Reviews

There have been a lot of different T.V. shows that I've watched, but none so engrossing as this one. Xena: Warrior Princess is a show about everyday life and the interaction between two best friends. Xena was originally on a 3 episode arc on "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys". *Spoilers* if you have not seen the show:

When we first get to know her, she is a warlord bent on destruction of Hercules (Kevin Sorbo). Using trickery and her feminine whims she lures Iolaus (Michael Hurst), Hercules' best friend, into "helping" her fight an imaginary warlord named Petrakis and effectually turns Iolaus against Hercules. And, of course good wins out and Xena escapes. The Next we see of her is when she is kicked out of her army by means of a gauntlet. In other words, they sent her through a line and beat her until she reached the end of it and since she reached the end alive, she was free to go. This is after the fact that her next-in-command went against her orders and sackeda town killing women and children, which is completely against Xena's policy. Xena shows up in time to save a baby from being murdered and this is were she meets our favourite Herculean idiot, Salmoneus. Dressed as a woman as to hide his cowardice is how he looks when we meet him. Anyway, he is given charge of the baby as Xena is put through the gauntlet. Hercules shows up, without Iolaus, running into a cousin in a tavern, hearing of his cousins problem of Xena's army to plunder his cousins mothers home, Hercules and his cousin set of in search of Xena. And to sum it all up, Xena turns good in this episode. The Next is her next run in with Iolaus and Iolaus' forgiveness of her.

And then we go into the actual series of "Xena: Warrior Princess", Xena (Lucy Lawless) is on her way back to her hometown of Amphipolis and her trek leads her through Potadeia and running into a a group of ruffians from Dracos army trying to take away the women as slaves. This is where we meet Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) and she shows amazing courage in the face of danger. After, helping the townspeople out of their situation, Xena stops in Gabrielle's house to get herself together to continue on to Amphipolis. Gabrielle is very naieve and curious and asks a lot of questions of Xena. And these moments setting in motion the friendship between Xena and Gabrielle. As they become closer throughout the season running into fascinatingly crazy villains like Callisto (Hudson Leick) and the lovable idiot Joxer (Ted Raimi) we watch as their journeys teach them love, compassion, and just all around goodness. We watch them travel around Greece fighting bad guys and Gabrielle finds out about Solan (David Taylor), Xena's son whom she had to give up as a baby to the centaurs to save his life and on to Britannia to fight with Boadicea (Jennifer Ward-Lealand) against Julius Caesar (Karl Urban of LOTR fame) in the third season. Also witnessing the rape of Gabrielle by the evil, dark one Dahak. Soon after, Gabrielle gives birth to her half-villainous daughter, Hope. Xena realizes the evil of the child and also running into the sword in the stone, Xena tells Gabrielle to kill Hope, but Gabrielle cannot do it and sends the child in a basket down the river. Xena, believing that Hope is dead, and Gabrielle go back to Greece where they resume fighting bad guys and the like until Xena is called upon to go to Chin (Mongolia) to fulfill a wish of her mentor Lao Ma. Lao Ma (Jacqueline Kim) is a calming influence on Xena and we learn of Borias (Marton Csokas), Xena's lover and Solans father, Xena travels to Chin to assassinate the ruler, Lao Ma's son, Ming Tien (Daniel Sing) and with a twist of fate, Gabrielle makes it to Chin before Xena, with Ares' (Kevin Smith) help, sending Xena down to the dungeon to await her execution. This is yet a another tear in their thinning line of friendship this betrayal. Xena, through remembering, regains the powers her mentor had taught her and she saved herself of execution and killed Ming Tien, Gabrielle does not find out until later that this has occurred, after this they back to Greece and back to the centaur village where Solan is. They meet with Ephiny (Danielle Cormack, the queen of the Amazons, and her centaur son. During this visit, Gabrielle runs into a girl of about 10 or 11. She soon figures out that it is Hope (Amy Morrison) and their is a tearful reunion between mother and daughter (mostly on the mothers part). We also learn that the Goddess Callisto has been set free from her lava grave to come and terrorize Xena once more. And during this Hope kills the foster father, Kaleipus, of Solan and then kills Solan and then Gabrielle most kill Hope. Ephiny sings the funeral dirge as Solans and Kaleipus (Jeff Boyd) funeral fires burn. This causing the final tear in Gabrielle's and Xena's friendship and both head in different directions, lost and confused. Through this we see the first ever Xena musical and this brings Gabby and Xena back together we move into the finality of the 3rd season, Hope has reincarnated into a body identical to Gabrielles. In the final episode we witness the "death" of Gabrielle and Hope. The fourth season moves into different territory, Xena in mourning of Gabrielle goes to Hades to find out if he has her spirit. He tells her that he does not and learns that since Gabrielle was an Amazon that she would not go to Hades, but to a different place. Xena heads to Siberia to go to Gabrielle in the Amazon land of the dead, here we meet Alti (Claire Stansfield), an evil shamaness who promised in the past to make Xena, destroyer of nations. Through all this and the death of Alti we learn of a prophecy that shows Gabrielle and Xena crucified by Caesar. This, initially, gives Xena the knowledge that Gabrielle is not dead and she goes back to Greece to Potadeia and runs into "Gabrielle" (it is actually Hope), and we also see Hope's son, the Destroyer, his father is Ares. Gabrielle herself finds her way to Xena and the two put the plan in motion to kill the Destroyer and Hope. From here, they both go on a spiritual quest, Xena's landing her in prison for a short time for a murder that was not really committed and afterwards, Her and Gabby head to India where we encounter Najara (Kathryn Morris), a Joan of Arc like character who is major zealot and hears voices. Xena gets her butt kicked and Gabrielle saves her before going away with Najara. Xena follows and gets her back they then get to India and meet Eli (Timothy Omundson) a Jesus like person who inspires Gabrielle to follow the way of love. They are then sent to their future lives by a darsham and run back into Alti who in this life is a warrior and Xena is Armenistra, Mother of Peace and Shakti, Gabrielle, a warrior fighting for his people. They bring Alti back to the present using the power of the Mendhi and with the help of the darsham they defeat Alti, but not before Alti brings a very rude realization of the vision of Xena's and Gabrielle's deaths. Next they run back into Eli, the avatar, and their fight with Indrajit, the lord of evil to meeting Krishna and Hanuman. They then head back to Greece with Eli and find out that Ephiny has been killed in a fight against Brutus, Caesars right hand man and they set in motion their capture by the Romans and yet another run in with a dead Callisto from Hell. She goes against the rules of her coming back and throws Xena's Chakram at Xena and breaking her spine and so that they cannot escape and then on the Ides of March, Xena, Gabrielle, and Caesar die. There is also a funny romp with past lives in the episode after. In the fifth season Xena and Gabrielle have gone to Heaven and during this season Xena becomes an arch-angel under Michael and then gives up her divinity to save Callisto's soul. Xena then ends up in hell and the Gabby becomes an arch-angel and with Callisto's help, Eli brings the pair back to life. But, it ends up leaving Xena without her dark side and most get a her chakram and the light Chakram and combine to bring back her dark side and bring her back. And then we witness the death of Eli and then we see Eve, Xena's daughter by Callisto, grow into Livia the whore of Rome and see her turn into the disciple of Eli and find out that Xena's mother has died and then at the very end, Xena dies and Gabrielle goes back to Greece (6th season).