Xena for January, 2008

Season 2, Episode 16- For Him the Bell Tolls-

This episode is notable for a number of reasons. First, Ted Raimi (as Joxer) further demonstrates his great comedic acting skills. At this point in the series, he is ever bit as funny as Bruce Campell (Autocolus) and Lucy Lawless (Xena). Second, the predicament Joxer finds himself in has a very strong psychologial and philosophical resonance.

Aphrodite is scheming in the affairs of mortals by trying to break up a marriage that will unite two kingdoms. Aphrodite's son Cupid has shot arrows at both prince and princess and he is very unhappy that his Mom is undoing his work. She must though, as the unified kingdom will lead to some of her temples being destroyed (the reason for this is not explained very well). To show Cupid how powerful she is, she will let him chose her mortal champion, and of course he choses the hapless Joxer.

Aphrodite bespells Joxer so that every time he hears a bell ring he changes back and forth between himself and a heroic, poetry spouting, rake that has the ability to win any sword fight and charm any woman.  And as the rake he of course charms the princess and potentially ruins the wedding, leading to war between the two kingdoms.  Again, Raimi is brilliant here; his rake is actually convincing, and the switching back and forth is exploited with brilliant comic effect. Another great thing about this episode is that Xena is off saving another village for most of it, so Gabrielle gets to not just be the sidekick. This is exploited for humor as Joxer throughout insists that since Xena is gone, Gabrielle gets to be his sidekick now (see the song below).

The philosophically resonant aspect of the episode occurs whenever Joxer is his old self and wonders if he should take credit for the things that the bespelled Joxer does. Before he knows that it is the result of a spell he tries to say that he is in a fog of battle while defeating the enemy, but once he realizes that it's a spell he's pretty crushed. After the spell is lifted for good, his spirits are crushed and he confesses to Xena that he realizes he's been a fraud all along. Of course Xena reassures him that he has always had the true heart of a warrior, and he regains his old panache, making up a very funny song (see below) on the spot about his warrior heart.

Joxer's dilemma in this episode is faced by anybody lucky enough to achieve something of which they are proud. Is the you that worked your butt off on something the same you that sits on the couch being lazy and eating too much barbecue? With creative work, the feeling that all you are doing is opening yourself to the Muse makes this even more pressing. I think this is really difficult for people like David Bowie whose peak was so world shatteringly good. No artist could have kept up the level of excellence of The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Aladin Sane. Ever since then he's had to live with the questions, "Who was that who wrote and performed those albums? and Who am I now?" And the rest of us have to do the same things with regards to our own minor achievements.

Is Xena's answer that we have warrior's hearts enough? I'm not so sure.

Oh yeah, below are the lyrics to the version of the version of Joxer the Mighty from this episode. You can hear the song here.

Joxer the Mighty
Roams through the countryside
He never needs a place to hide
With Gabby as his sidekick
Fighting with her little stick
Righting wrongs and singing songs
Being mighty all day long
He's Joxer—he's Joxer the Mighty!
Oohhhhhh—
He's Joxer the Mighty
He's really tidy
Everybody likes him
'Cause he has a funny grin
Joxer—
Joxer the Mighty!

Joxer the Mighty
He's very tidy
Everyone admires him
He's so handsome it's a sin
When you're in jeopardy
Don't call the cavalry
There's a better remedy
(Although he doesn't work for free)
He's every man's trusty,
He's every woman's fantasy,
Plus he's goo-oood company
He's Joxer—
I'm Joxer the Mighty!

Blood—valour—and victory! Ha-HA!
Joxer the Mighty
He's very tidy
Everyone admires him
He's so handsome it's a sin
When things get grim
He'll take it on the chin
If you're in jeopardy
Caused by the enemy
Don't call the cavalry
There's a better remedy
(Although he doesn't work for free!)
He's every man's trusty,
He's every woman's fantasy,
Plus he's goo-oood company
Look out! He's Joxer--
Joxer the Mighty!
Joxer the Mighty!!!

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Season 2, Episode 10- The Xena Scrolls

I don't want to anger the Muse by criticizing what is perhaps her greatest inspiration, Xena Warrior Princess, but a couple of thoughts have occurred to me while re-watching the entire run on the excellent DVD set you can buy on amazon now.

Season 2, Episode 10 ("The Xena Scrolls") is a really fun send-up of Raider's of the Lost Ark, with Renee O' Connor (normally Gabrielle) playing the Indiana Jones character, Lucy Lawless (normally Xena) playing a mix of the two female protagonists from the first two Raider's films, and Ted Raimi (normally Joxer) playing a fantastic Inspector Clouseau type character who is later revealed to be a salesman from New Jersey.

While defeating nazis and uncovering "The Xena Scrolls" (which were written by Gabrielle centuries earlier) Ares, God of War, is accidentally summoned. He wants to get out of the cave and help Hitler impose a new order on the world. Now, sadly, what this means is that in two millenia Ares just didn't learn anything. He recycles the same old talking points that he used to make in an attempt to get Xena to be his general on earth. Given the story arc involving Ares thus far, this is disappointing; in Season 2, Episode 8 ("Ten Little Warlords") Xena saved Ares' life because if she didn't one of nine very bad mortals would have ascended into immortality and been even worse than Ares. During much of the episode, Ares is rendered mortal, and he learns what it is like to be human, including getting hung over and getting the tar beat out of him. It is very effectively done, and at the end we get the feeling that he has learned something and from this point on will be at least a little bit more sensitive to human concerns.

Now I'm not saying they should have made Ares into a nice guy god (as Hercules is a nice guy demigod in the series).  What they should have done is made him a warlike zealot motivated by genuinely moral concerns for people he now cares about. Everything he does would still lead to war, but the air of tragedy from "Ten Little Warlords" would have been preserved and the level of narrative and psychological subtlety we get with Xena and Gabrielle would have continued with Ares. This would not have been difficult, when we see him in the late 1930's in the Xena Scrolls episode he would cast his lot in with Stalin, not Hitler, and make plausible sounding arguments for why Xena has to let him out to help Stalin take over the world. Then when Xena (who incarnates into the character played by Lawless) has to imprison him again to prevent this it would have been more tragic.

Another interesting facet of Ten Little Indians not exploited well enough is the way in which the lack of a sitting god of war makes people more angry and likely to fight over the littlest thing. Gabrielle becomes pushy and violent, but Xena does not. This is explained by the fact that Xena has already mastered the rage latent inside of her. Now here is a very interesting fact, comic sometimes sidekick Joxer does not become more violent either! From this it follows that he has experienced great rage and learned to master it. All of his goofiness is then to some extent a mask so as to not give in to the dark side. But this conclusion is never explicitly discussed by Xena and Gabrielle in the episode, and things go on much the same with Joxer.

Don't misunderstand me, both episodes are aesthetic triumphs, as are all episodes of Xena. It's quite simply the best show ever. So I am not presuming to tell Sam Raimi (also director of Army of Darkness, and the Spider Man franchise) et. al. how to do their jobs. But part of the fun of great art is thinking about how in retrospect things could have been better. This does not however mean that any mortal man or woman could have done better at the time of creation. If Xena teaches us anything, it is that such hubris must be avoided.