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Xena: Warrior Princess

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Xena.

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

Description

A historical fantasy set in ancient Greece, the series told the adventures of former Hercules 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 girl who acted as her guiding light, and became her best friend and most trusted ally. The series was filmed in New Zealand.

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Gabrielle.

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 ranged from an encounter with Homer (before he was famous), in which Gabrielle inspired him to write with the passion that he is famous for; the fall of Troy, and the death of the Greek Gods at Xena's hands; to 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, and the name Xena became synonymous with a strong and independent female heroine.

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Callisto.

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. This universal, flexible fantasy framework accommodated a considerable scope of content and style, even including an original musical episode, The Bitter Suite. Despite being deeply concerned with ethical dilemmas, such as the morality of pacifism, the storylines rarely sought to provide unequivocal solutions. The resulting conflicting answers and ambiguity gave Xena a complexity that went largely unremarked by the casual viewers, but generated much lively debate among fans. It was also hinted that Xena and Gabrielle were lovers. This was left deliberately ambiguous, leading to much heated debate over what became known as the subtext. Some critics found it to be a marketing tactic—or, conversely, outright cowardice—avoided by most shows thereafter until the character Willow explored her sexuality in Buffy. The fandom became increasingly divided over the issue, particularly with the development of a romantic storyline between Xena and Ares, the God of War, which was also left ambiguous.

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Ares.

The Xena fandom also popularized the term Altfic (no relation to the evil Alti character in the series) among fans to refer to general homosexual romantic stories, as slash fiction was generally perceived as focused on male/male couples. Xena fandom also expanded its fan fiction raw materials to include stories making Xena, Gabrielle, Ares and other archetypes and inserting them in different cultures at different times, from the prehistoric to the far future (and everywhere between). This type of Xena fan fiction was coined as "Uber" in 1997 by Kym Taborn of Whoosh.org. Its use can be found on-line as "UberXena", "Uberfic", or similar variations.

The fan website Whoosh.org was mentioned by a character in the sixth season episode Soul Possession.

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Joxer.

The show also featured a wide assortment of recurring characters, including adversaries Ares (Kevin Smith) and Callisto (Hudson Leick); and trusted friends like Autolycus (Bruce Campbell) and Joxer (Ted Raimi).

Most exotic among the weapons used by Xena is a variant of the chakram, a flying disc.

See also: List of Xena episodes

Characters

Regulars

Recurring

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.) [1]

"Xena" has become a synonym for "tough, warrior-like woman," commonly used in articles, film reviews, books, etc. For instance, Guinevere, played by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film King Arthur as a warrior, was compared to Xena in a number of reviews. As another example, 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," and 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."[2]

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been nicknamed "Warrior Princess" by her staff. [3]

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. [4] A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades. [5]

Many television programs have featured references to Xena.

The finale of Seinfeld (1998) featured a conversation between Jerry Seinfeld and his father in which the father said that the only program he watched was Xena: Warrior Princess. The father asked Jerry if he watched it as well, and Jerry said, "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 had Xena mentions in three episodes: "Mayored to the Mob" (10 x 09) in which a woman in a Xena costume was seen at a sci-fi convention; "Tree House of Horror" (11 x 04), in which one of the storylines featured Lucy Lawless; and "Children of a Lesser God" (12 x 20), in which a character had a Xena poster on the 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".

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"--a satire on Xena becoming a bigger cultural event than Hercules, the Legendary Journeys (though both programs had similar ratings and Hercules was on the air for nearly as long).

Astronomy

In 2005, it was announced that the recently-discovered body 2003 UB313, 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, although some are unhapppy about this.

See also

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