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Xena and featurettes (Google Drive links)

I've noticed there's a lot of newbies wanting to watch 'Xena: Warrior Princess' and I couldn't be happier about that as a veteran fan but they're having trouble finding the TV show to download or stream.

I have great news for you. I have the entire show on my Google Drive account available to download or stream. Your preference. The video files are ripped directly from the Anchor Bay DVD deluxe edition box sets - which are the definitive way of watching the show but the box sets are extremely hard and expensive to get in new condition as they've been out of print since 2005. In addition to the TV show itself, I have also ripped and uploaded the featurettes from the box sets - these include the cast/crew interviews and the commentaries as well as other behind-the-scenes footage - again, ripped directly from the box sets. You can waste your money paying for a monthly subscription to a service that don't even include all the episodes due to copyright legislation or you can just download or stream them from Google Drive.

At this point in time I really couldn't care less about piracy like I used to because preserving art/entertainment media the way it's supposed to be seen/heard/engaged with means more to me now. So it's up to you.

All the links work. If they don't work, contact me and I will re-upload.

Also a quick suggestion: if you do happen to watch the end of the show titled 'A Friend In Need (Part 1)' and 'A Friend In Need (Part 2)', please do yourselves a favour and watch the DIRECTOR'S CUT that can be found in the featurettes folder. Both parts are combined together so it plays more like a movie and there is more scenes that explain things better. I won't say why this is important. You'll figure it out when you get there.

I'm just saying... if you truly want to watch the end - the director's cut.

Lastly, if you want a reason (or 10) to watch Xena, see my pinned post.

evviejo

STAR TREK: VOYAGER - S7E2 Imperfection

dunno-rambles

what if she was an ex borg drone and you dont like her but you're the best mechanical engineer on the ship and you have to work on the maintenance of the remaining - and most crucial - implants on her body and the monthly check ups are always strangely intimate-

what if

sapphictempest

I don’t think prior to Thunderbolts Yelena could comprehend why Natasha jumped off that cliff for Clint. Then when Yelena risked it all in the void and ran to Bob, I think she finally understood how far you’d go for your platonic soulmate.

korra-thirst

Xena Warrior Princess is a better show for not having to say in words that the two main characters are in love and that’s a hill I’ll die on

thedeepthought

“i never see you at the club” ok well i never see you on ao3 at 2am reading about the same two bitches falling in love for the 1000th time in the 500th way

rylandsgrace

FLORENCE PUGH as YELENA BELOVA in the MCU

Black widow (2021) dir. Cate Shortland Hawkeye (2021) Thunderbolts* (2025) dir. Jake Schreier

lucenorthstar

Karaoke Night with the Depressed Millennial Gang

therulerofallpotatos

Never forgetting that Yelena literally tied squirming dead weight to her back, slowing her down and making a very dangerous situation even more dangerous for her just because she decided this random guy she just picked up like a wet cat was not allowed to get himself hurt.

You want to talk about mental health disabled allegory? Bob was literally weighing a very practical, survival oriented person down in a life or death situation while actively annoying her and she refused to treat him like a burden or leave him behind.

m0unta1ndude

dr who’s on first, doctor strange is on second and doctor house is on third. theres no way theyre getting through a single inning

four-rabbits-in-a-trenchcoat

so who’s on first?

you-say-that-so-often

That’s right 👍🏻

four-rabbits-in-a-trenchcoat

that’s strange

you-say-that-so-often

No, he’s on second.

four-rabbits-in-a-trenchcoat

Well how’s he on second if he’s on first?

you-say-that-so-often

No no no, House is on third. Second base is Strange.

supreme-leader-stoat

Well this whole darn thing is strange but what I’m asking is who’s on first?

Naturally.

Who?

Naturally.

