The insane things Xena can do with her chakram:
Spin it on her finger like it’s a football.
Cut down a tree with it like it’s a buzzsaw.
Split it into two pieces and throw it like it’s kunai.
Deflect projectiles like it’s a ping pong paddle.
Change direction mid-air without altering angle.
Sometimes you wonder if she was controlling it or the thing had a mind of its own like Earp’s ‘Peacemaker’. Was it magical/supernatural or was Xena just really skilled with it? Because it doesn’t do insane shit like this for other wielders. At least we never saw that it could. Only Xena seemed to unlock its full potential.
But one would wonder whether it was really Xena at all and the chakram itself didn’t have its own awareness.
Especially the Yin-yang chakram. I swear that thing was forged by the gods because it had INSANE capabilities.
It was as if creators intended it to be its own character.
Again, it’s very much like Wynonna Earp’s ‘Peacemaker’ that possesses the ability to be conscious of its wielder and it won’t shoot for you if your intentions aren’t true.
The Chakram was very much like that. Only you do see other people wield it. And not well-intentioned people.
But only Xena herself seemed to be able to master it like it was always designed for and tailored to her use.
Going on a slightly different tangent that ties into the the magical/supernatural capabilities of the chakram.
My theory is that Gabrielle could have done the same with the Light chakram because that was the other half that was meant to join together with the Dark chakram and it’s the Yin-yang chakram that represents both of them as not only one soul but also as one intertwined physical entity. And that means there is more logic as to why Gabrielle was able to wield it at the very end of ‘A Friend In Need’. It’s that she was always the true owner and master of the Light chakram and therefore - as per the conclusion to my character study thesis - was (at that point) a complete physical warrior as well as the true hero of the TV show all along and the only reason she was in Xena’s shadow was because she put herself there as the author of ‘The Xena Scrolls’ just because she was so in love with her and never felt she matched up to her as a warrior and hero. As the Warrior Princess.
Yet she was always the one that was meant to carry on her legacy as many episodes in the show proved to us.
It makes so much sense to view the romantic fantasy of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ through the eyes of Gabrielle to the point where the CHAKRAM is symbolic of their soul because their soul is cosmically two half’s of a whole as the fundamental human representation of Yin-yang ☯️.
So - if anything - it wasn’t that the chakram itself was ever magical/supernatural. It was that the Yin-yang chakram merged into a whole in the same way Xena and Gabrielle merged into each other to become one.
The chakram was becoming more and more of what it was always meant to be as Xena and Gabrielle were in role-reversing and exploring more of their intertwined karma to eventually end up being a fully realized self.
And I think that’s a perfectly concise and logical way of understanding the chakram. All iterations of what it is.
It’s so powerful and insanely capable because it’s them as their true fully realized self. As their complete form.
Because that’s how I choose to interpret the end of the show. It feels empty if I don’t see it this way. It feels as if it doesn’t have the closure it needs to actually END IT.
The final shot sells it. Did Xena disappear? Or did she merge with Gabrielle through the Yin-yang chakram?
