(*Yeah, right!)
And now for something completely frivolous!
Xena fans have expended an astonishing amount of effort on analysis of lesbian subtext. Is it really there? How intentional is it? How much of it is there? Let’s make a complete list of every possible subtext moment in every single episode! Let’s make subtext the whole point of the show, and interpret every single phrase out of context! Let’s declare that that scene/line/episode never happened, because we don’t like the implications it has on X&G’s relationship!
Now, don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with any of this. In fact, it’s amazing what we have accomplished – the fan fiction alone is absolutely amazing. And I certainly appreciate the need to re-imagine something in order to identify with it. But in the end, I like to think that the authors’ story is, well, the real story! Call it artistic integrity, if you will. (I’m guessing that my classical music background has a lot to do with my opinions on this subject – ‘composer’s original intent’ and all that.)
Anyway, I’m going to try and write something that I haven’t seen yet – an analysis of Xena subtext that is completely canon. (Excepting, of course, the intentionally out-of-character comic moments.) It will consider all of the relationships, and try and ‘connect the dots’ in a reasonable way. In other words, it’s the story, told as I would have wanted to see it, without ignoring what was actually written. And as a bonus, it’s yet another take on the Xena chronology; I make no claims as to accuracy.
So, here goes!
Part 1: Pre-Gabby Xena
Xena grows up in her little village. She’s a pretty typical kid, blah, blah. Then the evil warlord guy attacks, and she starts out on the warrior princess road. She starts out by simply trying to protect Amphibolis – but pretty soon she gets bored, and starts trying to take over as much of the world as possible. She’s drunk with adventure and power. She uses random men for sex – evil seductress stereotype, anyone? But she’s not evil, not yet. She’s a bit crazy, a bit ambitious, but she’s still happy, still in love with life.
M’lia
Then, she meets Caesar and M’Lila. She falls in love with Caesar, but becomes ‘friends’ with M’Lila. Notice the difference between the two relationships – with Caesar, it’s is all Power and Sex, Sex and Power, the two conflated with each other. But Xena and M’Lila develop a real, if strange, friendship. It starts with M’Lila teaching Xena the Pinch; remember how important is was to Xena to teach Gabrielle the Pinch in Friend In Need? After their exchange of near-death experiences, Xena says, “come on,” and it’s almost as if she’s talking to Gabby. Xena might have the hots for Caesar’s power, but M’Lila is her best friend, in an ‘almost soulmates’ sense. Were they lovers? No. Xena still has the men=power+sex complex. But M’Lila is her first real friend since her brother died. As for M’Lila herself, I think that she was completely in love with Xena. Why else was she hiding on the ship? Why else would she so readily put herself at Xena’s mercy via the pinch? And of course, she cuts Xena off of the cross, takes her to be healed, and dies by taking an arrow that was meant for Xena. All that because it ‘wasn’t Xena’s time to die’? I doubt it. Xena feels it too – she was merely mad at Caesar before – if that, but after M’Lila dies she goes completely I-hate-the-world insane!
And since she’s even more obsessed with power than before, when she meets Borias she jumps at the chance to exploit him. He’s a warlord with a bigger army, and she’s just the right mixture of insane dark power and inexperience and weakness (courtesy of the broken leg) for Borias to fall for her. But Xena doesn’t even pretend to care about him or what he thinks. She just wants his power.
Lao Ma
As a result, she falls for Lao Ma, but can’t stand it. Lao Ma is the first person who’s loved her since M’Lila, and that scares Xena, makes her feel powerless. So she rejects Lao Ma, and runs back to Borias – she wants her power back. In physical terms, I don’t think that the relationship went very much farther than we saw on screen. It was going further, though, and the whole thing scared Xena – Lao Ma was more than her equal, was older, wiser, and truly cared for Xena. Borias was simple and easy to screw over – both literally and figuratively. Xena wasn’t ready for a real relationship, so she took the easy route out.
Akemi
She doesn’t love Borias any more than before, though, and she misses Lao Ma. So when Akemi shows up, Xena goes for the rebound relationship. Akemi is rather similar to Lao Ma in a superficial way – she has a bit of that ‘air of wisdom’ about her. She’s younger, so Xena feels like she can be in charge in the relationship, and Xena likes that. And so when Akemi dies, Xena is even more heartbroken than she was before!
Alti
When Xena meets Alti, she’s pretty much a wreck. She has an unhealthy, partly sexual, relationship with Alti’s apprentice, as a surrogate for Akemi. Also, Xena has the beginnings of a codependency problem with Alti that is reflected with the apprentice. When the apprentice dies, Xena goes to Alti.
I’m not quite sure what to think of Xena’s relationship with Alti. The little that we see seems similar to her relationship with Borias – power, power, power (I’m starting to sound like a Buffy record…). Xena wants Alti’s spiritual power. Alti wants Xena’s physical power. Perfect match, right?
Right.
Back to the subtext – do they sleep together? I can’t decide! I think that they might have once or twice, in a I-miss-;ltAlti’s apprentice;gt-sort of way, but I just can’t see it working very well – they’re both too crazy.
After Alti, Xena doesn’t have any other relationships with women (that we know of). Until…
Season 1- Xena’s revelation
Xena meets Gabby… and it’s just not love at first sight. I know, I know, there are a few subtexty moments, but it’s just not really happening. Xena is Gabby’s hero, her idol, not her lover. Gabby thinks of Xena as a teacher and a mother/older sister figure. Xena, for her part, sees a bit of herself when she was young – brave, idealistic – and perhaps a bit of Akemi, but Gabrielle is more like an annoying kid sister who she can’t bear to send away. The just don’t see each other as equals at this point. But They bond as Xena teaches Gabby about the world, and while they have their little love affairs, nothing seems to stick. The ’soulmates’ concept is introduced.
