Xena and Wonder Woman: A Compare/Contrast....

[Vanguard-01]

Hey, people!

So, recently, a few of us have mentioned being largely unfamiliar with Xena, and thus somewhat confused by the fact that people make frequent comparisons between Diana and Xena.

In an effort to clear things up, I'm going to try to do as complete a compare/contrast as I can to help improve understanding on this front. Here we go!

First? A basic backstory on Xena.

Xena first showed up as a guest star on the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys TV show as a villain. When we first met her, she was in the process of seducing Hercules' best friend, Iolaus. While they were together, Xena began subtly manipulating Iolaus in an effort to turn him against Hercules. At this point, it's revealed that Xena is a warlord with an army at her back, and she intends to kill Hercules as her crowning achievement. Xena succeeds in turning Iolaus against Hercules and tries to manipulate the two of them into a fight in which Hercules would be forced to kill Iolaus. The plan backfires when Hercules is able to convince Iolaus that Xena is just using him. The episode ends with Xena riding away vowing revenge.

Xena shows up in another episode of the show. This time, she's just doing straightforward warlord stuff: attacking and plundering villages. She is eventually betrayed by her even crazier lieutenant, Darphus, who turns her army against her and has her severely beaten and left to die. She survives and goes after Darphus, intent to get her army back. She and Hercules cross paths and agree to work together to take down Darphus. Somewhere along the way, Hercules succeeds at getting Xena to realize in her heart that what she has been doing is wrong. Xena and Herc fall for each other. Sex happens. The arc ends with Xena killing Darphus and leaving Hercules, promising to rethink her life.

The actual Xena spinoff show picks up from there. It begins with Xena actually about to renounce her warrior ways entirely. She's actually in the process of burying her armor and all her weapons when she hears a group of people in trouble nearby. She decides to warrior up one last time and save these people. The people are being attacked by another warlord's troops, who intend to capture them and sell them into slavery. Among the villagers is a certain spunky blonde named Gabrielle. Why does a girl in Ancient Greece have a French name that won't be in common use for thousands of years? Don't ask. The more you try to apply real-world historical and/or mythological knowledge to these two shows, the more your brain will hurt. Anywho, Gabrielle is inspired by Xena's heroism and wants to accompany her as a traveling companion. After much reluctance, Xena agrees to let her tag along. Gabrielle quickly becomes Xena's conscience and is instrumental in Xena's turning from villainy to heroism.

So, already you can see a lot of differences between Xena and Diana. Xena starts off as a villain. Diana's a straight-up hero. Xena needs other people to reform HER. Diana does a lot of reforming of others. Xena is perfectly comfortable with killing. Diana (when she's written right) tries to avoid it whenever possible.

Why do so many people think Wonder Woman is more like Xena in this day and age? Welllll. Perhaps a list of their similarities?

1.) Obviously, they're both tall, athletic women with black hair and blue eyes.
2.) They both wear Grecian-inspired clothing.
3.) They both carry a sword. Diana didn't use to. But nowadays she does.
4.) They both have a special throwing weapon. Xena's is a razor sharp hoop called a "chakram." Diana's is her tiara.
5.) They both have an entangling weapon. Diana's got her Lasso. Xena has a whip. Although, it should be pointed out that Xena's whip is totally unremarkable and is actually the piece of her equipment she uses the least.
6.) They are both warriors. Duh!
7.) They're both willing to kill. A relatively new development for Diana. A core concept for Xena. In fact, Hercules remains a little put off by Xena's willingness to kill even after her reformation.


Now, how are these two different?

