Characters / Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena and her friends

Xena (Lucy Lawless)

The warrior princess.

"It's easy to talk like that when you're in Heaven. Where I come from, you fight for what you believe in."

Former warlord turned wandering hero.

• '90s Anti-Hero: It's all there; Stripperiffic costume, a dark, violent past, a name that is spelt with an "X", a distinct lack of compunction about killing her enemies, frequent brooding, sarcasm and extreme badassery.
• The Ace: Xena has many skills that she acquired during her extensive travels to many parts of the ancient world over a period of many years. In particular, she has shown remarkable skill and prowess in hand-to-hand combat, displaying numerous acrobatic tricks and the ability to disable and/or otherwise kill multiple opponents at one time. Along with her sword and chakram, she has also shown great proficiency with other weapons such as batons, daggers, and whips. She is also a formidable tactician, inspirational leader, and strategic thinker. The only things she can't do are cook or play a musical instrument.
• Action Heroine: Xena goes beyond mere Action Girl status and ascends to this. She's the woman who set the standard for all TV heroines, even Buffy.
• Annoying Arrows: Xena takes almost as many arrows as Callisto did in the featured picture, pulling only some out, in the finale. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't a god at the time.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The reason why Xena was leader of her army of old, and often how she manages to help redeem fellow lost souls now.
• The Atoner: Xena spends the entire series atoning for her misdeeds, and dies to achieve redemption.
• Badass Normal: Xena can outfight anyone she comes up against, even when she's sick (or crazy), and the fact that she can outsmart gods makes her a bigger Guile Heroine than Gabrielle.
• Baritone of Strength: Xena's voice is deeper than Gabrielle's, and between the two, Xena is a seasoned fighter, while Gabrielle is a bard.
• Batman Gambit: Xena is fond of using these against her enemies, and even toward her friends upon occasion.
  After Xena successfully tricks everyone into believing Ares is her father, with a little unwitting help from Gabrielle and Cyrene...
  Gabrielle: Xena, you knew what your mom would say about the night of your conception. And you knew exactly what I would say. Well, I don't know if I like being that predictable.
  Xena: I knew you were gonna say that.
• Battle Cry: Xena often utilized a signature war cry, "Alalaes." Her cry was an alternate writing for "Alale" (or "Alala"), who in Greek mythology was the female personification of the war cry. Greek warriors used it to scare the enemy before battle, pronounced/howled like "alalay!"(ἀλαλή) throughout their history. Until the 19th century Klephts (robbers) when fighting Ottomans. Lawless herself stated that she based it on a traditional ululation of Middle Eastern women.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Ares. He thinks he can use their mutual attraction to turn her back to evil. She never denies that the attraction exists, but she never succumbs to it either.
• Blood Knight: Although she has always enjoyed battle and thrives in the midst of it, after Caesar screwed her over, she became this in a very bad—and indiscriminate—way. Even after her Heel–Face Turn in Hercules, she still contains elements of this.
• Booze Flamethrower: One of Xena's favorite moves.
• Breakout Character: Xena's appearance on Legend of Hercules proved so popular that she landed her own show.
• Character Title
• Choice of Two Weapons: Her sword and her chakram.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A former warlord, who has long dark hair and a dark leather outfit, but is a hero trying to atone for her past. Without her dark past, she wouldn't be the hero she became, and that, in the end, was all worth it.
• Dating Catwoman: With Ares.
• Determinator: So much. The woman has a will of steel.
• Divine Parentage:
  • While it is never outright stated during the show, it is heavily implied that Ares took the form of Xena's father and then impregnated her mother, leading to her birth, which would make her a demigod and thus explain how she's capable of fighting at a level comparable to Hercules and standing toe-to-toe with other divine beings even before being expressly granted divine powers.
    • It's likely that it was never outright stated due to Ares' ongoing lust and sexual involvement with Xena. While the true mythical Greek pantheon was hardly a stranger to incestuous relations, that sort of thing is heavily frowned upon on in network television, and a show where Xena is constantly pursued, hit on, and lusted after by her own father would quickly get the studio into a lot of hot water.
    • It's equally as likely that it was never true, since the information was only "revealed" as part of a ploy to convince the Furies to stop driving Xena mad due to her mother having murdered Xena's father.
• Dude Magnet: Unsurprisingly, Xena isn't sparse in the male admirer's department. Or female for that matter. Just ask Gabrielle.
• Fatal Flaw: Her willingness to sacrifice herself to save others.
• Guile Heroine: Is notorious for her cunning.
• The Heroine: Obviously; see the title.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the finale. Xena's quest for redemption ends when she sacrifices herself to kill the Japanese demon Yodoshi, which is holding the souls of the dead. Xena fights a Japanese army by herself, and they kill her. Xena, now a spirit, fights and kills Yodoshi. Xena decides to stay dead so the souls of the 40,000 she (accidentally) killed years ago can be released into a state of peace.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: This is Lucy Lawless of course...
• Invincible Hero: Xena, while supposedly a regular mortal (questions about her true father aside), is nearly unbeatable. She has defeated entire armies on her own along with war gods, archangels, and demons in direct battle despite their vastly superior strength. Any time she meets an enemy she cannot directly defeat she either acquires new powers, skills, or weapons that allow her to triumph or her enemies conveniently forget about the powers that would let them easily defeat a mortal.
• Kiai: Xena never leaps into battle without letting out a piercing cry of "LILILILILILIIIIIII!".
• Lady Legionnaire Wear: Tends to have these in her outfits.
• Lady of War: Warrior Princess.
• Love Redeems: Her falling for Hercules led to her starting a new life.
• Mama Bear: Very protective of her son Solan. Not to mention she fought and killed GODS to protect Eve.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's an athletic and stunning woman who never wear sleeves and her clothes often have her legs revealed.
• Our Hero Is Dead: A few times...
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Her chakram.
• Rousseau Was Right: Though once a brutal warlord, she only raised an army in the first place to protect her home village from raiders. The death of her younger brother and then Caesar's betrayal helped push her over the edge.
• Shamu Fu: Many times. Including that one time she defeated a whole army with it...
• She Who Fights Monsters: How Xena first became a warlord.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her on-and-off romance with Hercules. You would think it's because All Amazons Want Hercules, but it's because he helped her see the error of her ways of got her to start her path to redemption.
• Statuesque Stunner: Xena, of course, is a tall bit of sexy.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: She's like the female version of Batman!
• The Strategist: She is an honestly brilliant military commander and strategist. There is a very good reason why she got the title "Destroyer of Nations" and why in just ten years she became one of the most formidable warlords of all time.
• Tragic Hero: She dies because she couldn't overcome her Fatal Flaw.

Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor)

"You've got to take me with you! Teach me everything you know".

"The world belongs to men, only because we let them."

Xena's best friend, sidekick and chronicler.

