From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V3 #136 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Tuesday, May 20 2003 Volume 03 : Number 136 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Anchor Bay S1 DVDs ["Jackie M. Young" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 20:42:17 -1000 (HST) From: "Jackie M. Young" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Anchor Bay S1 DVDs I just noticed that Border's-Ward (Honolulu) has the Anchor Bay S1 DVDs in for $69.99, but the interesting thing about them is that they are using _exactly_ the same packaging as the 2002 Davis-Panzer DVDs, have some of the same extra features like the screensaver and photo gallery, and have a new copyright date of 2003 ascribed to Davis-Panzer on the back. ;P Of course, the additional commentary/behind-the-scenes footage would be extra. I wonder how the screen quality compares for each set, since they are made by the same company, apparently?? Just FYI, - --Jackie ****************************************************** * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * * * * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * * * * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * * * ****************************************************** ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 14:15:25 -0400 From: mirrordrum Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] Anchor Bay S1 DVDs i hope to be able to tell you fairly soon as i have both sets and i shall compare them. i'll let you know. md - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jackie M. Young" To: "xena list" Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 2:42 AM Subject: [chakram-refugees] Anchor Bay S1 DVDs > I just noticed that Border's-Ward (Honolulu) has the Anchor Bay S1 DVDs in > for $69.99, but the interesting thing about them is that they are using > _exactly_ the same packaging as the 2002 Davis-Panzer DVDs, have some of > the same extra features like the screensaver and photo gallery, and have a new > copyright date of 2003 ascribed to Davis-Panzer on the back. ;P > > Of course, the additional commentary/behind-the-scenes footage would be extra. > > I wonder how the screen quality compares for each set, since they are made > by the same company, apparently?? > > > Just FYI, > --Jackie > > ****************************************************** > * Proud to have the same birthday as Lucy Lawless! * > * * > * "I think New Zealand geographically comes from * > * ... Hawai'i." --Lucy Lawless, Late Show, 4/9/96 * > * * > * JACKIE YOUNG, JYOUNG@LAVA.NET * > * * > ****************************************************** > ========================================================= > This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. > To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with > "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. > Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. > ========================================================= ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 16:17:43 -0700 From: "Creation (Sharon Delaney)" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Xena tearaway desk calendar quickie POLL For those that wanted this type of calendar, did you envision it having space on each page to write stuff?? Sharon Official Xena Fan Club Creation Ent. ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 20:14:50 -0400 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] The Last Of The Centaurs The Last Of the Centaurs This is an odd episode. It would have played very well as a first or second season episode. It is after all a pretty standard romance in many respects. A young couple has eloped and the vengeful father of the girl is after them. Xena and Gabrielle's mission is to reconcile the young couple with the furious father. Of course this being Xena things are never easy - the boy is a centaur, the centaur's mom is Gabby's best friend and a ghost, and the father is the son of Borias, Xena's former lover. Again all this could be a very pleasant diversion except for the small matter of genocide. Borias's son destroys the centaur race and gets away with it. Whoops we are definitely not in season 2. The story opens as three centaurs amble through the woods. They seem in a good mood. Two are teasing one centaur who is young, handsome and has very familiar curly blond hair. Suddenly the three are ambushed. Two of the centaurs are killed but the curly haired one escapes. In a market Gabrielle is stall shopping. Xena is antsy. Gabby calms her friend saying she isn't buying just looking. She then takes a hat and cape to the ancient equivalent of a dressing room but to her surprise it is already occupied. Ephiny's ghost pops in and after a few complements asks Gabrielle for help. Gabby calls to Xena and tells her Ephiny is speaking to her. This being the Xenaverse, Xena takes the announcement in stride and although she can't see her, because she is not an Amazon, she is ready to listen to Ephiny's problem. Ephiny's says that her son Xenan is in trouble and needs their help. Indeed the trio soon sees a wanted poster offering a reward for the head of a centaur. They immediately recognize Xenan's picture - how they do this is a mystery since, except for the four legs and tail, it doesn't look at all like Xenan. Xena now has found out that a local lord named Belach has put a price on Xenan's head. So the three companions go off to visit the lord to see why he is hunting the centaur. At the castle they are ushered into see Belach who assumes they are just another couple of bounty hunters (Ephiny's invisible). Xena however has a real shock in store for her when she gets a good look at Belach - he is the