Unresolved Plotlines In Xena: Warrior Princess

If you were watching TV in the '90s, then "Xena: Warrior Princess" is probably burned into your memory, with its epic action sequences and impressive feats — all done with a minimal budget. The series was a gamechanger, and it remains a cultural touchstone more than a quarter century down the line.

While the fight scenes were great, those who became fans were more often than not pulled in by Xena's complicated character arc, which sees her struggling to overcome the sins of her past. Having made her debut in "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" as a dastardly villain, Xena has a lot to make up for, and this series walks us through it, starting with day one. This is one redemption arc that never lets its protagonist off the hook as she's still making up for past wrongs, right up to the very last episode of the series.

But considering the number of people working behind the scenes, the demanding shooting schedule, and the loose approach to history and mythology, it might not come as a huge surprise that this is a series that left a number of unresolved plotlines in its wake. However, each dangling thread inspires us to look back at the series once more, and truly, you can never go wrong with a "Xena" rewatch. So prepare for the power, the passion, and the danger as we look at the show's biggest unresolved plotlines.

When it comes to the lore behind why Xena was once a ruthless killer, the death of her brother Lyceus at the hands of a warlord named Cortese is always treated as a pivotal moment that changed her on a fundamental level. As time goes on, there are things that add to that narrative — including a betrayal by Caesar that left her near death — but if anything destroyed her homelife, it was this early loss.

In the Season 1 episode "Death Mask," Xena actually comes face to face with Cortese, but the presence of her equally traumatized brother Toris complicates things. Though at first he appears to be working for Cortese, he quickly reveals to Xena that he's in fact trying to get close enough to kill the man who destroyed his family. Xena ultimately helps Toris overcome his desire to take revenge on Cortese, allowing him to finally forgive himself for failing to protect his loved ones. 

Now, Toris checks all the boxes for someone who could've been a fascinating recurring character, but after the credits role, he's completely forgotten. Not only does he never appear again, he's never even mentioned going forward. He walks off promising to go visit their mother, and he's never seen or heard from after that. Hopefully he just got distracted and forgot to check in, but after this moment of catharsis, it's strange this was his last appearance.

"Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" kicked off this whole shebang, introducing Xena as a villain in what was intended to be a short three-episode run that was initially intended to end in Xena's death. Fortunately, it instead sprang into its own six-season spinoff, and the rest is history. While his own series ended on a bit of an odd note due to actor Kevin Sorbo wanting to leave and resulting negotiations leading to an anticlimactic eight final episodes, there was nothing to signify that his adventures had come to a close for the character himself. Indeed, Hercules appears in the Season 5 episode "God Fearing Child" to give Xena's newly born daughter a stuffed toy that he affectionately named Iolaus.

A 25-year time jump shortly thereafter sees many of Xena's friends and foes age out of their shared adventures, but that wouldn't necessarily have affected the demigod Hercules. Even if, there's still a good chance that a number of acquaintances wouldn't have survived the 25 years, then there should've been a footnote explaining how they didn't. Joxer gets a conclusion as we see him as a happily married old man, but he's one of the few. Recurring characters like Hercules, Salmoneus, Autolycus, and Iolaus simply drop off the map and are never heard from again. Some things can be shrugged off, but this one feels like a bit of an oversight.

The Amazonian Velasca is a major player in "The Quest" and "A Necessary Evil," two pivotal Season 2 episodes that see Gabrielle stepping more into the spotlight than ever before as she attempts to deal with Xena's apparent death. After Xena loses her life in "The Quest," it's up to Gabrielle to keep her body safe until she can be buried. For her part, she chooses to return to the Amazons as their queen after the death of their former leader, Melosa. This infuriates Velasca, who feels she's won the right to be the queen and does everything in her power to prevent Xena's resurrection. Naturally, she fails, Xena is resurrected, and the villain is defeated.

