The Xena/Hercules Appreciation Thread

[Primal Slayer]

Callisto really doesnt get enough kudos when it comes to villains in the media. She is a Top 10 villain of all time.

 

[Primal Slayer]

*The funny thing about Xena/Hercules is that they had plenty of diverse characters throughout the run. Something that im sure many didnt bat an eye at during their original runs, compared to present day where there'd probably be so many people saying the show was being "woke"

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Xena had a great rogues gallery. Callisto, Hope, Ares, all of them are god tier (no pun intended).

 

[Primal Slayer]

The Return of Callisto is such a great episode. The fight on the chariot was so...forking good. Deserved plenty of awards.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Xenas 'Miss Amphipolis" was the original Miss Congeniality and way ahead of its time for hiring trans actress to play a trans character.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Ceasars introduction into Xena was so good and making him part of her origin into a Warrior Princess was fab. Could Karl Urban be any hotter?

I wish we had gotten more of M'Lila and a longer journey towards her teaching Xena how to become the warrior we know. The design team putting Xenas breast plate design on her shirt was such a fantastic move. If we ever get a reboot, I would definitely give her more time as one of Xenas many teachers.

That whole block of episodes is one of the best strings of episodes the show ever did. Velasca was a great two episode villain and one I wouldnt have minded to see more of. Im pretty sure I had a Velasca action figure as a child.

Bringing back Callisto to fend off a newly minted God was a great idea.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Did a quick sidetrack and watched Hercules and the Amazon Women...whew..episode didn't age that well. Of course it was a lesson learned all around from Hercules having to learn to respect women in power (after he states something to the effect of Hera being evil "That's what happens when women gain to much power") to the Hippolyta/Amazons learning that they don't need to fear men....but making the men the innocents and all they want to do is being loving to the Amazons and raise their children together...definitely different from what we get in Xena a few years later.

Lucy also has a prominent role int he episode as Hipplytas right hand Amazon and she looked/acted great in it.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The start of the Dahak storyline was SOOO good. They make us think that the episode will revolve around Caesar/Ares but in all actuality...they are very minor to the plot. Gabrielle losing her blood innocence and becoming impregnated with Dahaks spawn was dark.

One thing I never understood was....they gave us this GREAT looking demigod for Xena to battle

And when it came to Dahak making his big appearance in Hercules we get this monster....that looks great as a monster but it devoids Dahak of being truly terrifying with a personality.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The Quill is Mighter is such a funny episode. The show can do comedy as great as it can do drama.

Aphrodite trying to get back at Xena by enchanting Gabrielles scroll and it all backfiring on everyone was the best.

The 3 Gabrielle's dancing to the 60s music...gold.

And of course anytime you bring back Minya...its great

 

[Primal Slayer]

The Bitter Suite....such a GREAT episode. Long before Once More With Feeling, we got this beauty that is often overlooked in the musical realm.

Great way for Xena/Gabrielle to work through their issues that has been building up for a season now.

 

[Primal Slayer]

One Against an Army is one of the best action episodes of television, period.dot. What they pulled off on a syndicated budget, within a usual episode production, the amount of stunts Lucy did was A+. Plus the emotional side of the story with Gabrielle on doors deathstep yet again, the way the show plays it out never gets old.

If anyone is ever able to get their hands on the anchor bay dvd releases I highly recommend doing so. Esp when it comes to S3, there's practically special features for every episode going into bts, interviews with Lucy/Renee. Always fun to watch after finishing an episode.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The 4-part Sacrifice arc is sooooooooooooo damn good! Starts in Hercules, concludes in Xena.

Hope trying to rid the world of Hercules and bringing in Callisto to do the job was great. She/Ares make for a great dynamic duo and the fact that she is allowed to succeed in killing Hercules mother bringing about a new world where Xena never found redemption was fun.

Ioulos gets to save the day and Xena picks up right where Armageddon leaves off heading into Sacrifice 2-part season finale on Xena. The big reveal at end of Pt.1 with Hope coming out of her cocoon was one of the best tv reveals ever.

All this leading to Ares joining Hope, Callisto joining Xena...so many good teamups.

Gabrielle sacrificing herself to save Xenas life and taking Hope out was like Buffy sacrificing herself in The Gift....these two shows have so much in common you'd almost think that Joss was influenced by Xena to a great degree lol. All this time Callisto has been trying to off herself and the one time she feels alive again is when Gabrielle "dies" and then BAM!

Callisto as we've known her for 3 seasons comes to an end.

I think the only minor thing that would make Sacrifice better is if they included Hercules/Iolaus.

 

[Primal Slayer]

4x01/4x02 whew, what a two parter! Moody, introduces another great female villain in Alti, another Amazon group and some amazing fight scenes. We get Xena visiting Hades and learning how their domains work. It's not the usual Xena episode where there is some type of lightness even in the darkness.

While Callisto was a psychotic blonde who was birthed by Xena, Alti is the opposite. She's sadistic and power hungry not to mention just downright scary. We learn that she cursed Solan from the get go which explains why he never had a relationship with either parent and dies at a young age.

Cyane and is one of those characters that I wish we had gotten to see more. Vicki Pratt is one of those 90s actresses where you saw her in plenty of things but sadly none of them ever became as successful as you'd wish being most notably in Cleopatra 2525, Mutant X.