Gabby meet the Amazons. She learn to fight – she becomes a little more like Xena, and Xena starts to see her differently. She’s distracted, though, by meeting Marcus, and her relationship with Gabby is put on hold for a while. I’m speculating a bit more than I’d like to here, but I think that Xena becomes scared of love after meeting Marcus again. After all, the people she loves have a nasty habit of dying!
By the end of the season, though, Xena has recovered, both from her evil induced funk, and from Marcus. She acknowledges her true feelings (to herself, anyway) in Is There a Doctor In the House. When Gabrielle almost dies, Xena realizes that she really loves her.
Season 2 – Gabby’s revelation
Gabrielle still doesn’t feel it, though! In fact, she’s rather scared by the idea of being with Xena forever, so much so that she marries Pertecus rather suddenly. She decides to marry him right after he gives up fighting – she is obviously reacting to her growing dislike and fear of violence. Xena lets her go – I wonder, if Callisto hadn’t killed Pertecus, did Xena think that Gabrielle would miss her and come back?
Callisto kills Pertecus. Gabby is heartbroken – she can’t bear to think about another relationship anytime soon. When she finally starts to get over her loss, she starts to move closer and closer to Xena, and their relationship becomes more and more romantic. After The Kiss as it’s called (From The Quest 2×13), things heat up even faster. To answer the big question, they make love for the first time sometime before A Day In the Life, which would explain the couply behavior in that episode. From this point, they are definitely together.
So why does Xena fall for Ulysses (temporarily, at least)? It’s simple – she’s a big cheater! Xena is incredibly commitment-phobic, and with good reason – most of her lovers or potential lovers have died! Her relationship with Gabrielle was getting too serious, so Xena tried to reject her. Ulysses was a boring sort of average person (from Xena’s point of view), so he would have been easy to have a fling with and throw away. She couldn’t bear to do that to Gabrielle! To her credit, Xena is improving – she doesn’t reject Gabby like she rejected Lao Ma.
Season 3 – The Rift
Having overcome Xena’s hangups, they appear to be heading toward ‘happily ever after’. Then, disaster strikes, in the form of Dahok. Whatever else we can say about the Rift, it certainly blows Xena and Gabby’s love life in to a million little bits! Their relationship doesn’t recover quickly, either – I don’t think that they were back together by the time Gabrielle pushes Hope into the lava pit. It’s the old story – you fall in love, and they betray you, only this time it goes both ways, at least to some extent.
It’s probably worst for Gabby. She’s already lost one love. To have Xena betray her could almost make her give up on love completely. But since she and Xena are soulmates, she just can’t give up. So she keeps traveling with Xena, trying to convince herself that they can still be together.
Season 4 – Exploring
I would imagine that a near death experience would change one’s views on almost anything, and that seems to be Gabby’s experience after she survives the lava pit. She finally gives up on Hope (her daughter, I mean), completely. She finally grows up – she’s lost the childish innocence of the earlier seasons. She’s having an identity crisis – she’s not sure whether she can keep fighting. And most importantly, over the course of the season, she falls completely and permanently in love with Xena. To be sure, she sometimes toys with the idea of leaving – with Najara, especially, but while Najara obviously wanted a romantic relationship with Gabby, Gabby doesn’t return any of Najara’s advances! Her idea seemed to be that Najara and her would be merely business partners, of a sort – and she really didn’t want Xena to leave. In the end, she stays with Xena despite everything. She just can’t help herself!
Xena, on the other hand, is having the opposite reaction. She’s haunted by the vision of Gabrielle’s death. Her fear that she will kill everyone she loves seems to be inescapable. The whole season for Xena, is like one long breakup. She knows that if she doesn’t leave her, Gabrielle will die – and Gabby won’t leave.
In the end, of course, they both die – and both come back again. Xena’s fears were unfounded.
Season 5 – Confusion
Xena, of course, isn’t convinced. She’s still resisting the notion of a permanent relationship, even as her and Gabby’s lives become even more intertwined. And Gabrielle is resolving her identity crisis – by becoming far more violent than she ever had been before! Baby Eve and the Gods only makes things worse.
They’re both confused. Xena is still attracted to Ares. She contemplates cheating on Gabby with Antony. Gabrielle is still completely committed to Xena – but doesn’t know how to convince Xena that it’s okay to feel the same way in return. Eventually, though, they work through their problems – 25 years frozen and a rebellious daughter doesn’t hurt their relationship any, either!
Season 6 – Together at last
Finally, Xena gets it. Gabby’s over her identity problems. And they are finally are really together – still facing all kinds of external crises, to be sure – but never really confused about their own relationship (at least, when not turned evil or under a spell!) They’re finally able to clean up most of Xena’s remaining messes, and it’s looking like they may live happily ever after…
But, of course, they don’t. I think that the ending can be taken in two ways. Either Xena really was redeemed – the only way she could be was to sacrifice herself. In a way, this could almost be the cumulation of her relationship with Gabrielle. She’s reformed, atoned for her evil, passed on her warrior destiny to Gabby, and finally sacrifices herself for the greater good.
On the other hand, perhaps her sacrifice was really the last expression of her fear of harming Gabby. And, since her spirit will apparently live on at Gabby’s side, she felt like she could leave Gabby, with a good excuse, and still not lose her entirely.
Whew! That was long!
So there it is. I hope you found my little analysis entertaining!