#evil xena can get it

[pwaise-hestia]

[smallhatlogan]

Every show airing when I was a kid needed to have that “cartoonish misandrist learns that it’s not okay to hate men even as the men around her are THE WORST. Maybe she even gets to be enemies to lovers with a lovable misogynist” episode

[batfamiliar]

gabrielle is sam winchester-coded

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

⚔️⚔️ Sword gays showdown, grand finale ⚔️

*Camilla fanart by @friendamedes, used with permission

Propaganda:

For Camilla:

she prefers dual-wielding two short blades but can fight with pretty much anything. she's ambidextrous she's autistic she's even sex-repulsed ace. she sighs longingly when reunited with her weapons. she's from planet academia and dresses like an off-duty librarian. literally one of the most iconic moments of the entire series is when she gets challenged to a duel and absolutely wipes the floor with her opponent even though she doesn't even like rapiers that much. 'swords don't lie.' 

OK I’m sure you’re getting just about every character from The Locked Tomb but Cam is my favorite. She's a nerd AND a jock. She is in this deeply intense and loving and unhealthily codependent soulbond partnership with her best friend second cousin and prince. She is smart and deadpan snarky and fights like a grease fire and I have never been able to get that line out of my head.

For Gideon:

she's incredibly good w/ her two hander and less good with her rapier but she's still pretty good!! she is a horny lesbian who's taste in women seems to exclusively be "girls who have tried or are going to try to kill her". she's a redhead. i love her

Gideon’s a HUGE Butch lesbian and literally always wanted to use a broad sword. Specifically a broad sword. She said fuck rapiers. Uhhh literally dies to save the girl she cares for and the sword she uses then becomes like an altar for said girl. Gideon Nav Supremacy <3

oh she is the most badass swordswoman lesbian in media. she’s her gf’s cavalier, defends her in battle, she’s incredibly butch and buff

C'mon shes THE sword lesbian like... canonically 

Loves her broadsword more than anything on her home planet and practices whenever she can. Spoiler it’s possessed by her mom. Gave everything so her best enemy could eat her soul and become the new saint. The character of all time child of two separate threesomes, child of the god emperor, she’s dead, she’s butch, she’s a dork, she’s doomed by the narrative. She’s my favorite.

girlie is literally the swordswoman supreme. she’s the cavalier primary to her necromancer. she has a fuckoff huge longsword. she gets absorbed into another person SPECIFICALLY to swordfight for them. in a gay way too.

While everyone else was developing common sense, she studied the blade. This dyke's main weapon and true love is the long sword, but she's also passable with a rapier. The sword is, in her own estimation, pretty much all she's good for. That and her smoking hot bod and terribly charming sense of humor. 

"While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (Direct quote from the book). She's the most useless lesbian to ever exist, and she's obsessed with an absolute wet cat of a woman. Learned longsword mostly on her own and is such a genius with the sword she learned rapier in a few months (by personal experience, it's really really hard)

Most badass broadsword wielding lesbian easily slaying bone monsters and evil space wasps

The cavalier to her necromancer. very gay. in a complicated codependant lovehate relationship with the only other person her age she knew growing up.

For Xena:

It is HER! The OG woman with a blade! 

Her show was so iconic that any lesbian over the age of 30 knows her IMMEDIATELY because this show probably helped her have her awakening. Fandom foremothers and fathers rise up and get your gal a title.

An all around badass, bisexual woman, comfortable with many different bladed weapons. Her show was so much better than Hercules people forget his exists.

Xena is one of the OGs: once a baddie who turned good, she's a warrior who uses swords, daggers, and her trusty chakram to defeat evil and defend the innocent, while traveling with her kickass girlfriend Gabrielle. 

She has many skills

[girl4music]

It’s interesting to think of Callisto not just as Xena’s arch-nemesis and main foil but also as Gabrielle’s mirror image and parallel because she can’t be much older than Gabrielle is. I mean Xena destroyed Callisto’s village when she was only a child. True, Xena was a teenager herself when she went on her 10 year long period of darkness. But she is obviously older by a good margin of years. I would say maybe 10 years between her and Gabrielle and 7 between her and Callisto. Say Xena was 16 when she began her dark period. That would make Gabrielle 6 and Callisto 9.

Which I think definitely checks out by the time we get to Xena’s army pillaging and destroying Cirra. Xena would be 20. Callisto would be 13 and Gabrielle 10.

