<> questions&answers

I’m sure even you non-Herc fans out there were still eagerly watching parts one and two of Armageddon Now, thanks to a high Callisto-Xena content. I’m a regular Herc viewer myself, and man was I glad to see the queen of mean back making his life hell again. However, dealing with time travel as this episode was, I found there were an unusually high number of continuity and logic flaws popping up all over (and from the looks of the forum, so have several others of you). But, loyal fan that I am, I’m gonna do the fanboyish thing, and try and find solutions to these little inconsistencies (just like the beloved No-Prizes in the old days at Marvel Comics):

PROBLEM #1: Hope’s powers. From Hope’s few appearances, I’ve been able to piece together a little about her and her daddy Dayhok. Apparently she is very ironically named, as hope seems to be the one thing she is seeking to eliminate (ie: preventing Hercules’ heroic legend, manipulating Xena into becoming filled with hate). Presumably, the less hope there is in the world, the easier it will be for Dayhok to enter and conquer our reality. But her abilities are a little hard to grasp. We know she can survive the destruction of her physical form, and has twice freed a goddess (Callisto) from a prison that held her powerless. Also, she can move objects with her mind and was able to empower a weakened Callisto after her fight with Ares. So the question is, just what IS the extent of Hope’s abilities? Or are they simply whatever the current writer needs her to be able to do?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: As Hope grows on the Earthly plane, so do her powers. Killing Kaliepus weakened her in MI, but maybe it no longer would today. So at this point, her powers are still fluctuating, and their potency depends on the amount of use. Hey, works for me.

PROBLEM #2: Callisto’s time travel abilities. Hope told Callisto that all Gods possess the ability to travel through time. So why did Callisto claim she needed Hope’s help to return to Cirra?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: Hope also mentioned that Callisto would master her temporal ability "in time". Maybe Callisto just needed Hope’s help for navigational purposes right now. Later on, Callisto could theoretically make the trip on her own, should she ever escape from limbo.

PROBLEM #3: The tunnel between worlds. In the Sovereign’s first appearance in Stranger in a Strange World, Zeus’ thunderbolts accidentally opened the apparently stable wormhole between his world and that of Hercules. In this ep, however, any opening of the wormhole only led directly to the lifeless limbo between worlds that the Sovereign was trapped in. It SHOULD have led right to the other world.
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: Callisto and Ares specifically opened a portal to that limbo, intentionally avoiding the Sovereign’s reality. Zeus’ original opening of the portal was unintentional, and thus not specific as to destination.

PROBLEM #4: Hercules’ escape for limbo. Using hand fashioned lightning rods, Hercules harness electrical power form a massive storm I limbo to force open another portal to his reality (which the Soverign conveniently slept through). Before it closed again, he managed to trap Callisto in there as well. But the rods are still in place, and Callisto has opened the portal with her own power already (albeit with Ares’ help). What’s stopping the two of them from escaping themselves?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: No solution is necessary…Callisto and the Sovereign WILL eventually escape, bet your bottom dinar on it.

PROBLEM #5: Callisto’s family. In her debut episode, Callisto mentioned that her Mother and Sister were killed in the fire at Cirra. Here, we see her Mother and Father dying, with nary a sister in sight. What gives?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: Her older sister was not living in Cirra at the time, but returned for an unannounced visit, unfortunately during Xena’s attack. She met up with her Mother and little Sister, only moments before the dreaded fire hit. Callisto barely made it to safety. She never mentioned her Father because he didn’t die in the fire, he was killed by troops in battle, defending the village. Well, it COULD have happened that way.

PROBLEM #6: Solan. While trying to avoid being eviscerated by a bloodthirsty warlord Xena at Cirra, Iolaus tries to prove he’s from the future by mentioning that he knows all about Xena’s son, Solan. Thing is, how DID he know? Xena never told anyone but Gabrielle…did she?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: During their get-together in last season’s Hercules episode, Judgement Day, Iolaus met up once again with Gabrielle. Presumably, they chatted for a while after the action was done with, and chatterbox Gabby probably spilled the beans about Xena’s little secret. Iolaus is a trustworthy lad, though, so we’ll forgive Gab for being a gossip.

PROBLEM #7: Xena, ruler of the world. After Callisto changed history by killing Alcmene, Iolaus returned to a present day reality in which, according to Ares, Xena ruled the entire known world. Coins were minted with her likeness on it. But, although I understand Xena still being evil without the intervention of Hercules, how had she risen to such power so fast? Only four years had passed since her first appearance on Hercules, and at that point, she hadn’t conquered diddly-squat.
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: The eradication of Hercules must have had far reaching effects on Xena’s career of infamy, even before they actually had a face to face confrontation. Because of his removal from the picture, events must have unfolded in a way that allowed Xena to gather more power more quickly.

PROBLEM #8: The face of Ares. Remember the Reckoning? When Xena first saw Ares in that ep, she said that she had "always wondered" what he looked like. Yet during the time travel scene in Cirra, there he was, standing right behind her, giving her advice.
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: Well, he WAS standing behind her…maybe she just never turned around…?

PROBLEM #9 (last one, I promise): Gabrielle. In Remember Nothing, we saw that without Xena’s intervention, Gabrielle would have become a slave. Now, though, she’s free and inciting insurrection in Corinth. Come again?
NO-PRIZE SOLUTION: Can’t tell ya, cause I’m saving it for an upcoming fanfic o’mine, ARMAGEDDON UNTOLD (comin’ soon, true believers!).

Okay, that’s all I can think of for now…well, not actually, there’s still the matter of the Chronos Stone, Hercules’ magical telepathy with Iolaus, and probably one or two other things I’m forgetting. Ah, but I pick because I love. I’m off to watch the two of them back to back one more time! Catch ya later, you wacky Xenites,
The Visitor