only son, Solan. This forced Gabrielle to accept that Hope was indeed evil. She killed her daughter by giving her poison, an act that continued to haunt Gabrielle throughout the series. She held herself responsible for Solan's death, as well as for betraying Xena a second time, even after reconciliation with Xena was effected through the musical journey in The Bitter Suite. Therefore, when she once again encountered Hope, who had been saved from the funeral pyre by her father Dahak, Gabrielle sacrificed herself to save Xena by jumping into a lava pit and taking Hope with her. Gabrielle mysteriously survived the fall, and was later reunited with Xena. It was revealed later that Ares saved Gabrielle, with plans to use her as a bargaining chip against Xena.
After her first kill, and the traumatic events with Hope that followed it, Gabrielle temporarily embraced complete pacifism as an alternative to fighting by Xena's side. She and Xena travelled to India, where they encountered a series of false prophets and gurus, as well as a genuine healer and teacher, Eli. Eli claimed to have found enlightenment and Gabrielle became interested in his philosophy of nonviolence and inner peace, which he called the Way of Love. Gabrielle attempted to follow Eli's way, and threw away her staff under his influence. However, when Xena was in the midst of a battle with the Romans in effort to rescue Gabrielle, Eli, and a group of prisoners, Xena was struck down by her own Chakram. Gabrielle chose to fight to save Xena and even killed some of the soldiers herself. Before their crucifixion on the Ides of March, Gabrielle told Xena that she had chosen "The Way of Friendship."
After being crucified, Gabrielle and Xena ascended into Heaven, but were soon ambushed by demons. The demons were able to take Gabrielle to Hell, where she came face to face the demonic form of Callisto. Xena and a group of Archangels were able to rescue Gabrielle from Hell before Gabrielle herself could fall to the darkness; however, she then learned Xena had taken Callisto's place in Hell. She eventually forgave Callisto for the murder of Perdicus, and that forgiveness granted her the right to join the Archangels in battle. During her fight with the demon-Xena, they were restored to life by Eli. At this time, Gabrielle accepted her new path as a warrior and acquired a pair of sais, which became her signature weapon thereafter. Xena's pregnancy, revealed shortly after the duo's return to life, further forced Gabrielle to fight and sometimes protect Xena. On two occasions, the god of war Ares, impressed by Gabrielle's new warrior skills, tried to recruit her to his side, but Gabrielle always resisted.
Gabrielle and Xena slept in an ice cave for 25 years after Ares placed them there because he mistakenly believed they were dead. After waking up, she discovered that her parents had been killed by the North African warlord Gurkhan, who had also kidnapped her niece, Sara, for his harem. Gabrielle struggled with the issue of seeking vengeance against Gurkhan. She was often troubled by her role as a warrior, particularly when she had to lead her Amazon tribe into a high-casualty battle against a superior army led by the demigod Bellerophon to rescue a fellow Amazon queen. Despite the success of the mission, Gabrielle told Xena, "With every battle, I lose more of myself."
Nonetheless, with Xena's death in Japan, Gabrielle apparently stepped into her friend's role as the Warrior Princess. Symbolically, she inherited Xena's trademark weapon, the chakram. The series' final scene finds her on a ship headed to Egypt, where she apparently intends to continue the fight for the Greater Good.
The Battling Bard of Potidea
"When I first met you, you barely had the skill to skip a rock. I guess Xena's been a positive influence on ya after all." - Ares: Seeds of FaithGabrielle started as a young girl who more or less stood behind Xena, and relied on her to protect her. In the course of 10 episodes, she acquired a fighting staff from the Greek Amazons and was a decent fighter with it by the episode "Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts". By another 10 episodes later, in "The Greater Good" she displayed immensely impressive skills with the staff, taking on numerous soldiers singlehandedly, in the attempts to rescue Xena's presumably dead body. Probably what was most impressive that season, was that two episodes later in "Death Mask", she blocked an arrow in flight with her staff.
As time went on, we saw Gabrielle only improve with her abilities as with the staff and as a warrior as well. As she added kicks, and minor acrobatics to her fighting (such as rolling over a hunched over opponent before preceding to beat them).
