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Callisto - Did she deserve justice and peace?

Trying to understand the twisted and psychopathic mind of Callisto is quite the hobby for me while watching her scenes. It’s like some part of me wants to find justice for her behaviour. Some part of me wants Xena to feel punished for what she did to her. And I keep questioning myself on whether she was evil or not, which inspired me to write this post about what it was that brought her peace.

Do you ever think about the fact Callisto got more out of Gabrielle dying than Solan dying? Perhaps it’s because she knew how close of a relationship Xena and Gabrielle had, that she knew it would be much more devastating for Xena to lose Gabrielle than her own flesh and blood family? Or perhaps it was because of Callisto’s jealousy over Gabrielle’s pure and clean soul? Possibly jealous in a few ways. See, I feel like Callisto was angry at Gabrielle because she willingly gave up on what Callisto was cruelly ripped from. Gabrielle was everything Callisto wanted to be, and in her eyes, it was like she took all that for granted to be with Xena. To be with the person that has tormented her and turned her life upside down. For Gabrielle to give up on everything she lost out on; a family, blood innocence, a childhood, to be with the destroyer of her soul… That was just something she could never understand. And maybe all this combined is what made her feel satisfaction at the loss of Gabrielle’s life when she sacrificed herself to save Xena in ‘Sacrifice Part II’. Nevertheless, nothing gave her more fulfillment than her own death at the hands of her tormentor. The look on her face at the end of that scene, and the caress down Xena’s body made it quite clear to me that she was grateful to Xena for ending her life. At least until she realized consciousness continued. Then she hated her again. It never ended. 

It really puts things into perspective when you think about it. Hurt people hurt people. The way we see, hear, feel or think of a person has nothing to do with them no matter what they’ve done to us. It’s us. It’s ourselves that has the problem. Our own torment twists our perception of everything around us. There was no justice for Callisto because she brought it all onto herself, and that’s why she could never find peace. She was her own worst enemy. Xena had to give up her own soul to save hers. She felt she owed it to Callisto. But when you really think about it, Callisto was just causing herself all the torment. She could have just let it all go when Xena killed her, but she didn’t. She still wanted her revenge. Xena never destroyed her. She destroyed herself! I suppose that answers my question on whether she deserved justice or not. She didn’t. But she did deserve peace. It may have been her fault her torment continued, but it wasn’t her fault it started in the first place. Hurt people hurt people. And she wasn’t just hurt. She was utterly destroyed because of the Warrior Princess.

BONUS:  All she had to do was let go and her torment would have ended.

[girl4music]

Yep.

“Everything changes. Everything.”

When Gabrielle gets it, she GETS it!

When she kills someone - intentionally kills them - she has a moment of: “Wait, YOU did this. Many times. This is how you felt from it. The way that I feel now.”

And that’s something Xena could never explain to her.

She HAD TO experience it for herself.

Only then does she realize the gravity of the situation and of the complexity of her relationship with Xena.

And then the next time they encounter Callisto… Gabrielle reigns in the judgement. She knows now.

Renee plays that whole thing so nuanced. It’s amazing the way she just automatically understands Gabrielle.

Xena: What would you do if I let you go?

Gabrielle: What are you doing?

Xena: I changed, so can she.

Gabrielle: No, her heart has been eaten away by hatred!

Callisto: The sight – just the SIGHT – of Xena, Warrior Princess, arguing on my behalf amuses me so! Let me tell you, let me answer your question of what I would do if you let me go. You let me go, and I will dedicate my life to killing everything you love. Your friends. Your family. Your reputation. Even your horse. See, I am being so honest with you, because the IDEA of your pity is worse than death for me. You see, you created a monster with integrity, Xena. Scary, isn’t it? Take me to the mob.

Oh scene. Oh scene, you are SO SO GOOD.

I’ve talked a lot about Gabrielle so far today. This is taking those ideas further, it’s just so DELECTABLE how vehement Gabrielle is in this. She spoke so impassioned earlier about breaking the cycle of violence, but here she’s condemning Callisto without making any effort with her whatsoever. I mean Callisto did the shit people say she did, that’s not a question. BUT NOTE AGAIN THAT SO DID XENA.

Which Xena not only acknowledges that in this scene, but so did Gabrielle earlier when she reminded Xena that she turned away from it all. An opportunity Gabrielle is not currently willing to grant Callisto. Gabrielle’s seen directly the pain Callisto caused, she’s connected with it through the grieving father. IT’s real to her, it has consequence she can see, and she isn’t willing to accept even the IDEA that Callisto could reform.

