Five Torches (Out of Five)
Xena: Warrior Princess is probably television’s best fantasy show ever. Its six year-run was a veritable creative explosion as the show veered boldly between genres, tackled complicated themes, and created an intense action pace that had never before been seen on the small screen.
Not to mention the fact that the show completely redefined the notion of the female action hero.
But by the show’s sixth and final season, most agree it had gotten a little tired. The brilliant heights of the gloriously operatic third and fourth seasons were behind them, and a notoriously spotty fifth season had left fans restless. The ill-conceived “Eve” storyline was sputtering to ignoble end.
In the DVD extras for the sixth season, one of the producers describes the last season as “tying up loose ends” — which sounds like it could be interesting in theory, but which is, of course, a radical departure from the bold, over-arching storylines of each previous season. In retrospect, “tying up loose ends” seemed to mean “spinning our wheels until we wrapped the show up.”
Then came the “Norse” trilogy.
This series of three episodes — “The Reingold,” “The Ring,” and “Return of the Valkyrie” — came smack in the middle of the sixth season, first airing in November of 2000.
And if fans had any concerns that the show’s fire might have gone out, they were immediately put to rest.
The episodes tell a single story: that of Xena’s return to the northern lands of the Norse gods, where 35 years ago (10 years ago, plus the 25 she was frozen in ice by Ares) she was a Valkyrie in the service of the god Odin. But this being the Xena of her own dark past, she didn’t stay in Odin’s service for long. She plotted to steal the precious “rheingold,” which, when shaped into a ring, grants the wearer great power. But that power comes at a cost: by exercising the power of the ring, the bearer loses that which they most value.
Unless, of course, the bearer of the rheingold has forsaken love. Then the power of the ring can seemingly be used without consequence.
If anybody had ever forsaken love, it was the Xena of 35 years previous: first, she’d been double-crossed by Caesar, then she’d traveled to the Chin Empire, where her trusted mentor and lover Lao Ma had been executed.
The Norse trilogy is Xena’s usual audacious blend of legend and history, in this case loosely mixing Norse mythology with the stories of Beowulf and the Das Rheingold opera. But of course, the legends of history left out the central role Xena played in all these stories. Beowulf shows up, sure, but he’s merely a supporting player in his own legend.
The theme of the episodes — written by R.J. Stewart, Joel Metzger, and Emily Skovop and directed by John Fawcett and Rick Jacobson — is a return to the classic theme that made Xena, both the show and the character, so interesting to begin with: her having to make amends for the sins of her own dark past.
Years ago, the beautiful and noble Valkyrie Grinhilda chose to try to defeat Dark Xena by putting on the ring of the rheingold. Not only didn’t she not succeed, because she had not forsaken love, she was transformed into a hideous monster, losing the things she most valued: her beauty and her nobility.
So, as with her arch-nemesis Calysto, Xena must do battle with a monster that she herself literally created all those years ago. But it’s always easier to open the box of monsters than it is to get those monsters back inside. Before the episodes are over, Xena is forced to don the ring once again — but this time, it comes at an extremely high cost: she loses her memories of being a warrior, and — more importantly — her love for Gabrielle.
In other words, forsaking love all those years ago hadn’t saved Xena from the consequences of the ring; it had merely postponed them. Such is the wonderful irony so often seen in well-told fantasy.
There are debts that must be paid in life, Xena tells us again and again, things that must be put right. And unless and until we do make things right, we will be unable able to move forward in life, suffering again and again at the hands of the monsters we created.
It’s a theme that is both classic in its idea of self-sacrifice and modern in its notion of choice and individuality.
Six Feet Under and Damages are both great shows, but I’m not sure I recall them ever tackling anything quite this profound.
The episode is terrifically acted (except for the actor who plays Beowulf, who is a little wooden), especially Brittney Powell, who plays Brunnhilda. The special effects, especially the monsters, are as good as any Xena episode ever — on par with the fifth season’s Fallen Angel, which includes some of the series’ best effects ever.
Another notable element in the Norse trilogy: it’s definitely the most overtly “lesbian” of all Xena episodes, even the finale, when the true nature of Xena and Gabrielle’s love is revealed.
There’s none of the show’s vaunted “lesbian subtext” here. The Valkyrie Brunnhilda falls openly in love with Gabrielle, and everyone talks openly about Xena’s “love” for Gabrielle. And in the opening teaser, check out how Xena signs her farewell note to Gabrielle: with a big, lipstick kiss.
Meanwhile, the Rhinemaiden’s also fall “in love” with Xena. And when Xena wakes Gabrielle up from her year-long sleep, she does it with — what else? A kiss.
Okay, so the Norse Trilogy may not be the best fantasy even seen on television — that honor might go to Xena episodes such as “The Debt” or “The Ides of March,” or maybe even an episode or two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
But still: these episodes gotta be right near the top.
