The term ‘story arc’ can mean several things. One use, perhaps the most common, is to give a collective name to several connected episodes. The Indian arc, The Rift, etc. This is of course fully valid.
   Here, however, I choose a different meaning.
   A story arc here is a recurring theme that evolves. It must have a beginning and an end, and it lasts over more than one episode. But it can lay dormant for several episodes now and then, only to reappear with a twist. The relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is not a story arc; it is a fundamental part of the whole series. But neither is a person’s life necessarily a story arc in itself.
   The division presented here is of course purely subjective. The whole business with categorization and list making might not appeal to you, but if it does: please read on.

Here, one person is attracted to another but gets no positive response. It’s interesting to note that both these pairs begin as enemies. Ares pulls very few punches in his attempts to regain Xena, happily jeopardizing her life and the lives of others. Joxer begins by a hilarious attempt on Gabrielle’s life.
   Openly expressed love comes much later in both cases. Ares doesn’t admit it until season 5 and while Joxer makes his feelings known earlier, either Gabrielle (or Joxer) is befuddled for various reasons or Joxer is so shyly subtle that Gabrielle just doesn’t get it. She is obviously not in the least interested in him, so it makes sense that she tries to ignore anything less ambiguous than “I love you”.
   The god and the jerk, as different as possible, but equally unsuccessful in love. Not even when they part with things they value immensely do they get any result. Joxer selling his ancestral scabbard in The Quill Is Mightier gets a brief look of confusion in return for the necklace he gives Gabrielle. Ares giving up his immortality to save Gabrielle and Eve gets saved from warlords in Old Ares Had A Farm. They each get a glimpse of what they hope for, Joxer when a handcuffed Gabrielle feeds him grudging and insincere praise in In Sickness And In Hell, Ares when Xena nibbles his nipple during the false foreplay of Amphipolis Under Siege.
   In these arcs, Xena and Gabrielle respond to the actions of others, having no interest in approaching the issues on their own. But while Joxer provides comic relief, although more and more tinged with bittersweet resignation, Ares is a major catalyst, ruthless and belligerent.
   The concept of love is (as always :-)) hard to define. Joxer is lovestruck (initially just struck) by Gabrielle. But is the god of war capable of love? From his point of view, he probably is. But his essence is the perpetual war. What he loves about Xena is her capacity for violence and her shrewd strategic abilities. Her charisma and advantages as a symbol and idol are probably also to his liking. He performs one act of self-sacrifice, though, and a major one at that, when he gives up his immortality, not even to save Xena but her companion and her daughter. But I believe that he still loves her only as defined above. He sees his chance to perform a deed of such nature and such magnitude that she has to acknowledge the depth of his passion. And, like a warrior seeking a breakthrough in a war that doesn’t go too well, he gambles all and strikes. Perhaps he’s unable to grasp the true meaning of mortality. Being immortal himself, he learns only gradually what a finite life means.

Xena’s relationship to her mother is the only one approaching what we would call normal. Xena’s actions in The Furies were a desperate plan induced by Ares and an exception. But the other three are studies in dramatic pregnancies, separation, tragedy and confrontation.
   The motherhoods of Xena are especially dramatic, as they should be. Both children are born on battlefields, are raised away from their mother and cause her much grief when they finally reunite. Both children are also bearers of destiny, Solan due to Alti’s curse, Eve as a vessel for the Twilight (see the enmity aspect here and the dominion aspect here). And Gabrielle has a hand in the attempted killing of them both.
   But Gabrielle’s motherhood goes beyond dramatic and becomes darkest travesty. The product of a demonic rape, the child Hope is evil incarnate, causing the Rift, the death of Solan and many others, and nearly bringing about the destruction of the Known World. See the dominion aspect of The Fire.

Enemies, strong and weak, appear in every episode, Chakram-fodder destined for a quick tumble out of Xena’s way. They are scenery and little else.
   But the villains of the major Arcs of Enmity are something else. They have plans and powers that make them very hard to defeat. And they have special reasons to go after their target, not just greed/fear/bloodlust. Every enemy of this significance sooner or later use supernatural powers in their struggles. And every one manages to cause permanent harm.
 
