The reaction is almost always the same. When I tell people that I’m the associate editor of a fantasy website, a look of surprise, understanding, and finally quiet judgment passes over their faces, forcing me to explain, “Harry Potter fantasy. Not, like, whips and leather fantasy.”

The relief I then see is priceless.

But should I be so quick to distance myself from the whips-and-leather crowd? While fantasy does have a kid-friendly, wizards-and-adventure side, I think it would be naive to suggest that there aren’t some people who utilize the trappings of the genre to explore their sexual kinks. All one has to do is run a Google Image search of “fantasy art,” and you’ll very quickly wind up with images like this:

What one finds in much fantasy art is a remarkably common theme of sexuality, which often has a heavy BDSM element. (To the uniformed, that stands for Bondage, Discipline, and Sadomasochism.)

Sometimes, the bondage theme is explicit and openly embraced, such as in the Kushiel novels of Jacqueline Carey, whose main character is a bisexual masochist who finds sexual pleasure in being tortured. (You can read TheTorchOnline.com’s interview with Carey here.)

But sometimes the S&M factor is played more coyly, giving us bondage-themed imagery without ever truly owning it. In the ’50s and ’60s, there were a plethora of beefcake movies, such as the Hercules films starring Steve Reeves, featuring oiled-up hunks and sexy babes alike constantly bound in chains and other restraints.

Most of these movies were terrible by the standards of anyone who wants their films to have a plot. Mostly they played out like fodder for one scene after another of sexy skin pressed against chains.

The very concept of a damsel in distress has a flavoring of S&M, as a helpless maiden is often tied up and must be rescued. Return of the Jedi even showcased series heroine Leia in what has become the iconic, quintessential S&M-tinted damsel outfit — the infamous gold bikini — before employing a post-feminist twist and having her kill her captor herself. But nonetheless, the image of Leia bound and chained like a slave girl has inspired many a young libido to get started.

The trend followed through into the ’90s, where it began to take a more subtle approach. The character of Xena, perhaps the most enduring high fantasy creation of the last 20 years, certainly bore a striking resemblance to a dominatrix, with her leather outfit and arsenal of weapons, a whip very prominently among them.

And how many times throughout the course of the series did we see Xena chained and beaten? She even sometimes seemed to enjoy fighting an opponent who could get his or her licks in, absorbing the blows with a satisfied smile.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer certainly went there, most notably in the sixth season when Buffy began her mutually-abusive relationship with bad boy vamp Spike. Their first session together was so violent it destroyed the entire house they were in.

But as time marches on, the BDSM themes became more overt. Even the family-friendly series Legend of the Seeker features the Mord’Sith, an army of women dressed entirely in leather who specialize in torturing their victims. In one memorable episode, noble hero Richard is stripped and given the royal treatment by “Mistress Denna,” a dominatrix name if ever I heard one.

The vampire soap True Blood raised the bar, as virtually every sexual relationship on the show contains some form of sado-masochistic violence at its core. The show even boasts a brand-new fetish called fangbanging — that is, living humans who prefer to have sex exclusively with vampires. The moments on the show relevant to this article are far too many to mention, from Jason’s romance with a watiress who likes to be strangled in the firs season to Lorena’s twisted, torturous rendezvous with Bill a few episodes ago.

But the Golden Handcuff Award has to go to new kid on the block Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The entire first season’s plot plays out like an elaborate bondage fantasy, with a houseful of sexy slaves to be commanded and used at the pleasure of the masters, oversexed couple Batiatus and Lucretia.

No doubt, there are many fantasy fans who don’t respond to these particular themes. But it would be naive to suggest there isn’t a connection, at least for some, between the fantasy genre and very specific sexual leanings.

Looking to buy any of the projects mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

Q: Will the White Witch appear in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie? I know she’s not in the book, but she wasn’t in Prince Caspian either, and she made an appearance in that movie! — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada

A: Perry Moore, an executive producer on the Narnia movies (and the person most responsible for casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the White Witch in the first place), tells the Oracle that, yes, the witch (and Tilda) definitely make a brief appearance in the upcoming film.

“She — and her evil — weave seamlessly into The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” he says. “She appears right where you think she would when you read the book — in a surprising way you could never guess that is at the same time true to the core of the book.”

Who are these filmmakers to add something like this to the story?

“C.S. Lewis himself, flip-flopped on the origin of the White Witch,” Moore says. “In the first book written [The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe], Jadis is said to be the descendant of Lilith (Adam’s first wife) and an ice giant (like a jotun, from Norse Mythology). Then in the prequel to that book, The Magician’s Nephew, which Tilda is dying for us to do next, C.S. Lewis shows that she came from another planet, Charn, in another dimension that you can only reach by going through the ‘world between world’ and the many pools there. Her appearance was originally totally different. Seven feet tall, long red hair, and she waged a war with her sister until she destroyed that world and froze it — neutron bomb, anyone? — by uttering the ‘Deplorable Word.’

“We took some creative liberties,” Moore admits, “but they’re hardly transgressions when you consider that Lewis just completely rewrote her origin six books later,” he says.

Moore also points out that Aslan himself says that evil like hers never truly dies.

So will Swinton’s White Witch make an appearance in all seven of the movie adaptations (should they get made), even in those based on books where she doesn’t appear (or in books like The Silver Chair, where The Lady of the Green Kirtle isn’t necessarily the same character as the White Witch)?

It’s under consideration.

Q: Was Xena’s chakram a “magic item,” or was she just really, really, really good a physics? — Mark, St. Louis, MO

A: Really, really, really good at physics (probably).

The chakram is, in fact, an historical weapon, used primarily by the Sikhs of Punjab (though not until many centuries after Xena existed).

That said, Xena’s particular chakram does have a supernatural origin: Xena doesn’t possess the weapon when she’s with Borias in Chin, but when she turns up in Norway and confronts the god Odin, she has it; later, in the “Chakram” episode, we learn it was given to her by Ares, who stole it from the gods.

But there’s still no evidence that it’s a “magic weapon” per se. It only seems to work when wielded by people of exceptional skill — Xena, of course, and Callisto, Eve, and (finally, in the finale) Gabrielle.

In “Chakram,” Xena mixes her original “dark” chakram with a chakram of “light,” creating a new weapon with two parts that can be split apart (much like Xena’s own two sides), with a design that seems based on the yin/yang philosophy of her mentor Lo Mao.

