XENA SCROLLS DISCUSSION POST
Hey look, a clip show.
As a ROCette and gabby girl, I'm torn about this episode. On the one side, yay "gabrielle" gets to be the hero. She's gets to be the indy. But also, there's a lot of gabby bashing. And Janice feels gypped and depressed that she's a descendant of gabrielle, and not someone "heroic" and badass like xena or callisto. And while xena tells her that nothing meant more to her than gabrielle, it still kinda sucks.
Anyways. Hey our first uber xena. And boy were they tapping into something they had no idea about with this. But I LOVE that with this episode(and some other later on), they are acknowledging the tv show WITHIN the show. And they're not just saying hey yeah, there was this bad ass chick and she had a badass sidekick gf and they lived in "ancient Greece." No, they're giving "true" history for xena. And while it's incredibly dorky to be excited about something like this, I don't care! I'm a nerd, and it excites me.:)
k, so we're at an archeological dig in Macedonia in 1940. Oh, god, Jacques s'er...annoying in any time period.
And how much do I LOVE Janice's entrance? And holy cow, that dude has the worst wig and beard I've ever seen.
So Janice Covington(which I always hear in mel's voice) is the badass and Melinda pappas is the brainy sidekick. They kinda miss the mark with the role reversal thing in the end, but, they get it right by season 6.
Janice even gets a whip:). Hehe, they ventilated her hat!
Mel is such a dork. "Here I am!" with arms all spazzy.
Sexy lucy chewing on glasses is sexy.
Janice is over the top, and it's at that perfect point where any less and it's trying to be normal but trying too hard(or not hard enough), and any more and it would be ridiculous. But where she is is perfect and it's hilarious! And you KNOW renee had an awesome time playing her. And I'm posting this quote because it's just so damned awesome.
“The most important archaeological find of the century-- Something that will revolutionize the way we look at the ancient world. It has the power to turn myth into history, history into myth-- the Xena Scrolls.”
Oh I love coming back from the teaser and first thing we get is callisto's crazy scream. Though, blah, Janice messes up the translation of the scroll and thinks callisto is xena. Damn, I love you Hudson. Yeah, I read some stuff last night, made me be even more in love with Hudson. Like, my head exploded with glee. Word is, HUDSON IS A LESBIAN. And while it's totally off topic for the episode, I maintain that HUDSON BEING A LESBIAN IS RELEVANT TO EVERYTHING.
So Janice is living in the shadow of her father's reputation as a grave robber. Things were different back in the 40s. Today he'd be called a tomb raider and be glorified.
Lucy is hilarious. I read in an interview she said doing southern accents are easier for kiwis than the standard Midwest american accent, so she was glad to put on the mantle of ms. pappas.
All I can think when I see Jacques s'er is inspector clouseau. It makes his presence somewhat more tolerable.
Janice tries to fool smythe, but mel says no, you're reading it wrong. They enter the tomb. Hey, those stairs are (most recently) from ten little warlords. It's ares' tomb. Interesting.
Jacques s'er regales them with tales of his adventures in tomb raiding. By describing movies from the 30s. Sounds about right. But they totally call him on it.:)
Mel touches a ring in the front of a pedestal(from a fistful of dinars) and sets off a booby trap. Janice tells her to sit down and be quiet while they look for the scrolls. And of course, the thing she sits on is a mechanism for revealing the scrolls.
So she starts reading about xena's "true love" marcus. Ya know, the one she calls her friend about a dozen times.
Jacque s'er gets all happy horny over the love story and tries to hit on mel, who smacks him on the head with the scroll. No love for the joxer bloodline.
It's kind of awesome that these scrolls everyone is shitting their pants over are gabrielle's:). mm, the chakram. Up until the episode chakram, no one had any problem with this scene. Of course, when xena united the dark and light chakrams and got that abomination of a yin yang chakram, there were some issues. Namely, the broken chakram no longer existed, so it couldn't have been found in the 40s. I read somewhere someone made this drawn out argument about time fragmenting or something like that, basically, the gist was that basically this could have been an alternate dimension where the broken chakram still existed and therefore was left in the tomb. Which is fine and dandy I suppose. seems to be all the rage to play with timelines these day, but ya know what, xena did it first(you are there I'm looking at you).