spitting image of Borias, Xena's lover (this bit of exposition is offered by Ephiny to Gabrielle who is puzzled why Xena's chin just hit the floor - the audience is puzzled as to why Ephiny knows this, perhaps ghosts can read minds). Anyway Xena asks Belach why he is hunting the centaur. He informs them that the centaur has kidnapped his beloved daughter for what he assumes are perverted purposes. Ephiny is outraged and is sputtering in the background as Gabrielle tells her invisible friend to cool off; Belach becomes enraged because he assumes she is talking to him. Xena calms everyone down by telling him to ignore Gabby (cr applauds). Xena however promises to get Belach's daughter back. As the trio goes to look for Xenan, Xena explains things to Gabby. She tells her that Belach is Borias's son. Uh oh thinks Gabby he's another kid Xena forget to tell her about. No he's not hers. Borias has son before Xena hooked up with him. In fact she took Borias away from him and his mother. She tells Gabby that she joined Borias's arm when he was a rising warlord and she was just ambitions. Thirty-six years ago on the steps of Russia, Borias emerges from his tent. A young crippled Xena spies him. She goes in seduction mode. She tosses away her hated crutch and comes up behind him. She asks him if he has studied her plans to conquer the east. He says he has but he can't take his army and family on such a long campaign. Xena's plan doesn't include the army and the family - they would take the loot and go off on their own. Borias is uncertain but Xena says he can stay with his thugs or ride to glory with her. Borias says how can he choose since he has never ridden with her. Xena knows she has won and they retire to his tent for some riding lessons. Outside a small boy curious about sounds coming from his father's tent looks in only to see his father kissing Xena. Borias is oblivious but Xena senses something. Leaving her soon- to- be lover she sneaks up behind the boy and throws a rug over him and dumps him out side, leaving his with a bit of wisdom "never get between two people and their passion, kid." Xena now feels she owes Belach for breaking up the family many years ago. What I have always liked about Xena's reaction to her past is that she never makes excuses for her behavior. She doesn't excuse herself by saying or pretending that she fell in love with Borias. No she makes it clears her seduction was cold-hearted plan - Borias had potential she needed and she got by whatever means was available. She didn't care about the boy she dumped outside and she treated the kid with off hand cruelty. Young Xena seemed to take a perverse delight in making small boys miserable first it was Ming Tien and now it is the young Belach. I wonder sometimes where this contempt for these kids came from. Is it just matter of adolescent cruelty on Xena's part or something deeper? Ephiny meanwhile has tracked down her son. He can't see his mother but he does sense something. When Xena and Gabrielle arrive, Xenan is suspicious. When Xena says she is the Xena who he is named after he of course doesn't believe her. Gabrielle tells him that his mother's spirit is with them. Xenan is unconvinced until Ephiny has Gabrielle sing Xenan his lullaby (now we know why ROC never gets to sing in any musicals). Xenan now introduces Nicha, Belach's daughter, to the trio. The girl is about nine months pregnant and in love with Xenan. Xena asks if her father knows about this and the girl says her father never paid much attention to her because she looks too much like her deceased mother. Of course this brings up some interesting questions - how did Nicha meet a centaur, how did they date, why didn't any servant tell her father about her condition, every one in the castle couldn't be that oblivious, but I digress - again. Since Nicha obviously isn't in danger and seems very happy with Xenan, Xena must change her plans. She still wants to take Nicha back to her father so they can explain the situation but first they must find a safe place for Xenan. He tells them that his brother centaurs are hiding in the woods and so Xena decides to take him there. When the group gets to the centaur camp they make a terrible discovery. All the centaurs have been herded into a pit and slaughtered. It is horrible - they have not only been killed but also many have been mutilated. Xenan is beside himself in grief and rage and even as his wife and Gabrielle try to calm him, he cries out who will get the centaurs' justice. Xena answers with cold resolve that she will. Xena now goes to the castle and confronts Belach. Belach is staring at a picture of his wife (she looks a bit familiar and I believe it is one of paintings from Blind Faith). He sees that Xena has not returned with his daughter. No says Xena she hasn't but she has found her. She is with her husband and pregnant with his child. Belach is incensed. His daughter has mated with a half man, half horse and his grandson will be a bastard. He will still kill Xenan. Xena draws her sword and they fight. She tells him of the murder of the centaurs and how horrible that crime especially is for the son of Borias. Belach asks what does she know of his father. She then repeats the words she said so long ago - a " a tip for you kid, never get in the way of two people and their passion". Belach is stunned - this is Xena the woman who stole his father. He calls for his guards but Xena tosses him out the window and he lands painfully on a horse - it could have been worse, he could have landed on the saddle horn. Xena jumps down on to another horse and with Belach in two they're off. Belach's men chase them but Xena easily defeats them with some spectacular acrobatics. They now stop. Xena and Belach