This new weapon restores Xena’s lost memory, implying it does have some magical powers (or maybe not: maybe just the familiar act of using it restored her memory). Either way, it seems to work as a weapon solely as a result of Xena’s skill.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Please send an email to thetorchonlineoracle@gmail.com and be sure and include your city and state and/or country.

Looking to buy any of the projects mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

When it comes to acting, dying is easy, but comedy is hard — so says the old expression.

Playing Joxer the Mighty for six years on Xena: Warrior Princess, actor Ted Raimi got to do both.

The “lovable loser” character, not to mention Ted’s pitch-perfect comedy timing, were surely an essential element in Xena’s break-out success — and the inspiration for some of the show’s zaniest flights of fantasy.

But starting around the fourth season, the character deepened, and it was hard not to be touched by his unrequited love for Gabrielle — and his eventual death in the six season.

Ted’s brother is, of course, uber-director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead) — also one of the producers behind Xena: Warrior Princess. As kids, Ted famously acted in Sam’s Super-8 movies — and he still pops up in bit parts in his older brother’s films such as last year’s Drag Me to Hell.

We caught up with Ted at the recent premiere of Spartacus: Blood and Sand and managed to pull him aside for a few questions about his time on Xena, his genre-intensive acting career, and his reoccurring guest spot on Legend of the Seeker.

TheTorchOnline: How did the role on Legend of the Seeker come about?

TR: I was asked by my old pal Rob Tapert who cast me in Xena if I wanted to do Legend of the Seeker, so I said yes. Rob has a great eye for TV shows naturally, so I just jumped at it. I didn’t even look at the part – he really knows where my strengths are, and it was a blast.

Sebastian is this creepy map salesman who also peddles magic, and it was a great part. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

[This season] I went back to New Zealand to do another episode [airing February 20th], and I can’t reveal what happens in it, naturally, but suffice to say that he causes a lot more trouble than he did in the first episode. He does come in contact with the wizard, and this time I actually had a scene with Bridget and Craig, and it was fantastic. I had a wonderful time.

TTO: If they asked, would you do the show full-time?

Ted and Sam Raimi

TR: Oh, sure, if they asked me to Legend of the Seeker full-time, I wouldn’t hesitate to say no!

TTO: When you and Sam were kids out making your movies, did you really think you’d be able to do that kind of stuff as adults?

Ted Raimi: I can’t say for Sam, naturally, but I didn’t think these genre movies that I loved so much would ever be so popular. When I was a kid, this was only B-movies. This was only second-reels and stuff you see on TV. It never really reached the theaters in such massive amounts.

I think it’s a wonderful departure from movies in the 70s and 80s. We’ve gotten away from the harsh realities of the 70s, the goofiness of the 80s, the sort of blasé “removedness,” if that’s a word, of the 90s, and now we’re in sort of a fantasy play-world.

For me, this is sort of the golden age of movies and TV, and I’m very lucky to be living through it.

TTO: Are you particularly drawn to fantasy and genre projects, or is it just the crowd you’ve fallen in with, so to speak, that keeps bringing you to these projects?

TR: The former rather than the latter. I do sci-fi and fantasy, because I love it. I excel at the auditions because I think the producers can see I don’t think it’s just an alternative to porn. I actually really, really love the genre, and I’m really enthused about it.

When I go in to do sci-fi, I’m not just there performing it — I’m asking them where these concepts come from — are they scientifically viable? And as far away from Tolkien as you can get, fantasy-wise, is always mind-blowingly incredible. That’s one of the things I really love about Legend of the Seeker – Terry Goodkind came up with a wildly original set of characters. That’s what appeals to me about that.

TTO: How disappointed were you when they killed Joxer on Xena.

TR: I wasn’t disappointed. I knew it was the sixth season, and it was pretty much time for Joxer to go. But I was sad to see him go. I’d enjoyed my time there. It was a wonderful six years of my life – I’ll never forget it as long as I live. I made friends that will last me a lifetime.

TTO: What are you working on next?

TR: I just finished directing my first web-series. It’s an eight-part web series, it’s calling Playing Dead.  I’m very proud of it. It’s got some excellent talent that I’ve known in LA for a long time, and I’ve got the coolest bands from Detroit, Michigan.

A gal named Suzanne Keilly wrote it. I thought it was hysterical and could be done on a budget. It’s very cinematic and bitingly funny, so I couldn’t say no.

Watch Playing Dead.

Visit Ted Raimi’s web page.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Five Torches (Out of Five)

Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the much-hyped new show from Starz, is finally premiering this Friday, January 22nd at 10 PM. At long last, a chance to see if the product lives up to its claim of pushing the boundaries of violence and nudity you’ve seen on television.

So does it? In two words, hell yeah.

Even if you’ve seen the mega-violent 300, which Spartacus unabashedly takes a lot of its visual aesthetic from, don’t think you’re prepared — the similarities end once you cross the look and get into the content. Both have that “living graphic novel” feel, as much of the show is shot with actors against a green screen, allowing the ancient world to come to life behind them.

But while 300 was strictly a testosterone-fueled fightfest, Spartacus actually gives its characters a lot to say and feel … and eviscerate.

In fact, if I had to compare it to anything, it’s much closer to the HBO/BBC series Rome. One of the strengths of Rome was the way it took iconic historical figures like Caesar and Mark Antony and made them juicy characters in what was essentially an ancient soap opera.

The character of Spartacus, played by excellent newcomer Andy Whitfield, is a ruthless, ass-kicking gladiator, but not by choice. All he wants is to be reunited with his wife, Sura, who was abducted by Roman soldiers. He has actual character, depth, and purpose, unlike the ab-flexing simpleton Leonidas of 300.

Fortunately for us action fans, though, he can put his emotions to bed and go nuts on anyone who stands in his way. The action in this series is outstanding, following the 300 mold of lots of slow-mo and camera glides, creating an almost balletic elegance to the brutality, and boasts one of the more interesting visual tricks I’ve seen recently: fighters will be engaged in battle and one will get a great shot in, and then all the action is freeze-framed except for the flying CG blood. It’s hardcore.

In fact, the only show on television that even comes close to the action of Spartacus is Legend of the Seeker, and by no coincidence they’re by the same production team of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, though beyond that fact the shows couldn’t be more different.

