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Rediscovering, discovering, re-evaluating a character - Why? How?

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absinthe angel 777	Rediscovering, discovering, re-evaluating a character - Why? How?	Lead	[-]
Three Star General Posts: 2468 (03/01/09 10:07 PM) Dark Angel Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Tags : None We've been watching the shows for years (most of us). Again and again and again we watch them. Sometimes we put it aside and then we pick up the show and start from the beginning, or the middle or the end. We're psycho about this show. But I've noticed that for many of us, our opinions about certain characters change, evolve or devolve. I know for myself, there are certain characters I paid absolutely no attention to the first or second time I watched the series and then SUDDENLY I had an epiphany (no, not an ephiny) about one character or another. Like Joxer and Livia (couldn't stand them at first - love them now). Cyane who? Ephiny what? Minya? Huh? These characters, among others, whizzed passed my first viewings......now they're crucial to me. Discord? Falafel? Hower? Tobias? Virgil? Akemi? Lao What? Were you really paying attention? Was Gabrielle an "irritating blonde" to you in the beginning and now she's your Queen? Was Ares the bad guy and now he's your sex symbol cream dream? Why? How? When? What radio station IS Aphrodite listening to on her clam shell headphones anyway? And why can't I tune in? Tell us about your discoveries of certain characters that only appeared to you or made sense after several viewings. Tell us about your radical changes of opinion about certain characters once you really understood them in the broader context of things. Tell us even about how you might have blown off certain episodes as inconsequential and then.........gasp.......the puzzle pieces all fit together and you realized how important that stupid episode really was! Tweet a Xena fan today - message me on Twitter Absinthe Angel 777 on Myspace Infinity Factory - Cool T-Shirt Designs for Real People With Real Intelligence Absinthe Angel 777's Fan Fiction
ChakramGoddess		#1	[-]
Royal Posts: 5628 (03/01/09 11:59 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Great topic. I first saw the show when I was 7-10 and rediscovered it when I was 19, so a lot of my opinions about the characters changed, most notably Ares and Joxer. As a kid, I barely noticed Ares. My only real memory of him was as the seductive villain from The Reckoning, so I was surprised and delighted to see that there was a lot more to his character than that. I fell head over heels in love with him and became an X/A shipper. As for Joxer, I found him hilarious as a kid, but during my second viewing, I found him annoying and not nearly as funny. But after rewatching certain episodes (namely Return of Callisto and Intimate Stranger), I came to see him as a hero and a true friend to Xena and Gabrielle and loved him again. Avatar by michelle62998 \| XTW banner by JinxsMinx \| Keepership and Bad Boys banner by Aurora \| Userbar graphics by a whole bunch of people (you know who you are!) No Xena, No Xenaverse! Ares' Misfit Femme - XGBoM
gravitystar		#2	[-]
One Star General Posts: 1071 (03/02/09 2:06 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Good question...though if i'm honest I can't really remember. I do remember the first time around I didn't really care for Gabrielle (shock horror). But the only memory I have of this phase was watching the end of Sacrifice 2, seeing her fall, not understanding the storyline...and wondering what th big fuss was abou. Why was Xena so upset? Then as I watched t more thoroughly, I started to love Gabrielle, and tolerate Xena. For me, when I was younger, Xena wasn't much of anything. I wasn't interested in charcter development as such back then, and I guess I saw more of the stoic warrior than anything else, making her the boring, normal, super hero type. (I felt much the same about Buffy to begin with too). I was also not always a subber. At first I liked the whole 'Prometheus' thing, and enjoyed any opprotunity to see Iolaus and Gabrielle together as well as Hercules and Xena. ( I heve wrote a script with all this in....but it was crap so we won't go there) Maybe more as I think of them... PLA \| Keeper of Gabrielle's Quill "Life is eternal, it has no beginning and no end." Everstarvids You Tube \| Gravitystar You Tube
TheJollyApe		#3	[-]
Royal Posts: 4939 (03/02/09 2:12 AM) XOC Forum Host Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Ares. Have no memorise of him from when I was a kid, but during my first real big watch I disliked him. The character still is uneven, but during that time all I could see were the weak spots of the character and his "development". Plus I thought the route they took him down was cheap and somewhat predictable. And even though I'm still not a fan of explicit lust as a symbolism for the pull of the dark side (lust/sex is not evil! not even when it's straight), I am now able to see the glorious elements of the character and disregard the weak episodes. Because when he is allowed to be dark (and not just as in evil) he rocks my socks. But I think that's a general for the entire show. The problem spots during the first watch I have re-worked in my head and now cling on to or find good aspects to even the things I disliked to begin with (with the exception of one character, but I'd rather not dwell on that). If I dislike something I find one aspect, or create one by thinking up a backstory not shown, and suddenly all is well again. show me where to slash [icon by dahllaz]
xenawp7706		#4	[-]
Olympian Posts: 10396 (03/02/09 4:28 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Gabrielle and Joxer. When I first watch the show, I only liked Xena. Gabrielle yes was important but not as much as it is now that I re watched the episodes. Joxer was annoying, now I love him. He is funny and generous.
