Hope and Eve: The Irony

Have a fun vacation. :-D

As for the OP, the post is addressing what you said, but maybe he/she/ze accidentally replied to him/her/zirself. I've seen that happen on these boards before.

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Keevan - I hate Ferengi. *THUNK*
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

My initial reply was in a post below. I thought I had replied to yours, but maybe did reply to the wrong one. Anyway, the full text of my previous reply is here:


I did not forget or ignore anything. Xena did not see Hope strangle anyone. She left the room only to return and find the knight strangled with Hope playing withe pendant. Gabrielle did point out the possibility that someone else had come into the room and murdered the knight. I admit Hope did it and going by the series it was supposed to be proof that Hope was evil, but from Xena's point of view it isn't so simple. Xena assumed Hope strangled him out of evil intent. Did Hope do it by accident? Did Hope maybe misuse some sort of strength or power? Did the knight accidentally do something that frightened Hope? Did Hope have an evil nature that could have been overcome with loving nurture? Could Hope even comprehend what she had done or formed a coherent thought to murder a man?

Xena took it upon herself to serve as judge, jury and executioner on an infant. She based her suspicions purely on a prophecy and who Hope's father was. That one incident was enough to condemn Hope to death compared to Xena who herself had done much worse yet still found redemption.

Prophecies in Greek myth are tricky things. Often, the very act of trying to prevent them brings them about. On the other hand, sometimes acting to prevent them stops them from coming true. Both Zeus and Xena were willing to kill infants/babies to avert what they thought were terrible futures without fully giving said being a chance to grow up and prove if they truly were the threat they were supposed to be or if there was another way to avert that dark future. Yet Zeus is reviled while Xena is given a free pass.

The only thing I would add (in response to your other posts) is most of the people Xena killed were in the heat of battle. Both Xena and Hercules had several episodes dedicated to the need for trials. Sometimes the "obvious" criminal was not the correct one. Other times there were mitigating circumstances. If Hercules and Xena arbitrarily engaged in vigilante justice whenever they felt like it they would only increase the breakdown of social order they were fighting against.

My original point is Zeus was not anymore heroic or villainous in his actions attempting to murder Eve than Xena was trying to kill an infant Hope. Within story, both were acting on prophecies which in their universe can be true, but can sometimes be averted. Xena herself had done far worse than Hope and spared both herself and others like Eve/Livia. Xena had no way to know if Dahak being Hope's father would make her predestined toward being evil than Ares being someone's father would predestine them to being a violent warlord.

Yes, the writers of the show intended Hope to be pure evil to justify Xena's actions toward her. But looking at it from Xena's point of view she had no way of knowing that, her actions are to a hypocritical in light of her actions to others, and she was acting on similar information to Zeus. If one's actions are villainous than so is the others. If one's actions are heroic than so is the others.