• Action Girl: In later seasons.
• Adrenaline Makeover: Gabrielle goes from a mousy wannabe bard to a sai-wielding Action Girl over the course of the series, inciting a very◊ dramatic◊ change in retrospect.
• Badass Bookworm: Gabrielle is a bard by profession and is always writing stories. As the series progresses, she goes from innocent non-combatant to a highly skilled fighter in her own right.
• Boyish Short Hair: Seasons 4, 5 and 6. She is a perfect example, with her impromptu haircut being a symbolic conclusion to her Coming of Age Story, and of her maturing from being Xena's young sidekick and protégé, to a mature, independent, strong woman, and fighter, with skills on par with Xena's own.
• Break the Cutie: Gabrielle gets quite jaded at various points, thanks to all the plots that revolve around her life going terribly.
• Cartwright Curse: Gabrielle has the worst luck with men. All her male love interests end up either dead or disappeared by the end of the episode. Lampshaded in "Blind Faith."
  Gabrielle: All the men I get serious about seem to end up dead!
• Heroic Sacrifice: "Sacrifice 2"
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: While serving as Joxer's sidekick.
• The Lancer: In later seasons.
• Morality Pet: She plays this role for Xena.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gabrielle does this once per episode early on. Of course, her biggest example in this regard is letting Hope live and lying to Xena about killing her. Lots of consequences there.
• Reincarnated as the Opposite Sex: When Xena and Gabrielle go to India, Gabrielle discovers that in her past life she was a man who led an army against Alti.
• Technical Pacifist: Gabrielle has no problem whacking people with her staff, but refuses to kill. For the first few seasons, anyway. Becomes an Actual Pacifist briefly after she and Xena travel to India in the fourth season.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: It's not until the end of season 4 that she learned she always can't stick to this rule. And then she just threw the rule away altogether and started killing people left and right. (There's not really a good justification for this other than that she found pacifism too hard.)
• Tomboyness Upgrade: She starts off as the naive Girly Girl to Xena's tough Tomboy. In later seasons, she becomes a fighter with Boyish Short Hair.
• Took a Level in Badass: Her earliest costume was a modest dress, while later episodes had her in a green midriff-revealing top and rust-colored skirt with her fighting staff. Later she wore an even more revealing leather costume, shorter hair, and a pair of sais. Ares himself tells her when she tries to hunt him that when they first met she couldn't even pick up a blade.
• Wandering Minstrel: Gabrielle becomes a wandering bard for a while, before becoming Action Girl Jr.
• Warrior Poet: In the earlier seasons.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Her naiveté combined with an unbending righteousness leads her to rash though well-intentioned action.

Joxer the Mighty (Ted Raimi)

"Joxer the Mighty, he roams through the countryside...

"Oh, that song again! I can't get it out of my head! The meter is awful!

Harmless Villain turned Heroic Wannabe, Joxer is one of Xena and Gabrielle's best and most trusted friends.

• Accidental Murder: "The Convert" sees him score his first kill ever. It was a complete fluke and against a notorious warlord, but he still feels disgusted with himself.
• Butt-Monkey: Exhibit A: In a Spot the Imposter episode, his friends identified him because he was hanging from a wall by his underpants.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Joxer may have been caught spying on Amazons bathing on occasion, but obviously cares about women, and whatever his faults shows great loyalty to Xena and Gabriel. When he (mistakenly) thought Gabriel was working in a brothel in Warrior...Priestess...Tramp, even thinking he was "just a small business transaction away from pressing (his) lips against (hers)", his response was to try to get her out of there rather than to take advantage of the situation.
• Dogged Nice Guy: To Gabrielle.
• Happily Married: To Meg after the time skip.
• Heroic Wannabe: Longs to be seen as a great, heroic warrior despite lacking in most of the essentials.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: He really wants to be a mighty warrior like Xena. Aphrodite even grants his wish in one episode.
• Killed Off for Real: killed by Eve/Livia.
• Lethal Chef: Referenced in several episodes, especially "Takes One to Know One," when trying to solve a murder of a bounty hunter Xena, Gabrielle, their friends and family thinks that Gabrielle may have killed her with Joxer's gravy recipe. She didn't.
• Miles Gloriosus: "Joxer the Mighty" has a mighty high opinion of himself that runs counter to reality.
• Plucky Comic Relief: No matter how hard or how often he tries to be The Lancer, the Anti-Hero, or the Villain Protagonist, poor man.
  Joxer: Now listen, I'm fierce, and I have a lust for blood. As a matter of fact, if a couple of days go by and I haven't shed some blood, I get very depressed. Blood and me go together like a horse and chariot! I once bathed in a tub of blood! My nickname is Bloody Joxer!
  Xena: If you like blood so much? Keep talking.
• Undying Loyalty: His defining trait. People routinely mock him for his bluster and sometimes idiocy, but he goes above and beyond for his friends. Most notably in "Forget Me Not", where he tried to help Gabrielle after she gave up her memories.
• The Unfavorite: Implied to be this in his family, since his father was a warlord and his brother is a skilled assassin, while Joxer himself isn't much of a warrior. Even his Camp Gay other brother who works as a singer got more respect (although at least he's good at his chosen profession...).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Autolycus, though the insults largely only come from the King of Thieves.

Autolycus (Bruce Campbell)

The King of Thieves.

• Adaptation Distillation: In the original myth, Autolycus was the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, which would grant him a degree of Divine Parentage. This is never touched upon in the show, though it would explain his speed and agility if it were the basis of his character. Amusingly, in one Hercules episode, Autolycus disguises himself as a statue of Hermes.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's played by Bruce Campbell. Snark is inevitable.
• Escape Artist: Autolycus can wiggle his way out of any form of restraints and pick virtually any lock. He takes a lot of pride in this. He even admits that he lets himself be caught sometimes just so he can break free later and enhance this reputation. The closest anyone came to actually capturing him was Hercules, and Autolycus still managed to repeatedly undo the restraints.
• Everyone Has Standards: Never steals from anyone who can't afford to lose it. He once demanded that a poor community pay a large amount for his services, but then he secretly gave it back to them when the mission was done.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Iolaus. Their first meeting was Autolycus leaving Iolaus to deal with the fallout of a robbery, which nearly got him executed. They're not pleased to run into each other a couple years later, but they develop an understanding after overcoming adventures involving a vicious hunter, Ares, and a giant chicken.
  Autolycus: [thinking he's soon to die] Iolaus, we've always been the best of friends.
  Iolaus: No, we haven't.
• Freudian Excuse: In his first appearance, he explains to Hercules why he's a thief.
  "A bloated merchant from Cyros tricked my brother, Malachis, out of his land. And when Malachis protested, the merchant had him killed. And the-powers-that-be did nothing about it. So, I delivered my own justice. I robbed that merchant, and I gave every dinar he had to the sick, the hungry, the poor. The merchant became a pauper. And, well, I became an outlaw...but not just any outlaw, either."
• Gold Fever: Zig-Zagged. He's a thief that loves dinars, gold, jewels, and anything else of value. There are times when he knows to avoid robbing people like warlords, but his compulsion has also caused him to steal from gods or cursed objects under the belief it wouldn't come back to bite him.
  Hercules: You didn't have to steal it in the first place.
  Autolycus: Don't ya see, man?! I've got a problem! It's a sickness. If I were the last man on Earth, I'd steal from myself.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Constantly. Nicely summed up by Xena during "The Quest":
  "You often don't let people see who you really are. I was in there. I know. For all your bluster, Autolycus, you're a nice person."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A greedy, thrill seeking thief and braggart whose ultimately a good, caring person deep down.
• Loveable Rogue: Made more lovable by being played by Bruce Campbell himself.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In "Tsunami," he allowed himself to be captured and sentenced to hard labor, so he could rob a diamond mine. Gabrielle saw him boarding the prison ship and tried to help him, which in turn brought Xena aboard. The ship is soon capsized by a tsunami and sinking, leaving Autolycus feeling very guilty about endangering his friends.
• Parental Abandonment: His father died before he was born and his mother while he was a child, leaving his older brother to raise him.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Autolycus prides himself on being the King of Thieves, but...
  Autolycus: Ah, then you've heard of me.
  Hercules: Not until today.
• Undying Loyalty: For all his snarking and posturing, he's completely devoted to his friends.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Joxer, Iolaus and Salmoneus.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: It's never explained what became of him following the show's Time Skip.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Mentioned by Xena, but also in "Tsunami":
  Autolycus: Spare me, Xena. We both know what I am.
  Gabrielle: What's that?
  Autolycus: Someone who can let a friend walk straight into trouble all for the chance to steal a few lousy stones.
  Xena: Well, excuse me, I must've mistaken you for a man who once risked his life to save mine.

Ephiny (Danielle Cormack)

Amazon Queen. Married the centaur Phantes, and is the mother of Xenon.

