Xena: Episode 2x06, "Warrior… Princess… Tramp"

[helloladies]

In a time without a Black Widow movie on the horizon, two fans in turmoil cried out for a heroine. She was Xena, a mighty female protagonist forged in the fires of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The action, the camp, the queer subtext. Her adventures will rock their worlds.

Clare: I enjoyed this episode thoroughly, but I do have to open my thoughts on it by screaming, "WHY DOES JOXER EXIST?"

Renay: Everyone tells us he gets better. But it does not happen here. :| I'm still not on board the Joxer train because the show hasn't given me any reason to be. He bumbles into things, he's often gross, his main goal is to apparently be the physical comedy relief which I find super squicky, and I am not sure I even like the actor that much. I'm being patient, but I'm hopeful the writers start to give him a little more depth as we go forward.

Clare: I just find him so painfully unfunny. I find Xena to be such a breath of fresh air because it’s largely centered around women, women’s experiences, and women just doing stuff. Usually, when Xena and Gabrielle run across sexist idiots, said idiots are either roundly ignored or shortly find themselves on the business end of a sword or staff. Having Joxer be both a sexist idiot and an (allegedly) endearing character just feels… so weird. I dunno, it sometimes cuts into the escapist joys of Xena to know that even Xena and Gabrielle have to awkwardly laugh at and tolerate the behavior of men like Joxer.

And he narratively frustrates me in this episode, because he ruins Xena’s very sound plan to recover Diana’s baby without alerting Agis and his men! Ugh. I just find him entirely irredeemable. I miss Salmoneous. Salmoneous could be funny and a little racy without ever sexually assaulting someone.

Renay: I had forgotten about Salmoneous. :( Now I want that.

Clare: Okay, to be fair, there is one thing I like about Joxer in this episode: he proves that Meg isn’t Diana or Xena, because she has atrocious taste in men.

Renay: I found that the only redeeming part of this episode pertaining to Joxer. Meg owns her sexuality. She wants Joxer, so she gets to have him, and there's no shaming in the narrative of this choice even if the other women have no attraction to him at all. The title does, but the show itself doesn't. I still don't understand why they chose tramp; she's not a tramp, she's just sexually empowered, show! There are better words to use than this.

Clare: "Warrior… Princess… Tramp" finds Xena and Gabrielle summoned back to UNIDENTIFIED KINGDOM (does it have a name?) to help protect Princess Diana through the impending death of her father, King Lias. You remember Diana! She’s the lookalike! Unfortunately, general bad dude Agis also remembers that, and has introduced a third lookalike into the mix: bar wench turned Xena impersonator and later princess impersonator Meg.

So take the Parent Trap shenanigans of "Warrior… Princess" and make them identical triplets, and you’ve got "Warrior… Princess… Tramp." There’s a lot of slapstick (some from Joxer, unfortunately), mistaken identities, and Lucy Lawless acting her butt off.

Renay: One of my favorite elements of these episodes is that we do get to see Lawless having an amazing range and be talented and awesome. When I think of how much work this episodes must have been for her, though! Yikes. But I was so impressed with how she created such three different characters and have it be obvious who is who no matter what. I can even forgive the awkward slapstick (I honestly had to mute some parts with Joxer) for the acting.

Clare: I’ve talked about how I quite like Diana—especially because the show lets her be really girly and not terribly physical adept without making her seem like less—before, so I really want to talk about Meg, who I loved.

First and foremost, she reminds me strongly of Meg from Disney’s Hercules, which is awesome. (I know you just clicked away from this to go listen to "I Won’t Say I’m In Love.")

Secondly, she’s a morally flexible woman from the wrong side of the tracks… who just needs a proper chance in life. Because she’s kind of a doof, people take advantage of her, and it’s only when she meets Xena, Gabrielle, and Diana’s family that people actually treat her like a person. But, and this is important, the show doesn’t use her past as an excuse for her behavior. She’s still held accountable for her actions, which I really appreciated. She’s treated like a person, which is all I ask. And she gets a very sweet scene with King Lias, who recovers from UNIDENTIFIED TERMINAL ILLNESS right quick, where he gives her a place as his cook. It comes across as "the father I never had", but without anything weird about it.

Renay: I loved how the show handled Meg and made her...annoying without being annoying to the viewer? Part of this is that she doesn't have much respect for herself and that translates into her not having much respect for anything else, including other people. She misnames Agis so many times and I was like, "Even if he is a dick and abusive you should not misname him, Meg. Dudes get violent." But the episode does a good job at taking her through a journey, which is a feat considering how much other stuff is going on. The writers managed to make it pretty nuanced via "I Was Dying Wait Not Really" King Lias, and forces her into a more active agent for herself.

Clare: Meg’s moral flexibility also gives us the most succinct version of Xena’s moral code yet: "If you do good, you are good," Xena tells her, which is such a hero moment I could SWOON.

Renay: Xena should be everyone's role model.

Femslash Alert! Clare: No major interactions between Xena and Gabrielle, unfortunately, but the fervor with which Gabrielle defends Xena’s reputation after Meg sullies it (with her unfortunate attraction to Joxer) is endearing.

Supplemental Material

Much like Xena herself, Renay and Clare have powerful allies in their quest.

• The Hercules and Xena Wiki entry for "Warrior… Princess… Tramp."
• Xena megafan website Whoosh’s episode guide for "Warrior… Princess… Tramp."