Tapert and Raimi also created another ground-breaking show, Xena: Warrior Princess, and as we’ve all heard by now, Xena star Lucy Lawless makes her grand return to television in the role of Lucretia, the cunning wife of the proprietor of a gladiator school. (See our interview here.)

Lawless looks terrific, and while some may be disappointed she’s playing a cerebral character in an action series, Lucretia is a magnetic and fascinating woman, manipulative and quite ruthless, much in the vein of Polly Walker’s character Atia in Rome. She steals every scene she’s in, not a simple task when you’re occasionally playing scenes with actors who are completely naked! (And yes, Lawless gets naked, as well.)

While the story is great, the acting top notch, and the fight scenes superb, perhaps the greatest victory of the show is its creation of a cohesive and complete world. Though the settings aren’t meant to look photo-realistic (and in fact sometimes seem to go out of their way to look like a comic book), it all works in the way its magnificently strung together. It just looks fabulous.

Major kudos to Starz (in their first venture into original programming) for having the guts to get behind a show that many would consider risky. Their gamble paid off — Spartacus: Blood and Sand is excellent television.

Looking to buy any of the projects mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Lucy Lawless is not Xena.

On some level, we all know this; I interview actors all the time, so I definitely know they’re not the parts they play.

But when I interviewed Lucy at the Television Critics Association conference in Pasadena last July, I honestly wasn’t prepared for just how much she isn’t Xena.

Xena is somber, down-to-earth, and practical, haunted by her famous “dark” past; Lucy is cheeky, irreverent, and impish, always looking for an opportunity to cut it up.

But they have things in common as well: they’re both fiercely intelligent and very kind-hearted. And of course, they’re both statuesque and stunningly beautiful. At 41, Lucy looks sensational.

With Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a high-profile CGI-intensive retelling of the story of the ancient Roman slave that debuts next Friday on Starz, Lucy is showing the world yet another example of her considerable acting abilities.

She not the “star” of the show, but rather, a major supporting player. Lucretia, the wife of the owner of the training camp where Spartacus trains as a slave, is also very different from Xena: she’s flighty and superficial, at least at first, but also cunning and scheming. And as Lucy herself noted in our interview, she’s not particularly powerful, at least not at the beginning of the series.

Oh, and Lucretia is also often naked. The show includes some of the most graphic sex and violence ever to be seen in series television. One of the most-talked about scenes of the first few episodes will surely be the one where Lucretia and her husband have a conversation while both are being sexually serviced by slaves.

Does it ruin my professional credibility to say that it was a thrill to meet Lucy in person? Even better, despite my sky-high expectations, she did not disappoint:

TheTorchOnline: How is Lucretia different from Xena?

Lucy Lawless: The part is challenging for me, because I tend to go in a comedic direction. Just naturally, I want to make everything just [crazy noise]. I just want to party all the time.

[But] there’s really no room for that in this show. It has to be very minimal and very naturalistic to sell this world, to be really super believable, because in the show all the people take for granted things that today are very taboo.

TTO: Are you worried that your fans will be expecting Xena?

LL: No. I have a loyal bunch, and they’ve seen me do many, many things: some good, and some bad. I think they see me as Lucy and not as Xena. They’re not confused.

TTO: Unlike Xena, you don’t have a lot of action scenes.

LL: No. Woo!

TTO: So that’s a good thing?

LL: Fabulous!

TTO: Does that mean you don’t have to go to the gym as much?

LL: I do have to go to the gym! I have to be naked on screen. I’m terrified. I hate it. But if it’s right to fulfill a scene, and it’s what a character would do, you gotta go there, because that part, I’m an artist. No matter what my pathetic middle-class morals, I want to be truthful more than I want to protect myself.

TTO: I read you said that one of the things that attracted you to the role, and the show in general, was that it had complicated female characters, in a distant past when they didn’t have an opportunity to have overt power. What do you think about the female characters in the show?

LL: Well, women could still be major players [in Ancient Rome]. They could own land and that sort of thing. They couldn’t get a job in the Senate, but as with all politics, the people who exert the greatest influence are not always the people in the seat.

TTO: And that’s what’s going on here?

LL: It’s what’s going on everywhere.

TTO: Good point. You said she sees herself as the power behind the throne?

LL: I think she will come to see herself as that. It doesn’t start off like that. I didn’t want people to go, “Oh, there’s Xena in a different frock.” I didn’t want her to powerful, yet. She’s confident of her role, but I did not want her to come out of the starting block with the audience knowing what kind of animal she was. That would be an insult.

[But] she becomes more Machiavellian as things go against her and her husband. She thinks she’s right all the time. She’s forced to do these terrible things. She knows they’re not okay, but she doesn’t have any choice. If someone does something to upset the family business, her husband and the gladiator thing, then somebody has to die for it. She’s going to enable and cover and carry it off. She really shores up her husband no matter what. She’s survival of the fittest. And she loves her husband. The fact that they’re so damn dysfunctional is just adds a twist to the drama.

TTO: You told me earlier that you thought modern audiences might perceive her as a villain. That says to me that you’ve really gotten into the heart and head of the character — that you yourself don’t necessarily see her as a “villain,” you’re seeing the character from her point-of-view. How did you get to that place in her head?

LL: When you see all the terrible things, when people get unceremoniously killed in front of her, she doesn’t say, “He was slaughtered, he was murdered.” It’s just like, “Oh.” So that makes you think, “What motivates my character?” She has this relationship with death and bloodshed, but it’s really just like a complete disconnection, that zero empathy thing. She only empathizes with people on or above her station in life. And that’s very interesting to us who are taught to give a damn.

I guess there are a lot of people out there like that still. I’m not sure anything has changed here.

TTO: Is it hard to shake Lucretia when you’re done filming? Can you just walk away from the set or does it mentally affect you?

LL: No, but the sex things I do sometimes find it hard to shake off. There’s nothing like a sex scene to put you off sex. [laughs]

TTO: Is it better on the show that it’s both men and women who are naked?

LL: Yeah. It’s definitely better. If it was just women then I probably wouldn’t be interested in taking it. The fact is, that is truthful. If you’re sitting out there, I think it’s cool to be able to watch the show and fully explore that world at that time.

TTO: Whose idea was it to make it this explicit?

LL: The initial impulse came from [creators] Rob [Tapert] and Sam [Raimi] and Josh [Donen], who desired to make something that went so far. And then you have to find someone to fulfill it like [showrunner] Steven DeKnight, and then stars jump on board and say, “Yes, we have the cohones to make that.” Throw a lot of money at it. So many stations couldn’t, because that’s not their belief. They haven’t got the mandate to do that, they haven’t go the taste for it.