So it’s interesting to think of Callisto as what Gabrielle could have been if Xena’s army had attacked Poteidaia instead of Cirra and murdered her family instead of Callisto’s. As I said - Gabrielle wasn’t special. There was nothing in her that would have made any real difference if those things had happened to her instead. Nothing but the love between her and Xena.

Which obviously she wouldn’t have had if circumstances had just played out that way.

If Gabrielle was Callisto and Callisto was Gabrielle.

And I like that Callisto tries to make Gabrielle see this when Gabrielle asks her if she felt anything when Xena confessed her crimes in ‘A Necessary Evil’ to a random village at her request in exchange for her assistance in stopping and defeating Velasca. She basically says: “Think about if this was you, would you be different?”

And Gabrielle wouldn’t have an answer for her…

Not yet. You see, to Callisto… Gabrielle fell in love with the villain. She wouldn’t possibly understand that. But Gabrielle wouldn’t possibly understand how Xena couldn’t be the hero. And it’s one hell of a dichotomy.

CALLISTO: “My goodness, are you trying to figure me out? I’m flattered.”

GABRIELLE: “Answer me. Or are you afraid?”

CALLISTO: “Let’s play a game, shall we?”

GABRIELLE: “All right.”

The way Callisto HITS when interpreting Xena and Gabrielle as a love story is so god damn DELICIOUS.

“You fell in love with the destroyer of my soul. Why would you think I would ever give mercy to you? But you’re no different to me. Circumstances saved you.

Instead of Xena destroying your life, she rescued your life. As my hatred for her grew, your love for her grew.

You could never understand me, little girl.”

But of course we know she does… eventually.

But she still looks at Xena as the hero. And that will always be the delicious striking difference with this.

In Callisto’s eyes - Xena is the villain.

In Gabrielle’s eyes - the hero.

What makes the difference? Honestly… Nothing but the circumstances because Gabrielle is no different.

Gabrielle fell in love. Callisto fell in hate.

Xena refused to let Gabrielle praise her - celebrate her. Nor did she ever ask for Callisto’s forgiveness. Ever.

She told her she was sorry but she didn’t force a narrative that she knew was absolutely impossible no matter how much Gabrielle believed in her goodness.

This show is not about heroes vs villains.

It’s about actions vs consequences.

The circumstances are the only difference between. And storytelling like that will always last because it will always be relevant and resonant for real people.

And once again - I have to highly praise the writers for refusing to let the protagonists off with plot armor. For refusing to sugarcoat the events and situations that happen in this show just because they’re the heroines and they’re a representation of women loving women. Because it’s also a representation of women hating women and that deserved to be just as focused on and just as much respected as the love story there.

Callisto was never undermined and I am so grateful. And great storytellers never have to sacrifice anyway. They can simultaneously tell a beautiful story of love, forgiveness and devotion and tell a compelling story of revenge, hatred and burden. That is great writing because it’s always honest, realistic and authentic.

And Callisto is emphasised xBILLION in a WLW love story because she becomes the main conflict in it.

Then everything that happens suddenly is MORE because the romance in this show doesn’t ruin it.

It only ever makes it more worth watching because the writers knew exactly what they were doing with it because not a single character arc ever suffers for it.

👏👏👏

[beigetiger]

Trying to write about Skulduggery and Valkyrie in an AU. It is turning out very long, so in the meantime I’m gonna talk about what the Sanctuary is up to.

This au pulls the very stereotypical “most of civilization has collapsed”, so Roarhaven is incredibly crowded full of people mortal and sorcerer alike, and the city is shielded at certain times of the day to protect from threats (most notably Mevolent/Serafina or the Faceless Ones).

Like, when I say packed, I mean packed. Pretty much the whole city is stacked on top of each other and some people are seeing if they can connect the buildings together to form one massive structure, and even that isn’t enough to hold all the people now penned up in this city. Splashes of magic are becoming even more widespread, especially among mortals, to the point that some of the police have started to crack down on it. There are also people who can’t afford places to stay who all sleep together under one big tarp to conserve body heat, it is a mess.

China got aged down to about her forties in this au because of the magic blast, which really led to her being annoyed that magical explosions kept tampering with her age. She’s no longer the principal of Corrival and now she lives on the edge of town running a business as a Signum Linguist (since Signum Linguists are in very high demand in Roarhaven). She doesn’t create Splashes, but she does make weapons and/or enhancements for soldiers, particularly mortal ones (which I will get into later).