confront each other. Xena says that Borias was a great hero to the centaurs how could he shame his father's memory. Belach is not impressed. He hates his father. He was a savage and then he remembers the day Borias left. His mother, Natasha finds the boy where Xena left him. He looks wide-eyed at the tent. Natasha enters and finds Borias and Xena together. Borias chases after his wife and they argue, as Xena looks on in gleeful triumphant. The fight escalates until Borias insults his wife. They part and Xena is there ready to take Borias away. She swings him up on her horse but before he leaves he tosses an amulet to his son. Belach still wears that amulet - not for sentimental reason but to remind himself of his father's betrayal. After his father left he and his mother were left in servitude but he made something of himself. He isn't like his father - no he is better than him. Xena drags Belach to the centaur village. She tosses himself beside the pit where the mutilated bodies of the centaurs lie. Then she tells him his daughter has seen this. Then she asks who his daughter would think was the savage Borias or he. Belach asks her why she just doesn't kill him but then he remembers that she and Borias had a son. Would killing him be too much like slitting her own son's throat? Belach's men ride up and Xena leaves Belach by the pit and rides off leaving Belach to contemplate his crime. As his men free him Belach seems a bit shaken but is still resolved to kill Xenan. In the forest Nicha is labor. Gabrielle and Xenan get the woman to a cabin. Nicha is in hard labor and the baby is coming. Belach's men are following them. Xenan leaves the cabin and draws the soldiers off. Two bounty hunters however break off and decide to search the cabin. Just as they find Nicha, Xena arrives and dispatches them. Gabrielle asks what happened with Belach and Xena says she took him to the centaur camp. Gabrielle presses her for more of an answer. Has Belach changed his mind? Xena has no answer. Then Gabrielle suddenly slips completely out of character and says Xena should have killed Belach. (I say Gabrielle slips out of character simply because I have never known Gabrielle to say that Xena should take on the task killing any one in cold blood). Xena can't just kill Belach not only is he Borias's son but also Nicha's father. Gabrielle is unconvinced about Belach but there's a birth about to take place. Nicha has to be delivered of her centaur. Xena is an old hand at this. She puts a pinch on Nicha and tells Gabby to clean up the chakram. Gabby sterilizes the chakram with a dirty piece of rag and Xena cuts Nicha open as a very bilious Gabby watches. A wee centaur is delivered just as Belach and his soldiers arrive with Xenan as their prisoner. Gabby is left to sew up Nicha as Xena goes out to confront Belach. Outside Belach has Xenan tied by the neck and threatens to snap his neck if Nicha isn't turned over to him. Xena frees Xenan and sends him into his wife and child. Xena begins to fight Belach's soldiers. Soon she is surrounded by twelve of Belach's soldiers wielding pikes. Seeing this Ephiny rushes to Gabrielle to tell her Xena is in trouble. Gabrielle rushes out but seeing that only twelve pike men surround Xena, she not overly concerned. Xena easily flips over them, dispatches a number of then and as Gabrielle fights the others, Xena fights Belach. As she fights Belach she tries to again reason with him. She says she will kill him but he says he would die for his child. Xena says then he is just like his father. Belach scoffs at this he father never would sacrifice for his child. Xena says he did for his brother. Then she tells him of Borais's break with her, the birth of Solan and his father's death. Now lets ponder this for moment. Belach has profound feelings of abandonment. His father has left his wife and young son to fend for themselves when he ran off with a younger woman. His daughter has now abandoned him also for a creature that his hated father championed. Now the woman who stole his father tells him that his father so loved the son he had with her that he sacrificed his life just to see him. Now Belach is suppose to realize what a great man his father was. I would think that this would just make Belach angrier. His father left him to rot but sacrificed all for the son he had with a woman who probably never loved him. I don't believe Xena loved Borias - lusted after him yes, but I think Xena has more affection for the guy now that he is dead than she ever had for him alive. Anyway Xena seems to have gotten through. Nicha and the baby now make an opportune appearance (you see good peasant blood will tell - she has a c-section and is up and walking five minutes later). Belach faced with his daughter and grandson and the truth about his father now accepts his daughter's love. He gives her his father's amulet and tells her to give it to her son when the time comes. Nicha, however, tells her father that he will give it to her son when the time comes. Belach and Nicha are reconciled. On a mountainside Belach gives Nicha and her family her mother's land so they can live in peace. Ephiny asks Gabrielle to let her take over her body do she can talk to her son. Gabrielle does and Ephiny and Xenan have a touching reunion. In the end Xena and Gabrielle walk off. Gabrielle says she was wrong to urge Xena to kill Belach. Xena teases her a bit about that. Gabby says that two different roads can lead to the same place. Yeah says Xena but her road would have lead to Belach being dead. Gabrielle ruefully wonders when she will learn wisdom. Well I have gripes about this episode. Technically it was very good - it was visually striking, the fights were really good and the segments with