• Action Girl: As you would expect of an Amazon.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Averted. She dies quickly into "Endgame," but much of the episode revolves around the fallout of and reaction to her death.
• Fantastic Racism: Like many Amazons, she positively despised centaurs, but she learned to work past it.
  "Phantes was once my sworn enemy. Then I learned forgiveness, and from that I learned love. I just hope my child grows up to live in a world free from your blind hatred."
• Interspecies Romance: With Phantes.
• Killed Off for Real: Killed in battle by Brutus.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Danielle Cormack, a native Kiwi, chose to use her own accent for a show that largely employed New Zealand actors but had them use American accents (with varying success). It works well for her character.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: In Season 2, Gabrielle places her in command of the tribe while she's away, but she still actively participates in fights. She actually dies while personally leading a patrol.
• Worthy Opponent: After killing her, Brutus refers to her as one of the best sword fighters he's ever come across.

Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings)

"Don't believe everything you hear about blondes.

• Ascended Extra: When Aphrodite first appeared, it was alongside Athena and Artemis. While those two made some scattered appearances in the different shows, Aphrodite was the real breakout. She is the second most frequently recurring character in the Xenaverse, after Ares. She appears in ten seasons across two shows; only Ares has appeared in more seasons.
• The Burlesque of Venus: She would often appear in a giant clam, and because it was The '90s, she would use a pair of ropes as a harness and surf with it to fit her Valley Girl personality.
• Character Development: In her first appearance in Hercules, she's shown to be quite amoral, willing to start a war between two kingdoms so she could gain possession of the gold there. She was also willing to use her spells to age her own son's love interest because of how jealous she was that mortals considered Psyche more beautiful than her. However, by the episode "Reign of Terror", she eventually learns to start genuinely caring for others and even sheds tears over one mortal who was on the brink of death.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She does quite well against Discord.
• Driven by Envy: Whenever she's an antagonist, it's purely for this reason.
  • "The Green-Eyed Monster:" She plots against Psyche because everyone keeps saying how much more attractive the mortal woman is than her.
  • "For Him the Bell Tolls": She tries to break up an impending marriage because it would unite two kingdoms and cause some of her temples on the shared border to be torn down.
  • "The Quill Is Mightier": Ares is able to manipulate her into taking action against Gabrielle by demonstrating that the bard's scrolls have made Xena more popular than her.
  • "Fins, Femmes and Gems": She orchestrates the theft of the Mystic Diamond simply because she believes she alone should have such a prized object.
• Dumb Blonde: Subverted. She's not into books, but whether on Hercules and Xena, she is much smarter and more conniving than she lets on.
  Aphrodite: Hey, don't believe everything you hear about blondes.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: In "Hercules" she manages to stop a huge brawl dead in its tracks simply by taking her top off. Herc thinks she's losing her touch if she has to get naked to do it.
• Jerkass Gods: Though she became more lovable after her first appearance.
• Last of His Kind: She and Ares becomes the only survivors of the "Twilight of the Olympian Gods", organized by Xena when the deities, under Athena's flag, join together to kill Eve. Aphrodite remains unconvinced that Eve will willingly destroy the deities, to the point where she sneaks Xena and Gabrielle into Olympus itself. After the Twilight of the Gods, Aphrodite becomes mentally unbalanced due to Ares losing his powers: Love must be balanced by War.
• Love Goddess: Shares this role with her son Cupid.
• Ms. Fanservice: Invoked In-Universe (just watch her outfit). A beautiful blonde Hot Goddess who always wears revealing outfit.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While she acts ditzy and at times even clueless, she has demonstrated on several occasions that she's far more aware and calculating than she lets on. Hercules even calls her out on it at one point.
  Hercules: I know you. You're smarter than you let on.
• Odd Friendship: With Iolaus and Gabrielle.
• The Ophelia: During her time with Caligula in "The God You Know."
• Parental Abandonment: In "The Power," Hercules encounters Deon and learns he's the product of a one night stand Aphrodite had with a fisherman. According to Deon's father, Aphrodite disappeared the next day and returned months later to give him the child.
• Parents as People: From what we see of it, her relationship with Cupid is pretty strained. They love each other, but Aphrodite wasn't big on "the parenting thing" when Cupid was a child, and he grew up a tad resentful over being neglected. They also sometimes butt heads in regards to their jobs; Cupid being a true romantic, and Aphrodite being more cynical.
• Pink Means Feminine: Her main outfit is pink (a transparent pink) and, as the Goddess of Love, she is femininity personified.
• Stripperiffic: Aphrodite often appears in a low-cut, short dress (see picture).
• Took a Level in Kindness: Though she is originally introduced as a scheming goddess, devious and almost as uncaring as Ares, she quickly evolves into a more benevolent fun-loving character, though still prone to mood swings.
• Valley Girl: Seems to be the inspiration for her voice and speech patterns.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She falls for Hephaestus, the supposedly ugly god, because he sees her as more than a sex object.

M'Lila (Ebonie Smith)

A runaway slave from Gaul who ends up on Xena's pirate ship at the same time as Julius Caesar. She becomes the first of several of Xena's mentors.

• Foreshadowing: The little girl at the beginning of "Destiny" has a necklace like M'Lila's, and appears to speak the same language as M'Lila.
• Language Barrier: She only speaks Gaelic, which Xena can't understand, and communicates largely with gestures. They become friends nonetheless and M'Lila takes an arrow for Xena, unwittingly fueling her vengeance.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Although she isn't older than Xena, she is still the first of several characters from Xena's past who helped shape the Warrior Princess we know today, and her death at the hands of Roman soldiers sent to apprehend them is the final straw that sets Xena on the path of darkness.
  Xena: “You’ll be dead in thirty seconds. But know this—you won’t be the last. Tell Hades to prepare himself. A new Xena is born tonight—with a new purpose in life: death.”
• Pressure Point: M'Lila teaches Xena "the pinch," her signature move that cuts off the flow of blood to a victim's brain, leaving them thirty seconds to live.

Borias (Marton Csokas)

Warlord with whom Xena rode prior to her first appearance in Hercules. Father of their son Solan.

• Disappeared Dad: He died the night Solan was born. He also left his wife and son for Xena back when he first met her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Prevented Xena from killing a young Amazon, Otere.
• Posthumous Character: He's been dead for ten years by the time we first hear his name.
• Redemption Equals Death: He is remembered as a hero by every centaur on earth after allying with them against Xena.

Lao Ma (Jacqueline Kim)

One of Xena's mentors, and the first person to attempt to turn her back to good during her warlord days. She is the wife of Laozi and according to the Xenaverse, she is the real author of the Daodejing.

• Blessed with Suck: Lao Ma herself says, "I have been blessed, or cursed, with the ability to see into the souls of others. You don't know it yet, Xena, but you're a remarkable woman, capable of greatness."
• Cultured Badass: She acts humbly and properly, but she can take you down if necessary.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: At a meeting with Borias and Xena, it seems like Lao Ma is flirting with Borias. Then, as she reaches for a dish on the table, Xena throws a knife at her hand.
  Xena: That's my piece of meat you're reaching for.
  Lao Ma: You're wrong. I don't eat meat. (Reaches for vegetarian dish.)
• Mama Bear: Even when he's going to kill her, she won't attack her son. He uses this to his advantage. She also sends her young daughters away so they will be safe from their brother.
• Missing Mom: Is this to Ming T'ien, and K'ao Hsin and Pao Tsu.
• Opposed Mentors: With Alti, though Xena only meets Alti after she's left Lao Ma.
• Pretty in Mink: Has a red gown with dark fur trim and fur hat.
• Silk Hiding Steel
  Soft as water, hard as the raging flood.
• Thanatos Gambit: Before her death she sends a cryptic message to Xena, knowing Xena would return to Qin to make things right.
• Underwater Kiss: With Xena, when Xena was hiding from Ming Tzu in Lao Ma's bathtub, to give her enough air to stay hidden.

Eli (Timothy Omundson)

Former street magician turned miracle worker.

