Xena
Encyclopedia : X : XE : XEN : Xena
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Lucy Lawless as Xena
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- For the name see Xenia. Xena is also a nickname for the recently-discovered 2003 UB313, a possible tenth planet.
According to the book named [6000 Names For Your Baby], Xena is a Greek word meaning 'hospitable'.
History
Xena first appeared on the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys television series (in the episode The Warrior Princess airing in March 1995), as a seductive but treacherous warlord. Two more episodes during May sweeps chronicled her evolution from a villain to a friend and ally of Hercules. Interest in her was so strong that shortly afterwards she became the main character of the spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess, which not only outlived the original series, but eclipsed it in the public imagination (Xena was one of the first female leads in an action series for many years, hugely influencing subsequent fantasy series from Buffy to Alias). Ironically, althought her character was originally obsessed with defeating Hercules and obtaining his title as the greatest living warrior, she never defeated "Zeus' Favorite Son". In fact, Hercules was the one credited with pointing her down the path of redemption when he beat her in combat and showed her that selfishness and greed were not the way to live. In her own series, Xena set out to redeem her murderous past by fighting against tyranny and evil and protecting the innocent and weak. Many of her adventures prior to the televised stories were subsequently revealed in flashback episodes (although much remained obscure).Early history
The only daughter of the tavernkeeper, Cyrene, Xena grew up in Amphipolis with her two brothers. Her father Atrius was believed to have left her family when she was a child, but it was subsequently revealed that he was, in fact, killed by Cyrene when he tried to kill seven-year-old Xena as a sacrifice to Ares.During her mid to late teens, the warlord Cortese attacked the village, which prompted some villagers, including Xena's older brother, Toris, to run for the hills. However, Xena and her younger brother Lyceus convinced the remainder of their fellow villagers to stay and fight. Although Amphipolis was saved, Lyceus and many other villagers were killed in the battle, which formed a rift between Cyrene and her daughter and caused Xena to be ostracized by the town.
The death of her beloved younger brother Lyceus lead Xena to leave Amphipolis and begin to build her own army, with her ultimate goal being to take revenge on Cortese. She crossed the seas early on as a pirate, meeting Julius Caesar and a young Gaelic slave-stowaway, M'Lila, who would both profoundly affect the destiny of the Warrior Princess. While onboard Xena's ship, M'Lila taught her several fighting techniques as well as instructing her in the use of pressure points, including what became her signature "pinch" maneuver.
Xena took Caesar as a hostage, and was naively swayed by the young officer to join forces, after beginning an affair with him. She ransomed him back to Rome as they had planned only to have him come back with his own men and capture her ship. He had her and her men crucified on a nearby beach, watching as his orders to break her legs were carried out.
M'Lila rescued her from the cross and took Xena to a healer named Niklio. They were found by two Roman soldiers, who killed the Gaelic woman as she jumped in front of an arrow meant for Xena. After M'Lila died in her arms, Xena fully embraced her dark side and fought the soldiers, killing them (despite her broken legs).
After surviving Caesar's betrayal, a crippled and rage-filled Xena went East where she teamed up with the warlord Borias, who left his wife and son to become her lover. The two terrorized Ch'in with their joint forces until Xena angered Borias by alienating the powerful Chinese families Ming and Lao. Without his knowledge, Xena kidnapped Ming Tzu's son, Ming T'ien, for ransom. With Borias' help, Ming Tzu captured Xena, intending to kill her for sport.
Xena was saved from certain death by Ming T'ien's mother, Lao Ma, a woman of great spiritual power. During their time together, Lao Ma healed Xena's legs and gave her the title of warrior princess. Under Lao Ma's tutelage, Xena briefly left some of her darkness behind until Borias re-entered her life. A rift formed between Xena and Lao Ma when she murdered Ming Tzu, and suggested that they also kill Ming T'ien. With Lao Ma now their enemy, Xena and Borias were forced to leave Ch'in.
