Gabrielle

Advertisement

Background

Powers & Abilities

Early on Gabrielle is a young bard. She’s good at storytelling and social interaction, and smart and observant, but clearly not a warrior.

Over the course of the series she refines her abilities. She becomes a skilled athlete, adventurer, equestrienne and fighter wielding an Amazon fighting staff.

Late in the series she has reached the level of a cinematic martial artist, epic bard and veteran adventurer. She can perform pressure point strikes, or enter deep trances akin to hibernation.

She wields a pair of pointed sai-like weapons to redoubtable effect.

Advertisement

History

Living in a small village, “Gabbie” had a younger sister and a rather overbearing father. She was engaged to a young man named Perdicas but it seemed to not be her idea and she did not love him.

She had great potential as a poet, writer and bard. But she longed to get out of her confining lifestyle and see the world.

She got her chance one day when her village was attacked and easily conquered by marauders representing the Warlord Draco. Just as she, her sister and all of the attractive young women of the village were about to be taken into slavery, they were rescued by the warrioress Xena.

Gabrielle begged Xena to take her along on Xena’s journeys but the warrioress was not interested.

On the run

That night, Gabrielle snuck out of her house or tried to. Her sister awoke and Gabrielle explained why she had to leave. Along the way, she already demonstrated the means by which she would often survive. Sometimes the pen or the spoken word is mightier than the sword.

She bluffed her way past a blind cyclops and comically managed to get a ride on a wagon by appealing to an old man’s ego as he thought that he was a good storyteller.

She finally arrived at an inn in Xena’s hometown just as Xena was about to be stoned. She talked the people out of doing that and then accompanied the warrioress to her brother’s grave where she made it clear that Xena was no longer alone. She had a friend.

When Draco showed up and Xena fought him to spare the village, Gabrielle prevented one of Draco’s warriors from interfering in the fight. With Xena finally accepting her friendship, Gabrielle and Xena began their journeys together.

Gabrielle then accompanied Xena on many adventures against various warlords. There was also a recurring theme juxtaposing Xena’s murderous past with Gabrielle’s innocent one and Xena’s desire that Gabrielle never experience what it is to kill and start down a similar path.

But she and Xena had developed a tremendous loyalty to one another. Even when being plotted against by Ares, Gabrielle defended Xena in court, furious at how few people were willing to look into her heart and see the changes.

Growing Up

Another recurring theme was Gabrielle’s feelings that Xena did not respect her and treated her like a child, exemplified when Gabrielle accidentally released three of the Titans from their imprisonment. She was an expert on the proper reading of various sorts of chants and read a scroll that released them.

She proceeded to risk her life to imprison them again partly because of Xena’s condescending attitude toward her or at least what she took to be condescending.

Later, a romantic relationship was established between Gabrielle and Iolaus although it never went anywhere. It also demonstrated Gabrielle’s discontent with waiting on the sidelines while Xena fought as opposed to Iolaus who was fighting side-by-side with Hercules though the story did not address that Iolaus frequently felt inferior to Hercules.

Gabrielle risked her life by diving over the wounded body of an Amazon named Terreis as arrows rained down. As she died, Terreis gave Gabrielle her Rite of Caste and Gabrielle became an Amazon of the tribe. Although leaving with Xena, she was still an Amazon.

This brought about a change of costume. She also began carrying an Amazon fighting staff that she received training to use. [While there is no precise and instant change from “the early days” to “the middle days”, this marked the beginning of the change].

Perdicas

She was reunited with her former fiancé, Perdicas. Inspired by Gabrielle, he had left the small farming village shortly after she did and had become a successful soldier fighting for Troy.

In the aftermath, Gabrielle fell in love with him though she had not been before. They went their separate ways for the moment but knew they would meet again when each had the accomplishments needed to truly be at peace with themselves.

During this time with Perdicas, Xena clearly was going to miss Gabrielle if she left and there were implications that the relationship between Gabrielle and Xena had become romantic. When Perdicas admitted he had some experience with women, Gabrielle said she had no sexual experience, but seemed to imply she meant no experience with men.

She then chose to enter a school for storytellers. There she met famous Greek bards ranging from Euripides to Homer and helped the latter along the road to becoming arguably the most famous epic poet in all of history.

Going Solo

Gabrielle once froze in combat and began to doubt herself. Returning to her hometown of Potidaea, she found that it was being threatened by a warlord but they had hired a great but aging warrior called Meleager the Mighty to help them.

