Okay but I think it’s important to note just how telling this is from the Goddess of Love, a testament of her character. She knows pure love, not just romance and lust.
However Aphrodite feels, she doesn’t guilt trip, blame, or hurt Gabrielle for it. At the end of the day, Gab means so much to her that Aphrodite wants her to be happy even if it’s not with her.
No ‘Friend Zone,’ no incel shit, no passive aggressive manipulation. She doesn’t take it out on Xena either, which would have been so easy, to push her towards Ares and take Gabrielle for herself. In another life, if Gabrielle had never met Xena, Aphrodite probably would’ve been the one, and Aphrodite knows it. She’s seen every range of love and lifetime possible, she knows pure love when she sees it.
But also, think about it, there would have been lifetimes where Gabrielle and Xena found each other in peace, no divine knowledge or intervention. Assuming we’re talking ancient Greece as a starting block, around 700bc, to now, that’s around 2700 years, divided by let’s say 80 years a lifetime, that’s about 33 lifetimes.
Depending on the time period and location, they probably were raised a different religion and prayed to other gods. It’d be so easy to become spiteful or petty - “well since you’re praying to someone else I might as well get what I want” - but she would still be hearing Gabrielle and Xena’s tiny prayers when they meet their soulmate.
The discovery of their queer identities, the heartbreaks along the way, the desperation and hiding. Then the first meeting of soulmates, first prayers and hopes, first kiss, time, married, domestic life, children, Aphrodite would hear it all time and time again.
But still, however painful to watch the woman you love spend eternity falling for someone else, she couldn’t bear to rob it of them. However she loves Gabrielle, after thousands of years, she still supports her in pure love and friendship in every lifetime.
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