#joxer’s brothers

[missagonyy]

Sketches from Xena: Princess Warrior

Ted Raimi did such a fantastic job playing Jace and Jett. It’s sad we didn’t get more development on them.

If you look closely, you can see Jett’s outfit is actually very elaborate. Look at the insane detail on that leather! I don’t think Ares even owned anything that hardcore.

[killerwizrd555]

it's really taking everything I've got to get through the comedy of Eros episode

[fancoloredglasses]

Xena: Warrior Princess (Somehow more popular than a demigod)

[All images are owned by Renaissance Pictures and Universal. Please don’t sue me]

(Thanks to iTs- Abubakardurrani)

Xena started as a recurring character on Hercules, first as a brutal warlord, but slowly coming around to become a hero of the downtrodden. She was popular enough for Sam Raimi to green light a spin-off after her third appearance!

The series follows the former warlord Xena (played by Lucy Lawless) as she roams ancient Greece (and sometimes beyond) as she atones for her past by helping those in need, using the skills she’s forged to protect rather than conquer.

However, do not think her change in attitude makes her weak. She’s perfectly capable of being ruthless and dealing death to those who oppose her, such as the time she took on the Persian army single-handedly (well, she had a bit of help)

(Thanks to All Action)

Xena’s constant companion is Gabrielle the Bard. While she does pick up some competence in combat, she’s still not a warrior. And I’ve made my views on bards clear in an earlier review.

(Thanks to Mary Bones)

However, she does prove to be a loyal companion and a reminder that there are good people in this world that need her protection. Over time, the fandom shipped them as a couple (eventually becoming canon) and they became not only feminist icons, but heroes among the LGBTQ community.

Like Hercules, Xena has a number of recurring characters (some of which followed her from Hercules), but the one that appears more than any is…

Joxer (played by Sam Raimi’s brother Ted), the black sheep of a warrior clan who absolutely sucks at combat. Joxer more often than not is the comic relief on the show.

When Xena was first introduced, she was a champion for what is now one of the primary antagonists…

…the God of War, Ares

…only he now has a new champion, Callisto.

The series ran for 6 seasons, with the final seeing Xena and Gabrielle being frozen for decades, then travelling to set right a world (beyond Greece) gone mad!

If you wish to watch the series, it’s available on Amazon Prime or behind your favorite paywall.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Destinytober24: Day 16 - Farewell

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there

Joxer checked the ammo and reserves for all six of his weapons for the eighth time. The Vanguard would let him know when it was time to board his ship. They were still outfitting it with experimental shielding. He didn't hear anything behind him, but he felt it.

Joxer spun with his arm extended. His sidearm stopped at a point inches from the Drifter's face, right between his eyes.

The rogue Lightbearer put his hands up with a toothy grin. "Where you running to this late, Brother?"

Joxer pointed his sidearm at the ceiling and relaxed his arm, stepping back. "Vanguard special ops."

"Heard about that. Wasn't sure if it was you goin' in or someone else."

"It's me." He holstered his weapon and glanced back at the console. No word yet.

The Drifter walked to a table at the back of the room and leaned against it. He pulled a bottle from his coat and set down two glasses. "Drink?" he asked.

"No. Need to stay sharp."

Drifter shrugged. "More for me." He filled a glass and took a sip.

Joxer pulled out his ghost and got it to transmat the ammo crate in front of him away.

"You taking your ghost with you?" Drifter asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah."

The Drifter tilted his head. "Not what I would do."

"He doesn't want to stay. If I can't come back he doesn't want to either." As if to punctuate this, Joxer's ghost spun its shell and zipped into his pocket.

"Huh."

"Not everyone has a shit relationship with their ghost."

Drifter nodded. "That's fair." He took another sip of his drink. "Gotta admit, never pegged you for the self-sacrifice suicide-mission type."

"Yeah, well… too many people have lost too much… and I have shit to make up for. Not everyone wants to end up like you."

"Like me?" the Drifter leaned back in feigned offense.

"Alone."

Drifter blinked as though he were considering that for a moment. "Looks to me like you're the one about to go off and die alone, Brother." He lifted his glass in a toast toward Joxer before taking another sip.

"Better me than someone else." Joxer looked away and began checking his weapons methodically once more.

Drifter leaned forward and tilted his head. "Why?"

Joxer didn't answer.

"Why you?" the Drifter repeated his question.

"What, you gonna miss me?" the Titan asked, dryly.

"Well, yeah…"

Joxer looked over at the Drifter, waiting.

"You're one of my best Gambit players. I've made a lot of glimmer off of you. Lot of motes."