They went further east to Jappa (Japan), where they kidnapped a girl named Akemi for ransom. Xena ended up befriending Akemi, who got Xena to teach her one of her signature techniques, the pinch which cut off the flow of blood to a person's brain, resulting in death. Akemi then used the pinch to kill her abusive and tyrannical father, Yodoshi, and commited seppuku (honorable suicide). A drunk and grieving Xena tried to put Akemi's ashes in her family crypt, but was set upon by a mob of villagers who felt she was desecrating the crypt by putting the ashes of a patricide in it. Defending herself, Xena used a fire-breathing trick she had mastered. The result was a fire that spread through the town and killed 40,000 people.
Back in northern lands (possibly Siberia), Xena and Borias met a shaman, Alti, who lured Xena toward greater evil with promises that she would become the Destroyer of Nations. She was also befriended by the Amazon queen Cyane, who tried to steer her toward good; but Xena chose Alti's promise of power, and killed Cyane and the Amazon elders at her instigation. By then pregnant with Borias' child, she set out to conquer Corinth. Borias was increasingly troubled by the excesses of her violence, but could do little to stop her: by then, they had split their armies, and Xena's was the bigger of the two. At Corinth, they became mortal enemies after he stopped her from slaughtering the Centaurs with whom he had tried to negotiate an agreement. With Xena about to give birth, Borias tried to get her out of her camp in the hope of rescuing their relationship. He was killed by one of her lieutenants, Dagnine; but the realization that Borias came back for her because he loved her and their unborn child had a strong effect on Xena. It was enough to make her decide to give up her newborn baby to the centaurs, so that he would be raised in safety and away from her dangerous influence.
At some point, Xena also travelled to the Norselands, where she spent some time as one of Odin's Valkyrie and unsuccessfully tried to obtain supreme power by stealing the Rheingold. It is unclear whether this happened between her stay in Jappa and her meeting with Alti, or at some point after the death of Borias.
During the largely undocumented period immediately prior to her first appearance in the Hercules series, Xena first obtained her signature weapon, the Chakram of Darkness. It was apparently given to her by Ares, the God of War. Having apparently lost her army at Corinth, she built a new one which cut a path of plunder and conquest through Greece.
Later adventures (televised 'period')
About ten years after first turning to evil, Xena met Hercules. Initially, she set out to kill him. Then, her army turned against her after she stopped her lieutenant Darphus from killing a child in a sacked village. She ran a gauntlet but survived, being the only person to ever survive the Gauntlet. She then fought Hercules, in the hope that she would get her army back if she could bring back his head. Xena seemed to be getting the upper hand until Hercules' nephew intervened, giving him the moment to regain composure and defeat her. However, Hercules refused to kill Xena, telling her that "killing isn't the only way of proving you're a warrior." She eventually joined him to defeat her old army.
Xena then set out to redeem herself by starting to protect those who couldn't defend themselves. On her new path, she met a village girl named Gabrielle (later known as the Battling Bard of Potadeia), who became her traveling companion and dearest friend. At some point in her journeys Xena ran into Ares, the God of War, who had known her from when she was a warlord and was always obsessed with winning her affections, but was more usually her adversary. She also reconciled with Cyrene.
Xena's subsequent life was marred by many tragedies. Her son Solan, who never got to know her as his mother, died at the hands of Gabrielle's demon child Hope with the help of her then-mortal enemy Callisto, a woman warrior who was obsessed with revenge against Xena because Xena had destroyed her village and her family when she was still evil. She nearly lost Gabrielle more than once, and she and Gabrielle were crucified by the Romans on the Ides of March -- the day of Caesar's death -- but later revived by a mystic named Eli with the spiritual aid of Callisto, who by that time had become an angel. Eve, the miracle child Xena conceived after her resurrection (again through the efforts of the redeemed Callisto), was prophesied to bring about the Twilight of the Olympian gods. To escape the gods' persecution, Xena and Gabrielle tried to fake their deaths. Their plan went awry when Ares buried them in an ice cave where they slept for 25 years. During that time, Eve -- adopted by the Roman nobleman Octavius -- grew up to become Livia, the Champion of Rome, and a ruthless persecutor of Eli's followers. After her return, Xena was able to turn Livia to repentance, and she became the Messenger of Eli. After Eve's cleansing by baptism, Xena was granted the power to kill gods as long as her daughter lived. In a final confrontation, the Twilight came to pass when Xena killed most of the gods to save her daughter, and was herself saved by Ares when he gave up his immortality to heal the badly injured and dying Eve and Gabrielle. Xena later helped him regain his godhood.
