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lezwatchtv · 6 years

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You’re grumpy. It’s adorable.

Tracy loves when ladies kiss against a wall.

Me? I love the paradigm of a relationship where one person is sunshine and kindness, and the other just wants you all to die. Not to say I don’t adore a cute sunshine couple (like Willow and Tara) from time to time, but when I get to brass tacks, I want to see one person who hates everyone and one person whom everyone loves.

That’s right, I’m Team Grumpy/Cheerful.

My one rule here is that they had to be real couples. Sorry, Jane Rizzoli, you’re out.

7. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune – Sailor Moon

This one only works if you know that they’re a legit couple in the real versions. Sailor Neptune, the girly one, is our anti-hero who is nearly always cold and angry. Sailor Uranus, the one in the suits, is the nice one. Which I personally appreciate as a plot-twist.

I remember being very confused that they were cousins in the dubbed versions in the US.

6. Ruby and Sapphire – Steven Universe

Tracy would probably hurt me if I left them out. Ruby is a grumpy guardian. Sapphire is royalty. They’re fire and ice, red and blue, and brains and heart. Together they live as Garnet because they can’t be apart. Thanks to Tracy, I own the book of them falling in love and being together, and I have to tell you, it’s beautiful.

I think I may actually like them separate more than I like them together.

5. Paige and Alex – Degrassi: The Next Generation

Their relationship may have ended terribly, but Canada’s greatest bisexual over-achiever, Paige Michalchuk, was always inexplicably cheerful. Even when she was failing out of college. By contrast, Alex Nuñez had a rough life on the wrong side of the tracks and was pretty much angry all the time.

They were so cute in high school, weren’t they? In the end, they grew in different ways and made up as friends.

4. Carmilla and Laura – Carmilla

Who doesn’t love a good, sulky, vampire? Carmilla is a hundreds year old vampire, Laura is a human creampuff who knows Krav Maga. Carmilla has questionable sanitary habits (which makes sense – she can’t die), and Laura is totally type A/OCD. But fate threw them together in Styria, and they somehow manage to survive everything to be together.

I’m hoping we get a second movie.

3. Xena and Gabrielle – Xena

I will fight you that they’re a real couple. Xena was hamstrung by the times. Everyone, including the actors, claim that they were married, so everyone needs to just give up that one. Now, Xena is a reformed warlord whom no one trusts and really doesn’t like people at all, even though she’s trying to do good. Gabrielle is the Battling Bard of Potedia, a bright and sunshine darling whom everyone loves.

And my babies kiss a lot more than I remember.

2. Root and Shaw – Person of Interest

This may be a little stretch but Shaw’s Axis II personality disorder makes her mostly annoyed by people all the time. And she makes it perfectly clear she only hangs around with Team Machine for the dog. Until Root shows up. And Root is a cheery mayhem murderer who is basically Puck. She loves to antagonize Shaw, and once Root’s reformed a little, everyone likes her. They may not trust her, but they like her.

While the murder couple may have only gotten together on screen in Samaritan’s smut fic version of their lives, the fact that they also flirted like mad in the Machine’s version of the universe told us all the truth.

1. Gail and Holly – Rookie Blue

I knew when I started this, that my OTP had to be here. I am still salty about how this ended. We have Gail, a police officer known as the Ice Queen who has friends, but it’s pretty tenuous and she doesn’t seem to like them very much. And we have Holly, the medical examiner who is a nice and happy person. Together they filled multiple tropes: cop & doc, blonde & brunette, grumpy & happy, enemies to friends. All they missed was tall & small.

I will miss Officer Lunchbox forever.

That’s my list. What are your favorite grumpy/cheerful pairings?

One is sunshine, one is shadow. Mika's Top 7 Grumpy/Cheerful Pairings include #xena #poi #rookieblue and ... #sailormoon !? You're grumpy. It's adorable. Tracy loves when ladies kiss against a wall. Me? I love the paradigm of a relationship where one person is sunshine and kindness, and the other just wants you all to die.

#carmilla #degrassi the next generation #person of interest #rookie blue #sailor moon #Steven Universe #xena warrior princess

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noonewasharmedinthisxenarecap · 6 years

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Season One: Sins of the Past

And so it begins. We leave Hercules behind and head into season one of a much superior show.

We begin with Xena’s journey to redemption with Sins of the Past. I think its a really good opening episode. We are treated to enough backstory to keep us interested and enough character introduction to make us invested in our leads Xena and Gabrielle.

Let us begin :)

I really enjoy the opening scene of this episode. The flashbacks to the past and visions of the damage she has done. That village and that boy cause her to rethink her past and it sets the path for most of the series, how am I ever going to atone for the wrongs I have committed? You can see the pain and the anguish as she tries to come to terms with who she was and who she is set to become. These leads us to one of the most hotly contested scenes in her history...the burying of the armour.