1.) Xena, despite the name of the show, is NOT, in fact, a princess. She's a farm girl from a little town called "Amphipolis." Why she was called "The Warrior Princess," I've never been quite clear. But Diana's actual royalty. Xena? Not so much.
2.) Xena, despite popular misconception (both in and out of the show), is emphatically NOT an Amazon. The words "I'm not an Amazon" come out of her mouth in multiple episodes. In fact? Xena, in more than one episode, expresses a degree of contempt for the Amazons and their ways. She's friendly with individual Amazons, but she seems to have little respect for the Amazons as a culture.
3.) Diana, as we all know, is all about reforming others. Xena is on a mission to reform HERSELF. Oh, from time to time she helps a few other people become better people, but it's far from one of her core concepts.
4.) Again, when Diana's written correctly, she considers combat a last resort and tries to solve problems without violence. Xena relishes combat and rarely even attempts diplomacy.

So, as we can see, there are significant differences between the two characters, although in recent years, some of those differences have become noticeably less pronounced.

So, IS there a Wonder Woman analogue in Xena's world? Yes! Her name is Gabrielle. Her similarities to Diana?

1.) In the early seasons of the show, Gabrielle was firmly against killing. When she finally chose a weapon for herself, she chose a simple fighting staff and never even attempted to kill anyone with it. Now, in later seasons, this changed, and Gabrielle became just as stab-happy as Xena eventually. This is why I often tell people that the last couple seasons of Xena are.....not the best.
2.) Gabrielle very much solves problems without violence. Originally, she couldn't fight at all and had to rely on her wits and charm to get herself out of tricky situations. Want an example? No problem. Gabrielle was once captured by a Cyclops who was going to eat her. She managed to talk him into letting her go. No joke.
3.) Gabrielle actually DID become both an Amazon AND a princess. She tried to save the life of an Amazon when they were ambushed. The Amazon was mortally wounded, but before she died, she offered Gabrielle her "Rite of Cast," which means that she basically bequeathed all of her possessions to Gabrielle. Turns out she was an actual Amazon princess, and that title, like everything else the princess owned, transferred to Gabrielle.
4.) As mentioned earlier, Gabrielle became Xena's conscience and was instrumental in turning Xena into a full-fledged hero. Gabrielle reformed Xena. Diana would've been proud of her.

That's all I've got for now. Some more stuff may occur to me later.

In the meantime, I hope this was helpful to all of you. Feel free to discuss these points and/or ask questions. To other Xena-viewers? If I got anything wrong or missed something, don't hesitate to call me on it. It's been a while since I've watched the show and it's perfectly possible that I may have forgotten/misremembered some things.

[Arvandor]

The "Diana kills only when written poorly" argument is just not true. If it only happened occasionally under objectively bad writers, then you could say that.

But its happened so often, in so many stories, written by writers with genuine talent and large fanbases, that it just can't be said. Diana killing is neither bad writing nor out of character - its happened just too often for that to be true.

[Hawk80]

Xena: Warrior Princess is a 6 seasons long redemption arc. In the 6th serie finale, after Xena's death, Gabrielle becomes her successor and the woman Xena always wanted to be. She is now an experienced and wise warrior like Xena, but good-hearted like she always was (before the stab-happy times). In the end she becomes a really close analogue to WW (not the current one, obviously).

[Iron Fist]

I don't quite see many similarities because a lot of the information in the opening post is written to present Xena a certain way.

Xena loses her whip very early in the show when Gabrielle trades it for a frying pan (I know.)
Xena is very diplomatic in official circumstances and only really fights and kills when that breaks down or when diplomacy would be useless (like the multiple bands of thugs, soldiers etc) and they use Xena's ruthlessness often to foil Gabrielle who in the earlier seasons never wants to hurt anyone, but if they live then they'll just kill more people.

Wonder Woman seems very much like a general stoic hero while Xena is a complete anti-hero for most of the series unless it revolves around someone she hurt when she was previously an evil warlord.

The characterisation of Gabrielle is a bit off as well, she doesn't just randomly start killing people she goes through stages, from no fighting to non lethal fighting and then after finding religion embraces pacifism, which she then renounces to save Xena's life. Seeing that her pacifism solved nothing, she goes back to fighting but this time with defensive weapons capable of killing if she needs them to and even still she doesn't really kill people very often. I can only think of maybe six people in the second two series that she killed?

