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Congrats on your 100th post, Sunshine7 -- you're a First Citizen now, yay!

Shipper, 3 chakrams.

On the plus side of the ledger:

* The development of the Xena/Ares relationship. I love the way it was handled, with the exception of Soul Possession. While the shippertext in S6 is not as prominent as it is in S5, I think it makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. The shipper storyline in S5 is mostly about Ares' feelings for Xena; S6, for me, definitely settles the question of whether Xena has feelings for Ares. Their storyline in "Xenaverse time" (i.e. Path of Vengeance) ends on a rather lovely note of mutual understanding and an odd sort of harmony-in-antagonism.

* Ares' development (again, minus SP). I have some quibbles (e.g., Ares didn't get enough serious drama to do as a mortal) but still, I really liked what we did get with mortal Ares (and post-mortal Ares in Path of Vengeance).

* The "warrior Gabrielle" arc. After being somewhat neglected in S5, Gabrielle's character growth and her struggle with being a warrior is examined in two excellent episodes (Legacy and To Helicon and Back) and two that are a mixed bag (Who's Gurkhan, The Abyss). Gabrielle is quite impressive as a mature warrior in A Friend in Need, though in my opinion there is not enough of a lead-up to it.

* The return of quality comedies. Even as a defender of S5, I have to admit the comedies were crap. In S6 we got three excellent comedies that aren't quite up to the Season 3 comedy constellation (Been There Done That, The Quill Is Mightier, Fins, Femmes & Gems) but nonetheless get two very enthusiastic thumbs up: Old Ares Had a Farm, You Are There, and Many Happy Returns, as well as good comedy elements in some of the dramas (notably The God You Know).

* The return of the "real" Amazons. The ones in S5 were sort of a joke. I liked Queen Marga, and I actually liked Varia though I think they did her a serious disservice in To Helicon and Back. The last Cyane was also a worthy successor to her first namesake (unlike the awful S5 version).

* Good wrap-up to the Roman arc. Legacy and The God You Know did a pretty good job of completing that storyline.

* Episodes that examined shades of moral gray in Xena and Gabrielle's actions. Specifically, Legacy and The God You Know.

* Alexis Arquette as Caligula.

* Some good Gabrielle/Aphrodite friendship moments.


On the minus side of the ledger:

* The worst three X:WP episodes ever. Not just dull like the S5 Ch'in eps or Lifeblood, or weird like Married with Fishsticks, but, to me, extremely distasteful and actively offensive. That would be Heart of Darkness (a deadly sin on top of the other seven), Last of the Centaurs (Borias as a pig, Evil Xena as a homewrecking slut, present-day Xena and Gabrielle making cute banter about genocide), and Soul Possession (sleazy Ares, out of character Xena... ew).

* Over-the-top sex and violence. Several episodes (Heart of Darkness, Who's Gurkhan, The God You Know) in which a main point of the story seems to be to get Xena and Gabrielle (and sometimes other characters like Virgil and Ares) into skimpy clothes and sexual situations, with scenes shot in a way that gives them a soft-porn feel. The sexualized violence of Who's Gurkhan I found particularly sickening -- this is the first and only time on the show when Xena is subjected to violence not as a warrior but as a woman. The Alti/Caesar sex/murder scene in When Fates Collide also stands out as gratuitously pornish and violent, and in A Friend in Need we have stuff like the camera lingering over Gab's body in the tattoo scene, the twice-repeated shot of Xena's headless corpse, and a naked Ghost Xena being whipped by Yodoshi.

* Lack of direction. This season was all over the place, with "Warrior Gabrielle" and "the decline and fall of the Amazons" as the only two cohesive storylines. xxdecrepitxx makes an interesting point about returning to standalone episodes, but I still think that the final season of X:WP deserved a stronger central storyline.

* No good recurring antagonist. Even in S5, there were two and a half: Athena and Livia, plus Ares as the half (because he was sometimes more an ally than an antagonist). What do we have in S6? Odin and the sneering Valkyries? Plus a sexed-up Alti and a dumbed-down Caesar in WFC? The only interesting baddie in the whole season, IMO, was Bellerophon (and he was only in one episode). Prince Morloch was a potentially interesting character but somehow ended up being rather blah ... a bit like Satrina in that respect. Oh, and I actually liked Gascar in Old Ares.

* Hardly any good supporting characters, period. The only ones worth mentioning are Marga, Varia, Greba, Gascar, Bellerophon and Genia. Beowulf could have been a good character but he was really underdeveloped.