"Right. Glimmer. Motes. Why are you even still here, Drifter? It sure as fuck isn't for the glimmer or the motes."

The Drifter let a mouthful of alcohol roll around on his tongue briefly before answering. "Ain't nowhere else to go. Besides I… I may have found something I… didn't wanna leave behind."

"Something or someone?"

The Drifter smirked and his eye sparkled. "Why? You interested?"

Joxer looked back at him over his shoulder. Then he turned and walked closer, maintaining eye contact as the Drifter leaned one arm on the table, crossing one ankle over the other.

"I'm interested in making sure no one else's someone has to die for this. Not even yours. Not even you."

The Drifter's face lost its come-hither grin. He suddenly looked very tired. Sad.

The console beeped behind Joxer with an alert. He turned and walked over to it tapping in an acknowledgement. Joxer's ghost reappeared at his shoulder, clearly relaying information via comms.

"Go time." Joxer said quietly and began walking out of the room.

Drifter raised his glass. "Good luck," he said, quietly but loud enough to be heard. Earnestly. It was the most honest sounding thing Joxer had ever heard come out of the man's mouth.

Joxer paused with his hand on the side of the doorway and looked back. "Hey, do me a favour, will you?"

"Yeah?"

"That someone you don't want to leave."

The Drifter licked his lips. "Yeah?"

"Tell them. Hold them close. Tell them that they're the reason you stayed. Make something out of it with… whatever you've got left. Whatever time this buys you. Don't let me die out there for nothing. Whatever you get out of this, whether it's hours or days before everything ends, make it matter. And… if I do make it back, and you're still up for it… we'll have a drink together then, alright?"

The Drifter nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off the man as he walked out of his field of vision.

A few minutes later, he stood up from where he'd been leaning on the table and walked over to the console. He pulled out his ghost and hacked into the Vanguard communications network, pulling up the live feed from Joxer's ship.

Twenty minutes after that, the Drifter was sitting on the table, his legs dangling, lifting his glass in a toast to a static-filled screen.

An hour later, the Drifter's ghost transmatted another empty bottle away and replaced it with a full one.

All lights in the room were off. The black and white dot pixel pattern from Joxer's ship's feed flickered alongside his flatlined Vanguard biofeedback sensors. On another screen, footage from a Cabal observation drone displayed what was left of the Titan's crumpled body and his sliced up ghost in the wreckage of his ship on the console's third screen.

A shadow among shadows, the Drifter unscrewed the top of the new bottle and flicked the cap off into a dark corner with one hand. He went to drink from the bottle and stopped.

"Hey," he said, gently.

His ghost appeared before him with its usual twitching shudder.

"Where's… Eris… right now?" he spoke with difficulty. "Can you… can you find her for me? …Please?"

Link to the entire month's worth of prompts on Ao3, posted daily.

[smallhatlogan]

So I think both the first two times I watched Xena it was on Netflix which for whatever reason didn't have Lyre Lyre and I couldn't hunt it down back then? So I just had a couple clips of the songs from youtube and I saw people talk about Jace as Joxer's gay brother but I never knew he was like, actually Joxer's fun, explicitly gay brother

[girl4music]

Watching ‘Lyre, Lyre, Hearts On Fire’. There’s a scene between Gabrielle and Joxer where Gabrielle asks him why he was so mean to his brother, Jace, who is identical to him but queer. He has just had a conversation with his brother where he made fun of his unconventional appearance and lifestyle and Gabrielle calls him out on it. Knowing how he feels.

GABRIELLE: “What is your problem? Why were you so rude to your brother?”

JOXER: “Look, Gabrielle, you don’t understand. Things are different. We’re not kids anymore. I’m a warrior now and Jace is still… Jace.”

GABRIELLE: “So you’re telling me that you’re so heartless towards him because he’s-“

JOXER: “-Different! He’s different. And he is…”

GABRIELLE:

*waiting for him to finish his sentence*

“Yes?”

JOXER: “He’s wasting his life. He is wasting his life. That’s it. I’m a warrior and he’s-“

GABRIELLE: “Your brother.

*Joxer suddenly looks at her attentively*

No matter what else he is he will always be that.”

I really wanted Gabrielle to say something to him like “Joxer, you do realize that I am also different, don’t you? That kind of different. I might not dress or behave or talk like him but I am no different to his different. So why do you treat me better than him when I am just your friend and he is your family?”

But given the network censorship, I reckon that might have been a bit too on the nose for Gabrielle to say.