danajala		#5	[-]
Three Star General Posts: 999 (03/02/09 5:49 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	When I was 12 Gabrielle was just another character for me. I cared only about Xena and Ares back then. Right now I really love her Keepership made by Aurora \|\| My Xena videos - YouTube or DropVids "Life is short, and it is here to be lived." - Kate Winslet
RipplesandChurns		#6	[-]
One Star General Posts: 543 (03/02/09 8:00 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Joxer is a recent revelation for me. Up untill very recently I thought he was very annoying. He served his purpose, but I thought he was given way too many episodes. He had always reminded me of someone too - I couldn't put my finger on who, but he just seemed to represent those sort of wee, annoying, snivelly boys at school. A wee while ago I started to come round, he was growing on me. His bravery and all that was becoming a bit more poignant. And yesterday I had a Xena marathon with my friend, and with all the comedy episodes, or episodes with Joxer, I actually found him hilarious. His humour was slapstick yet fairly witty at the same time. And obviously, he has a heart of gold. I really like him now. And you know what, I think it's because of the XOC. Sure. I had to rewatch a lot of episodes off my own back to get there, but after reading topics and posts on here that were very pro-Joxer, I think I subconsciously began to appreciate him more. It definately set my mind ticking. I think this place has an extremely strong influence on how I view the show. I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing - I seem to be sacrificing independant thought a little. In terms of opinion on the show, I am being moulded into something else than perhaps I would have been had I not registered her. And since the show is such a big part of my life, surely it will have effects on other parts of my life, my character? I don't know. There are obviously positive aspects to this aswell though, don't get me wrong. Hmmmm. Anyway, nothing has gone drastically wrong in my life yet If it does, I will blame the XOC. And you all must pay. With lots of new topics. And bananas, I like bananas. "I hate that..."
Pandora10		#7	[-]
Two Star General Posts: 2651 (03/02/09 11:41 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	I don't think I've had any really radical changes in opinion. I tend to get an instinctive feel whether I'm gonna like a character or not right away (I'm usually the same with people I meet in real life). When I was first watching the series, it was all about Xena and Gabrielle. Other characters didn't get a look in. Although I guess you could say that it took me a year of watching the show week to week before I really fell in love with them - before that it was just that I very much liked them. A character would have to turn up a lot to get my attention - like Callisto and Ares - the first time I was watching the show. I was far to concerned with what was happening to the main two to give them that much thought though. Watching the series over and over, on and off, for several years since has given me the chance to recognise there are plenty of other interesting characters besides them, and reading these boards has of course made me think a lot about other characters too, and where as I might have disregarded them as unimportant before, I find a lot more of interest now. Najara would be a good example of this, as would Eli. Then again maybe I found it hard to get into those two characters because they were introduced in S4 which was when the channels messed up the order of when airing the episodes here and I was struggling to make sense of a lot of that Season, so it was especially hard for me to keep up with the finer details of guest characters.