 

   Callisto is an excellent warrior, but it is her gleeful ruthlessness and psychotic obsession with causing Xena harm that makes her dangerous. She is helpful in the murder of Solan and is the reason for Xena and Gabrielle’s deaths as well as for Xena's ultimate sacrifice in Hell that nearly sends Heaven crashing down. Her enmity towards Gabrielle is only a means to hurt Xena, but the consequences for Gabrielle are dire enough to make her feelings towards Callisto a minor arc of its own.

   Caesar gains more and more control over the mightiest empire of the Known World and later enters an alliance with the lord of Hell. And it is Caesar who transforms Xena from freebooter to nihilistic murderer. With his final act in the series, he very nearly deprives Xena and Gabrielle of their relationship as well as causing them near lethal harm.
   But there is a reason this arc isn’t called the arc of Caesar. The machinations of Crassus, Pompey, Antony, Caligula and others all had an impact on the level of danger in the series.
   The arc of the Romans introduces a connection with mundane chronology. While the occasional historical or quasi-historical figure has been used earlier (Euripides, David to name two), now the clock begins to tick. Young Caesar encounters Xena and her pirates in a manner mentioned by Suetonius. Every other inclusion of Caesar follows the mundane chronology, his attack on Britain, his triumvirate congealing into a duomvirate and finally into an attempt at autocratic power. Only his last appearance is unknown by mundane historians, for very good reasons. While still a fantasy world, with this the world around Xena and Gabrielle gained a momentum and a depth that became a great asset. Luckily, TPTB never let the inclusion of mundane chronology hinder the use of stories normally thought to be centuries apart.

   The Rift between Xena and Gabrielle is of course the bitterest and the most dangerous of the enmities. In order for one part to win, the other must be defeated, which would crush the soul of the winner. The question whether Xena or Gabrielle is most to blame for The Rift is void. The taint of Dahak’s absolute evil is the cause, nothing else. You can’t very well blame Xena for letting Gabrielle accompany her to a trip to Britain, the 2 travel together during nearly every episode of the show. And the blind love of Gabrielle towards her child is of the same kind as Xena's love for Livia, maternal love determined to change a monstrous evil to something good. The resolution of this arc is surprising, outrageous and irresistibly beautiful and triumphant.
 
 

   Ming T’ien is a cross between Caesar and Callisto, a product of Xena's evil actions and a leader of a mighty realm. He deepens the Riftby exploiting Gabrielle and stunts Xena's spiritual development by killing Lao Ma. But he is a regional threat. Only when Xena goes to Chin does he become a threat. The exception is his appearance in Illusia, but there he’s only a phantom of Xena's memory, a personification of her deepest shame.

   Like Callisto, Alti is a deeply disturbed individual. But unlike Callisto’s obsessive lust for revenge, Alti is driven by sheer perversity and ambition. We don’t know anything about her childhood or background except that the Amazons drove her away. Her ultimate source of power is also unknown, although her cursing of Solan includes an invocation to the “Enemy of the Lamb” (if I heard correctly ;-) ). This sounds like the Devil of Christianity, but Mephistopheles makes no mention of her (and neither does Lucifer). I prefer the creepier notion of something else, a being of ultimate darkness, accessible by the primal rituals of the barbarian North of Eurasia. Not Dahak, not the lord of Hell, certainly no Olympian, Indian or Norse god. Whatever it is, it makes her the most tenacious and lethal enemy in the series. She is too strong for Xena to defeat without considerable help and preparations. And even then, she attacks from between the worlds, in future lives and in altered time streams, immortalized by sorcery and the Karmic wheel.
   During Xena's time as a warlord it’s Alti who nearly drives her to the utter void as she transforms the heartless killer into the Destroyer of Nations.
   And it’s Alti who curses Xena's child, a curse in which Hope and Callisto are only pawns.