Xena's quest for redemption ended when she sacrificed her life to right the wrong she had committed many years ago in Japan. Her spirit, however, still very much appears to be with Gabrielle. According to the darsham, Naima, this is only one of many lives Xena will live throughout the ages, but they all have one thing in common: whatever life awaits her next, it will be spent furthering the cause of good against evil.
Warrior Princess
Xena performed many feats that were considered outside the normal human range and bordered on that of a demigoddess. She may have been the mightiest purely mortal being ever to live (however, there were occasional hints that her true father was Ares. This thread was generally dropped because of her romantic connection to Ares, which would then have been incest.) While Xena did not possess the brute strength of her friend and ally , she could arm-wrestle warlords, kick down doors, and knock out opponents with a single punch.She had the ability to absorb a great deal of pain dispassionately, such as when arrows were removed. She ignored the agony of a dislocated shoulder until reminded by Gabrielle, at which point she repaired the injury by deliberately colliding with a wall. When she was in a greatly-weakened state such as during the ordeal of crucifixion, this ability was not apparent.
Xena honed her body to peak human condition. Combined with her iron will, she became the only warrior to survive the ordeal of the Gauntlet, where she was forced to run without armor or weapons between two lines of soldiers, who beat her with clubs. In the final episode of the series, Xena was hit with a multitude of arrows in different areas of her body and still continued to fight a samurai army singlehandedly.
While technically Xena did not possess godly powers, she had a leaping ability demonstrated by other warriors of a high skill level, notably M'Lila, Callisto and Draco. Xena performed gravity-defying leaps usually in an acrobatic style up to 30 feet. Xena lept straight up from moat water to the top of a high castle wall and somersaulted from her position on the ground to the top of a tall tree where an archer was ambushing her group with arrows. Xena commonly ran up a ruffian's torso, performed a backflip, and kicked him while still in mid-air. On rare occasions, she actually ran on the faces of a surrounding squad of soldiers. This ability could have possibily originated as an Amazon ability before catching on with other warriors, since Xena was asked in "The Way" about her leaping ability and she answered that the Amazons taught her.
Xena possessed incredible speed and reflexes. She was able to catch knives and arrows in midflight and dodge energy blasts from mystical foes. She was able to routinely catch her chakram, a skill only Callisto, Eve and Gabrielle (fully-trained by the end of the series) were able to duplicate. Xena could convert virtually any object into a weapon, from swords, to chobos, to scarfs, pans, and fish. In terms of weaponry, Xena usually carries her sword, chakram, a breast dagger kept in her bosom armor, and a whip.
Xena was a master of martial arts. As a young girl, Xena and her brother Lyceus practiced "fighting and swordplay" and even surpassed her brother in certain areas. After Lyceus was killed, she studied many advanced fighting techniques under the tutelage of M'Lila over the course of several months. She was so proficient and prodigious in her training that upon M'Lila's death, she was able to defeat attacking Roman soldiers while her legs were broken. Later, Xena encountered the Amazon Queen, Cyane, who defeated Xena in their first meeting. Cyane however took Xena under her wing and taught her powerful Amazon techniques and fighting styles. This training put Xena on a whole new level of fighting, and later, she attacked and defeated not only Cyane, but her entire Amazon tribe at the same time. It is also suggested that Xena was being trained by Ares between the time of Borias' death and her transformation to good. It should also be noted that Xena has gained more experience and skill with time and with every challenging foe she encounters. Observing her fighting style, Xena has been shown to use different styles ranging from Tae Kwon Do, Aikido and Ju-Jitsu, judo, kung-fu, boxing, and multiple sword-fighting styles into a virtually unbeatable fighting style.
