Callisto Being a Psycho Version of Gabrielle
Posted by An0nym0us0ney@reddit | xena | View on Reddit | 6 comments
I think that in Season 1 only Callisto is supposed to be a psycho version of Gabrielle. Season 1 Gabrielle is intentionally supposed to be a huge Xena fangirl who is obssessed with her. By Season 2 Gabrielle doesn't have a celebrity perception of Xena anymore as we see in "A Day in the Life".
Season 1 Gabrielle is Xena's #1 fangirl. Callisto on the other hand is Xena's #1 hater that is just as equally obsessed with her as her #1 fangirl is. And she's blonde too as well. I think in Season 1 Callisto is definetely supposed to be a psycho version of Gabrielle, as well as a mirror to both Gabrielle and Xena saying "This is what Gabrielle would look like if she were Xena's #1 hater.".
LilyofTheValley_7@reddit
I feel like you're right, but looking to deeply into answers that are right on the surface.
It kinda seems like Callisto and Gabrielle are parallels of each other. Both young women whose lives were forever changed by Xena.
I mean they even show this direct parallel when they team up with other "bad guys" and Gabrielle learns they were all normal people before Xena came into their lives. So she begins to question who she is, and if it was her own choice to become this changed person.
We see how callisto did deeply love her family, when she talks about how her entire world revolved around them, and by Xena killing them, killed who she could've been.
I mean there has been plenty of times Gabrielle came close to becoming similar to callisto when her own loved ones died.
IseQween@reddit
Oh, yes, we really get that in RoC. When Cally has her sword at Xena's back, she warns, "I'm not gonna kill you now.... First I'm going to kill your soul -- like you killed mine." At that point she's probably referring to killing Gabrielle. Murdering Perdicas instead ends up being even sweeter revenge -- inciting Gabrielle to kill and regard her ideals as a "lie."
Cally succeeds in at least damaging both our girls' souls by bringing out the worst in Gabs, simultaneously tainting the WP's best source for good. Gabs tells Xena, "That innocent little Gabrielle is dead, and there's no getting her back." In essence, Cally has "created" a bit of herself to walk beside Xena as a painfully constant reminder and consequence of "creating" her most obsessive nemesis/victim in the first place.
An0nym0us0ney@reddit (OP)
Even before Callisto killed Perdicus something about Callisto had always brought out a bad/hypocritical side in Gabrielle that I don't think even Gabrielle herself knew that she had inside. All throughout Season 1 Gabrielle is at her peak optimistic self. She believes in the potential goodness in all beings and that even the worst person is capable of redemption. But then she was written out of character in Callisto's debut episode in Season 1 for some reason? Something about Callisto had turned Gabrielle off to her right off the bat. Gabrielle automatically viewed Callisto as a lost cause for some reason? She instantly had this weird hatred towards Callisto, and Callisto hadn't even killed her husband yet. Simply put, Gabrielle simply never liked Callisto at all from the get go. In one of Hudson Leick's Q&A videos she says that even she herself is surprised at Gabrielle's character automatically viewing Callisto's character as a lost cause.
Something about Callisto's character had brought out a rather hypocritical side to Gabrielle's character, revealing that Gabrielle's beliefs are only reserved for people that she actually likes (like Xena, Najara, etc.). This is just another way that Callisto's character puts up a mirror to Gabrielle's character. Season 1 Gabrielle has it in her to be pessimistic like Callisto is.
IseQween@reddit
Yes, I always felt Gabs' almost immediate dismissal of Callisto as salvageable seemed strange. I've had to rationalize it as because Cally was out to destroy Xena. Or Gabs had some internal device to measure damage to the heart, like Xena's instincts about danger. However, I find your analysis intriguing, similar to what someone else said about Cally being like Gabs' dark side. I wonder if that was intentional?
When did you see Gabrielle as pessimistic in S1?
An0nym0us0ney@reddit (OP)
I only saw Gabrielle as pessimistic in Season 1 in Callisto's debut episode when it came to Gabrielle's belief in Callisto's possible redemption. Xena had more of a belief in Callisto's possible redemption in Callisto's debut episode than Gabrielle did.
Agent8699@reddit
They’re all “mirrors” of one another:
Xena was 15/16 (?) when a warlord attacked her village. She fought back and “saved” her village, but became a warlord herself
Callisto was 11/12 (?) when a warlord attacked her village. That warlord killed her entire family and destroyed her village. She became a “hero” dedicated to stopping the warlord from inflicting the same pain and suffering on others. Then she learned that the warlord was being celebrated as a hero and suffered a psychological breakdown of monstrous proportions, leading her to become the very thing she hated most (ie Xena)
Gabrielle was 15 to 18 (?) when a warlord attacked her village. She tried to fight back, but needed a newly emerged hero to help her win the day and save the village.