Xena: Warrior Princess: Difference between revisions

* [[Adrenaline Makeover]]: Gabrielle's haircut in Season 4.

* [[Aliens Speaking English|Aliens Speaking Greek]]: Xena travels the world, but never has any problems communicating with people. While one might initially assume that she's merely multilingual (she has many skills, after all), the fact that Gabrielle and even Joxer don't have language problems imply that everyone is actually speaking Greek.<br />Semi-averted in that during classical period throughout much of the Mediterranean world, Greek was the common tongue. So much so that one variant, ''Koine'', is the Greek word for common. Of course once Xena and Gabrielle travel to Asia all bets are off.

* [[All Amazons Want Hercules]]: Averted? Parodied? Amazons have crushes on Joxer in ''Lyre Lyre Hearts on Fire'' and ''Kindred Spirits'', and Joxer ain't Hercules. In fact, even when Hercules is around, so is his friend Iolaus who gets more female attention than Herc does.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Or at least, according to Ares, every time he tries to seduce Xena.

** Callisto provides the picture for this trope, after her becoming a godly pin-cushion in "Maternal Instincts".

** {{spoiler|Xena}} also provides an example of this in the finale.

* [[Archangel Michael]]: Recurring character in Season 5 and Season 6.

* [[Arrow Catch]]

** Commonly done by Xena, occaisionally preformed by other characters.

** Gabrielle never caught an arrow during the show, but she did block one or two with her staff.

* [[As Lethal as It Needs to Be]]: Xena's chakram killed enemies or knocked them out, according to [[Rule of Drama]]. (Though it was always lethal if she used it as a melee weapon.)

* [[The Atoner]]

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Xena and Ares. ''So'' much.

* [[Beyond the Impossible]]

** Not to mention her actually {{spoiler|''killing Gods''}}.

** Or how Callisto's soul managed to {{spoiler|impregnate Xena}}.

** Or how Xena {{spoiler|caused Lucifer's fall from grace}}.

* [[Bi the Way]]: Xena and Gabrielle start out having a few male romantic/sexual interests, but end up getting more and more subtext-y until it is openly [[Word of God]] that they are Common Law married. Not that [[Word of God]] didn't flip-flop on it.

* [[Bigger Bad]]: Dahak, who is once referred to as "The blind force behind every evil deed."

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: According to "Soul Possession", [[Bruce Campbell]] does exist... and has a sizable fee for appearing at conventions.

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: The first two seasons were heavy on camp and occasionally had a serious episode. Then, in Season 3, {{spoiler|Gabrielle got pregnant with her [[Fetus Terrible]] daughter, Hope}}, setting off a season-long storyline meant to put Xena and Gabrielle through emotional hell. Also, the Season 3 finale ended on a cliffhanger featuring {{spoiler|Gabrielle and Hope dying in a firey pit.}} Subsequent seasons had even less comedy.

* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]

** The "Hinds Blood Dagger", which originated on ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'', but later appeared on Xena in "Sacrifice 2".

** The "cleavage dagger" which Gabrielle picked up in season 1 and which kept popping up throughout the show.

* [[Christmas Episode]]: "A Solstice Carol". (Possibly the only [[Christmas Episode]] in which the C-word is never spoken, [[Captain Obvious|for obvious reasons]].)

* [[Classical Mythology]]: Not the way you were taught.

* [[Clear My Name]]

* [[Daydream Surprise]]: In "Paradise Found", Xena imagines breaking Gabrielle's arm.

* [[Dead Little Sister|Dead Little Brother]]: Lyceus

{{quote|'''Meg:''' My father died in childbirth!

'''Gabrielle:''' Your father died in childbirth?

** [[Bruce Campbell]] did "The Key to the Kingdom".

** Renee O'Connor did "Déjà Vu All Over Again" and "Dangerous Prey".

* [[Discount Lesbians]]: Done a ''lot'':

** The episode where Xena had to walk through a wall of fire and [[Sleeping Beauty|wake up Gabrielle by kissing her.]]

** Aphrodite kissing Gabrielle while being not quite herself because of Caligula.

* {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending]]}}

* [[Dragon Lady]]: Pao Hsu

* [[Dress Hits Floor]]

* [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]]

* [[The Immodest Orgasm]]: Gabrielle loudly fakes sex noises to distract some guards in "The Prodigal".

{{quote|'''Gabrielle:''' Ohhhh! No wonder they call you "the Mighty"!}}

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Lampshaded in "A Day in the Life" when Xena says she likes getting creative during battle.

* [[Indy Hat Roll]]: "Xena Scrolls" -- Gabrielle's umpteenth great grand-daughter is an [[Indiana Jones]] expy.