[Top Carnivore]

I wonder why the Powers That Be decided to get rid of Xena's whip?

[Nyssane]

I wonder why the Powers That Be decided to get rid of Xena's whip?

I love that they got rid of her whip in the most ridiculous way possible (Minya was such a hilarious character).

[Vanguard-01]

I don't quite see many similarities because a lot of the information in the opening post is written to present Xena a certain way.

I assure you, I'm not trying to pursue any kind of agenda. I'm a fan of both characters.

As I said at the end of my first post, I haven't actually watched the entire series in quite a while. So most of my information is just what I remember. If I got anything wrong, it wasn't intentional.

Xena loses her whip very early in the show when Gabrielle trades it for a frying pan (I know.)
Xena is very diplomatic in official circumstances and only really fights and kills when that breaks down or when diplomacy would be useless (like the multiple bands of thugs, soldiers etc) and they use Xena's ruthlessness often to foil Gabrielle who in the earlier seasons never wants to hurt anyone, but if they live then they'll just kill more people.

Hm. I forgot about Xena losing the whip.

I could've sworn I remembered her using it as far as Season 4. I could be wrong, though.

And yes, Xena's more lethal tendencies tend to be reserved for nameless thugs and warlord soldiers. She can be diplomatic at times, but she's less likely to try it than Diana.

Wonder Woman seems very much like a general stoic hero while Xena is a complete anti-hero for most of the series unless it revolves around someone she hurt when she was previously an evil warlord.

And even then, she didn't always try to help her former victims.

It always bugged the Hell out of me that neither Xena nor Gabrielle really made what I consider a sincere effort to reform Callisto, for example. Gabrielle especially bothered me. She travels with a woman who killed countless innocent people, yet when confronted with one of Xena's former victims, she pretty much immediately writes her off as too far gone to help. Just seemed wrong.

The characterisation of Gabrielle is a bit off as well, she doesn't just randomly start killing people she goes through stages, from no fighting to non lethal fighting and then after finding religion embraces pacifism, which she then renounces to save Xena's life. Seeing that her pacifism solved nothing, she goes back to fighting but this time with defensive weapons capable of killing if she needs them to and even still she doesn't really kill people very often. I can only think of maybe six people in the second two series that she killed?

Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that Gabrielle just started randomly killing people. I should have mentioned the stages thing, but I was trying to put a lot of information down as quickly as I could. Rush jobs are no one's friend.

[7-Love]

Xena loses her whip very early in the show when Gabrielle trades it for a frying pan (I know.)

Actually Xena got a new whip after that sometime off screen. We see Xena's 2nd whip in the season 4 episode "The Convert".

It always bugged the Hell out of me that neither Xena nor Gabrielle really made what I consider a sincere effort to reform Callisto, for example. Gabrielle especially bothered me. She travels with a woman who killed countless innocent people, yet when confronted with one of Xena's former victims, she pretty much immediately writes her off as too far gone to help. Just seemed wrong.

This always bugged me too as well. It was bizarrely out of character IMO for Gabrielle to not have any compassion or sympathy at all towards Callisto in her first appearance. Later on Callisto kills Gabrielle's husband/childhood friend, so I can understand her hating her then. But then later on Gabrielle forgives Callisto for that and finally shows compassion & sympathy towards her when Callisto makes Xena confess to a whole village how she had destroyed her life...except Gabrielle knew of Callisto's backstory long before this in Callisto's very debut episode so why didn't she feel sorry for her then??? And then much later on in the series the writers go back to Gabrielle not showing any compassion or sympathy towards Callisto ironically when both characters are in heaven, but then she re-forgives Callisto again for murdering her husband???????

[Agent 86]

Cool thread.

A few points:

- Gabrielle was an Amazon Queen. When she first received the right of cast from Terreis (sp?), she was an Amazon Princess, but once her champion (i.e. Xena) defeated Melosa, then Gabrielle was the Queen of the Amazons. Melosa ruled as her regent, there was the trouble with Velasca and then Ephiny ruled as regent until her death. The fact that Gabrielle continually abandoned the Grecian Amazons obviously raises some questions about just how effective a monarch she was.

