History

Throughout her adventures with Xena, Gabrielle has had to use her gift of gab and quick wits to get herself out of many unpleasant situations. Gabrielle is adaptive, willing to learn whatever she needs to in order to survive the situation in which she finds herself.

Lovely Renee O'Connor played the role of Gabrielle for six seasons on the Xena television series. When Xena's character was killed off at the end of season six, there were rumors that Gabrielle's character might get her own series, but unfortunately such never happened.

The most controversial season in the television series was Season Three, due to "The Rift". This refers to a deep split that developed between Xena and Gabrielle. The most controversial episode in the entire series by far was "The Bitter Suite" episode from Season Three. This episode includes something commonly referred to as "The GabDrag". There is a two minute sequence where Xena lashes her whip around Gabrielle, forcing her to the ground. Then she drags Gabrielle for several miles through fire, water, against a large boulder etc. This episode ignited a storm of controversy on the internet. Many fans thought that it was far too brutal and quite a few referred to Xena's abuse of Gabrielle being akin to an abusive domestic relationship. Then again a lot of fans felt that Gabrielle had betrayed Xena so terribly, that the blonde girl deserved to be dragged endlessly by Xena's horse. As if this wasn't enough, later in the episode Xena kills Gabrielle with her sword. Even though the two of them reconcile by the end of a very confusing episode, some fans never felt the same about the series.

Season Five contained an episode called "Motherhood". This episode has an incident which some fans felt was even worse than Xena's dragging of Gabrielle in "The Bitter Suite". Here Xena intentionally throws her chakram, a large sharp metal disc, directly at the back of Gabrielle's head. While this only opened up a wound, it could just as easily have killed the girl. Once again, some fans of the series felt that this was proof that Gabrielle really was in an abusive relationship with Xena, even though Xena did have to do something, as a possessed Gabrielle was about to attack Xena's daughter.

Skills and abilities

As a result of her adaptibility, she's taught herself to read and write, learned more than one fighting style, joined a religious cult, and been inducted as an Amazon (and later taken up the role of that tribe's queen). She invented charades as well as discovered and named the Big Dipper.

Skilled in various ways, she's done everything from having talked a Cyclops out of eating her to having written famous plays. She's done magic and specifically targetted things with her sai. She even has some musical ability, though whether she learned it on the fly (like most of her skills) or recieved previous training is unclear.