** "A Necissary Evil"

** "Maternal Instincts"

* [[Licking the Blade]]: Callisto licks a dagger at one point. Also, in the episode sharing her name, she kisses Xena's Chakram.

* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: Like ''Hercules'', there was an episode that suggests the series is based on the real life of Xena as found by the "Xena Scrolls" written by Gabrielle.

** Khrafstar, who is revealed to be a servant of Dahak. This is rather subtle example of the trope if you're not familiar with Zoroastrianism, from which Dahak was derived. See this definition from the ''Oxford Dictionary Of World Religions'':

{{quote|''Azi Dahaka is the personification of the Lie, often depicted in mythology as a terrible dragon with three heads, six eyes, and three jaws, whose body is full of '''khrafstras (evil spirits or beings)'''.''}}

* [[Mediation Backfire]]: In "Been There, Done That", Joxer attempts to intervene in order to stop the feuding families. He gets a couple dozen arrows to his face for his trouble (but again, this being a Groundhog Day Loop, he gets better).

* [[Mind Rape]]: Caligula does this to Aphrodite.

* [[Molotov Cocktail]]: Xena invents the Molotov in "Warrior... Princess".

* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Happens to Xena very often - some don't realise just who it is they're attacking, others [[Too Dumb to Live|attack even when they know Xena's reputation]].

* [[Musical Episode]]: Three, if you include "A Tale of 2 Muses" which is a dancing episode.

* [[The Music Meister]]

** Also Terpsichore's Lyre, from "Lyre, Lyre Hearts on Fire". is an inanimate version of this, as the musical aspects of the episode only begin when the Lyre is unearthed by Draco, and are abruptly ended when the Battle of the Bands is won. {{spoiler|By Xena}}

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Joxer after his first kill. Even though it was in self-defense (against a warlord, no less), he is completely guilt-ridden over his actions.

* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: In "The Greater Good", Xena temporarily dies after {{spoiler|Callisto}} poisons her -- in her words, she has to fully "go under" to fight the poison. Later, in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" Gabrielle is severely injured and stops breathing for several minutes before being revived. The end of that episode confirms that Gabrielle's soul did indeed make it to the Elysian Fields, so she was technically dead for those few minutes.

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: Happens ''very'' often, particularly among the minor characters and extras, usually played by New Zealand and Australian actors called on to sport American accents with varying degrees of success. Lucy Lawless was known to do this a few times herself.

{{quote|''"In a time of ancient gods, warlords, and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle...."''}}

* [[Opening Shout-Out]]: The show made fun of the "the power, the passion" part of the opening narration.

** Xena is usually the Blue Oni. She thinks through her actions more than Gabrielle, has less rage and blood-thirstiness than Callisto, is nowhere near as jittery as Joxer, and even keeps her cool around Ares. Hercules only flips the dynamic by virtue of being in less internal anguish.

** Pompey and Caesar.

* [[Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated]]: [[Freaky Friday Flip|Xena-in-Callisto's body]], almost word-for-word, in "Ten Little Warlords".

* [[Rings of Death]]: Xena's Chakram.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]

* [[Secret Test of Character]]: In the pilot, Draco is instructing new recruits to shoot arrows at him while he stands in front of a target. He spares the one guy who shoots the target and not him.

* [[Self-Fulfilling Prophecy]]: The Twilight.

* [[Sequel Episode]]: "Warrior... Princess..." and its sequels "Warrior... Princess... Tramp" and "Warrior... Priestess... Tramp".

* [[Spontaneous Reverb]]: In the episode where Xena meets the slave girl who teaches her how to fight. At one point the slave girl is on the bow of the boat, singing. She brought her own reverb.

* [[Springtime for Hitler]]: In "The Play's the Thing" (a [[Whole-Plot Reference]] to ''[[The Producers]]''), a pair of con artists get a hold of one of Gabrielle's plays and convince her to put it on as a play. As it's overly talky, lacking any action and full of Gabrielle's beliefs, they expect it to fail and to be able to keep all the money (including what was donated by some vicious warlords). Problem is, the cast and producer Joxer make changes (which Gabrielle ultimately agrees with) to transform it into a rousing, violent adventure story.

* [[Stripperiffic]]

** Xena's costume, though slightly better then most.

* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: The reporter from "You are there".

* [[Villain of the Week]]: Try Warlord of the Week, especially in season 1.

* [[Virgin Sacrifice]]: Genia in "Many Happy Returns".

* [[Visions of Another Self]]: A few episodes but played out as [[Flash Forward]] setups with the characters in the modern day.