History YMMV / XenaWarriorPrincess

* MorePopularSpinoff: Ask about this show to a random person, and at the very least they'll recognize the title. Ask about ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' to the same person, and you'll probably get a blank stare and a "What?".

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: ''Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate'', a 3D FightingGame for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, is the very definition of "button masher". Characters' standard attacks are performed by rapidly pressing the C buttons repeatedly, and those were the only {{Combo}}s the game offered due to high ending lag on all attacks. Special moves and throws had such a high amount of startup lag, often for a full second (!), that the only way to not get punished for them is to camp. To make matters worse, there was a fairly large amount of HitboxDissonance to go with it. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And the game's villain is an]] OriginalCharacter, a BigRedDevil [[GenericDoomsdayVillain with the fittingly generic name of "Despair"]]. That said, the music and the graphics were well-done. Fun fact: the game's developer was Creator/TitusSoftware. Yes, [[VideoGame/{{Superman 64}} THAT Titus Software]].

** Eli. Fans either like him for his bond with Gabrielle and being kind, courageous, and willing to lay down his life for the sake of humanity to be free of JerkassGods, or fans find him unbearably preachy, hypocritical for forcing his beliefs on others, and consider him the keystone to the SeasonalRot the show faced. The fact his introduction led to the inclusion of Christian story lines in a show meant to explore ancient mythologies and religions is also a point of contention.

** "Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire" opens with Xena, Gabrielle and Joxer breaking into a rendition of Edwin Starr's ''War'' and spends the rest of the episode having two warring parties fight it out in a battle of the bands rather than with swords. This episode followed up right after several very serious episodes too.

** The episodes "The Debt Part 2" and "The Bitter Suite" hype up Xena's murder of Ming Tien as great terrible thing that Xena did, to the point Illusia won't let Xena leave until she begs Gabrielle for forgiveness. It hard to take this seriously when Ming Tien was not only a terrible king, but so evil that he very slowly tortured his own mother to death and then gloats about it to Xena. Not to mention Illusia punishes Xena for this but lets it slide that Gabrielle made a bargain with Ares behind Xena's back.

** In the early season one episode "Cradle of Hope", Gabrielle scorns the idea of someone sending a baby down a river. Then came the season three episode, "Gabrielle's Hope", in which Gabrielle sends her ([[FetusTerrible evil]]) newborn baby down a river rather than kill her -- an act that comes back to haunt Xena and Gabrielle in a big way.
** The many deaths of Joxer who died permanently in season 5.

** The homoerotic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle constantly walked the line between subtext and text. It's text in the modern-day reincarnation episodes, they get married and everything.

** Gabrielle was canonically lusted after by a Valkyrie in a later season, and it was implied that Najara was in love with Gabrielle as well.

*** That would be Minya and Paulina, with Minya's former boyfriend Howar nowhere to be seen and its heavily implied she left him for her.

** When Xena saved Cleopatra from an AssassinationAttempt, the ruler of Egypt said that Xena would be welcome to come to her kingdom at any time. The looks both gave each other seemed to have a lot more going than just friendship.

** Xena and Akemi, who she took in as a student and she grew to love, and was devastated by [[spoiler: her death]]. Akemi's admiration reads like a crush on Xena, and the two's relationship reads similar to Xena and Gabrielle's. Which may be the intention as the finale shows parallels and foils in both pairings via flashbacks and present sequences.
* LGBTFanbase: ''To unbelievable levels''. The show is such a hit with queer women given the implications between Xena and Gabrielle, as well as with other women such as Lao Ma, Brunhilda, M'Lila, Najara, and Akemi. There was a group called the Marching Xenas that had participated in Pride Months, Suburu utilized Xena's popularity among queer women when they marketed their cars towards them, as they had ads that said XENA LVR (Xena Lover), and Xena even pioneered some of the earlier fem-slash fan fiction online, which was known then as "altfic".
* MisBlamed: Fans complained loudly and often about Season 5, usually blaming new show-runners Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for everything. While being show-runners made them responsible for many creative decisions, they nonetheless still had to answer to Rob Tapert, and the series was also hurt a number of experienced, local personnel leaving to work on the big-budget ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'''s trilogy.

* {{Narm}}: Livia/Eve's bad acting causes this. When she's angry she sounds less like Rome's champion and more like a Valley girl.

