"If you can love your way out of this one, be my guest."
- ―Amarice to Eli, "The Ides of March"
Amarice was a recurring character on Xena: Warrior Princess. She was a member of the Telaquire Amazon tribe and later the Northern Amazon Tribe. She was a faithful friend of Gabrielle, Xena and Joxer. Arrogant and stubborn to begin with, Amarice did eventually mature into a warrior before she died. Xena and Gabrielle were a big influence on her and when they were crucified and killed, she promised to try and reach the skill level of the Warrior Princess.
Amarice wasn't actually an Amazon; she lied and said that she was an amazon, in order to get into a tribe and feel as if she belonged somewhere. After Ephiny died, she found Gabrielle and Xena, and requested that they return to the tribe and help fight against Pompey and Caesar. After this, Amarice traveled with Gabrielle and Xena; until their crucifixion. Amarice, Eli, and Joxer cut them down from the crosses and protected their bodies from the Romans. Eli resurrected them and they continued their travels, which eventually led to Amarice's secret being revealed to Gabrielle and Xena. She stayed with the Northern Amazon in hopes of learning and governing new skills. Amarice died in battle against the Semite Nomads not long after leaving Xena and Gabrielle.
Biography[]
Early life[]
It is unknown if the Telaquire Amazon tribe was her first tribe, despite always referring to her 'old tribe', which she may have lied about to make her identity as an Amazon seem more believable or by the way she is clothed that old tribe could be Celtic amazon tribe. She lied about being an Amazon so that she could get into a tribe and feel like she belonged somewhere. It is unclear the amount of time she was in the tribe before Ephiny died. It was implied that it may have been some time, as the tribe trusted Amarice to retrieve Gabrielle for the next in line.
Meeting Xena and Gabrielle[]
Amarice was first portrayed as a young, naive, 'kick ass now, take names later' warrior. She always spoke about her 'Old Tribe' and how unorthodox the Telaquire Amazons do things, compared to her tribe. She often questioned Ephiny's motives towards battle and didn't understand it's true meaning. After Ephiny is killed by Brutus, Julius Caesar's right-hand man, she is told by Chilapa to find the true queen of the Telaquire Tribe, Gabrielle.
Amarice found Gabrielle and Xena fishing in a lake and informed them of Ephiny's death, as well as informed them to go back to the tribe with her. Amarice followed Xena during the course of "Endgame", learning valuable things about life, which lead to her later maturing. Amarice's attitude towards Gabrielle was very arrogant and she was defiant to accept her as a Queen, as she was following the Way of Love at the time. Xena tells Amarice to listen to Gabrielle: she could learn a few things if she does so.
Xena and Gabrielle's Death and Maturity[]
After the events in "Endgame", Amarice travels with Xena and Gabrielle, in hope of finding some answers and learning a few things. When, Xena learns that Caesar has put a bounty on her head for 6 million Dinars, She goes to Rome to kill him and asks Amarice to protect Gabrielle whilst she does so. Gabrielle takes Amarice to see Eli, but she struggles to find any philosophy in his preachings. Amarice, Eli and Gabrielle are ambushed by Romans and taken to Rome, under Caesar's orders. Amarice nearly loses her life, when she attacks a Roman soldier, in an attempt to try an escape. Gabrielle intervenes and Brutus stops the attack. Once they are chained and in prison, Eli and Gabrielle practice perfecting the ability to have a clear mind. Amarice sarcastically says that they can both love the guards who crucify them. Xena rescues them and they all escape, but Gabrielle. The events play out and Xena and Gabrielle are crucified.
Joxer and Amarice look on at Xena and Gabrielle on the crosses in "Fallen Angel"
It is their death that is the catalyst that makes Amarice mature and take note of philosophy and gain morals and learn of the true meaning of battle. She then teams up with Joxer and Eli to help take them down off of the crosses, so that Joxer can take them to Amphipolis to be buried next to Lyceus. She then witnessed Eli resurrect them. She reunited Xena with her broken Chakram and helped Gabrielle, Joxer and Eli make Xena's memory whole again. Her respect for Gabrielle was raised highly, once she gained the ability of using the Sai. She realizes what a great warrior Gabrielle is and this makes her blame Eli for Xena and Gabrielle's death. She then became romantically involved with Armand, the son of the warlord that Joxer killed. They had a love-hate relationship, but finally got together.
Gabrielle gives Amarice a necklace with beads for each of her Amazon sisters - including Amarice, in "Them Bones, Them Bones"
True identity, Northern Amazons and death[]
When Amarice learns of Xena having severe problems in her pregnancy, she rushes to be by her side. Xena decides that she should seek help from Yakut of the Northern Amazons, with Amarice and Gabrielle in tow. Once they arrive, they are greeted by Yakut. She tells Xena that Alti is trying to steal her baby's soul and use it as her own. She goes on to say that she isn't in a fit enough state to face Alti in the spiritual realm, so Gabrielle must go instead.
