Editing Xena (section)

===Fictional character history===

====Initial turn to evil====
Several years prior to the series pilot, "Sins of the Past", Xena commits numerous deeds from terrorism to piracy and murder; at one point, she becomes known as the "Destroyer of Nations". Her journey down the path of evil arguably begins when her brother is killed during an attack by the warlord Cortese. Xena vows revenge and becomes estranged from her mother as a result.

Later she acts as the captain of a pirate ship, raiding ships and ransoming hostages. It is during one ransom attempt that she encounters a young Roman nobleman named [[Julius Caesar]]. Caesar is an experienced warrior and military commander with grand ambitions. He and Xena have a passionate love affair and plan to join forces. Caesar, however, betrays Xena. Caesar has Xena beaten and crucified (with her legs broken) on a beach to die of exposure, but she is saved by an Egyptian slave girl named M'Lila. M'Lila had originally stowed away on Xena's ship and subsequently befriends her and teaches Xena how to use pressure points. After saving Xena, M'Lila takes her to a healer who treats her injuries. While the healer is treating Xena, Roman soldiers burst in and try to kill Xena, but M'Lila shields Xena, takes a fatal shot from a crossbow and dies in Xena's arms.

This event drives Xena to the side of evil completely. Despite her injuries, she kills the soldiers but warns the last one before he dies, "Tell Hades to prepare himself; a new Xena is born tonight."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kennedy|first1=Kathleen|title=Xena on the Cross|journal=[[Feminist Media Studies]]|date=September 2007|volume=7|issue=3|pages=313–332|doi=10.1080/14680770701477966|s2cid=143461262}}</ref>

====First steps towards redemption====
Afterward, Xena becomes the leader of an army and aligns herself with Borias, seducing him away from his family and the two join forces. The two become lovers and Xena eventually becomes pregnant with her son [[Solan (Xena: Warrior Princess)|Solan]]. During her pregnancy, Xena travels with her army to China, where she hopes to build an alliance with the powerful Lao family.

Borias betrays Xena, leading to Xena running for her life and being hunted. While on the run, Xena meets Lao Ma, a woman with special abilities. She scares away the hounds chasing Xena with just a look and can move like a martial artist which awes Xena. Lao Ma cares for Xena, and under her friend's guidance, she learns to put aside much of her hatred and pain. Lao Ma heals Xena's crippled legs and it is implied that she teaches Xena fighting moves she had not yet developed. Lao Ma gives Xena the metaphorical title "Warrior Princess", intending that she be a major catalyst for change in the land.

Borias and Xena reconcile and renew their alliance, only to break it a final time and split their forces between them, with Xena proving the stronger of the two. Borias is killed in the ensuing battle, and Xena gives the newborn Solan to the centaurs to raise.

====Encounter with Hercules and subsequent reform====
Xena continues her life as a warlord for many years. She turns against her troops to protect a baby whose family would not pay the ransom she demanded. Her troops try to kill Xena for becoming weak in their eyes. After these events, Xena travels with Hercules for a short time and they share a brief romantic relationship. While their romance does not last long, the two form a special friendship. In "Prometheus", each acknowledges the positive impact the other had on the world.

====Meeting Gabrielle====
Haunted by her past transgressions, she is about to give up on her life as a warrior completely.<ref name="Sins">{{cite episode|title=Sins of the Past|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=4 September 1995}}</ref> In the episode "Sins of the Past", she strips off her [[armor]] and weapons and buries them in the dirt. She sees a group of village girls being attacked by a band of warriors. In the group is [[Gabrielle (Xena)|Gabrielle]]. Xena saves the young women and warns an awestruck Gabrielle not to follow her.

Gabrielle follows Xena in a quest to persuade Xena to let her be her traveling companion. Xena returns to her hometown, Amphipolis, and eventually reconciles with her mother, Cyrene.<ref name="Sins" /> She also visits the grave of her brother Lyceus. When Xena privately confides with Lyceus that it is difficult to be alone, Gabrielle—who is silently standing in the doorway of the crypt—tells her, "You're not alone." Soon, Xena agrees to allow Gabrielle to travel with her. Over time, Gabrielle becomes Xena's dearest friend and soulmate.

====Subsequent travels and hardships====
Gabrielle and Xena become best friends, soulmates and constant companions over the many adventures that follow. Each of the women learns from the other; Gabrielle becomes a warrior on behalf of good, while Xena develops a softer and more loving personality to balance her warrior's heart. Xena's life is marred by many tragedies. Her son Solan, who never came to know her as his mother, is killed by [[Hope (Xena)|Hope]], Gabrielle's demonic child,<ref name="Maternal">{{cite episode|title=Maternal Instincts|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=26 January 1998}}</ref> (with the help of Callisto); and Gabrielle nearly dies many times.

The instances where Xena and Gabrielle almost part ways tend to result from the outside manipulations of others. After Gabrielle's demonic daughter Hope kills Xena's son, Gabrielle, consumed with grief, journeys to stay with the Amazons. Xena locates her and tries to kill Gabrielle by throwing her over a cliff while she is in a weakened state. Xena fails and both women reconcile with the help of Solan's spirit. Solan creates the land of Illusia wherein, through music, both women express their grief and anger at each other and the traumas they have endured. Xena confesses that she did indeed kill Ming T'ien because he killed his mother Lao Ma. Xena admits to Solan that she is his mother and asks his forgiveness.