Corrival Academy is technically no longer functional but many of the teachers do still teach, and they find places and times to do it so that students can show up in groups and learn. Teachers like Fletcher and Militsa are partially helping the Sanctuary keep organized and on-task and partially trying to organize and actual school for kids since the last one fell apart. Also Militsa broke up with Valkyrie again on account of Val being an evil god (AGAIN), and now she and Fletcher are disaster besties who’re trying to keep it together. The two of them somehow managed to keep Xena alive until her death at an old doggy age.

Ghastly is still running things over at the Sanctuary, and he is having a VERY rough go of it. On top of mortals finding out about magic and chaos ensuing, he also has to deal with the fact that he now knows that Skulduggery is Lord Vile (because of what Cadaver told him) and that Valkyrie defended him for years (and has now turned into a slightly deranged god). He, Tanith, and Temper have been working together to create different military units with different purposes now that they have more demographics of people to keep track of, protect, and make use of. In short, Ghastly is even more burnt out than he was before the apocalypse.

The mortals have also been making themselves useful, usually working as soldiers for the Sanctuary. I talked about technomages a bit earlier, and I am talking about them now. Lots of the mortals now living in Roarhaven have been going out of their way to equip magical tools (usually weapons) to help them keep up with the sorcerers. This has led to them basically forming into military units working for the Sanctuary and has greatly increased their firepower, making them slightly less appealing to attack.

On top of Temper, Tanith, and Ghastly at the top of the Sanctuary, Dexter Vex also has a little group of his own who technically don’t work for the Sanctuary, but stay in Roarhaven and are more than willing to do tasks alongside them. Aside from Dexter, this team consists of Saracen (who was revived in the same way as Anton), Kierre, Aurora, Frightening, Donegan, and Gracious. Kierre showed back up when the Sanctuary (aided by China’s sigils) figured out a way to fix her boyfriend, and Aurora and Frightening found each other in America shortly after the general apocalypse (North America did not take it well) and then hopped over to Ireland to find Dexter. The Monsters Hunters did something similar to this except that they were in England at the time, and Saracen basically respawned in Ireland.

One of the people who is not present at the Sanctuary (or in Roarhaven at all) is Anton Shudder. He’s off working for Valkyrie for reasons that I plan on explaining in a later post, but he (and Valkyrie) are missed dearly by their friends.

Unlike most of the other groups in this au, Roarhaven isn’t actually aggressive and doesn’t go out of their way to pick fights with other gangs, instead working to act as a safe space for refugees from the war. They’re also completely stationary, which is why they have the part-time shield to protect them from attacks. Valkyrie is willing to spend resources to protect them, but they don’t entirely trust her and so she tends to give them space. They do get visits from her occasionally though, and she’s described as feeling like a harbinger of doom.

Much words, sorry to spam you all with au stuff

[marley-manson]

I'm very fond of Coming Home despite how awkwardly silly it can be at times.

Going with the obvious assumption that the furies voice your own deep-seated desires/insecurities to fuck with you, because that's how things like this work in fiction, Ares' interactions with them are so good. The way fury!Xena mocks him for his vulnerability as a mortal and plays on the fact that he is legitimately, physically scared of her. "You were barely a match for me as a god," as his own fears voiced is such good shit. And he demonstratably was! Ares' only advantage against Xena as a god was his ability to teleport away lol.

Also I love when fury!Xena first walks in and we don't know it's not the real Xena yet, and she starts off perfectly in character but still playing on that insecurity, joking about Ares needing her to rescue him from a fly.

His like, screaming teary breakdowns with the real Xena are also delightful. Love how pathetic he is, love the "You don't bring me flowers anymore," ref, LOVE him calling her mean while she's goading him into killing her. It's such good phrasing, childish but earnest. This ep has me going "aw, Ares" a lot lol.

Bold plot of Xena's, to die for a minute for him, but he did do them a huge solid lol and it's pointed out early on how much they owe him, so I get it. The chakram hitting the furies after she dies, like 5 solid minutes after she threw it was ridiculous but so fun lmao, silently cheered at that.

Loved the Dumb and Dumber ref a little less lol but Ares' "ow" when Xena gives him a pity goodbye kiss was perfect.

In other news, Eve/Varia real, and this is one of the few eps where Eve's characterization is like, good lol, so I appreciate that too. The way she gets caught up in the boasting competition with Varia and brags about destroying an entire village... god I would've loved to see her evil side come out more. Shake off some of that christian brainwashing and find yourself somewhere in the middle, girl.

Also lol I read an interview with the writer (Melissa Good, the ascended x/g bnf) and she mentioned that she didn't deliberately write x/g subtext into her episodes because she was being a team player and didn't want to look like she was catering to her own tastes, but it ended up in them anyway while filming lol. And I do gotta wonder if she played up the Eve/Varia vibes instead. Kudos if so, and if it's another thing that just happened on set, kudos to the actors.