• The Chosen One: As a Devi, and an Avatar.
• Looks Like Jesus: He serves as a Jesus figure in the Xena universe. This is despite hints two seasons earlier in "The Solstice Carol" that the real Jesus was recently born to travelers Xena and Gabrielle met on the road.
• Despair Event Horizon: When Xena and Gabrielle are crucified.
• Healing Hands: He brings Gabrielle and Xena back from the dead with them.
• Pacifist: Actual Pacifist after he becomes the messenger of the One God.

Amarice (Jennifer Sky)

A plucky young Amazon introduced near the end of season 4.

• Catchphrase: "In my tribe..."
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Amarice, who had been Xena and Gabrielle's companion for a good run of episodes earlier that season, was unceremoniously killed offscreen during the teaser for the episode "Lifeblood".
• Foil: She was originally created to be one to Gabrielle. Both meet Xena while being young and in awe of her, but whereas Gabrielle couldn't fight and relied on her wits, Amarice is a hothead who's seen combat and is always eager to kick some butt.
• Put on a Bus: "Them Bones, Them Bones" ends with her staying with the northern tribe of Amazons from the "Adventures in the Sin Trade" two-parter. She didn’t come back.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Amarice was reportedly going to stick around longer in at least five more episodes, but then Cleopatra 2525 got going, so she had to be written out.
• Tsundere: Towards Arman, who takes an immediate dislike to her. Their antagonistic relationship evolves into a literal Slap-Slap-Kiss.

Meg (Lucy Lawless)

Barmaid and Xena lookalike. Hijinks ensue when Meg impersonates Xena or their other lookalikes Princess Diana and Leah the Hestian Virgin.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Key to the Kingdom." Instead of just being a pawn in someone else's plot, she instigates the story and reveals a lot about what she wants out of life.
• All Women Are Lustful: Meg and the girls in her brothel are portrayed as such.
• Disappeared Dad: He died in childbirth. Well, he got drunk and fell off the roof while she was being born.
• Fangirl: To Joxer the Mighty, of all people.
• Happily Married: To Joxer after the time skip.
• Hidden Depths: A Book Dumb tramp who actually longs for a healthy relationship and a family.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She sure gets around and definitely craves male attention, but her behavior is due to an unstable home environment, and she's kind-hearted and altruistic at her core.
• I Was Quite a Looker: She aged badly.
  Gabrielle: (to Xena) I'd lay off the beans, if I were you.
• Jumping Out of a Cake: Does so for Ares' bachelor party, dressed only in whipped cream. He is amused until he learns she's not actually Xena.
• Malaproper: Refers to Xena's chakram as a "shamrock."
• Mistaken Identity: Every episode in which she features.
• Put on a Bus: After Joxer dies.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: When disguised as Princess Diana, or as Leah, the High Priestess of Hestia, Meg doesn't always put on a good show as a lady of good breeding.

Minya (Alison Wall)

An ordinary woman who dreams of being a warrior like Xena.

• Fangirl: To Xena.
• Friend to All Living Things: Particularly horses. She was suspected of killing Ravenica in "Takes One to Know One" because of the bounty hunter's notorious treatment of horses.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: She tries to pull it off, but can't quite match Xena for Fanservice. Not that her boyfriend Hower was complaining once he saw Minya in her leather.
• Hide Your Lesbians: Possibly. She says at the end of "The Play's the Thing" that she's a "thespian," but it's a bit hard to hear, and she might be saying something else entirely. It certainly sounds like a confession of a different sort, especially as she says fellow female cast member Pollina helped her to come to this realization.
  Minya: "The two of you made me realise something deep down inside myself that I guess I always knew but I didn’t dare admit. I’m a thespian."
  • Lampshaded by Gabrielle wanting to make sure Minya said "thespian" and not something else.
• Plucky Comic Relief: If Minya's there, it's probably a light-hearted episode.
• Put on a Bus: Never seen or heard from again after Season 4.
• Shout-Out: Her character is a shout out to the fans themselves.

Cyrene (Darien Takle)

Xena's mother, who runs a tavern in Amphipolis.

• Action Mom: She takes on Athena to protect Xena and her granddaughter.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Xena certainly thinks so when Cyrene places an ad around town for a husband for Xena when she finds out Xena is pregnant.
• Burn the Witch!: Cyrene is burned at the stake when the villagers think she is a witch.
• Mama Bear: Killed her own husband to protect Xena when she was young.
• Parental Favoritism: Spent years estranged from Xena after the death of Lyceus because Cyrene blamed Xena for his death. She never mentions Toris, Xena's other brother. Then again, no one else does either.

Octavian (Mark Warren / Colin Moy)

Caesar's nephew and future Emperor Augustus. He was just a boy when Xena met him. He adopted Eve when her mother was presumed dead and later tries to marry her.

• Does This Remind You of Anything?: His regal toga is an American flag.
• The Emperor: What he is fated to become for Rome.
• Historical Domain Character: He is a real-life figure, though better known by his name Augustus.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Despite his infamous nature as a manipulative chessmaster, he is portrayed in a positive light in this series, becoming a surrogate father for Xena's daughter.

Eve/Livia (Adrienne Wilkinson)

Xena's daughter, chosen to be the new messenger of the god of Love. Her birth heralded the Twilight of the Olympians, so Xena faked her and Eve's death. Eve, as Livia, was raised by Octavius to become Rome's most powerful warrior.

• Antagonistic Offspring: Was this to Xena before her Heel–Face Turn.
• The Atoner: Like her mother, but with a twist, as she gives up all forms of violence.
• The Butcher: One of her monikers.
• Chickification: When she embraced the Way of Love.
• Dark Action Girl: Before she became an Actual Pacifist she was absolutely ruthless. Justified given that she's a sort of reincarnation of Callisto.
• Deus ex Machina: Her Heel–Face Turn was literally an act of divine intervention.
• Generation Xerox: In a brilliant casting coup, the actress playing Eve looks like a perfect blend of her fictional parents, with Callisto's facial structure and Xena's dark hair and blue eyes.
• Heel–Face Reincarnation: Eve is a reincarnation of Callisto as a way to make up for all the things she and Xena had taken from each other's lives. Though it took some time before Eve became good.
• Heel–Face Turn: As mentioned above, she becomes a freaking angel.
• Historical Domain Character: Augustus's empress was named Livia.
• No Man of Woman Born: A child born of no father was prophesied by the Fates to bring about the Twilight of the Gods. Eve was conceived by Callisto's spirit to be a vessel of her reincarnation.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Xena and Gabrielle go to sleep for twenty-five years in coffins of ice and awaken to find Eve has aged to adulthood.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Callisto. Justified in that her reincarnated soul is Callisto's.
• Tyke Bomb: Thanks to Xena and Gabrielle being in a magical sleep for decades, she was functionally raised by Ares.
• Wife Husbandry: Augustus tried to marry her, but she felt no love because he hardly spent time with her. Plus the squicky factor...

Villains

Ares (Kevin Smith)^note No, not that Kevin Smith

"Since time began, it has been warriors who have shaped the world."

