Themes and motifs on Xena
Xena: Warrior Princess included numerous themes and repeating motifs over its six-year course.
- Self-reliance
- Self-reliance versus spirituality and reliance on the gods (e.g., Eli episodes)
- Mistrust of zealotry
- Death of polytheism and forthcoming monotheism/Judeo-Christianity
- The path of nonviolence, peace, and pacifism, versus the path of violence, war, and violence
- The friendship, close relationship, and lesbian subtext between Xena and Gabrielle (see Xena-Gabrielle relationship)
- Relationships between women (see Significant female-centered episodes and characters on Xena)
- An approach to storytelling that freely mixes contemporary and historical cultural references, homages, pastiches, and retellings, with a camp sensibility