- Xena was very nearly a demi-goddess, like the New52 version of Wonder Woman. TPTB intended to reveal that Ares was Xena's father in "The Furies" and only changed the script at the last minute for various reasons, including concerns about it making Xena too similar to Hercules and concerns about previous "romantic/sexual" depictions of Xena and Ares' relationship.

- Xena was very nearly a true "princess". Season 1 was originally going to revolve, in part, around Xena's quest to find her true father who would be revealed to be a king. That was back when Xena and Gabrielle were also going to be accompanied by Pan, possibly a Satyr if the costume people could make it work, or otherwise just a young man. That didn't happen, but the title "Warrior Princess" originates from Xena's time in Chin(a) when the female ruler of part of Chin(a), Lao Ma, offered Xena the role of "Warrior Princess" (i.e. her bodyguard and the ruler of Lao Ma's army). Xena declined, but her then partner (i.e. Borias) presumably liked the title and started calling her the "Warrior Princess". It stuck and she became known as the "Warrior Princess". Xena was also known as the "Destroyer of Nation", "Defender of the Faith", "Slayer of Gods" and various other titles.

- Xena has sought to reform others. This was most obviously demonstrated in "The Dirty Half Dozen", but it was also touched upon in other episodes. It is somewhat arguable that Xena's relationship with Ares had something of a redemptive effect on Ares, although he ultimately remained true to his "god of war" instincts.

- Xena did not have any qualms about killing in battle, but I'm not sure she was as blood-thirsty as described. If possible, Xena would deal with a problem without killing people, although that was at least in part due to Gabrielle's influence (e.g. "A Solstice Carol"). Certainly in comparison to Wonder Woman (and Hercules), Xena was far more willing to take a life in the heat of battle in order to defend herself or others. But, although rarely shown on-screen, both Xena and Gabrielle maintained that where possible, they ensured that their enemies were delivered to the "local magistrate" for a fair trial. Of course, I'm not sure what they would do about the various ruffians they usually left unconscious on the side of the road. And their track record with delivering evil doers to the appropriate authorities was a little spotty.

- Xena is most definitely NOT an Amazon. In Xena's first interactions with the (Northern) Amazons, she slaughtered all their leaders at the request of an evil shamaness (and ex-Amazon) (i.e. Alti) and doomed all (Northern) Amazons to spend eternity in purgatory, preventing them from moving onto the Amazon land of the dead. Sure, Xena did her best to help the Amazons once she turned over a new leaf, but her own daughter (i.e. Livia) was also responsible for nearly destroying the (Grecian) Amazons after she (repeatedly?) attacked them, kidnapped Amazons and sold them into slavery (or threw them overboard while in chains on the way to the slavers if they were proving to be too troublesome to keep as slaves).

- Xena lost her whip when Gabrielle traded it with Minya for a frying pan ( ... you had to be there), but it returned whenever the script required it to. It was "magical" in that way (or spent most of its time in one of Argo's saddlebags).

- Gabrielle did evolve as a warrior, but I'm not sure she ever became "stab-happy". Yes, in seasons 5 and 6 Gabrielle fought with a pair of sais instead of her staff, but she predominantly used her sais defensively or simply to increase the impact of her punches. Although the sais were depicted inconsistently, they were normally shown to be "blunt" which would render them incapable of being used to "stab" anyone. As noted, this was depicted inconsistently since Gabrielle memorably stabbed Livia (aka Eve) while under the influence of The Furies and also used her sais to cut rope, even though they were shown to be completely blunt. Also, Gabrielle continued to struggle with the heavy toll of taking lives in combat right through season 6. A trilogy of episodes (i.e. Who's Gurkhan, Legacy and The Abyss) even focused on Gabrielle's difficulties with taking lives.