But he too had “frozen” due to all the bloodshed he had seen and done. They helped each other get their courage back while Gabbie was also reunited with her sister.

When Xena was incapacitated by a hidden attacker and was then thought dead, Gabrielle grieved. But she was determined to finish what Xena had started by saving a village from marauders and getting Xena’s body back to her home village to be buried next to her brother.

Xena had simply put herself into a trance to heal but Gabrielle’s dedication strengthened their bond even more.

Marriage

Gabrielle was then reunited with Perdicas. Having grown sick of war and killing, he was returning home. He asked Gabrielle to marry him and she accepted. It is not entirely clear why. Even by implication, it was clear that she and Xena were lovers.

As the morals and ethics of Ancient Greece in the show were essentially those of Modern America with its own predominant mythology/ religion, perhaps there was some underlying need for a “normal” relationship and Gabrielle saw this as her chance and with someone she did genuinely have feelings for.

But Callisto had escaped from prison. Intending to kill Gabrielle to hurt Xena, Callisto ended up instead killing Perdicas. Enraged beyond comprehension, she told Xena that the innocent girl she knew was gone and wanted to learn to use a sword to kill Callisto.

But, at the moment of truth, when she literally caught Callisto napping, she could not kill her. Xena ended up allowing Callisto to die by sinking into quicksand when they fought on an isolated beach.

Queenship

Sometime later, when Xena was killed, Gabrielle was taking her body home when the Amazons asked her to take her rightful place as Queen because she received her Rite of Caste from the daughter of the Queen.

The Queen had been killed in combat by Velasca, her adoptive daughter. She was intending to attack the centaurs and start a war. But as one who received the Rite from the blood daughter of the Queen, Gabrielle could assume the Queenship.

Meanwhile, Autolycus, the King of Thieves, was possessed by Xena’s spirit in an attempt to find ambrosia, the Food of the Gods, to bring Xena back to life. This led to a confrontation with Velasca and a chase to get to the ambrosia first. Xena switched to Gabrielle’s body and defeated Velasca.

Getting the ambrosia to Xena, Gabrielle restored her to life.

Gabrielle and Xena got into a major conflict when they took refuge in a garrison against a group of primitive marauders called the Horde. Xena was sure reverting to her more savage warlord self was the only way to survive but Gabrielle found a way to communicate with them and that led to a solution.

The Daughter of Darkness

Everything changed for Gabrielle when she accompanied Xena to Britannia supposedly to help them against Caesar but really for Xena to take revenge on him. While Xena prepared for battle, one of the Britannians lured Gabrielle to what she thought was a temple to “The One God”.

There, she was tricked into killing in order to save a life. The loss of her innocence was what was needed for an evil deity called Dahak to begin entering the world.

Gabrielle found she was suddenly pregnant and the entire process took a few hours, maybe an hour for a month of normal growth. She and Xena encountered villagers who wanted to destroy the baby, banshees that wanted to protect her and an order of knights that wanted to stop her from being born but were not allowed to kill a human.

The child was born looking completely like a human baby. But it proved itself the child of Dahak by killing within hours of being born. When Xena wanted to kill it, Gabrielle ran.

Xena finally tracked her down. Gabrielle said the child had turned on her, tried to kill her. In the struggle, the baby fell over a cliff and was killed.

But Gabrielle had lied, understandably not willing to kill her own daughter or any being that, to all outward appearances, was a baby. She had put it in a boat and sent it down a river as the only way to insure Xena did not kill it.

When Xena was then asked to go to “the East” specifically to kill someone, Gabrielle managed to get there first. She warned her target to prevent Xena from throwing away all of the good she had done. It backfired, only getting Xena captured and scheduled to be executed.

However, Xena then escaped and killed her target though she kept this a secret from Gabrielle.

Death of Hope

The trust issues only continued. While visiting Xena’s son, Solon, in the centaur village, Gabrielle discovered that a girl there was really her daughter, Hope. She had aged to nearly a teenager within months. Gabrielle could not bring herself to believe that she was really a demonic entity that physically looked like a child.

Callisto broke free from the lava she was incased in and went on a killing spree. Hope (who was secretly the one who freed Callisto) convinced Gabrielle to hide her in the safest place. This was the same sanctuary Xena had hidden Solon in. There, she killed him.

Gabrielle then poisoned Hope, killing her. Xena made it clear she never wanted to speak to Gabrielle again as she was responsible for the death of Xena’s son.