These guys are really very ballsy, and I hope it really puts their future on the map. I’m really so proud of this, so proud of every day’s work.

TTO: How long are the days on the set?

LL: Standard. Fourteen. Well, twelve on the set, maybe longer to get your hair done and stuff. Big hair show. Amazing design show for that.

TTO: At what point did you make the decision, “Okay I’m going to work with your husband Rob [who also created Xena] again. I’m going to commit to it.”

LL: I wanted to do it. And people in Hollywood were like, “Why? Why are you doing that? Spartacus sounds like Xena again. It’s like you’re going backwards.” And I was like, “I don’t know. It’s really good. Really good.” And they’re like, “Yeah. Okay.” They couldn’t know what I know about my husband.

TTO: So you have a lot of trust and faith.

LL: Yes, and I saw who was signed, I knew who was getting on board. The hardest thing now, because everything else is just top-notch, is the effects coming on time and being as good as the rest of the show, because that’s really important. We’ve got the right knowledge and the right technicians, but we’ve got seven or eight hundred effects shot per episode. It’s really painstaking, but we’ve got to get these episodes on the air quick.

TTO: I know you’ve spent the last ten years talking about Xena, but I run a site devoted to fantasy, and I confess, I’m astounded by the online fan base. They’re so enthusiastic, as opposed to a show like Hercules, that I don’t think made that leap. What was it about that Xena that has made it make that leap into iconic status?

LL: I think that friendship [between Xena and Gabrielle] is really pivotal. I think it centers on the friendship. That’s the curse of society. We’ve gotten a bit dispersed and a bit disconnected. We don’t live in small communities anymore. We don’t know our neighbors. Every man has to be a little hero just to get by. I think that touched on a yearning for connection and love, and for the everyday hero.

TTO: Did you have a sense when you were doing it that it would have the life that it’s had?

LL: I think I was so naïve I thought every show became a hit. [laughs]

But it’s gone beyond that now, Xena fans banded together and do “Feel the Love” Week. It’s the second week in October, October 8th. They go out and do something in their communities. They used to send stuff to my charity, and I got uncomfortable with that, so I said, “Look, do something, whatever it is, go out in your own communities and enrich that.” And they take that and practice it.

A doctor in Brazil performed, for a week, free palate surgery, to somebody put up a rail for the lady next door who was in a wheelchair, to I painted somebody’s nursery. Stuff that’s a force for good, and I think that’s really humbling. They’ve taken something which for me was just a great gig and mucking around in leather for six years, and made it something that has spiritual payoffs in their own communities.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand airs January 22nd at 10 PM on the Starz premium cable network.

Looking to buy something mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Follow us on Twitter.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: So there’s a new X-Men movie coming. What’s the story? — Eddy, Seattle, WA

A: Here’s what the director, Bryan Singer, recently told Variety:

This is the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where [their] relationship took a wrong turn. There is a romantic element, and some of the mutants from X-Men will figure into the plot, though I don’t want to say which ones. There will be a lot of new mutants and a great villain.

The Oracle agrees that if there was ever a franchise in need of a Star Trek-like reboot, this is it.

Q: Okay, so I’ve watched just about every episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, but I still don’t see it: how is Xena a “princess”? Her mother is the owner of a hotel, and her father is a warrior! — Maid Marion, Boise, ID

A: You’re asking the Oracle to revisit an old controversy, but here goes.

You’re right that the question of Xena’s “royalty” was originally unclear — although there’s considerable (and compelling) debate about whether the warrior Atreus is really her father. But even if Xena really is the daughter of a god, that doesn’t make her a “princess” either, does it?

But all was answered in The Debt, a two-part episode in season three (among the show’s best episode’s ever, in the Oracle’s considered opinion). In China (in a flashback), Evil Xena falls under the influence of Lao Ma, the wife of the ailing Chinese emperor (and also the acting emperor). Lao Ma becomes Xena’s mentor, eventually declaring her the kingdom’s “warrior princess” — to be a force for great good in the world.

Alas, Lao Ma is soon thwarted by her evil son Ming T’ien, and Xena falls back into her evil ways. But once she later recommits herself to the cause of good, she metaphorically reclaims the title of “warrior princess,” acting out the role that she was unable to fulfill while Lao Ma was still alive.

Q: I’m all for movie producers beefing up female roles in male-oriented classics, but there was no woman who ever bested Sherlock Holmes as in the new movie, was there? Did they invent the character of Irene out of thin air (just modern adaptations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea always seem to invent a “daughter” for Captain Nemo?) — Marcy, Taos, NM

A: Actually, they didn’t invent Irene Adler. She’s taken from the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and she is, in fact, the only women to have bested Holmes (and one of only four people total to have done so!).

In the story, Holmes is asked by a king to retrieve a compromising photograph of the monarch with Adler. He ascertains the location of the photo, but when he goes to get it, she has already taken it, leaving a letter promising that she won’t spill the beans — providing the king harasses her no more.

Anyway, Irene is American, she is beautiful, and it’s not a crazy stretch to imagine that Holmes might be in love with her, as he is in the movie. Indeed, her refers to her at least four other times out of the fifty-six short stories (and four novels) in which Holmes appears.

Watson, the narrator of the stories, refers to her as the “late” Irene Adler at one point, implying she’s dead by the time the story is published — although scholars say it’s possible he’s simply referring to the fact that she is then married, and her name is no longer “Adler.”

Q: What’s this about the Clash of the Titans remake being reshot for 3-D? — Myron, Somewhere Over the Rainbow

A: Well, additional scenes are definitely being shot next month — which is unusual (and doesn’t bode well, in the Oracle’s opinion), given the movie is scheduled to be released on March 26th.

Turning the movie into 3-D has definitely been discussed (which speaks to how 3-D is fast becoming the trend of the year — and how the industry perceives it as adding to a movie’s gross).

But given the fast turnaround, the Oracle thinks it unlikely in this case.