You see, the thing is that Jace is authentic to who he is and is very comfortable and confident in how he expresses himself. Joxer never has been that secure so he has always pretended to be something he isn’t. As Xena puts it a little later when talking with Jace. All Joxer knows is who he wants to be. He doesn’t know who he is or can be. And he is the one criticizing Jace, his own brother, for being something that he is not and never will be. The episode itself is a musical and not really all that important to the story of the show. But it’s a moment of queer (I say queer rather than gay because Jace might not be gay and queer also refers to gender identity so it’s the best term to use) solidarity. Of providing queer representation even through network censorship. They’re providing queer representation without specifically using the term “queer” to refer to it as because they can’t or aren’t allowed to use that term or any other queer terms of reference. But you know exactly what they’re implying and you know that they’re not saying that it is wrong.

This is what I mean about how Xena provides queer or specifically WLW representation through censorship. They use the censorship restrictions to dig deeper into their queer narratives. To find a stronger or even more realistic way of addressing and exploring them because they wanted to talk about sexuality and gender identity sincerely without making it seem inorganic and without alerting the censors. And they show that it is absolutely possible to do both well.

So don’t give me the excuse that it can’t be done. It is all about the creators/cast/crew’s intention. And if the intention is sincere, then regardless whether it’s censored or not, you will still get true representation.

You just have to ask yourself these questions:

Do they intend to provide representation?

Do they intend it for the right reasons?

If the answer is yes to both, the censorship doesn’t matter. It can be used as a vehicle to write better queer stories but only if the intention is to do that.

There is no such thing as “better representation”

It’s not the representation that needs to be better.

It’s the creation and specifically intention of creation.

*speaking directly to art/entertainment creators*

Because if Xena can provide this level of quality in representation even while under strict censorship…

Then there is no fucking excuse that you can’t even when it’s not. The question is - do you intend to?

[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.

[stelladonna]

thinking about Joxer and how he’s the opposite of the nice guy trope, but in a good way. Joxer is not a nice guy—but he is kind and a good person. On the surface, he presents as entitled and misogynistic and braggadocios. That’s because the world he was born into expected him to be these things and bc of his perceived inadequacy, he tries to overcompensate.

But when it comes down to it, he’s not a cutthroat. He literally does not cut Gabrielle’s throat when given the opportunity to join Callisto’s gang.

But he’s not a nice guy either. He’s not pretending to be nice because he wants things from others (unless it’s for one of Xena’s missions or he’s trying not to be killed).

He is kind and loving and compassionate (e.g. toward his evil twin brother) and wouldn’t hesitate to die for those he cares about, even knowing he’s not getting anything in return. He (mostly) accepts that Gabrielle will not have the same love for him that he does for her, but he decides to carry on loving her bc that is who he is, not what he expects.

[thefirstknife]

Has there ever been a case where a Ghost is killed during a crucible match? I've always wondered what would happen to a Guardian who accidentally or even deliberately kills a Ghost during what is essentially a live round training exercise turned sport

Yep! With a few caveats.

Deliberately, yes. Dredgen Yor permanently killed Pahanin and Thalor in the Crucible with Thorn. Thorn can drain Light so it's unclear if their Ghosts were also killed or just the Guardians that then couldn't be rezed, but messed up stuff definitely can and did happen in the Crucible, especially early days when it was much more lawless.

Accidentally, sort of. A Guardian died in the middle of Trials of Osiris permanently because the death happened in the exact unfortunate moment when Ghaul put a cage on the Traveler and blocked the Light. The Ghost was destroyed at the same time:

Many lives were lost today in a barbarous skirmish across the Last City, but none as important as the life lost in our Trial. I believe Guardians have adopted the term "final death" for these such instances. A competitor was defeated at the precise moment the Light was stripped from him; his Ghost destroyed in the concussive blast from a pulse grenade.

This obviously only happened because of Ghaul's attack, but there's something else interesting in the same lore book from a prior entry:

"Brother Vance. I believe a Ghost is in danger. It is against Sanction-C2-1 to harm a Lightbearer's Ghost."

The fact that there's an actual rule for all Crucible engagements that states that it's against a specific sanction to harm a Ghost, means that this sort of thing probably happened before or at least that there's a real risk to Ghosts in the Crucible. Ghosts either got injured or killed and rules were established to monitor this sort of thing and act on it if a Ghost is in danger. In this case, the threat to the Ghost was deliberate, for no reason other than Trials players are canonically kinda assholes.

There were also incidents in Gambit, when Drifter was setting up Gambit Prime. A Titan, Joxer, was one of the people that volunteered to test the game and he ended up being the only survivor; the rest of his team permanently died, though that wasn't anything between Guardians, it was due to the uncontrolled Taken that the team couldn't save themselves against. Incidentally, Joxer is the Titan that died trying to enter the portal in the cutscene we've seen at the start of Season of the Deep, identified in a tab that summarises the scene.