It isnt meant to be funny but...its funny and I love that the cast/crew agree that putting Gabrielles head on a Spider wasnt their best work lol. But its so Xena and so 90s.

And with usual Xena and the Buffy comparison, they foreshadow/show us the characters huge fates in the S4 finale.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I still feel a way that Xena was 100% against Hope, but when Eve was killing half of Rome, she felt like she could be redeemed.

Gabrielle is a much better soulmate than me lol.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I still feel a way that Xena was 100% against Hope, but when Eve was killing half of Rome, she felt like she could be redeemed.

Gabrielle is a much better soulmate than me lol.

I mean....Xena was against Hope since she was Dahaks child and she was killing since she was a baby lol. Though they did show that Xena may have been partially wrong with Hope wanting Gabrielles love.

Eve (ugh, shame she became the worst Xena character there was. Idk what they were thinking with that awful "redemption" ) was just raised to be a killer and thus could find potential redemption.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Finishing up 'A Family Affair' and I've always thought that sadly they kind of dropped the ball in bringing Gabrielle back to life. After such an emotional season finale and intense 2-part premiere...Gabrielle & Hope are both are just alive as if nothing happened. Xena-verse does a lot of crazy things so Im surprised that the writers didnt think bigger. Dahak should have been the one to just intervene ins his firey way.

The Dahak storyline was such a big part of the show and it's like they just grew tired of it and brought it to an end with Hope being killed by her son. Of course the Dahak storyline doesnt wrap up 100% until Hercules but its so far removed from Xena that it's never as satisfying as it could've been.

Hope was supposed to give birth to 6 destroyers but only 1 survived to scare a tale...and I think that was a mistake. The destroyers could've been a good story arc for not only Xena but for Hercules as well, Hope was also a great villain so her demise being so small left a lot to be desired.

 

[Primal Slayer]

The India arc remains one of my favorite in Xena. All 3 episodes are very strong and cumulated in a great showdown between Xena/Alti again. Also one of my favorite Gabrielle outfits.

The Xena v Alti fight scenes are always the most interesting ones because Alti is able to use Xenas past against her and they do those fights so well with present day Xena reacting to hits from prior episodes.

We get to see Xena use some magic Chakrams..when is that not cool.

The introduction to Eli was a good one and overall good addition to the recurring cast.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Finally got around to finishing S4 after taking a hiatus from the show. Of course Ides of March was a great episode and "finale". Even if Xena/Gabby always ended up coming out on top in the end, they definitely suffered plenty of losses. Of course it would've made more sense for Alti to be in Callistos place but Im glad she couldnt do it and they had Hudson step in.

Deja Vu All over Again is such a fun and perfect episode that it reminds me that this show really does not get NEARLY the amount of love that it should. Sure there are plenty of episodes that deserve awards but if this was on a bigger network, this definitely would've won some. The writers having Joxer/Xenas souls get mixed up in each others reincarnated bodies was GOLD.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Fallen Angel....this episode deserved awards for makeup and costumes. Most shows and even movies cant pull this off nowadays.

 

[Primal Slayer]

Finishing up the very short-lived Livia sequel and I still despise 20 years later.

To be introduced to Eve as Livia, this shell of a person who is just evil to be evil followed by "Eve" where she is magically redeemed by Eli as if she was under some type of magical brainwash is so annoying and makes the character even less of a character than she already was.

In the interview with writers/producers they talk about how you can't keep the storyline of Livia vs. Xena go on to long or have her as a villain that long so they just made it 2 episodes...what the hell were they thinking.

They gave her absolutely no depth and having her kill all those women/children/men/Joxer was stupid.

So how do you fix the character and overall storyline (for the billionth time as I know this has been discussed everyone for the past 20 years)?

First off....they should've decided "Is Eve brought up by Octavius Augustus or somehow finds her way to becoming the champion of Ares"?

If she is brought up under OA then the whole "hatred for Followers of Eli" should've been outright dropped as it makes no sense.

If she finds herself lured away by Ares at a decent age (lets say...18/19) then she should find the followers of Eli as the "bad guys" as she doesnt see how the world could go on without the Gods. She leads his armies, she has met Athena, Aphrodite, etc...

Either way...she is someone who never feels complete and has always been drawn to fighting, being trained by the best to the point of being deemed the new "Warrior Princess"

Like her mother she does not take satisfaction in killing women and children, choosing to instead lock them up.

If she is raised by OA, she learns to be manipulative and work her way up the system that is primarily ruled by men. She does end up leading the army and she is snarky but she isnt a cold blooded killer.

This should've lead us to the finale with Livia finally seeing that everything she thought she was grown up to believe was wrong, turning on OA/Ares and saving Xena.

Either way she doesnt become some whining pacifist who cant defend herself. She remains a warrior who like her mother is fighting to right her wrongs, joining Xena/Gabby full time.

 

[C. Lee]

I watched both these series when I could. It was syndicated and shown on Saturday afternoons here, and there were many times that my work schedule made me miss episodes. I bought all the DVDs when they were released over a decade ago, but haven't sat down and watched them. I think I will now pull them out and put in my "watch this" pile.

 

[Primal Slayer]

It's really a shame Xena doesn't get the kind of recognition it deserves from Hollywood media.