Why Xena Warrior Princess Never Made Xena & Gabrielle A Couple

Why Xena: Warrior Princess Never Made Xena & Gabrielle A Couple

Xena and Gabrielle had a budding romantic relationship on Xena: Warrior Princess, but the network and the writers kept them from becoming a couple.

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Why Xena Warrior Princess Never Made Xena & Gabrielle A Couple

Xena: Warrior Princess featured a budding romantic relationship between Xena and her companion Gabrielle, but the show never officially made them a couple due to network politics and character dynamics. In the 90s, LGBTQ+ representation was scarce on television, and many fans quickly grew attached to the clear romantic undertones of the relationship between the reformed warlord and the battling bard. Xena heavily implied their romance over the course of six seasons, even implying Gabrielle and Xena were soulmates, but stopped shy of confirming it. Xena and Gabrielle remain a beloved relationship among viewers twenty years later, though behind-the-scenes decisions prevented the show from openly making them a couple.

The romance between the two female leads was not originally intended, and fans picked up on the not-very-platonic energy of their dynamic before the cast and crew. Nevertheless, the writers and cast got on board with the buzz and leaned into the implied romance more heavily as the seasons went on. While the writers usually tried to maintain a thin guise of heterosexuality, they also pushed the boundary with many scenes between the two women that could not easily be explained away in any context besides a romance.

Like many shows of the time, Xena had to put up with network restrictions, though they sometimes got ridiculous in NBC’s efforts to downplay the queer aspects. The network did not want Xena: Warrior Princess to be seen as a lesbian show, so they carefully measured the messaging. They would not even allow Xena and Gabrielle to be in the same frame during the opening credits. The writers tried to slip as much romance by the network as they could, but ultimately had to cater to their guidelines. However, the writers also had their own reason for keeping the couple unconfirmed.

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Aside from Xena and Gabrielle, one of the central relationships of the show was Xena and Ares. The god of war – played by one of Xena’s most formidable actors, Kevin Smith – was her former mentor and oftentimes antagonist. Ares had a complicated relationship with Xena as she turned from her violent ways to do good in the world, and their interactions always had an undercurrent of romantic tension as he tried to tempt Xena back into her life as a warlord. The writers wanted to keep Ares as a character who had a hold over Xena because of their love-hate feelings for each other. Sending Xena off with Gabrielle would have meant giving up Ares, and the writers were never willing to part with that character dynamic.

While many shows are now increasing queer representation, Xena and Gabrielle provided fans with a romance between two women while it was very hard to find on television. Even though neither the writers nor the network wanted to explicitly confirm them as a couple, their romantic relationship was so clear that it continues to hold up today and laid foundation for some of the queer stories that followed it. Xena: Warrior Princess still made bold choices for the time, and holds its own important place in the history of LGBTQ+ representation on TV.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/xena-gabrielle-lesbians-couple-no-why/

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