Xena: Warrior Princess

Fandom
Name:	Xena: Warrior Princess
Abbreviation(s):	Xena, XWP
Creator:	John Schulian, Robert Tapert, R. J. Stewart
Date(s):	1995-2001
Medium:	television series,
Country of Origin:	United States (filmed in New Zealand)
External Links:	IMDB Subpages for Xena: Warrior Princess: Memories
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Xena: Warrior Princess was a spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, following the tale of Xena, 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 Xena and Gabrielle 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.

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 get without crossing the line; at other times, the show seemed merely to be titillating the viewers with faux-lesbian scenes. Either way, the Xena/Gabrielle relationship was meaningful to a lot of people because it was the closest to showing a lesbian 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 lesbians on television has improved, female action heroes with female friends, female sidekicks, and woman-centered plotlines remain rare.)

Fandom

(more to come)

Notable Works

• Tropical Storm, an Uber novel by Melissa Good, which was later professionally published

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. For a list of X/G uber novels see Vielka Clavijo's listings of published Uber Xena novels.

• Been There, Never Done That!
• Blood Upon His Wings xover with The Crow
• History Cast in Amber
• Summer Storm
• The Warrior and the Bard
• The Xeniad

Archives

See Category:Xena: Warrior Princess Websites

• Absolutely XenaCrazed
• Guerrière et Amazone (French)
• Xena/Ares Fan Fiction Library
• Xena: Warrior Princess works at fanfiction.net
• Xena: Warrior Princess works at AO3

Fanvids

Individual Vids

• Boom Boom Ba by charmax, a very sensual Xena/Gabrielle vid. (link)
• Devotion by charmax
• These Two Arms by Killa

Vid Index Sites

• Lunacy's Fan Fiction Reviews: XWP Music Video Index
• Subopia – listing of Xena/Gabrielle Subtext Music video sites. (archived link)
• Xenaversity – a listing of Xena Music Video Sites. (archived link)

Fan Art

Xena. Artist: Kara Senberg. Artist Notes: "11"x14" on 110lb paper, inked with Sharpie permanent pen."

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
• Uber
• Bard
• Romantic friendship
• Candlemark (fanfic fanon)
• etc

Resources

• Lunacy's recs site, influential on the house style of Xena fanfiction
• Whoosh!, the tongue-in-cheek International Association of Xenaoid Studies, for Xena-related meta

Xena also has several virtual seasons, including the Xena/Gabrielle XWP Subtext Virtual Seasons and the Xena/Ares Shipper Seasons.