SVS #902 - Who Watches The Watcher: Part II in Subtext Central Forum

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SVS #902 - Who Watches The Watcher: Part II

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thrill of the quill	SVS #902 - Who Watches The Watcher: Part II	Lead	[-]
Demi god Posts: 1781 (07/04/09 10:39 PM) Subtext Central Hostess Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tags : None Each weekend we will begin a new discussion on the next Subtext Virtual Season episode. So jump right in and give us your thoughts! ~~~DISCUSSION THREAD~~~ for Xena: Warrior Princess - Subtext Virtual Season 9 Production #V902: Who Watches The Watcher: Part II XWP Subtext Virtual Seasons at AUSXIP Virtual Airdate - November 5, 2003 Written by: Melissa Good Directed by: Denise Byrd Produced by: Carol Stephens Screengrabs by: Judi Mair Artwork by: Lucia Title Graphic by: MaryD Summary: Xena and Gabrielle track down the source of a religious farce spreading across the countryside, only to find a shocking kernel of truth at its core. Let the discussion begin! View My XWP Vids On YouTube
MHRasmussen	Re: SVS #902 - Who Watches The Watcher: Part II	#1	[-]
Posts: 5548 (07/05/09 04:26 AM) *TX Moderator* Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Overall: I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The religious subplot was kept in the background, and instead the traditional Xena-style storytelling was brought to the forefront. Very surprising ending, IMO. I did not see that coming at all, but it's definitely in accordance with the Xenaverse, as X&G talk about at the end. Rating: out of - good. Hits: - G: "Sure. I mean, if it really is her in the middle of this, maybe it's all just a huge misunderstanding. You know how that can happen." Xena is looking straight ahead. X: "What if it isn't?" G: "If it isn't? I don't understand, Xena. You don't seriously mean you think Eve's behind those guys, do you? She's your daughter... how could you?" Xena looks very somberly at Gabrielle. X: "Because she's my daughter." Gabrielle falls silent. After a moment looking into Xena's eyes, she just puts her hand up and brushes the back of her knuckles against Xena's cheek. - great scene at the start of act 2 with Gabrielle and Eve - G: "One thing I've learned in my life with your mother, Eve. It's almost never as simple as it seems." Eve looks a little puzzled. E: "I guess that's true about life in general, isn't it? (looking around) I started off running a soup kitchen here." Gabrielle also looks around, appreciating the irony. G: "I started off just getting water for my mother's fish soup. (...)" - The guard turns around in a circle, then scratches his head. Suddenly, the pole appears between his legs, moving rapidly upward. The guard screams as it impacts, and drops to his knees. The pole clatters to a halt next to him and lies there, apparently having attacked the guard by itself. The prisoners watch in fascination. Prisoner: "Hey. Sure you paid your taxes? Maybe the high pooh-bah heard you didn't." - Guard: "Hey! You there!" Instead of running, Xena stands in the middle of the corridor, and puts her hands on her hips. X: "You talking to me?" Guard: "Yeah! Don't move!" X: "Wouldn't think of it." Second guard: "Get her!" Xena gleefully meets the two guards, grabbing the pole from one's hands and knocking the second's weapon free with it. She twirls the pole and rotates at the same time, smacking both men with either end repeatedly. X: "Yah!" Xena ends with the pole under her arm, and both men on the ground in a heap. - X: "Maybe we are. Or maybe Eve can explain why her soldiers are forcing men to work because they can't afford her taxes." Eve's jaw actually drops. Eve: "My WHAT? Mother, you've gone insane. That's really what happened in Japa, isn't it? You didn't die. You just went mad." - G: "Maybe we should start from the beginning." Xena sits down on the ground with her back to the wall. She crosses her ankles and folds her arms. Her expression is somewhat dour. Gabrielle looks at her in question. After a moment of silence from Xena, Gabrielle sighs again. G: "Maybe I should start at the beginning." - Eve: "I don't believe it! It's not real! You're making it all up, mother! Just because this isn't your way of...." Gabrielle gets up and joins Xena. G: "(yelling back) Eve, your mother has the imagination of a warthog!!!!" She pauses, ignores Xena's glare - the scene at the end of act 3 where Xena and Eve go exploring in the city is - from a scene early on in act 4: Disturbed, Gabrielle sits down on the edge of the bed to wait. G: "Why can't it ever be simple with us? (musing) It used to be just scrungy warlords every week. Then it was armies. Then it was gods. Then it was ghosts. (sighing) Now we can't even stop for a festival without getting involved with the fate of the world. Boy that gets old sometimes." - X: "Eve...." Eve turns. E: "You're not going to lecture me on putting myself in the line of fire, are you, Mother?" Xena's jaw clicks shut. - E: "Mother, I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you won't interfere." X: "Eve...." E: "Promise me. This is my destiny. Let me take it wherever it goes." The 'D' word will get Xena every time. - great buildup to Eve's big speech in act 4 - Eve: "(louder, almost growling) And in MY NAME." Gabrielle squeezes Xena's hand. G: "(whispering) She sounded just like you, there." - I can't quote anything from the ending and the closing tag without spoiling it, so I'll just say: Excellent! Misses: - not this time. Michael