So Naturally is the first baseman?

tornadointhetundra

No. The first baseman is Who.

supreme-leader-stoat

Well I don’t know that so how’s about you tell me?

tornadointhetundra

House is on Third.

supreme-leader-stoat

I’m not asking you about third base I’m asking you about first base.

tornadointhetundra

Who’s on first!

supreme-leader-stoat

This is horrible

tornadointhetundra

Dr Horrible is the pitcher, not first base

supreme-leader-stoat

That’s not what I’m asking about! No!

wrenchinator-central

Dr No is in the outfield, but let’s not worry about them right now.

thenotoriousscuttlecliff

One subtle way that Xena got around the studio censors was to have Xena and Gabrielle always sleep side by side, with zero personal space, rather than on opposite sides of the campfire.

Even when they'd get to sleep in a bed, they'd always share it.

They might not have been able to come out and say it, but the show made it clear that these two slept like an old married couple, and on rare occasions, when studio heads weren't looking, they even got to cuddle.

tunemyart

I love this scene. I love it so much. If pressed I might say that this is my favorite scene in the whole of the show, simply because everything you need to know about them - everything you need to know about the overarching conflict of the show itself - is right here.

Like even if we start with the obvious - how Gabrielle’s love for Xena is written all over her face with that exhausted, tender look, and the compulsion to stroke her hair (the compulsion to stroke her hair), the way it was the sight of her and the feel of her right next to Gabrielle in bed that was the thing that brought her back to reality and calmness after waking up from her nightmare/vision.

That in itself is a fucking lot - but there’s so much more.

I love that Xena is asleep for all of this almost even more, because it’s in preparation to fight the Persians - a thing Gabrielle has been adamant she do at probably the expense of Gabrielle’s own life. And sure, Xena is going to change her mind about this two or three more times before Gabrielle finally convinces her for the last time that this is the (final, the good, the) right thing to do, but they’re in a lull now where Xena is briefly onboard with the plan. And, being an extremely practical woman, and knowing that this is the most outnumbered she’s ever been, she knows she needs to sleep to prepare for the day ahead. To prepare specifically to do the thing Gabrielle has begged her to do. Gabrielle was already sleeping; Xena couldn’t have done anything more as a caregiver right then; she knew she might as well take her chance for sleep too, and so she did.

This itself is an act of faith and devotion.

And this - this is what Gabrielle sees when she wakes up, terrified and disoriented. This is what calms her - not even just the sight of Xena, the reminder that she is alive after said nightmare/vision in which she’d watched Xena’s throat get slit, but the sight of how much Xena loves her, trusts her, respects her and her wishes, all embodied in the way Xena has intentionally allowed her body to settle next to Gabrielle’s and go unconscious.

Gabrielle’s exhausted, worried, and dying, but in this moment, here is a woman who loves her beyond anything she can express in words. Here’s a woman who crawled into bed after Gabrielle was asleep and got under the same covers like it was any other day. Here’s a woman who’s so tired and beautiful in the still, familiar intimacy of night that Gabrielle can’t do anything but touch her hair and breathe.

This is it. This is their relationship. This is the show.

lazylaziel

“11-13-98. From Beth Gaynor. At the Cherry Hill NJ Convention (08/98), Sharon Delaney, president of the Official XENA Fanclub, discussed Renee O'Connor.

O’Connor’s a very thoughtful, involved actress who muses out her characters’ thoughts and motivations for every scene. According to Delaney, she can tell you exactly why Gabrielle did anything in any moment.

For example, Delaney asked about why Gabrielle stroked Xena’s hair after having her nightmare/vision about Xena’s death. According to O'Connor, Gabrielle was thinking that this may be their last night on earth, and pondering how beautiful Xena was. “ x

sketchupnfries

Guess who watched Thunderbolts today, and is now full of emotions

mo-mode

girl4music

I have to second everything Melissa Blake says here about Rob Tapert. Every time I have heard that man speak he is always proving himself to be the true feminist he is well known for in being the main showrunner of Xena. He is just constantly “You know what bugs me? There’s never any women-led…” and will just complain about the severe lack of women in everything in the TV art/entertainment industry. Or in any medium of public entertainment whatsoever. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak in an interview where he didn't say something about the lack of female representation in everything.

