Xena: Warrior Princess/Characters

Xena and her friends

Xena (Lucy Lawless)

Former warlord turned wandering hero.

• The Ace: Xena can outfight anyone she comes up against, even when she's sick, (or crazy), and the fact that she can outsmart gods makes her a bigger Guile Hero than Gabrielle.
• Action Girl: Xena is pretty much the person every modern viewer (except perhaps Buffy fans, who have never seen an episode of Xena) thinks of when they think of an Action Girl, to the point it's almost surprising (and dissapointing) she was never the Trope Namer.
• Annoying Arrows: In the Finale.
• The Atoner
• Badass
• Booze Flamethrower: One of Xena's favorite moves.
• Dark Is Not Evil
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Finale.
• The Gump: Sometimes.
• He Who Fights Monsters: How Xena first became a warlord.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: This is Lucy Lawless of course...
• Kiai
• Mama Bear
• Our Hero Is Dead: A few times...
• Rousseau Was Right: Though once a brutal warlord, she only raised an army in the first place to protect her home village from raiders. The death of her brother and then Caesar's betrayal helped push her over the edge.
• Statuesque Stunner: Xena, of course, is a tall bit of sexy.
• Weapon of Choice: Her Chakram.
• Whip It Good.

Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor)

Xena's best friend, sidekick and chronicler.

• Absentee Actor
• Action Girl: In later seasons.
• Adrenaline Makeover
• Badass Bookworm: Gabrielle is a bard by profession, always writing stories. As the series progresses, she goes from innocent non-combatant to a highly skilled fighter in her own right who earns the Fan Nickname "The Battling Bard of Potidaea".
• Boyish Short Hair: Seasons 4, 5 and 6.
• Break the Cutie: Gabrielle gets quite jaded at various points, thanks to all the plots that revolve around her life going terribly.
• Cartwright Curse: Gabrielle has the worst luck with men.
• Directed by Cast Member: Renee O'Connor directed two episodes of the show.
• Heroic Sacrifice: "Sacrifice 2"
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: While serving as Joxer's sidekick.
• Martial Pacifist / Technical Pacifist: Gabrielle has no problem whacking people with her staff, but refuses to kill.
  • For the first few seasons anyway.
• Morality Pet
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gabrielle does this at least once per episode early on. Of course, her biggest example in this regard is letting Hope live and lying to Xena about killing her. Lots of consequences there.
• Promoted to Opening Credits: Season 2.
• Sai Guy: Seasons Five and Six.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Not until the end of season 4 that she learned she always can't stick to this rule.
• Took a Level In Badass
• Wandering Minstrel
• Warrior Poet
• Weapon of Choice: Her staff, and (in later seasons) her Sais.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Gabrielle is a Deconstruction since her naivete combined with an unbending righteousness leads her to rash though well-intentioned action.

Joxer the Mighty (Ted Raimi)

Harmless Villain turned Heroic Wannabe, Joxer is one of Xena and Gabrielle's best and most trusted friends.

• Actor Allusion: Done pretty often with Ted Raimi, usually to poke fun at him for being the Executive Producer's brother.
• Butt Monkey
• Comic Relief
• Dogged Nice Guy: To Gabrielle.
• Killed Off for Real
• Miles Gloriosus

Eve/Livia (Adrienne Wilkinson)

Xena's daughter chosen to be the new messenger of the god of Love. Her birth heralded the Twilight of the Olympians so Xena faked her and Eve's death. Eve, as Livia, was raised by Octavius to become Rome's most powerful warrior.

• The Atoner
• The Butcher: One of her monikers.
• Chickification: When she embraced the Way of Love.
• The Chosen One
• Deus Ex Machina: Her Heel Face Turn was literally an act of divine intervention.
• Generation Xerox
• Has Two Mommies: Pointed out in "Motherhood".

Gabrielle: We saved your daughter. Xena: No. We saved our daughter.

• Heel Face Turn: As mentioned above.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Callisto. Justified in that her reincarnated soul is Callisto's
• Wife Husbandry: Augustus tried to marry her but she felt no love because he hardly spent time with her.
  • Yeah that's why…

Eli (Timothy Omundson)

Former street magician turned miracle worker.

• The Chosen One: As a Devi, and an Avatar.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus
• Refusal of the Call
• Thanatos Gambit

Amarice (Jennifer Sky)

A plucky young Amazon introduced near the end of season 4.

• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Fiery Redhead
• Hot-Blooded
• Put on a Bus: She didn’t come back.
• Tsundere: Towards Arman.

Autolycus (Bruce Campbell)

The King of Thieves.

• Actor Allusion: Usually done alongside Ted Raimi, referencing his (Campell's) work on the Evil Dead movies, and his longstanding friendship with Raimi's older brother.
• Gentleman Thief
• Loveable Rogue
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold

Ephiny

Amazon Queen. Married the centaur Phantes, and is the mother of Xenon.

• Action Girl
• The Comically Serious
• Hot Amazon
• Hot Mom
• Killed Off for Real

Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings)

The Goddess of Love.

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She does quite well against Discord.
• Dumb Blonde: At first, but she shows her true intelligence as the show progesses
• Jerkass Gods
• Stripperiffic
• Token Good Teammate: The only Olympian to side with Xena for unselfish reasons.
  • Your Mileage May Vary on that one; she helped Xena to save Gabrielle, whom she considered her friend, and gave almost ‘’no’’ assistance to Xena or Eve, aside from watching a critically injured Gabrielle, and taking them to Olympus.

