Xena: Warrior Princess 2x19 "Ulysses" Reaction
Added 2021-11-28 23:50:43 +0000 UTC
Comments
As far as I’m concerned there’s only one straight love relationship/male love interest that works for Xena where there is genuine chemistry there and deep history and it definitely is not Ulysses. This is forced/contrived writing. It’s not in character for Xena and likely not even for Ulysses either even though we don’t really know anything about him. The only character in character this episode is Gabrielle, who feels the pangs of jealousy over Ulysses having feelings for Xena and Xena, uncharacteristically, reciprocating. But of course she just wants Xena to be happy when Xena admits she’s in love (ugh) with Ulysses. I don’t blame the actors of course. They’re just following a forced/contrived script. But I know Lucy looks back on this episode and her performance in it with disgust knowing it is absolutely not in character for Xena at all to fall in love with a guy in only one day. Especially when she’s already admitted her feelings for Gabrielle and her for Xena. They may not be together yet but there is feelings there and known by the other so it’s just wrong for Xena to feel feelings for Ulysses. All in all - this is not a good episode to watch. Honestly it’s one of the worst of all. The writing is just so bad. Especially for the likes of this show that usually handles characterization very well. But I know that they did it because it was a requirement of the network who absolutely did not want Xena and Gabrielle to be a romantic pairing.
Girl4Music
2023-11-09 09:12:56 +0000 UTCI once heard the term “straightbaiting” in regards to ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’. As in, what we queer people get in another show where there’s queerbaiting. But with Xena it’s just with the opposite sex instead. And that’s accurate because the central relationship in ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ is Xena and Gabrielle. The show revolves around both of them as main characters and their love relationship - be it platonic or romantic. Every other episode in the earlier seasons they would bring in a male love interest for either one of them (later in the show they would also get female love interests as well as male love interests; Gabrielle - Najara, Thalassa, Brunhilda. Xena - M’Lila, Lao Ma and, ugh, Akemi) but none of these love interests lasted. They would either die, leave or otherwise just never show up in the show again. They were either always temporary fill ins/stand bys until the other main character returned or used as a relationship conflict between Xena and Gabrielle, basically stating and showing how unnatural it was for either of them to have any sort of love relationship going on when it’s not with each other. And whenever this happens, the show itself feels shaky and off-kilter: unbalanced. In a sense,… not straight. It feels not straight for it to be straight. It feels fake. It feels abnormal. Wrong. Exactly the way a queer person is supposed to feel when it’s queerbaiting in a primarily straight show. Straightbaiting in Xena feels like that to a straight person because Xena is genuinely a queer show and, therefore, in that show,… Queer is right. Queer is normal. Queer is real. And even with the female love interests - it still feels that way because, again, the central and most important relationship is X and G! So ‘straightbaiting’ is absolutely the most accurate term to describe what the experience of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ is rather than queerbaiting because it’s not Xena and Gabrielle that is the bait. It’s everyone else. And this is especially true with the male love interests. Except maybe Ares. But that’s a whole other topic altogether that takes understanding Rob Tapert’s mind, who is genuinely team X and G all the way but just has hang ups with X and A. I won’t go into it here. But yes, it also boggles my mind something awful when anyone watching Xena today could call it queerbaiting. It’s honestly the entire opposite. You can’t watch episodes like ‘When Fates Collide’ and ‘Who’s Gurkhan’ and hell, even Season 2’s ‘The Quest’, without realizing that the creators are genuine with how they write Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship. It’s not a joke. It might have started out as one but pretty damn quickly they changed course and it became serious. So serious that almost every other relationship for Xena or Gabrielle feels like a joke. Feels like it is the bait that keeps straight people tuned into watching a queer show about queer characters the way straight characters acting queer are the bait for queer people to watch a straight show. And I cannot put it anymore concisely than that. That IS ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’. It is a straightbaiting show. So much so that Lucy and Renee have laughs about it. These are two straight women taking the piss out of the show’s attempts to keep its straight audience. Laughing about how unnatural it all feels for Xena and Gabrielle to have “straight” love relationships, proving my point completely true without knowing it. And I’m emphatically saying this as a queer woman myself that headcanons Xena as bisexual. Still queer but not gay. It feels extremely wrong for Gabrielle to be doing this. But it doesn’t ever matter because it doesn’t ever last. What lasts is the central relationship. That of X & G. So regardless whether the nature of Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship is platonic or romantic, the creators are purposefully telling and showing you all love interests or love relationships besides theirs fail in comparison. And that’s not a very “queerbait-y” thing to do, is it? That’s actually the opposite of queerbait.