He is always championing and cheering for women and their hard work all over the world and it never ever comes off performative or like he is trying to appeal to a specific demographic. He genuinely supports women’s rights. He has spoken out so many times about how much he wishes there had been more female creators in Xena but that he just couldn’t convince all that many to give it a try and said that apart from Renée O’Connor, Liz Friedman, Chris Manheim and Nora Kay Foster, no female was really a regular on the set as a writer/director/producer and as much as he loved his entire team, it always bothered him that his show was male-dominant as far as the creative field went instead of female-dominant because, as far as he was concerned, that was how it was meant to be. A women-led show in every sense of the phrase. But that they just weren't interested in doing action/fantasy and preferred rom-coms. Donald Duncan - director of cinemaphotography on Xena - attested to that in the commentary he did for the episode ‘King Con’. He spoke about how there were very few female directors that directed for Xena and that it was a shame because that was really what the show was made for. To give women the opportunity they often do not get in the industry.

I’m not saying it’s got everything to do with her love for him but it’s no wonder why Lucy Lawless married Rob Tapert. It’s also no wonder why the Xenaverse fandom (Xenites) - which are predominantly gay or queer women - respect Rob so much as an executive producer. I mean as Melissa Blake said… you hear horror stories about the way women are treated by male showrunners (coughWhedoncough) and it’s something that I really think gets overlooked about the on-set experience of Xena. That it was a family environment even though it was male-dominated. Women had more opportunity and authority on the set of Xena than probably any other set because that’s how Rob wanted it to be. He didn’t just cater to the Xenaverse fandom - he catered to every woman on his team and never ever made any excuses for why anything couldn't be done for them at any point. It just genuinely ended up being that not many female creators wanted to stick around on the Xena set because the scope of it often meant leaving their families behind for a long time. But Rob and all the other showrunners or the leads of all the different departments working on Xena always made sure to make their environments as comforting as possible on the off-chance a woman wanted to join their team and stick it out for the long haul like them. That's what 'Xena: Warrior Princess' was about. It wasn't just an "in-show" representation thing with having two lead female characters in a romantically-heavy type of character dynamic. It was for female creators to get a foot in the door in TV art/entertainment amongst a plethora of male creators that were constantly catered to just because their sex chromosomes were XY. Rob and all of the male creators on Xena did not want that but they ultimately had no choice because few female creators were willing to take the risk on doing something that's outside their field.

Something that - at the time - was only ever expected for men to do.

I think we - as a fandom - take for granted what Xena was in this way. It was a very unique and groundbreaking experience on-set as well and if there were any horror stories, it never had anything to do with poor treatment from an abusive and oppressive male showrunner because that showrunner was the first person to offer his support.

Sure, Xena was his baby but he would have happily shared his baby with women if they were inclined to accept the offer of opportunity. I think Liz Friedman was probably the closest we had to a female showrunner on Xena. Especially since Babs left so god damn early. I do often wonder what Xena would have been if Babs stayed but then catch myself on that because that would've meant no Steven L. Sears since he is who joined the Xena team in replacement of Babs leaving.

Xena took the representation of women incredibly seriously and it's not given its due for that in my opinion. Not on the creative side at least. Rob Tapert isn't credited even half as much as he should be on this either. People remember Whedon, Moffat, Roddenberry, Murphy... the list goes on. But when you mention Tapert... it's just cricket sounds. I don't know. Maybe he prefers it that way because - like I said - he was never performative about it or seeking glory.

spellcore

ah yes they call me “No Queue” Jones because I post everything I reblog at once with no breaks in between and then vanish into the night for extended periods of inactivity

cannibalchicken

sashaforthewin

Sorry, I tried to trim it but it declined. Also I might have told it you were the one that wanted it trimmed, sorry. Anyway, best of luck

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