[ivyinforests]

I’m thinking about an absolutely epic Xena/Legends of Tomorrow crossover and it’s so cool. Believe me. But it’s mostly got me thinking about how Sara and Xena have such similar arcs (did horrible things after ‘just surviving’ went too far, lost a lot getting themselves back, dead sibling, resurrection (not a spoiler as both die constantly), bisexual, strong themes of love being the most important thing to rely on, REALLY good at combat, was temporarily blinded, fun combo of evil and awesome exes, moved from side character/love interest to lead of a different show, silly episodes interspersed with heartbreaking questions about morality, redemption, and whether living a good life is something they can ever hope for, sabotaging relationships to spare the other person, that one tragic ex-gf who they still have a lot of regrets about, etc) and I really do have predictable taste in shows.

[sniperct]

with xena being from the 90s is there anything specificically dubious or of the time that people should know of ahead of time before going in? ie the similar vein to warning people of tng test of honor and other drek in 90s trek?

hope you dont mind the ask, youre just one of the few people I see around still chatting about xena

some of it is YMMV. the entire show plays fast and loose with all kinds of mythology and magic from not just Greece/Rome but as far away as brittania, norway, china and egypt. (all the gods of each culture seem to exist simultaneously and occasionally interact/chat with each other.) But generally plotlines are one of the following:

Xena's evil past has consequences

Warlord/God acting up and needs to be defeated

A god is being mischievous and needs to be outwitted (aphrodite, cupid, some others are common here)

something silly/over the top/campy

Gabrielle is trying to figure out her life's direction

Xena's Personal Beef with Rome and Caesar in Particular

sometimes multiple or all of the above (see Fish Femmes and Gems)

Up to season 5 on my current rewatch, I'd say The Way is still probably the most culturally insensitive (they actually had to record a PSA on hinduism over it). The two leading up to that didn't seem to get any backlash that I could tell when reading about it. (its a three part story that's super important to the plotline and character development of the show and hammers home the soulmate angle, especially the second one). But I'm no gonna speak for that culture or anything, just what I read on the wiki. But the third part I know enough to feel uncomfortable with it). Ripped from the wiki:

The episode was pulled from syndication after protests from Hindu groups. It was finally allowed to be reshown with the addition of a public service announcement at the very end by Lucy, Renée, as well as a spokesman for the Hindu community explaining that the producers took liberties with the Hindu religion.

In general, jokes and silliness overall tend to land well, especially if you enjoy camp.

While it can be clumsy in some respects overall it handles gender and race pretty well, there's a variety of women of various roles. They had someone in drag at a fashion show episode who (who late IRL came out as trans) that was handled really well. The Amazons are very much sexy but also deep and spiritual.

Casting generally appears to be race blind with regard to heroic roles, evil roles and the more complicated grey area 'seeking redemption' roles and mostly seems to try to cast appropriately on a cultural basis. Like warlord casting seemed to be like 'are you a big guy? you're hired!'

Nothing ever seemed to approach test of honor's level of bad IMO, except maybe The Way.

(I'd argue there's even some meta commentary with regard to centaurs and centaur culture and how its treated)

Its got some of your standard 'guy likes girl, does stupid shit for girl' type stuff but he gets character growth and ultimately he's family. He's the little brother, 'only we can bully him but god help you if you bully him' type of dynamic. Someone hurts our proto-himbo joxer and xena and gabrielle go for the throat. Then ten minutes later are roasting him.

The only episode I really skip is the gross one involving lice and a skin rash(but at least they let the lady heroes be gross, quite frequently in fact). Maybe also skipping the married ...with children parody episode too. The Way could maybe get by with a summary but I wanted to watch it again specifically to see where it fell on the character part. Pretty important to jumpstarting Gabrielle's peace arc.

[dadrielle]

lolololol fine, twist my arm why don't you, here are my Gabrielle and Imogen thoughts.

Ok, so, one thing I like to turn around in my mind and talk a lot about is how Gabrielle’s moral confidence was shaken after the Rift (for non-Xena-fan followers, this was a series of events that put Xena and Gabrielle at odds and culminated in Gabrielle’s demon-spawn daughter killing Xena’s son, and Gabrielle having to kill her daughter like, twice (neither one stuck)(lol)). She went from having a very strong concept of her own internal moral framework to being unsure and casting about for something she could adhere to in order to regain some sense of knowing The Right Thing To Do. She became even more vulnerable to culty people like Najara and Aiden and Eli, because she was desperately seeking an external scaffolding to hang her morals on because she no longer trusted herself. This lead directly into her misguided pacifism arc, and then into her decision to ultimately put aside that search for her own path in order to follow Xena’s full warrior path, which is really the great tragedy of her character.