• Badass Biker: In the 21st century.
• Battle Couple: With Xena.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Xena. In early seasons he openly comes on to her more than once, apparently believing that sexual attraction will help turn her back to evil and get her back under his control. This aspect of their relationship got a little squicky when a couple of episodes hinted that Ares is actually Xena's father.
• Big Bad: Having held the position for all three series in the franchise, he is for all intents and purposes the main antagonist for the entire franchise.
• Brother–Sister Incest:
  • His relationship with Discord is a textbook case of writers trying to avoid discussing this trope. The two have an openly sexual relationship on Hercules, but her relation is never stated onscreen there. On Young Hercules, they are confirmed to be siblings, but due to the younger target audience, their relationship is strictly business and nothing more.
  • Amusingly averted in "The God You Know" with Aphrodite. She goes nuts and is hitting on various men, including Ares. He is not happy about it.
• Brought Down to Normal: But never permanent.
  • In between "Intimate Stranger" and "Ten Little Warlords," his godhood is stolen from him by Sisyphus, and he struggles to get along.
  • Gabrielle accidentally does this to him in "The Quill Is Mightier..." (though he handles it much better than Aphrodite).
  • Over on Hercules, Dahak entering the world and coming to Greece affects all of the Olympians. Ares demonstrates a little bit of power here and there, but he's severely weakened and slowly loses what little ability he has.
  • At the end of Season 5, he sacrifices his godhood to revive Gabrielle and Eve. This one stuck the longest, as it's not until halfway through Season 6 that the god of war makes a comeback.
• The Corrupter: He often attempts to lure Xena away from her quest with Gabrielle, to join him as his Warrior Queen. He offers her huge armies and historic victories, great wealth and great power, and in later seasons his love—offers which she consistently rejects despite being sometimes tempted.
• Create Your Own Hero: In the Young Hercules Pilot Movie, Herc was far more interested in meeting Zeus than performing any heroics. Then Ares attempted a takeover of Corinth and harmed his friends, so Hercules discovered his true purpose.
• Dating Catwoman: With Xena. He often flirts with her, though she always rebuffs him. By Season 5, he found that he sincerely loved her.
• Demoted to Dragon: When Hera briefly overthrew Zeus, Ares sided with her and took her orders without question. He didn't mind since it gave him the opportunity to try to kill a father he doesn't care for and a half-brother he absolutely despises.
• Driven by Envy: Noticing his half-brother gaining the love of their father Zeus, Ares has hated Hercules since he was a boy and has tried repeatedly to kill his younger brother. Discord once remarked that he'll spend hours trying to think of ways to kill Hercules, saying "It's his favorite topic."
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In his first few appearances on Hercules he was more of a general God of Evil who liked to build murder cults to himself and usually acted through intermediaries or possessed corpses. The first time he was shown as personally present he looked like a giant animate suit of armor with glowing eyes, and his influence was usually shown by just a skull over the moon. Kevin Tod Smith didn't even get the part until season 3 of Hercules/season 1 of Xena.
• Evil Mentor: Prides himself in making Xena what she is.
• Freudian Excuse: He says that everything he ever learned about evil and greed he learned from Hera. He's appreciative of that.
• Graceful Loser: He often congratulates Xena when she gets the better of him (most notably in "The Reckoning"). This does not extend to others, though, especially Hercules.
• Heartbroken Badass: Despite treating him as his own personal Butt-Monkey, Ares was devastated when his nephew Strife was killed by Callisto.
  "He wasn't so bad. He-he tried real hard. He was just no good at his job." (to Callisto) "You didn't have to do this!"
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He just can't seem to make up his whether he wants to be on Xena's side or against her.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: His own attire. He also considers Xena's leather outfit to be sexy.
• I Gave My Word: If you can get Ares to agree to something unconditionally, he will honor it regardless of the consequences. This was demonstrated in "The Reckoning" and "The Dirty Half Dozen."
• In Love with Your Carnage: Ares' attraction to Xena during her warlord days and disappointment when she became a hero.
• The Jinx: Ares develops something of a reputation for this among warlords in his personal service because working for him inevitably leads to fighting the main heroes on either show, which means getting their butts handed to them. The Villain of the Week in "Two Men and a Baby" in particular laments going from a bloodthirsty general to a boob.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: At least for when he temporarily sided with Dahak. At the time, the worst he suffered was some lost pride, and he escapes with no consequences. However, when Dahak later manages to enter the world, Ares suffers power failure, finds himself hunted by Dahak's cultists, and has to rely on Hercules of all people to save him.
• Last of His Kind: He and Aphrodite becomes the only survivors of the "Twilight of the Olympian Gods", organized by Xena when the deities, under Athena's flag, join together to kill Eve.
• Love Redeems: He has been in love with Xena for a long time, but instead of confessing to her, he's so terrified of rejection that he constantly invents stupid plans to try to force her to be with him. Considering that he was born to be a war god and that that is his innate nature, it is understandable that this would be the way he would try to court her, but this is possibly the worst way to approach Xena. Nevertheless, he does in the end sacrifice his godhood and his own future for her.
• Manipulative Bastard: In early seasons, he spends a lot of time devising various schemes to get Xena to come back and be his lead general again. Most of them involve complicated sequences of people and events. None of them work. Most of them fail because he's not really a very good schemer, and he always seems to leave at least one loophole that Xena can escape through.
• "Not So Different" Remark: On different occasions, he's told Xena and Hercules that he wants what they do: a world where everyone is safe and happy. Of course, he wants that on his terms.
• Only Sane Man: As the other gods begin targeting Xena and her baby to avert the Twilight of the Gods prophecy, Ares warns them that this could be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. His warnings go unheeded.
• Physical God: He is the god of war, after all.
• Playing with Fire: Ares has the power to control and manipulate fire by throwing it from his hands as well as creating fireballs or just by looking at the target he wants to incinerate.
• Really Gets Around: As is expected of the gods, Ares has associations with a lot of women, some overt, some implied. Among his count are Xena, Callisto, Nemesis, Hope, Aphrodite (their son together is Cupid), Discord, Eve, the Furies, and he's implied more than once to be attracted to Gabrielle.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He made it to the 20th-21st century.
• The Unfavorite: Out of all of Zeus' children. It generally doesn't bother him, but the idea that Hercules (a half-mortal) is Zeus' favorite angers him to no end.
• War God: Obviously. Ares is the god of war in the Greek pantheon, and the series writers chose to keep that. He's always trying to stir up trouble, and if he's not trying to get Xena to lead his armies, he's trying to find someone who is better than her to be his general.
• We Can Rule Together: His constant goal is to turn Xena back to evil and use her as his world conquering Warrior Queen. He's even offered his least favorite half-brother a seat at his table.
• We Will Meet Again: No matter the show, he will do this almost every single time he appears.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers Xena to be one. He often speaks of his regard for her talents, even as she's about to foil his plans.

Callisto (Hudson Leick)

A former victim of Xena now bent on her destruction, Callisto later becomes an angel in season 5 thanks to Xena and ultimately finds redemption.

