War Games
The God of War sounds like a simple enough characterisation, representative of the mythological Greek deity. However, in the world of Hercules and Xena, Ares is no mere immortal, but rather a complex character whose purpose in both shows is not just to explore the theme of war, but also peace, religion and love. K. Stoddard Hayes investigates.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 11
By the time we've seen Ares in the flesh in half a dozen episodes of Xena and Hercules, we think we have a pretty good idea of who he is.
As the God of War, he is always on the lookout for the greatest generals and the most ruthless warlords to enter his service. He really loves war - the spectacle of battle, the excitement and bloodlust of fighting, the suffering and death. He is also ruthlessly ambitious, always looking for ways to get the upper hand over the other gods. He takes sides with Dahak believing that Dahak will destroy the Olympians, and he had better be on the winning side. He seeks the god-killing Chakram of Light and releases the Titans from Tartarus so that he can overthrow the other gods and become the supreme power. And he's a master manipulator who can convince anyone that he's on their side, just by saying exactly what they want to hear.
In his relationship with Hercules, Ares shows a more human side, but still not a very admirable one. His hatred of Hercules is an obsession, the jealousy of the less-favoured son. Zeus has forbidden Ares to harm Hercules, but that doesn't stop Ares from trying to undo his brother in every way he can. Most notoriously, he uses the innocent Hind Serena to force Hercules to give up his powers, and then allows Strife to kill Serena in the hope that Hercules will be framed and lynched for her death. It's probably the single most ruthless action Ares has ever taken, because Serena trusted and served him.
But it's not that easy for Ares to let Serena die. Before she goes to marry Hercules, he describes in sordid detail the pangs of mortal life, and asks her whether she will reconsider. A part of him hopes she will choose him over his hated brother and give him the loyalty she once felt she owed him. “I will miss you,” he says when she has gone, and we get the feeling that if she had changed her mind he might even have given up his schemes to destroy his brother - for now.
With Xena, Ares is a different person. Xena was Ares’ once, and he still desires her, not just out of lust but because she is the only mortal woman has ever met who he sees as a worthy consort to the God of War. For four years, most of his schemes in her world are designed to force her to come back to him, and he hardly ever encounters her without making some sort of pass at her.
From the start, there's more to the relationship than meets the eye. Xena is the only mortal who can sense the presence of Ares when he is not visible. Xena may not trust Ares any more than Hercules does, and she is often furious with him, but she can also listen to him and speak to him without the open contempt and hostility that Hercules usually expresses. And although she has never accepted any of his proposals, she can't help feeling a strong sexual attraction to him. After she has played her seduction charade in Amphipolis Under Siege, Xena admits that she did feel something for him. And who can blame her?
There is much more to Ares than the Machiavellian schemer or the bloodthirsty warlord of warlords. The Xena episode Ten Little Warlords shows the first great crack in Ares' armour of barbed wit and battle lust. When he loses his sword and his godhood and comes close to losing his life, he learns a few much-needed lessons about the pangs of mortality. And we learn more about the nature of the God of War. At first Xena doesn’t want to help put Ares back on his throne, until she realises the effect of his downfall on Gabrielle and almost everyone. “Without a sitting god of war, peaceful people have lost the self-discipline to control their anger,” Ares explains. “You may despise me, Xena, but a godhood is a sacred trust. Without me, you’re about to experience a world without peace for anyone, anywhere.”
As Machiavellian as he seems, Ares does have certain standards which he upholds. Oddly enough, in light of his many schemes to become top god, he has an innate and deeply ingrained reverence for the established order of his world and the place of the Olympians in it. When Sisyphus explains how he plans to select a warlord to succeed Ares, the deposed war god is outraged. “The godhood of war is an object of worship! It shouldn't be put up as a prize in a silly contest!”
Ares is appalled at the idea that one of the thugs summoned by Sisyphus might actually succeed him. “If you think the world has seen bad times before, just wait until one of them gains my mantle. I was born a god, imbued with the responsibilities of a god. No mortal who gains possession can handle the power.” He tells Xena that if he is killed, she must claim the sword and take his place, rather than let it fall into less responsible hands.
When he is Serena’s guardian, Ares savours the notion of having the Hind’s Blood as the ultimate weapon to make him the master of the gods. When Callisto actually uses it to murder Strife, he is aghast. “Oh, what have you done?” he says, as the universe reels around them. And when lolaus reports that Strife is dead, Ares shouts, “He can’t be dead! He’s a god!” He even mourns for Strife, who only moments before he was kicking around and calling an “obsequious toad.”
The one thing that Ares doesn’t understand is the power of love - at least, not when he sees it in others. A full-blooded god he may be, but Ares is no match for the Archangel Michael and his deadly Horsemen in Revelations. However, Hercules stops them the minute he sacrifices his own life to protect lolaus from damnation and the human world from destruction.
