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My favorite thing about Xena is that it doesn't matter what plot you thought for your fanfic, Xena already did it in canon.

Vampires, time loop, memory loss, sacrifices, time travel, AU where they are celebrities and the fans are wondering about the nature of your relationship, farytale kiss to wake up the love of your life, horror. The female best friend being the daddy who stepped up to an accidental pregnancy, Greek gods, dying and coming back to life, CRUCIFICTION.

I can go on and on and on.

Xena Warrior Princess, the show that you are.

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the only reliable, effective way of "protecting children" is education. but people don't want to hear that because they don't actually care about protecting children, they care about protecting a mythologised ideal of innocence

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If there ever was a live action Thorn...

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Wonder Woman and Steven Universe because they would be BESTIES

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Helena Wells & Myka Bering | Warehouse 13

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Yall se the vision right?

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Striking differences between season 4 and season 6 

- The differences in how Xena and Gabrielle deal with situations, circumstances, and consequences that involve their deaths, moral codes, and choices.

Many Xenites believe that Gabrielle didn’t love Xena to same level Xena loved her. But that’s only because they don’t agree with the ending. I, however, did. In fact I would have wrote the ending to the show exactly the same way. The only change I would have made, was I would have given a different and better reason for Xena to stay dead than the one she got. Because I thought the reason was just lazy writing, and she deserved better. But she would have had a heroes death in my ending too. Sword in her hand. Ultimately redeemed from all the evil she did and crimes she committed. 

Like I explained in a recent Tumblr post I wrote, Gabrielle would have found it extremely difficult, at first, but she would have had the emotional strength to move on and continue life, without Xena, eventually. That does not in any way mean she loved Xena less. I would actually say it means she loved Xena more. The complete opposite. Sometimes love requires you to let go and move on. It requires so much strength and courage. At some point we all have to do it. And as difficult and painful as it is, you do it because you love them enough to. You allow them to leave you. It seems contradictory to most people. It’s a love that not too many understand because it’s so hard to think that someone could just put aside their selfish desires like that, and let go of all their need to be with that person, to give them the eternal rest and peace they seek. If what Gabrielle did, by allowing Xena to pass on into eternity, was not love, then I don’t know what is. As I’ve said countless times, in relation to these characters, love goes way beyond human conceptualization. It’s on another level than we currently comprehend as humans, but that the soul knows with no doubt. 

For all out there that say Gabrielle didn’t love Xena as much as Xena loved her because she allowed her to stay dead. Just think about this. Xena chose that end to keep her promise to live by the ‘greater good’. It was her moral code. Gabrielle never agreed with it, but she accepted Xena’s choice because she couldn’t deny Xena that eternal peace as a fully redeemed soul. It was all about what Xena wanted to Gabrielle. An unselfish thought. However, if it was the other way around, it’d be a completely different story. If Gabrielle chose to stay dead, Xena would not have accepted it. Not only would it have been selfish for her not to respect what Gabrielle wanted. But it would have also been against her moral code to live by the ‘greater good’, and to redeem herself from the sins of her past. But since Gabrielle’s life goes beyond the ‘greater good’ for her, she wouldn’t have accepted Gabrielle sacrificing herself the way she did for those 40,000 souls. By avenging their deaths. As proved in season 6, ‘Legacy’, when Korah’s life had to be avenged and Gabrielle accepted the consequences of her actions. Even though it was just an accident, and purely on a gut instinct, Gabrielle still felt very guilty for it. So, she chose to let his family execute her. But Xena refused to let it be that way. She went against the ‘greater good’ just to save her when she led those romans to Korah’s father’s campsite. She would not let Gabrielle choose that end.

Furthermore, it was right Gabrielle should carry on Xena’s legacy. When you think about it, a hero never dies if their legacy is still alive. And a person never dies if they remain in their loved ones minds and hearts. Their consciousness never dies. That’s what I believe the show wanted to convey to the audience in ‘AFIN’, as well as that love comes at a price. It’s not always riding off into the sunset together. It’s not always a happy ending. Sometimes it’s pain and suffering, and that’s realistic. Are you willing to put aside your own happiness to love that deeply? That’s the question we can’t answer. That’s the love too few of us can understand and accept because it’s upsetting and seems counterintuitive. Until you realize that love isn’t just a feeling. Love isn’t just something you feel. Love is your entire being. Love is you. And it’s your responsibility to cultivate that love. That unconditional and unselfish love.

Xena didn’t just give up her life to be ultimately redeemed. That would have been all too easy. She gave up her happiness. She gave up Gabrielle.

Gabrielle also gave up her happiness. She gave up Xena. But she didn’t give up her own life. She loved Xena on a deeper level. She loved her with the love that lets go.

Who loved who more depends on what you think is most important when it comes to the situation of making sacrifices with your own death. Living by the moral code you’ve promised to follow your whole life, and honoring the wishes of your loved ones, or ignoring all that and killing in order to protect and defend your loved ones. The different circumstances here make it very difficult to give an answer. But to me, they loved each other equally, as they both tried their hardest to save each other’s lives no matter the situation, circumstance or consequence. And, without hesitation, give up their own life to do it. When it came to each other’s lives, there was absolutely no excuses to not save each other’s lives. That is called love, that is true. However, in the end, what really matters is what the person themselves decide, and it’s extremely difficult to just accept it if it means you’ll be in incredible pain. Gabrielle didn’t love Xena more or less than Xena loved her. But she did love her unconditionally. Well, it turned out that one of the conditions that she had to excuse, whether she liked it or not, was to accept the death of Xena, because it’s what Xena decided. The ‘greater good’ didn’t really matter to Gabrielle either, when it came to Xena’s life. But Xena’s choice did, and so she chose to respect her wishes. That is as unconditional as you can get when it comes to loving someone, because of the fact that they have to leave you for you to give that kind of love to them.

The truly striking difference here is not in how far one will go to save the one they love, which is Xena’s love. It’s in how much they’re willing to give up to do it. But sometimes the situation is that the very thing you have to give up is the loved one you’re trying to save. So, therefore, the greatest gesture of unconditional love you can give is, as hard as it is, to let go of them. That’s Gabrielle’s love. The Xenites have great difficulty in accepting the ending of ‘AFIN’, because it’s not something easily understood. Or rather, they do understand it, but they put their own views, reasons and conditions to not accept it first. When they should do as Gabrielle did, and just honour the Warrior Princess’ wishes. It’s not about being morally right. It has nothing to do with living by the ‘greater good’. It has to do with respecting and accepting the choice of the one you love. And for Xena, living by the ‘greater good’, in the end, meant that she had to stay dead. The question you need to ask yourself is do you love Xena to the depth Gabrielle does? Unconditionally and unselfishly. If you do, and you were in Gabrielle’s situation at the time, you would have not dumped Xena’s ashes into the fountain of strength either. Even if you didn’t agree with Xena, in having to avenge the death of those 40,000 souls, by staying dead, which Gabrielle definetly didn’t. Nevertheless, you put all that aside, because Xena did. 

BONUS: Xena tells Gabrielle that it was her influence on her throughout their travels together that made her choose the end she did. She knew that it was morally right because she learned that it was from Gabrielle. And even though it upset both her and Gabrielle, because it meant they couldn’t be together in that way anymore, they both accepted it because this was how Xena was to receive her ultimate redemption.

“Gabrielle does say in the last scene that she doesn’t care about those people. All she cares about is Xena. Which to me was the heart of the dichotomy of Gabrielle. It was so against her nature to say that. Her love for Xena is so strong, it changed her emotionally. But she couldn’t deny her friend the peace she had sought for so long.” - Renee O’Connor 

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