Looking to buy something mentioned in this column (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Throughout its six seasons, Xena: Warrior Princess featured an enormous array of world mythologies, but my absolute favorite was the four-episode arc dealing with Gabrielle’s spiritual quest in India, which is why that particular storyline earns the most esteemed award we here at TheTorchOnline can bestow:

The India Storyline

Five Torches (Out of Five)

The first episode, called “Paradise Found,” takes place before they even arrive in India, but introduces the element that most affected me: Gabrielle begins to feel peace by focusing on her breathing and practicing Yoga. Sure, it sounds hippie-dippie and new age-y, but anyone who’s truly thrown themselves into the practice of Yoga understands its healing and soothing effects.

Unfortunately, Gabrielle is guided along the beginning of her path by a guru named Aiden, who is actually a demon who feeds off the goodness of the people who come to his island paradise. As his victims sink deeper into a meditative state, they turn into blue stone and he absorbs their essence.

So, that part’s not so great. But the Yoga? We’ll keep that.

When they finally arrive in India in “Devi,” they encounter a man who will be very important to them: the Christ-like Eli,who at first glance seems to be just a street magician. Gabrielle is possessed by the demon, Tataka (man, can’t Gabrielle ever catch a break?) until eventually being rescued by Eli.

The next episode, “Between the Lines,” showcases a theme that will continue on for the remainder of the series: Xena and Gabrielle are more than just best friends. They are soul mates, and this is evidenced by the fact that every time their souls are reincarnated, they always find each other. They learn about the concept of karma, and how everything you do in this life affects what happens in future lives.

In this episode, they are sent into the future where Xena is the “Mother of Peace,” and Gabrielle is a male warrior. They fight the sorceress Alti in the future, before being pulled back into the present for a grand finale smackdown. (In this tussle, Alti grabs onto Gabrielle’s hair, and Xena uses her chakram to free Gabrielle of her grip, thus giving Gabby the short haircut she would wear for the rest of the series. Unfortunately, this is also the haircut that Xena keeps seeing in an earlier Alti-inspired vision of her and Gabrielle’s deaths.)

Finally, in “The Way,” Xena and Gabrielle again meet up with Eli, who we discover is being hunted down by the demon Indrajit. Eli teaches Gabrielle about The Way, a philosophy that emphasizes love and non-violence over all else. Gabrielle soon learns that this is not an easy pursuit in a world torn asunder by violence. After all, how do you defend yourself if you can’t ever fight back?

When Gabrielle and Eli are captured by Indrajit, Xena must do something she’s never done before in order to rescue Gabrielle: pray.

Unlike the petty, all-too-human Olympian gods, when Xena encounters the Indian deity Krishna, she finds him to be noble and serene. He explains to her that the way to purify her karma and rescue Gabrielle is to be true to her own Way, which is the Way of the Warrior (in this life). He endows her with the spirit of Kali, the goddess of destruction, allowing her to defeat Indrajit and rescue Gabrielle and Eli.

Aesthetically, the show never looked better, incorporating the exotic beauty and majesty of Indian culture into the set and costume designs, and of all the “looks” that Gabrielle sported throughout the series, her sari costume was my favorite.

At this point the show was at a creative peak. As could only happen on Xena, the writers took the simple art of mehndi, the beautiful body art made with henna, and gave it into a supernatural element, thus showcasing a real element of Indian culture with a truly Xena-twist. Cliche images like flying carpets were incorporated into the story as props in action sequences. And though the number of gods in the Indian pantheon is literally in the hundreds, these episodes allowed us to glimpse a few, when so rarely are Indian gods even acknowledged in most fantasy stories.

Aside from being a fantastic yarn (and they make excellent repeat viewing), it was this batch of episodes that gave me two gifts. The first was the doorway into Indian mythology, which for a myth-geek like myself, weary of Greek and Norse legends, was a true prize. And the second was an introduction to Yoga, a practice that to this day remains a large part of my life.

Fortunately, I never had a teacher that tried to turn me into blue stone.

Looking to buy any of the projects mentioned in this article (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

Where would fantasy heroes be without their trusted animal companions? Just like the rest of us with our pets, they’d be lost. So let’s take a look at some of the most memorable, shall we?

(Incidentally, there are plenty of fantasy stories that involve relationships between humans and magical creatures such as unicorns and dragons, but for the purposes of this article, we’re restricting ourselves only to creatures that have a real-life counterpart here on Earth!)

Scabbers (from Harry Potter)

Hapless Ron’s unpredictable pet rat Scabbers is, of course, not a real rat at all, but it’s not until the third book in the series that he’s revealed as the polymorphed Peter Pettigrew, a coward whose treachery led to the death of Harry’s parents. Pettigrew’s animal disguise plays an instrumental role in Prisoner of Azkaban, inspiring Sirius Black’s escape from prison after he recognizes the rat in a photograph, and Scabbers figures prominently into the book’s conclusion as well.

Coolness Factor: 2 (out of 5)
Loyalty: 1 (out of 5)
Importance to the Plot: 4 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Two Torches (Out of Five)

Argo (from Xena: Warrior Princess)

Xena is no ordinary warrior — so why should she have an ordinary horse? Sure enough, hers is extraordinarily intelligent, sensing danger, responding to a number of different commands, being able to command other horses, and even once enduring having been turned into a miniature version of herself. Speaking of which, is Argo male or female? While referred to as “boy” in earlier seasons, she is eventually identified as female (and was usually portrayed by a mare). The horse died during Xena and Gabrielle’s Ares-induced 25-year sleep in the ice-cave, but gave birth to a daughter, Argo II, who, remarkably, had all of Argo’s abilities.

Incidentally, did you ever wonder why Gabrielle had no horse? According to the producers speaking at a fan convention, it took three horses to make it look like Xena had one horse. For Gabrielle to have had a horse, that would have meant having six horses on hand — something that was financially impossible.

Coolness factor: 3 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 2 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Three Torches (Out of Five)

Hedwig (Harry Potter)

There’s one question that every reader of the Harry Potter series has asked him or herself at least once: why don’t wizards have email? Then again, would you use email if you have something as cool as Hedwig, Harry’s pet snowy owl, to deliver messages to your friends? Hedwig is, of course, a gift from Hagrid, purchased in Diagon Alley in the first book in the series, and was definitely an owl with ‘tude, never willing to put up with Harry’s thoughtlessness. Sadly, Hedwig is killed in Deathly Hallows by none other than a stray curse.

