#and Xena being reincarnated as a man is how they got Xena and Gabrielle to get married in the year of our lord 2001

[normcore-tertiary-character]

Part of me genuinely 110% believes that Renee O'Connor and Lucy Lawless are going to guest star on an episode of Our Flag Means Death as lesbian pirates

Nothing has been said to make me think this. I just really really want it to so I'm convinced it will.

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

Thank you for your response. I'm sorry, I have more questions to ask.

I want to know: what is canon and what is not? In your response, you mentioned that Xena/Gabrielle was not considered canon because of the prevailing homophobic attitudes of mainstream viewers. So, does the definition of canon depend on the opinions of the mainstream audience?

You also mentioned in your response that the writers and actors stated that Xena/Gabrielle were not canon at the time. However, it's important to note that the show was not strictly-serialized but composed of unit episodes with season-long character arc. The writing team consisted of resident writers and various freelancers, and different individuals, including producers and writers, had different perspectives on the Xena/Gabrielle relationship (sometimes even differing interpretations of the characters and storylines!). These perspectives also varied over time. From my recollection, Steven L. Sears, Katherine Fugate, T.J. Scott, Gene O'Neill, Noreen Tobin explicitly expressed that Xena and Gabrielle were in love. Liz Friedman and Rob Tapert also made related statements (you can find more details in the Chakram Newsletter and DVD episode commentaries). Some of these comments were made during the filming process, while others were shared in interviews during DVD production or at Xena conventions several years later. Were these statements made solely to appease the queer fanbase, so that the show's creators lost the credibility to validate whether they are canon?

Returning to the original question: what is canon and what is not? If we exclude all statements and opinions from the producers, how do we approach it based on the 134 episodes of the entire series? Countless love confessions, expressions of desire and jealousy, numerous sacrifices and commitments, Xena even sent a Sappho poem to Gabrielle! What constitutes explicit expression? Is there anything more explicit than these instances?

Steven L. Sears mentioned in a podcast that the Xenaverse is a world without labels. In this fictional ancient Greek society filled with warrior women and unruly gods, it would be strange to assume that everyone is heterosexual and queerness needs to be proven. Does this align with the show's inclusive style and theme? Now, let's imagine if either of them transformed into a male character, would anyone say they don't have a romantic relationship? (Just like in 422, when they were reincarnated as a man and a woman and kissed passionately and got married. Of course, according to your perspective, that wouldn't count as Xena and Gabrielle being together right?)

I apologize for saying so much. I'm not American, and in my country, homosexuality is not allowed to exist on screens or in society. I deeply understand and detest the presence of homophobia and censorship systems. Our social and cultural environment, as well as the sexual expression of the queer community and individuals, may differ greatly from today's United States. As a result, you and I have different understandings of what is canon and what is not in a fictional work.

By the way, let me share some personal feelings. XWP incorporates many symbols and religious expressions related to Eastern Asian elements (such as the Taoist yin-yang symbol, Buddhism, and Hinduism). In the education I received, yin and yang were used to represent a heterosexual union that was deemed natural and favored male dominance. However, in this show, the symbol is used to represent the harmony and balance between Xena and Gabrielle (which also associates Gabrielle with the masculine 'yang' energy haha), symbolizing their alignment with the preconceived cosmic order. No one can imagine the shock and joy I experienced when I watched 413! I will cherish the happiness and courage this show has brought me for the rest of my life.

Canon is, very strictly speaking, what is explicitly stated in the text of the work. Anything else is extant.

I'm glad that you love Xena so much! :) It is the best feeling to really love a fandom. :)

[shadlad24]

Another

Hm, I can develop this into a wider crack theory (like Man-Killer and/or Shazam! but a lot less silly and picture-filled) once I get my energy and motivation back up, if you all would like that and are vocal about it, buuuut…

I just had an evil brainwave.

What if…

The Destroyer wasn’t just the reverse of Hope? (Hope got Gabrielle’s outer appearance and Dahak’s inner evil, while her son looked like evil/Dahak on the outside but was a sweetie á la his grandma on the inside.)

What if, this ridiculously sweet little boy…

Who, against his nature, pretended to be a vicious killer (a warrior, if you will)

Who longed to carry on and live up to the legend of his bloodline

Who wanted, more than anything, his mother; all along

Who was strangely but no less powerfully linked to Gabrielle (and shown in my next real theory, if I ever get around to it [ETA: Success!])

…do you get where I’m going with this?

No?

What if… The Destroyer… was Solan, reincarnated?

And he didn’t stab Hope because he thought she was Gabrielle; but because for (rather than, in) a split-second, he suddenly realized who and what he was (kinda like Eve with her Eli-light, but in another reverse), and then avenged himself on his first killer?