====Enemies====
[[Image:Xena Gabrielle.jpg|thumb|220px|right|Xena with [[Gabrielle (Xena)|Gabrielle]].]]
Soon after the start of her journeys with Gabrielle, Xena runs into [[Ares (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess)|Ares]], who has known her since her warlord days and he tries to seduce her into joining him as his Warrior Queen, which she repeatedly thwarts.<ref name="reck">{{cite episode|title=The Reckoning|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=16 October 1995}}</ref> She also encounters a formidable warrior woman named [[Callisto (Xena)|Callisto]], whose family was killed by Xena's army years ago and has since vowed her revenge.<ref name="call">{{cite episode|title=Callisto|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=13 May 1996}}</ref>

====The path to redemption continues====
Marcus, a warrior, close friend and lover from her warlord days, whom she persuades to follow her in choosing good, is killed while doing his first good deed.<ref name="path">{{cite episode|title=The Path Not Taken|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=2 October 1995}}</ref> Later he is allowed to briefly return to the world of the living to help thwart a vicious killer who has escaped from the Underworld. He and Xena spend a night together before Marcus has to return to the other side.<ref name="belo">{{cite episode|title=Mortal Beloved|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=12 February 1996}}</ref> Several years after her first meeting with Lao Ma, a messenger is sent by Lao Ma to ask Xena to travel to China to aid in stopping a great evil. She sets out without delay, but insists that she must deal with this alone and that Gabrielle stay behind.

Xena arrives too late to save her mentor and friend [[Lao Ma]] from being tortured to death by her own son, the emperor [[Ming T'ien]] and is crushed with the loss.<ref name="debt">{{cite episode|title=The Debt II|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=10 November 1997}}</ref> Finally, she and Gabrielle are crucified by the Romans on the [[Ides of March]] by her former lover [[Caesar (Xena)|Caesar]]. Caesar himself is betrayed and killed by Brutus.<ref name="Ides of March">{{cite episode|title=The Ides of March|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=10 May 1999}}</ref> They are later revived by a mystic named [[Eli (Xena)|Eli]], along with the spiritual aid of Callisto, who became a demon and then an angel after Xena killed her.<ref name="fallen angel">{{cite episode|title=Fallen Angel|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=27 September 1999}}</ref>

====Eve/Livia====
This leads to the birth of Xena's daughter, [[Eve (Xena: Warrior Princess)|Eve]]. After Xena lets Callisto die, she is sent to Tartarus but later returns and becomes a god and an even greater enemy of Xena. Finally Xena attempts to save Callisto from her suffering by sacrificing herself. Callisto becomes an angel and Xena a demon. Before Eve is born, Callisto the angel implants her soul in Xena's unborn baby as a way to redeem herself from her past. Mother and daughter have little time together, as Eve is prophesied to bring about the Twilight of the Olympian gods and the rise of the One God. To stop the gods from pursuing the infant Eve, Xena and Gabrielle fake their deaths,<ref name="death in the eye">{{cite episode|title=Looking Death in the Eye|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=24 April 2000}}</ref> but their plan goes awry when Ares buries them in an ice cave, where they sleep for 25 years.

During that time, Eve is adopted by the Roman nobleman [[Augustus Caesar|Octavius]]. She grows up to become Livia, the Champion of Rome and a ruthless persecutor of Eli's followers. In a sense she has become a reincarnation of Callisto. Eve's ruthless behavior may be due to the influence of Callisto's soul, but this is unclear, particularly since Callisto was purged of all the evil within her when she became an angel.<ref name="Livia">{{cite episode|title=Livia|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=1 May 2000}}</ref> After her return, Xena is able to turn Livia to repentance, and Livia takes back the name Eve and becomes the Messenger of Eli.<ref name="Eve">{{cite episode|title=Eve|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=8 May 2000}}</ref> After Eve's cleansing by [[baptism]], Xena is granted the power to kill gods as long as her daughter lives.<ref name="Motherhood">{{cite episode|title=Motherhood|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=15 May 2000}}</ref> In a final confrontation, the Twilight comes to pass when Xena kills most of the gods to save her daughter, with the help of God and [[Michael (archangel)|Archangel Michael]], and is herself saved by Ares when he gives up his immortality to heal the badly injured and dying Eve and Gabrielle.<ref name="Motherhood"/> Xena later helps Ares regain his godhood, though he does become an adversary for Xena again and in modern day as well.<ref name="you are there">{{cite episode|title=You Are There|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=5 February 2001}}</ref>
<ref name="path of vengeance">{{cite episode|title=Path Of Vengeance|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=12 February 2001}}</ref>
<ref name="soul possession">{{cite episode|title=Soul Possession|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=4 June 2001}}</ref>

====Final redemption and death====
Xena's quest for redemption ends when she sacrifices herself to kill the Japanese demon Yodoshi, who is holding the souls of the dead. Xena single-handedly fights the Japanese army and dies. Xena, now a spirit, fights and kills Yodoshi. Xena decides to stay dead so the souls of the 40,000 she accidentally killed years ago can be released into a state of peace. The series ends with Gabrielle on a ship, holding Xena's ashes and speaking with Xena's spirit.<ref name="friend in need 2">{{cite episode|title=A Friend in Need, Part 2|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=18 June 2001}}</ref>

====Legacy====
According to the [[darshan]], Naiyima,<ref name="between lines">{{cite episode|title=Between the Lines|series=Xena: Warrior Princess|series-link=Xena: Warrior Princess|airdate=15 February 1999}}</ref> this is only one of many lives Xena will live throughout the ages. One such life is that of Arminestra, an Indian holy mother who leads a movement that preaches peace. Another is a transcriber of ancient languages named Melinda Pappas who uncovers the tomb of Ares during WWII and is possessed by the spirit of Xena to stop the God of War. In many of those lives, she will walk a path together with her [[soulmate]], Gabrielle, furthering the cause of good against evil.