Warrior Princess Exchange!

[frayadjacent]

chaila and I recently did a Warrior Princess Exchange: she gave me some Wonder Woman comics to read and I suggested some Xena episodes for her to watch! My Xena suggestions were "One Against an Army" -- an obvious choice, IMO, for the the competence porn and the Xena and Gab being awesome and having an amazing relationship -- and "When Fates Collide". The second one seemed a little counter-intuitive but I still think it was a good choice for chaila, and for showcasing how awesome the characters can be. Also I re-watched the episode for Research and OMG so much fanservice. It was delightful

Chaila gave me The Hiketeia, which I devoured pretty quickly (well, after I figured out how to get Simple Comic to work right). It was a great story with some awesome Wonder Woman action and two great women characters.

I was surprised a little by how Diana claimed she didn't care what Danielle had done, to the point of kinda cutting off the conversation. It was an interesting ethical dilemma where I didn't really agree with anyone. I mean, I am fine with what Danielle did, but only because of the reason why she did it, which Diana claimed to not care about. (Though it seemed like she did care about it, since she was contemplating how she'd have felt if it were her sisters.) But honoring the Hiketeia was the major motivator for her, which I obviously don't identify with but it was pretty interesting nonetheless.

It definitely made me want to read more, and I imagine that if/when I do read more WW, I'll go back to the story and read it with a new level of emotional/intellectual engagement with the characters and stories.

I also thought the art was quite pretty, though I do predictably dislike the way women are drawn. It's not as bad as many comics but the contorted-torso-butt-and-boob poses were definitely there. But I liked how it conveyed the action.

The only thing I really wished was different was that it had spent more time on Diana and Danielle's relationship. I wish I had gotten to see them spending time together, to see how Danielle got good at her job instead of just having Diana tell me. But I wouldn't have wanted that at the expense of anything else, so I'd have wanted the book to be longer. :)

Comments

[chaila]

Oh dear. I have never seen any story try to deal with the question of "BUT NO MENZ, HOW? WHY?" and have it result in anything that wasn't completely awful or hilarious, lulz. Although heh, much of this--Centaur suits paired with serious descriptions of epic mythological backstory that I'm supposed to take seriously--is kiiiind of my Xena issue in general. But I'm trying to embrace the camp! Two eps weren't enough to determine whether I can or not, but it sounds like the Centaurs may help me figure this out. :)

[sanguinity]

I trust you to frayadjacent's loving hands for Centaur episode selection.

But I think embracing the camp might be easier via an episode whose strength is camp? One is perhaps less likely to view camp as a nuisance in the serious eps, if one has an independent love for some of the campy eps?

...but maybe we should just keep the camp as far as way from you as possible, for as long as possible, until you are capable of shrugging "because Xena" about bewildering-wtf-was-that things, the same way you've learned to shrug and say "because comics."

[chaila]

That is a really appropriate comparison! Maybe this last strategy could work. :) Because I'm not sure I *get* camp? And I still don't get comics a lot of the time, but DIANA. I had tried to deal with comics before and it didn't work, because comics, but once I fell hard for Diana I could handwave comics!

[sanguinity]

Doesn't get camp?? *gasps in shock* Well. Then you may never see the 100% INNOCENT WITH ZERO SUBTEXT AT ALL episode wherein Xena fists a fish. It is a sad thing, so I will just tell you: Xena fists a fish, and there is ZERO SUBTEXT WHATSOEVER.

In the meanwhile, maybe Fray will drop the Caesar plotline on you or something.

[frayadjacent]

Is that also the episode where Xena says "If the gods didn't want us to eat fish, why'd they make it taste so good"?

(Actually I think that might be in "Many Happy Returns", which is coming up for you, sanguinity!)

[sanguinity]

Oh, god, I have no idea. There were SO MANY fishing eps!

[frayadjacent]

Centaur suits paired with serious descriptions of epic mythological backstory that I'm supposed to take seriously--is kiiiind of my Xena issue in general.

Well, the centaurs are only in a few episodes. Aaaaand I'm not a good candidate for nominating a centaur episode, as I don't really like them either, for the same reason!

(I don't think Centaurs are really the show's answer to WHAT ABOUT THE MENZ because when an Amazon and a Centaur hook up it's always super controversial. But I do think it's pretty weird that all the Centaurs are men, apparently. Still, in general I feel like the show doesn't make very much effort to explain how the Amazons reproduce. I think at one point they might mention shipping off their boy babies, but I could be confusing it with descriptions I've read of Amazons in other stories.)

[sanguinity]

I thought boy babies were raised by the Centaurs, yeah. I dunno, it is all very dimly recollected, and I am not hunting through a bunch of Centaur eps to see who said what when, and with what kind of winks or nudges.

I liked the front half of the Hope arc, and I'm pretty sure there were some Centaurs in there along the way. But I can't think of anything else with Centaurs in that I'd recommend.

[frayadjacent]

I thought boy babies were raised by the Centaurs, yeah.

They very well might have been. I'm with you RE: hunting, so we might never find out. :D

That's true, Centaurs are important in Maternal Instincts, which is a good episode. I also like that part of Xena's backstory is betraying Borias right when he was redeeming himself (by negotiating a truce with the Centaurs) because then she gets to have manpain. But the Centaurs are pretty incidental to what's good about both those stories.