I’ve just watched ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’ again.
Haven’t seen it for a while but something struck me on the rewatch. I know I never picked up on this before because I don’t really pay attention to Gabrielle with other love interests. Not even the more significant ones - which I guess you could say Perdicus is since she does end up marrying him - however fleeting their wedding and marriage was. But Gabrielle told Perdicus that he didn’t belong in a war zone. That he wasn’t a soldier and that he should go home before he gets hurt. Now,… I couldn’t care less about the romance between them but I think it was very interesting that she told him this when this has been the lifestyle she chose for herself.
Why - in her mind - is Perdicus not allowed to do the same? Is it possible that the reason she thinks this way is because he is on his own doing it and that she isn’t? Does she think he is more at risk of getting hurt or even killed than she is just because he doesn’t travel around with a notorious and formidable warrior and she does?
Second question following on with this line of thought:
Is that why she agreed to marry him? To protect him. Did she somehow think that if he had a companion by his side - one that is very aware of the amount of risks and consequences - he’d be safer? If so, that has got to add on to her guilt when he finally does get killed. That she couldn’t protect him. After all,… that is her Way.
But then again I’m not so sure because what we saw of them as married partners wasn’t the dynamic Xena and Gabrielle have. In fact - they both seemed to have just given up on warriorship entirely and just decided to do the stereotypical m/w settle down and have kids thing. The exact thing neither of them wanted to begin with.
Wasn’t this already a glaring hint that that wasn’t right? Not just that they shouldn’t be together but also that they shouldn’t be living the stereotypical m/w lifestyle. If anything - you’d think they’d be warriors together if any of this romance between them was ever meant to be. That’s so interesting though. A lot to peruse my thoughts on. A lot to analyze in show and out of it.
What were the writers even getting at with having this happen? it seems to me that they doomed the romantic arc in ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’ by having Gabrielle say what she does to Perdicus without looking in the mirror because what makes her choice any different?
The only thing that makes any difference is… Xena. 🫤
She has Xena. He doesn’t.
And when she marries him she tells him straight up on her honeymoon night that she was more worried about Xena because she doesn’t have anyone… unlike her…
So that’s got to be the only reason she married Perdicus. Not just so HE would have someone…
But so she could convince herself that she does too and that it doesn’t have to be a dark beautiful warrior woman who she still cannot stop thinking about even on her god damn wedding night... to a man,… no less.
And it’s not just Perdicus that this happens with.
He is just the best example. It happens every time.
Gabrielle - honey… straight girls don’t do this. Trust me.
Straight girls don’t start a romance with the opposite gender - straight girls don’t GET MARRIED to the opposite gender - only to ever think and talk about their same-sex best friend ON THEIR WEDDING NIGHT!
I had a point with this post. I seemed to have lost it. 🤡
Oh yeah, warriorship. She chose the lifestyle of a warrior. Apparently “fell in love” while in a war zone and got married to a soldier who she believed shouldn’t be one and should go home. Not for one second in all that time lecturing Perdicus did she think “Oh, ha. I also did that. So why am I saying he can’t?” Hypocrite much?
I’ll say it again for good measure: she was thinking about Xena ‘cause she’s always thinking about Xena.
She skipped on the self-awareness in that moment because she knew it can’t apply to her. She has Xena.
And there you go. There’s the answer to all of this arc.
She already has Xena.
So why does she marry Perdicus?
For Perdicus… because he doesn’t have a Xena. So that’s what she tries to be for him then. His Xena. Simultaneously, she tries to “fix him” like a Gabrielle.
So she marries Perdicus and now all she can think or talk about on her wedding night of all inconvenient times… is that Xena no longer has a Gabrielle. 🤷♀️🤦♀️
This chaotic lesbian. This absolutely crazy baby gay. This girl literally tried to hetero herself so many times she just ended up turning herself even more queer because she just kept presenting herself with more opportunities to think and talk even more about Xena.
Of course it’s sad what happens and I’m sure she never really got over the guilt that he practically died for her. But she should have just stuck with what she told Lila in the first episode because she never really did love him.
Perdicus would have likely gotten himself killed anyway.
It wasn’t on her what his lifestyle choices were in the same way that it was never on him what her lifestyle choices were and I cannot believe she didn’t realize this when she said what she did to him in ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’. The only thing I can believe is that her head was somewhere else - on someone else - at the time she said it because she’s not an absolute airhead.
What she is is completely oblivious of her queerness even though she’s chosen the queer narrative herself.
Rewatching these early episodes after not having seen any of them for a long time is a complete experience. I feel like I keep getting bashed over the head with new insight that all the more confirms that X&G is the ship.
