Xena Warrior Princess: Her courage will change the world

Essay by crystyUniversity, Master'sA-, March 2007

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Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Historical Context

Sapphic love

Examination of Religions

Clues of the Producer's True Message

Appendix A - Biography of Xena

Appendix B - Biography of Gabrielle

Appendix C - Series Disclaimers

Xena: Warrior Princess is an hour-long action-adventure series filmed in and around Auckland, New Zealand, and produced by Renaissance Pictures. It is exclusively distributed in syndication in the United States by MCA-TV and internationally by MCA-TV International. The show premiered the week of September 4, 1995 as a spin-off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The final episode aired the week of June 17, 2001. The basic premise of the program is the continuing search for redemption of Xena, a former villainous warrior who destroyed families, lives and communities with her warring ways and her armies. The physical manifestation of her conscience during this search is her sidekick Gabrielle, the young, bright-eyed innocent who looks up to Xena as a hero and sees the true beauty and goodness within Xena.

Together, they travel doing good deeds, saving innocents, killing warlords and ogres; all the while, learning and teaching of religious beliefs that on the surface stand at odds with one another just as the good and evil within Xena (and each of us) does.

As a spin-off of "Hercules," the Xena series began with a male dominated audience. Most women viewed the program as a version of WWE where the women are scantily-clad just for the entertainment of the men. To transition this program and this audience, Rob Tapert took on two very big underlying messages - Sapphic love and religious understanding.

Putting together a team to produce Xena must have tested Rob Tapert's skill as a producer and as a manager. There were 41 different directors of the 134 episodes and 43 different writers, many...