Wonder Woman Controversial Opinions Part 2

[TheCasualReader]

....we saw that Xena had plenty of questionable relationships w/women so id say she's very much canonically bisexual

Xena and Gabrielle were as bisexual as TV allowed (and this is coming from someone who never shipped them)

Speaking of Xena: Warrior Princesss... God, I loved this show as a kid. It was so much fun. I still remember catching every episode every Saturday morning with my mom.

[Primal Slayer]

Xena and Gabrielle were as bisexual as TV allowed (and this is coming from someone who never shipped them)

Speaking of Xena: Warrior Princesss... God, I loved this show as a kid. It was so much fun. I still remember catching every episode every Saturday morning with my mom.

What they were able to get done on a syndication budget was amazing. The costumes alone are still better than most tv costumes.

[witchboy]

Liz Friedman, who is a lesbian, was a producer and writer for Xena, and has spoken about how she portrayed Xena and Gabrielle as being queer women in a relationship. How openly that was portrayed requires compromises because of homophobia.
Lucy Lawless had talked about her evolving thoughts on the relationship but by the end of the series saw them as being married to each other in the relationship they had.

[SiegePerilous02]

I recall reading somewhere that another reason they didn't come right out and say Xena and Garielle were a couple was that they also wanted her to have sexual tension with Ares. Since the show was aired in late 90s/early 2000s, I imagine they didn't realize they could just write Xena as a bisexual and do BOTH or they didn't feel like they could get away with it. Similar I imagine to Willow being all "gay now" in BtVS as if a flip was switched whereas bisexual for her maybe would have been a bit more sense.

Shame too, I favor Xena/Gabrielle but like Xena/Ares too. Poly would have owned.

What they were able to get done on a syndication budget was amazing. The costumes alone are still better than most tv costumes.

A lot of the episodes reflect the cheapness of the production (especially early on), but then you'd get stuff like the Debt, Fallen Angel, and the various India episodes (as problematic as they might be, I still love those) which are more visually impressive/memorable than a lot of stuff today.

[witchboy]

Oh society had enough trouble back then accepting bisexuality at all, they definitely couldn't deal with non-monogamy. It did leave the show with a disjointed narrative at times, with Xena and Gabrielle having the odd male love interest now and then while at other times acting like they were married to each other. By the last season it felt really bizarre to me when Xena fell in love with Marc Antony during her Cleopatra impersonation. There's definitely a feel of different writers having really different visions of what was going on with Xena and Gabrielle and a lack of consistency, but if you take a mindset that they're bi and poly, it works better even if no one intended that. When there was talk of rebooting Xena, which has been shelved, they were quick to say she'd be bisexual.
It's interesting to me to try to figure out exactly when their relationship evolved since it happens off screen.
As for Ares, they did have sexual chemistry, but they never did resolve if he was her real father or not.
People in Buffy groups still argue over Willow's sexual orientation. I really do feel like she was bisexual, as she was written as straight until she met Tara, then it is mostly written as if as say, a switch was flipped. She never felt like she was closeted or came out so much as was in love with Oz, then fell in love with Tara. And if you watch her face, she's crushed when she learns Xander is engaged to Anya. The show was great at doing little subtext things in the performances that go unsaid.

[Primal Slayer]

People in Buffy groups still argue over Willow's sexual orientation. I really do feel like she was bisexual, as she was written as straight until she met Tara, then it is mostly written as if as say, a switch was flipped. She never felt like she was closeted or came out so much as was in love with Oz, then fell in love with Tara. And if you watch her face, she's crushed when she learns Xander is engaged to Anya. The show was great at doing little subtext things in the performances that go unsaid.

Not to mention that when Willow meets her doppelganger she goes "I think I'm kind of gay" (referring to Vamp!Willow) even though Vamp!Willow clearly has a thing going with Vamp!Xander while having her dalliances with females.

[Zagre]

Willow was bisexual in the series, though in the rebooted comics she's lesbian (has a girlfriend from the get go) so it's unknown how they would have presented it nowadays.