However, Velasca finds a piece of ambrosia, which transforms her into a god. To make matters worse, she teams up with another recent addition to godhood, Xena's arch-nemesis Callisto. Fortunately, Callisto and Velasca are quickly at one another's throats, and Xena is able to trap them in a lava pit, which Callisto escapes in follow-up episodes. Yet, despite Velasca being hyped up and clearly intended to return, she apparently never emerges from the trap. Later, she's listed as one among many that Xena put to death, but that doesn't add up since she had god status at the time and wasn't deceased when Xena last saw her. At any rate, she was a fun villain while she lasted, who Xena may or may not have killed.

One of the most important things to happen to Gabrielle throughout the series is her training with the Amazons, where she learns to be an action hero in her own right. In the episode "Hooves and Harlots," Gabrielle puts her life on the line to save a dying Amazon who just so happens to have been a princess. This leads to Gabrielle being given the Rite of Caste, elevating her to Amazonian royalty despite knowing very little about their culture. Naturally, this becomes a whole thing, and Gabrielle is forced to call Xena as her champion in a fight to the death against the then-reigning Amazon queen, Melosa.

Though Xena doesn't hold animosity toward the Amazons and respects their beliefs, she states more than once during the show that she's never had any interest in joining their ranks. Personality-wise, this makes sense, as it's hard to imagine a superstar like Xena falling in with a group dynamic. On the other hand, after she's chosen as Gabrielle's champion, she steps up to bat as queen a number of times during the episode, even in times when theoretically it should've been Gabrielle's time to act. This makes sense for her as the star of the series, but it leaves some questions around what role Xena has among the Amazons. This is more or less forgotten going forward, Gabrielle accepts her role as sometimes-royalty, and the Amazons pop up a number of times both as allies and antagonists.

Xena pulls off superhuman feats in about every episode despite being played as an ordinary human for the majority of the show's run, which has led to a lot of speculation not just from fans but within the series itself. Granted, some things can be hand-waved away, like the pressure points that work in ways that pressure points absolutely do not work in real life, which she learned from her subtextual ex Lao Ma. Ma also taught her telekinesis and energy projection, but when and how that works is very much in the realm of writer's convenience.

Yet, putting plausible deniability aside, there are some things that are simply not followed up on. It's implied that Xena has a psychic connection with her weapon, the Chakram, and that there's a level of sentience to the weapon, but that's never fully confirmed. Plus, Xena knows magic, but there isn't a lot of information on what magic or how she learned it. Then, there's the possibility that she's a demigod like Hercules, but we're never given solid answers on that one.

We know she's at least mortal because she dies more than once, but that only raises more questions than it answers after the final episodes. In the end, her abilities allow for a lot of amazing fight sequences, so we're happy that Xena has whatever powers she has whenever she has them.

Xena goes through a lot, from being crucified more than once to surprise pregnancies and everything in between. Yet Gabrielle is right by her side and gets her fair share of the chaos storm. One of the defining traits of Gabrielle's arc is her discomfort with the violence that surrounds her. Though she knows that she can't live without fighting due to the nature of existence, she worries about losing touch with who she is in the same way that Xena once did. This leads her to forego violence, including her staff, for exactly one episode.

For a limited time only, Gabrielle tries her hand at an "arsenal of peace," which involves disarming villains through powders and traps rather than engaging in battle. Unfortunately, this cool concept immediately vanishes, and that's a shame because Gabrielle navigating nonviolence while not being helpless could've made for a heck of an arc. Instead, she adopts the use of two very lethal sai and goes headfirst into her role as an action hero, which, admittedly, is also awesome. 

Another odd note for Gabrielle's weaponry is that she's initially gifted an eagle-headed staff by the Amazons, only to appear with a completely different staff the next episode — which, in one episode only, is collapsible. There are plenty of logistical reasons why an eagle-headed or collapsible staff wouldn't necessarily work for shooting, but the changes are never addressed on the show.