Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena: Warrior Princess is a spin-off of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that acquired a powerful cult following"Other than "The X-Files," "Xena" was the first cult hit of the Internet age: the face that launched a thousand Web sites." – from What we owe Xena (2005) influencing other television series in the subsequent years.
The show follows the tale of Xena (played by Lucy Lawless), a reformed villain who was seeking to atone for her bloody past, and Gabrielle, a young woman who wanted to be a bard and left her village to follow Xena. The friendship between the two was at the heart of the show and over the seasons canon continually found new ways to describe them as soulmates. Although nominally set in the Greece of myth and legend, the series embraced anachronisms, borrowed liberally from myths and cultures the Greeks could have had no contact with, and joyfully mutilated geography when it sent Xena on journeys.
==Fandom==
===History===
===Parallel evolution===
Xena fandom appears to have developed in near-isolation from other fandoms, resulting in many fannish traditions being reinvented independently. The development of the Subtext FAQ, for example, is similar to the creation of The Generic Slash Defense Letter by early Blake's 7 slash fans. Specific fannish needs led to a unique vocabulary that describes concepts and activities often known in other fandoms by different terms.
====Xena-specific vocabulary====
* Alt - Also known as alternative or alt fiction, it is the preferred term for Xena/Gabrielle fiction.
* Uber - Uber stories take the essence of the characters and places them in another time, another place, or alternate reality. The uber characters do not have the same names and do not have to be mirror images of the canon characters. Sometimes they are descendants or reincarnations; usually they resemble the originals physically, and they share the same type of bond.
* Alternate Universe or AU - specifically refers to stories that take place in actual alternate universes within in canon, in contrast to Uber, where the characters may be in any alternate reality. Also in contrast to Uber, the characters maintain the same names and physical traits. This is in contrast to the current definition, which encompasses Uber (a term that has fallen out of fashion).
* Bard - Fanfiction writer.
* Romantic friendship - A fanworks genre in which two or more characters are emotionally expressive, warm, and caring with each other.
* Candlemark - A unit of time, approximately an hour, often used in fanfiction.
* The Rift - Used to describe plot arc in season three when Xena and Gabrielle briefly become enemies. The Rift culminates in a scene where an enraged Xena ties Gabrielle up and drags her while galloping across the countryside on Argo, which also gained the fannish term "Gab Drag".
==Shipping==
===Subtext===
Xena fandom is dominated by f/f fanfiction, no doubt due to the canon's focus on the close friendship between Xena and Gabrielle. At times, the show deliberately brought the queer subtext as close to text as it could getValerie Foster, Yes Lucy, There Is Still a Subtext on Xena. Posted October, 1999. (Accessed 30 November 2008.) without crossing the line; at other times, the show seemed merely to be titillating the viewers with faux-sapphic scenes. Either way, the Xena/Gabrielle relationship was meaningful to a lot of people because it was the closest to showing a sapphic relationship as an epic romance that most X/G fans had ever seen on TV at the time of its original airing. (Arguably, this remains true today. While the representation of sapphics on television has improved, female action heroes with female friends, female sidekicks, and woman-centered plotlines remain rare.)
===Pairings===
* Xena/Gabrielle
* Xena/Ares
* Ares/Caesar
* Gabrielle/Joxer
* Gabrielle/Ares
* Ares/Joxer
* Xena/Callisto
* Xena/Lao Ma
===Shipping Wars, Sexuality, Subtext, and Fans===
Like many fandoms, Xena was no stranger to shipping wars. In a 2005 article called What we owe Xena in Salon.com, journalist Cathy Young wrote:
==Fandom Campaign==
===A 1999 Campaign===
From the 1999 MediaWest*Con program book: 
===A 2001 Campaign===
After the season finale fans gathered to ask for movies about Xena to be made, one of these online campaigns took place on the geocities of codmonster14 entitled WE WANT A MOVIE, support banners were created, online questionnaires were distributed all in order to save the show from closing. The site was available until August 7, 2009, later with the imminent closure of the Yahoo! platform, there was a migration to another unarchived URL.
Added to the numerous petitions for the show's comeback and derivative movie productions, many fans clung to the concept of Virtual Seasons to compensate for Xena's departure from television. Some of them include the XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS VIRTUAL SEASON, the Xena/Gabrielle XWP Subtext Virtual Seasons and the Xena/Ares Shipper Seasons.