* The devolution of Eve and Virgil. Both got off to such a good start in Season 5, only to be largely ruined in S6. Eve at least had some good moments in the Amazon eps, but her endless "In the name of Eli!" chants really ruined the character. Virgil became a Joxerish buffoon (at least he had a pretty good sendoff in The Abyss).

*The devolution of Evil Xena. I particularly disliked the way she was portrayed in the Ring trilogy flashbacks and in Last of the Centaurs.

* Gratuitous gruesomeness. Cyrene's awful death was completely unnecessary, IMO. As if Xena hasn't already suffered enough tragedies! The beheading of Gabrielle's parents at least served its purpose for a story, though IMO they could have done without that too.

* The finale. Not the fact that Xena died, but how, why, and where. The only good thing about it was Warrior Gabrielle, and Gabrielle alone on the boat at the end.

* Missed opportunities. For instance: nothing was ever done with the fact that Eve was baptized into the Amazons as a child.

Mixed grades:

* The Xena/Gabrielle relationship. They had some great moments -- tender, affectionate, playful, angsty. However, to be totally honest, as a friendshipper I felt that at times this season leaned a little too far toward the sexual interpretation of the relationship (though I don't believe it was ever "maintext"). What's more, to me personally a lot of these "five minutes to maintext" moments seemed artificially tacked onto the "regular" X/G dynamic, rather than emerge from it organically, and X & G's transcendent "soulmate" bond at times seemed to be rather heavy-handedly emphasized. On the plus side, some S6 episodes were not afraid to explore the darker aspects of X & G's relationship (e.g. Gabrielle's suppressed resentment toward Xena over the Hope issue) and the price they pay for their bond.

* The God of Love arc. On one level, I liked the fact that after seemingly endorsing monotheism in Season 5, the show suggested that the new religion wasn't necessarily an improvement on the old pantheon, and had Xena turn against the archangels -- in TGYK and then in You Are There in sending Ares and 'Dite back to Olympus. On the other hand, this seemed to (retroactively) make Xena look like a real chump in Season 5, and as several people have pointed out you'd expect her to be more teed off about having been used by what Casual Fan has called "the celestial mafia" as a weapon to off the Olympians.

* The "death of the ancient world" theme. In some ways, it was interesting to see the series dramatize the disappearance of the fantasy elements of antiquity such as the Amazons and the Centaurs. On the other hand, it was also fairly depressing. The downfall of the Amazons at least had some drama and poignancy; the extinction of the Centaurs was handled very badly. The sight of the pit filled with bodies was sickening, and the fact that Xena let the perpetrator of this genocide off the hook because he was the son of Borias and because she felt guilty about "stealing" his dad from his mother (ugh!) left a really bad taste in my mouth.

* Xena's relationship with Eve. Mostly another missed opportunity. Great potential and some very interesting moments (such as the creepy little "bonding" scene on the boat in Who's Gurkhan), but very underdeveloped because Eve's character is so underdeveloped. Their last good-bye was very poignant though, thanks largely to Lucy's improvised "Stay outta trouble!"

* The Abyss. The apparently intentional reworking of some of the themes of The Price in a darker and more cynical vein was interesting -- but the message that sometimes, you can't win by looking for the common humanity you share with the enemy was undercut by the fact that the enemy was made quite literally subhuman.

* When Fates Collide. Fascinating premise marred by rushed execution (and no, I don't mean Xena's hurried crucifixion ), the implausible portrayal of Caesar and his relationship with Xena, the irritating and inexplicable presence of Alti (how in the world does a small-time Siberian shamaness become High Priestess of Rome?), and violence bordering on sadism. Great closing scene, though.

* Fandom-oriented episodes. The way fandom disputes were illustrated in You Are There was funny and creative, and the geeky fans in Send in the Clones were somewhat amusing (though I doubt they were particularly interesting to fans who were not an active part of the fandom). But three fandom-oriented episodes in one season? Way, way too much.

Wow, this has turned into quite a treatise. There you have it. Looking at my list it seems that the bad outweighs the good for me, but luckily I assign more weight to some of the good (like the X/A storyline and the Warrior Gab storyline) than the bad.

And just to throw in a minor plus, there were some very cool costumes. Xena's dress in Return of the Valkyrie is probably my favorite non-warrior outfit for her (except maybe for the red dress in When in Rome), and Gabrielle's FIN armor rocked. Ares' pajama pants in OAHAF also deserve an honorable mention.

Thank you *points to "Xena Studies Ph.D." title*