Who do you prefer? Xena or Wonder Woman?

Both pretty similar as you can see.

I'm going to say Xena.

Xena is far sexier IMO. The fact that she's a bit more rough around the edges makes her far sexier.

Also I prefer her backstory and character, and she has WAY better villains. Callisto and Ares and Alti are among the best villains in any tv show. Wonder Woman kind of falls flat however with her badguys.

Also I think Xena was quite a good role for women because she got knocked about more. That's the real reason we don't see more female heroes. Its because people don't like seeing a woman get beaten up, tortured, etc.

Compare Buffy and Angel. Did Buffy ever get tortured? Angel meanwhile there were whole episodes were the plot was basically he gets strung from the ceiling and tortured for hours.

Also compare the X-Men. Wolverine the main male character of the franchise gets tortured and knocked about all the time. When there is a poster of Jennifer Lawrence being choked however feminists get it pulled down.

With this in mind, its no surprise that most people just settle for a guy to lead an action adventure series, as it's more exciting because you can have him really get his ass kicked, where as a female hero has to be more of a boring all perfect hero.

Xena however bucked that trend. Xena got tortured, crucified, had her back and legs smashed, got killed about six times, her head cut off, strung from the ceiling and beat with clubs.

I will say though that I prefer the Wonder Woman theme. Also Xena season 5 is without doubt one of the worst ever television seasons. Its a classic example pre New Who of not letting unprofessional fanboys or girls in this case from getting hold of something. TBF though at least the people behind it admitted they fucked up royally unlike New Who. To think Steven Moffat actually thinks he did a good job with Missy and convinced people who weren't sure about a female Doctor that it would work    

Xena and it's not even close. The fact that she isn't brought up as much anymore in regards to conversations about strong female role models is absolutely disgraceful. I feel as if the show and the character are both underappreciated these days.

I did quite like the old Wonder Woman TV show but I actually find the character to be a bit dull in general.  I saw the Gadot version in Batman v Superman and I wasn't really that impressed.

In conclusion, Xena FTW.

Xena and it's not even close. The fact that she isn't brought up as much anymore in regards to conversations about strong female role models is absolutely disgraceful. I feel as if the show and the character are both underappreciated these days.

Yes we all know why that is. Feminists want it to be forgotten, because it doesn't suit their victim narrative. Similarly phoney posers like J.J. Abrams and Chris Chibnall want it (and other popular female led series) to be forgotten because otherwise they wouldn't be able to boast about how special they are for having female heroes.

The likes of Claudia Boleyn and Whovian Feminism meanwhile ironically have 0 interest in it, because its an original female hero. As I've said in the past all they care about is taking a role away from men.

Another great thing about Xena was that she had a female archenemy in the form of Callisto (one of the greatest villains of all time.) That's a proper Doctor/Master, Batman/Joker style feud between two female characters, but again the likes of Claudia, Whovian Feminism etc, don't care about it, because it doesn't actually take two roles away from men like Jodie/Pissy Missy do.

I think a part of why its forgotten is because its camp and with things like Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, gritty, violent and hard seems to be the favoured style. Though having said that, Buffy is still popular and it was just as camp. That might be because Joss is more of a presence than Rob Tapert (though I've vastly preferred Taperts recent output like Spartacus and Ash vs Evil Dead, to Joss', Tapert tends to keep a dignified silence unlike Joss.)

Lucy Lawless is IMO as good a genre lead as Shatner and Tom Baker. Like them she is an outrageous ham and elevates poor episodes, but when its episodes of a high quality, like the Callisto eps, she takes them seriously and is great.

A lot of her roles tend to be a bit grittier and harder. She normally plays villains, and tends to suffer quite gruesome deaths. Like look at her role in Ash vs Evil Dead. Both her deaths in that were nasty, and the second was hilariously undignified. Want a strong female lead to look up to, she's the one, but again unlike Jodie she hasn't taken any roles away from men, so the likes of Claudia and Whovian Feminism probably don't even know who Lucy Lawless is (neither follow her on twitter BTW, which is embarrassing when your whole schtick is how much you love female heroes.)

Never saw Xena.
The Wonder Woman film was pretty good, but usually Wonder Woman is either poorly written or engaged in a dull reprise of Greek mythology. What I appreciated about the film was how impartial it was - I was fully expecting it to be rife with misandry, but it wasn't.

Found this great video of Xena. Lucy Lawless really was just the most stunningly beautiful human being who ever lived!



Its hilarious when you think that Jodie thinks her castrated, Bubble from Ab Fab style version of the Doctor is going to be a better role model and heroic role for little girls than Xena.



I wonder if Xena will beg someone to be her best friend.

I prefer Xena, she's more layered, has a great love/hate bond with her villains, there's a mix of absolute farce and compelling tragedy, there are actual long-lasting consequences and isn't afraid to tackle sensitive religious and sexuality issues in later seasons.

Wonder Woman I'm of two minds of. On one hand I hate how some deluded folk pair her with Superman and I feel her post-crisis version was a homewrecker who often got in the way of Lois and Clark's own relationship...on the other hand I like that they had her finally acknowledge her feelings for Kal-El were just puppy love, and went back to her more traditional love interest Steve Trevor...but the price paid was a lack of a coherent direction in the comics shortly after Rucka left, where writers focused more on a Gary Stu long long Brother character than Diana. Drove me straight off the book, though I'll try to attach myself to it now that G Willow Wilson is coming on board.

The movie was good too.

Another thing I'd like to add to this thread after reading through some old Wonder Woman comics and just going over the characters history in general, is that I actually now think Wonder Woman is only really good for crossovers.

I like her as a member of the Justice League, as she brings a supernatural, mythological aspect to it. Also its interesting watching her interact with the others, as she is often the most experienced hero there, and knows more about magic, and her very presence challenges a lot of what they know about the world. Even Superman.

However on her own the character is very difficult to get right because of her backstory. Wonder Woman comes from an island of all women, who have cut themselves off from the corrupt world of men.

Sadly that often leads to a war of the sexes story. War of the sexes stories, from both perspectives are always the absolute worst stories for a writer to explore for various reasons.

Lynda Carter is MY wonder Woman and she was perfect!