Coolness Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 4 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 2 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

The Animals of Aladdin

All the main characters in the animated Disney movie Aladdin share a bond with an animal that reflects his or her underlying personality: Aladdin has his impetuous monkey Abu, Jasmine has her regal tiger Rajah, and Jafar has his mean parrot Iogo. But the animal companions don’t just mimic their owners, they also reflect the underlying theme of the movie, which is more sophisticated than it seems at first glance: when you try to possess and enslave someone else, you ultimately end up enslaving yourself. True freedom, just like true love, only comes from freeing others and giving them the choice to set you free as well.

And for the record, it applies to life, but it also applies to our relationship with our real-world pets!

Coolness Factor: 3 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 4 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Four Torches (Out of Five)

Daemons (from His Dark Materials)

In perhaps the most interesting aspect of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series of books, every human in that alternate-”Earth” is accompanied in life by a “daemon” — that person’s soul made manifest in the form of an animal. In children, the daemon changes forms, finally settling into a single animal upon adulthood — a creature that reflects that person’s underlying personality. Humans share a bond with this personification of their soul that is so intimate that touching another’s daemon is unthinkable. And while separating a human from his or her daemon is possible — and factors closely into the plot of the books — doing so turns both into virtual zombies.

Coolness Factor: 4 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 5 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Four Torches (Out of Five)

The Talking Animals (from The Chronicles of Narnia)

With a few exceptions, it’s hard to find better companions than the talking animals of Narnia. Most of these animals rarely stretch beyond their stereotypes — donkeys are stupid, owls are wise, cats can be unreliable, and dogs are loyal. But every now and then, author C.S. Lewis surprises us, as with one of the most memorable of Narnia’s talking animals, Reepicheep: the bravest, most noble creature in all of Narnia (excepting Aslan) is none other than … a mouse. And then there is Aslan. Is there another story that turns an animal into a metaphor for God?

Coolness Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Loyalty Factor: 5 (out of 5)
Importance to the Story: 5 (out of 5)

Overall Rating:

Five Torches (Out of Five)

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

Q: Another version of A Christmas Carol?!? How many frickin’ A Christmas Carols does the world need!! For the record, how many have already been done? — Candy, Key West, FL

A: The Oracle could not agree with you more! If there’s one thing that turns the Oracle into a Christmas Scrooge faster than anything, it’s, well, yet another production of this sweet, but wildly-over-told tale.

By the Oracle’s count, Charles Dickens 1843 novella has been adapted at least twenty-one times for film and at least forty-eight times for television. And this doesn’t include the countless local stage and school productions we’re all subjected to every year of the at least twenty different theatrical adaptations!

These days, Xena: Warrior Princess’s “A Solstice Tale” is the only version the Oracle can endure — and even that’s pushing it.

Bah humbug indeed!

Q: Does Satan exist?– Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: A fallen angel who is, more or less, the literal embodiment of evil? No. The ancient Hebrews, from whom the idea of Satan originated, possessed great wisdom, and their religious stories contain impressive metaphorical truths, but their literal understanding of the world was flat-out wrong in almost every respect: the world is not flat, the sun does not revolve around the Earth, a flood never covered the planet, you couldn’t live inside a whale for three days, and on and on and on.

The Oracle sees no reason to think that since their pre-scientific understanding of the physical world was so wrong that their literal understanding of the “spiritual” one wouldn’t be equally literally incorrect.

It’s also worth noting that the “Satan” of The Bible is very different from the concept that we have of him today — most of which comes from sources, like Milton’s Paradise Lost, that are obviously fictional.

That said, many religions and cultures do contain the concept of some sort of physical embodiment of evil. But the Oracle would argue that this is merely a way for humans to make sense of the concept of evil, and to instruct others on the nature of evil — not evidence that such a being really exists. After all, all these “beings” are so different from each other as to be absolutely irreconcilable.

Still, the Oracle also doesn’t rule out the possibility of the existence of advanced alien species that are malevolent — beings that, for example, might enjoy torturing human beings. It’s also possible — extremely unlikely, but possible — that such beings might have been in contact with humanity at some point in our past, and have been mistaken for “devils.” Or, if these beings are spiritual, perhaps they really do “possess” people. So in that sense, “Satan” may exist.

But that’s very different from what most people think of when they say “Satan.”

Q: What about evil? Does that exist? – Martin, Portsmouth, NH

A: Evil is a subjective, descriptive term used by humans to describe something harmful or destructive to life.

It’s impossible to deny that such a thing exists, much as it’s impossible to deny that “beauty” exists — at least from the point-of-view of the person perceiving the beauty.

Does evil (or beauty) exist apart from someone perceiving it? No. Evil, by definition, requires a judgment call — which, of course, requires someone to do the judging.

Q: You said in another question that you can order the season 1 DVD of Merlin on Amazon UK. If, hypothetically, other DVDs from Britain have played on our DVD player, and if, hypothetically, I have a cousin studying abroad in England right now, would it be a good idea to have her smuggle Merlin into the US for me? — Wynne

A: The Oracle thinks you’re taking a big hypothetical chance. It’s possible you have a multi-region or “chipped” DVD player that can play DVDs from all regions (the more expensive it was, the more likely it is to be one). But increasingly, the studios are pressing DVDs that are unplayable out-of-region even on multi-region players (although there are work-arounds).

It’s also possible that those other DVDs you played were pressed before region encoding became so widespread.

I’d do two things: (1) check to see if you have a multi-region DVD player, then (2) ask yourself: “How technically proficient am I in case the DVD has extra-encoding?” If the answer to the first question is “Yes,” and the answer to the second question is “Very!” I’d say go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t.

From ultimate evil to DVD encoding! Hey, don’t ever say that the Oracle doesn’t answer all — and all kinds of — questions!

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)

The first television show I remember as a kid having a “very special spooky Halloween episode” was Growing Pains, a show I adored as a child … until I had a real-life run-in with cast member Alan Thicke that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say the man needs to learn some manners. (I’m still not finished with you, Thicke.) So, that and Kirk Cameron turning into a Crocoduck-picture-waving nutjob (seriously, look it up) pretty much spoiled that for me.

But, my goodness, do I digress! The point is that, in my humble opinion, television shows often give us their year’s best episodes when catering All Hallow’s Eve, so let’s take a look at some of the best.

The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror

I was so young when the first of what was to become a series of Halloween Simpsons episodes that I was actually scared. It began with Marge Simpson coming out from behind a red curtain onto a stage to directly address the audience, telling parents that they should probably put the kids to bed early, because they were about to show some scary stuff and didn’t want to receive angry letters the next day.