- A similarity that Xena and Wonder Woman share is a well-known and commonly used truth-telling technique. Xena has the painful and arguably violent "pinch" technique where she cuts of the flow of blood to someone's brain and forces them to tell her whatever she wants to know in 30 seconds or they die. Wonder Woman has her magic lasso which forces anyone in contact with it to tell the truth.

- Callisto was a tricky character. From memory, in her first appearance (well, second apparance after "The Greater Good"), Xena did in fact offer Callisto her freedom. Xena asked Callisto what she would do if she was freed and Callisto told Xena, in bloody detail, exactly what she would do to Xena and everyone and anyone that Xena cared about. Xena didn't really have any option other than handing Callisto over to the authorities, but Xena also made sure that Callisto wasn't killed by an angry mob. In "Return of Callisto", Callisto murdered Gabrielle's husband and had intended to murder Gabrielle as well, which pretty much put her in Xena and Gabrielle's bad books for the remainder of her appearances. Things didn't really improve after that, especially since Xena "killed" Callisto by refusing to rescue her from the quicksand. Heck, Callisto then teamed up with Gabrielle's half-demon daughter to kill Xena's son! As for Gabrielle's reaction to Callisto, I think it's important to remember that Gabrielle only ever saw Xena as a "hero". Despite what others in her village told her, when Gabrielle first met Xena all she saw was an independent woman warrior who saved Gabrielle and the other females in her village from being sold into slavery. Gabrielle never really experienced "evil" Xena, other than in "The Reckoning", "The Price" and of course in "The Bitter Suite".

[7-Love]

- Gabrielle was an Amazon Queen. When she first received the right of cast from Terreis (sp?), she was an Amazon Princess, but once her champion (i.e. Xena) defeated Melosa, then Gabrielle was the Queen of the Amazons. Melosa ruled as her regent, there was the trouble with Velasca and then Ephiny ruled as regent until her death. The fact that Gabrielle continually abandoned the Grecian Amazons obviously raises some questions about just how effective a monarch she was

Actually that's not how Gabrielle became an Amazon Queen. After Xena defeated Melosa Gabrielle was still an Amazon Princess. Gabrielle became an Amazon Queen a year and a half later after Ephiny & the rest of the amazons went looking for Gabrielle to make her queen because Velasca had killed Melosa in "fair" combat (on purpose to take her place). Velasca was going to rule the tribe after that, but since Terreis (Melosa's younger sister & was next-in-line to rule) gave her right of caste to Gabrielle, Gabrielle was the official queen. The amazons gave Gabrielle a ceremony and everything.

Also even though Gabrielle was officially the Amazon Queen of the tribe she technically made Ephiny her default, stand-in queen, so that's how the tribe was able to go on despite Gabrielle not always being there. When Gabrielle did show up she proved what a great queen she was in episodes such as "Endgame" or "To Helicon and Back".

[Agent 86]

Actually that's not how Gabrielle became an Amazon Queen. After Xena defeated Melosa Gabrielle was still an Amazon Princess. Gabrielle became an Amazon Queen a year and a half later after Ephiny & the rest of the amazons went looking for Gabrielle to make her queen because Velasca had killed Melosa in "fair" combat (on purpose to take her place). Velasca was going to rule the tribe after that, but since Terreis (Melosa's younger sister & was next-in-line to rule) gave her right of caste to Gabrielle, Gabrielle was the official queen. The amazons gave Gabrielle a ceremony and everything.

Not according to the writer of "Hooves and Harlots". Gabrielle became Queen of the Amazons when Xena defeated Melosa in combat:

http://www.whoosh.org/epguide/hooves.html

http://jacksonupperco.com/2014/04/03...guide-109-110/

In "The Quest", Gabrielle simply formally assumed her role as Queen from the then regent Velasca who had killed Melosa in allegedly unfair combat.