ApollotheArcher		#8	[-]
Four Star General Posts: 3881 (03/02/09 2:47 PM) Hera's Enforcer Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Great topic, and the initial post is very well written. Yes, I am psycho about this show!!! My biggest opinion change about a character didn't happen in subsequent viewings, but rather during the show's initial run. Surprise. Surprise. (Yes that's a Hercules pun.) It had to do with Callisto. When I first saw the episode Callisto, I thought the character wasn't a very good match for my beloved warrior princess. She looked too thin to take down Lucy in a believable fight, and since in her first appearance she's pretending to be Xena, I thought it was foolish that she hadn't dyed her hair or at least wore a bad wig. I mean, come on. She goes through all the trouble of getting an army, killing people, telling everyone she's Xena, but dying her hair was too much trouble? As we learned about Cirra, my opinion began to change because I thought the idea of the character was brilliant. Still, I wasn't sold on Callisto. For example, I've always thought her spitting at Xena in that episode was too prissy. I mean, come ON, we all know Hudson can do better, don't we? However, it wasn't until ROC that I fell in love with the character and couldn't wait for Callisto to return. I LOVE the scene where she tells Xena, "I'm not going to kill you now. Oh no. First I'm going to kill your soul-- just like you killed mine." Her hideous quest for every kind of revenge had grown on me, and when Xena let her sink into the quicksand, I was surprised (there's that pun) and impressed that the writers took the story in a bold new direction. I mean how many heroes let the villain almost die before saving them. The quicksand scene proved that this was going to be a no nonsense adventure where hard choices are made and storybook endings aren't guaranteed. After that, I LOVED Callisto and couldn't wait to see her again. I wanted her everywhere--on Hercules, on Buffy, in my room (Oh wait, that's a secret), and I still can't get enough of her. I think that's why season 2 is still my favorite year of the series. It's when Callisto really went full-throttle to shake up, flesh out, and perfect the Xenaverse. ~~~~~~~~~ I'm the King of Sweetness, my dear. --Hades to Persephone "Not Fade Away." Last Edited By: ApollotheArcher 03/02/09 2:57 PM. Edited 2 times.
MoyCullen		#9	[-]
Moderator One Star General Posts: 1020 (03/02/09 8:07 PM) Solan's Godsmother Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Definitely Joxer. I initially thought he was just an annoying pain who was taking screen time away from Xena and Gabrielle. Having come to the series very late in the game, I saw episodes out of order unfortunately and the first bunch of Joxer episodes I saw were ones where he's mainly used as the comic foil and quite irritatingly at that (that still holds true for me at moments). However, he grew on me over time. There were two instances that opened my eyes to Joxer being more than just the bumbling, comic relief. One was his attempt to protect Argo from "Callisto" in Intimate Stranger. Joxer can't possibly defeat Callisto and no one will ever know of his bravery yet he stood up to her in that moment. Two was the scene in Sacrifice when Xena banishes Joxer after he fell off the horse and then later it's revealed that was a cover for him to retrieve the hind's blood dagger. I completely fell for the initial scene and my heart went out to Joxer thinking Xena had been horribly cruel to him. I was thrilled to discover later that Joxer had allowed himself to look foolish as part of the plan and came through for Xena by successfully retrieving the hinds blood dagger. Those two situations made Joxer much more human in my eyes and turned me into a fan. "I could sing for you" Keeper by Aurora Goddess. Userbars by Nanziniemi, Aurora Goddess, TaladarkieJJ. Thanks everyone!
LadyKate63		#10	[-]
Administrator Moderator Olympian Posts: 88276 (03/03/09 5:40 PM) Xena Studies Ph.D. Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	Joxer, totally. Found him quite annoying at first when I was a casual viewer, but really came to appreciate him later on. Also, Baby Gabby. During my initial S1 viewing, I thought she was rather irritating. Now I find her adorable. See my artwork and fanfiction at The Muse's Corner * Visit Xena Online Community Keepership and sig script by Nutty, banner by Aurora Goddess, Avatars by Lionchilde
RipplesandChurns		#11	[-]
One Star General Posts: 550 (03/03/09 5:44 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts Report Post	LadyKate63 wrote: Also, Baby Gabby. During my initial S1 viewing, I thought she was rather irritating. Now I find her adorable. Oh yeah, me too actually. Maybe not Baby Gabby specifically, but Season 1 Gab. After the Xena marathon I had with my frined the other day, she really was far funnier than I remembered. Every scene she was in was charming. She almost stole the show, infact. "I hate that..."

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