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A fan-created trailer for Xena’s Norse Trilogy
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ABSOLUTELY AGREE!
Yes - definitely. Totally Epic!
Yup, yup, yup! I’m so with you!
I highly enojoyed the Norse Trilogy during the final season of Xena. And they definitely rank pretty highly amongst my favourite episodes of the entire series (particularly as the story was played across three episodes (four if you count the “follow-up” episode “You Are There”) which permitted some significant character development).
I thought it was another excellent example of the Xenaverse’s TPTB taking an existing premise or story and giving it the Xena-twist by throwing Xena into the center of the events.
And the episode really pulled it together in all respects. Everything from the script to the acting to the lighting to the costumes was excellent. And the team did a great job with the two Grindl monsters. The episodes do have a few faults, but nothing major (especially when compared to other season six episodes - “Soul Possession” for example) and it remained true to the characters and even helped to pick up a few “forgotten” character traits, like Gabrielle’s writing and interest in “stories”.
As for the “tying up loose ends” mission statement for season six, I like to fanwank that it was really about the destruction of the Xenaverse as we knew it. In season six we saw the resolution of the death of the Olympian gods story-line (carried over from season five) with the deaths of The Furies (”Coming Home”) and implied deaths of The Fates (”When Fates Collide”), the “death” of the Centaurs (”The Last of the Centaurs”) and the Amazons (”To Helicon and Back”) (two mythological races who had featured heavily in the Xenaverse), the deaths of pretty much all of Xena and Gabrielle’s friends and family (excluding Gabrielle’s sister (Lila) and niece (Sara) and of course Xena’s daughter (Eve)) and eventually the conclusion of the “Rome” story-arc with the off-screen election of a “good” Emperor following Caligula’s assisted suicide.
Not to mention the rise of the “one god” via Eve’s “Messenger of Peace” gig (although Eve’s continued familiarity with the “God of Love” was unclear following Archangel Michael’s attempts to kill Eve in “The God You Know”). And then the “final nail in the coffin” (so to speak) for the Xenaverse was the death of Xena herself.
All IMHO of course and I’m not sure that was the actual intention of TPTB, but can be seen to be something of a “happy accident” and also a method of retrospectively implying a season-long arc that was otherwise missing from the final season.
Part of the problem is, as you say, there were a lot of stinkers in the season, so it’s hard to know how much of the lack of momentum was that, and how much of it was, well, a lack of momentum.
I think you’re comments are astute about their “killing off the Xena-verse.” But a story can NEVER be sustained by merely drawing on the emotions of earlier episodes. New characters and motivations must be provided ALWAYS. Returning to previous themes is one thing; recycling previous plots is another.
I did like “When Fates Collide” quite a bit, and the finale was excellent (if also flawed in places).
Too true - season 6 did involve a lot of recycling of previous plots with a few slight changes along the way to try and keep things fresh. After all, how many times had we seen the Amazons decimated in battle? We saw it again in “Coming Home” and in “To Helicon and Back” (not to mention “Dangerous Prey” as well - although in that episode they were being stalked and killed one by one).
And while I appreciated Gabrielle’s “blood innocence” trilogy (comprised of “Who’s Gurkhan”, “Legacy” and “The Abyss”), it was almost a case of “too little, too late” given that Gabrielle’s killing should have been addressed in season 5 when she first started to freely stick people with her little forks (sais) during battles.
Then there were the likes of “Soul Possession” which sought to clear up the long-forgotten plot-hole of how Gabrielle survived her strap-free bungee jump into the lava pit in “Sacrifice Part 2″ (season 3) and “Last of the Centaurs” which tried to provide further background on the Borias/Xena relationship as well as explaining what happened to Ephiny and her Centaur son Xenan. Both episodes were such a hodge-podge of ideas that very little of substance can actually be found in either of them (and IMHO, “Soul Possession” doesn’t exist in the Xenaverse canon at all given the extremely high number of contradictions contained within).
I must admit a certain fondness for George Strayton’s proposed alternate season 5/6 story-line. Essentially season 5 would have ended with the death of the Olympians and Eve (now known as Livia) married to Octavious/Augustus declaring Xena and Gabrielle to be enemies of Rome. Season 6 would have then seen Xena and Gabrielle “on the run” from the forces of the Roman Empire while they still tried to fight for the “greater good” and also sought to redeem Livia. It would have ended with Xena and Gabrielle convincing Augustus and Livia to declare “Pax Romana” throughout the Roman Empire - essentially ending with “world peace”.
