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For years I thought Married with Fishsticks was one of the worst episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, but having rewatched and reflected on it, I see something else.

What once looked like pointless nonsense now feels like one of the strangest, most subversive episodes of the series. In fact, I’ve come to read it as Gabrielle’s queer feminist nightmare; a hallucination where she’s forced into Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique.

When Gabrielle wakes up in this fishy suburban dreamworld, she’s saddled with a “husband” she doesn’t know or want. She’s expected to smile, cook, fit in, and keep up appearances for the neighbors. The whole thing is played with a laugh-track energy, but it’s suffocating in a way that feels intentional. This is Friedan’s “problem with no name”, the malaise of being told that housewifery and marriage are the pinnacle of fulfilment, even when they feel empty. Only here, it’s played…

My Xena rewatch reached Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire tonight, it's a campy battle of the bands with Disco Amazons, where did they get some of the ideas from?

But beneath all the sparkle, it’s pure Xena. Love, joy, and resilience shine through, and smack in the middle of it is Gabrielle. Watching her dance, sing, and spar with Xena with that easy chemistry? Pure magic. Watching it back in 2000, young me felt like she was getting permission: to love, be playful, and be herself.

The episode also shows Gabrielle’s strength. Enter Draco, her persistent stalker, who refuses to take “no” for an answer. Gabrielle asserts herself clearly and fearlessly ,she is not interested and escapes his trap on her own. Watching her do that as a teen gave me chills. She sets boundaries, takes control, and refuses to be intimidated. That courage is golden sequins-level epic.

Then there…

Hello fellow fans of Xena!

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself, give a little background and share my Xena journey.

For safety purposes, I'll be going by Joxenar, and it is great to meet all of you. Truly.

I'm going to be real honest, I didn't know Xena existed until certain things I watched put it on my radar, still I never looked further into it, so it became an out of sight out of mind show. It took meeting my battling bard to even give it the time of day. It took a few tries for me to make it past episode 3 in season 1, in fact it took me a total of about 2 years to watch the whole show. (I started in 2023.)

But I enjoyed every bit of it.

It was a ride for sure. During the whole Dahak arc and…

Yesterday marked 30 years since Xena: Warrior Princess first aired. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed, because the show still feels like part of me, not just something I watched, but something that helped me grow into the woman I am today.

When the series ended in 2001, I was sixteen, right on the cusp of adulthood. I was still figuring out who I was, and what kind of life I wanted to live. Looking back now, I realise that Gabrielle was more than just my favourite character; she was a guide, a role model, and, in many ways, the spark that set me on the path toward becoming a writer and activist.

What moved me most about Gabrielle was her capacity to love, and the lengths she would go for her soulmate. Time and again, she sacrificed everything, her safety, her comfort, even her ideals at…