dark hunter silver		#2	[-]
Warlord Posts: 585 (07/06/09 06:12 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I didn't like ether episodes from the watcher series, to me it felt more like the writer was having a stab at Eve, because she's not well liked and considered annoying in the series. Spoiler [+] The ultimate slap being the ending and the killing of yet another main character for shock value. I feel that enough characters have died in the series at this point and it made this just plain sad. It also creates a plot hole once again as Xena now has no descents to carry on her line, much like Gabrielle. Last Edited By: dark hunter silver 07/07/09 06:26 AM. Edited 3 times.
scanto		#3	[-]
Poteidaian Posts: 81 (07/07/09 04:58 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	During the last season of the show, Missy Good tells that the authors had thought to turn Eve bad again, as if Callisto's soul was reappering inside her. Luckily (IMO), this idea was dumped, probably because it would have reintroduced a theme widely exploited in S5, but with regret of Missy herself, who instead preferred by far Livia to the pacifist Eve, extremely boring, according to her. So, when SVS staff started to consider the possibility to dust off the character (basically under the pressure of part of the fandom that wanted Eve to come back from the limbo where she had been relegated), Missy was tempted to recycle that old project, but (luckily, again) she changed her mind. "However," as she wrote in the SVS forum, "I felt I had to strike a balance between being realistic about the consequences of her building her religion, and also giving Eve what I considered a proper treatment. I think she was more complex than the series generally showed her to be - and I also did not really buy her instant conversion to sainthood." Then, there was another issue to deal with: "As for why Xena woudn't have tried to search her out immediately - well, after she went off to teach Eli's message, the show had Xena 'cutting the strings' so to speak, and kind of having her say - well, I did the best I could. Now she has to go out and do what she does and be what she is. Also - I was wondering myself how Eve would feel if she found Xena alive again, and realized she hadn't been told. Would she be pissed off? Sad?" And the story that should never have to be, was born, and Eve and Xena meet again for a last time. When somebody asks me why I so strongly state that SVS is the Only Real Sequel of Xena Warrior Princess TV show and why I refuse to consider all the other virtual seasons on the same level, this is the best answer I can always give them: read the episodes, read the forum discussions, see by yourself how deeply SVS writers have delved into the characters, not choising the easiest way to tell us new (often completely airy-fairy) stories, but weaving new plots whose roots lie firmly in the past established by the show. And all this cannot be explained only with the presence in the staff of one author of the TV series, or the generosity of Robert Tapert who gave them the permission to employ scripts and storylines not used in the show. No, there's much more here. In some way, the spell of the show has been transmitted to SVS, giving new life to Xena, Gabrielle and all the other characters from TV, even if they do not move any longer on a TV screen. So, maybe it was magic after all.
MHRasmussen	Re: SVS #902 - Who Watches The Watcher: Part II	#4	[-]
Posts: 5562 (07/07/09 07:40 AM) *TX Moderator* Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Silver - the thing you wrote in the Spoiler-space is a very good point - and one I overlooked when I read the episode. Michael
xenawp7706		#5	[-]
Xenite Posts: 8077 (07/07/09 07:54 AM) Italian IX Hostess Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am actually really sorry that Eve died in this episode and the fact that Xena felt nothing at the end. Why this choise? I was really disappointed to read it.
scanto		#6	[-]
Poteidaian Posts: 82 (07/08/09 04:55 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am actually really sorry that Eve died in this episode and the fact that Xena felt nothing at the end. Why this choise? I was really disappointed to read it. I think that no one better than the writer herself can answer a question on her own episode. So here below you will find what Missy replied to a fan who expressed your same doubts: If you felt empty after reading the episode - then what I wrote worked, because there is no way to have a good ending when someone dies like that. So you felt, what Xena was feeling. I think Xena loved Eve in her own way - but also because she knew as a mother she was supposed to. But - because she never got to raise Eve, I think a lot of what would normally be part of a mother/daughter relationship just was not there. I think Xena also carries a lot of guilt over everything that happened with Eve, and her becoming Livia because Xena put her in that position by leaving her where she did. So - I think what I wrote was true to both characters. It would have been warmer and fuzzier to have a grand family reunion with hugs and kisses, and having Eve join them in their travels but that is not how the story told itself to me. Would Eve have died if Xena the television series had continued? Yes. Probably not in the same way, though - and I like to think I gave her a kinder and gentler end than what would have been hers otherwise. M

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