Magnetic chakram is cool and mel's face is funny. Damn, the bad guy lived. Oh, I love heroic Janice. Seriously, renee should get a whip way more often.
Hey that eye looks familiar;).
wth, this guy's like a cockroach. Haha SHAZAM! wb ares.*waves*
Ares recognizes these guys for the people they really are. And I love how he's outta the sarcophagus for like, 2 seconds and knows who jack kleinman really is. He fills everyone in on their heritage.
But oh, that ain't mel anymore. Hi xena.
I just wanna hug Janice so badly. She calls gabrielle a useless tagalong and xena sets.her.straight. Fills her in on gabrielle's finer qualities, and then says be gald you're part of her family, I am. Aww. Back from the clip from the end of ties that bind and Janice is looking at xena and she's got that same love-filled smile that gabrielle has for xena. In any time(or dimension) these two love each other. And then xena cracks a joxer joke, YES!
Now I just have to wax a little on what actually going on here. Cuz ok, Janice has spent her life searching for the xena scrolls, as did her father. Basically, obsessed with her. And then she finds them. And then she meets ares. And then she meets xena. I'm sorry, but I need someone else to think about this with me. Because that's just like...omfg. This girl spent her life trying to find the proof that this woman existed and when she finally does, she gets to meet this person, who has been dead for 2000 years(give or take). She gets to talk to this historical figure she's been obsessed with. Please someone, tell me I'm not alone in the *headsplode* on this.
Ok, back to 1940s xena. Jack and Janice gets caught and basically held for ransom. Ares tries to get out, xena kicks his ass, with Janice's help.:)
Xena strikes the eye with her chakram again and it breaks. Xena's gone and mel's back. Janice snags mel and THEN her hat before they rush out the door. Anyone who's scene Indiana jones will understand the significance of that.
Mel suggests she and Janice head out into the world together. Janice says together huh? And mel is so cute, all puppy faced, not if you don't want to. But Janice smiles and says yeah, let's go. Mel grins and they head off into the night.
1990. Ted kleinman pitches ideas to rob tapert. He's got one left. Some old scrolls from his grampa. The xena scrolls, which are about this guy named joxer.:) nice try. Tapert's intrigued. And the rest, as they say, is history;).
Gonna touch on the names now, cuz it's an important thing to me and I think they all have meaning.
Raimi's are easy. Ted is duh, ted raimi. Jack is an English approximate to joxer. And Jacques s'er sounds like joxer. Joxer is a made up name(as far as I know).
Xena is greek of course, and I've seen it mean both stranger(as in foreigner) and hospitable. But I generally say it means hospitable stranger. And really, honestly, that IS xena. Melinda has a muddy origin, but generally it's considered to be a combination of the roman prefix mel and the Spanish word linda. Which would make it mean black and beautiful.:) one site said it's greek and means honey. Pappas is a variation of papas, which is the greek word for priest.
Gabrielle is French, from the Hebrew Gabriel(which was also used in greek, so it's not entirely historically incorrect--think of it this way, everyone says jesus, but his name was actually jeshua). Gabrielle means hero of god, or god is my strength. It's also the feminized name of the archangel. Janice is also Hebrew and means god is gracious. It's also similar to the roman god of doorways and beginnings, janus. Typically he is portrayed as having a male face facing forward and a female face facing backwards. His name shows up in January. Covington is a habitational surname, from the Scottish city of covinton, or Covington.
Last names aren't spectacular, but fun trivia.
There's actually a fair bit of info tucked away in this episode. It implies a relationship between ares and the chakram, which implies a relationship between all the gods and the chakram. It introduces the concept of xena having actually existed in history, which means that everything and everyone she encountered existed also. This is carried through in a number of herc episodes(namely, yes Virginia there is a Hercules--great fun), and of course, in later xena episodes.
And maybe it's just me, but I always want to know why xena's chakram is broken and why it's here in ares' tomb. Why are gabrielle's scrolls here? Why are her scrolls in ares' tomb? Does this mean that somewhere around here there's a sarcophagus with gabrielle in it, or one with xena?
