Xena and gabrielle gay

This was never made official onscreen – but a comic book continuation of the series made the subtext of their romance overt, in a satisfying win for the couple's. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this only encouraged the minds behind "Xena" who clearly had a sense of humor about their work to misbehave by playing up the show's queer subtext.

A red-haired young woman who started out as a plucky and somewhat naive sidekick only to mature into a far more complex and capable figure. As much as "Xena" helped get the ball rolling for the "Buffy" TV show and its many descendants director Fran Rubel Kuzui's delightful "Buffy" movie had indeed come out three years before "Xena" debuted inbut it was a very different beastit also had somewhat bad timing.

A comic relief companion who proved to have far more emotional substance than their initial appearance would suggest. It ended after six seasons in In spite of that, the latter's place in queer TV history remains secure to this day, in no small part thanks to Lawless and O'Connor themselves.

I mean, we were really not doing it for the audience. And while neither she nor O'Connor identify as queer in their personal lives, they just did what good actors should do and tapped into the feelings that they and anyone else for that matter could understand:.

A s-born fantasy-action TV series that could be shamelessly silly and self-aware so much so that it even included a musical episode, itself essentially unheard of for its genre at the timeyet was also willing and capable of going to some dark places and would continue to do so the further along it went.

Lucy Lawless talks lesbian : This does stitches together all four parts of my Xena and Gabrielle's Gayest Moments series so that new (and returning) viewers can see it all in one easy wa

Lest we forget, the "Buffy" TV series gave its own red-haired lead, Alyson Hannigan's Willow Rosenberg, an honest-to-goodness girlfriend in the form of Amber Benson's magic-wielding Tara Maclay just as "Xena" was winding down. A complex heroine with incredible fighting skills who raised the bar for on-screen depictions of women in general.

They're definitely gay now. It was never really meant to be about two gay women on the road together, that developed on its own," Tapert added. If there is, broadly speaking, a crucial difference between "Xena" and "Buffy" other than "Xena" executive producer Sam Raimi being still widely admired, unlike "Buffy" creator Joss Whedonthen it would probably be their queer subject matter As anyone who's ever seen the series could tell you, '90s television didn't get much queerer than "Xena.

Part of the problem with modern mainstream queer media is that it tends to be overtly timid and meek. We were doing it to be naughty," Tapert admitted, recalling that the series' studio backers wouldn't even allow Xena and Gabrielle to appear in the same shots in the show's opening titles lest anyone get the "wrong" idea about the pair's feelings for one another.

Xena and Gabrielle in the TV show "Xena: Warrior Princess" are beloved by the queer community, but the two leads never had an official relationship. But considering certain folks apparently can't even handle a same-sex duo sharing a chaste kiss for less than a second in a Pixar film, there's really no point in trying to appease them.

Too often, acts of queer intimacy and affection are reduced to blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments, while queer characters themselves aren't always allowed to be multifaceted or have much in the way of personality see also: how Netflix's "The Sandman" season 2 did trans comic book icon Wanda dirty.

When you don't know what else to do, look for the love in the scene. If you're wondering why the minds behind "Xena" didn't just cut to the chase and make XGab aka Xabrielle aka Warriorward and other ship names that've never quite caught on canon, it all came down to the same thing that it so often does in this industry: money.

This is also what makes "Xena" so refreshing, as its crew "embraced the lesbian subtext with unbridled glee" upon learning of the show's popularity in the queer community, as R. Stewart who co-developed the series told EW. He later added:.

It's all a result of studios and streamers wanting to earn brownie points for being inclusive without drawing too much controversy in the process. A long overdue kiss finally confirmed the queer love story at the heart of Xena: Warrior Princess.

They kissed how many :

Had the timing been just a little different, it's possible "Xena" would've even made Xena-slash-Gabrielle fully canonical as well. Xena: Warrior Princess wasn't allowed to make Xena/Gabrielle canon, but that didn't stop the show from playing up the queer subtext of their relationship.

Over six seasons, many of the hit show's viewers came to consider the the dynamic between Xena and Gabrielle to be romantic. Throw in a crucial behind-the-scenes creative who would later evolve from a cult favorite artist into a big-name filmmaker thanks to their work on a Marvel superhero blockbuster, and what do you get?

Here's why. Helping matters, Lawless and O'Connor never come across as being self-conscious or hesitant about expressing the idea of Xena and Gabrielle being in romantic love with their performances, even if it's mostly subtextual.