Bad to the Bone
The Olympian Gods may well plague mankind with suffering, but Zeus and his entire army couldn't strike as much fear into the hearts of man, Warrior Princess or half-God, as the immortal Dahak. K. Stoddard Hayes investigates the chaos this creature has spread across the Xenaverse, the lives he has destroyed and the heroes he has tested.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 14
“You may love us, you may hate us, but we’re not evil. This god is.”
(Ares, The Deliverer)
With these words. Ares warns Xena of the coming of Dahak, and introduces the most far reaching storyline of the Xena and Hercules universe. By the time it ends two years later, the story of Dahak's attempt to conquer the world will provide some of the series' most dramatic moments, bring hardship, betrayal and loss to all the principle characters, reveal darkness in the hearts of the noblest heroes, and even stand the premise of each series on its head.
Hercules and Xena have always battled the gods. After three or four seasons, we think we know what to expect from these battles and from the gods as adversaries. Our first clue that Dahak may be different is that Ares seems to be afraid of him. Why else would he try to get Xena to deal with whatever is in that mysterious temple, instead of dealing directly with the enemy himself? The gods of Olympus may be self-serving, but at least they are individuals, with desires, strengths and weaknesses which our heroes can use to negotiate with them or overcome them. Dahak is not a personality to negotiate with; he has no loves and individual quirks, only the will to chaos. He is the primal force of destruction.
The introduction of Dahak and his equally evil daughter Hope drastically changes the stakes of the story. Monsters and warlords may endanger a family, a village, perhaps a kingdom or two. Even if Hera or Ares were to overthrow Zeus, they would only take his place, not change the established order of things. Dahak promises to turn the whole universe upside-down. From the start, his stated goal is to destroy all the gods and sweep the world with war.
Dramatically, the story of Dahak is complex enough to keep us entertained for many episodes, as our heroes discover each new plot to bring Dahak into the world, and confront both old friends like Callisto and Ares, and new faces like Gilgamesh. To make things still more interesting, the lines of conflict are tightly drawn together, because both series place the second lead, not the hero, at the centre of the conflict with Dahak and Hope. It’s Gabrielle who bears Dahak's child; it’s lolaus who dies at the hands of Dahak and is possessed by his spirit.
The primary role of Hercules and Xena has always been that of protector: to protect the larger community from evil, and to protect their less powerful best friends, whose courage often gets them in over their heads. Putting lolaus and Gabrielle dead centre in the struggle against Dahak presents both Xena and Hercules with an irreconcilable conflict. To protect the world from the evil of Dahak, each of them must go head to head with the person dearest to them.
Both secondary characters benefit dramatically from their central places in the story arc. Michael Hurst has a field day with the different roles provided for him after lolaus' death. Meanwhile, Gabrielle develops significantly through the loss of her blood innocence, her rift with Xena, and the choice she must make to kill her own daughter. These experiences lay the emotions groundwork for her exploration of the ‘Way of Love’ in the following season. They also teach her that Xena's friendship is her most precious treasure leading to her determination to stay with Xena, no matter what visions of crucifixion threaten.
Dahak brings duplicity into the series in a way that not even Ares can match. The gods of Olympus propel their schemes on the greed or ambition of their followers, or on the fear and submission of ordinary people. This works well enough with the greedy, violent and ambitious, and with ordinary mortals, who just want to survive. It doesn’t work with those who prize service to others and the greater good more than their own lives, whether they are big heroes, like Hercules and Xena, or those smaller, everyday heroes who stand up for their own village or kingdom.
The subtle mind of Dahak knows how to subvert even the good guys. He appeals to their dreams and their desire to do good. When Dahak's priest first meets Xena and Gabrielle, he describes a god of love and peace. Gabrielle's joy at hearing this message from a god is incandescent. This new god sounds like everything she is looking for. When she stabs the priestess, she genuinely believes she is saving the worshippers of this god of love from a terrible human sacrifice. The priest cheats her out of her blood innocence by providing the one thing she cares enough about to kill for.
Dahak’s temptation of lolaus is equally devilish. He appears to the dead lolaus’ spirit in the guise of Hercules, a powerful persuasion even though lolaus knows he is not dealing with the real Hercules. In that form, Dahak offers lolaus the power of a god and the chance to use this power to help people. Then, as he did with Gabrielle, he tricks lolaus into making the choice of taking one life to save another, and leaves guilt and lolaus’ conscience to do the rest.
The most important effect Dahak and Hope have on the stories of Xena and Hercules is to show us that absolutely nothing is safe or certain in this universe. It's not just the gods of Olympus, or the cosmic balance between creation and destruction, that are endangered, but the primary values of friendship and heroism. Because of Hope, Gabrielle lies to Xena, not just a little lie, and not just once or for a short while, but a big lie sustained for a whole season - an eternity in television terms. And because that lie causes Xena’s son Solan's death, it leads Xena to try to kill Gabrielle. In how many television series has the hero tried to murder the sidekick?
Meanwhile, lolaus’ death at the hands of Gilgamesh actually destroys the hero. For two episodes (and all the weeks of his voyage from Sumeria to Eire in story time), Hercules stops being the noble, compassionate hero we are accustomed to, and becomes a man driven by rage, despair and self-hatred. And friendship changes here, too. After four years of faithful companionship, the death of lolaus removes the indispensable sidekick from the series. For the rest of the season, Hercules either adventures alone or with the companionship of Nebula, Morrigan, or, most dramatically, the second lolaus. Confronted by a man who is so like his own lolaus and yet so different, Hercules has to grapple yet again with the loss of his best friend.
The effect of these dramatic extremes is the same as it would be in real life if something precious were endangered. We can no longer take for granted the friendships and the heroism that seemed the very foundation of the two series. What is Xena without the friendship of Gabrielle and Xena? How can we follow the legendary journeys of a hero who turns his back on his heroism? As in real life, even these friendships can be lost or destroyed under the right (or wrong) circumstances. Once regained, though, they become stronger than before because they have survived such a crisis.
These events also lay the groundwork for many of the best storylines in each series. lolaus’ death in the first episode of the fifth season of Hercules sets up the strongest season of the whole series. His absence opens the way for Hercules to travel to Eire, Britannia, Scandinavia and the alternate universe, and to explore his own darkness and what it means to be a hero. In Xena, the dramatic events of the rift between Gabrielle and Xena, and their quest to kill Hope at any cost, sets a dramatic standard that must be met or bettered in each subsequent season. In their quest for this higher standard, the writers give us the vision of crucifixion, the tension between the Way of Love and the Way of War, the birth of a fateful child and the Twilight of the Gods.
The Dahak episodes provide the creative staff and the actors of Xena and Hercules with some of their most exciting and challenging storylines. By pushing the established boundaries, the story of Dahak makes both series more dramatic and much grander in scale than they were before.