As a ROCette and gabby girl, I'm torn about this episode. On the one side, yay "gabrielle" gets to be the hero. She's gets to be the indy. But also, there's a lot of gabby bashing. And Janice feels gypped and depressed that she's a descendant of gabrielle, and not someone "heroic" and badass like xena or callisto. And while xena tells her that nothing meant more to her than gabrielle, it still kinda sucks.
Anyways. Hey our first uber xena. And boy were they tapping into something they had no idea about with this. But I LOVE that with this episode(and some other later on), they are acknowledging the tv show WITHIN the show. And they're not just saying hey yeah, there was this bad ass chick and she had a badass sidekick gf and they lived in "ancient Greece." No, they're giving "true" history for xena. And while it's incredibly dorky to be excited about something like this, I don't care! I'm a nerd, and it excites me.:)
k, so we're at an archeological dig in Macedonia in 1940. Oh, god, Jacques s'er...annoying in any time period.
And how much do I LOVE Janice's entrance? And holy cow, that dude has the worst wig and beard I've ever seen.
So Janice Covington(which I always hear in mel's voice) is the badass and Melinda pappas is the brainy sidekick. They kinda miss the mark with the role reversal thing in the end, but, they get it right by season 6.
Janice even gets a whip:). Hehe, they ventilated her hat!
Mel is such a dork. "Here I am!" with arms all spazzy.
Sexy lucy chewing on glasses is sexy.
Janice is over the top, and it's at that perfect point where any less and it's trying to be normal but trying too hard(or not hard enough), and any more and it would be ridiculous. But where she is is perfect and it's hilarious! And you KNOW renee had an awesome time playing her. And I'm posting this quote because it's just so damned awesome.
“The most important archaeological find of the century-- Something that will revolutionize the way we look at the ancient world. It has the power to turn myth into history, history into myth-- the Xena Scrolls.”
Oh I love coming back from the teaser and first thing we get is callisto's crazy scream. Though, blah, Janice messes up the translation of the scroll and thinks callisto is xena. Damn, I love you Hudson. Yeah, I read some stuff last night, made me be even more in love with Hudson. Like, my head exploded with glee. Word is, HUDSON IS A LESBIAN. And while it's totally off topic for the episode, I maintain that HUDSON BEING A LESBIAN IS RELEVANT TO EVERYTHING.
So Janice is living in the shadow of her father's reputation as a grave robber. Things were different back in the 40s. Today he'd be called a tomb raider and be glorified.
Lucy is hilarious. I read in an interview she said doing southern accents are easier for kiwis than the standard Midwest american accent, so she was glad to put on the mantle of ms. pappas.
All I can think when I see Jacques s'er is inspector clouseau. It makes his presence somewhat more tolerable.
Janice tries to fool smythe, but mel says no, you're reading it wrong. They enter the tomb. Hey, those stairs are (most recently) from ten little warlords. It's ares' tomb. Interesting.
Jacques s'er regales them with tales of his adventures in tomb raiding. By describing movies from the 30s. Sounds about right. But they totally call him on it.:)
Mel touches a ring in the front of a pedestal(from a fistful of dinars) and sets off a booby trap. Janice tells her to sit down and be quiet while they look for the scrolls. And of course, the thing she sits on is a mechanism for revealing the scrolls.
So she starts reading about xena's "true love" marcus. Ya know, the one she calls her friend about a dozen times.
Jacque s'er gets all happy horny over the love story and tries to hit on mel, who smacks him on the head with the scroll. No love for the joxer bloodline.
It's kind of awesome that these scrolls everyone is shitting their pants over are gabrielle's:). mm, the chakram. Up until the episode chakram, no one had any problem with this scene. Of course, when xena united the dark and light chakrams and got that abomination of a yin yang chakram, there were some issues. Namely, the broken chakram no longer existed, so it couldn't have been found in the 40s. I read somewhere someone made this drawn out argument about time fragmenting or something like that, basically, the gist was that basically this could have been an alternate dimension where the broken chakram still existed and therefore was left in the tomb. Which is fine and dandy I suppose. seems to be all the rage to play with timelines these day, but ya know what, xena did it first(you are there I'm looking at you).
