Many Xena fans have long known that there was significantly more than friendship between Xena and Gabrielle. That’s why it frustrated fans to no end that the show never fully went down that avenue during its time on the air.
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Now thanks to an interview (via Entertainment Weekly) with Executive Producer and Co-Creator Rob Tapert, we have a much clearer vision of why. “We didn’t really ever want to get them 100 percent together for a very strange reason. There was Ares [Kevin Smith], God of War, who we loved. We did not want to give up the hold that character had over Xena and the enjoyment we had with telling stories of Xena and Ares. So as much as we liked that Xena and Gabrielle were two people who were the best of friends, and perhaps intimate friends, we never wanted to give up Ares.”
The fervor from fans towards the pairing eventually made it’s into the writers room, with Tapert saying: “We were surprised at first, but I think that the writing staff, who were extremely sophisticated and savvy and witty, caught on much faster than I did,”
The studio had its own concerns with how the characters were portrayed according to Tapert, adding: “Before we started shooting Xena, we shot the material that we were going to use to create the opening title sequences with. The studio was so concerned that it would be perceived as a lesbian show that they would not allow us to have Xena and Gabrielle in the same frame of the opening titles.”
Yes, because not having them together in the titles would win out over the other 45 minutes of content. Sound logic by any stretch. Regardless of intent or studio meddling, the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle has become one of the defining aspects of the series.
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