With The Simpsons now in its 789th season, the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have been declining in quality for the past several decades, but when they started, they were awesome. I especially loved the vignette called “The Shinning,” a send-up of The Shining which was not only hilarious but actually a little unsettling, and the very first episode’s sketch which cleverly parodied The Amityville Horror.

And super props for one of their Treehouse sketches featuring Lucy Lawless in her Xena outfit.

Roseanne

One of the most groundbreaking shows of the 90’s, Roseanne had the gall to showcase a family that were not financially well-off, not living in a swanky pad, and not particularly camera-friendly, and we loved the Connors all the more for it.

One of the perennial favorites of the show was its yearly Halloween-themed episode, which usually showcased not only outrageous costumes for the cast, but imagined a humble Midwest family that was absolutely obsessed with Halloween, going to distance to decorate their house, freak out the neighbors, and play some good old fashioned practical jokes on each other. A decade after the show’s end, I still get nostalgic for the Connors around Halloween time.

As for which was the best, who can say? They were all great in their own way.

South Park - “Spooky Fish”

Evil twins from a parallel dimension are nothing new to fiction, but South Park did us one better. In the Halloween episode “Spookyfish,” we meet Cartman’s evil twin, who turns out to be the sweetest kid around. For an extra hoot, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, stuck a lame-looking goatee on the “evil” Cartman as an homage to the classic Star Trek episode, “Mirror, Mirror,” in which the crewmembers, including Spock, are switched with their evil twin selves. In this episode, Spock famously sported a goatee.

(This bit of facial hair homage was also used less humorously on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.)

But my favorite part? The fact that the whole episode was broadcast in “Spookyvision,” which amounted to nothing more than putting pictures of Barbara Streisand’s face in the four corners of the screen. Hilarious.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - “Halloween” and “Fear, Itself”

For a show that dealt with monsters and goblins on a weekly basis, the writers of Buffy came up with a really great concept for their first Halloween episode: that October 31st is the night that real monsters take the night off. It’s not cool to strut your stuff on Halloween, because that’s amateur night.

Unfortunately for Buffy and her gang, one of the amateurs is a warlock who has cast a spell so that anyone who bought one of his costumes will turn into their costume. This episode, which could have been a throwaway gimmick episode, was firmly entrenched in the mythology of the show, and gave us several firsts: the first time we see Willow’s bangin’ body, the first time we see Buffy stripped of her powers, the origin of Xander’s military knowledge, and the revelation that Giles has a very dark past.

The next Halloween episode occurred in the fourth season, and “Fear, Itself” featured the gang beset upon by a demon that caused everyone’s worst fears to become manifest. With the cleverness that was the show’s staple, however, the episode really just proved how scary your first couple months of college can be. While not in the same league as “Halloween,” “Fear, Itself” was one of the high points of the season, particularly for its hilariously lackluster climax, in which Buffy must fight the fear demon … who turns out to be about six inches tall.

Xena: Warrior Princess - Girls Just Want to Have Fun

About a dozen or so years before the current vampire craze, and preceding Buffy by a year, the constantly provocative Xena: Warrior Princess aired an episode in its second season that featured Gabrielle and Xena turning into vampires, or “bacchae” as they’re referred to in this episode, servants of the evil Bacchus.

Okay, as far as being accurate to Greek mythology goes, they threw everything out the window. Bacchus (or, more accurately, Dionysus) was a god of wine and merrymaking, not a lookalike to Tim Curry’s Darkness from the movie Legend, after all. But the point of this episode wasn’t mythological accuracy, it was just to have a rocking good time, and they did just that. This is truly one for the ages.

For those of you living under a rock, Zombieland opened last weekend and went quickly to number one (and we, of course, reviewed it here.) One of the clever moves of the film is that it takes your traditional Hero — muscular, confident, aggressive — and your standard Sidekick — smart but cowardly, neurotic — and flips them, so that we see the film through the eyes of the sidekick, played with hilarious gusto by Jesse Eisenberg.

Although the characters in the film aren’t aware of this switch, and continue on in their respective paths, we in the audience are clued in to the fact that this won’t be your traditional action/horror film. In fact, Eisenberg’s character, Columbus, in a moment of meta-consciousness, even refers to himself as “sort of a Sancho Panza-type.”

Sancho Panza was, of course, the prototypical sidekick, who traveled around at the side of Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes’ historic novel of the same name. Unlike the slender, intelligent Columbus, however, Sancho was overweight and dim, riding atop a donkey, yet lovable for his unshakable loyalty to his master, Quixote.

It is this loyalty that allows for Quixote to continue on in his quests, whether he’s aware of it or not, and like a truly great sidekick, Sancho never asks for affirmation. He simply is there for the hero, even though in this case, the hero is a delusional old man (which, perhaps, proves Sancho’s worth all the more.)

But while the sidekick has his or her place in a story, longer tales often develop the sidekick to the point where they’re on the same level as the hero, which is always satisfying for a reader or viewer. After all, haven’t we all, at some points in out lives, felt a lot more like Robin than Batman? So it’s small wonder we take comfort in the fact that Robin, the epitome of a sidekick, grew up and became Nightwing, a hero in his own right, on par with Batman.

In fantasy literature, perhaps one of the greatest examples of a sidekick rising up to the level of hero is Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. Like Sancho, Sam is neither slim nor very smart, and for most of the story, Sam exists to cook food for Frodo and keep up his spirits, all the while contentedly walking behind his master on their epic quest.

But when Frodo is attacked and Sam believes he is dead, a change occurs in him, something visceral, something which can never be undone. He realizes that the fate of the Ring and indeed, the world, now rests solely on his humble shoulders, and so he stands up, picks up his master’s sword, and carries on.

Frodo didn’t die, of course, and the two hobbits are reunited, but things will never go back to the way they were before. By the end of their journey, Frodo has come to respect Sam as an equal, and when death again seems imminent, utters to Sam the famous words, “I’m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.”

In the wake of Sam, it seems that the sidekick-turned-hero angle is all the rage. The most obvious example that springs to mind from contemporary is, of course, Gabrielle, the Battling Bard, whose popularity threatens to outshine that of the hero, Xena. Throughout the six seasons of Xena: Warrior Princess, we see as Gabrielle grows and changes from a feisty but physically weak farm girl into an accomplished warrior, inheriting Xena’s place after her death.

