One of my favorite shows ever is Xena: Warrior Princess.
Of course, along with that, one of my favorite shows ever is Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
My mom and I started watching Xena partway through season three and caught up on most of the older episodes in reruns. We started watching Xena before we started watching Hercules and soon they both became assimilated into our Saturday schedule. Two hours of TV every Saturday afternoon. Hercules. Then Xena. That’s how it was. And when the listings changed times and days we followed. But both went on hiatus and stopped being shown in a two-hour block so we missed a 1-2 seasons of both and were confused when they re-aired. We were never able to catch Hercules at the right time but we kept our eyes glued to the scene when Xena came on.
I’m upset I missed the last seasons of Hercules, but I was always more of a Xena girl.
There are a lot of reasons I love Xena. Aside from her being ridiculously kick-ass and cool, the plotlines were rull complicated and awesome. The writers developed her past enough for a prequel TV series. Some of the most interesting storylines were the storylines of her lovers.
There were the past lovers like Caesar, Borias, and Marcus whose histories are detailed and sprinkled throughout the series, minor ones whose names I don’t remember, random men she was engaged to, Iolas, and two very important people, Hercules and Ares.
I know it’s kind of popular to like Xena with Hercules. I mean--he’s the one credited with showing her the life of good, he cares for her, he’s a very kind and generous person, and he’s Kevin Sorbo. Who wouldn’t want to be with Hercules?
But I always loved her with Ares and I hoped if she were to choose anyone, she’d choose him. Kevin Smith was wonderful in playing the God of War. He was evil and cruel and bad for her. But he loved her. He did horrible things and tried to bring her back to the dark side whenever he could. He frames her for murdering three villagers, he sleeps with her arch nemesis and he switches their bodies while she’s trapped in hell, he unknowingly takes her daughter, Eve, as his lover after unintentionally preserving Xena’s body for 25 years after she fakes her death, and he has this sibling-rivalry thing going on with Hercules where he’s trying to kill him all the time. Right, so he’s not perfect. But to me, he always seemed like the person who loved her most. He wasn’t good for her, at all. But I always wanted her to end up with him. Always. A little bit more hopeless romantic than realistic, but it’s always been something I hoped for. When it came to Xena, I wanted love to trump logic.
She never loved him as much as I wanted her to love him. But I loved him. And I loved him for her, despite him being evil and all.
I loved Ares. Mostly because I loved Kevin Smith.
I cried when I heard he died.