==Some Text Fanworks==
===Fanfiction, Alternative, Uber===
* Tropical Storm, an Uber novel by Melissa Good, which was later professionally published
* SapphicVoices Fan Fiction, a website with alternative fanfiction
* Little Xena & Little Gabrielle, a comic strip by Lucia de Nobrega
* Themiscrya's Original Fiction and Xena Fan Fiction, a website by Themiscrya
* Jane's Xena: Warrior Princess Alternative Fan Fiction
===Fanzines===
Fanzines in Xena fandom are rare and only feature the het/gen/slash side of the force. The Xena/Gabrielle fandom went a different way with regard to print publications. Instead of zines the fandom published a high number of uber novels. These stories were usually published to the net first and when they proved popular enough, one of the small lesbian publishing houses that came out of the Xenaverse picked it up for a print run.
See Ultimate list of Uber Xena by Vielka Clavijo and The Über Xena/Original Story List by Eileen Marks for more X/G über novels.
* Been There, Never Done That!
* Blood Upon His Wings xover with The Crow
* DXF Newsletter - German fanclub newsletter
* History Cast in Amber
* Summer Storm
* The Warrior and the Bard
* The Xena E-Xine
* The Xeniad
* Whoever Rules Rome—crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sailor Moon
===Podcasts===
* Xena: Warrior Podcast
==Fanvids==
:See :Category:Xena Vids and List of Xena: Warrior Princess Vids
Many of the early Xena fanvids have been lost over time. The fandom reached its peak shortly after the WWW expanded and many of the Internet Archive websites only date back to 2001. In addition, some of the VCR era fanvids never made it online. In a July 23, 1999 post to alt.tv.xena one convention reported that they had received permission to show videos that had never appeared online: "By the way, my partner and I have our hands on a really kewl subtext music video that is NOT available online. Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot. We've the editor/director's permission to screen it for specific populations at the Con (Merwolfs and ATX'ers). So if anyone is interested in attending, email me privately. New Yorkers may be familiar with the editor's previous music videos of The Warrior and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. They've been screened at Meow Mix Xena nights."cite
A fan replied: "The Warrior and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I have both of these on tape...along with about 14 others."cite
A few years earlier, on August 2, 1997, Xena fans held a party in Dallas, Texas where they advertised in alt.tv.xena that they would have "8 Xena music videos for your viewing pleasure...including some of my big faves from those creative California fans. We will also have a few other videos to pop in - in case the crowd gets catatonic."DALLAS - XENA Party 8/2 Update!!! post by Adele Fairman dated July 28, 1997; archived link.
At the Jan 1998 Burbank, California Xena convention, fan vids may have been shown. Because of Creation Con's policy of not crediting editors, it is not clear if the vids were fan made, however a few vids match the titles of some of the early fan made videos:RJ Stewart Chat? post to alt.tv.xena dated 12/16/1998; Archive link. See also Question for those who recently attended Creation Convention(s) post by Matt Savelkoul to alt.tv.xena dated Oct 21, 1998 asking if Creation Con had given fan vidders credit for the vids they showed; Archive link."The first offering was a music video salute to Gabrielle (to the tune of "Wind Beneath My Wings").Possibly by The Video Vixen. Source: archived website dated Feb 2001. It was the same [video] as the previous day, but I'm a sucker for those music videos, so I didn't mind. ....After Brad Carpenter's talk, they showed a music video salute to Salmoneus. Why they didn't show this yesterday, before Robert Trebor's talk, I will never know. It was pretty funny, and was done to "Workin' For a Livin'"....By way of introduction [to Lucy Lawless], they showed a music video salute to Xena (to the tune of "Simply the Best")...Chrome aka Mike's post Greetings from the Burbank Con! (part 3) post to alt.tv.xena dated Jan 19, 1998; archived link.
Even though most Xena websites are now offline, a few fanvids from 1999 can still be found archived. One example is Daniel Ma's Maria Carey vid "A Hero Lies Within You" that has a June 19, 1999 date.archived at the WayBack Machine, dated June 19, 1999.
