Throwback Thursday– Sexy Summer Binge Edition: A Mighty Princess, Forged In The Heat Of Battle

The power, the passion, the danger, the lesbian subtext!

Hey Fleshbot fans! I’m back with another summer binge-watch series to transition from summer to autumn. This time we’re throwing it back to 1995 and talking about that campy classic Xena: Warrior Princess. I’ve always had a soft spot for the show, well, because I’m a big fat queer, I love fantasy and mythology, and my dearly departed best friend was a huge Xena fanboy.

Xena (Lucy Lawless) was supposed to be a one-off character for a story arc of three episodes on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and her character was originally supposed to die, but the ratings for her episodes were so good that she went on to get her own spinoff, which ran for six seasons and 134 episodes.

Of course, a central talking point when discussing Xena is the relationship between the warrior and her plucky younger sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O’Connor). They do everything together and have a great loyalty to each other, prompting lots of folks to wonder if they were girlfriends or just comrades-in-arms and the show played with this extensively. There was a brief glimmer of hope for a reboot of the show where Xena and Gabrielle were explicitly a lesbian couple, but it looks like that’s sadly not going to happen. The show was still important representation at the time for lots of folks including me as a baby queer. Check out the gayest episodes, according to one viewer, as a starting point if your primary interest is the lesbian subtext..

This is not by any means an accurate portrayal of history or mythology and you shouldn’t treat it like one. It’s an adventure, a comic book come to life almost, and it is purely fun and campy with muscular lady eye candy and lots of people in terrible wigs. It’s almost like a video game because you hear the same music every time Xena’s about to whoop someone’s ass. How fun is that?

My suggested snack spread for a Xena binge would be an assortment of finger foods from the area the show is set in, Greece and the Mediterranean region, both because it’s thematic and because its still too damn hot to cook in some places. Grab hummus, baba ghanoush, grape leaves, pita bread, feta cheese, and some wine, and you’re good to go. Add some sweet dates and/or baklava for added dessert decadence.

Lucy Lawless is still a fucking badass and has worked steadily since the show’s end. Kevin Sorbo from Hercules has also done so, but went from portraying a Greek demigod to being Weird Jesus Dad in right-wing propaganda films. Hey, whatever pays the bills. The fandom is still going strong like most cult TV shows so if you wind up being an extremely late guest to the Xena party, odds are you’ll still be welcomed with open arms and someone can teach you how to make a prop chakram (that’s her circular thrown weapon) to go with your Xena cosplay.

Xena: Warrior Princess is available for streaming (at press time) on Amazon Prime Video.