I agree that Gabrielle did a decent job of being Queen when she bothered to show up. But, I think it would have been more mature of her to formally pass her "right of caste" to Melosa and/or Ephiny to allow the Greek Amazons to formally rule themselves. Having Gabrielle be able to pop in and out of the various Amazon tribes and assert herself as their Queen must have been destablising and confusing for the Amazons, especially the Northern Amazons in season 5!

Gabrielle could have remained an Amazon, or even an "Amazon Princess", if she chose to do so.

[Iron Fist]

Not according to the writer of "Hooves and Harlots". Gabrielle became Queen of the Amazons when Xena defeated Melosa in combat:

http://www.whoosh.org/epguide/hooves.html

http://jacksonupperco.com/2014/04/03...guide-109-110/

In "The Quest", Gabrielle simply formally assumed her role as Queen from the then regent Velasca who had killed Melosa in allegedly unfair combat.

I agree that Gabrielle did a decent job of being Queen when she bothered to show up. But, I think it would have been more mature of her to formally pass her "right of caste" to Melosa and/or Ephiny to allow the Greek Amazons to formally rule themselves. Having Gabrielle be able to pop in and out of the various Amazon tribes and assert herself as their Queen must have been destablising and confusing for the Amazons, especially the Northern Amazons in season 5!

Gabrielle could have remained an Amazon, or even an "Amazon Princess", if she chose to do so.

I think you're correct because if Gabrielle returned the title to Melosa then Velasca would have had no issue with trying to get the title from Gabrielle later. But we don't know if this is the proper reason or not because Amazon politics largely changes it's rules throughout the show. The only elements not to get messed about were the rite of cast which is only ever mentioned in I think two episodes.

Gabrielle never really experienced "evil" Xena, other than in "The Reckoning", "The Price" and of course in "The Bitter Suite".

Evil Xena returns in one of the post series comics where they bring Xena back from the dead and she's the evil xena.

Gabrielle also crossed paths with evil Xena in Send in the Clones and the hercules spin off episode Stranger in a Strange Land when Destroyer of Nations Xena has Gabrielle's legs broken. But these are AU story so maybe they don't count.

Actually Xena got a new whip after that sometime off screen. We see Xena's 2nd whip in the season 4 episode "The Convert".

I never really took much notice of that, it seems to appear in some episodes and then disappear for long stretches of time. Maybe she just buys one as and when she needs one?

And even then, she didn't always try to help her former victims.

It always bugged the Hell out of me that neither Xena nor Gabrielle really made what I consider a sincere effort to reform Callisto, for example. Gabrielle especially bothered me. She travels with a woman who killed countless innocent people, yet when confronted with one of Xena's former victims, she pretty much immediately writes her off as too far gone to help. Just seemed wrong.

To be fair, Callisto did kill Gabrielle's husband, after that point in time Callisto was crazy and immortal and then crazy and a god. The only period to redeem her was when she was mortal and Xena killed her right after Callisto killed Gabrielle's husband so there wasn't much time.

That's not to say she doesn't try, in Sacrifice she tries to see if Callisto is a better person with a heart to heart and Callisto just asks how long it took her husband die after she cut him open.

This always bugged me too as well. It was bizarrely out of character IMO for Gabrielle to not have any compassion or sympathy at all towards Callisto in her first appearance. Later on Callisto kills Gabrielle's husband/childhood friend, so I can understand her hating her then. But then later on Gabrielle forgives Callisto for that and finally shows compassion & sympathy towards her when Callisto makes Xena confess to a whole village how she had destroyed her life...except Gabrielle knew of Callisto's backstory long before this in Callisto's very debut episode so why didn't she feel sorry for her then??? And then much later on in the series the writers go back to Gabrielle not showing any compassion or sympathy towards Callisto ironically when both characters are in heaven, but then she re-forgives Callisto again for murdering her husband???????

Adding to what I said above, I think if Callisto weren't being evil and killing people then Gabrielle would have had more sympathy. Because every time they interact Callisto goes out of her way to torment her so I can understand why that clouds her empathy like it did when they were in limbo.