Xena's incredible fighting prowess made her a match for foes who were otherwise physically superior to her, such as gods, demigods, archangels, and demons. She was able to go toe to toe with Ares, Athena and even Mephistopheles and Lucifer when they reigned as the King of Hell.
Mystical and Temporary Powers
While in Ch'in and on the brink of being tortured to death by Ming Ti'en, Xena was finally able to achieve sufficient inner serenity to master the qi powers of her mentor Lao Ma (a form of psychokinesis that allowed her to deal a powerful "blow" to either a person or an object with spiritual energy, shattering walls and repelling attackers). After this first manifestation, she was unable to recapture this power. However, about two years later, she was able to retain its use for a longer period after intense spiritual training with Kao H'Sin, one of Lao Ma's twin daughters. On that occasion, she was able to use qi powers to turn an entire attacking army to stone.From Alti, Xena learned the powers of a shaman. She used them to cross over to the Amazon Land of the Dead to seek out Gabrielle (believing her to be dead), and then to battle Alti in spiritual form on two occasions.
During their travels in India, Xena and Gabrielle encountered a darsham (wise woman) named Naima who enabled them to use the powers of "The Mehndi", activated by Mehndi tattoos on their bodies, to trap and destroy Alti. Xena achieved this by creating chakram constructs made purely out of the Mendhi's supernatural energies as weapons, while Gabrielle bound Alti with what appeared to be magical lightning. This was the only time they were ever seen using these abilities, presumably because Naima was the one channelling the power.
Also in India, Xena conversed with the Hindu God Krishna who helped her battle Indrajit, the King of Demons; after Indrajit severed her arms, she called Krishna's name, and was filled with his strength and took on the appearance of the Hindu goddess Kali, in order to defeat Indrajit.
In the Norselands, Xena put on the Rheingold ring and received god-like abilities which enabled her to defeat the combined forces of Odin the King of Norse Gods, The Grendl beast, and Odin's Valkryie army. However, the consequence of this action (as for anyone who had not forsaken love) was the loss of what Xena valued most. Her identity and all her memories were erased, though she began to regain brief flashes of memory a year later and finally recovered her true self after finding Gabrielle (asleep behind a mystical wall of fire conjured by the Valkryie Brunhilda that only Xena could walk through) and kissing her awake.
Probably the most unique and most famous of Xena's temporary powers was the power to kill gods (and apparently other immortals such as angels). While normally a sword or other weapon would go right through a god without drawing blood or inflicting a wound, Xena possessed the ability to pierce this "veil of immortality" and make them bleed or die. She was granted this power by the God of Eli and the Archangel Michael after Eve was cleansed of her sins, in order to protect her daughter from the Olympian gods, and was told that she would have it as long as Eve was alive. During this time, Xena became widely known as "Slayer of Gods." She lost this power approximately two years later when she tried to use it to kill the archangel Michael for trying to manipulate Eve into a suicide mission to bait Xena into killing the insane emperor-turned-God, Caligula.
Role in Historical/Mythological Events
The show credited Xena (or her friends and associates) with a central role in many events in history and mythology. Among other things, she:- helped David kill Goliath and defeat the Philistines.
- assisted Ulysses in regaining his kingdom in Ithaca after returning from the Trojan War.
- single-handedly stopped the invading Persian army at Thermopylae.
- helped Boadicea defeat the Roman invasion led by Julius Caesar (in actual history, Boadicea fought the Romans some 100 years after Caesar's death and was defeated).
- helped manipulate the power games of the Roman First Triumvirate, taking advantage of the rivalries between Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Pompey first to free the Gaul rebel Vercinix and then to stop the Roman armies from rampaging through Greece.
- helped engineer the assassination of Caesar by pitting his friend Marcus Junius Brutus against him.
- posed as Cleopatra VII of Egypt and double-crossed Marc Antony in order to help Octavius Caesar defeat both Brutus and Antony and gain control of the empire (after becoming convinced that Octavius was more honorable than both his rivals).
- engineered the death of the crazed Roman emperor Caligula.
- encountered the Virgin Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus; Gabrielle gave them the donkey which they rode.