Likewise, the timing of the early subtext vids remains fluid. There are references to such vids in a March 2, 1999 post to alt.tv.xena, one of which, "Come To My Window,The video may have been edited by Matt of Xena University. Several of Matt's videos were shown at Creation Cons from 1998-2001. Source: { was shown at a New York Creation Con.The writer may have been referring to the Creation Con held in New York on September 27, 1997. A con report from that time mentions music viedos, but "Come To My Window" was not mentioned in the report. Source: NYC Xena Con - Results by Erica Friedman post to alt.tv.xena dated Sept 29, 1997; archived link.
A few surviving examples of subtext vids are Talaran's website with subtext vids starting in August 1999.Talaran's Realm, archived in 2000. Other examples include: "Something To Talk About" by Alex Robinson on or before Feb 2001,archived website dated Feb 9, 2001. "I Could Fall In Love With You" by Pooka dated on or before Nov 2001archived website dated Nov 27, 2001). A copy of the archived vid can be downloaded here. and "At Last" dated on or before May 2001.archived website May 18, 2001. A copy of the archived vid can be downloaded here.
====Lists of Pre-2000 Xena Fan Vidders====
* , vids by Matt, Aimee and Theresa at Xenauniversity from December 1997-2001. Included subtext videos: "Come To My Window", "One", "Push It," "We Belong" and "Sexual (li da di)"
* JEZMOND'S PORTAL TO XENA VIDEO ODYSSEY (Archive Link) various dates starting with Jan 1999.
* Fade To Black Xena Website (Archive Link) by Kelly Piper - first Xena vid listed on website is Good Intentions dated July 2, 1999.
* Gabrielle Greatest Hits (Archive link) and XenaRulz (Archive Link), some Xena vids are listed as "old" or "reposted" with a date of Aug 7, 1999
* The Video Hut (Archive Link) a Xena vid dated on or before Nov 1999
* Xenaweb Videos (Archive Link) music videos, including subtext 1999-2000
* I Want My XTV (Archive Link), vids by The Video Vixen from 1999 to 2001
====Notable Vids====
Individual Vids
* Discotheque by Matt Savelkoul (1998 or earlier)
* Xena Anthology by Matt Savelkoul, thirteen episodes of Xena to create a three-hour movie (on or before August 1998)
* Rebel Girl by Jett and Muz (Jezmond) (mid 1990s (1999)?)
* World Falls by Jett and Muz (Jezmond)
* A Hero Lies In You by Dan Ma (on or before June 1999)
* Bang Bang by DevenK (2000 or earlier)
* Goldfinger by Elad Avron (2001 or earlier)
* I Turn To You by Andreas Hloupy (2001 or earlier)
* When You Tell Me That You Love Me by Heike Straub (2001 or earlier)
* I Need To Be Next To You by Ferdi (May/June 2001)
* And That's What Hurts by Terri Hill (2002 or earlier)
* Mitternacht by Drachenfrau (2002 or earlier)
* What You Won't Do For Love by Allyson Heisey (2002 or earlier)
* Sexy Subtext by Brandy (2002 or earlier)
* Sie sieht mich nicht by Conny Biesinge (2002 or earlier)
* Boom Boom Ba by charmax, a very sensual Xena/Gabrielle vid. (link) (2004)
* These Two Arms by Killa (2006)
* Devotion by charmax (2007)
Vid Index Sites
* Lunacy's Fan Fiction Reviews: XWP Music Video Index (archived link to the last updated version; archived link to the first version)
* Subopia – listing of Xena/Gabrielle Subtext Music video sites. (archived link)
* Xenaversity – a listing of Xena Music Video Sites. (archived link) and a (second archived version)
* Roach's Xena Music Video Archives archive link (access vids via alphabet at the bottom)
* ForevaXena's website (archived links)
* Shenok's Xena Shrine Music Clips (archive link)- a list of clips set to music dating back to 2000
* Xenario Vid Links (link)
Other
* Jezmond's Video Portal Page - (archived link) - a selection of parody music videos dating back to 1999
==Fan Art==
Much of Xena fan art was posted online on sites that no longer exist such as archives and fansites so sadly many of the art galleries are now offline. A few remain, and some art can be found on Deviantart (such as the group Xena Fan Club) or Livejournal (such as the community Xena Art).