This scene is extremely emotional for Xena. I know that there are those that believe that her burying the armour is a sign that she had every intention of ending her life, until Gabrielle came along. I believe its not that extreme. Its my belief that Xena is burying the armour because its connected to her past, a past she is still struggling to come to terms with. To move on and attempt to be good she needs to make a choice and for her, abandoning her desire to fight is an important step in becoming a new person and having a new destiny. It is her way of moving on and moving forward. You can see the anguish in her face as she lays her armour down into the dirt.

But even Xena isn’t strong enough to avoid fighting all together. Her morals kick in and she has no choice but to defend the villagers. Her first step to redemption. She realises that her skills can be a force for good and that she can use her skills to defend and protect. She realises that she doesn’t need to abandon everything about who she is and that she can fight and be good at the same time. Its an important scene and a great starting point.

Gabrielle obviously has a role to play in Xena’s change of tack, even i can't deny that. After buying her armour Xena hides away in the bushes as the villagers are brought in. Suddenly this plucky young woman stands up to the soldiers. Renee plays Gabrielle’s defiance brilliantly. Its so visible in Gabrielle’s face as she tried to weigh up how she is going to get out of the situation. Then she takes action and does a Katniss volunteering to take the place of everyone else (#xenadiditfirst). It’s watching this young woman stand up for the rest of the women that spurs Xena into action.

Xena then singlehandedly takes on this group of men. Its a great introduction to Xena’s fighting style. Its acrobatic, its tactical, its unique. Its a no holds bar approach to fighting. And we get the spinning around a pole kicking in a circle move for the first time. we seriously don't get that enough throughout the series. After having the apprehend for the majority of the fight, somehow these terrible fighters get the upperhand surrounding her as she drops to the floor. Its interesting to see our “hero” in such a precarious situation so early in the episode. You obviously know that she is in no danger of dying but it makes you question what direction the series is going to take this fighter. Its not until you see Xena scrambling in the dirt that you realise just has smart a fighter she truly is. She reaches into the dirt pulling out her chakram and her sword. Our first introduction to the chakram in the series.

Xena rescues herself and again takes control of the fight. And then you get this:

Accompanied by a laugh of pure joy. Xena enjoys fighting. She gets a real thrill out of it. Whether its for good or for evil, Xena enjoys a good fight. I think thats why it makes it easier for her to make the decision to keep moving forward. If she can get the same joy fighting to protect people, maybe it will be easier for her to stay on her path. Fighting and Xena belong together. Even a terrible season 4 India arc can't change that. I think this fight is exactly what she needed to understand her place in the world. Saving those villagers is almost as important as saving that baby.

The scene in Potedia is interesting. The village is aware of Xena. Yes she saved them but she is still Xena and not enough time has past for her reputation to be forgotten. She doesn't seem phased by their behaviour, it seems to spur her on a little more. She needs to work to destroy her old reputation. She has a lot of work to do.

So Gabrielle asks to go with Xena and tried to convince her its a good idea by mention she likes to read maps and place names. Seems like Gabrielle may have a bit of a boring life in Potedia, Xena tried to turn her away “You don't want to make me mad now don't you.” It’s seems a bit ridiculous at this juncture for Xena to think this would work. This young woman just stood up to a group of thugs and Xena thinks this would work. But then Xena has not been around real people for a long time,

Xena heads off to see Draco. I like this interaction between them. Draco is clearly enthralled with Xena. We get the hint of a history between them, they used to ride together and they clearly ended on interesting terms which we only know because she mentions his scar. Thats one thing i’ve always lamented abut the series, we never got to learn more about their history together. Where did Draco fall in her timeline? Was he before or after Borias? I’m interested because he seems like he has a bitter integrity. He values his word and he stands by agreements he has made. Anyway Xena asks him to spare the village, he agrees for old times sake. She then tells him she is going home and he are treated to this little backstory:

Draco: "What do you hope to find back in Amphipolis? Forgiveness? I tried to go home once. My father almost beat me to death with a blacksmith's hammer. You'll get the same treatment, I guarantee it."

If this was earlier in Xena’s redemption it may have been enough to convince her not to bother. If it had been Xena at the end of the Gauntlet she may not have gone home. That was a broken Xena and now this Xena has strength and resolve. She can't be swayed by Draco.

We have this odd moment with a cyclops. It seems unnecessary for Xena to have this interaction. There is more implied history and the whole event is over very quickly. It appears to be a set up for Gabrielle. We are introduced to this cyclops so that in the next scene he can tell Gabrielle that Xena had been though that way. It gives Gabrielle an opportunity to show off her greatest worth at this stage in her story, her gift of the gab. Its an odd moment but it works.

