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Even after Lynda Carter dawned the Wonder Woman costume with its American flag costume, high heeled boots and tiara, before Lindsay Wagner became bionic, it was Lucy Lawless' role as Xena— the few non comic book created adapted hero character, a warlord turned anti-hero, debuted on television's Hercules the Legendary Journeys in 1995— that made action heroines on the small screen popular, while names like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though originally played by Kristy Swanson in the early 1992 film version) Dark Angel, Alias [sic] followed suit. The spin off show Xena: Warrior Princess, 1994's modest budget surprised a few people not so much for the casting of an unknown New Zealand actress disguising her thick accent successfully with an almost Clint Eastwood like sounding American vocal chord in the title role, with sometimes interesting Jack Nicholson reminscent facial expressions, but mainly...for the very first time a female character seemed to be actually intimidating, one of the valued few ass-kicking women in TV or film who actually looks like she could brutally kick ass.
The fact that director creators and producers Robert G. Tapert and John Schulian (who created the Xena character) had enough faith in the Xena character to give her her own spin off show proves that she was something special. Cliffnote: Ironically, it was Peter Bielak, who wrote The Gauntlet, the second of the Xena trilogy, is seen as the "real" Xena character, as this persona was mainly used for the television show, opposed to 'The Warrior Princess' and 'Unchained Heart'.
Schulian' rewritten script for Xena the 'Warrior Princess' departs from the Heracles mythos by putting a fictional character, like many, into the show, originally intended to be a trilogy of a character who would eventually die in the third episode. An origin for the name 'Xena' as far as mainstream media goes first appeared in a female exploitation B film 'Beach Babes' full with nudity, bikinis and little to no substance played by porn star Sarah Bellomo. (Well that explains the 'Lucy Lawless used to be a porn star rumors').
As to why Schulian decided to choose this name for his warrior princess is still unknown. The masculine version of Xena is 'Xeno' as in Xenophobia, the fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people. As explained, it comes from the Greek words (xenos), meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and (phobos), meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from oneself. Additionally, in the science fiction genre, xenophobia may refer to a fear or hatred of extraterrestrial cultures or beings. Did John Schulian choose this name because he felt this described the character, or to counter the degrated 'Xena' character of the Beach Babes genre, or did it just plain sound extremely cool?
Though there are no information found from the writer who created the Xena character and his intentions, there are several interviews where Robert G. Tapert explained many things that made Xena Xena.
Rob Tapert: I had a book of ancient weapons and I saw this weird discus called a chakram and I said let's give her this because it can return and we'll never have another character use it. John Schulian [series writer] said he hated it and said we should cut around it. I told him 'that weapon is the coolest thing I'd ever seen' - it's her signature piece.
Than theres her classic well known battle cry sound, an ululation most people can identify. Alala, (Greek: was the female personification of the war cry in Greek mythology. Her name however means, ironically "dumb, mute, speechless" (from the Greek alalos), she was an attendant of the war god Ares and the daughter of Polemos, the daemon of War. In Greek mythology Ares' war cry was her name, "Alale alala". Greek soldiers adopted this and would cry out her name as their battle cry. It is reputedly the term derived from the horrific sound owls make. ALALA was the spirit (daimona) of the war cry. She was a daughter of Polemos (war personified) [1]
Greek Name - Alalh Alala
Transliteration - Alalê, Alala
Translation - Battle-Cry, War-Cry
As far as physical appearance, she stood at 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with piercing baby blues [eyes] with a voluptuous shape reminscent of Bettie Page (along with the raven hair, fringe bangs haircut) Xena became synonmous with a warrior woman, or Amazon (though technically, she is not, as she is not apart of any Amazon nation). Wonder Woman has extended for 70 years, yet only a 6 year run (almost 7 if you include Hercules) of Xena: Warrior Princess has replaced the one dimensional, amazon princess, whom was crafted by the ancient Greek Gods of perfection, posessing no flaws of any kind...zelch, zip, nada.