   Not as tenacious as Alti, but certainly most formidable of all the enemies in the series are the Olympian gods themselves as they band together and hound Xena into a desperate plan that deprives her of her last chance at raising a child. But the gods use direct force and only occasionally the subtlety that their powers would allow. And since the expert in direct force, Ares, refuses to participate, their efforts are in vain. See the dominion aspects here and the motherhood aspects here.

   The decline of the Amazon nation is bound to Xena's fate. Indeed, it is Xena who causes the downfall of the Northern Amazons. Because of that and some feelings of sisterhood with them via Gabrielle, she takes upon herself to defend the Amazons several times. And it is mostly the Romans who are the aggressors.
   There is a special sadness surrounding the fate of the Amazons, because we know that they have no place in later history.

   One final arc of enmity does not concern Xena. It is the hatred Gabrielle feels for Callisto after the death of Perdicus. The hatred is not mutual. Callisto treats Gabrielle no differently than she does most people. Gabrielle struggles with her feelings. She refrains from killing when she might’ve had a chance at it. But it takes the environment of Heaven itself to make forgiveness possible, especially as Xenathen had sacrificed herself (and thus her afterlife with Gabrielle) for Callisto.

   One could say that Caesar and Alti shape Xena, Xena shapes Callisto and Ming T’ien. This hierarchy remains true when it comes to power levels. Xena ultimately vanquishes Callisto and Ming T’ien, but the final fate of Caesar and Alti is beyond her.
   Ares could indeed be said to be an enemy of Xena. He wants her alive, true, but only as a subject, someone to use and control. When she goes into god-killing mode, he changes his tactics. But tactics or not, he declares his love for her then during the latter stage of season 5 and never goes back into trying to force her to join him. With a friend like that, you don’t need enemies, but Xena treats his attentions, good or bad, like a chronic disease that erupts now and then and must be endured but not humoured.

Some story arcs concern rulership. They deal with questions of responsibility and the ethics of command, as well as naked power struggles. Since Xena and Gabrielle make a point of travelling, few questions of dominion remain in the series for long.
   But these do.
 
 

   Through an impulsive and ultimately futile act, Gabrielle inherits the regency of the Amazons. She tries to avoid the responsibility again and again. There are many reasons for this. Initially, the despise of the martial Amazons for this girlish non-combatant and the knowledge that they are absolutely right in doubting her battle-skills are enough. And she prefers the travels with Xena to almost anything. She accepts the Right of Cast only long enough to bestow it upon Ephiny. But later, when the Amazons are loosing despite their bravery and skill, she realizes that she might contribute something, even though she is at her most pacifistic at the time. And later still, having witnessed more of the same foolish bravery, a final show of wisdom and strength, and an ambush that shatters that strength, she takes command. This time she has the experience and the conviction to lead the Amazons into battle, even though it takes Xena too to win.

   Dahak. The name has roots in Zoroastrian eschatology and even further back in the Sumerian mythos. There, as in XWP, this entity has an agenda of destruction. Dahak plans to become the one god of the Known World. He chooses Gabrielle as the vessel of his conquest. Ares initially fights him, as befits a god of war. But, when it becomes clear to Ares that Dahak can’t be defeated, he switches sides. At least this way he can continue with his one and only occupation, to fight. “War, war, war, doesn’t matter what it’s for” as his chorus sings in The Bitter Suite. As one of 2 gods with the ambition and means to achieve monotheism in the world, he’s clearly not a part of the divine collective of the Xenaverse. I interpret him as an alien being from outside the cosmology of the series. His defeat is not the death of that entity, but a stop to his conquest of the Known World and its gods.
   His methods are singularly evil, warping even the intense bond between Xena and Gabrielle. There is indeed evil so foul as to desecrate everything it touches. Every episode with his arc, the arc of The Fire as I call it, has Gabrielle as an important component. She is the key to his success. The only other being that can influence Gabrielle in a profound enough manner to make a difference is Xena.
   See the motherhood aspects here.

