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"But then, I've always been daddy's little girl, haven't I?""

―Hope, "A Family Affair"
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Hope, The Demi-Goddess of Dahak is a recurring character on Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Hope is the daughter of Gabrielle and Dahak, the One God of Evil. When Gabrielle was forced to kill, while in a temple in Britannia, she loses her blood innocence. She is then raped by Dahak and impregnated with the child that would become Hope.

Within a few hours after being born, Hope makes her first kill. She develops rapidly, resembling a 10-year old girl at only 3-4 months old. When she releases Callisto from the lava river, she takes the alias of "Fayla" and is told to kill Solan, Xena's son. This causes a Rift in Xena's and Gabrielle's relationship.

She and Ares then get together and create their own children - The Destroyers. When Hope gives birth to what should have been the Destroyers, only one survives. It rampages across Potidaea, killing everything in its sight. When Xena kills the Destroyer, in its pain, it swipes and stabs Hope, killing her.

Story[]

Conception[]

While being left in Britannia, Gabrielle was captured by the servants of the One Evil God, Dahak, at his temple, as well as was tricked into killing his priestess. After performing her first kill, Dahak then proceeded in planting his seed within her. Gabrielle became nine months pregnant by the next week, as well as gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Hope, believing that because the baby was half-her, she was not necessarily evil, though Xena was skeptical and tried convincing her repeatedly to kill the newborn.

Infancy[]

Hope grew rapidly and on the night of her birth she made her first kill. Xena, fearing that the child is just a tool for Dahak, attempts to kill her against Gabrielle's wishes. Gabrielle then goes on the run from Xena with the help of Dahak's banshees. Xena attempts to track them down and Gabrielle fakes a story of Hope trying to strangle her and she had to throw her off of a cliff. In truth, Gabrielle sent her daughter up a river in a basket, beginning to lie -- which started the rift between Xena and Gabrielle.

Childhood and Meeting Callisto[]

Hope, within a few months, grows up to look like a 10 year child, now fully working with her father. Hope then proceeds in releasing the now goddess, Callisto from the lava pit that Xena trapped her in, in order to help her get rid of Xena. Hope disguises herself as an innocent child who was attacked by Callisto, while her mother and Xena are visiting the Amazons/Centaurs. Hope then initiates her plan where she and Callisto kill Xena's son, Solan. Afterwards, Gabrielle realizes that the child is Hope and comes to terms with her true nature and poisons her, killing her own daughter.

Meeting Hercules[]

Hope is resurrected from the ashes of her funeral pyre by Dahak. While regenerating, "The Daughter of Darkness", releases Callisto from the cavern Xena trapped her in, and gives her the task of travelling back in time and killing Hercules' mother before he's born. Thanks to the heroics of Iolaus - and surprisingly, Ares - their plot is stopped.

"Hatching" and Presumed Death[]

With the help of the cult of Dahak, Callisto, as well as Dahak's new pawn, Ares, Hope prepares to finish regenerating and hatch from her life-size cocoon. Despite the constant opposition from her mother and Xena, as well as even later Callisto, the cult feeds Hope the blood of the chosen sacrifice and she resurfaces, now fully grown appearing identical to Gabrielle, with her demonic god-like powers now in full force.

Playing Gabrielle, The Destroyer and Death[]

Hope, now fully grown, has taken Ares as her lover promising to slaughter the rest of the Olympian Gods and leave him ruling in their place. In return, Ares provides Hope with a child who grows as rapidly as she did. In her plot, Hope pretends to be Gabrielle in order to fool Joxer into showing her where Hercules hid the Hinds-Blood Dagger in his last battle with Callisto, not knowing it was already taken by Xena beforehand. Hope then tries to convince her mother to defect to her side and "be the mother she never could have been", though Gabrielle of course dismisses the offer. Hope then attempts to have Dahak rise from his flames. Of course Xena tries to kill her knowing that if she does, The Fates will immediately cut her life thread. In an attempt to stop Xena from killing Hope, Gabrielle grabs Hope and they both fall into Dahak's pit, stopping his revival and apparently killing them both.

Xena and Joxer eventually discover that Ares rescued them both. Hope then gave birth to her son, a fearsome creature she calls, "The Destroyer." Hope travels to Gabrielle's hometown, Potidaea, and pretends to be her, fooling her maternal grandparents into believing Xena abuses and torments Gabrielle. Xena eventually finds the real Gabrielle and together they go up against Hope and her monster of a son. Fooled into thinking that Hope is Gabrielle, The Destroyer stabs Hope with his claw after being stabbed by Xena, mother and son then die in each others' arms.

Hope doesn't appear again until the episode "Motherhood", though it's the Furies appearing in the form as Hope in order to convince Gabrielle to kill Xena's daughter, Eve for revenge.

Powers and Abilities[]

Hope was an unusual being in the Xenaverse. She is a Demi-Goddess of the One God, Dahak, and works as his conduit on Earth. Because of this, she has access to many more powers than other demi-gods and actually seemed on par to actual gods. There were certain abilities that Hope had access too which other gods did not. Likewise, gods had certain abilities that Hope didn't such as teleportation, invulnerability, and shapeshifting.

Fire: Hope once used a fireball to free Callisto from a cave. This ability was not used again by her and may be assumed that she channeled it from her father who will often materialize in fire. Hope also stated that her father's flames won't hurt her. This may imply that she can not be harmed from fire.

Limited Immortality: While not truly immortal, as she can still be injured and temporarily killed. Only that which can kill the unkillable like the Hinds Blood Dagger or a Destroyer was able to finish her for good.

Power Granting: In Armageddon Now, Hope was able to give the power of time travelling to Callisto. She also rejuvenated Callisto after having been defeated in battle and increased her strength. It is unclear if this is one of Hope's own abilities or one channeled from her father.

Psychometry: The ability to see the past of an object by touching it. Hope was shown using this power in Sacrifice II when looking for the Hinds Blood Dagger. After touching the railing at the temple of Ares, she saw a vision of Hercules pounding the dagger into the stone.

Resurrection: Although not invulnerable, Hope has shown the ability to resurrect herself from death with Dahak's power in Armageddon Now. After having been poisoned and cremated, Hope's spirit could use another person's body to form one of her own, although horribly disfigured. She was later able to remold this body into the healthy form of her mother's, Gabrielle, by rejuvenating in a cocoon of flesh and blood.

Telekinesis: The ability to move objects with a thought was Hope's primary ability. She showed a mastery over this skill more precise than anyone else in the Xenaverse as she was able to control many objects at once, blow apart stone, and break a river of solidified lava. Hope did seem to have trouble completely controlling Xena and her Chakram as both were able to force their ways through this ability.

Trivia[]

  • Renée O'Connor stated that she enjoyed playing Hope, as she had such a different dimension from Gabrielle.
  • Although no connection to Pandora was intended, the dichotomy of Hope being utterly evil but named after a good quality parallels the hope in Pandora's box. Some ancient texts suggest that hope was the worst of all evils in the box, rather than the only good one.

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Mentions[]

  1. "The Bitter Suite"
  2. "Forget Me Not" (Mentioned, archive footage)
  3. "Paradise Found"
  4. "The Abyss"
  5. "Soul Possession" (Mentioned, archive footage)

See Also[]



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