Imogen does not reach that point through the same means, of course, but she likewise struggles quite a bit with trusting her own moral sense. She is constantly asking others whether people or actions are good or bad, and second guessing her own actions and worth and motivations. She desperately wants the answers to be easy because they never have been and she is exhausted. She thinks she might be tainted; how can she trust herself to make the right calls? And I think that makes her more likely to both want to believe in authority figures and to be particularly let down by them not being all they’re cracked up to be. Had the Vanguard found her before Laudna, it’s very possible they would have been able to recruit her against her better instincts. I don’t think she would be a true believer and would ultimately rebel against the human cost of the project but without the Hells and Laudna in particular she too would be very much vulnerable to cults.

In both cases, they do actually have strong beliefs and a core desire to help rather than hurt people. But they don’t trust themselves to do it correctly and that gets them in trouble. In both cases, too, the strength of their love is also seeded in this weakness. Gabrielle refused to believe that Hope could be intrinsically evil. Imogen wants so badly for her mother’s actions to come from a place of care. But that lack of self-trust means that when they lean too far into their ability to understand the motives of and have compassion for others, it becomes paralytic instead of balancing.

I hope that Imogen’s arc takes her on a different path than Gabrielle’s; as I said, I think Gabrielle’s ultimate decision to model herself on Xena more fully is a very tragic one. I don’t think she ever quite manages to regain full trust in herself. However, since Imogen’s arc started from a place of self doubt and since that lack of self-worth is the core problem in the Hells generally, I am hopeful that she will develop in the opposite way and ultimately gain a firmer trust in her own ability to do the right thing as best she can.

[olderthannetfic]

TV does indeed provide mental support for millions! So who's hosting the Xena watchalong?

Or Farscape, or The Sentinel, or Highlander, or Buffy if we can get past Whedon's crap I guess, or whatever existing closed canons have fandoms that would love more people and potentially a lot of people who would love these shows if only there were time to watch them for the first time and people to watch with

Or AtLA/Korra or Steven Universe or Owl House, idk, idc, point is canon is already closed so the writers' strike cannot impact its future, and there will be people who have loved the show for ages to discuss it in a non-spoilery manner with new viewers

--

I suspect the crybabies saying that strikes are bad only want new episodes of their current favorite shows, not some random other thing.

And the show you should all obviously watch is Beyond Evil. ;)

[faithandbuffy]

I feel like an aspect of gabrielle that isn’t talked about enough is that she can be an absolute dumbass to the highest levels. She’s trying to learn to flip like xena and xena’s like “this took me years to learn, pls be careful” and gabrielle says “slow learner huh?“ and then IMMEDIATELY breaks her ankle. She tries to use a bowl like the chakram and knocks herself out. She gets attacked by a rabbit. She gets seduced by pretty much any religion, cult or obvious evil person they ever meet. She’s so silly <3

[performativezippers]

As a non writer I’m curious about something. Do you decide to write a specific genre and then work an idea into the genre or do you write the idea/story you want and then look to decide which genre it is? I guess I’m curious if the story or genre comes first?

Great question!

For fic: I write whatever the fuck I want and don't worry about it! I mostly write things that end happily because that's what makes me happy, but as long as I tag things appropriately (AU, platonic, IN SPACE, whatever), I don't let any of that bother me. Fic is so fun because it can so easily slide between genres. And most fic is romance AND something else; romance and crime/mystery, romance and scifi, romance and fantasy, or simply contemporary romance. There's a big thing in the publishing world right now where people are like "omg, ROMANTASY, aka fantasy with a primary romance, HOW THRILLING" and I'm like...dude...this not new! Welcome! Have you heard of a lil fandom by the name of XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS??? Do not cite the Deep Magic to me Witch. I was there when it was written.

For novels that you're trying to get published: I had to learn what book genres were! I queried my first novel—which is when you send it out to agents like a job application, with a cover letter and writing sample, and hope they want to represent you, aka help you sell it—being like THIS HAS NO GENRE and it turns out the genre was romcom with speculative elements. Aka low key romantasy, lol. Anyway, that book was Revelations and it didn't sell, I think primarily because the genre conventions were not met and it was confusing. It worked great as a fic, but required several big overhauls and ground-up rewrites to get it to place where it meets genre expectations and is maybe sell-able.

