Xena Needs No Magic!

A number of posts lately have spoken of Xena's increasingly bizarre powers in the later episodes, and this strikes me as also flying in the face of the basic show canon, and therefore candidate for evidence of a specific policy divergence (as discussed in my last two posts, "Cease & Desist" and "Failed Experiment.") This relates directly to the credibility debate. TPTB can reduce the factual credibility of the show, and of the character, if she becomes less and less "human." This serves the previously mooted purpose of de-emphasizing the show's pronounced social message as relevant to its unexpected audience-base.

In "The Debt" two-parter Xena both levitates and generates telekinetic phenomena; in "Lost Mariner" she appears to "fly" to reach the ship; and there are other examples.

If Xena is a "magician" of many years standing, doesn't this fly in the face of everything we have come to know of her? If she can summon such powers, why bother fighting? Why not give people the evil-eye and have them drop dead in their tracks? Why study accupressure, reflexology and hypnosis (as she is seen to use to block pain and to extract information) when "simple" magic would do instead? Why bother riding to war when fearful servants would likely carry her? Why risk her life when a person of such powers can sit behind the lines and mastermind conquest from safety? Power corrupts, as her (ludicrous) friend Caesar would tell her.

Perhaps her powers could be likened to those of the Shaolin, who were martial artists supreme as well as learned scholars and spiritualists, and were perhaps more highly versed in the arcane arts than any other group. But is this a reasonable assumption? It took a Shaolin monk at least a decade of relentless training from childhood onward to achieve even their basic standard, and a true master would reach the height of his powers only after a lifetime of effort. And even then, levitation and "psychic fireballs" are a matter of the most abstract and oblique record, to the point at which today society is happy to broadly discount them as superstition or deceptions.

No!

Xena is the Warrior Princess. She is a master of the martial arts, as *any* of us can become with sufficient dedication and the finest training. She is a gymnast of great skill (such as are seen in the Peking Opera every day, and circuses since antiquity). She has learned medical skills and a knowledge base that were arcane in her day but are well-enough known to us today (like CPR, how to stitch wounds, how to evacuate a pneumothorax episode, enough anatomical knowledge to know that displaced lungs press on ribs, etc., and these are things any of us can learn). She is a horseman, a swordsman (terms gender-inclusive), a strategist and tactician, and an athlete. These are ALL attainable human skills and goals.

She needs no magic. If The Powers That Be are trying to make Xena seem "unlikely" and her status of awe less attainable to the modern female, it is a sad commentary that they should choose arcane powers with which to do so. There are many neopagans in this fandom, and they before all others know that magic does not include lightning bolts from the fingertips, and probably never did. Now, no one is criticizing any story for using devices such as telepathy (for which it turns out there is ample evidence amongst we forumites), or the surgical application of sorcery or the invocation of divine powers, these are grist for the mill in fantasy, and thoroughly expected elements, just like corrupt kings and rampaging monsters. But Xena does not need to be a "magician" to be "great," much less at this late stage of the story, unless the writers are so far out of ideas that they know of nothing else to add further depth to the character. And it hardly constitutes depth, on reflection.

It was recently suggested to me that the writers are both giddy with the power with which they find themselves entrusted, and bored with the whole subject/theme, and what we are seeing is the result of this deadly combination.

Twiddling in mid-air has always been a device of the show, of course, and I agree with those who think it's an excuse to use a film-reversal gravity-drop to get to the top of a wall, rather than just climbing the damn thing. Couldn't she use "bic" kung-fu, instead? The style that allows people to climb what appear to be sheer walls, with only the most minimal, all-but nonexistent, grips? That's a real technique, window cleaners in Hong Kong don't use ladders, they train in bic.

The producers ramp the speed in action sequences, but they do it so subtly that it flows perfectly -- if it was not perfect the show would appear visually ammateurish at a technical level, which is ironic. That would be one way of changing the implied value with ease! But it would damage the show, rather than the female ethos within the show....

And what of the chakram? This is the seat of her divine power, according to an early statement in the media, that Xena's divine spark, the power that gives her that final edge, is centered in the chakram. That's why it comes back, why it never misses, why it's indestructible, why she can recover from physical trauma, and so forth. This is a fantasy format assumption, and part of the basic canon. It's been there since the first appearance of the character, and while TPTB have sometimes done things with it that seem almost too farfetched even for fantasy, they leave only a raised eyebrow, not a bad taste. Chakram = cool. Excessive twiddling in mid air beyond the abilities of the Peking Opera and against the force of gravity, and recovering from totally over-the-top injuries, will eventually = uncool.

This all ends up with the disturbing idea that the wildest elements are being overplayed with the specific intention of eliminating the type of compulsion that has attracted the extant audience. If the loopy/funny/sexy side of the show can be stated strongly enough it will compel a different audience sector, and the show will survive, but in a manner less potentially damaging to modern culture.

I mean, women shouldn't get the idea they can mix it with men, like a mortal Xena used to. The evidence lately is that they have to be magicians to do that.

Food for thought?

Battle on,

Whitesword