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow Rosenburg, who was naught but a vastly intelligent nerd, became aware of the existence of the supernatural when Buffy Summers came to town, and that indirectly resulted in her learning witchcraft to the point where she became the “most powerful witch in the western hemisphere.”

But as for my favorite sidekick? That would have to go to Ron Weasley, the bumbling poor kid who was just another Weasley sibling until he met up with Harry Potter in their first year at Hogwarts.

Come on, just look at that picture! If you didn’t say “Awww…” you’re made of stone.

Ron comes into Hogwarts the way many of us do any other school, frightened and overwhelmed, feeling very small and very alone. But by befriending Harry Potter, he assured his name would go down in the history books. Had it not been for Harry and all of the danger that followed him like a dark storm cloud, Ron might never have been tested as thoroughly as he was, thus never knowing his true potential.

While real life is never as cut-and-dry as fiction, sidekicks and heroes do exist, just as villains and henchmen do. But as fiction is  realizing, those roles are never binding, and we can easily go from being a lowly servant one moment to the savior of the world the next.

This is the article I have been waiting years to write. As not only a superfan of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess, I also, for a time, was a musical theater performer in New York City. So when approached to write an article comparing the musical episodes of both shows, I step-ball-changed right over to my computer and hit up my iTunes, which of course contain the cast recording for both shows.

Television shows are no strangers to wacky stunts in order to grab ratings, and it’s not completely unheard of for a show to have a “musical episode” — usually for comedic value — in order to get people to tune in.

But both Buffy and Xena stood out — for one thing, they were genre shows, and fantasy action-adventure, no less!

What’s more, neither episode was a silly, whimsical throw-away story. Both shows carefully integrated their story-lines and character arcs so that they came to a head during the musical episode.

In other words, the plot doesn’t make sense if you eliminate those episodes. They are crucial to the overall stories.

Much like a musical you would see onstage, the characters had all reached a breaking point, where their problems and passions had grown to a fevered pitch, and simple words would no longer suffice to express their emotions. Instead of being a cute distraction, the songs were necessary.

On Xena’s musical, called “The Bitter Suite,” Xena and Gabrielle’s bond had been demolished by Gabrielle’s act of betrayal: she had lied about killing her demonic offspring, Hope, who later returned and murdered Xena’s son, Solan.

Gabrielle, wracked with guilt, fled to the Amazons, and Xena came after her with a vengeance. Their battle took them over a cliff and into a mysterious waterfall which led them to a mystical land called Illusia, where new characters appeared with the faces of their friends and enemies, and everyone spontaneously burst into song.

Throughout the course of the episode, Xena and Gabrielle are forced to confront the reasons for their anger and realize in the end, they ultimately do love each other. The unsung hero of this episode is Joseph LoDuca, the man responsible for most of the scoring of Xena (as well as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), and who endows the score with a creepy, Danny Elfman-vibe. Lucy Lawless and Kevin Smith, who played Ares, sang their own parts, and did so beautifully.

Less convincing was Renee O’Connor lip synching away to her voice double. Could her voice really have been so bad they didn’t let her sing?

Here’s the problem with the episode. It’s a total deus ex machina, and in a show filled with actual gods, it’s a weak device. How this universe exists or how they got there is never explained, except that Xena’s son, Solan, brought them there, which is not in keeping with the rest of the show’s mythology — since when can dead humans create an entire musical world and send the living there to find their way?

(It should be said there was a second musical episode later on, as a purely campy, throwaway comedy episode, but the less said about that one the better.)

But minor criticisms aside, with “The Bitter Suite,” the writing crew for Xena proved once again (as they did a million times throughout the series) that they had no fear, and were always willing to “go there” — they’d go anywhere — if they felt the story required it. The series was a six-year explosion of creativity.

“The Love of Your Love” From “The Bitter Suite”

On Buffy, however, the musical was not only not a bizarre, trippy out-there episode, it felt (mostly) like just another Buffy episode. We had seen the gang drawn into spells without their knowledge in the past, such as the fourth season episode “Superstar,” so when the gang just started singing for no reason, we knew their had to be some devilry behind it, and so did they.

Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, also wrote the songs for the show, and used it to deal with several of the characters’ emotional journeys: Buffy, recently back from the dead, dealing with a horrible depression and a strange attachment to Spike, who is in love with her; Xander’s fear of his impending marriage to Anya; and Giles’ realization that he must leave Buffy if she’s ever to become an adult.

“Once More With Feeling,” as the ep was called, treated us to over an hour’s worth of what felt almost like a fully realized book musical, from the opening Disney-style song “Going Through the Motions,” to the Sondheim-inspired, conversational “I’ve Got a Theory,” to the beautiful (and beautifully subversive) love ballad “Under Your Spell,” sung from Tara to her girlfriend Willow, all the way through to the montage pre-climax “Walk Through the Fire,” which is a pretty hilarious send up of the bombastic full-cast songs like “The Tonight Medley” from West Side Story.

All in all, “Once More With Feeling” worked in a way that “The Bitter Suite” didn’t, in that it truly was just another episode of the show without any crazy story-tweaking. The reason for the singing was that Xander had summoned a demon who made people sing and dance, which eventually led to their demise if the demon wasn’t stopped.

Furthermore, the story of the episode calls for regular people, not Broadway voices, bursting into song, so it worked perfectly when the cast all sang their own parts, despite their lack of musical experience. The beautiful exceptions to this rule were Anthony Stewart Head, who had a background in musical theater, and Amber Benson, whose sweet voice complimented her character so well.

“I’m Under Your Spell”

“I’ve Got a Theory”

While I’m calling Buffy’s “Once More With Feeling” the better episode, both stories used clever plot devices to bring their characters into a world where singing made sense, which, for fantasy series, seem more believable than if, say, the cast of Gossip Girl were suddenly to start belting out numbers to each other instead of…texting? I don’t know, I’ve never seen the show, but you get the point.

It makes one wonder about the possibility of other fantasy series taking on this challenge. I for one would love to see an episode of Merlin, in which Arthur and Merlin sing a (possibly HoYay-esque) duet to each other called “Every Sword Needs Its Stone.”

Yeah. I’ll let that one simmer for a minute.

So what final “rating” do I give both episodes? Oh, please — they both deserve five “torches” based on sheer audacity alone!

Five Torches (Out of Five)

Looking to buy the soundtracks for “Once More With Feeling” or “The Bitter Suite” (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.