Usually the idea that comes to me is clear what genre it is, now that I know what they are. I primarily write romcoms, some speculative and some not, and so the ideas that percolate for me most are romcoms. However, my agent said recently a new idea I have might be more on the line of romcom and women's fiction* which surprised me. But that's fine! It doesn't change the book I write; it might change how we talk about it in the pitch process and, if it gets sold, how the marketing team frames it. But that won't change the story structure from a drafting perspective, I don't think.

Some genres are very close to each other (upmarket vs. book club fiction vs. women's fiction), while others are quite distinct (if you want it set in space, that's probably going to be sci fi). I think the main questions are:

(a) Setting: Is it on a space ship? (sci-fi) Are there dragons? (fantasy) Can people use magic? (fantasy or speculative) Is it in our world, in our time? (contemporary) In our world but in 1250? (historical)

(b) Character motivations (what do they NEED): To repopulate their planet? Save their mother from the evil magician? Fall in love? Save her bookstore from capitalism?

(c) Obstacle (why don't they have it ALREADY): If the obstacle is primarily internal, like she can't fall in love because she hates herself, then we're looking at a straight romance or literary fiction. If the obstacle is world-building related, like the spaceship is broken or the magician is too powerful, that's going to be firmly sci-fi or fantasy or whatever.

There should always be at least 2 obstacles: one internal and one external, but you should know which one is paramount, or which would win in an epic battle. And that will help you figure out if you're writing, say, romance with speculative elements (soulmates) or fantasy with a strong romantic element (fourth wing, i think, i haven't read it because it seems bad). Whichever you list first is your primary genre, aka which section of the bookstore it'll be in. Are you shelving this in fantasy (fourth wing) or romance (Revelations) or "fiction," and then the rest gets more specific from there.

*also, just like, FUCK the name "women's fiction." Men's fiction is called "fiction."

[jennyandvastraflint]

Xena Reactions S1Ep22!

Callisto???? 👀

We start on a tiny white child being traumatised

OH IS THIS CALLISTO RIDING

Are there twins??

Oh she's very sexy

Not sure I'm a fan of the clearly designed for the male gaze armour... But the lesbian bit of me is like Women pretty

She pretends to be Xena? Is she Xena's EX!? 👀 (Not saying she's Vella-coded, but she so is. Without knowing more about Callisto than this)

Uh oh. Callisto is tainting her reputation

Awww, his son died... And they got to go

GABRIELLE'S LIL SCRUNKLY FACE

"I used to WANNA see that look" AAAH

AHAHAHA THIS GUY??? 😂 He's gonna be a recurring character, right?

Oh he jumped her. Xena fightyyy

She tied him up sjdjd

Oof those are a lot of people tied up...

She's sick of everyone's bullshit

OH THERE SHE IS. HELLO CALLISTO

They fightinggg

OH Callisto wounded her 👀

"You made me" Innnnteresting

OH CALLISTO SHOT HER LAST EPISODE

"I never kill women and children" "Well. You have now."

XENA GOES TO SAVE GABRIELLE

Cirra, hu... Means something to Xena

Gabrielle is ready to beat this guy up with her staff

Damn Callisto got fighting skillsss

"Everything, just as you wanted" O_O

Callisto is SMART. She knows how Xena works.

"People don't fear worthless idiots" shdhdh

UH OH Callisto wants to kidnap Gabrielle...

Gabrielle 🤝 Jenny: getting kidnapped a bunch of times

"Xena's weapon will be found in the oracle's skull" Niiiice...

Gabrielle is so sweet

"You'd feel the same way if you lost what I did"

GABRIELLE SITS BY XENA'S SIDE. She opens up about Cirra!

Xena cries :(

"I don't blame her" "I do." HUAGHHH, Cycle of violence!

"If something happened to mother... Or to you"

PROMISE ME IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME YOU WILL NOT BECOME A MONSTER AAAAAHHHHH

Xena 🤝 Vastra their partner being their moral compass

"No, you promise me" "I promise" THE PAIN IN GABRIELLE'S FACE? XENA SPEAKING SOFTLY???

Hehe, Gabrielle is beating him up.

"You made me mad now" Please he's so incompetent

"YOU BROKE MY CROSSBOW >:O"

Gabrielle is skilled af

Oh is this the oracle

UH OH. CALLISTO

Xena stopped it!