* RetroactiveRecognition: This show provided a stepping stone for many now-familiar faces in the science-fiction circuits, such as pre-''Series/{{Roswell}}'' Shiri Appleby, pre-''Series/{{Firefly}}'' Creator/GinaTorres, pre-''Series/{{Farscape}}'' Creator/ClaudiaBlack, pre-''Series/{{iZombie}}'' Rose [=McIver=], and pre-''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' Creator/SelmaBlair. There was also an early appearance from Kathryn Morris of ''Series/ColdCase'' fame, Creator/AntonyStarr before he got known from ''Series/OutrageousFortune'' and ''Series/TheBoys2019'', and Creator/ManuBennett almost a decade before his roles in ''Series/{{Spartacus}}'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. (Other ''Spartacus'' actors who earlier appeared on ''Xena'' include Craig Parker, Kevin J. Wilson, Antonio Te Maioha, Stephen Lovatt, Craig Walsh-Wrightson, Jeffrey Thomas, Joel Tobeck, and Peter Feeney.) And of course, Creator/KarlUrban, who played no less than ''four'' different characters across the first five seasons.
* SeasonalRot: Despite being more popular than its parent series, which for reference got better as it went along, ''Xena'' seems to have peaked in season 3. Four is considered a let down compared to the previous season and season 5, to put it bluntly, was not liked, due to a lack of action[[note]]Creator/LucyLawless was pregnant at the time season 5 was filmed (which was worked into the show), which greatly limited the actions she could perform[[/note]] and the infamous "Twilight of The Gods" arc, which is considered by some to be one of the worst storylines in TV history. Season 6 is seen as a modest improvement, although fans are split on how the series ends.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: Some of the CGI and blue-screen effects used in the earlier episodes (such as in "The Titans", "Prometheus" and "Mortal Beloved") have ''not'' aged well.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: The gods in the "Twilight of the Gods" arc. They are trying to take 1 life in order to save ''their families'' and the beings they love at the very least (putting aside their responsibility to humanity and their godhood). Considering that we already established that if Eve had died as a baby, she would have gone straight to Heaven or the Elysian Fields, to eventually be reincarnated - something that the Gods know and are very familiar with - from the Gods' perspective you can see exactly why killing her seemed reasonable. Additionally, a good deal of this arc can be boiled down to: "an unseen god seeks to remake the world even if it means killing off established gods, and a newborn daughter will be instrumental to achieving this." Does that sound familiar? Because, while not being exactly the same, it still sounds suspiciously like Season 3's Hope storyline. While there was far more concrete evidence about Dahak and Hope's natures upfront, but from the outsiders' perspective, it's not hard to see why the Olympians and others were suspicious and thought the worst.

* TheWoobie: Joxer. Usually his ButtMonkey ways are played for laughs, but episodes like "For Him The Bell Tolls" and "A Comedy Of Eros" play his misfortunes in a far more sympathetic light.

** The second boss, the Cyclops, is arguably easier than the first, the Pirate King. For most of the battle Xena is actually taking cover in a copse out of the cyclops' reach, and have plenty of opportunities to maim the cyclops by throwing the chakram into it's eye before hacking its fingers causing it to fall off the cliff.
** Right after Dyzan the Dragon, who can breath fire on Xena from a distance away and takes multiple stalactites to even defeat, the following boss is the Golem... whose sole attack is trying to whack Xena using it's club. It's also slower on foot compared to Dyzan, and can be defeated instantly by being [[RingOutBoss pushed into the lava]].
* BreatherLevel: Upon escaping Hell, the next level is the village of Tir'na, which is pleasantly devoid of platformer elements or instant death scenarios. The enemies are just standard-issue mooks and searching for the exit is just a matter of travelling along a straightforward path.

** ''Literal'' bats are a reoccurring enemy in the hell stages; while they are manageable at first, they started attacking en-masse when reaching the deeper parts of hell, which is problematic when Xena needs to cross the narrow rotating bridge to reach Hades’ sanctum. Worse of all is that because of how small they are, any bats killed in battle doesn’t count towards Xena’s kill-tally at the end of the level.

* ThatOneBoss: The Druid Sorcerer, who not only have a massive life bar, but can also absorb plenty of Xena’s hits and can cast all kinds of spells that can [[OneHitKill kill Xena instantly regardless of her health]]. And if his health is taken down to a tiny fraction, he then retreats into a crypt; and while finding a way into the crypt is difficult enough already, he then sics [[ShockAndAwe massive bolts of lightning]] on Xena that can destroy her instantly.

* EvilIsSexy:
** Callisto and Ares. Well, ''everyone'' is sexy in this series - all right, maybe not Salmoneus... but the villains tend to be sexier than the average peasant.
** There is also Athena.
** Xena during her warlord days.
** Najara played by the lovely Creator/KathrynMorris.

** The episodes "The Debt Part 2" and "The Bitter Suite" hype up Xena's murder of Ming Tien as great terrible thing that Xena did, to the point Illusia won't let Xena until she begs Gabrielle for forgiveness. It hard to take this seriously when Ming Tien was not only a terrible king, but so evil that he very slowly tortured his own mother to death and then gloats about it to Xena. Not to mention Illusia punishes Xena for this but lets it slide that Gabrielle made a bargain with Ares behind Xena's back.