Girl4Music
2023-11-09 09:02:25 +0000 UTCRachel Blakely was great in The Lost World series - another good show that seems to be under the appreciation radar.
Tony Tenser
2021-11-30 11:35:03 +0000 UTCIf it’s any consolation, Ulysses, Penelope is pretty hot. And it’s about time you showed up, Poseidon! It’s been almost two whole seasons of you in the credits.
Koz
2021-11-29 18:12:32 +0000 UTCThis was quite an unpopular episode with the Xena fandom. I don't really have a strong negative reaction to it when viewing but do recognise that the messaging of the episode is very off. Xena the series is usually very good at establishing the moral compasses of guest characters, but they just dropped the ball with Ulysses. He is a good fighter, but other than that, we do not see him being the noble and virtuous leader he was repeatedly made out to be and which the entire episode's premise is built upon. What we do see is that he has to be rescued from sirens, doesn't seem relieved that his wife isn't dead, says he doesn't love his devoted and virtuous wife and is willing to abandon his people for a woman he's just met. It just doesn't gel nor is it believable that Xena and he would fall in love so quickly and be willing to give up lives they previously thought were their destinies for each other. The Gabrielle fight scenes were on point in this episode though. She took on multiple men in 3 separate fights, 2 of which she started off unarmed, and won them all without needing help or to be rescued. Seems quite the opposite of the previous episode (Blind Faith). Where the guest character, Palaemon, was fleshed out and lived up to his characterisation but Gabrielle reverted to a damsel in distress. Her exact skill level as a fighter has been written inconsistently thus far, with it fluctuating quite a lot based on whatever the plot requires. It would be interesting for the show to explore Gabrielle's development as a warrior more directly, it seems like an obvious story to explore which they haven't really done yet. (IMO, a "warrior" in the Xenaverse is different from a "fighter" because it involves both the fighting prowess and life philosophy to do good by and through the sword. Gabrielle is only an average fighter from what we've seen so far and doesn't share Xena's life philosophy entirely.) I wish they explored Xena's thoughts on possibly parting ways with Gabrielle for Ulysses (before they found out Penelope was alive) too. We saw Gabrielle give Xena her blessing but never hear from Xena. In a way, I'm glad we didn't get an answer. Whoever Xena ends up with romantically for the long haul, including Gabrielle or choosing to be single, I'd like to think that it's because it was what she passionately, genuinely wanted, not because it was a backup second choice.
Judson
2021-11-29 08:41:22 +0000 UTCI was not on board with this ship from the beginning, but Ulysses wanting to bail on his kingdom and wife over a woman he's met like yesterday really muddied his character as a heavily unreliale person. Like... no, thank you, go away please.
SimbaK
2021-11-29 05:01:29 +0000 UTCThis is an enjoyable episode but the Xena-Ulysses potential romance also doesn't quite work for me either. I actually think the episode would have been much better without it as it comes across quite awkwardly especially in the later stages of the episode. Also its a shame Rachel Blakely (of The Lost World TV series) doesn't have a bigger role in the episode as Penelope. But it's enjoyable despite those factors and we do get a nice undercover Gabrielle dance scene :-)
Tony Tenser
2021-11-29 01:00:54 +0000 UTC