Nothing says it like a song

Gabrielle returned to the Amazons where Xena attacked and tried to kill her. Dragging Gabrielle to the edge of a cliff, Xena was about to throw her over when she struck back and sent them both toppling over, screaming their hatred of each other.

They awoke in a land called Illusia where they confronted images of enemies ranging from Callisto to Ares, Caesar to Ming Tien. For the most part, Illusia forced them to sing out their strongest emotions as they expressed their blame, each of the other, for everything that had happened.

Finally they realized the spirit of Solan had brought them to this place to reconcile. Gabrielle was able to leave but Xena was still trapped because, for her, it was not just hatred. It was also deception. She confessed she had killed Ming Tien and lied about it.

When Gabrielle and Xena forgave each other, Solan appeared and Xena was able to tell him she was his mother. Then Gabrielle and Xena found themselves back on Earth, their journeys continuing.

Soon after this, Gabrielle was wounded just before the Persian army invaded Greece. She was willing to sacrifice herself but Xena would not leave her behind. She ultimately defeated the entire army through a combination of stealth and sheer battle prowess. She then made perhaps the hardest of decisions when Xena captured Crassus, one of the Triumvirate of Rome.

Xena had a plan to free an ally using Crassus as a pawn. But it did not matter whether he lived or died for the plan to work. Finding out all of the atrocities he had committed, Gabrielle chose to leave him in a situation where she knew he would be killed.

Wracked with guilt over it, she soon chose to travel to a temple where all of her memories could be erased. At first, she told herself it was guilt over allowing Crassus to die but it was not. When she traveled to “the East” to stop Xena from killing Ming Tien, the only way she could get there ahead of Xena had been by making a deal with Ares who teleported her there.

She finally had to face that she had done it not to save Xena but out of jealousy. Xena had been willing to sacrifice everything she had accomplished with Gabrielle’s help over the years to fulfill a promise to someone else. This was because she had been romantically involved with and loved someone else enough to risk what she had with Gabrielle. With that admission, Xena forgave her and understood such feelings.

Death by Hope

Hope had survived her burning and was slowly regenerating. When Ares switched sides and made a deal with Dahak, he pulled in his marker on Gabrielle. If Xena killed Hope, Xena would die. So Gabrielle had to insure that her daughter was reborn by delaying Xena.

She did so, stopping her for the seconds it took for Hope to completely be reborn despite the consequences to the world. However, as Hope sought to bring her father, Dahak, into the world and Gabbie realized that Xena would be killed if she was the one that killed Hope. Gabrielle herself tackled Hope, sending them both plunging to their deaths in a fiery dimension.

Gabrielle returned, her memories confused, thinking Dahak must have saved her from the fiery pit to save Hope. She then went home only to find Hope was there imitating her and using her (Hope’s) grandchild, a marauding monster, to kill the people of her village.

In order to save Xena, she had to pretend to be Hope and distract the monster. Though a killer, it literally just wanted its mother’s love and Gabrielle was torn apart inside when she had to let it be killed. In its death throes, it also killed Hope.

This ended the “Dahak Saga” for Gabrielle and Xena though Hercules and Iolaus went on to finally defeat Dahak.

The Way of Love

They traveled to India and Gabrielle met Eli, a Messiah figure. She decided that the path of total non-violence was the only way to truly change the world and bring about peace. She threw away her Amazon staff and began her new mission.

As was bound to happen, when she returned to Greece, Gabrielle’s newfound pacifism conflicted with her role as an Amazon.

Ephiny was killed by the Romans and Gabrielle became Queen. She managed to avoid directly committing acts of violence while leading the Amazons in defense against the Romans but she had to allow violence. When it was over, she renounced the Queenship and left the Amazons.

However, she was soon captured by the Romans. When Xena tried to rescue her, Xena was severally injured. Gabrielle had to choose between her new path, standing there and allowing Xena to be killed, or fighting. She went berserk, fighting and killing dozens before she was brought down. She and Xena were crucified and died.

Demons and Angels and all in one day

Gabrielle and Xena found themselves in the afterlife, being lifted into Heaven by angels. It seemed that, despite her choice of acting violently, she and Xena were chosen by a god more powerful than the Olympians.

But, on the way to Heaven, they were attacked by demons including Callisto. Gabrielle fell into Hell. There, she was forced to eat the Food of Hell and transformed partially into a demon.

A rescue attempt was made by the angels and Gabrielle was taken to Heaven. Because the demonic transformation had been only partial, she was purged of it in the waters of Heaven.

