The whole point of Xena’s character, of course, is that she really kind of enjoys murdering the shit out of people and it takes conscious force of will on her part to hold herself back from doing so when it’s not moral, and Lucy Lawless plays that so well. And I appreciate that. Not a lot of female characters who are allowed to just go fucking feral with bloodlust.
Xena basically frames hatred and violence as a sort of addiction, and I actually think that this is a more sophisticated treatment of a redemption arc than most other stories I’ve seen on the subject.
Gabriella: Oh noes, crisis of the week!
Xena: Not to worry, I have a solution!
Gabriella: Is it murder?
Xena: I mean, its not-not… Yes, its murder, but for a good cause.
Grabriella: *angry pout*
Xena: Very well emotional-support-bard. We shall try wacky shenanigans first.
Gabriella: Don’t worry Xena, we’ll get you thirty days without murder for sure this time!
Narrator: Xena would not get her red murder-sobriety chip this time.
I always remember the quote from Lucy Lawless, about Xena as she first appeared which is from a great interview in general about her work.
She was a warlord. She was worse than any of the creeps that worked for her. I think a lot of the good men — namely, Hercules — made her see the light. Then she didn’t want to kill people any more, mate. She wanted to love people instead.
But she’d done such terrible things in her past — she knew she was irredeemable. She was a flawed hero.
I remember discussing with the executive producer [Robert Tapert], whom I’m married to today, that Hercules is the hero you hope is out there somewhere, and Xena is the hero within every man — the flawed hero — which is a cool thing to be. It’s very interesting to play a character that is not all good.
