There is something about Gabrielle’s stories that she narrates before she starts writing ‘The Xena Scrolls’.
In a way, they provide foreshadowing to the trajectory of the progression of her and Xena’s relationship. The really obvious one is the one Xena tells her in ‘Athens City Academy Of The Performing Bards’ that she only remembers because it relates to her and Gabrielle joins in with her at the end of the story because she knows it.
The story about finding family and realizing the person who has been with you all along in that endeavour is it.
But the Tree In The Forest story from ‘Chariots Of War’ and the Soulmates story from ‘Prometheus’ are also pretty poignant. Gabrielle always seems to be telling stories about romance and connection early on ‘cause she has this wide-eyed lovelorn side to her personality that makes her constantly search for someone to have a romantic connection with, believing that not finding someone would make her a “lonely, pathetic woman like… never mind”. That might be her comphet talking but when you listen to the stories, you can’t help but notice how much they sound like Xena and Gabrielle.
The dynamic they develop going forward in the show is one of what those stories that Gabrielle tells talk about. Being intertwined in each other. Sharing the same soul. To her that is what is romantic so those are the kind of stories she tells, not realizing she’s predicting the path of her and Xena’s relationship when they discover that they are one soul in two bodies and have always been.
It’s just so exciting to me to watch the early episodes back over after seeing the entire show and realize just how much them being a romance makes total sense. I wonder if the creators themselves realize they did this. Unintentionally manifested not just a queer narrative but foreshadowed an entire epic love story between Xena and Gabrielle the way those epic love stories go that speak of romance and undying love and devotion that Gabrielle herself as a bard seems so fascinated by.
Because it truly does seem like you’re listening to what will become Xena and Gabrielle’s dynamic in the future.
Talk about SLOW BURN set ups. Yet they had no idea.
Well,… maybe Steven L. Sears did. Remembering what happened the last time he wrote for a TV show that had lead same-sex characters in. He knew how quickly the fans would latch on to Xena and Gabrielle’s close and deep relationship and interpret it romantically and he wanted to do everything he could to support that and it was him that chose to take the soulmate idea seriously. It was him that made something substantial out of that reading and perhaps that’s why those stories we hear early in the show sound so very similar to their dynamic.
But you can go back and listen to them and you’ll hear it too. You’ll understand exactly what I mean by them being foreshadowing. I frequently claim that Xena and Gabrielle’s love story is the greatest love story ever told and I am not just being hyperbolic with that statement. I truly believe that their love story is on par with the love stories we read about in literature - many of them from Greek philosophers and bards - because it does seem to go beyond the type of love stories we see in TV art/entertainment that are very romantic but not very epic.
It’s short surface level stuff that doesn’t really depict death-defying heroism and undying love and devotion. It’s not very deep or intense. It’s not an epic love story.
True epic love stories are found in Classical literature and a majority come from Ancient Greece and Rome.
So these stories that Gabrielle tells as an aspiring bard are the stories that most resonate with her relationship with Xena because - for better or worse - they are epic.
They’re deeper than what you normally get on your TV because ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ is a period piece. Its settings and environments belong to Greek mythology and it’s in Greek mythology where love truly is timeless so much so that it endures long enough for writers such as Shakespeare to feel inspired by enough to turn into a play - a theatre production - that explores epic stories.
That’s why Xena and Gabrielle feel much more like Shakespearean romance than they do TV romance.
I suppose that’s why I hold them so high on a pedestal when it comes to romantic ships. Because they feel like the kind of romance that belongs to literature which is far more in-depth than television will ever be able to do in the way that the Xena creators were able to do them.
So I like to think that those early stories in the show (Tree In The Forest and Soulmates) are a nod to that.
Are a way of showing and proving that the relationship Xena and Gabrielle have in the show goes beyond your definition and comprehension of what love or romance is or looks like in your average every day TV experience and that they more accurately reflect literature written by the greatest writers and philosophers that ever lived.
Side note: This is my first piece of Xena meta of 2026. It is actually something I’ve been wanting to write about for years so please do show it as much love as you can.