• All for Nothing: As said to Xena in "Maternal Instincts":
  "You don't seem to get it, do you? You've won. All these years I've spent living to destroy you—thinking that only if I could give you the same pain that you gave me, I'd be rid of it and life would go on. And then I do and nothing changes. I don't feel better, just empty. So, you let me go, Xena. You can't win this battle. You've already won the war."
• And I Must Scream: After she dies the first time, Callisto's existence boils down to this. She is so consumed with hate for Xena killing her family that she can't find peace even in death. In "Intimate Stranger" (as well as "Surprise" from HTLJ), her version of Tartarus is being confronted with her guilt and screaming in agony. It gets worse when she realizes there is nothing she can do to Xena to make her feel the same way.
• Annoying Arrows: Provides the picture for this trope, from "Maternal Instincts".
• Arch-Enemy: To Xena.
• Ax-Crazy: She's incredibly bloodthirsty, incredibly sadistic, and frequently fights with a manic grin on her face. Just look at her!
• Back from the Dead: Has developed the rather nasty habit of cheating death, and she rarely stays dead for long.
• Badass Normal: When first introduced.
• Battle Cry: She can let out an impressive, guttural scream.
• Big Bad: One of the most recurring villains on the show, and one of the only ones to pose a serious threat to Xena.
• Chainmail Bikini: Her regular outfit.
• Create Your Own Villain: Xena apparently obliviously did this to her, though this is before Xena's Heel–Face Turn. Callisto believes that until she becomes a goddess and goes back in time to the day her parents were killed. It turns out that the future Callisto was the one who murdered her own parents, but her dazed past self assumed Xena was to blame. Given the chance to undo her past, after an accident she instead made sure it happened, making it clear that one more Never My Fault villain actually is the way she is by choice. She took her mother and her younger self into a barn to protect them. When her father (thinking that the strange woman is one of Xena's Mooks) tries to attack her from behind, she throws a dagger at him without looking. Realizing that she can't change the past, she reluctantly incinerates her own mother with a fireball. In a last-ditch effort, she tries to kill her younger self by setting the barn on fire, but the girl is saved, swearing vengeance against Xena. Although then, Iolaus manages to save Alcmene, thus foiling Callisto's mission, meaning that she never got sent back in time, never accidentally killed her parents, and it's still Xena's army's doing.
• Dark Action Girl: Obviously, since she is Xena's Evil Counterpart.
• Death Seeker: Outright stated several times. When Velasca asks her if she has a death wish, she replies, "You know, it's funny, I think I do." Later, in "Sacrifice", she requests that Hope kill her in exchange for her help—saying she wants total oblivion instead of going to an afterlife. It's also implied that she hopes for Xena to kill her almost as much as she wants to make Xena suffer; even though Xena grants her wish a couple of times, it rarely sticks.
• Demoted to Dragon: Defied during those occasions she works with Ares ("Intimate Stranger" and the "Armageddon Now" two-parter). She has no intention of following orders or wants to usurp his position; she just sees him as a means to fulfill her goals of revenge against Xena or easing her own pain.
  Ares: This was not my plan.
  Callisto: Funny, it was always mine.
• Despair Event Horizon: She reaches this early on and then keeps on going.
• The Dragon: First to Hope, then Mephistopheles.
• Dragon with an Agenda: She really couldn't care less about the goals of Hope or Mephistopheles; she only sees them as means to getting what she wants (death and revenge, respectively). She even splits from Hope because it's taking too long for her to get her reward.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After eating ambrosia.
• The Faceless: During her first appearance ("The Greater Good").
• The Fool: In "The Bitter Suite" (which was bleeding Tarot imagery) Callisto dresses up like this.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: With Xena during "Intimate Stranger" and "Ten Little Warlords".
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: During rampages, Callisto was quick to point out that Xena's attack on Cirra ruined her life and made her a vicious killer. She'd repeatedly insist that all the people she killed and maimed were Xena's fault, not hers. While Xena often expressed responsibility for what Callisto became, virtually everyone else disagreed. Shortly after Perdicas was murdered, Gabrielle remarked that Callisto chose her own path. During a stopover in the Underworld, Callisto's own dead mother criticized the killing of innocent people in her name. Even Hercules (the guy who redeemed Xena) didn't pull any punches, condemning Callisto for choosing evil and being completely unrepentant about it. The fact that Callisto was condemned to Tartarus and later Hell never fazed her.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Callisto worked with Xena almost as often as she worked against her. Xena and Gabrielle, however, were never under the impression that Callisto wouldn't betray them. Xena was so sure of it, she once based her entire plan to save Gabrielle's life on Callisto's imminent betrayal.
• Heel–Face Turn: In an unusual twist, she only pulls this during her afterlife.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Her regular outfit.
• Hobbes Was Right: During a Hercules crossover, Callisto feels that all mortals are wicked and should be punished.
• In Name Only: Other than both being goddesses, she and the mythological Callisto have nothing in common.
• Knight of Cerebus: Every episode she appears is unlikely to have any campy or light-hearted moments.
• Laughing Mad: She is almost always seen with a huge smile on her face, often giggling with evil glee as well.
• Light Is Not Good: She appears in "The Ides of March" as a woman in white in order to contrast her appearance and evil goals.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her regular outfit is more revealing than Xena's.
• Never My Fault: While Xena's army did kill her family and ruined her life, she refuses to take responsibility for murdering countless innocent people as part of her quest for revenge. Even her own mother's spirit told her that these people didn't need to die.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Her status in the divine hierarchy changed more often than any other character on the show; she had been a mortal, immortal, goddess, demon, archdemon, and angel.
• Playing with Fire: As a Goddess.
• Physical Goddess: After eating ambrosia.
• Psycho for Hire: Often enemies of Hercules or Xena will try to use her to their ends, and she goes along with it in the hope that causing Xena the same crushing agony that she experiences will stop it.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Callisto has some very girlish mannerisms, such as her sing-song tone of voice, her giggling almost constantly over her evil plans, her swift mood swings, her screaming battle cry which sounds oddly like a child throwing a temper tantrum, her constant efforts to get Xena's attention, her avoidance of intoxicants, sex, and love... Justified, since her Despair Event Horizon (losing her family to Xena's army) happened when she was a child.
• Pyromaniac: She has a horrible obsession with fire. A very unhealthy albeit justified one.
• Reformed, but Rejected: The look on Callisto's face after Xena has given her Light and Gabrielle tells her about her horrific crimes is, in itself a Break the Cutie moment. She looks absolutely heartbroken.
• Screaming Warrior: Frequently flies into screaming rages during her fights.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: The one time she's depicted having sex (with Ares) she's in Xena's body. Earlier, she quite flatly shut down one of her underlings who was drunkenly flirting with her.
  Love is a trick nature plays to get us to reproduce. I want no part of it.
• Slasher Smile: She can pull these quite nicely, befitting her Ax-Crazy nature.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Callisto has been contained and restrained a few times, but always manages to find a way to break free whether on her own or with some assistance:
  • After her first death, she is sent to Tartarus and asks Ares to let her invade Xena's dreams and take over her body, but is defeated and returned to her proper body.
  • In the first Hercules crossover, she works out a deal with Hera to escape from Tartarus and kill Hercules to get immortality. Callisto does get immortality regardless by manipulating Hercules into taking her to the Tree of Life, where she eats one of its golden apples and gains immortality, but Hercules manages to leave her trapped seemingly forever in the Labyrinth.
  • In "A Necessary Evil", Xena is forced to work with Callisto to fight the rogue Amazon Velasca, who has eaten ambrosia and become a goddess in her own right. Callisto later eats some ambrosia herself and does battle against Velasca while both stand on a bridge over a pit of lava. Xena promptly cuts the bridge while both immortals fight and they plunge into the lava. At the end of the episode, the camera shows Callisto and Velasca have both been petrified and encased in an eternal struggle by the lava. However, Callisto is eventually freed from this prison by Hope in "Maternal Instincts". Xena manages to imprison her yet again in a cave-in at a mine.
  • In the second Hercules crossover, Hope releases Callisto from the mine and sends her to the past in order to destroy Hercules. After fixing a Bad Future created by time-travelling affairs, Hercules escapes the inter-dimensional pocket and throws Callisto in. She manages to escape eventually.
• Staying Alive: No matter how many times she dies, she comes back EVERY time.
• Trauma Conga Line: She went through Break the Cutie as a little girl and then the hits just kept on coming, with the hate, anger, and pain building to insane heights. She's an odd example in that all her attempts to stop the pain amount to her trying to harm others, and so she unintentionally instigates the events that cause her more pain. She does in fact get Driven to Madness by the sheer agony and her emotional spectrum is so fractured that often she can't feel anything at all.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: With Hercules in the Hercules crossover.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: After dying the first time and being forced to face her guilt and self-hatred in Tartarus, she makes a deal with Hera to be alive again and gain immortality. Hercules warns her that immortality won't solve her problems, and he's quickly proven right. Callisto spends the better part of being immortal and a goddess as wanting to die.
• Would Hurt a Child: Callisto shows that she would right from the get-go, when she starts committing acts of terrorism in Xena's name.
  Xena: I never killed women and children.
  Callisto: Well, you have now.
  • Taken a step further in "Surprise," where she taunts Hercules with this:
    "If I go back to the Underworld, I won't be suffering alone. I'll find your children. Klonus, Aeson, and little Ilia, is that it? And I'll dedicate eternity to making them suffer. After all, I got here, didn't I? I can get to them."

Julius Caesar (Karl Urban)

"If they are not under my control, then they are my enemies."

