Xena and the Tragic Cycle

thedoctor-smith:

Reading some things about the end of ‘Xena’ and why the finale didn’t work for so many (anyone out there who really liked it?)…and remembering my original review on it: a confusing series of sucker punches that led to an appropriate but ultimately shallow ending. Xena’s death didn’t surprise me – how they got there did and felt ragged enough to actually hurt.

Where was the problem? It had to be that something from Xena’s past was bound to catch up with her (again) and finally finish her off. A Friend in Need goes there. It had to be something epic. Again, AFIN goes there. Yet, it didn’t really work. I think it’s failure stems from a crush of storylines in season six that were all over and a lack of build-up. No foreshadowing. No hint of what was to come. No respect for what had happened before.

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For the Xena anon, I hope this is what you were looking for.

PS: this was tagged, but couldn’t find it that way. Had to go through the archive. Tumblr, you have some explaining to do.

hey i rly luv your Lexa rambles is there something we can appreciate about her that you can talk about?

Thank you for writing. Sorry I’ve not replied sooner but had to think about your question a bit.

There’s so much to appreciate about the character, and so much covered elsewhere, not sure what I can add (but if I think of something, I’ll certain ‘ramble’ about it).

One thing I’d like to mention though: there’s lots of talk about Lexa being the poster child of consent. She doesn’t touch Clarke without permission, she’s gentle, she’s respectful. I think this is interesting, especially since a common image in some films/telly is a distraught woman, forcibly comforted by another person (usually, a man). He holds on to her while she pushes him away, screaming sometimes, until she’s too tired to fight anymore and submits and this is often suggestive that she is accepting of him (in spite of her earlier struggle and rejection) and that this is something she needs, it just takes his unyielding (and uninvited) strength to help her see that.

Related, there are those scenes that show a woman struggling against a man’s unwanted advances (a kiss, sometimes more), until his hold is too much and, again, she submits, because, the subtext goes, she really wants this.

I’ve always found that sort of scene/imagery to be deeply offensive and sexist. If anyone ever tried to do that to you in real life, he’s not likely to get away with it and no one would see it as ‘romantic.’ As someone who has trouble receiving touch, it would be nightmarish.

So I appreciate that they wrote Lexa this way: even though we might all agree that Clarke needs comforting, maybe even Clarke would agree, too, it is up to Clarke what form that comfort takes. Lexa knows this and holds herself away. She’d never disrespect Clarke’s boundaries. It’s a nice touch that we rarely see in other media.

I really like your Lexa insights but I think the whole conversation about her is kind of over the top from some people like looking too deep for shit that isn’t there. I think that’s just SOP for fans right?

Here’s the thing: Lexa, as a character, only featured in a dozen or so episodes, was mostly underwritten and killed off too quickly and written out in a cliched manner that was a terrible shock to an audience that had been systematically led to believe the opposite would happen. For months prior to this, fans had been carefully building their own universe around her, Clarke and t1oo, enriching that world, those characters and themselves with serious character and world-building, exploring the inner lives and outer turmoil, the potential alternatives – they saw more in her/them than the show’s entire writing team did and they have done it so well, that their work eclipses anything the show could ever offer.

When fans conversate about Lexa and all related matters, they are not ‘over the top’ or ‘looking too deep for shit that isn’t there,’ they are re-imagining a whole world and giving it more life than its creators did. It’s important to them because she is/was a beacon of incredibly rare representation that was badly misused and the fans have reclaimed her. That is something to be joyous about, really, not cynical. What the show tore down and took away, the fans have loving rebuilt and kept alive.