When Ares meets Eli in Chakram, his first reaction is an amused, contemptuous laugh. He knows Eli is the guy who preaches love not violence (and you can imagine Ares saying “Oh, please!” the first time he hears about Eli’s message), and he slaps his hand on Eli’s shoulder to push him out of the way. Eli looks at him, and whatever Ares sees in Eli’s eyes makes him drop his hand and back away. He’s actually frightened, facing a power he doesn't know how to fight. Finally, Ares comes to confront Eli face to face, recognising that his teachings have the potential to cause the fall of the Gods of Olympus. But he has no grasp of the nature of Eli's power or he would not have tried to use force to stop him. It isn't until Xena spares his own life that Ares begins to understand: by killing Eli he's only made him stronger.
The events following the death of Zeus and the birth of Eve drive Ares into a corner where he must finally face his own truth. Torn by his loyalties to the gods, who are his own family and the source of his powers, and to Xena, the mortal woman he has wanted since he first met her, he at first plays both sides. He agrees with Athena that Eve must be killed to save the gods, then goes to Xena and tries to make a bargain with her: he’ll protect and hide Eve from the other gods if Xena will become his consort and give him a child of his own. When he believes Xena has taken her own life, that he has lost her forever, it becomes clear to him (and to us) for the first time how much he really loves her.
The moment Ares sees that Xena has returned from death, whatever desire he felt for Livia is extinguished, and everything he does from then on is prompted by his love for Xena. When he goads Livia to kill Xena, it is because he wants Xena to know the feeling of having the one she loves despise her as she despised him. When the gods are plotting to destroy Eve and Xena, Ares tries to slow them down by pointing out all the flaws in their plans. He agrees to distract Xena so that the Furies can do their work, but when Xena stands over the mortally wounded Gabrielle and Eve, with Gabrielle’s blood on her Chakram, Ares hates himself for his part in what has happened. He tells Xena that she won’t kill him because he loves her, and he is right. For the first time, he is actually beginning to understand the power of love.
In losing Xena and finding her again, Ares has discovered in himself something that probably astonishes him as much as it astonishes us. Who would have thought that he could love anyone more than he loves himself? Yet he gives up his own immortality for the love of Xena and to save the people she loves most. He is not even hoping for anything for himself when he does this. He simply wants Xena to live and to have her best friend and her daughter safe. When she thanks him, he doesn't try to make a new deal or to ask if she'll reconsider his offer in return for what he’s done. For the first time in his almost endless life, Ares has given something at great cost to himself and asks for nothing in return. For that moment, Xena’s thanks are enough.
Will these changes endure? Perhaps the harsh realities of the Twilight of the Gods and the fact that Xena will never love him as he loves her will overcome the power of Ares’ love and push him back to his old ways. Or perhaps, having discovered this new side of himself, he will meet his destiny in some nobler way.
SIDEBAR: Ares’ Little Sidekicks
Strife
Ares’ nephew has the power to provoke quarrels and contention wherever he walks; he can even make Hercules lose his temper. A schemer who hopes to earn his uncle’s esteem, he's also cowardly and disgracefully obsequious. Ironically, the demigod who murdered the last Golden Hind in our world was killed in Armageddon Now by the Hind’s Blood Dagger from the parallel world.
Deimos
Strife's successor, his name means ‘fear’, and he is even more of a coward and schemer than Strife. He is such a creepy little bootlicker that Ares barely tolerates him. When Deimos makes a pass at Aphrodite, she tells him she would rather kiss a frog.
Discord
In Greek mythology, Discord was the sister of Ares. Our Discord is his sidekick, not his sister, and far more intelligent, ruthless and ambitious than either Strife or Deimos. She would like to either become Ares' lover or take his place as Goddess of War, or perhaps both. She's the only one of his sidekicks who dares to disobey him, and for this she has earned much more of his respect. Deimos and Discord were both killed by Xena in Motherhood.
SIDEBAR: Ares in the Twentieth Century
In 1939 an archaeological expedition in Macedonia frees Ares from the tomb where he has been sleeping for nearly 2000 years. He seems to wake up fully cognisant of all the changes in the world, especially those related to war: all the new weapons of mass destruction and a fellow named Hitler who only needs the God of War to take him in hand. Only Xena's descendant could release him, so perhaps Xena herself had something to do with imprisoning him there. But the spirit of Xena also returns to seal him in the tomb again, at least temporarily.
It’s too soon to be certain whether this is actual future history or only a possible future, since the Chakram of Darkness which frees Ares in 1939 actually ceased to exist 2000 years earlier when it was fused with the Chakram of Light.
Fifty years later, Ares has got loose again, but without worshippers his powers seem limited to making minor mischief - trying to destroy the television show made in honour of his most hated brother Hercules, and trying yet one more time to win Xena, or rather, her reincarnation, back as his consort. He fails at both, but you have to wonder: if he had succeeded in winning back his Warrior Princess, what would he have made of the body she was in at the time? Can we imagine Ares and Harry/Xena in a new spin-off series with another kind of subtext?