At the end of season 4, however, is when Gabrielle shows a leap in warrior abilities. After months of following her path of the Way of Love, Gabrielle picks up the sword of a paralyzed Xena and fights off a slew of Roman soldiers with incredible skill. This however sparked concern among fans who wondered how Gabrielle knew to use a sword so well. One theory that could make sense is that in her time as a complete non-violent person, Gabrielle as an experienced fighter, no longer had to focus on her fighting and instead watched as Xena fought. At that point, as a seasoned fighter, Gabrielle was able to grow in a dramatic way through observance. This, however, is pure hypothesis.
By season 5, we see Gabrielle reach an undisputed status as a warrior, fighting with her sais, incorporating a small amount more of acrobatic ability (performing a wall run and back flip in "Animal Attraction". Gabrielle also fights against warriors notable skill, such as being able to defeat the warrior Mavican, as well as stand against Ares and Hades in battle for a brief period before they defeated her. As previously mentioned, Gabrielle's abilities became noticed by the God of War who sought her out as his new protége. In one episode, Ares actually trains her, although it is never seen in the televised version. It is also mentioned later by Gabrielle and numerous others that Xena trained her throughout the years, although there have only been a few episodes that actually show Xena giving her any sort of martial art training.
By season 6, there are clear signs that dictate the battling bard as heading towards Xena's level, such as Xena teaching a part of the pinch along with other pressure points (Xena telling her about one that could stop a heart) and learning that she had earned the title as the Battling Bard of Potedeia.
One of Gabrielle's biggest fights of the season was her fight against fellow Amazon queen, Varia. They fought in an enclosed arena and they appeared to be at a stand-off before she was severely beaten by the profoundly skilled Varia, who had been trained under the Amazons her whole life, followed by short training sessions with Eve, Xena and ultimately Ares himself.
Gabrielle however takes the loss graciously and continues to grow in skill over the season.
By the last episode, it was clear that Gabrielle grown fairly close to Xena's equal as she displayed incredible acrobatics, walked a tight-rope, developed and coordinated strategies, learned Xena's mystifying listening skills, learned how to perform the pinch in its entirety, defeated a powerful samurai general twice; once in sword and second in hand to hand combat, and more notably threw and caught the chakram with the skill of her mentor.
It is no wonder that Gabrielle is the one continuing the legend of the Warrior Princess.
Gabrielle as a Bard
Despite Gabrielle's ascendancy as a warrior, her role as a bard remained important as well. About a year into her travels with Xena, her scrolls about Xena's exploits began to gain popularity, apparently helping (according to Ares) turn Xena into a legend. After their 25-year sleep, Gabrielle found out that her stories had been read as far away as North Africa where they were popular among nomad tribes. It is a part of the series' basic concept that the episodes are based on Gabrielle's scrolls, discovered in the "future" episode "The Xena Scrolls" (Season 2).External links
- http://www.geocities.com/chelsi1977/home.html
- http://www.xena.com/cast/gabrielle/index.html
| Hercules and Xenaverse | |
| TV Movies | Hercules And The Amazon Women | Hercules And The Lost Kingdom | Hercules And The Circle Of Fire | Hercules In The Underworld | Hercules In The Maze Of The Minotaur |
| TV Series | | | Young Hercules |
| Animated | |
| Video Games | | | |
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Shared | Hercules | Iolaus | Xena | Gabrielle Aphrodite | Ares | Autolycus | Callisto | Dahak | Discord | Ephiny | Falafel | Hope | Salmoneous | Zeus |
| Hercules | Alcmene | Atalanta | Deianeira | Hades | Hera | Iphicles | Jason | Nebula | Morrigan | Nemesis | Serena | Strife |
| Xena | Alti | Amarice | Athena | Borias | Julius Caesar | Chilapa | Eli | Eve | Furies | Joxer | Lila | M'Lila | Melosa | Minya | Najara | Perdicas | Seraphin | Solari | Terreis | Varia | Velasca | Virgil |
| Fictional Universe | |
| Listings | | | List of Hercules and Xena characters |
| Misc. | 2003 UB313 | Uberfic |
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