Borias

Warlord with whom Xena rode prior to her first appearance in Hercules. Father of their son Solan

• Noble Demon
• Posthumous Character
• Redemption Equals Death: He is remembered as a hero by every Centaur on earth after allying with them against Xena.

Villains

Ares (Kevin Smith)

The God of War.

• Brought Down to Normal: twice
• The Corrupter: Attempted. A lot.
• Evil Mentor: Prides himself in making Xena what she is.
• Handsome Devil
• Heel Face Revolving Door
• In Love with Your Carnage: Ares' attraction to Xena during her warlord days and disappointment when she became a hero.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Playing with Fire
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He made it to the 20th-21st century.

Callisto (Hudson Leick)

Former Xena victim now bent on her destruction. Becomes an angel in season 5 thanks to Xena.

• And I Must Scream: After she dies the first time, Callisto's existence essentially boils down to this. She is so consumed with hate for Xena killing her family that she can't find peace even in death. (In the HTLJ "Surprise" episode, her version of Tartarus is simply her completely alone and screaming in agony.) It gets worse when she realizes there is nothing she can do to Xena to make her feel the same way.
• Annoying Arrows: Provides the picture for this trope, from "Maternal Instincts".
• Big Bad: One of the most recurring villains on the show, and one of the only ones to pose a serious threat to Xena.
• Blondes Are Evil
• Create Your Own Villain
• Death Seeker
• The Dragon: First to Hope, then Mephistopheles.
• The Faceless: Callisto during her first appearance ("The Greater Good").
• Foe Yay: With Xena
• The Fool: In "The Bitter Suite" (which was bleeding Tarot imagery) Callisto dresses up like this.
• Heel Face Turn: In an unusual twist, she only pulls this during her afterlife.
• Knight of Cerebus
• Playing with Fire: As a Goddess.
• Physical God: After eating ambrosia.
• Reformed but Rejected
• Screaming Warrior
• Woman in White: In “The Ides of March”
• Would Hurt a Child: Callisto shows that she would right from the get-go, when she starts committing acts of terrorism in Xena's name.

Xena: I never killed women and children. Callisto: You do now.

Julius Caesar (Karl Urban)

• Big Bad: He's the only historical character to pose a threat to Xena for several seasons.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Pointed out in "Endgame".

Brutus: He wouldn't betray a friend. Xena: Pompey was a friend. And Crassus. Crassus was a friend too. I was once a very good friend of his. But maybe you're different.

• Glory Seeker
• Historical Domain Character
• Killed Off for Real: Duh.
• Lima Syndrome: Xena fell in love with him when he was her captive.
• Villain with Good Publicity

Valeska (Melinda Clarke)

Amazon who battled Gabrielle to become Queen.

• Dark Action Girl
• Evil Redhead
• Physical God: After eating ambrosia.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Why she destroyed the Temple of Artemis.

Alti (Claire Stansfield)

Former Amazon turned Shamaness.

• Big Bad: As a villain whose power lies in the use of psychic powers, Alti posed a reasonable threat to Xena.
• Evil Mentor
• Evil Sorcerer
• Mad Scientist: Becomes this in 2001.

Hope (Renee O'Connor)

The evil child of Dahak and Gabrielle.

• Anti Christ
• Daddy's Little Villain: Hope actually thought Gabrielle tried to kill her because she was closer to Dahak.
• Evil Twin: Sort of, since it's her mother she's identical to.
• Fetus Terrible
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mommy Issues: Resents Gabrielle for abandoning her, but also offers Gabrielle a chance to be in her life. Gabrielle responds with a pretty serious “Hell-to-the-No”.

Gabrielle: Hope… when I gave you that poison- Hope: It’s okay, Mother, I forgive y- Gabrielle: –I’m so sorry it didn’t kill you.

• Uncanny Family Resemblance: As an adult, Hope looks exactly like her mother, Gabrielle.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Her followers really believed she was good.

Draco (Jay Laga'aia)

A warlord and old friend of Xena’s.

• Chronic Villainy
• Evil Counterpart: He is Xena as a failed atoner.
• Villainous Crush: On Gabrielle because of a love spell.

Najara (Kathryn Morris)

A “Joan of Arc” esque character, and warrior zealot. She claims to hear the voices of "Jinn" and believes in reforming her enemies through "The Light".

• Apologetic Attacker
• Evil Counterpart: She is like a reformed Xena minus a Gabrielle.
• Knight Templar
• Light Is Not Good
• Stepford Smiler
• Yandere: To Gabrielle.

Athena (Paris Jefferson)

Goddess of wisdom and war. She took over leadership of the Olympians after Zeus' death.

• Bling of War: Her armor is solid gold, and her warriors dress in silver.
• Face Heel Turn: Before she took over the Olympians and started pursuing Xena, Athena was the only Olympian Xena actually admired.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's every bit as vicious as Ares and the season 5 finale showed her true prejudice against humans.

"I will not be dictated to by a mortal!"

• Lady of War
• Light Is Not Good
• Necessarily Evil: Tried to kill Xena because of the prophecy that Xena's child would destroy the Olympians.