with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.24 – Is There a Doctor in the House?

Well here it is, class, the final episode of the first season of “Xena: Warrior Princess.” We have seen our lovely warrior maiden fight inner demons, outer warlords, and bad dialogue, all while searching for peace, happiness, and probably a good saddle sore ointment (come on, she is riding Argo in a tiny leather skirt. She has to have HUGE saddle sores by now or wicked hard calluses. Anyways…) In this first season finale, Xena must face her bloodies, and toughest challenge yet – teaching a zealous general a lesson while saving the life of her super BFF.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.23 – Death Mask

Family serves many purposes in the Xenaverse. They are there to reveal one’s softer side, such as when Xena laments the loss of her younger brother during the first battles that made her the warrior princess. They are there to lean on when a crisis of faith in one’s self arises, such as when Gabrielle turns to Lila for comfort after freezing up in a fight. Today, class, we will look at another purpose of family in the Xenaverse: to instruct on the differences between good and evil, and how murdering someone (no matter how evil or nasty or stinky they are) is never the right answer.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.22 – Callisto

Today, class, we will have our first experience with Xena’s main nemesis (at least for a few seasons), Callisto. Yes it is time finally to meet the crazy blonde who expended so much effort trying to break down Xena’s defenses and bring out her naughty side once again. And I will tell you up front, class of mine, that I do not like Callisto, and have never liked Callisto, so my summary of the reference material may be just a little harsh.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.21 – The Greater Good

There are many lessons that the Xenaverse teaches us, like death is not really permanent, love is not really permanent, and being hated by the world is not really permanent. It also has some smaller, more intimate lessons to teach us, such as the importance of teamwork. Today, class, we will take a look at Xena’s sidekicks – Gabrielle and Argo – as they try to learn to work together as a team to defeat the bad guys.

Xena was a woman with alot of issues. Issues with men, issues with greed, issues with dirty ruffians attacking her on a regular basis. But one of her deepest issues stemmed from the abandonment of her father when she was very young. Psychologists would probably say her daddy issues helped lead her on the path of death and destruction that she eventually ended up going down. Today, class, we will take a look at Xena’s daddy issues, and at just how much they were able to affect her feelings and judgment.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episodes 1-19

With only five more episodes to go in the first season of Xena: Warrior Princess, it is time to review what we have learned so far. (It may seem more logical to wait until the season is completely over, but I’m the Professor and I’ve decided to do it NOW…and I procrastinated and didn’t get around to watching this week’s episode so I have to come up with something to write about.)

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.19 – Altared States

While searching for story ideas, the writers of Xena: Warrior Princess were never loathe to take a few liberties with existing myths, legends, historical events, and fables. And when they ran out of those kinds of things to base stories around, they took a stab (ha-ha, STAB, it’s funny cause of what this episode is about) at some old religious stories.

In the beginning, before Xena and Gabrielle had discovered that they were soulmates and didn’t need anyone else in the world as much as they needed each other, they would both try to reach out to their other friends and family for guidance. Gabrielle especially needed to take time out of adventuring and spend it with the people she had grown up with and known in her past. She was learning and evolving, growing up and away from what she had known, and sometimes it was too much for her so she had to go home to set herself right again. Unfortunately for her (but luckily for all of us enjoying her escapades with the warrior princess) she discovered that the old saying is pretty much true, you never can go home again (well literally you can, sure, but FIGURATIVELY not so much.)

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker
Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.16 – Mortal Beloved

Today, class, we will take a look at one of the relationships that meant a lot to Xena (at least in the first season) aside from the one she shared with Gabrielle. When she lost her friend (lover?) Marcus, it shook her up inside for several reasons. In part because she realized how much she cared for him, but only when it was too late to do anything about it. And also in part because he had just turned to the good side when he met his demise, which she blamed herself for. But luckily for the warrior princess, in the Xenaverse death hardly ever means someone is gone forever, and she is given a chance to set things right with her lost love.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.15 – Warrior…Princess?

Though Xena was a darker, much more serious show thematically than its predecessor Hercules, it was not a show above devolving into some humor and silliness once and a while. To prove this point, the writers created a series of progressively more ridiculous episodes that all revolved around Lucy Lawless playing two (or more) look-a-like characters. This gave the actress a chance to be playful, demure, flaky, and even delicate, which the hardcore warrior Xena would never be. Today, class, we will look at the first episode to utilize this trick and see if Ms. Lawless can manage to pull off playing two different characters at one time.

with Professor of Fangeekonomics, Ms. Melissa Voelker

Reference Materials for today’s class:
Xena: Warrior Princess, Episode 1.14 – A Fistful of Dinars

As everyone knows, Xena did not live the life of a saint before her meeting up with Hercules set her on the path of goodness. Instead she lived the life of a mercenary warlord who was out to conquer everything in her path, no matter what it took to do it. And while she lived this bloodthirsty existence, she socialized with people who lived similar existences. Eventually she was able to change, because deep down she was not a bad person. Yet it seemed difficult for her to see that other people were able to change too. Even those that had wronged her in her previous life, who seemed just as if not more ruthless and bloodthirsty as she, could start on their own path to goodness.