#and that split second POV flash in her mind to her hitting a screaming gabrielle

[tunemyart]

ok: thoughts on S3 The Rift? I’m rewatching xena for the first time in like 10 yrs and omg…

I *clapping emoji* LOVE *clapping emoji* THE RIFT *clapping emoji x2*

(but will also qualify my love of the Rift by saying I have NO idea how so many people watch it and go "oh yeah, how could Gabrielle DO that to Xena?" rather than the other way around bc were y'all watching when Xena methodically hunted down her and her child to kill her? Right on top of the trauma that Gabrielle had literally just gone through??? JESUS XENA WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO YOUR WIFE

anyway)

I love how it goes full on Greek tragedy, which is a literary form that is ALSO bananas, just straight up fucking bananas in the best way. It's not realistic! It's not meant to be realistic! It's meant to push the characters to the very limit of human experience and their own experience with humanity! To make us question their own limits and their own humanity! And it does a pretty fuckin good job of it.

And there is also the crowning glory of the Rift which is - the entirety of the show that followed. It transformed the show in terms of form and story, it transformed the characters in terms of how deeply nuanced and terrifyingly human they are (especially when it comes to their relationship with/to each other), and it quite literally formed the foundation the later seasons stand on. No way S4 exists without the Rift!! No way S6 exists without the Rift!!! The Rift permeates the rest of the show and creates an uneasy just-off-center kind of balance that, in X/G's learned, easy, familiar navigation of it, becomes maybe the most ridiculously intimate part of their relationship. They know each other. They keep choosing each other anyway. It's incredible.

#xena #xwp #thank you Rift for giving us jealous!gabs #this just in i am a gabrielle apologist #news to everybody i know! #just watched the bitter suite yesterday with a friend who's new to the show and he went straight from 'well that's abuse' to 'i love everyt #i've said before i do not deal with the gab drag at all and i stand by it #i was actually just thinking about paradise found in S4 when xena's going dark/crazy #and that split second POV flash in her mind to her hitting a screaming gabrielle #and that's a legit fear she has! that's one of the deepest fears of her soul! that's she'll abuse gabrielle #she knows she's capable of it - not just physically and psychologically but bc it's SOMETHING SHE'S ALREADY DONE #and like - whew! my GOD #to see her so terrified of it - this capability and fear of impulse that lies so deep within her #... and that would have meant NOTHING without the Rift #this horrible history between them that they keep referencing #which to be clear is a fuckin problem! and we should engage critically with it esp re: representation issues! #but that said you can't focus on it and survive the rest of the show #the rift is bonkers!!! it's a whole fucking lot!!! #but in context of the entirety of the show it's the gift that keeps giving #and that is my opinion on the Rift #my meta #ask #anonymous