• Back from the Dead: He's killed off at the end of Season 4, but he escapes Tartarus in Season 6's "When Fates Collide" and alters history so that he never betrayed Xena.
• Big Bad: He's the only historical character to pose a threat to Xena for several seasons.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Pointed out in "Endgame".
  Brutus: He wouldn't betray a friend.
  Xena: Pompey was a friend. And Crassus, wasn't he a friend, too? I was once a very good friend of his. But maybe you're special.
• The Emperor: Though the Senate begged to differ.
• Evil Versus Evil: After Crassus was killed in Season 3, Caesar and Pompey spent Season 4 fighting a civil war to eliminate each other.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: This take on him focuses on him being a power-hungry manipulator bent on elevating himself and eliminating possible threats.
• Killed Off for Real: A Foregone Conclusion, but an example nonetheless. He's killed by the Senate and Brutus before he can install himself as emperor.
• Leitmotif: Trumpet fanfare can be heard when he appears.
• Lima Syndrome: Xena fell in love with him when he was her captive.
• You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: Ahead of a public execution, Xena managed to sneak Vercinix out and leave Crassus (unable to identify himself) to take his place. Caesar did actually recognize Crassus, but between needing to show off a big accomplishment to the people and Crassus being effortlessly captured by Xena in the first place, he let the execution proceed.

Velasca (Melinda Clarke)

"Where were you, Artemis, when the name Amazon became a joke told by old men in taverns?!"

Amazon who battled Gabrielle to become Queen.

• Arch-Enemy: To Gabrielle for standing in the way of her becoming queen and showing her up. The defeat she suffers in her first appearance just makes her even more consumed with getting revenge.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Inflicts some on Autolycus both to learn how to get to the hidden ambrosia and because she's a sadist. Auto doesn't break (suffering a broken arm and several bruises in the process), but she finds the Dagger of Helios on his person and puts the pieces together, anyway.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ephiny. Neither took Gabrielle's Rite of Caste seriously, but Ephiny grew to respect her, while Velasca sees her as an obstacle and then her enemy.
• Hypocrite: She insists she has more of a claim on being queen than Gabrielle, saying it's her birthright. She was raised among Amazons, but she was adopted by Melosa and thus given royal status instead of being born into it (not unlike Gabrielle receiving the Right of Caste). Velasca also resented Terreis being named heir instead of her, despite Terreis being Melosa's closest living blood-relative and thus actually having an actual birthright claim.
• Motive Decay: Deconstructed through two appearances. She starts out wanting to take over the tribe, seeking to improve the Amazon Nation and bend it to her own vision. However, she grows to personally hate Gabrielle for opposing her and wrecking her standing. When she becomes a full god, she focuses on trying to kill Gabrielle instead of taking over the tribe or killing the centaurs. Velasca even admits to Gabrielle that the Amazon Nation is dead and that she's going to instead remake the world itself instead of concern herself with Amazon matters.
• Physical Goddess: After eating ambrosia.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Why she destroyed the Temple of Artemis.
• Remember the New Guy?: She was in exile during season 1.
• Sadist: "I like pain. I like what it does to people, and I like what it makes people do."
• Self-Made Orphan: She was adopted by Melosa, who she eventually killed.
• Sparing the Final Mook: Subverted. She intended to do this after she ranted at Artemis and destroyed her temple, having told a guard ahead of time that she would leave him alive to tell the story to others. When he tried to run away afterwards, however, she killed killed him in what might have been a startled response to unexpected movement, or because her newly developed god powers were messing with her mind, or both. Afterward she consoles herself by telling the would-be messenger's corpse "You probably wouldn't have told the story right anyway."
• The Starscream: Her backstory entails constantly fighting with her adopted mother and eventually killing her.

Alti (Claire Stansfield)

Former Amazon turned shamaness.

• Because Destiny Says So: Alti has the power to prematurely kill people by making them experience their death before it's supposed to happen.
• Big Bad: As a villain whose power lies in the use of psychic powers, Alti posed a reasonable threat to Xena.
• The Corrupter: Manages to corrupt an already evil Xena.
• Mad Scientist: Becomes this in 2001.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During their fight in "Adventures in the Sin Trade II," Alti attempts to break Xena with a vision of her and Gabrielle being crucified by the Romans.
  Alti: Your little friend is dying with you, Xena. How does that make you feel?
  Xena: Good.
  Alti: Good?
  Xena: 'Cause if she's dying in my future, that means she's alive in my present!
• Opposed Mentors:
  • With Cyane, Queen of the Amazons. Cyane bests her in a mental showdown, though Xena ultimately sides with Alti, and kills Cyane and the other Amazon leaders.
    Cyane: Your choices are simple, Xena. Side with us and find life, or side with Alti and find death.
  • Alti is also an opposed mentor to Lao Ma, though Xena only meets her after she leaves Lao Ma.
    Alti: Your friend you told me about, Lao Ma, her powers come from denial, from self-sacrifice, from the light. That’s not for people like you and me. I want to tap into the heart of darkness—the sheer, naked will behind all craving, hatred, and violence. I’ll become the face of death itself—capable of destroying not only a person’s body, but their soul. Help me, and I’ll make you ‘Destroyer of Nations’.
• Past-Life Memories: She uses memories of this life in her next life to fight Xena and Gabrielle in their next lives.
• Precision F-Strike: B strike.
  (To Gabrielle)"Xena's little bitch. Welcome to the doghouse."

Hope (Renee O'Connor)

The evil child of Dahak and Gabrielle.

• Antichrist: The daughter of a mortal woman and a God of Evil.
• The Chosen One: Dahak's followers see her as his means of remaking the world. She's only too happy to take part.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Hope thought Gabrielle tried to kill her because she was closer to Dahak.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Hope truly loved both Dahak and the Destroyer. She also sincerely forgave Gabrielle for poisoning her, though that led to a swift response on Gabby's part.
• Evil Counterpart: To Hercules—being a powerful half-mortal that serves her full god father.
• Evil Twin: Sort of, since it's her mother she's identical to.
• Fetus Terrible: She strangles one of the knights working with Xena and Gabrielle to protect her.
• Manipulative Bastard: Has no problem manipulating others to get what she wants, especially people who sincerely care for her like Gabrielle, or need something from her like Callisto.
• Mommy Issues: Resents Gabrielle for abandoning her, but also offers Gabrielle a chance to be in her life. Gabrielle responds with a pretty serious “Hell-to-the-No”.
  Gabrielle: Hope...when I gave you that poison-
  Hope: It’s okay, Mother, I forgive y-
  Gabrielle: –I'm so sorry it didn't kill you.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: As an adult, Hope looks exactly like her mother, Gabrielle.
• Unholy Matrimony: She and Ares seem to be heading this way for a bit, as he allies with her father's cause and later conceives a son with her, subverted in that neither seems to genuinely care for the other and are merely allying with each other for their own ends.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Her followers really believed she was good.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Several people try to kill her before she's even born and continue even afterward. Even her mother, Gabby, abandons and then attempts to kill her. Despite this, Hope is willing to forgive her mother and wants to be close with her. Gabby's not interested. To be fair, the reason is because not only did Hope kill someone in cold blood within an hour of being born, all that she is interested in is to kill and torture people. Yes, she wants Gabrielle to be close with her...so they can both take over the world and kill everyone within it. Her intrinsic nature is geared towards murder and torture, even though she knows that it is wrong and that not only would Gabrielle disapprove of her actions but that they cause great pain and suffering (she lied and manipulated Gabrielle of her own volition when she killed Solan and tried to pretend she was innocent). However, HER child could be considered the real Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.

Draco (Jay Laga'aia)

When I tried to go home, my father almost beat me to death with a blacksmith's hammer.

A warlord and old friend of Xena’s.

• Bad Boss: He kills a minion for failing him, though gives him a chance to fight.
• Evil Counterpart: He is Xena as a failed atoner.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: Speaking about Joxer: "I'll cut off his head so quickly, he won't feel a thing."
• Villainous Crush: On Gabrielle because of a love spell.

Najara (Kathryn Morris)

A “Joan of Arc”-esque character, and warrior zealot. She claims to hear the voices of "Jinn" and believes in reforming her enemies through "The Light".

