potedeiabard | Scroll of The Amazons (& Their Fate)

To a strong Amazon nation...

In this post I wanna briefly go over Gabrielle's relationship to the Amazons and settle what I think happened to them post-canon. Yes, this is way obvious to many but for those who are still curious, here it is.

To quickly recap: Gabrielle was not born an Amazon but became one through the rite of caste, when Gabrielle tried her best to protect and save an Amazon Princess. In the Princess' death bed, she passed on her title and bestowed Gabrielle with the honor of being the Amazon Princess, soon to become Amazon Queen. From that point on in the show, she slowly becomes more aware of the culture of the Amazons, their traditions, their lifestyle, and her and Xena help them several times in the past. As the show goes on we see a lot of people we know from the Amazons die in battle and pass on their titles to the younger generation, such was the life of an Amazonian Warrior. Queen Gabrielle, however, often stopped by to help them in conflict, remind them of their traditions and their true path and make sure that the Queen in charge of the Amazonian tribe is well prepared, so to speak.

It is evident that Gabrielle holds the Amazons close to her heart even if she was not born of their flesh (as Velasca points out). The Amazons, alongside Xena, taught Gabrielle much and Gabrielle feels a kinship with them. They're proud to be Amazons and so is Gabrielle, as she earned the respect and skills to be considered a Queen. Gabrielle is partly Amazon, partly a Warrior Princess like Xena, and hidden within those parts is that charming bard that truly cannot die. I believe that's a good way to explain Gabrielle.

Now, in real life mythos, aside from all the people claiming that the Amazons were not real, it always looked like it was the Amazons against the world in a way. Hercules fought them, Achilles fought them in the Trojan War (They were going to help Priam defend Troy), Bellerophon fought them... It was a society of only women warriors, so naturally it feels like they were constantly hunted by other warriors and other natural enemies. Their erasure in history seems to also be fitting with the previously mentioned, so their fate seemed clear and imminent.

The last episode of the show that showcases the Amazon shows the pitiful state in which the Amazons are left in. After being hunted over the years by Livia and her army, Ares' Army, Morloch's army and, lastly, Bellerophon's, the Amazons tribes banded together to become an unified front but overall the numbers continued dwindling. By the end of the show, the Amazons' number is undetermined but very small. Not entirely extinct at this point, but on its last leg. Bellerophon and his army laid defeated but so were many of the Amazons who bravely fought against him for survival. However, Queen Gabrielle, Varia (whose destiny laid ambiguous, seeing as she betrayed Gabrielle to save the Amazons) and the rest stand alive, having won the war Bellerophon started. While we can argue that Gabrielle and The Amazons won the war against Bellerophon, Gabrielle points out that she doesn't feel like they won at all and she is right. There are no winners in war, only survivors and it seems Gabrielle knows this to be the case.

image credit: andiwanttobelikeyou

From this point on, in the next episode, Xena and Gabrielle are back together in their adventures and The Amazons are never mentioned. This is not surprising either considering there were many things in Season 6 that the writers wanted to explore but were so compressed to a strict number of episodes, so whatever else they had planned for Post-Helicon (as in, Gabrielle mourning the death of the Amazons, giving a snippet of how it would pan out for them) would never become totally canon. However, we can always speculate. We'll get to that.

Technically speaking, since Gabrielle comes out alive out of Jappa, she can be considered one of the last Amazons alive. Let us go beyond, considering she was asleep frozen for twenty-five (25!!) years prior to the events in Helicon. Making Gabrielle the only old-school Amazons still left alive. Now, what does any of this mean post-canon.

THE HEADCANON PART.

I would like to think that the few Amazons left are still together as a tribe with small council and a Queen. Their chances of survival are not huge and I'm not going to come up with a grand scheme to say they might make it. That is unknown to Gabrielle as much as it is to me. Still, I think the remaining Amazons, Gabrielle included, are proud of their Amazonian roots and title, so they would do their best to survive, preserve it and maybe have daughters following in their footsteps and attempt to maintain the Amazons alive for a little while longer, until each and everyone of them give their last breath.

In the modern AU I have for roleplaying purposes, Gabrielle would truly be the last Amazon alive by that point, not born and raised of their flesh but an Amazon familiar with their ancient practices and present at the time they fell. In this alternative universe then, the Amazons are very much real, so were Centaurs (their natural enemy) and she can very much prove it. It actually would be kind of hilarious to see how the modern scientists deduce this wild things about the Amazons while Gabrielle is there to practically disprove every wild claim.

But she would also probably be able to know how the Amazons died out and who were the last of them, which might be a bittersweet realization and knowledge.

So, in conclusion...

One thing is certain. Gabrielle was right in her last speech (which you can see here). Some of them did die in that battle, they did finish the job that the former Amazons began. While the Amazons may have not lived for long past this war with Bellerophon, their legacy and their stories are still a source of fascination to many. The Amazons are alive, but in a different way. Their legacy lives on, even if the mantra did not match the destiny ahead for the Amazons.

gif credit: lucyflawless on tumblr

Last Updated: August 23rd, 2022.