Xena Rules

Abstract

This paper analyzes and discusses “Antony and Cleopatra,” an episode from the popular and highly intertextual action-fantasy television series, Xena: Warrior Princess, in the context of the Roman story arc in the series and more particularly as a “feminized” appropriation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Although Xena's version of this tragedy copies the voluptuous atmosphere of Shakespeare's play, it radically changes its characterization. The Roman triumvirate exemplifies rigid and corrupted power play: Octavius is (as yet) a peaceful idealist, but Brutus (who replaces Lepidus) has murdered Cleopatra, and Antony, although brave and intelligent, is depicted as a ruthless and over-ambitious power politician, who is only taken in by a woman much cleverer than himself. Cleopatra is the victim of the struggle between these oppressive masculine forces, and, unlike Shakespeare's Queen of Egypt, Xena, who replaces her, does not allow her feelings for Antony to divide her from her sensibilities. She never loses sight of the desirable outcome: a mutual weakening of the combative (masculine) forces of empire and colonial expansion through war, and the survival of the traditionally feminine values of peace and justice. She eliminates both Antony and Brutus, and to a much larger extent than Shakespeare's fickle and understandably insecure lover-queen, Xena, a focused and confident female superhero, acts as an empowered and pragmatic ruler, who sacrifices her own love for the greater cause of Egypt's freedom.