She then confronted Callisto and was shocked to learn that Xena, having become an angel, had absorbed Callisto’s demonic aspect into herself because of the guilt for having killed Callisto’s family.

Angelic

Gabrielle wanted to become an angel, allegedly to join an assault on the demons but really to rescue Xena. For her, the test to become an angel was to forgive Callisto for the things Callisto had done to her. Though it was hard and she did not know that was the test, she did so and became an angel.

During the battle with the demons, she and Xena were on the way to killing each other when, back on Earth, Eli with the help of the new angel, Callisto, resurrected their bodies and brought them back to life.

By this time though, Gabrielle’s outlook had changed. Xena had discovered she was pregnant and Gabrielle found herself having to be a fighter more and more. She acquired sais as weapons and started becoming aggressive, almost seeking out battles even as Xena was beginning to avoid them.

But Gabrielle was doing this largely out of anger at herself. She felt she had failed at following the highest path of non-violence. It became worse when Eli began a movement in Greece that could lead to the end of the worship of the gods.

Ares killed Eli. It was exactly what Eli wanted for he knew it would truly empower and spread the movement that would spell the end for the gods. But Gabrielle had to stand by and allow it to happen.

Ares then offered her godhood. He had given up on Xena and seen that Gabrielle had become a serious warrior. Although tempted, she turned him down and was proven right when Eli’s spirit returned and explained to her that all of this had been what he wanted and needed to happen.

Rip Van Gabrielle

A lot then happened in a short time. Xena had a child. It was prophesied that the child would bring about the fall of the Olympian gods. They tried to kill the child. ”The One God” gave Xena the power to kill gods and most of the Greek pantheon fell.

Xena had a plan to fake her death, Gabrielle’s and that of her baby, Eve. It worked- too well. Ares believed Xena and Gabrielle were really dead while the baby was smuggled away. Ares interred Xena and Gabrielle in ice in a cave in a frozen wasteland, intending to honor Xena.

An avalanche shattered their chambers, causing Xena and Gabrielle to awaken, only to find that 25 years had passed while they were preserved alive.

They had a number of adventures before returning to Gabrielle’s home town where Gabrielle was reunited with her now middle-aged sister, Lila, who explained that she had married and had a daughter only a few years after Gabrielle vanished. About 8 years before their present, her daughter, Sara, had been captured and sold into slavery.

Brave new world

When Lila’s husband and parents went to try buying her back, they were all murdered by the slaver. Gabrielle was driven by the desire for vengeance over the murder of her parents and the niece she had never met as well as her sister’s anguish.

Along with Xena, Xena’s daughter, Eve, now grown up, and Virgil, the son of Joxer, they went and rescued Sara. Gabrielle did not kill the slaver although Xena set him up so he was killed by others.

Gabrielle had to deal with all sorts of things after the jump of two decades. Already dealing with the death of the elderly Joxer who jumped in the way of an attack to save her life, she rejoined the Amazons in an era when they had reunited as a nation but were coping with threats that might destroy them.

In the process of fighting battles that seemed unwinnable, she found herself having to be colder and more ruthless than she once thought she ever could be, to the point she believed what she once was had been forever lost.

East of East

Xena was then asked to go to a land further east than China (Chen) to defeat a powerful demon. Xena allowed herself to be slain in battle as only a spirit could defeat this entity. However, there was a chance she could be brought back if her body was burned and the ashes spread in the sacred waters atop a mountain in time.

While Xena killed the demon, Gabrielle fought her way to the mountain, defeating warriors and even using the chakram. Though she made it in time, Xena asked her to stop.

Back in her evil days, Xena had killed many people in this land and their spirits could only be at rest if their murderer also stayed dead. If Xena returned to life, the spirits would be lost forever. Though it drove her to the edge, Gabrielle honored Xena’s request and allowed her to stay dead.

Gabrielle then carried on in Xena’s place as a traveling warrior and righter of wrongs, able to sense and communicate with Xena’s spirit, which was always at her side.

Much, much later

In one modern story, the evil sorceress, Alti, created clones of Xena and Gabrielle and placed into them the memories of the real Xena and Gabbie. In Xena’s case, she placed only the memories from before she started changing.

Her intent was to recreate only the evil Xena as her accomplice. But Gabrielle was able to awaken all of her memories and they defeated Alti. Faking their own deaths, the clones of Xena and Gabrielle made a home for themselves in the early XXI^st century.