young Xena were excellent. Yet I thought it fell short. The problem is that Belach orders either directly or indirectly the genocide of the centaurs and gets away with it. Xena excuses the crime by basically saying he had a bad childhood and it was all her fault anyway. Xena spends the whole episode trying to reconcile Belach with his dead father. The murder of the centaurs becomes just a means to accomplish this. It is almost as if Xena pardons Belach's behavior as way to salve her own conscience. This seems out character of Xena. Xena has strong sense of right and wrong and though she would acknowledge her guilt in regards to Belach, I just can't see her pardoning his actions. She never let Callisto get away with her crimes simply because she felt guilty nor did she let Belleraphon slaughter the Amazons because he felt bad his mom died. Why is Belach different? Xena may have had a hand in making his childhood unhappy but Belach prospered, had a family and certainly did live a better life than his father probably would have left him. Belach's murderous rage appears to be more a matter of offended pride than concern over his daughter. He was so distant from her he never knew she was even pregnant. Xena's sympathy fro Belach was misplaced and out of character. Perhaps I would have felt differently if Belach had shown any remorse over his crime or had somewhere along the line said he never meant for things to go so far. Anything to show that he understood the magnitude of his crime but there is nothing. He reconciles with is daughter but he never says a word to Xenan in apology and ift I was Xenan I'd watch my back around that guy. The acting was pretty good. Marton Csokas was good as Belach but better as Borias. Hamish Hector-Taylor was suitably intense as the next to last centaur. Katrina Devine was ok as his wife though she seemed just a bit bland. It was nice to see Danielle Cormack back as Ephiny and it is always a pleasure to watch Ephiny's interaction with Gabrielle. Lucy was again very good as young Xena. ROC didn't have much to do here except be sympathetic but she made the most of the birth scene and her shopping scene. There is one mystery here. In the credits there is a role played by Margaret-Mary Hollins called Madra. Who the heck was she? I think perhaps she may have been the shopkeeper where Gabby was window-shopping. She did look she like she might have had something to say when Gabby announced she wasn't buying juts looking. Don't know. Does anyone? Next week When Fates Collide. I expect to hear from KTL about that one. CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 20:30:06 -0400 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Re: chakram-refugees-digest V3 #135 - ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jackie M. Young" > > - --I took a journalism class this semester that examined, in part, the > effect that TV and technology has on the population. I know there are > conflicting studies out there, but there was a recent study that we read > about that tracked children and how much TV violence they saw, and the > study continued until they became adults. The article we read was very > general, but the study did find that TV violence in childhood made for > more violence-prone or violence-tolerant adults. :=/ So, apparently, TV > violence does have an effect on people. > You know if TV makes people more violent than the US should by all rights be the most violent place on earth. Yet Americans seldom strap explosives to themselves and blow up strangers, we seldom get so pissed off at our neighbors that we commit genocide (of course we did kill the Indians but there was no TV then), we do kill each other with shcking regularity but we have always been a violent society. For most of the ninteenth century rioting was one of our favorite out door activities. Our belief that there was some point in American history where our society was a peaceful paradise is a myth - we have as a people and a culture have always been violent and contentious. If you turned off every TV in America we would still be brawling and fighting - it is the American way and for the most part we like it that way. CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 22:27:40 -0400 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] The Chakram cr wrote: > I agree there, the chacky's abilities are irrelevant in that respect. > OTOH, I do still think that the chakram was, in a unique sense, 'her' weapon, > and that she had more association with it (vide 'Chakram') and more control > over it than any of the others who occasionally used it. > I think cr is right in that he says the chakram is "Xena's weapon". Ii is not a mgical weapon but a weapon that is uniquely her's and her's alone. Anyone can pick it up and toss it around but it will only perform in an extraordinary manner in her hands. I think of it as her Excaliber more than Wonder Women's lariet. Xena is it's mistress and some how it knows it. I think that's why it breaks in Ides of March - it is used against it's true mistress and in a way it self-destructs because of it. It can only be mended again when it is reformed or redeemed by finding it's other half which happens in Chakram. The flawed chakram, the dark chakram which betrayed it's true owner, is redeemed by joining with chakram of light and is once again made whole. After that we actually only see two other people use it or catch it. Eve after her redemption and Gabrielle once she takes Xena's place in the physical world as the warrior of the greater good. The new chakram seems now to have an affinity only for those who follow the enlightened path. CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V3 #136 **************************************