   Finally, and most cataclysmic is The Twilight, the Ragnarok of the Olympians. The Twilight is in many aspects identical to The Fire. In each case there is en enigmatic deity outside the established scheme of the Olympians. The change is wrought by impregnating a woman, and the resulting child is a bringer of destruction but not the ultimate tool itself. Rather, this child enables another to emerge as the bringer of doom. But, while Dahak used Gabrielle, an ordinary if earnest and capable woman, the god of Eli uses Xena, an epic hero of unmatched powers. And Xena succeeds in dethroning the Olympian order. She kills every god who opposes her, sparing only the meek Aphrodite and Ares. Ares repeats his strategy from The Fire and switches to the winning side as soon as he perceives the situation in full. One could argue that Xena isn’t as overwhelming as Dahak and that Ares’ defection to her side is a result of his love for her. That is of course true. But Ares is still in it for the war. And the side that is the most belligerent is Xena. Since Ares is the god of war, there is none of the other Olympians who is so deeply identified with combat. Athena might be a superior general and a worthy opponent in a mêlée, but her goals are not the waging of perpetual war. She is also the goddess of wisdom (“And don’t forget weaving!”). Xena, on the other hand, is the ultimate warrior. And the greatest of the Olympians, Zeus, is already killed. Ares, of all beings, must realise that if Zeus can be killed, so can all the others.
   The deity behind The Twilight isn’t clearly defined in the series. He’s obviously something akin to the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, an overwhelming source of good with little patience for other divinities. “The Light”, “God”, “The god of Eli”, even “Eli” are used as synonyms. The interchangeability of Eli and the god of Eli is another phenomenon borrowed from Christianity, and there is an overwhelming array of other indications that this god or force is to be viewed as a parallel to the god of Christianity in particular.
   There is a somewhat baffling dilemma with Aphrodite. She survived Xena's mass deicide by being a friend and helping them. But why wasn’t she elevated to higher power when the supposed god of love gained in power?
   The answer is twofold. First, the issue at hand is monotheism. There can be only one. But in addition, the answer is probably also in one much maligned aspect of Christianity, the stern attitude to free sex. The supposedly sinful orgies in Heart of Darkness were little more than parties with food, drink, dance and consensual sex. No obvious hard drugs, no violence (except against poor Eve). The ‘love’ of Eli is about sacrifice and kindness, not about hedonism. If you strive to maximise you own pleasure, your attention to others must suffer. Or so, the hidden message seems to be. So Aphrodite is out, as far as the god of Eli is concerned.
   Gabrielle follows willingly the teachings of Eli, Xena doesn’t, although she views it as a precious thing worth defending since it obviously can’t defend itself. Only in season 6 does she change her view. The martial arm of the Light, the archangels, begins to take an active part in the happenings on Earth. For some reason their aims are the opposite of Xena's. And of course, this inevitably leads to a clash, first to avoid being the successor to Mephistopheles, then to save her daughter from martyrdom. After this, she accepts the predictability of the remaining Olympians Aphrodite and Ares, and reinstates them as full deities.
   Eve perceives this alienation between Xena and the god of Eli, of course. And that, more than a desire to go your own way, is probably behind Eve’s resolute farewell in Path of Vengeance. She doesn’t wish Xena to come with her because she knows from experience that Xena WILL put Eve’s safety before the will of Eli.
   But however successful the god of Eli is in the otherworldly spheres, his cult on Earth remains a persecuted minority for the duration of the series. The last glimpse (in Path of Vengeance) mentions a benevolent (if naïve) emperor that could in theory be Constantine the Great. But even if that emperor favoured Christianity, he was hardly peace-loving. And it would mean a leap of several centuries forward. Then again, such leaps are commonplace in XWP.
   Who’d win if Dahak and the god of Eli were to fight for supremacy? That’s easy. Dahak would have to recruit every supporter. The god of Eli already has guardian angels and archangels (and the Seraphim mentioned in passing). The Arc of the Covenant (from The Royal Couple of Thieves) is also an asset that would probably be brought into play in that kind of war.
   But somewhat depending on when that struggle was to take place, the god of Eli would be assured of the support of Xena. And THAT would, as always, decide the final outcome.
   This of course assumes that the god of Eli isn’t omnipotent, at least regarding other gods. See the dominion aspects here and the motherhood aspects here.