• Defeat Means Friendship: She gives anyone she beats three days to turn to the Light, or she kills them.
• Evil Counterpart: She is like a reformed Xena minus a Gabrielle.
• Heel–Face Turn: Subverted. She claims to have changed after learning the teachings of Eli, but she didn't.
• Light Is Not Good: She is absolutely convinced she is on the side of good, likes to smile and hug and sing with her followers, and projects a warm, accepting persona. It's all an act to convert followers to the Light.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Whether the voices she hears are real or not.
• Yandere: To Gabrielle.

Athena (Paris Jefferson)

"I've poisoned your water supply. What will you give them when they're dying of thirst? Love?"

Goddess of wisdom and war. She took over leadership of the Olympians after Zeus' death.

• Adaptational Villainy: While Athena could have been a mean bitch in the myths, she was characterized as a mentor figure for several heroes. Here though, she becomes a Fallen Heroine and ultimately turns into the Arc Villain after taking control of Olympus.
• Ambiguously Gay: She is implied to be in a romantic relationship with her favorite warrior Illanius.
• Ascended Extra: She appeared once on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and once on Young Hercules, both times having fairly minor roles. However, in Season 5, she gets upgraded to a major villain.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's every bit as vicious as Ares when necessary to protect her family.
• Bling of War: Her armor is solid gold, and her warriors dress in silver.
• Chainmail Bikini: Her regular outfit.
• Face–Heel Turn: Before she took over the Olympians and started pursuing Xena, Athena was the only Olympian Xena admired.
  "I will not be dictated to by a mortal!"
• Fallen Heroine: Originally beloved by mortals for her wisdom, after hearing about the Twilight of the Gods prophecy she went full-blown evil.
• Hot Librarian: In "The Apple" episode, she manifests herself in this form◊ to win a Beauty Contest with her sisters Aphrodite and Artemis.
• Light Is Not Good: Wears golden armor after her Face–Heel Turn.
• Ms. Fanservice: Wears a Stripperiffic Chainmail Bikini, and during a Beauty Contest she dresses like a Hot Librarian to gain the golden apple.
• Necessarily Evil: Tried to kill Xena because of the prophecy that Xena's child would destroy the Olympians.
• Not So Above It All:
  • "The Apple": She really wants to beat her sisters in that beauty contest, so she offers to make Iolaus (who was the judge) the smartest man in the world.
  • "Ares on Trial": Though a fair judge, she clearly delights at the chance to condemn Ares to Tartarus, and he calls her on it. Also, when it's revealed Strife and Discord framed Ares, she grants the war god's request that they be turned over to him for punishment.
• Pet the Dog:
  • The backstory to "Lost Mariner" features this. When Cecrops declared she won the contest for Athens, Poseidon cursed him with never being allowed on the land again. Athena granted Cecrops immortality to give him the time to figure out how to break the curse and gave him a clue.
  • Xena slashed Illainus in the face during their first encounter. Without even being asked, Athena heals the wound as a reward for her loyal service.
• Physical Goddess: She is the Goddess of wisdom and war after all.
• Revenge by Proxy: Implied. While she's primarily interested in killing Eve simply to preserve the Olympian reign, she also notes multiple times how this baby was essentially responsible for the death of her father.

Ming T'ien (Daniel Sim (as an adult) / Daniel Lim (as a child))

• Create Your Own Villain: Unknown to Xena, Ming T'ien looked to her as his mentor. He saw his father, who was a pretty bad guy, as weak because of his concern for him.

Pao Tsu (Marie Matiko)

One of Lao Ma's estranged daughters.

• Cain and Abel: With Khao Hsien
• Evil Costume Switch: Once her identity is known, she switches from her qipao to the regalia of an empress.
• Pure Is Not Good: She masters Lao Ma's power because of her purity of hate.

Brutus (Grant Triplow / Darren Young / David Franklin)

"Girl, I have seen death more times than I care to. You are either a fool or you don't know what you are talking about.

Caesar's right hand man

• Bling of War: Wore silver armor.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Averted. He was unfailingly loyal to Caesar.
• Hero Killer: He killed Ephiny in battle.
• Historical Domain Character: The same Brutus from real life.
• Killed Off for Real: At the battle of Actium, at that.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: He sincerely believed Caesar was his friend and had Rome's best interests at heart.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Pompey was killed, Caesar was poised to have complete control. He was going to give Brutus control of Gaul—not as a reward for his service, but because it'd be easier to have him killed if he was far away from Rome.

Bacchus (Anthony Ray Parker / Kevin Smith)

The Greek God of Debauchery.

• Adaptational Ugliness: A very exaggerated example since Bacchus (or Dionysius as he is better known among Greeks) tends to be either depicted as a Pretty Boy or as an middle-aged fat man. This version of him, on the other hand, is outright demonic.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Bacchus could be quite the petty Jerkass in the Greek myths, he wasn't a diabolic monster like the one in this show who aimed to conquer the land with an army of vampires. Hell, he is in fact so hated by his own family that his servants are (initially) Barred from the Afterlife.
• Ancient Grome: He is referred to by his Roman name rather than Dionysius, and his female servants are called Bacchae instead of Maenads.
• Arch-Enemy: To the hero Orpheus, who dedicated himself to destroy Bacchus and his minions.
• Back from the Dead: Hercules was able to kill him during his teenage years in Young Hercules, but Bacchus returned to life sometime afterwards due to the fact that only another Bacchae could kill him.
• Big Red Devil: Bacchus has blood-red skin and large curved horns.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Though not a big deal is made out of it, he is actually the first god ever killed in the series by Xena.
• The End... Or Is It?: Every time he is killed, it's unclear whether or not he will return next time. Even in his last appearance (chronologically the first one), it's hinted that he may have survived, but he never appeared alive again except in prequels.
• Eviler than Thou: Hades denounces him as "the biggest worm in the family."
• The Exile: He is effectively an outcast among the gods and his servants are barred from entering the Elysian Fields.
• Foil: To Ares. Both are sons of Zeus eager to conquer the world with an army of loyal followers, but Ares is a careful planner that recruits talented warlords and generals. Bacchus is more of a walking Id that relies on brute force, and he uses primal desires to tempt anyone he can get. This also extends to how they deal with their half-brother Hercules and the protection rule that Zeus enforces. Ares is often very cautious in looking for loopholes to the rule, but Bacchus gladly risked the wrath of Zeus to get revenge.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Towards Eurydice in Young Hercules, whom he tried to force to be his bride.
• The Hedonist: He is the God of Debauchery and just pure evil.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: The only things capable of permanently destroying him are his own servants, the Bacchae. So Xena allows Gabrielle to turn her into a Bacchae so she can deliver Bacchus the killing blow with a dryad bone.
• Noodle Incident: The battle between his cult and Xena's army.
• Our Vampires Are Different: He is able to turn people into Bacchae—who are pretty much evil vampires.
• Physical God: He is the god of Debauchery.
• Retcon: Initially on both shows, it was Dionysus who got passing mentions; an early Hercules episode even made him the plot's backstory and had him referred to as one of the nicer gods by Herc. A couple years later, we're introduced to Bacchus, a vicious and hated villain, and any references to Dionysus were quietly dropped.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: A retroactive example; Bacchus first appeared as a Xena enemy and died in his first episode, but it's revealed in Young Hercules that he used to fight regularly against Hercules in his early heroic career.
• Take Over the World: On Young Hercules, his ultimate goal is to gain enough followers to take over the mortal world.
• The Unfavorite: Possibly more than any other son of Zeus. We never see father and son interact, but Bacchus is always depicted as being among mortals on Earth, which suggests he's not allowed on Olympus. Even Ares at least gets to live there.

Ilainus of Mycenea (Musetta Vander)

Athena's champion.

• Bling of War: Wore silver armor like the rest of Athena's mooks.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in Athena's arms and while receiving her blessing.
• Evil Counterpart: She is loyal to Athena as much as Xena used to be loyal to Ares.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She meets her end getting stabbed in the gut by Xena.
• Undying Loyalty: Unfailingly so towards Athena.

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