{"id":527,"date":"2023-11-11T04:09:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T04:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2023-11-11T04:09:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T04:09:00","slug":"xena-virtual-season-the-battle-of-amphipolis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/11\/xena-virtual-season-the-battle-of-amphipolis-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Xena Virtual Season; The Battle of Amphipolis 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Young Xena issues a call to arms to her fellow Amphipolians<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This drawing from Battle of Amphipolis (from the #Xena Virtual Season) shows teen Xena in her mother\u2019s tavern trying to convince her fellow villagers to defend themselves against the warlord Cortese en route with his army. Her admiring brother, the noble Lyceus, looks on. It\u2019s a\u00a0sequel to Death Mask, but I thought it did well to incorporate what we learned in other eps, like Sins of the Past & Forgiven. It helps shed light on her dilemma: in Death Mask, Xena explains that her pursuit of Cortese led her down the path to warlordism. But here, we see that\u00a0there\u2019s more going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see that the qualities that make her such a formidable opponent of Cortese also alienates her fellow villagers. Xena\u2019s no role model. She\u2019s a lot like Tara, from Forgiven, a wild girl who\u2019s regarded with suspicion by the others. She thinks the villagers are cowards, but they think she\u2019s reckless.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more she argues, the more she pushes them away. She\u2019s right, but it costs her dearly. Her brother dies fighting at her side, & she\u2019s blamed for that. This script picks up on some of the complexities of Xena\u2019s character that Death\u00a0Mask hints at. In Xena\u2019s mind, Lyceus is forever young, innocent & trusting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toris is not: he\u2019s angry, judgmental & bitter. He & Xena blame each other, but they\u2019re more alike than they\u2019d like to admit. Their relationship rings true to me. The question I have with Death Mask\u00a0is what would\u2019ve happened if Lyceus survived? I think there\u2019s 3 possibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1st, he continues to follow Xena in her quest against Cortese until he gets killed. 2nd: he continues until he becomes like her, a warlord. 3rd: the most likely scenario, he parts ways with her at\u00a0some point, & becomes repulsed by the person she\u2019s become. In other words, he becomes like Toris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a 4th option: he convinces her to give up her obsession with Cortese, but this is unlikely.\u00a0 Xena is just\u00a0 too big for her village, & Cortese is also a pretext for her to\u00a0leave it. To not answer that call is to deny herself. We see a similar scenario play out in Remember Nothing, where she\u2019s given the option to do just that. Walking away from her dark side means walking away from her better side. In a way, her 2 brothers represent the light & the\u00a0dark, & she struggles to accept balance in that as well, in Battle of Amphipolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This drawing from Battle of Amphipolis (from the #Xena Virtual Season) shows teen Xena in her mother\u2019s tavern trying to convince her fellow villagers to defend themselves against the warlord Cortese en route with his army. Her admiring brother, the noble Lyceus, looks on. It\u2019s a\u00a0sequel to Death Mask, but I thought it did well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtual-season","category-xena"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/typesandpatterns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}