So, we've been having a really interesting discussion in this thread, Rewriting the 25 year jump, about alternatives to the 25-year sleep as a way to handle the problem of the heroines of an action show
having a baby in tow.
Here's a few scenarios we came up with:
* After Amphipolis Under Siege, Athena -- guided by a typically cryptic prophecy from the Fates -- changes her strategy and, instead of trying to kill Eve, kidnaps her and takes her to a "bubble universe" she has created. In this bubble universe, time flows at a different speed so that for every day in the "outside world," a year passes in the bubble universe. Eve is raised by Athena and her priestesses (perhaps in collaboration with another god such as Apollo), and is trained to be Athena's champion; she is also told that her mother was a terrible person who either abandoned her or tried to kill her, and that Athena rescued her from a certain death. Meanwhile, back in our world, Xena and Gabrielle are frantically searching for Eve (maybe asking Ares for help but he has no idea where Eve is). About a month after Eve's disappearance, word starts to spread about Athena's formidable new champion, Elektra, who is leading a campaign to put down Eli's movement. Xena and Gabrielle go up against Elektra ... only to find out that she is Eve. After that, any number of scenarios is possible, including one close to what we got on the show.
* Xena and Gabrielle settle down with the Northern Amazons, as they considered doing in Kindred Spirits, and dedicate themselves to helping rebuild the Amazon Nation (perhaps occasionally going off on other adventures while the Amazons babysit).
*Xena starts to realize that life on the road as a warrior is no way to raise a child. She retires for a couple of episodes, but is then called back into action and realizes that she cannot give up being a warrior. Reluctantly, she relinquishes custody of Eve to Cyrene and goes away with Gabrielle.
* Xena and Gabrielle establish a "home base" with Cyrene in Amphipolis but continue as part-time warriors and adventurers, going on various missions and adventures while Cyrene babysits (perhaps with help from Joxer, or, in a post-Twilight scenario, from a now-mortal Aphrodite), and taking care of Eve between episodes. Sometimes Xena or Gabrielle goes out "on the job" alone or teamed up with someone else while the other stays with the baby.
* Xena and Gabrielle retire to raise Eve together, perhaps after some dramatic event that makes them realize their way of life is putting Eve in too much danger. The next episode opens with a "Five years later" title. Xena and Gabrielle are called back into action, perhaps by a threat to Amphipolis, and eventually decide that they have to leave Eve with Cyrene (but in this scenario it's not as "cruel" because at least Xena got to be there constantly for her daughter's early years).
Other scenarios that we didn't really consider seriously in the thread, but that nonetheless should be included:
* Eve is killed as a baby, or perhaps Xena does not make it out of Tartarus before the birth and her baby is stillborn.
* Xena and Gabrielle continue to travel and fight with Baby Eve (why not?), perhaps occasionally leaving her with a babysitter.
* Xena and Gabrielle are thrown 25 years ahead in time in a battle with or between gods. (This one was actually briefly considered by TPTB as an alternative; inn the scenario they had, Eve was raised by Ares as his own daughter and warrior, but of course that's not the only possible outcome.)
* No pregnancy/baby storyline at all -- they could have put the show on hiatus during Lucy's pregnancy, or found creative ways to work around the pregnancy.
And finally, there's the scenario we got on the show exactly as it happened.
Which one of these do you like best? What would you pick if you went back in time as a member of the Xenastaff and could make the final decision on how to handle the baby problem?
Which one of these do you like best? What would you pick if you went back in time as a member of the Xenastaff and could make the final decision on how to handle the baby problem?
ETA: My apologies for the stupid typo in #4: "while Cyrene and/or others caretake care of Eve" was obviously meant to be "while Cyrene and/or others take care of Eve."
(not that we couldn't
with some of the other story lines too, but still....)
. Plus I'd love to see them interacting with 5 year old Eve.
), if Ares was trying to bring the Amazons into his fold and Xena was trying to
thwart him (and maybe at some point Ares had to deal with a conflict between his feelings for Xena and his power games).
) But they still could have had a Twilight of the Gods storyline and tied it to the Amazon one -- if they'd gone with
the idea that the Twilight will come when people stop worshipping the gods and the gods will lose their powers (which was the original idea in Seeds of
Faith, of course!) and the gods were frantically trying to build up their worship base. You could have Ares and Artemis vying for exclusive patronage of
the Amazon nation since worshipers = survival, and Xena and Gabrielle caught in the middle of this situation.
Multitext
Poor Xena. If they were going to go the route of killing Eve, I'd much rather have her be killed by the gods and then Xena
destroying the gods to avenge Eve. You could go with the option they originally considered for S5, where Xena destroyed the gods by breaking the Tablets of the
Fates (though Ares managed to survive by going forward in time). But actually killing Eve is totally off the table for me. If Xena hadn't already lost
Solan, then I could accept it, but as it is... No. Just no. I think it would have completely broken her, and I have no desire to see a broken Xena.
but they over-stepped the Hope/Eve parallels for me when they had Xena finding out she was
miraculously pregnant, not knowing how it came about, and declaring that she just felt that the baby was good. 
