Gabrielle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
potedeiabard) wrote2022-02-22 10:55 am
potedeiabard) wrote2022-02-22 10:55 am
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Gabrielle, Warrior Princess (A post-canon examination)
Under the cut you'll see Mun's interpretation and speculation of what happens to Gabrielle after the ending of the series (Spoilers ahead, as with the entire journal, really).
cr: lucyllawess on tumblr
SO, WHAT'S UP?
As per the ending of A Friend In Need (AFIN for short), a tumultuous finale that many (even one of the main actresses) don't consider it a proper finale, Gabrielle is the new hero traversing through the world to help those in need. The girl with the Chakram, the battling bard of Potedeia, sucessor of Xena.
In AFIN, we see Gabrielle in the final stretch of her transformation. Slowly and surely, she becomes Xena's sucessor and even has the capabilities of catching the Chakram. She learns the pressure point precisely, she learns to hear what beyond the sounds, and has shown her fighting prowress against Morimoto (three times), the Samurai that lead the army that Xena single-handedly wiped out. In previous episodes we see Gabrielle's cunning abilities to survive by herself, to get out of dangerous situations and to save the day. In another episode, she's led an army of Amazons, and infiltrated the stronghold of a raider to save her niece. While she needed guidance and to be grounded, she's learned invaluable lessons in those episodes. And at the end of AFIN, she feels like a full, realized warrior.
So, the question becomes: What becomes of Gabrielle after the end of the show?
She mentions that the land of the Pharaoh's needs a girl with a chakram, after the spirit of Xena asks where they'll be going next. We don't necessarily know what is in Egypt or what happens there, but who knows what adventure awaits her. Gabrielle's initial plan of settling down and retiring together was out the window with Xena dead, so it's safe to assume Gabrielle continues to live her relatively young life as a warrior, in Xena's memory. She is her legacy, and she'll keep Xena's legacy alive. She'll fight for the greater good for however long she has left in life. Interestingly, her life would look quite like Meleager the Mighty's life, minus the alcoholic habits.
There's a lot of talk and speculations about what becomes of Gabrielle, how she moves on. If not for the AU setting I have for crosscanon purposes, we'd have a kind of different story.
To put it succinctly Gabrielle would battle a few of her own... demons, say. The constant battle between good and evil, becoming like Xena without her guidance, the constant challenges of life and such. However, I do think she'd overcome those demons and become stronger each time. As a warrior, those come with the job. As a (two-times) widow, she'd have to go through the loss all over again. I don't think it'll be easy for her to pick up where she left off or even connect with someone in the same level as she did with Xena. I don't think she would be aversed to try it, though, of course. After all, it is canonical that she has descendants that live on all the way to the 1940s and reincarnations that still finds and connects with Xena's own reincarnation/descendants. It is also canonical that Xena has a living descendant as well as Eve is still alive. Out of grief, we've seen a different time Gabrielle destroys The Loom from the Fates out of grief from having Xena crucified and killed, but in that situation everything was out of Gabrielle's hand. In this situation, I do believe she'd take some time for herself, to figure things out and to move on. The love of her life, her soulmate, had just died after all.
NOW! On the show her Bard side had been used less and less as she started to fully become a warrior, especially after 'The Way of Love.' This was probably to focus on her growth as a Warrior. However, I want to take Gabrielle into that direction. A part-Warrior, part-Bard. She's a Bard in her core, her scrolls travel across the world and she definitely has to write about Xena's last adventure.
In the end of AFIN, Gabrielle says:
"A life of journey has brought you to the farthest lands, to the very edges of the earth."
I would like to think that writes this on a scroll dedicated to Xena, after detailing the ultimate sacrifice. For the Greater Good. And nobody knows better than Gabrielle that history is fickle, so she will do her best to tell the tale of Xena, the destroyer of nations that spent the rest of her life undoing the harm she did from her past. Again, I, Mun, have my reservations about AFIN (as a finale, as an episode it's fine) but I'll stick to the canon.
I also believe that Gabrielle would try to find ANY way to revive Xena, so she's going to write about it when she does revive it.
HOW DIFFERENT IS GABRIELLE AT THE END OF THE SHOW/POST-CANON?
It's very easy to discern how much she's changed from Season 1 to Season 6. However, post-canon is a lot more speculation, evidently, as there's no more after the finale. Very briefly now, Gabrielle goes from a farmer girl to a battling bard. She goes from needing Xena to save her and protect her to actively arguing against Xena to let her defend herself to actually holding her own beautifully against any foe. She loses her blood innocence, her innocence in general and goes through perils and trials that she would've never imagined.
Gabrielle herself notes at one point that with every war/fight, she loses a bit more of herself rather than winning. So, I can't say that it's the same Gabrielle but grown up. Something of the young Gabrielle died along with Hope, along with her blood innocence, with Perdicus and, lastly, with Xena.
Now, post-canon. I think she's definitely a more realized warrior dealing with the void in her heart after losing her soulmate, mentor and wife. She's deinitely proven herself to have learned well from Xena, even when she was by herself back in Season 1, so she has the capabilities to truly command, defend, go on quests and think of ploys in the same vein as Xena. Most importantly, I think Gabrielle can definitely fool and play people like Xena.
Gabrielle is not Xena, but she's working up to be her own kind of legendary warrior -- AND getting more in touch with her Bard ways. Some interpret that Gabrielle retires after whatever mission she does in Egypt and returns home, but what mun interprets and goes off of is that Gabrielle continues her way as a warrior bard.
cr: lucyllawess on tumblr
As per the ending of A Friend In Need (AFIN for short), a tumultuous finale that many (even one of the main actresses) don't consider it a proper finale, Gabrielle is the new hero traversing through the world to help those in need. The girl with the Chakram, the battling bard of Potedeia, sucessor of Xena.
In AFIN, we see Gabrielle in the final stretch of her transformation. Slowly and surely, she becomes Xena's sucessor and even has the capabilities of catching the Chakram. She learns the pressure point precisely, she learns to hear what beyond the sounds, and has shown her fighting prowress against Morimoto (three times), the Samurai that lead the army that Xena single-handedly wiped out. In previous episodes we see Gabrielle's cunning abilities to survive by herself, to get out of dangerous situations and to save the day. In another episode, she's led an army of Amazons, and infiltrated the stronghold of a raider to save her niece. While she needed guidance and to be grounded, she's learned invaluable lessons in those episodes. And at the end of AFIN, she feels like a full, realized warrior.
So, the question becomes: What becomes of Gabrielle after the end of the show?
She mentions that the land of the Pharaoh's needs a girl with a chakram, after the spirit of Xena asks where they'll be going next. We don't necessarily know what is in Egypt or what happens there, but who knows what adventure awaits her. Gabrielle's initial plan of settling down and retiring together was out the window with Xena dead, so it's safe to assume Gabrielle continues to live her relatively young life as a warrior, in Xena's memory. She is her legacy, and she'll keep Xena's legacy alive. She'll fight for the greater good for however long she has left in life. Interestingly, her life would look quite like Meleager the Mighty's life, minus the alcoholic habits.
There's a lot of talk and speculations about what becomes of Gabrielle, how she moves on. If not for the AU setting I have for crosscanon purposes, we'd have a kind of different story.
To put it succinctly Gabrielle would battle a few of her own... demons, say. The constant battle between good and evil, becoming like Xena without her guidance, the constant challenges of life and such. However, I do think she'd overcome those demons and become stronger each time. As a warrior, those come with the job. As a (two-times) widow, she'd have to go through the loss all over again. I don't think it'll be easy for her to pick up where she left off or even connect with someone in the same level as she did with Xena. I don't think she would be aversed to try it, though, of course. After all, it is canonical that she has descendants that live on all the way to the 1940s and reincarnations that still finds and connects with Xena's own reincarnation/descendants. It is also canonical that Xena has a living descendant as well as Eve is still alive. Out of grief, we've seen a different time Gabrielle destroys The Loom from the Fates out of grief from having Xena crucified and killed, but in that situation everything was out of Gabrielle's hand. In this situation, I do believe she'd take some time for herself, to figure things out and to move on. The love of her life, her soulmate, had just died after all.
NOW! On the show her Bard side had been used less and less as she started to fully become a warrior, especially after 'The Way of Love.' This was probably to focus on her growth as a Warrior. However, I want to take Gabrielle into that direction. A part-Warrior, part-Bard. She's a Bard in her core, her scrolls travel across the world and she definitely has to write about Xena's last adventure.
In the end of AFIN, Gabrielle says:
"A life of journey has brought you to the farthest lands, to the very edges of the earth."
I would like to think that writes this on a scroll dedicated to Xena, after detailing the ultimate sacrifice. For the Greater Good. And nobody knows better than Gabrielle that history is fickle, so she will do her best to tell the tale of Xena, the destroyer of nations that spent the rest of her life undoing the harm she did from her past. Again, I, Mun, have my reservations about AFIN (as a finale, as an episode it's fine) but I'll stick to the canon.
I also believe that Gabrielle would try to find ANY way to revive Xena, so she's going to write about it when she does revive it.
It's very easy to discern how much she's changed from Season 1 to Season 6. However, post-canon is a lot more speculation, evidently, as there's no more after the finale. Very briefly now, Gabrielle goes from a farmer girl to a battling bard. She goes from needing Xena to save her and protect her to actively arguing against Xena to let her defend herself to actually holding her own beautifully against any foe. She loses her blood innocence, her innocence in general and goes through perils and trials that she would've never imagined.
Gabrielle herself notes at one point that with every war/fight, she loses a bit more of herself rather than winning. So, I can't say that it's the same Gabrielle but grown up. Something of the young Gabrielle died along with Hope, along with her blood innocence, with Perdicus and, lastly, with Xena.
Now, post-canon. I think she's definitely a more realized warrior dealing with the void in her heart after losing her soulmate, mentor and wife. She's deinitely proven herself to have learned well from Xena, even when she was by herself back in Season 1, so she has the capabilities to truly command, defend, go on quests and think of ploys in the same vein as Xena. Most importantly, I think Gabrielle can definitely fool and play people like Xena.
Gabrielle is not Xena, but she's working up to be her own kind of legendary warrior -- AND getting more in touch with her Bard ways. Some interpret that Gabrielle retires after whatever mission she does in Egypt and returns home, but what mun interprets and goes off of is that Gabrielle continues her way as a warrior bard.