Made all the more difficult because Callisto turns right around and basically proves Gabrielle’s point. Let me go, and nothing will ever change. While Gabrielle believes in the purity of goodness and forgiveness, Callisto believes in that same purity of hate and vengeance. They’re both really on the same page, though, and honestly, that should give Gabrielle a moment of pause.

It’s Xena who continues to embody the difficult ground between the two. She knows how hard it is to change, but she knows it’s possible. She knows the blood on Callisto’s hands is also on hers, but she knows there’s a point where it becomes Callisto’s choices. She knows Callisto is right and Xena never stood trial for her crimes, but she knows there’s no real justice to be had in those trials, and the punishment that matters comes from Xena herself.

What’s the right choice? Let the mob have their way? Show Callisto mercy and hope she learns? Take responsibility and end her here and now?

There are so many reasons that Callisto is a phenomenal villain, not the least of which is that she’s is the literal embodiment of everything evil Xena ever did, how those evils continue to have consequences, and how there’s no easy way to set it right.

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I finally FINALLY finished it!

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XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS 2.05 | “Return of Callisto”

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Really… no one that matters at all believes they’re not.

They just couldn’t confirm it on the show itself.

I love how Rob Tapert is like the ultimate cheerleader for Xena and Gabrielle though. Like if anybody were to ask him he is just so nonchalant about it. He is like “Yeah, they are… and?” A really good sport that one.

If he showed up at the conventions. I would too.

It’s as I said. It’s a friends-to-lovers story. The show is just as much a romance as it is an action/fantasy. You just have to look outside the heteronormativity.

#xena warrior princess #xena and gabrielle #xabrielle #xena #lucy lawless #gabrielle #renee o'connor #charxena #Youtube #robert tapert

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Heard that quote before. Can’t remember where.

I think a soulmate is someone who will make you be the most “you” that you can possibly be.

~Catherine Deane

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I need to know who decided Hercules and Xena needed a romantic subplot at the end of season one, it makes no sense.

Hercules: “I don’t know if I can ever love a woman again after my wife”

Xena: “I am a hardened warrior and I actively was trying to kill you a few episodes ago and also I am kind of your best friend’s ex. But btw I am in love with you after hanging out for like a week.”

Hercules: “Wait omg me too let’s make out”

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“Her identity morphs to resemble the woman she once emulated, became friends with, and then grew to love, which would send a significantly different message if separated from the romantic tension of their relationship.”

What an excellent point! It would! I’ve just thought about the implications of that. If Gabrielle did not think of Xena as a romantic partner, she wouldn’t have forgiven her easily at all. She probably wouldn’t have even stayed with her. If she did, it would be like a case of Stockholm syndrome that she chose to stay with her after the mess of The Rift and all the other shit Xena put her through because of her suicidal and self-sacrificial nature. And although people might argue that point because Xena would have let Gabrielle leave her if she did choose to. The way it would be perceived initially is that of a naive and insecure woman who feels there’s no other place for her than to be with Xena. Which of course, only ever makes sense, if she was in love with Xena and had taken her as a romantic partner.

Why is it that I have I never realized that myself until now? If Xena and Gabrielle only ever remained friends all throughout the show, Gabrielle would have not been so adamant on staying with her. She would have taken a man, or if she was bi or gay, a woman. And actually, she did do that. It’s just that the woman was Xena! It was Xena all along! They definitely were a couple. At least from Gabrielle’s point-of-view, they were.

“My path is with Xena.” *The penny drops*

[girl4music]

@eleanor-gray

Oh, I’m so fucking glad you brought this up because…

THAT’s why the term “friendship” hits coming from Callisto. She says it in such a sneer. As if she’s playing on the fact that all Gabrielle will ever be to Xena is a friend - in love or not. They’ll never be anything more.

Because she wants to drive the knife in deep and after Xena’s had the realization that she’s fallen in love with Gabrielle, what Callisto said here had to sting like a motherfucker because even though her husband’s just being murdered by Callisto, Xena can’t just suddenly be like “Yeah, so we kissed at the reception, what are we?” because Gabrielle is wracked with grief and on a venge-streak. Their arcing just plummeted big time.

And I can’t be the only one that interprets it that way.

That’s she’s messing with them and what they are to each other and what they will never be. Because why else would she go after the husband? Think about it! It’s always funny to me how so many fans think that Xena would actually be grateful to Callisto in a way because now her and Gabrielle can be so much more because the husband is out of the picture. Discarded immediately. There for a moment and gone the next.

Nah, the whole point was to ensure the opposite! Callisto killed Perdicus to drive that wedge between them because what the hell could Xena do about it?

Now let’s analyze this further. What was the greatest challenge Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship had ever faced and had to overcome? What are the themes that ultimately drove them apart in Season 3’s ‘The Rift’ arc? Betrayal. Distrust. Revenge. Hate. Rage. Cruelty.