Magnetic chakram is cool and mel's face is funny. Damn, the bad guy lived. Oh, I love heroic Janice. Seriously, renee should get a whip way more often.
Hey that eye looks familiar;).
wth, this guy's like a cockroach. Haha SHAZAM! wb ares.*waves*
Ares recognizes these guys for the people they really are. And I love how he's outta the sarcophagus for like, 2 seconds and knows who jack kleinman really is. He fills everyone in on their heritage.
But oh, that ain't mel anymore. Hi xena.
I just wanna hug Janice so badly. She calls gabrielle a useless tagalong and xena sets.her.straight. Fills her in on gabrielle's finer qualities, and then says be gald you're part of her family, I am. Aww. Back from the clip from the end of ties that bind and Janice is looking at xena and she's got that same love-filled smile that gabrielle has for xena. In any time(or dimension) these two love each other. And then xena cracks a joxer joke, YES!
Now I just have to wax a little on what actually going on here. Cuz ok, Janice has spent her life searching for the xena scrolls, as did her father. Basically, obsessed with her. And then she finds them. And then she meets ares. And then she meets xena. I'm sorry, but I need someone else to think about this with me. Because that's just like...omfg. This girl spent her life trying to find the proof that this woman existed and when she finally does, she gets to meet this person, who has been dead for 2000 years(give or take). She gets to talk to this historical figure she's been obsessed with. Please someone, tell me I'm not alone in the *headsplode* on this.
Ok, back to 1940s xena. Jack and Janice gets caught and basically held for ransom. Ares tries to get out, xena kicks his ass, with Janice's help.:)
Xena strikes the eye with her chakram again and it breaks. Xena's gone and mel's back. Janice snags mel and THEN her hat before they rush out the door. Anyone who's scene Indiana jones will understand the significance of that.
Mel suggests she and Janice head out into the world together. Janice says together huh? And mel is so cute, all puppy faced, not if you don't want to. But Janice smiles and says yeah, let's go. Mel grins and they head off into the night.
1990. Ted kleinman pitches ideas to rob tapert. He's got one left. Some old scrolls from his grampa. The xena scrolls, which are about this guy named joxer.:) nice try. Tapert's intrigued. And the rest, as they say, is history;).
Gonna touch on the names now, cuz it's an important thing to me and I think they all have meaning.
Raimi's are easy. Ted is duh, ted raimi. Jack is an English approximate to joxer. And Jacques s'er sounds like joxer. Joxer is a made up name(as far as I know).
Xena is greek of course, and I've seen it mean both stranger(as in foreigner) and hospitable. But I generally say it means hospitable stranger. And really, honestly, that IS xena. Melinda has a muddy origin, but generally it's considered to be a combination of the roman prefix mel and the Spanish word linda. Which would make it mean black and beautiful.:) one site said it's greek and means honey. Pappas is a variation of papas, which is the greek word for priest.
Gabrielle is French, from the Hebrew Gabriel(which was also used in greek, so it's not entirely historically incorrect--think of it this way, everyone says jesus, but his name was actually jeshua). Gabrielle means hero of god, or god is my strength. It's also the feminized name of the archangel. Janice is also Hebrew and means god is gracious. It's also similar to the roman god of doorways and beginnings, janus. Typically he is portrayed as having a male face facing forward and a female face facing backwards. His name shows up in January. Covington is a habitational surname, from the Scottish city of covinton, or Covington.
Last names aren't spectacular, but fun trivia.
There's actually a fair bit of info tucked away in this episode. It implies a relationship between ares and the chakram, which implies a relationship between all the gods and the chakram. It introduces the concept of xena having actually existed in history, which means that everything and everyone she encountered existed also. This is carried through in a number of herc episodes(namely, yes Virginia there is a Hercules--great fun), and of course, in later xena episodes.
And maybe it's just me, but I always want to know why xena's chakram is broken and why it's here in ares' tomb. Why are gabrielle's scrolls here? Why are her scrolls in ares' tomb? Does this mean that somewhere around here there's a sarcophagus with gabrielle in it, or one with xena?