* DesignatedEvil: In the episode "Death Mask", Xena fights back against her brother Toris' wishes to kill Cortese (the warlord who killed their little brother Lyceus). While it's sweet that she doesn't want her brother to turn into a killer, the episode makes every attempt to paint Cortese as a despicable monster who sends out raiders to attack the people that he himself rules over as king to justify taxing the people and also regally goes out in disguise with the raiders to kill people himself ForTheEvulz, making Toris' wish to kill him very justified. When Toris rightfully points out that Xena kills this kind of person all the time, Xena can only weakly justify it by explain that she doesn't approve of premediated murder of anyone, even a man like Cortese. It's telling the episode waits till Xena has exposed, disarmed, and tied up Cortese to give Toris an opportunity to kill him to justify Toris being in the wrong and relenting.

* DesignatedEvil: In the episode "Death Mask", Xena fights back against her brother Toris' wishes to kill Cortese (the warlord who killed their little brother Lyceus). While it's sweet that she doesn't want her brother to turn into a killer, the episode makes every attempt to paint Cortese as a despicable monster who sends out raids to attack the people that he himself rules over as king to justify taxing the people and also regally goes out in disguise with the raider to kill people himself ForTheEvulz, making Toris' wish to kill him very justified. When Toris rightfully points out that Xena kills this kind of person all the time, Xena can only weakly justify it by explain that she doesn't approve of premediated murder of anyone, even a man like Cortese. It's telling the episode waits till Xena has exposed, disarmed, and tied up Cortese to give Toris an opportunity to kill him to justify Toris being in the wrong and relenting.

* DesignatedEvil: In the episode "Death Mask", Xena fights back against her brother Toris' wishes to kill Cortese (the warlord who killed their little brother Lyceus). While it's sweet that she doesn't want her brother to turn into a killer, the episode makes every attempt to paint Cortese as a despicable monster who sends out raids to attack the people that he himself rules over as king to justify taxing the people and also regally goes out in disguise with the raider to kill people himself ForTheEvulz, making Toris' wish to kill him very justified. When Toris rightfully points out that Xena kills this kind of person all the time, Xena can only weakly justify it by explain that she doesn't approve of premediated murder of anyone, even a man like Cortese. It's telling the episode waits till Xena has exposed, disarmed, and tied up Cortese to give Toris an opportunity to kill him to justify Lyceus being in the wrong and relenting.

* DesignatedEvil: In the episode "Death Mask", Xena fights back against her brother Toris' wishes to kill Cortese (the warlord who killed their little brother Lyceus). While it's sweet that she doesn't want her brother to turn into a killer, the episode makes every attempt to paint Cortese as a despicable monster who sends out raids to attack the people that he himself rules over as king to justify taxing the people and also regally goes out in disguise with the raider to kill people himself ForTheEvilz, making Toris' wish to kill him very justified. When Toris rightfully points out that Xena kills this kind of person all the time, Xena can only weakly justify it by explain that she doesn't approve of premediated murder of anyone, even a man like Cortese. It's telling the episode waits till Xena has exposed, disarmed, and tied up Cortese to give Toris an opportunity to kill him to justify Lyceus being in the wrong and relenting.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The opening scene of "Forgiven" actually went through one ''during'' filming. Originally the scene had Tara giving a CurbStompBattle to Gabrielle in a straight fight, which the crew thankfully realized the fans would never accept, so the scene was rewritten with Gabrielle making extremely clear she does not want to do any fighting at this particular time, followed by Tara pulling dirty moves to get the better of her.

* RetroactiveRecognition: This show provided a stepping stone for many now-familiar faces in the science-fiction circuits, such as pre-''Series/{{Roswell}}'' Shiri Appleby, pre-''Series/{{Firefly}}'' Creator/GinaTorres, pre-''Series/{{Farscape}}'' Creator/ClaudiaBlack, pre-''Series/{{iZombie}}'' Rose [=McIver=], and pre-''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' Creator/SelmaBlair. There was also an early appearance from Kathryn Morris of ''Series/ColdCase'' fame, and Creator/ManuBennett almost a decade before his roles in ''Series/{{Spartacus}}'' and ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. (Other ''Spartacus'' actors who earlier appeared on ''Xena'' include Craig Parker, Kevin J. Wilson, Antonio Te Maioha, Stephen Lovatt, Craig Walsh-Wrightson, Jeffrey Thomas, and Peter Feeney.) And of course, Creator/KarlUrban, who played no less than ''four'' different characters across the first five seasons.

** Xena and Callisto. Although, that was more FoeYay.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Either Joxer is a funny comic relief character or an obnoxious [[TheScrappy scrappy]] who shouldn't be in the same shadow as Xena and Gabrielle.

* FoeYay: Xena and Callisto, Xena and Ares, Gabrielle and Ares.
** Alti and Xena. Considering Alti despised Borias and cursed an unborn Solan to never know Xena's love so she wouldn't leave her, Alti came across as a [[{{Yandere}} psychotically obsessed]] with Xena. And then when Alti tries to be rebirth herself by taking the soul of Xena's unborn child, she makes quips like "I always wanted to be inside you" and "I like you too much to do that" when Xena threatened to kill herself.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment

* HarsherInHindsight: