#gabrielle’s evolution

[girl4music]

‘To Helicon And Back’ is such a fascinating but heartbreaking episode. There’s so much to be said about the role-reversal transition in the episode and how it affects and progresses everything that follows on from it in the Spaghetti Order of the episodes.

Everything Xena wanted to avoid with Gabrielle travelling with her has happened - only, it really has nothing to do with them travelling together, but rather the obligation and responsibility of the Amazon nation. Although, you could argue that if Gabrielle didn’t meet Xena and didn’t travel with her at all, then she’d never have became an Amazon Princess. 

GABRIELLE: “Xena, you should take command. Take it!”

XENA: “The Amazons aren’t going to listen to me, Gabrielle. You’re it. You’re it!”

This is the only place where Gabrielle is the leader. Where Xena has to follow Gabrielle’s order. Where Xena has to ask for Gabrielle's permission. Where Xena has to stand outside and wait for Gabrielle. Aside from a few who were infatuated with her, the Amazons barely batted an eyelash at Xena. Some couldn't even tolerate her. Every time they visited the Amazon village, it was always "Our Queen's back!

... Oh, and Xena's with her."

I think the Amazons felt the same way Gabrielle's birth family did about Xena. That she took their pride and joy away from them. They were always abandoned and someone was left to reign in her place as Regeant so they never truly had an AMAZON QUEEN in Gabrielle.

Regardless… This is the only place where Gabrielle is the Alpha and Xena is the Omega. So when Xena says "You're it". She means her own presence is invisible to Gabrielle's tribe and that the Queen, in this moment especially, was all that could be seen. Gabrielle was it because Xena was expendable and inconsequential to the Amazons. They simply didn’t care if she was there. They only cared about Gabrielle returning to them.

It’s not ever Xena’s story when it’s an Amazon-heavy episode. It’s Gabrielle’s because Gabrielle is their own and the only reason why Xena is allowed to be there as part of their community is because she’s Gabrielle’s.

Xena has no control or authority with the Amazons and she’s absolutely fine with it because she knows she doesn’t deserve it. So she just acquiesces to the fact that the dynamic between her and Gabrielle is in opposition to how it is when they’re anywhere else and maybe some part of her actually likes the fact that within the views of the Amazon nation, Gabrielle is the hero and Xena’s the irritating tag-along sidekick. They don’t need her there and she’s fully aware of it but she knows Gabrielle needs her there because she knows she’s her whole life and she can’t possibly be the hero or the warrior without her there with them. Yeah, some part of her likes it. Loves it even because she’s happy Gabrielle is getting all the attention. But there’s a larger part of her that is absolutely fucking terrified of what that entails and does not want it to ever happen.

GABRIELLE: “I don’t want to be buried with the Amazons.”

XENA: “Alright. Well, in 50 years, when the time comes-”

GABRIELLE: “Xena, I want to lie with you, with your family, in Amphipolis.”

XENA: “What about your family?”

GABRIELLE: “I love them but I’m a part of you. I want it to be like that forever. I love you.”

I think the most tragically heartbreaking thing about this episode and its role-reversal transition is that Xena had to face the reality of her worst fear coming true in that Gabrielle is becoming more and more like her as a warrior in such a way where she always knew would be the inevitable outcome of their partnership but that Gabrielle would never have considered would because when she told her sister in the first episode that she was going to be a warrior just like Xena… she had no idea what the hell she was getting herself into. But Xena always did and Xena can’t do anything about it now. She can’t stop it. She’s absolutely helpless in preventing the transition from happening at this point. She just stands there watching the nightmare unfold before her very eyes. Looking into a mirror reflection of the sins of her past in the one conscious being in existence that saved her from her own damnation and in ending her own life before it had ever really began. Just the same as how she was forced to see it happen in ‘Remember Nothing’ and so she pulled back out of the deal with the Fates in giving her a second chance to live a simple quiet, peaceful life without bloodshed.

It is a very POWERFUL visual and dialogue that wrecks you at the end of ‘To Helicon And Back’ because you know just how painful it is for Xena to have to face the reality that this is it now. That it’s finally happened in this life and reality and it will keep happening from this moment onwards because she cannot do anything about it anymore. There’s no deal with the Fates to break. No alt-reality to change or destroy. She can’t reverse time or do anything to prevent what’s happening at and in this moment.

Gabrielle has chosen Xena over herself in every way and in so doing has forced Xena to bear witness to the sacrifice Gabrielle has made in becoming just like her.

XENA: “You won.”

GABRIELLE: “I don’t think I did. With each battle, I lose more of myself.”

XENA: “War’s tough on the soul, Gabrielle.”

GABRIELLE: “Yeah.”

It’s in this moment that they both feel this role-reversal transition as one being passing into and becoming each other because that was always the nature of their soul and therefore their inevitable fate.

[lc-holy]

I drew this comic after the Evolution episode aired.

[theartofnieriel]

After Gabriel’s blunder with the rabbit miraculous, Nathalie takes time off work for some “girl time” to vent.

-

reblog, don’t repost. thank you

[ariszed]

Things based on Gustave Dore's art of the Inferno. The first pic was from a couple years ago, the second is newer/a spiritual sequel.

[geekgirles]

Marinette, who only felt a little woozy for like 0.2 seconds after wielding all miraculouses, seeing Monarch having a fucking stroke for doing the same thing:

[plagggg]

this is truly the dumbest man I’ve ever seen

[izanogi]

its canon

[ijustliketoreadstuff]

Sass said something very interesting.

Everyone knows that its extremely dangerous to use to many miraculous. When Gabriel overexerts himself with the miraculous in “Evolution”, Sass explains to him that the kwamis need to eat something in order to allow him to continue using their power, if they become to weak then this will continue to effect Gabriel and his power. We know that a kwami can draw energy from an adult holder rather than eat food to sustain themselves, but even the adults need to let the kwamis eat if they have used or are planning to use their power multiple times, like how we saw adult Alix feed Fluff. . 

However, Gabriel now has all kwamis from the box to sustain, he needs to give them food to eat otherwise they draw away to much energy from his body, but in the midst of his battle against Ladybug and Cat Noir and finding yet another opportunity in the past to defeat the two heroes at a weak point in their lives, Gabriel denies them food and tells them he is their master, they have no choice but to continue along with his plans. When Sass sees that Gabriel still wants to continue despite their warning, Sass knows that they cant refuse him since he is fully capable of controlling them and forcing his commands onto them, so instead, Sass quickly tells Gabriel that if he destroys them, then he will in turn destroy himself, meaning that if Gabriel forces them to starve then it will have dyer consequences for all of them. 

Sass’s response brings up a very interesting point, we don’t actually know what will happen to a holder if they try to forcefully use a kwamis power when they have gone beyond their limit of hunger.

We’ve seen that an inexperienced holder, like Chloe, will suffer no side effects if they have no knowledge of the kwamis names and commands. If a holder doesn’t know how to control them to force them to reveal their names and commands, then they cant use their power, sparing them from the backlash of using many miraculous.

Marinette was much more experienced and knew the names and commands of all the kwamis so she was able to wield all the miraculous and use their powers. We see that the miraculous were draining Marinette and according to Master Fu, fusing with that much power was dangerous and could even make her loose her mind. Since Ladybug is not a grown up yet, she was quick to only use a few of the miraculous powers ONCE, within the kwamis limits, so the side effects didn’t cause to much damage to her body and mental health during “Kwamibuster”.

Gabriel knew the kwamis names by either using his control over them to tell things to him, or by reading the translated book he found in Fu’s tablet. An experienced adult holder like Gabriel is also able to withstand the side effects the first time he uses multiple miraculous, just like Ladybug, but when he quickly tries to do it a second time, that’s when he begins to feel his body unable to bare the strain of all the miraculous, it gets worse the third time he does it as the backlash even caused him to lose consciousness temporarily.

We know that if a kwami does not eat on time, it will cause an immediate de-transformation for the holders once their timers are up, more so for  younger holders. However,  even if a kwami reaches its limit, an evil adult holder may be willing to forcefully continue using the power of the miraculous, and even though Gabriel gave into Sass’s reasoning to feed the kwamis, we technically do not know what would happen to a holders body, as well as the miraculous jewels, if the holder continues to repeatedly wear and use multiple miraculous in the same way Gabriel is doing now. Since Gabriel is still planning to use multiple miraculous, we have no idea what kind of backlash his body will face in the future and we especially have no idea what will happen to him if he ever tries to use the powers of a starved kwami, in other words, things are not looking good for Gabriel.

[hufflepotato-18]

nathalie: did it work, gabriel?

gabriel: no, ladybug tricked me. she took the time miraculous from me. you have to help me create a new plan. ladybug cannot get away.

nathalie: you had the time miraculous. you could’ve chosen to save emilie. you could’ve chosen to save me. instead, you chose your obsession with ladybug and chat noir. you’re crazy, gabriel.

gabriel: it wasn’t my fault, it was ladybug.

nathalie: you don’t deserve my help. you don’t deserve anyone’s help.

[gg-ladybug]

Screaming, this was top tier and they didn’t even mean it to be 😭

At some point, Bunnyx’s mocking actually turned into an explanation, and that’s even funnier when you take into account she KNOWS who he is-

[iwasbored777]

Félix when he finds out his uncle keeps losing even though he literally GAVE him victory:

[casadefreewill]

Those unification phrases are really long

[blueberryscent]

lol

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Evolution proved that Gabriel is now more focused on winning then he is on saving Emilie.

And I think this proves Gabriel doesn’t deserve a redemption. If he tried to do Nathalie’s plan and he was interrupted, then that’s one thing. But Gabriel made his choice. He could have stopped everything right there, but he was mad with power.

[bklily]

Ladybug: Oh my God is it dead

Chat, poking Gabriel with his baton: He's just been laying there not moving for 30 seconds

Alix, cocking a gun: Only one way to find out

[flightfoot]

You know, I love how Evolution and Destruction explained why Gabriel isn’t automatically winning now that he has so many kwamis under his control. That was a major thing people were wondering, saying that the show couldn’t possibly pull off, that it’d require some insane plot armor and jumping through hoops to explain why he can’t just trounce Ladybug and Chat Noir now.

But the show took it into account and showed what happened when he tried that!

Gabriel has the time travel Miraculous? Bunnyx is still around to help our heroes pursue him.

He uses multiple Miraculous at once, giving him more powers and options? He overuses them to the point that he temporarily knocks himself out, and Ladybug and Chat Noir are just on a far more even footing with him nowadays than during, say, Heroes Day, so they’re able to keep up with him, even when he’s using four or five Miraculous at once. He’s still only one person, after all.

He tries to use the Rooster to give him the power he needs to either time travel or to discover Ladybug’s identity? The Rooster can’t give a power that belongs to another kwami, nor can it circumvent another kwami’s power.

He tries to get around the identity-concealing restriction on the kwamis, the one that prevents them from telling him her name, by asking them other things that aren’t protected - say, where she lives? Marinette accounted for that and set up a trap for him, playing him for a fool.

Why doesn’t he try these different approaches again, instead of falling back on the old “sent supervillains to try to steal Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s Miraculous” approach that’s been so unsuccessful? Because the time travel plan resulted in him losing the Time Miraculous and pissing off Nathalie, and the identity-discovery plan resulted in him getting Cataclysmed, with neither plan ultimately conferring any benefit to him. Best to go back to the shadows before he loses more.

Seriously, I’m impressed, the writers managed to give Gabriel so much power, and yet not write themselves into a corner.