[miraculousbohemian]

Found a Vine site while procrastinating so I'll bless you with this thing.

Gabrielle: Xena, oh my gods...

Xena: what??

Gabrielle: Is that a hickey?

Xena: What? No, it's my Pop Tart, I was saving it for later. *eats it*

Ares, yelling into a valley: PENIS

Also Ares: *trips over a bag of McDonald's*

Joxer: Who's coming to my party on Saturday, there's gonna be a taco guy there.

Ares: we're going to Aphrodite's, there's gonna be a spaghetti guy there.

Joxer: fuck the spaghetti guy.

Ares: fuck you.

Leah: Yeah, that's the bee's knees.

Meg: The cat's pajamas!

Diana: ...the chicken's trousers???

Meg: what the fuck was that diana.

Leah: you guys, come on-

Random dude: yeah, I actually gave my horse swim lessons

Xena: oh that's cool dude... My horse gave me swim lessons.

Dude: what.

Xena: she's a life guard.

Con man: so you'll do it?

Joxer, sipping a drink: yeah man I'll kill him

Con man: for how much?

Joxer: *fucking around and about to find out* i dunno, 30?

Con man: Thirty grand?

Joxer: *spits out drink*

Ares: so i invite my dad to my birthday party and he shows up, but only to take a shit and leave. what's up with that?

Xena: hey guys, happy Ares Sucks Thursday!

Ares: what's Ares Sucks Thursday?

Gabrielle: why would we ever tell you ares.

Xena: and you wrote here that you were an assassin?

Eve: yes sir.

Xena: h-h-how? how many confirmed kills do you-

Xena: yo dude. we can talk with our minds now so we'll be in each other's heads.

Ares: forever?

Xena: exactly bitch.

Ares: ...oh no.

*pop*

S6 Gabrielle: I'm you from the future

S1 Gabrielle: YEAH OBVIOUSLY BITCH

S6 Gabrielle: I don- I don't remember acting like that-

(if ares wasn't a girlfail in S5EP17/18 I can't remember the one with fake death hijinks)

Eve: mom, dad, why isn't Argo moving?

Xena and Gabrielle: *share a look*

Gabrielle: Argo killed herself.

Xena: killed herself, honey.

S1 Gabrielle: alright, so your total will be 2.29 dinars and a kiss on the lips

S1 Xena: no.

S1 Gabrielle: hah. yes.

Julius: wow me in five seconds, go.

Xena: waddup my name's Xena, I'll stab you if you do not hire me and i love horses

Julius: ...i guess you're hired.

Xena: ARE YOU SERIOUSLY?!

Gabrielle: hey, we think school maths sucks so we made our own, show 'em Eve

Eve: alright, so, instead of, like, numbers we use trees

Aphrodite: hey everybody today my brother pushed me so I'm starting a Kickstarter to put him down. The benefits of killing him would be I would get pushed way less.

Gabrielle: how much money would you give me to fall asleep right now?

Xena, visibly sleep deprived: I dunno, like a billion dinars?

Gabrielle, internally: i woke up the next morning, a billionaire.

Meg: can I use the restroom?

Leah: i don't know, can you?

Meg, getting up: yeah

Leah: where are you going?

Meg: I'm gonna go poop.

Meg: stop copying me

Xena: stop copying me

Meg: I'm gay.

Xena: you are?

Meg: I've been waiting so long to tell you

Xena: it's okay man-

(first two are it's just luke, others are Josh Kennedy, both from Vine)

[ashyy-slashyy]

[ange-de-la-mort]

the show: Joxer is homophobic towards his queer brother

me: Joxer has internalized homophobia because he's queer himself, fixed it for you, hire me

[kendallroysmethpipe]

TAGGED BY @lemonyans TYYY 💞💞💞💞

Tag 9 ppl u want to know better

Last song I listened to: dancing in the moonlight but the one in Xena that joxer's gay brother sings

Current watching: unicorn warriors eternal

Currently reading: adult children of emotionally immature parents. And house of leaves

Current obsession: succession forever and ever 🫶 and villainous

Tagging: ummmm anyone who wants to do it.... Just say I tagged u :]

[xena-wolfgang]

why does he look like Joxer's serial killer brother (the other other one)?

Sam Raimi’s three laws of horror (x)

[theboost]

I understand the side characters of Xena more than anyone ever

[evildilf2]

I like that in the Xena Warrior Princess universe they live back in the old days but they’re allowed to know about music from the 20th century. Legitimately an excellent and sexy choice.