Who embodies those themes all the fucking time?

Callisto. Callisto is the foil to their entire dynamic.

And yet, it triumphs regardless. And I always think about that conversation between Xena and Callisto in ‘The Ides Of March’. How much Callisto must have despised having to offer Xena and Gabrielle their eternal peace because her master commanded it so that Xena would stop following the Way of the Warrior.

And what she does instead is throw Xena’s chakram at and through her back. It’s almost fucking poetic. It’s like one of those “Ha, you really thought, didn’t you?” moments every hero and their archenemisis have.

Only Callisto wasn’t ever really aiming to kill Xena.

What she wanted was to kill Xena and Gabrielle both literally and figuratively. Their bodies and their love.

And so Gabrielle takes it back. That very same insult.

“The Way of FRIENDSHIP”. It’s fucking GOLD! It’s genius writing because the irony is that that’s the moment when they’re no longer friends. Just friends. They decide to commit to each other at their death. To be more than friends. To become an official couple.

It’s simultaneously the worst time ever for them…

And yet absolutely perfectly THEM. Of course the moment they would decide to become more would be when they were about to lose their lives and die together on the cross like the martyrs Callisto made them. It’s like their funeral is their marriage in a way.

And then Callisto sees them still together in Heaven and she’s just like “What does it fucking take?” 😂

So when it comes to Callisto becoming an angel because of Xena sacrificing her soul for Callisto’s… that scene between her and Gabrielle isn’t just something that really hits because of her murdering Perdicus. But also because Gabrielle sees the sincerity in her heart for how much she regrets tearing her and Xena apart and being the obstacle in their love story.

Yeah, they made the right choice with her endgame because Callisto was their greatest enemy not just to who they are as individual people… but also their love.

And her endgame in literally becoming THEIR CHILD.

Their second chance. Their do-over in parenthood. Their having an actual family not taken from them.

But GIVEN to them. Freely, sincerely, GIVEN to them.

It’s fucking WILD but bloody BRILLIANT! 👏👏👏

So off-the-wall yet makes COMPLETE SENSE!

People are like “Callisto’s the father and the child?”

No. No no no. Gabrielle’s the father. Callisto GAVE Xena and Gabrielle a child. She was reincarnated into it because the only way she could truly make it up to them and reconcile with herself,… was to be THEIRS.

I’ve never expressed it until now but this is the way I’ve always thought about Callisto’s entire arc and how it so intricately and beautifully intertwined with Xena and Gabrielle’s love story. And while other people might have picked up that Callisto was fully aware Xena and Gabrielle were in love,… they probably never made the connection between her true motivations…

And her endgame.

Callisto is their curse and then their blessing. But you would only ever come to this conclusion if you thought of Xena and Gabrielle’s dynamic romantically all the way through the show. Constantly evolving in love.

Because it hits if you do. It REALLY fucking HITS!

I’m serious. If you go back and watch it and only view the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle as an epic love story where they evolve from friends into lovers… and view it as a romantic arcing over all else, this way of interpreting Callisto and her arc is clear as day to see. Everything she does and why she does it, when she does it, how she does it. All the snide remarks about their relationship and about how much Xena likes Gabrielle… all the teasing, all the played-up homoerotics, all the threats of torturing Gabrielle.

It’s fucking obvious what she was really all about. What she’s really trying to do: What she’s there for.

She’s there to be the BURDEN in Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship evolution. What drives them apart and pushes them over the edge into hating and hurting each other. But then she ends up being their GIFT and the fact that SHE was the one that chose to give them this gift is so beautiful on so many levels. I could cry from the sheer beauty of her arc just talking about it.

But it’s like I said. You have to view the show as a love story. You have to view Xena and Gabrielle as lovers. Or as best friends evolving into lovers and slow-burning episode by episode because the entire show just works and hits much better that way. It’s epic. It’s much more profound to interpret the show in this way.

Okay, I’m done now. But I was so excited when I read this post because it meant I could finally LET IT OUT.

Because I felt like nobody else in the world would pick this up about Callisto and view her arc in this way. But I always have… I’ve just never said anything about it because I felt like everybody would find it too bizarre and not really understand where I was coming from.

I mean people were already confused enough about the choice that was made with Callisto becoming Eve. But I got it pretty much straight away because I have never viewed the show without the romantic aspect. I understood that Callisto became the child of BOTH Xena and Gabrielle because she was THEIR curse. And the only way to truly redeem Callisto was to make it up to the BOTH of them by becoming THEIR blessing.