DID CALLISTO JUST HISS HAHDHSHS VELLA-CODED AF

OH NO Callisto is drawing her away as a distraction while her men kidnap Gabrielle, isn't she

SHE JUST TACKLED HER OFF THE HORSE

She tied her up XD

"I'm sorry" "Oh well. That makes all the difference. :)"

Gabrielle <3

"Her heart is being eaten away by hatred" HUAAA

"I will dedicate my life to killing everything you love" UH OH. GABRIELLE

Callisto is suuuch a little shit

"Xena~ They're coming" pls

"Why not let them have me? It's the easy way out. No one would blame you." 👀

Please can this guy stop... SHE PUNCHED HIM

"It's like a family tradition" Nepo Warlord without skills

"Ha, goTCHA NOW" THONK

Omfg... Not the fire! "I won't be screaming out like my sister" Oh she is proper TRAUMATISED

SHE LOCKED XENA IN INSTEAD

What's with the hissing

NOOO SHE KIDNAPPED GABRIELLE

Sjdjdsh she jumped through the roof...

*GRABS THE GUY* Oh fuck. Xena is PISSED Callisto stole her gf

Uh oh, she tied her up...

"I softened her up for her" ddhdhdh He's so silly

Callisto if you hurt one hair on Gabrielle's head, Xena will MURDER you

"I want her DEAD!" Oh she's sooo blinded by hatred

Yeah Callisto better not harm Gabrielle further, you have no idea what you have unleashed (or maybe she does and wants Xena to become evil)

The kick strength Callisto has?

DAMN. that ladder trick?

Holy shit that looks unstable

They're seesawing...

She just yeeted Callisto up and got Gabrielle there

"No! Let it burn" UH

Xena is NOT about to let her die

"The right thing to do. That's what they think" Yeah well we KNOW you'll come back XD

[girl4music]

AKEMI: “I’ll be your student, Xena. You’ll take me with you. You’ll teach me everything you know.”

Oh, the audacity, Tapert. THE AUDACITY!

I swear this was riskier than the actual episode.

Xena. The woman warrior known for picking up young girls and falling in love with them. And then they die.

Except it was the other way around this time. Xena died. And the young girl had to live without her. Until she died and then they’d reunite again in another life.

And on and on and on. To me this was way better than “happily ever after” but I digress. I’m one of the very few longtime Xenites that actually likes ‘AFIN’. Appreciates it for its beautiful aesthetics even if the story is a little whack and the endgame is so unfair.

However, watching ‘AFIN’ in the Spaghettl Order is not that bad considering it’s a mid-season finale instead and ‘When Fates Collide’ rewrites the timeline and then it moves straight on to The Ring Trilogy.

Anyone else find it ironic that Xena’s sins with the most grievous consequences were unintended arson?

Cirra, Callisto’s hometown. A fire she never intended to cause wiping out Callisto’s family all except for her, resulting in her going on a life-long venge-streak to hunt Xena down and absolutely destroy her soul.

Higuchi, capital of Japa. A fire she never intended to cause wiping out 40,000 men, women and children because she was intoxicated and grieving over a young girl she had fallen in love with and committed seppuku to whose souls ended up becoming devoured by Yodoshi, Lord of the Darklands so that they died unabsolved, were trapped and had to be avenged.

It’s just ironic to me that the things that had the worst consequences for Xena were things she never even meant to happen. Has anyone else even picked up on this parallel and about Xena’s individual arc in general?

The things she meant to do, she never payed for.

The things she didn’t, she payed a huge price for.

It’s like it’s saying it doesn’t matter what she does - be it good or evil - she can’t escape from it and will suffer.

Imagine purposefully committing all these crimes, destroying all these lives and causing so much pain….

And yet you’re brought to justice over something you never even meant or wanted to happen. It’s insane.

But it’s as I keep saying. Redemption is not chosen. You can’t make it happen. It’s decided by others.

You can devote your life (and your unlife) to redeeming yourself from the evil you’ve done (or haven’t done)

It makes no damn difference because what YOU do wont’t ever matter. All that matters is what you do.

So absolutely,… the greatest consequences to your actions may not even be actions you ever intended.

Which just goes to show you how much actions in general do have consequences. There’s no control. Things spiral out of order and the chaos will damn you.

I understand ‘AFIN’. I don’t like what it’s telling me or showing me but I understand the awful message of it.

Redemption isn’t earned. It can’t be. It’s only decided.

It’s not up to you. You either get it or you don’t.

So whatever you do to atone for your sins or continue to perpetuate those sins doesn’t matter at all.

You just do it anyway because that’s all that matters.