- the discovery and naming of The Big Dipper
- the harnessing of electricity by tying a metal item to a kite (or "flying parchment")
- the discovery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR (when a wounded Gabrielle goes into cardiac arrest, the grieving Xena bangs her fists on the chest of the seemingly dead Gabrielle, and Gabrielle revives)
- pioneering the custom of Santa Claus bringing gifts and coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve. In a kingdom where Winter Solstice celebrations were banned, Gabrielle encouraged a toymaker named Senticles to sneak into an orphanage through the chimney to hand out toys to children on Solstice Eve; he was wearing a red coat at the time.
Love interests
Xena's sexuality was a source of much controversy in the fandom. The show often implied, through humorous innuendo as well as ambiguous lines and scenes (the subtext), that Xena and Gabrielle were not only friends but lovers as well. Their relationship was kept ambiguous throughout the show, though in the last season they were defined as "soulmates" who were "meant to be together." There were also suggestions of other possible lesbian relationships in Xena's past: with Lao Ma, with a Japanese girl named Akemi whom Xena kidnapped for ransom, and with Alti's apprentice Anokin.Both in the past and in the present, Xena also had numerous male love interests. At one point, probably shortly after she left Amphipolis, Xena was engaged to the warrior (and later warlord) Petracles. She had a brief affair with Caesar before being crucified by him, and then a stormy relationship with Borias that lasted over a year and resulted in the birth of a child. She also appears to have been Odin's lover. It was also suggested that during this period she became a protegee of Ares, and that the two had a sexually charged relationship that may or may not have included sex. She may also have had a relationship with warlord Draco.
In the Xena trilogy on , in which the character first appeared, it was implied that Xena had sexual relations with a number of men in her army. She seduced Iolaus in order to pit him against Hercules. After Xena changed her ways and joined forces with Hercules, she and Hercules had a brief romantic relationship as well, though remained only friends thereafter.
Early in her travels with Gabrielle, Xena met Marcus, a warrior who had been a friend (and perhaps lover) when she was a warlord. Under her influence, he gave his life to save a kidnapped woman from being killed. Subsequently, he was briefly allowed to return from the dead, teaming up with Xena to help recapture Hades' helmet of invisibility and return an escaped villain to the underworld. While on this mission, Marcus and Xena spent a night together, and at least for a while, she considered him her one true love.
About a year later, Xena met Ulysses in her travels and had a romance with him (apparently not consummated physically). However, after they returned to Ithaca and learned that Ulysses' wife Penelope was alive, she encouraged him to return to his wife.
While posing as Cleopatra, Xena pretended to have genuine feelings for Antony, but eventually she killed him when she realized that he was a threat.
Shortly after the birth of Eve, Ares, who had previously tried to woo Xena to his side as a warrior, tried to manipulate the warrior princess by declaring his love for her and offering to protect her and her child from the other gods. Xena spurned his offer, believing it to be a trick, but on one occasion used Ares' help to defeat Athena. After he sacrificed his godhood to help her, Xena, in turn, helped him as a mortal and eventually restored him to godhood. The two were shown to have a friendship for some time (until his godhood was restored), but Xena and Gabrielle's romance remained as strong as ever.
Xena on the web
Just a few months after the end of the tv show, Melissa Good, one of the writers of the last season and some of the most important fanfiction authors, gathered and with the non official help of Robert Tapert who gave them the authorization to use scripts and ideas not used in the show, created the "XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS SUBTEXT VIRTUAL SEASONS" that starting exactly from the death of Xena, brings her back to life and to her soulmate Gabrielle and continues their adventures for four seasons. These new stories told us, among other things, about their "first time" of Xena and Gabrielle thru a flashback of the second season and even their marriage with Amazonian rite at the end of the seventh season.
See also
- is about the show as a whole, and contains links to other characters.
- includes an overview of the story arcs of each season. Details of the episodes can be found in the external links.
- Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar for the legend of a Viking warrior princess.
- West End Games published a Hercules & Xena role playing game.
External links
- [Top 10 Kick-Ass TV Divas]
- [Xena on TV.com]
- [Whoosh.org]
- [Australian Xena Information Page]
- [Xena Online]
| 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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