This is something of a catch-all category, but every arc here has an agonizing choice in its core.
 
 

   The Way, named after the Karmic paths introduced in the Indian episodes of season 4 is there of and on during the whole of the series. It’s about choosing what to do with your life and then actually doing it. The point of this arc is that these choices are never permanent. As life changes, so does the validity of your choice. It’s sometimes wise to reconsider, but no one ever tells you when.
   To Xena, this arc begins during the very first episode, when she considers abandoning the life of the warrior. Attacking bandits causes her to change her plan, to the joy of all Xenites and the detriment of an amazing multitude of villains small and large. Later, she has to choose between Gabrielle’s happiness and her own, and she always chooses the former, with the exception of the repayment of the primal debt owed to Lao Ma. And, of course, also with the exception of the unbearable choice of A Friend In Need, when she relinquishes her life with Gabrielle to save innumerable souls.
   Gabrielle changes path a lot of times, beginning also in Sins of the Past when she runs away to follow Xena on her adventures. She agonizes over choosing between art and war, peace and war, Xena and charity, Xena and her own soul, and so on. And, being the more flighty and impressionable of the two, she changes her mind repeatedly. Who wouldn’t, given the things she goes through?
   Two more people are included in this arc, and only because their intimate involvement with Xena.
   Marcus, her one time lover turns to good during his final moments and continues that path even when facing an afterlife of torment. It’s Xena who gives him the strength and inclination to do it, though.
   The other one is Ares. His nature being what it is, aptly described by himself in Path of Vengeance in the classic Scorpion analogy, the only time when he can make a true choice for himself is in Old Ares Had A Farm. Xena and Gabrielle have a hand in it, but he tries out an existence miles away from that of a god of war.

   The second arc here, that of Blood Innocence, is about a very particular choice not everyone has to make. To kill or not to kill, and the occult and moral implications of choosing. Xena long ago made that choice, but Gabrielle avoids it for some time. Or rather, she manages to choose not to. The cruelty of this choice is that you never know when you have to make it again. And she looses her Blood Innocence gradually. First, she kills someone without meaning to, manipulated by the cultists of Dahak. Then, she consciously causes death by inaction (3.62: When in Rome…). After that she accepts the notion of war (A Good Day).  Then, she accepts tactical responsibility (Endgame) and the killing of enemies (Ides of March). The killing, however accidentally, of a friend is the next step (Legacy), and finally battling at the head of her troops (To Helicon And Back) completes her path into a warrior in every sense of the word.
   I don’t think that her poisoning of Hope in Maternal Instincts should belong here. Hope’s literal inhumanity is the only reason for the act.
   Joxer gets his share of the bleakness of killing in The Convert.

   The Vision Xena receives during the spiritual battle with Alti is next. What choice does this entails? One minor and one major. The minor choice is whether to tell Gabrielle. Xena does, eventually, but Gabrielle remains aloof until experiencing it herself during Between the Lines. The second choice is direr. Are the events in it unalterable predictions or just a warning about one possible outcome? Is it maybe just a ruse by Alti, designed to unsettle Xena?
   The last alternative is immediately dispelled by Alti’s eager questioning of the identity of the blonde. But the true nature of The Vision remains in doubt until the end of Ides of March. During that episode, Xena chooses to accept her destiny and remains true to her way. The way of the warrior. Thus, when they die on the crosses, it’s Xena who guides Gabrielle to the afterlife.

   The final arc of Tough Choices is that of The Atonement. This is the guilt from Xena's evil past and how she deals with it. She goes through several stages. Initially there is gloomy shame, combated by a devotion to helping others and fighting evil. Later she accepts whatever punishment the authorities at hand choose to give her.
   But following her death and resurrection, she puts the punishment behind her. She still tries to (and generally succeeds) repair the damages she has wrought earlier, though.
   A Friend In Need is the end of this story arc. It’s fitting in many ways, as the guilt Xena carries with her is too great to escape completely. Only the final ending of her life can grant that.
   The Atonement is perhaps the most important arc. It's the driving force of the later Xena, only comparable to her relationship to Gabrielle.