I think the notion of Xena and Gabrielle “on the run” from an ever-present threat could have been a good way to “shake-up” the series in its final season. Sure, we’ve had bounty hunters tracking down Xena before, but to see them truly hunted by a threatening force (as opposed to the Olympian gods in season 5 who appeared to be completely incompetent when it came to tracking down and killing a single baby) for an entire season and portrayed as the “baddies” by the Roman propoganda would have been good to see (and gven Xena’s history - it shouldn’t have been too hard to paint her as a threat - after all, she was a mass-murdering warlord who killed off most of the Greek/Roman pantheon of gods).
Anyway, I look forward to watching yet another of Xena’s dopplegangers in the new TV series Spartacus. I’m sure Lucretia will feel honoured to join the likes of Diana (the princess), Meg (the whore) and Leah (the virgin priestess).
The Norse Trilogy was pure awesome. Great review!
Brent, you’ve made me the happiest fan in the world today… and while my week is full and kinda hellish, I know what I’ll be doing this weekend: Norse Trilogy marathon!
Yes, well, that’s what I did LAST weekend! Time well worth spent!
excellent article - thanks
loved this trilogy
Thank you.
I had forgotten about these episodes. I really haven’t seen them since they first aired but I remember they were excellent. I need to get the entire series on dvd at some point. Its on my list along with shows like Hercules, Buffy and Highlander.
Love this show and these episodes.
Great review! Brings back good memories.
“it comes at an extremely high cost: she looses her memories of being a warrior”
Ack! The most common (and LAMEST) misspelling on the Intertoobs! The word is *lose*. Xena *loses* her memories (If she “loosed” them, they would be running free around “that cursed bog” *g*)
Oh—and Evil Xena didn’t know Lao Ma had been killed (Good Xena would find that out in the Chin-ese water prison decades later, nez pas?)
OK, nits picked—great review!
The occasional typo, I feel only the mildest chagrin. This is the price we all pay for daily FREE online content churned out by wildly overworked (and underpaid) internet writers.
But the Lao Ma error? For that I should be flogged mercilessly and thrown into a watery dungeon with one of those scary square yoke things locked on my shoulders. How could I have made such an INEXCUSABLE MISTAKE!
I hang my head.
Well, I guess not “decades” later. Only 8 years or so… ;-/
See?!?! We’re not all perfect, are we?
Hi
i run Brittney Powell’s official myspace page and fanclub.
in case anyone is interested, she is currently starring in a new web series http://www.koldcast.tv/video/series_opening_teaser which premieres on april 27th. Any support would be great. We are also up till tomorrow taking any questions for Brittney about the new show and i will post the responses on her myspace. so if you would like to ask her any questions please go to her myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/official_brittney_powell
and yes the norse series rocks
thanks fiona
a
The Norse series was awesome! I loved all of it. I actually enjoyed the sixth season a lot. Still hurts to watch the final ep though. The visuals, special effects and acting was superb but the death of Xena still haunts me.
Kjviking
Fantastic review…thank you!!
Aaaah Xena…I sure do miss you. Powerful, ground breaking, exciting, moving…simply timeless. “Sigh” I fell in love with these two characters as they fell in love with each other. Their story is forever.
Thank you…and likewise. (Bad news to report on the mainpage: a movie will never get made…)
YYYYAAAYYY! Wow. These are my favorite episodes too! *wink wink*
This is beautiful write up. and such beautiful comments.
ah, the power of love.
love, love, love
Brittney
oh yeah… and what Fiona (eternalflame13) said. hehe.
Brittney! Wow, how nice of you to stop by! As I said to Fiona, I’d love to do an interview for the site.
thetorchonline [at] gmail [dot] com
sounds good!
And by then the SAFETY GEEKS SVI will have already had its first day, at least, of being available.. so you can tell me how hard you laughed! *grin*
The first two episodes air this monday on KOLDCAST.TV
Actually, i was being feisty a second ago. i really do hope you enjoy it. Its very fun and silly.
Chat with you soon!
Big hugs!
Brittney
I love this series and Renée and Lucy WERE THE BEST.FOR EVER killed Xena.
Sorry, but I hated those episodes. In fact, the very last two seasons overall were embarrassingly terrible.
Xena’s rich backstory was heavily ruined with the 6th season’s attempt at flashback episodes.
I have to disagree with the last post.
Season 5 was the worst season but only in comparison because 4 was so good. Season 6 brought a return to great TV with Who’s Gurkhan, the Valkyrie trilogy, When Fates Collide and the spectacular finish of Friend in Need. Best TV show Ever..thanks to Rob T
Season 5 was the worst season in comparison or not in comparison to any other season.
But yes, season 4 was absolutely PERFECT.
Good review - nice to see someone elevate this trilogy to where I think it belongs. The fact that Xena is shown wearing a white fur coat and matching hat is enough to recommend it.
This trilogy was terrible if only because it was a less original retread of “The Debt” from earlier in the series.
Ahahahaha I don’t remember these critically acclaimed dramas tackling anything as profound as the magic ring in my low-budget action serial.
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