Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001.
Xena was portayed by actress Lucy Lawless.
The series was created in 1995 by writer-director-producer Robert Tapert under his production tag, Renaissance Pictures with later co-executive producers being John Schulian, R. J. Stewart and Sam Raimi.
Xena: Warrior Princess is set primarily in a mythological fantasy version of ancient Greece and was filmed in New Zealand.
Some filming locations are confidential, but many scenes were recorded in places such as the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, part of the Auckland Regional parks often credited at the end of the episodes.
The Ancient Greece depicted in the show is largely derived from historical locations and customs, modifying known places and events – battles, trading routes, towns, and so on – to generate an attractive fictional world.
The settlements are presented as a mixture of walled villages and rural hamlets set in a lush green, mountainous landscape.
They are often seen under attack from warlords, and travelling between them involves frequent encounters with small bands of outlaws. All of the main towns are named after historic towns of Ancient Greece, and exhibit some of their essential characteristics – Amphipolis (birthplace of Xena), Potidaea (birthplace of Gabrielle), Athens (birthplace of Joxer), Corinth, Delphi, and Cirra (birthplace of Callisto) which was burnt to the ground by Xena's army.
As the show progressed, however, events took place throughout more modern times and places, from Cleopatra's Alexandria to Julius Caesar's Rome.
The mythology of the show transitioned from that of the Olympian Gods to include Judeo-Christian elements.
Eastern religions were touched on as well, with little regard to accurate time-and-place concerns.
One episode, "The Way", which loosely interpreted elements of Hinduism as major plot points, generated controversy, requiring the producers to add a disclaimer at the head of the episode and a tag explaining the episode's intentions at its end.
Mythological and supernatural locations are presented as equally real, physical places, often accessed through physical portals hidden in the landscape such as lakes and caves.
They include the Elysian Fields, Tartarus, the River Styx, Valhalla, Heaven and Hell. The inhabitants of such places – gods, mythological beings and forces – are for the most part manifested as human characters who can move at will between their domains and the real world.
Ares God of War, for instance is an egotistical man who wears studded black leather, and Aphrodite Goddess of Love is a California Valley Girl who uses typical Valley Girl slang and dresses in flowing, translucent pink gowns.
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Wonder Woman is a fictional character, a DC Comics superheroine created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter.
She first appeared in All Star Comics #8.
Wonder Woman is a warrior Princess of the Amazons (based on the Amazons of Greek mythology) and was created by Marston, an American, as a "distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men."
Known in her homeland as Diana of Themyscira, her powers include superhuman strength, flight (even though the original Wonder Woman did not have this ability), super-speed, super-stamina, and super-agility.
She is highly proficient in hand-to-hand combat and in the art of tactical warfare. She also possesses animal-like cunning skills and a natural rapport with animals, which has been presented as an actual ability to communicate with the animal kingdom. She uses her Lasso of Truth, which forces those bound by it to tell the truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets, a tiara which serves as a projectile, and, in some stories, an invisible airplane.
Created during World War II, the character was initially depicted fighting the Axis military forces, as well as an assortment of supervillains.
In later decades, some writers maintained the World War II setting, with many of its themes and story arcs, while others updated the series to reflect the present day.
Wonder Woman has also regularly appeared in comic books featuring the superhero teams Justice Society (from 1941) and Justice League (from 1960).
Arguably the most popular and iconic female superhero in comics, Wonder Woman is also considered a feminist icon.
She was named the 20th greatest comic book character by Empire magazine.