[Vanguard-01]

To be fair, Callisto did kill Gabrielle's husband, after that point in time Callisto was crazy and immortal and then crazy and a god. The only period to redeem her was when she was mortal and Xena killed her right after Callisto killed Gabrielle's husband so there wasn't much time.

That's not to say she doesn't try, in Sacrifice she tries to see if Callisto is a better person with a heart to heart and Callisto just asks how long it took her husband die after she cut him open.

Adding to what I said above, I think if Callisto weren't being evil and killing people then Gabrielle would have had more sympathy. Because every time they interact Callisto goes out of her way to torment her so I can understand why that clouds her empathy like it did when they were in limbo.

I agree that Callisto made things personal with Gabrielle very early into their "association."

I'm specifically referring to their first meeting, where Gabrielle just comes up to them while Xena has already captured Callisto. Callisto hadn't done or said anything to Gabrielle at that point, but Gabrielle was immediately telling Xena that Callisto's heart was too corrupted to help. Aside from seeing the aftermath of Callisto's attacks, and the whole poisoned arrow thing, Gabrielle had seen no firsthand signs of Callisto's evil at the point she was saying that stuff. This was even just before Callisto made that whole "You let me go, and I'll kill everyone you love" speech to Xena.

[Iron Fist]

I agree that Callisto made things personal with Gabrielle very early into their "association."

I'm specifically referring to their first meeting, where Gabrielle just comes up to them while Xena has already captured Callisto. Callisto hadn't done or said anything to Gabrielle at that point, but Gabrielle was immediately telling Xena that Callisto's heart was too corrupted to help. Aside from seeing the aftermath of Callisto's attacks, and the whole poisoned arrow thing, Gabrielle had seen no firsthand signs of Callisto's evil at the point she was saying that stuff. This was even just before Callisto made that whole "You let me go, and I'll kill everyone you love" speech to Xena.

Didn't Callisto spend those two episodes murdering women and children in Xena's name just to get her attention? I think she's introduced to Xena and Gabrielle by being told someone's child was murdered by her army.

Gabrielle isn't all about redemption in season one and murdering women and children would explain why she just dismisses Callisto as evil, not very off base considering how Callisto pays her back a season later.

[7-Love]

That's not to say she doesn't try, in Sacrifice she tries to see if Callisto is a better person with a heart to heart and Callisto just asks how long it took her husband die after she cut him open.

Actually that had happened in the episode "A Necessary Evil".

I agree that Callisto made things personal with Gabrielle very early into their "association."

I'm specifically referring to their first meeting, where Gabrielle just comes up to them while Xena has already captured Callisto. Callisto hadn't done or said anything to Gabrielle at that point, but Gabrielle was immediately telling Xena that Callisto's heart was too corrupted to help. Aside from seeing the aftermath of Callisto's attacks, and the whole poisoned arrow thing, Gabrielle had seen no firsthand signs of Callisto's evil at the point she was saying that stuff. This was even just before Callisto made that whole "You let me go, and I'll kill everyone you love" speech to Xena.

I agree with you Vanguard. This is pretty much what I was saying in my post about Gabrielle & Callisto's history. There was no reason for Gabrielle to NOT feel sorry & sympathetic towards Callisto in their first meeting because this was before Callisto had killed her husband. This woman's very psyche and life was destroyed as a result of Gabrielle's best friend's actions, how can she not feel for her.

Gabrielle's traveling with a woman who's list of evil deeds was far, far, far longer than Callisto's was when Xena & Gabrielle had met Callisto for the first time. If Xena (someone who's list of evil deeds looks like a vast ocean in comparison to Callisto's little lake of evil deeds (at that time when they had met her)) could change, why didn't Gabrielle believe that somewhere deep down inside there was a glimmer of hope for Callisto's redemption someday? The way that Gabrielle had acted in the episode "A Necessary Evil" towards Callisto (after Xena had confessed to a village what she had done to Callisto's life) is the way that she should've acted towards Callisto all along in Callisto's debut episode.