Gabrielle fails to defeat Alti, so Yakut tells them of a cavern, of which only true Amazons can enter. Inside, there is an Amber, that when placed on Alti's remains, her soul will be hardened and trapped. When they arrive, they are greeted by Chi'ah, an Amazon mystic, who can see the truth in peoples hearts. She reveals that Amarice isn't an Amazon and it is a fake identity that she took on.
After receiving the Amber, Gabrielle confronts Amarice about her revelation. Amarice explains that she just wanted to belong and so she created an identity for herself. Gabrielle gives her a beaded necklace and tells her that there is a bead on it for each of her sisters. She then says that she has just added another one for her. Xena and Gabrielle part from Amarice, who says that she is going to stay with the Northern Amazons to learn some things.
About 6 months later, the amazons and the Semite Nomads waged a fierce war against each other. Several amazons lost their lives during this war; such as Amarice.
Relationships[]
Xena[]
When Xena and Amarice first met, Amarice seemed to be trying to impress the Warrior Princess. Xena tried to teach Amarice in the way she tried to teach others in her position, for example Gabrielle and Tara. She tried to show her that not every situation should be resolved with a sword and that she should try to use violence as a last result. She didn’t listen to Xena at first, as she didn’t take any notice of anything with a metaphorical message. When Xena died “The Ides of March”, Amarice realized everything Xena had tried to teach her about fighting and vowed that she would try and attain a skill near to that of Xena’s. After she was resurrected, Amarice showed great concern for Xena when Alti tried to steal Eve’s soul.
Gabrielle defends Amarice in "The Ides of March"
Gabrielle[]
Despite Gabrielle’s authority when the two met, Amarice chose not to listen to Gabrielle. She thought that she knew a lot better than her. This lack of respect was also due to her then-current non-violent path. Even before Gabrielle picked up weapon again, she defended Amarice in “The Ides of March” by using a whip, non-violently, which surpassed her thoughts on Gabrielle. When Gabrielle strayed from this path and gained new weapons in “Chakram”, she was in awe at her abilities in battle, presumably because she had never seen her fight and her opinion of Gabrielle probably did not cover being a good fighter. Amarice and Gabrielle eventually grew to be good friends, showing on several occasions that they cared for each other by defending each other in battle.
Joxer[]
Amarice and Joxer's relationship is hard to describe; they respected each other, although this is not clear if this is because of their mutual respect for Xena and Gabrielle. They did display that they were good friends on several occasions; such as Amarice defending him in battle and Joxer helping to get both her and Arman together.
Eli[]
Amarice felt a lot of resentment to Eli; she was defiant to accept him and had a hard time trying to understand his message and path of Love. This resentment only grew stronger when she blamed him for the death of Gabrielle and Xena, as she claimed that he filled Gabrielle’s head with his "message of peace", claiming that if she had defended herself, maybe Gabrielle and Xena wouldn't have died. However, he did manage to gain a little respect from her when he resurrected them from the dead.
Personality[]
Amarice could be very stubborn at times: she would often ignore orders from Ephiny and Gabrielle, with no regard for their authority. Despite this, she seemed to care more about others than herself. For example, she would always try to defend her friends in battle. She always displayed a fierce side to herself, even stating in “Endgame” that she has a “kick butt now and take names later” attitude. Even after the death of Xena and Gabrielle, as well as spontaneous realization of the influence that they were, she still retained this attitude.
She was quite a skilled fighter, but ruthless at the same time. Despite her youth, she would kill without remorse in battle, yet seem to display skill that implied she had been fighting for years. She was able to hold her own in a battle against the Romans, as well as minions of Ares and Kal.
She wasn’t very romantic and didn’t seem to want a relationship. She didn’t like men, being an Amazon (or rather just “affiliated” with Amazons). This was until she met Arman, who saved her life in “Animal Attraction”.
She showed a very short and furious temper in “Animal Attraction”, where Joxer and Arman laughed at her when she fell over, which embarrassed her and made her swear at them. Both she and Arman did seem to have fallen in love by the end of the episode.
Trivia[]
- Amarice was added in by the producers, as they felt that Gabrielle was no longer the young and naive character and had outgrown the image of being brash and headstrong. They still wanted this idea to run throughout the show for a while, so Amarice was created.
- Amarice's character was cut-short in the series, due to Jennifer Sky being cast as the lead in Cleopatra 2525, the writers had planned to feature her throughout way longer in the series. Amarice was written to be featured in another 5 more episodes following Them Bones, Them Bones, among them were Purity, Back in the Bottle, Punch Lines and two more later season 5 episodes. Them Bones, Them Bones was rewritten to include an exit for Amarice and her character was unceremoniously killed (off-screen) between that episode and Lifeblood.
Appearances[]
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