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Three weeks for Dreamwidth: Name three ships from three different fandoms that you like

Xena / Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess)

The warrior and the bard. This is my original OTP, and will always have a place in my heart. They went through so much together, complemented each other in many ways, and loved each other deeply. It was canon that they were bound together always, even in different lifetimes, they would find each other again. The beauty of the show was also that you could see them as whatever you wanted them to be: deep friends, lovers, or something in between.

Sara Lance / Ava Sharpe (Legends of Tomorrow)

A reformed assassin and a clone from the future. One is impulsive, chaotic, and the other is ordered and strict. Their differences initially made them struggle to get along, but like in a classic ‘enemies-to-lovers’ trope, they quickly fell in love. They formed a powerful couple, taking the lead of a team of misfits to solve problems in the timeline. I always thought they fit very well together, their love story is powerfully written on the show, and is also the main couple.

Seven of Nine/ Raffi (Star Trek: Picard)

I loved them together, but I can’t deny that this was a bit of a mixed bag, due to their potential and how the show decided to deal with it. Both characters are powerful in their own right, but they are also damaged in some ways. The audio drama "No Man's Land” is actually one of the few instances where the couple is portrayed well, showcasing tender moments and moments of vulnerability in which they can heal together. The show itself was subpar in writing the couple. The viewer didn’t get to see them fall in love (only a hand-holding scene in S1 that implied they had fallen in love). In the second season, they are together but constantly bicker and argue. In the third season, they had broken up. So much more could have been done with them.

I can safely say that I learned English by reading fanfiction. Xena fanfiction, back when the internet was young. Now, in the mid 2020’s, I find myself at a similar crossroad.

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to learn Spanish. But it wasn’t untill about a year ago now, in which I’m watching a Spanish telenovela with a sapphic couple, that I feel the same motivation I felt back in the day to learn a new language. About a year ago, I decided I wanted to be able to read Spanish fanfiction stories, so I set out to learn Spanish. Some daily Duolingo studying combined with a few other apps later, I can say that I’m now at a point where, with looking up words, I can read Spanish fanfiction. This is amazing.

It is amazing that fandom can have this impact and motivate you to learn a new language. I’m still on my language journey with Spanish. Though I understand it somewhat, I’m far from speaking the language. But the love for the language is something I owe to fandom and my love for sapphic ships. I’m excited to continue on this language journey.

Recently, I saw a post on Reddit mentioning that a Xena pinball table would be added to Pinball FX. I was instantly excited! I had to try it out. I hadn’t played a lot of pinball before, but I had played Zenn Pinball 3D on my Nintendo 3DS a few years ago, and Microsoft Pinball Arcade way back in the nineties. Being a Xena fan, I was thrilled to see a Xena pinball game being made—and to be honest, any Xena game at all being made in this year and age.



As far as Xena games are concerned, I know of two old games: a Xena game for the PlayStation One and another for the Nintendo 64 (N64) called Xena: Talisman of Fate. I recently tried to install the N64 game on my newly installed RetroPie (A Raspberry Pi 3 running a retro gaming emulation OS called ‘RetroPie’). It ran sub-optimally; that’s to say, my Raspberry Pi 3 isn’t quite up to the task of running it smoothly, but I managed to get a few plays in and it looks like a decent game. The Playstation One game also seems to be well-made. I didn’t have a PS1 as a kid but I saw a few playthroughs of it. But those two games were both released in 1999. When I did some research, I found that there seems to be another game made in 2001 on the Game Boy Color, and I found another mention in 2006 of a Xena game that is referred to as “One of the worst games of the PS2 selection”



But now is 2024. As far as I know, there hasn’t been another game in the Xena brand since. And then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Xena Pinball pops up as one of the tables in “Universal Pinball: TV Classics” for Pinball FX. And then, behold: the Xena Funko pop, released a few years ago, will star in the upcoming video game “Funko Fusion” (https://www.funkofusion.com/), which will be released on September 13th of this year. Now may I dare to hope that maybe … there will be more Xena stuff being made in the near future? May I hope that a franchise that has been forgotten for more than a decade will be getting some renewed attention? In this day and age (and, to be honest, in every day and age), Xena and her message of redemption, friendship, and love are important. Strong female characters are important. And Xena was ahead of its time in many ways and also, one of its kind.

So now I’m playing Xena pinball, hoping for a score better than my current high score of some lazy 5,000,000 points, which earned me a place on the 401’th spot on the ranking of the table. I’m going to have fun exploring pinball again and getting better at this game. In the meantime, battle on Xena! Hopefully, new things are on the horizon for you.

Have you played any Xena games, or are you excited about this one? Maybe you're also excited about the Funko game coming in September? Share your insights and stories with me!