Story arcs are about change within a theme. But the changes have repercussions outside the arc in question. Thus, new arcs are born. Here, we’ll follow this evolution. Only arcs that actually have a connection to the new arc are mentioned. Chronology is not enough.
   Initially, there are The Atonement, The Way and Cyrene.
   The first spawning is that of the Conqueror Queen. The Atonement gives Ares an opportunity to test Xena's new conviction. Is she really prepared to die at the hands of peasants rather than become the consort of the god of war? She is, but he keeps trying for 6 seasons.
   The Atonement is also the cause of the arc of the Orphan, in Orphan of War. One part of Xena's reason for leaving Solan with the Centaurs at birth was her building sense of shame. She wasn’t good enough to raise this child. The rendering of the scene in Past Imperfect makes clear beyond the shadow of a doubt the pain this decision caused her. Her stifled cry of animal grief was soul-shattering.
   The Hatred, Callisto’s obsessive pursuit to cause Xena as much pain as possible causes the minor enmity arc of The Widow. Purely to upset Xena, Callisto kills Perdicus in the episode Return of Callisto. The devastation of Gabrielle is of no importance other than as a mean to harm Xena.
   The Way spawns its first story arc in Destiny. Young, aggressive and ambitious, but not really evil, Xena is impressed by the urbane Roman noble and joins forces with him. He avenges her initial capture of him by crucifying her. Apart from creating the monstrous Xena, this also introduces The Romans, Xena's long feud with Caesar and the armies of Rome.
   The Romans in turn is a factor in spawning 2 short but intense story arcs. By luring Xena and thus Gabrielle to Britannia, and even placing Khrafstar in the same tent as Gabrielle, The Fire and The Rift are set in motion. These arcs are also closely connected to the Blood Innocence arc as the cult of Dahak is depending on the moral shock of Gabrielle’s first kill to prepare her for impregnation.
   Soon thereafter, as we view it, 10 years earlier in true time, the events in The Debt unfurl. Since these occur soon after Xena's crucifixion and rescue and are a direct result of her treatment by Caesar, the arc of The Romans is responsible for The Green Dragon too.
   And finally, Amazon Autumn, the decline of the Amazon nation, prompts 2 other arcs, The Spirit as Xena confronts Alti to help the living and the dead Amazons, and The Vision, as poisonous as any arrow of Callisto's. Xena’s search for Gabrielle is itself a result of The Fire, but when she arrives to the northern Amazons, or what’s left of them, her part in the Amazon Autumn unfurls in powerful flashbacks. This convinces her that the suffering of the Amazons caught between life and death is greater than the separation of her and Gabrielle.
   Indirectly one can of course trace almost everything to one event or another, but the arcs above are all directly the results of one or more preceding arc.
   The relationship between The Twilight and The Hatred is complex. Why did the god of Eli choose Xena's child to effectuate his rise to power? To choose the ultimate warrior to fight the ultimate war makes sense, especially since Xena had a deep sympathy for Eli, even if she didn’t trust his Way to survive on its own. But why did Eve become the messenger of Eli?
   The reason was perhaps twofold. First, the combined energy, spirit, fire, genes or whatever of Xena and Callisto would make a formidable being. And second, this was an infallible way of making sure that Xena would continue her involvement in holding the Olympians at bay while Eve did her work.
   There is a double cruelty in this. While Xena certainly did get to protect her child in every conceivable way, she was deprived of the more joyous of motherhood. And, when the Olympians finally are so soundly defeated that Xena reinstates a couple of them for the sake of balance, Eve says farewell and leaves.
 
 

There’s no surprising pattern in the introduction of the arcs. The number of new arcs declines slowly as the seasons pass, with only the last season lacking new story arcs altogether.