I am delighted and honored to present below a series of photo manipulations that were created for me by the greatest photo manipulation artist working today, Marcar1. I provided Marcar1 with a set of still picture captures I made from the TV show “Xena Warrior Princess” and explained to him where I wanted the arrow to go. Marcar1 did the rest and the results are magnificent as you see below.
Many fans of the Xena TV show, myself included, were unhappy with how the series ended. I have made up my own brief scenario of how Xena’s saga should have ended to fit the context of the photo manipulations. A basic knowledge of ancient Greek history and of the Xena TV show will help to understand my scenario, but I will fill in the basic information, as best I briefly can, as follows:
It is the year 480 BC. A Persian horde army of 150,000 slave soldiers, whipped into battle at the command of their god-on-earth King Xerxes, has invaded Greece. A force of 7,000 free Greek warriors takes up a defensive position at the Pass of Thermopylae where it is only fifty yards from the foot of sheer cliffs that are hundreds of feet high to the edge of the sea. In that seashore beach defile of only fifty yards breadth, 7,000 Greek warriors will be able to negate the enormous Persian advantage in numbers in a face-to-face shield-on-shield, spear-to-spear fight. Of the 7,000 Greek warriors, the best and bravest are 300 warriors from the Greek city-state of Sparta, led by their King Leonidas. Xena and Leonidas are old friends. Xena and her little blonde sidekick Gabrielle join the Spartan force and, in effect, become the 301st and 302nd Spartans fighting at Thermopylae. For two days, the Greeks, with the Spartans setting the example, inflict horrific losses on the invading Persians. Xena and Gabrielle are conspicuous fighting in the Greek front rank. The kill ratio is on the order of five Persians for every one Greek. As I stated, this situation plays out for two intensely terrible long days of battle.
But on the night of the second day of battle, a Greek traitor tells the Persians about a secret goat path that winds high up through the mountains around the Pass of Thermopylae and leads back down to the sea behind the Greek position in the pass. Xerxes sends many thousands of his best warriors to march the length of this path in the night in order to attack the Greeks from behind while the bulk of the Persian army continues to attack the Greeks from in front. The Greeks will thus be surrounded and annihilated. But early on the morning of the third day of battle, the Greeks receive early warning from their scouts that a huge force of Persians has discovered the goat path and is at that moment closing in on the Greeks from behind. Leonidas orders all the non-Spartan Greeks to evacuate Thermopylae and escape while they still can to fight another day. But Leonidas and his 300 Spartans will remain in the pass and willingly, voluntarily, fight to the death against impossible numerical odds in order to buy time with their lives for the non-Spartan Greeks to make good their escape. On Xena’s request, Leonidas orders that Gabrielle be bodily seized, tied hand and foot with ropes, put across the back of a donkey, and taken out of the pass with the escaping non-Spartan Greeks. All of this is done as Leonidas commands, over the shouted tearful protests of Gabrielle who wants to stay and die at Xena’s side. Xena, of course, remains with the Spartans to meet a glorious warrior’s death with them.
Also on the night of the second day of battle, Ares, who is the ancient Greek God of War, appears to Xena. Throughout the several seasons of the Xena TV show, there were two ongoing themes in the relationship between Xena and Ares. First was Ares continual attempts to force Xena to become his lover, attempts which Xena continually spurned. Second was recurring hints and innuendos that Ares was Xena’s real father, which would explain her superhuman warrior capabilities. In their last meeting the night before the final day at Thermopylae, Ares confirms once and for all that yes, he is Xena’s father. Then he lays down his final ultimatum to her: either become his incestuous lover or suffer the fatal consequences. Xena spurns him for the final time, knowingly sealing her own doom as she does so.
Just at sunrise on the third day of battle at Thermopylae, the non-Spartan Greeks make good their escape, taking the loudly protesting Gabrielle with them as she is trussed up across the back of a donkey. Leonidas walks among his men, and Xena, saying, “Enjoy your breakfast men! We’ll eat supper in Hades!" The response from all the Spartans is grim laughter. One Spartan warrior, on being told that the Persian arrows would fly so thick they would blot out the sun, replies, “So much the better. We will fight our battle in the shade.”
By midmorning, the Spartans and Xena are attacked from front and rear by stupendously larger numbers of Persians. The kill ratio is greater than five Persians for every one Spartan but even so, the Spartans are slowly overwhelmed and slain where they stand on a little hillock near the narrowest neck of the pass. Xena is the last Greek standing, thousands of slaughtered Persians sprawled in a circle around her. Then Ares appears on the battlefield. He and Xena make eye contact across the few blood-drenched yards of turf that separate them. Ares puts an arrow to his bow and launches his arrow straight into the middle of Xena’s chest, squarely in the middle of her cleavage, perfectly centered between her brass armor-encased bosoms, to fatally impale her heart. Xena accepts her death in battle with a true warrior’s stoic grace. She lays herself out to die on the now sacred soil of the Pass of Thermopylae. Her spirit departs for the Elysian Fields, the ancient Greek version of heaven which is reserved for only the greatest of heroes.
Just like they did for the dead body of the great Trojan warrior named Hector during the Trojan war, the gods preserve Xena’s dead body from decay until she can receive proper funeral rights. Eventually, the Greeks destroy the invading Persian forces at the battles of Salamis and Plataea. The Greeks reoccupy the Pass of Thermopylae and recover Xena’s body. They lay her in her coffin, the arrow of the God of War still embedded in her brave heart as a mark of honor.
Marcar1’s superb photo manipulations are as follows:
Xena reacts to Ares’ arrow piercing her heart:
Xena bows her head in her acceptance of Death:
Xena lies dying, distant view:
Xena lies dying, close-up view:
Xena lies dead:
Xena’s dead body is cleaned up by her family in preparation for her funeral:
Xena laid out in her coffin, Ares’ arrow still in place as a mark of honor, signifying how bravely Xena died for the freedom of Greece:
I hope you find this presentation of merit,
Strange Dog