T_T / >:)

And dying as The Destroyer more than / in addition to his decision, is how Solan ended up in Tartarus? (i.e. Maybe Hades offered Solan another chance at life, like he did with Marcus—but a better one than for a single day because the child was a true innocent and Hades owed Xena for saving his helmet and sister—but that also ended in being stabbed by Xena. Whoa…)

Why the Furies finally left Xena and Gabrielle alone and let The Rift Arc close— Solan canceled out his own blood debt against his killer— …until a new “dereliction of duty” cropped up, anyway.

Callisto got reincarnated into Eve, so why, in another odd, sort of beautiful symmetry / equal yet opposite psychic echo, couldn’t Solan have been reincarnated as The Destroyer?

Hmm!

Call me evil and mean, but I miiiiiight also find a sort of vindictive pleasure and sense of XWP-style justice/karma if…

After all that she did to Gabrielle for supposedly killing Solan

And how blind she was to Gabrielle about Hope and later, in yet another reverse, Eve (and in the girls’ own rights, separate from the bard)

Xena herself actually killed Solan in the end.

Plus, how crazy and amazing would it be if one of the psychic-echo children gave the other new life, after taking his, only to lose hers to him, and for his mother to finally take his life, like her mother initially took hers?

.

Mwa ha ha? I’m sorry? :”) + Wow, was that convoluted! Are you still with me? XD Ahem. Don’t mind me. I’m being weird.

...That is all.

For now. >:)

[ETA: No, wait! Super aw! What if The Destroyer was calling “Momma” as he died not for Hope, but because Xena stabbed him in the back? T_T And his crazy monster body didn’t allow him to say ‘mother’ properly? *now REALLY sad* Awww...]

[she-ra-cat-ra]

I’m honestly just kinda bored and decided to make this for no real reason. I like doing fic recs because I think I have taste but some of these.... kinda aren't good lol it’s more of what stuck with me through the years.   

So yeah List of fics that were important to me and that were on my fanfantion.net fave list and may or may not be good: 

What The Eyes Can't See : The only fic on this list that made it over from my very first fanfic.net account that has now been lost to time. This was the fic that got me into long fics It’s a Bleach fic and made me super disappointed that Tatsuki never got to do anything as cool as she does in this fic, at least when I actually watched/read it.  Also, my mom found my bookmark of it and had to have a talk with me because she ended up reading the smut bits. You can’t even read the whole thing on fanfic.net, parts had to be cut when they did that purge of smut years and years ago

Timely Errors: I love time travel more than like any other trope. Harry Potter goes back in time is pretty common but this fic is pretty rare in that it still pretty good. Plus it’s cute and made me cry. And whats funny is that it’s a small bit at the end that I remember the most, where Ron has no idea that something is wrong until Hermione gives Harry an extra piece of cake then he just Knows has stuck with me for years because it’s so cute and sad and just so.... idk the perfect way I’ve seen their friendship expressed?  

Hourglass For some reason the general outline of this fic has been in my head since 2009 when I first read this 142k beast of a fic. I had just started to really get into fandom and Kingdom Hearts was poping. The idea of an older vision of the nice main character coming backward in time but is really mean and jaded because the future sucks really stuck with me. Also, there is a throwaway line about how Mulan lost her husband in the war but continues to fight anyway and Mickey Mouse has a moment to be sad about it has also stuck with me because what the fuck 

Wait This fic is here more because I kept thinking over the idea more than the actual fic, I mean it’s a little bit of a mess because it’s a songfic and the way it’s written through a couple of lifetimes BUT the idea of someone who is the Avatar's companion and gets reincarnation randomly instead of in order is one that I’ve thought about a LOT because of this fic. You again? is same thing but I like the actual fic more as the idea that the companion isn’t always a lover and they kill each other about half the time is a good one.  

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend ok look this is not a list of fics that are 100k and have great plots etc etc this is a list of fics that have stuck with me and for some reason, this Icarly fic is one of them. I have no idea why but it is funny and cute and I love the idea that Sam is wanted in France for stealing the Eiffel tower

Lily Potter and the Worst Holiday  I love the idea of two universes clashing together and seeing two that aren't great, as both had a lot of people die including a young Ron and Hermoine because Harry wasn’t there, stuck with me. 

Many Thanks this fic made me cry AT LEAST three times, just thinking of it makes me tear up man. And it keeps going way longer than you think but in a good way? Not only does it have time travel but instead of being in the traveler's point of view, it’s from a bystander. It’s just... ugh the idea of it is great and it just works really well. I just love me some badass Hermione.  

