68: 5x03 "Succession"

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, may the odds be ever in your favor! Vera, Katie, and Livy get their Hunger Games on with 5x03 “Succession,” a high-concept, small-scale gem and Steve Sears’s final credited contribution to the series. We discuss the episode’s intriguing triangulation between Xena, Gabs, and Ares, the tension that Gabrielle’s battle prowess puts on her relationship with Xena, and how these character dynamics might have evolved if Steve had continued writing S5. Plus: if you combine Xena and Gabs you get one amazing person, Mavican or Mavican’t, Xena wears pants, Gabrielle squats, Xena watches TV, Ares’ little dumpling, very important rocks, legacy in all its forms, and Gabrielle has a wound and absolutely everyone is concerned about it!

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67: 5x02 "Chakram"

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, our prayers are answered! Vera, Katie, and Livy take a spin with 5x02 “Chakram,” an episode with an inspired premise and a less-than-inspiring execution. We discuss its disappointingly reductive take on Xena’s morality and identity, the sketched-in origin story for Xena’s iconic weapon, and the shifting power dynamic as Gabrielle steps into the role as Xena’s protector. Plus: the good, the bad, and the ugly new lewks; why hair beads tho?; Kal Kal Kal Kal Kal; Ares gives bad massages; Eli’s got a gun; Caleb’s got a hot tub?!; kiss the girl; and our opinions of the SuperChakram. Catch you around the Acropolis!

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66: 5x01 "Fallen Angel"

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, oh no, we’re going to hellllllll! Vera, Katie, and Livy take flight in 5x01 “Fallen Angel,” the spectacular season premiere and the most technically audacious Xena episode yet. We discuss the then-cutting edge digital effects, the religious art that influenced the look of heaven and hell, and the importance of the realistic B-plot in bringing this otherwise outrageous episode back to earth, with especially big props to Ted Raimi for his restrained and dignified performance. Plus: the ambivalence experienced when Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship, more emphatically articulated than ever, is set against the greater good; Callisto’s arc concludes with her becoming a creepy doll; sweet baby demon Gabs; so many lewks; compassion and forgiveness; the Good Touch and the Bad Touch. MICHAEL! 
 

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Minisode 05: Queerbaiting (and Why Xena Isn't!)

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, queer fans deserve better! Before Vera, Katie, and Livy embark on S5, we’re talking about Queerbaiting (and Why Xena Isn’t), the topic chosen by patrons in our Patreon poll. From Supernatural to Supergirl, Rizzoli & Isles to Sherlock, Once Upon A Time to The 100, we examine how creators sour their relationships with fans via manipulative advertising, false promises, recriminations, insults, and other harmful and exploitative behaviors. We also look at Hannibal, a positive example of a show evolving to meet the expectations of its fanbase. Finally we go back in time to Xena, examining the context in which the show was made, the producers’ intentions, how fan desires molded the trajectory of the show, and how Xena and Gabrielle are freaking canon, y’all! 

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Hermes Mailbag 03 - Transcendent Luuurv

This week on XENA: WARRIOR PODCAST, we’ve got mail! Vera, Katie, and Livy (along with special guests, Borias and Satrina!) celebrate the end of Season 4 by answering the questions you sent to our ultra-chic Hermes Mailbag! Discussions include: whether we’d have been satisfied with “Ides of March” as the series finale, the importance of Gabrielle’s pacifist interlude to her overall arc, desert island seasons, Xena and Gabrielle’s favorite subscription services, what is transcendent love, does the concept of soulmates negate free will, managing a fandom-work-life balance, Callisto makes a friend, and Cyrene’s Tavern: Where Everybody Knows Your Name!

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