Now comes the meat in our sandwich, Xena’s return to Amphipolis. I’m glad they did this in the first episode. In order to understand who she is we need to understand where she has come from. She rides into the village without her breast plate. Its rather symbolic. She feels safe enough to go in with limited protection. This is her home. She should have a right to feel safe here. Its her home.

She walks into the tavern and comes face to face with her mother. Xena looks incredibly hopeful, like she is waiting for a happy reception. Xena has put the last 10 or so years behind her she is hopeful her mother has done the same. It should be a beautiful moment. But mother’s never forget and not only Cyrene shocked to see Xena, she is angered and offended at her presence. In Cyrene’s eyes, Xena was the reason her youngest died not the warlord who ransacked the village. Xena convinced her brother to fight for his home and ended up getting him killed. To Cyrene that is unforgivable.

You can see the hurt and pain in Xena’s eyes:

If her mother can't forgive her, how can she forgive herself. She looks like her heart has been ripped out. She wants to show her mother that she is a changed woman that everything is going to be ok, that she wants to come home. She needs her mother to forgive her so that she can forgive herself. Xena needs to feel some love and she just isn't getting it. What is she doing this for if her mother still hates her? You really feel for Xena in this scene.Its heartbreaking and then Cyrene walks away “This is not your town anymore. We are not your people. I am not your mother!” With those words Cyrene has hurt her more than any sword could. Its terrible.

After Cyrene destroys Xena’s heart we have this beautiful moment when Xena goes to her brother’s tomb. She is getting no love from her mother maybe the dead will be more forgiving. Xena shows how far she has come with a simple but emotional speech.

“Since you've been gone, I kind of lost my way. Now, I found it. I thought I could start over. But no--They don't trust me. Not even Mother. I can't blame her. She can't see into my heart. But I've got to believe that you can. And I wish you were here. It's hard to be alone."

And then Gabrielle arrives (stalker much) “You are not alone.” The look on Xena’s face says it all. Its a long time since Xena has felt like someone was in her corner. Maybe if this plucky, chatty young woman can see the good in her then it must exist.

You can see how much she appreciates that sentiment and how good it feels to know that someone in the world cares about her. Its a wonderful moment.

Draco has come into town and he is ready to take the villagers. He seems very slighted by the fact that Xena is seeking redemption. Its jealousy. if he can't have a good homecoming then neither can Xena. After all she has done worse than he. The agree to fight for the villagers and they come up with this horribly unnecessary scenario. Staffs and up on the scaffolding. Seems like a terrible idea for a fight. There is some acrobatics and a lot of standing on heads and spinning on heads. It make little sense but it has the campy feel that plagues Hercules but it kinds works for an opening episode.

We are treated to a lovely scene with Cyrene where Xena finally gets what she came for:

"I forgive you, my little one. I forgive you. I'm so happy to have you back again.”

Thats all Xena wanted and it was all she needed. It was a lovely moment and Xena even got a hug from her mum. Its an important moment in Xena’s journey. It shows her that she deserves to be forgiven and that she can be forgiven. It won't be easy but if she can show the world that she has changed, maybe the world like her mother can forgive.

We are then treated to the first campfire scene where Gabrielle admits to be a stalker and Xena seems to acquiesce her coming along for a while at least.

Summary

Forgetting the oddness of Lucy’s American accent (which for some reason sounded so natural in the trilogy and sounds very strange here) there are several things I’m glad changed later in the series, namely that weird looking headband and the fact that the sword is on her hip. It looks unnatural and uncomfortable and Xena spends a great deal of time holding it in place. Also very glad this is the only episode where Argo is referred to as a boy. That’s a yaxi I just cant get used to hearing.

All in all its a good pilot episode. It gives you everything you need and almost makes you forget Unchained Heart. Gabrielle’s chattiness and her ability to talk herself and Xena out of trouble is something i love about season one. Baby Gabby is adorable and is exactly what Xena needs at this point in her journey. Her gift of the gab us a skill that I feel is abandoned after season one and it is one they should have kept around for a bit longer.

All in all its a great pilot episode. It introduces the characters without long drawn out exposition. It does enough exploration so that you don't need to watch the trilogy (but you should because The Gauntlet). Its emotional and its entertaining. It makes you want to come back next week and see where this show is heading and whether Xena will be able to continue on her journey.

TL;DR: Xena looks like she is giving up then a young girl convinces her to keep fighting. her mum hates her then loves her and she saves a whole village from her ex-boyfriend before agreeing to left the plucky young girl follow her on her adventure.

Next up...Episode 2 Chariots of War

*all screen caps taken/borrowed from http://www.angelbacchae.com. Massive thanks

#xena #xena warrior princess #xwp #xena rewatch #xena recap #no one was harmed in the writing of this xena recap #sins of the past

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