Old Bones just a little fic that made me go, ‘oh shit maybe seeing everything underground after a 100-year war could end up fucking up a 12 ear old’ 

Awkward Once again this is a list of fics that stuck with me and for some reason this one did. No idea why since I didn’t even ship Raven/Starfire but it’s pretty cute 

City of Ghosts such a weird little Xena Fic but it’s weird in a canon kind of way? Like yeah, that could be in a Xena episode. This fix it fic works pretty well at what it’s going for I guess. I so love Gabrielle, or her reincarnation kicking ass and saving Xena

ab igne ignem capere  AU where Azula was born first so she isn’t the favorite. Great idea and I loved the style but it’s unfinished and it’s such a shame too. 

Alone, Together Oh my god this is where my love of weird plots came from. I LOVE this fic and I think about it all the time. The idea of two people having to be alone together for YEARS and they actually fall in love and have to work at it for it to work but they do it!!! Only to have all of that taken away, memories and all??? And now they have to deal with where they were before that all happened and just UGH what a fic man. 

And The Whole World Tilted this fic made me cry and still kinda does and since it’s a iCarly fic that's impressive 

A Secret Relationship Unlike Any Other back at it again with the weird plot. The idea that Rachel Berry loves planning and bossing people so much that she ends up dating Quinn with Finn as a puppet is very funny and is super in character. 

A Million Miles Of Fun this fic is so dumb but every once in a while I think ‘lol remember that fic where Faberry and Brittana kill a ton of people and it was like 100k and kinda good?’  

The Line Between Jealousy and Hate this fic really really got me when I was younger. It’s a KND fic and the idea that 86 hates boys because she’s a lesbian is kinda overplayed in fandom a lot but idk man this fic hit me hard when I wasn’t out yet. 

Just off the Key of Reason is Quinn out of character in this fic? Yes. Is there any plot? No . Have I read this fic and all its sequels like 100 times?  Yes because it’s pure wonderful fluff 

Animals and Prizes .....OK I need you to listen to me. Do I want to remember this fic so much? No not really but can one really forget their first alpha/omega fic? I read this fic way back in 2013, I was in high school!  Honestly, everything considered it’s better than you would think, I mean it has an actual plot 

Those Gilded Chains We Wear this fic got me in two ways. One: I love me some dark ladies with a Past that fall in love with some good-hearted person and grow from it. Two: a kinda weird plot where Hermione and Bellatrix have a magic bond thing because Bella, of her own free will, leaves Voldemort and the magic bond thing is the only way to make sure she isn’t lying. Re-reading it now I don’t enjoy it as much, as Hermione just takes way way too much crap but it’s still enjoyable. The idea that Bellatrix is actually legally insane and should be treated for it is nice and the idea that magic could affect how mental illness shows up in a person is cool. 

Dark Energy Yo not one other fanfic series has made me cry as much as Dark Energy. I usually hate re writes fics but Dark Energy makes it work really really well. The first is pretty plain compared to the others but by the second it just nails it. By far this is my favorite Mass Effect fic and it’s differently effected how I see characters in the game. 

Sight the King once again I got taken in by weird plot. I mean you know how rare season 0 fics are in Yu-Gi-Oh? Super rare and this one is what happens when you realize season 0 is super fucked up, I mean people get set on fire and that's like three times! So yeah seeing Yugi deal with waking up at the scene of four-ish murders with blood on his hands and realizing that no one is going to belive him is just great. A+ for the great tone too, the writing is great and it’s by far the most in-character fic out there for this time period 

[itrashit]

How I think a reboot of Xena should really be

I know this is quite a controversial topic, I personally don't want a reboot of Xena Warrior Princess. Don't get me wrong, I'd love if we were blessed with new episodes, but the original show was already an epic and the cast was the perfect match. I can't see no one playing the roles of Xena, Gabrielle, Callisto, Joxer and etc other than the original cast. No matter how good they made the reboot, it would always be compared to the original show and it wouldn't be fair to any of the series.

On the other hand, it'd be interesting to have new Xena material, so after giving it a lot of thought, I came to a conclusion on how I think a possible reboot should be.

Since I don't want to watch a show without Xena and Gabrielle as the main characters, and I can't see no one playing their roles, I came up with this idea.

It's pos-FIN timeline. Gabrielle has passed a long time ago and now she's happily living her after life with Xena in the Elysian Fields/Heaven, whichever works. However, the Twilight of the Gods is happening and it's leading Earth into chaos. Which less people following them, the Gods start fighting each other for followers and power, while the humans are making a havoc now that they aren't under the Gods' protection and that they feel free to not fear the Gods anymore.

This catastrophic scenario become known to Xena and Gabrielle, who cannot interfere in this situation but feel like they need to do something to help. In trying to do so, for some reason that I couldn't figured out yet, they ended bringing their future modern-selves to the Known World.

Wait, let me explain.

The show was pretty explicit regarding reincarnation, Z and Gabby were soulmates and reincarnated many times, right?