They fumbled up the SEASON 5 story arc a bit when they decided to put Xena and Gabrielle in ICE for 25 years and never let them raise Eve but originally it did have great potential as a second chance for them. Another go at parenthood but this time with each other. And I thought it was beautiful and perfectly set and built up. For it to dive bomb the way it did really did disappoint me. Especially because it also made the character of Eve/Livia just a waste of screen-time. I don’t like that character and what she becomes at all. Livia was fun, but after that - it was just like…🖕Callisto did not give up her soul just to be a pacifist preaching peace everywhere she went like a zealot.

Eve as a baby was the true heart of the epic love story between Xena and Gabrielle and I wanted to see them raise her and be parents together. Teach her their love was something they had to fight for. Not to submit to. Because look, if you only view Xena and Gabrielle as friends all the way through the show, there is a huge problem with the intensity and depth of the themes. It really does seem abusive. Like Stockholm Syndrome. Especially after the drama of ‘The Rift’. You would not stay following in the footsteps of someone who you weren’t in love with if they hurt you that fucking much. You’d be insane to devote yourself to them like that if it wasn’t out of love and affection in a romantic way. This in particular makes sense with the whole “Xena’s path is my path” and “You’re my way” sentiments. And the whole “soulmates” thing is 10x as profound. But there are massive narrative and thematic issues if you only view Xena and Gabrielle as just best friends.

I don’t know why TV showrunners don’t let the main characters have their babies and then KEEP THEM. I think a raising the baby storyline would be awesome. Even in an action/fantasy show. I think it would HIT. But for some reason they always get rid of the baby and you never get to see that domestic dynamic of two lead characters in love raising their baby together.

And it’s like… why not? What’s the problem with it?

I don’t get it. Never have. Never will. It’s just a thing I will never be able to understand about TV shows.

But yes, if any show had the potential to do that and do it well… it was definitely ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’.

Sorry this response was so long. But this has been burning within me for years. I had to just BLAST IT!

I may be the only Xenite on Earth that watches the show this way. That interprets the story in this way.

But hopefully now I’ve finally expressed this personal interpretation, people will take it on as theirs too. There’s so much more I could say. But this is enough.

For now… I’ve wanted to say this for so long. Gods.

Obviously I am obsessed with Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. In addition, I cannot believe that Callisto did All That within six episodes of screen time. She’s a parallel to Xena because she made herself Xena, but she’s also a parallel to Gabrielle (at least in Xena’s eyes) because Xena ruined her life and she genuinely believes (especially late season one/early season 2) that she is destroying Gabrielle. ALSO she immediately can tell that Xena and Gabrielle are in love and that’s how she gets the upper hand, while major male antagonists almost universally ignore Gabrielle or downplay her. She’s so interesting and it’s all so much better knowing that her storyline ends in the most unbelievable way possible.

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get to know me meme | favorite pairings of all time

↳ Xena and Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess)

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Xena and Gabrielle + having zero chill about their sex life

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FAN EXPO Canada, Toronto - 2nd, Sep, 2018

Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor panel

Host: “Having two female leads on a show, and especially a show with so much action, was notable at the time. It is still notable now. Did it sort of sink in right away that you two had to have like a very strong kind of camaraderie and have one another’s back to sort of navigate these waters because it was such a unique experience at the time?”

Lucy: “Actually, no, we knew that this was very important just for enjoying your life, enjoying your career…” 

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@burrbourbon Probably, yeah. A lot of things were instilled into me from this show growing up too.

You already know that Xena has a war cry… 

But I bet you didn’t notice that Gabrielle has a victory cry.

Gabrielle’s quirkiness and awkwardness makes her such an endearing character. She never loses that about her. Sure, it lessens as she gets older and faces much more serious situations in her evolution and a lot of that adorkable attitude dissipates… but it never fully vanishes. It’s one of the main reasons I love her. She’s always got that resilient spring in her step no matter what she goes through. Her emotional strength is by far the greatest characteristic of her nature. Especially when dealing with all the terror and trauma of Hope and ‘The Rift’, where she fluctuates from downright grief-stricken to unusually enthusiastic. I do have the theory that that’s because she is probably manic-depressive and without realizing it, displays the traits of one who is suffering with Bipolar Disorder. And I have a lot of logical reasonings to back that theory up. But nevertheless, it’s her personality that makes her lovable. Whether blatant or nuanced, the amount of substance I pick up from Gabrielle’s development alone - nevermind Xena - is honestly what kept me attached to the show for as long as I have been and continues to hold my attention, loyalty and respect. You know, they always say Xena would be nothing without Lucy Lawless. But the same is true with Renee O’Connor. I credit the writing of Gabrielle’s individual storyline and evolution to Steven L. Sears… but everything I love about Gabrielle’s personality is all Renee’s handiwork and she does not get enough praise for it.