Xena got let off for everything she intended to do.

But she paid the worst cost for everything she didn’t.

The only choice she could make in this was what happened to her. The choice to stay alive or stay dead.

She chose to stay dead and leave behind her love.

THAT is what ultimately redeemed her.

[mejomonster]

Some of my favorite (recent-ish) Thai bl were:

Bad Buddy: if I'm going to recommend any coming of age romcom college set bl it's this one. The way it uses so many staple tropes in a fresh way, Ohm and Nanon are great actors and really bring a whole other level of energy, the actual conflict in the story is very realistic and heavy and a real topic I think a lot of young adults deal with regarding their families and expectations. So it's mostly romantic comedy, but the heavy moments resonate so that it doesn't really feel unrealistic. It's very high brightness overly kind of fantastical rather than real in presentation and tropes used (quite common in fluff bl like 2gether and My School President and Theory of Love etc), but the chemistry of the leads feels executed very realistically and again the actual delivery of tropes and conflicts feels very grounded in a way. Highly recommended to most peoples tastes tbh (and special mention to My School President, while it was a little Too fluffy for my tastes, it also did a balance of romcom and a grounded heart to the conflicts which I think is part of why it had such big appeal, along with really solid leads that are going to be bringing a lot to any project they work on in the future)

Never Let Me Go: THE action bl as of recently. Gave me everything I could ask, from the leads in The Gifted Graduation bringing their acting game with roles that let them truly show off what they can do, to a high body count of murders and action scenes, mafia sons falling in love with people oh so different from them, a batman esque lead, rich boy falls for poor bodyguard whipping boy trope but also Not quite because the show Really wants to comment on class issues and inequality and makes sure the audience gets the point (a core issue in the relationship is how to be equals given who they are), and a reference to the quote about soulmates that Xena Warrior Princess also uses. It also has Chimon. It's also aesthetically pleasing af. Idk what to tell you, I love when Jojo directs something and this Gave me WAY more than I thought I could get. I'm happy to say that in the post Not Me world we are seeing more action romance bls, not just romcom/fluff ones (though there's always plenty of those too). I personally am eagerly hoping this trend continues and we keep getting at least a few action romance bls a year like this one, Kinnporshe, Manner of Death, Not Me. I've started Laws of Attraction and that's looking similarly promising. (And while I highly recommend Not Me the series, one of my top shows PERIOD... I'm only listing newer shows than that right now).

The Eclipse: this show was exactly what I'd hope it would deliver, and more frankly (because I was hoping for at minimum the Blacklist quality and at max dream hopes The Gifted quality). Well it delivered closer to The Gifted. Politically heavy, really well done in that regard from the overt to the subtle, amazing entire ensemble cast (even the side actors are strong actors that have been in other things), Khaotung and First are both particularly amazing (Khaotung impresses me no matter what role he's given frankly). Aesthetically it's exactly what you'd hope if your hopes like mine were The Gifted but only real evil people no mutants, and explicitly gayer. If you perhaps are willing to have a high school setting, but very much do Not want fluff dominant story and instead a tense mystery with at least half the characters already out and proud queer people (but still some of the cute romance tropes executed a bit less fluffily) then this may be your jam.

Moonlight Chicken: if you'd like multigenerational queer stories, centering on a family slice of life realism piece, this show is <3. The second main pairing is the same actors from My School President and I think they really shine here where the romance relies less on tropes and the dialogue is more realistic so the intensity of scenes really leans on actors. I love their characters in this and they stole the show for me. The first main pairing is messy and adult, with adult problems (like actual ones not just romantic drama: like raising a nephew, running a store, working for a company that's destroying your lovers neighborhood). But also not actually that messy, I'd say in terms of messy it's for the most part wholesome and soft. If you liked 1000 Stars (I did) then this shows realistic slice of life feel will be comfortable and homey, and the amount of skinship in this show is less conservative for even more of a cozy natural feeling.

And the one I'm most anticipating coming out: Only Friends. Khaotung and First lead it, so I'm basically certain the main story will be absolute gold (since I eat up every role they play their acting is just <3 like dude I watched the Shipper for First okay and 5555 Never too Late for Khaotung which was an Amazing show btw). Now.. Only Friends is directed by Jojo (yay for me) and in theory it IS going to be as messy as it looks (and it looks at least as messy as Friendzone). So if Moonlight Chicken is too fluffy and tame for you, then you might want this show on your radar. I think it is slated for August but I'm not sure as I try not to get too hype for things until theyre out so I avoid most news.