[John Venus]

It sure didn't help where they did a big splash page in 2021's Queer Pride special and she was missing from it. They won't outright say Diana's not queer, but they do want to hide it and I suspect it's because they didn't want to anger China since they want to keep making Wonder Woman movies.

Of all the characters to omit from that promo splash page, Wonder Woman? When years prior she was on the cover to their Love is Love book? It definitely looked strange to this reader, and I'm a cis hetero white dude, so if I'm noticing it that means it's in 50 story bold font.

Unfortunately, I can't recall a time when DC was ever proactive or at the forefront of pushing societal boundaries. They always ducked and only ran when it was safe or they needed a quick sales boost before returning to status quo. Which is a shame because WW requires writers who are proactive and willing to challenge audiences.

[Agent Z]

Willow was bisexual in the series, though in the rebooted comics she's lesbian (has a girlfriend from the get go) so it's unknown how they would have presented it nowadays.

Willow wasn't bisexual in the series.

[I'm a Fish]

It sure didn't help where they did a big splash page in 2021's Queer Pride special and she was missing from it. They won't outright say Diana's not queer, but they do want to hide it and I suspect it's because they didn't want to anger China since they want to keep making Wonder Woman movies.

Of all the characters to omit from that promo splash page, Wonder Woman? When years prior she was on the cover to their Love is Love book? It definitely looked strange to this reader, and I'm a cis hetero white dude, so if I'm noticing it that means it's in 50 story bold font.

China won't ban a character because they are gay. Eternals had a same-sex couple, but it got released in China because it was re-edited to pass their censorship.

They don't want to go all-out with Wonder Woman as queer because she has a successful toy-line and a lady kissing a lady isn't "child appropriate" for whatever reason.

[Primal Slayer]

If we arent getting a live action WW series anytime soon....she should show up on Superman & Lois.

[king81992]

Oh society had enough trouble back then accepting bisexuality at all, they definitely couldn't deal with non-monogamy. It did leave the show with a disjointed narrative at times, with Xena and Gabrielle having the odd male love interest now and then while at other times acting like they were married to each other. By the last season it felt really bizarre to me when Xena fell in love with Marc Antony during her Cleopatra impersonation. There's definitely a feel of different writers having really different visions of what was going on with Xena and Gabrielle and a lack of consistency, but if you take a mindset that they're bi and poly, it works better even if no one intended that. When there was talk of rebooting Xena, which has been shelved, they were quick to say she'd be bisexual.
It's interesting to me to try to figure out exactly when their relationship evolved since it happens off screen.
As for Ares, they did have sexual chemistry, but they never did resolve if he was her real father or not.
People in Buffy groups still argue over Willow's sexual orientation. I really do feel like she was bisexual, as she was written as straight until she met Tara, then it is mostly written as if as say, a switch was flipped. She never felt like she was closeted or came out so much as was in love with Oz, then fell in love with Tara. And if you watch her face, she's crushed when she learns Xander is engaged to Anya. The show was great at doing little subtext things in the performances that go unsaid.

Xena was one of those shows where you could tell the writers made stuff up as they went along, but somehow it worked out.

[Nyssane]

Xena was one of those shows where you could tell the writers made stuff up as they went along, but somehow it worked out.

It worked until the second half of season 5 when they decided to time jump and kill off all the supporting characters loved by the fans and replaced them with the atrocious Eve character.

[SiegePerilous02]

It worked until the second half of season 5 when they decided to time jump and kill off all the supporting characters loved by the fans and replaced them with the atrocious Eve character.

Eve was really rough.

I really felt the absence of Callisto and Caesar by that point in the show too. Ares was still around and I enjoyed like 50% of Alti's appearances, but the villain quality took a hit without consistent appearances from Leik or Urban.

[PopQuezy]

Eve was really rough.

I really felt the absence of Callisto and Caesar by that point in the show too. Ares was still around and I enjoyed like 50% of Alti's appearances, but the villain quality took a hit without consistent appearances from Leik or Urban.

I despised Eve, but I thought she did feel like a reincarnated Callisto without the traits that made Callisto so awesome.

I liked Alti's powers and most of her battles with Xena. However, I thought most of Alti's episodes were boring and felt a little too supernatural and out there even for a show that could be quite kooky at times.