The real Gabrielle, along with Xena and Joxer, awoke in their reincarnated bodies in the early XXI^st century with some help from Ares. He was making yet another attempt to win over Xena. Possessing the memories of all their past lives, Xena and Gabrielle defeated him yet again before walking off into the modern sunset forever. Or did they?

Hercules was still out in the world, not a full god but ageless nevertheless. While pretending to be an actor in a television series about himself, he defeated several of Ares’ plots for world conquest.

There were also references to Zeus sitting up on Olympus, the gods having eventually come back to life though it may have taken a long time. So it is quite likely that, sooner or later, they all encountered one another in the modern world for adventures that, alas, were never told.

The subtext that became main text

So, were Xena and Gabrielle in a relationship? They loved each other. They were best friends. The show dances around the subject, teases and jokes about it. One episode even has them directly asked only to end just as Xena was starting to answer. The show really tries to play it both ways, so to speak.

A viewer can take the little innuendos as being nothing but titillation for the audience or can take things as clearly showing there is a romantic relationship. By the end, I think it is a lot more than just innuendo though. There is clearly a relationship where they are spouses.

Sadly, they have to avoid openly speaking about it and seem defensive when others ask. When Xena tells Hercules the time has passed when they could be involved, there seems an implication that Xena is already involved and there could be only one person it was with.

Likewise, Gabrielle seems to imply to Perdicas that she has sexual experience, just not with men. When confronted with the question directly, Gabrielle hesitates and tries to dance around the question. Why would she do that if the answer was “No”?

Even before “Xena” started, there were hints on “Hercules” that the morality was largely that of the modern United States. When he encountered a much more sexually open culture, he said he was not used to such openness. He certainly would have been if it were really ancient Greece.

Even during the first season of “Hercules”, I jokingly referred to the setting of “Hercules” as “Greco-America”. It seems pretty obvious that Xena and Gabrielle were in a relationship and simply could not openly discuss it with others.

Description

Gabrielle’s appearance changed a lot over the course of the show. Originally, she wore homespun clothing such as a long skirt. When she became an Amazon, she wore the traditional garb of animal skins and carried an Amazon fighting staff, a weapon she chose because she did not kill.

When she became a disciple of Eli in India, she sported body painting symbolizing her beliefs. She eventually returned to her Amazon garb but preferred to use sais as weapons. Perhaps what many people noticed even more was that her hair was long during the early episodes, past her shoulders. It was later cut much shorter.

Personality

Gabrielle went through many phases in her lifetime. She started as a peaceful bard who could never kill and that quality was essential to her character. She became darker and sadder when she was tricked into killing and went further down that road when she had to kill multiple opponents to save Xena.

She eventually became a warrior herself, striving to kill only when necessary but traveling and making sure justice was done.

Her relationship with Xena changed a lot during the show and it is regrettable that the most important aspect of the relationship has to be guessed at because it had to be told only by implication. Nothing overt need to shown, only to have them speak to each other as Hercules and Deinara or any people in love would do.

As it stands though, Xena changed the direction of Gabrielle’s life. Gabrielle’s calling became the same as Xena’s and Gabrielle carried on with the spirit of Xena literally by her side.

Quotes

(To Xena): “Hey, I just saved your life.”

Xena: “It’s hard to be alone.”
Gabrielle: “You’re not alone.”

“Oh, no. I’m not going to just stand around while you have all the fun.”

“I’m an overachieving sidekick.”

Xena: “I’ve got that answer to your question: are you who you are or are you who I made you ?”
Gabrielle: “And ?”
Xena: “You’re Gabrielle. Bard, Amazon princess. Best friend. Nobody made you who you are. It was already there. The question is, who would I be without you ?”

DC Universe History

Gabrielle is intertwined with the history of the Amazons which is a very different history in the DCU than it is in the Xenaverse. But there is no reason that, in their travels, she and Xena could not have met the Amazons, especially if we allow that some women left Paradise Island and tried to establish Amazon colonies in other nations.

An interesting twist might be having them find their way to Paradise Island sometime just after their adventures in ancient times ended and turn up in modern Paradise Island, being ageless on the island. Of course, this would have to ignore Xena’s death or simply undo it.

By Doug Mertaugh.

Source of Character: The television series Xena Warrior Princess and some episodes of the Hercules the Legendary Journeys series. Gabrielle was played by Renee O’Connor. No one person created the character but R.J. Stewart wrote the first episode with her in it based on a story by Robert Tapert.

Writeup completed on the 21^st of July, 2013.