But its not just Xena that makes X:WP enjoyable television -- Gabrielle, her companion "side kick", who's character development is spread evenly throughout the series, Joxer, the somewhat annoying but somehow humorous tag-a-long, Callisto, essentially her archnemisis, Ares, the God of War, a semi-villain of Xena's, and Autolycus, the King of Thieves, an anti-hero of Hercules and Xena, who helped both heroes in various adventures --
are as important to the show as Xena herself is; granted in the beginning Lawless is a barbarian of very few words, and slightly tending to let that Kiwi accent slide, and almost painfully obvious when trying to sound a bit too butch/low register.
The production design and cinematography aren't as campy or cheesy as casual, ignorant viewers imply them to be. This isn't to say that the special effects were top notch all the time (it was 1994 displaying than Macintosh graphics, afterall) as the series progressed and even in its early beginnings, display some actual impressive stuff. HtLJ along with X:WP preceed the New Zealand produced 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy films, directed by another kiwi Peter Jackson, display just how special -- on par if you will -- Hercules/Xena were, as underappreciated locations, surroundings and productions. Costume designer Ngila Dickson, was nominated and won several Academy Awards for her work, who not only worked on X:WP/HTLJ and LOTR, but other critically acclaimed work.
As for Lucy Lawless herself, if one has to rely chiefly on talent rather than brawn to essay a character then she's more than up to the task. In the first episode of the first season, we see her give Xena some dignity reminscent of Michael Keaton's Batman, as she slowly raises her head -- only that shes not builting on her costume and weapons, but rather, digging through the grass to give them up. It would of been cool to have seen her say, instead, 'I'm Xena' instead of 'Tell him Xena says hello,' but I digress. We see Xena riding back to Amphipolis, slowly galloping through a the village remains, as she onced burned and pillaged, where every time she turns, all she could see or rather think about, was the destruction she had caused. The little boy she meets, presumely an orphan or a child roaming the village alone looking for food for his family, unknowingly speaks of Xena as almost a monster, breathing fire and mercilessly killing the civilians that lived there if they did not give her what she wanted. The look in his eyes as Xena shamely and expressionlessly throws him a loaf of bread to eat gives me the impression that he did, recognize the warrior princess.
As for the very familiar shot of a young girl trying her best to behest one of Draco's men in the opening titles, we see a baby faced and very much courageous villager offering, and almost begging them, to take her instead. The answer she got back let gasps from both her and the others. But it was not too long before Xena steps in, as she couldn't help but watch what was happening from afar. Xena symbolically buries her weapons and armor, almost as if the memories were too painful for her to keep going. It seemed like a lost battle when after Xena wipes out each of Draco's men, she is knocked to the ground. All of them are surrounded by her in a circle, drawing their swords one after the other, chuckling in a I got you now huh? manner. Good news is, this spot happens to be where she buried her weapons. She finds her own sword just in time to par from Draco's second in command's slash, but also has this unknown (at the time) circular weapon in her left hand. She takes it, and throws it like lightening; and it cut through their swords like a hot knife through butter. Like a boomerang, she catches it and has both her sword and 'Chakra' in her hand. The intimidated soldiers look down at their now defunct swords, not sure if they're to be amazed or dumbfounded. She pauses. She kind of gives a sightly smile, than my favorite part here...Xena twirls the sword with much skill while she lets her first big A-LE-LE-LE-LE-LE! cry out.
As Xena has come back to her home village for the first time in many moons, she passes by the elders on the fields, singing a beautiful song called 'Glede Ma Glede'. Xena smiles, as she remembers this song, a song just about everyone knew there, and the nostaglic familiarity of the place coming back to her reminding her. But soon she frowns as she dismounts her horse, forgetting that she her initial destination had been to visit her mother, Cyrene, at the tavern she ministered. She enters cautiously, almost frightened, as the whispering, gasps and stares of the costumers follow her.
Last Update: June 19th, 2008
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