My idea is, they have reincarnated in modern times (not that 90's version we saw in Déjà Vu All over Again, tho), unaware of their previous lives.

I even thought about what their backstory could be. Xena's modern self could be an ex-cop in her earliers 30 years old. Her father was killed during a robbery when she was a kid, then she grew up wanting to protect people from bad guys. After joining police she discovered that there were so much corruption and injustice among them, and that infuriates her, but she soon learns that there's nothing she can do to change that. So she decided to take matters in her own hands and became a sort of a "warrior", where she'd fight the wrongings of the world in her own way. Needless to say that it usually involves actions that can't be described as "legal". This, of course, eventually leads her to be expelled from the academy and be imprisioned. All this ordeal made her became a darker person, she lost her hope and trust in humanity and, by the time her sentence is finally expired, she had lost herself too.

Enter Gabrielle's modern self. She just turned 18 and is almost graduating high school. She is a happy kid, a bit clumsy and too naive for her own good. She cares for the others, being them people, animals or simply the planet, and always tries to help them... even if it gets her in trouble, with normally does. She's also a History and Mythology nerd and is part of the school's drama club. Her parents expect her to join a good College, so she'd become a succesful person, find a decent guy and start her own family. That's not quite what Gabrielle wants though, she actually doesn't know what she wants to do with her life but she feels like there's so much more to see and do in this world than this. She wants to learn more about the world and live a big adventure, so she's planning on travelling abroad before going to college.

So, it's prom day. Modern Gabrielle has never kissed anyone before, she knows this is a bit strange for her age but she doesn't care, she wants her first kiss to be with someone she really loves. Anyway, she's at her best friend house preparing for the big night, you know, doing her hairs and etc together. Then she realizes she forgot her dress in her house, she's that type of person, so she decides to go back home and finished getting read there. Only, in her way back, she's assaulted by a man who drags her to a dark alley. Modern Xena happens to be there and see the man trying to assault the girl. She stopped helping strangers after she got out of jail, for being nice to the others only messed with her life, but she acts on a relfex anyway and fight that man, knocking him unconscious. Modern Gabrielle's shocked and terrified, her brain isn't exactly functioning at that moment, so she's like "Jesus, that was so scary! What we do now? Should we call the cops?" while trembling in fear. But at the mention of cops, modern Xena decides it's better to leave the scene, "You are fine, right? So do whatever you want" and walks back to the main street. Modern Gabrielle is on her tail, "Wait, you are just going to leave me here? Please, I don't want to be alone with this creepy!". Modern Xena is already getting impacient, "Look, girl" she says "I already saved you, what happens now is none of my business". At that, the penny finally dropped and modern Gabrielle realizes that, if it wasn't for that woman, she'd probably be killed or worse right now. "You're right, you saved my life! Thank you, thank you so much!". She's following modern Xena while vigorously thanking her, but Z on the other hand is annoyed and wishing the girl get lost.

That's when original Gabrielle and original Xena makes that something that I still didn't figure out what should be, but it ended with modern Xena and Gabrielle being dragged through some sort of space-time portal that makes they go straight to the Known World.

There, original Z and Gabby explain everything to two very perplexed modern Gabrielle and Xena. Modern Xena isn't buying any of this, while modern Gabrielle is super excited with the prospect of living something so unexpected. The original ones explain to them that the the future of the world is at stake and only them, the modern versions of themselves, can save the world.

Such a predicament wouldn't be easy accepted by modern Xena, and would cause both of them a lot of angst of course. But they are stuck in this situation and during season one they'll learn that there's nothing they can do except to accept their roles and do the right thing, which is fight the bad guys (and bad Gods too) to help bring peace to the world (I guess original Xena and Gabrielle don't know how to bring them back to their time, or simply can't do it).

And you know what else I think that would be cool? If modern Xena and Gabrielle didn't get along at first. Like, they wouldn't see eye to eye and would always be annoyed at each other. This, of course, would change with time and, by the end of the first season, they would become very close friends that trully adore each other. That would be an interesting change in their relationship, and at each season their relationship would grow stronger to the point where they would considere the other as their soulmate.

Original Xena and Gabrielle would appear in some episodes to share some nice words and give them their advices, or maybe just to comment with each other about their future selves (things like, "your future self is just as a stubborn as you used to be" and "hey, did we used to have so many petty fights like that?").

Reincarnated protagonists means they are not the same we used to know and yet they keep a lot of characteristics in common with them. This way we won't risk messing up with the already existent plot and characters that we love so much. Also, it would allow us to be blessed with Lucy's and Renée's presence once more. ♡

What do you think about it? I personally would like this kind of reboot. I even have a few suggestions of people who could play their parts, but I'll leave it to another post because I want to post some pictures of them and Tumblr sadly doesn't allow me to upload more than 10 pictures per post.