* Chariot's Xena Art Index
* The Archives of Amphipolis 
===DeviantArt Groups=== 
* Remembering-Xena
* Lucy-Renee-HQ
* Xena-WarriorPrincess
* Xena-x-Gabrielle
* Xena-Love
* Xena-wower-prinzezz
* Xena-LucyLawless
* xena10afterfin
* The-Warrior-Princess
===Sample Art===
File:KaraSXena1 ink.png|Xena. Artist: Kara Senberg. Artist Notes: "11"x14" on 110lb paper, inked with Sharpie permanent pen."
File:Ares lean.jpg| Artist: Angelique. Ares, character study
File:Gabtemple.jpg| Artist: Rebekah Lynn. "Emerging Warrior" (April 2000)
File:Xena and Gabrielle III by DarkButSoLovely.jpg| Artist: DarkButSoLovely. "A tender moment."
File:buddies2.jpg| Artist: Warren Oddsson. Gabrielle and Xena, printed in Buddies: A Collection of Media Art 1958-2001, may have appeared in a previous print zine
==Conventions==
* First Hercules & Xena Symposium (September 1998, Egham, England)
* Olympiad (Manchester, England, July 21-23, 2000)
* Panathenaea (London, England, September 1-3, 2000)
* Fan Gatherings at Page's Bar in London (small scale gathering with a Xena focus initially; 1999-2003)
==Archives and Communities==
:See :Category:Xena: Warrior Princess Websites
===Fiction Archives and Websites===
* Absolutely XenaCrazed
* Del's Fan Fiction Reviews
* Friends Forever Official Site, a Portuguese-Speaking xenite website, their mailing list was friends_forever
* Guerrière et Amazone (French)
* Joan's Xena Stuff
* The Scroll Society
* Section X
* Xena/Ares Fan Fiction Library
* Xena: Warrior Princess works at fanfiction.net
* Xena: Warrior Princess works at AO3
* B'Elanna Torres's Star Trek & Xena:WP Stories Page
* The MAMMOTH Index of Xena: Warrior Princess Fan Sites
* The Amazon Press
* Kindred Spirit Lodge
* Stellar's Xena-Related Comic Strips
* Calli's Creations
* Clotho's Corner: Alternative Fan Fiction
=== Mailing Lists ===
* AshquarLegends
* DFX Newsletter, a publication of the Deutscher Xena Fanclub that ran for 25 issues.
* Dreamslores mailing list dedicated to the Uber fan fiction writer Dreams
==Reviews and Rec Sites== 
* Lunacy's recs site, influential on the house style of Xena fanfiction
* Just Like Buttah!, alt and uber recs 
* Celebrations of Diversity Within the Xena Fan Fiction World, a list of online fanworks that feature ethnic or religious diversity 
* ForeverXena's FanFic Reviews
* Dreamcatching Reviews and Recommendations
===Meta/Further Reading===
:See :Category:Xena & Hercules Meta
* Whoosh!, the tongue-in-cheek International Association of Xenaoid Studies, for Xena-related meta
* Restaurante da Xena a humorous restaurant menu inspired by the show and created by the Brazilian voice actor and fan Guilherme Briggs
* Heroic Deeds and Moral Dilemmas: Reading About Women Before and After Xena
* Lillian Varessi on Fandom and the First Xenite Club Fan Mailing List to Lucy Lawless (1997)
* How To Write Xena Fan Fiction: an essay by Joanna Sandsmark (1998)
* The Bards' Village Fanfiction Reviews: a Xena fanfic review site
* They're Letting You Write Your Thesis About That?: an essay by Kelly Rowett (1998)
* WHAT IS THIS...ÜBER?
* Writing Xena: Warrior Princess Fan Fiction: The Pressure To Perform And Conform, an essay by L.N. James (1998)
* Xena Fan Fiction: Methods, Resources, And The Future: an essay by Barry L. Marshall (1998)
* Xena: Warrior Princess, Desire Between Women, and Interpretive Response (?1998)
* An Interview with Websister (1999)
* Xena (The Warrior Princess), P.T. Barnum (The Humbug Prince), and Copyrights: an essay by Virginia Carper (2000)
* The Machinations of Xena: Warrior Princess Fan Fiction: an essay by Carolyn McBride (2000)
* Historian's Rants about Xena: Warrior Princess Fan Fiction essay by Linda Knighton with research notes by Marilynn Masten (2000)
* She Nerds Out podcast (2019) has multiple episodes dedicated to Xena, specific episodes, and to Lucy Lawless
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Xena: Warrior Princess