From: davideml@bellsouth.net   
      
   3-10 The Quill Is Mightier . . . .   
      
      
      
   First air date was Jan 19, 1998.   
      
   The episode starts out with young punks running away from a temple they have   
   written graffiti on -   
   'Elect Xena God.' 'Xena Rules,' 'Xena's da Bomb.' It is the Temple of   
   Aphrodite, and she is angry   
   about it.   
      
   Ares shows up and says it's all Gabrielle's fault since she is the one who   
   made Xena a legend with   
   her stories. Aphrodite goes to where Xena and Gabrielle are camping for the   
   night. Gabrielle is   
   talking about how wonderful it is to start on a brand new scroll. Xena   
   suggests that instead of   
   writing about HER, write fiction. Gabrielle writes about waking up with a   
   jerk,  Xena has gone   
   fishing, and she (Gabrielle) defeats five barbarians. Aphrodite enchants the   
   scroll so everything   
   she writes comes true.   
      
   Gabrielle wakes up and Joxer is there but not Xena. Five barbarians attack,   
   and using Xena back   
   flips, her mighty abs, and her staff, Gabrielle defeats the barbarians and   
   sends them running.   
      
   Gabrielle figures out it was her scroll and now wants to do good.   
      
   Two sisters of an orphanage are looking for donations to auction off.   
   Gabrielle makes a man appear   
   with a valuable sword and he gives it to them.   
      
   Gabrielle and Joxer go to a tavern and when Gabrielle writes that the food is   
   free and the drinks   
   are on the house, ale pours down from the ceiling.   
      
   Aphrodite tells the barbarians to go after Gabrielle. When they appear at the   
   tavern, and after two   
   tries, Gabrielle sends them to "The Caves" to fall asleep.   
      
   Ares wants a warlord, Thallonius, and his men to attack a valley, but they   
   won't while Xena is   
   there. Ares tells them to look for his sign that she is gone.   
      
   Gabrielle wants to end all war so she writes, "The will of mortals won out and   
   war lost all its   
   powers." And Ares falls out of the sky, without his powers. Gabrielle tells   
   him it is her fault and   
   will fix it. So she writes, "The force that enchanted the scroll lost its   
   power." And Aphrodite   
   falls out of the sky onto Ares.   
      
   Ares berates Aphrodite for giving Gabrielle the powers of destiny. But   
   Aphrodite says he wanted her   
   to, but Ares wanted her to go after Gabrielle to get Xena out of the way.   
      
   Gabrielle is trying to figure out how to bring Xena back to help. She   
   describes her wearing leather   
   with her whip, and Minya appears.   
      
   Thallonius and his men are still waiting for the sign.   
      
   Gabrielle, Joxer, Ares, Aphrodite and Minya are back in the tavern. Everyone   
   but Gabrielle is drunk   
   on the free ale.   
      
   Outside, Gabrielle lays her scroll down on a table and wanders off. Joxer   
   solicits free love advice   
   from Aphrodite. She tells him poetry or presents. He tries writing a poem on   
   the scroll and three   
   naked dancing Gabrielles appear. Gabrielle returns and sends them to The Caves.   
      
   Later than night when everyone is asleep, Joxer slips away to sell the   
   scabbard his father gave to   
   him to buy Gabrielle a necklace.   
      
   The next morning she finds it and he tells her it was to make up for the naked   
   Gabrielles. He says   
   he traded the scabbard for it. Gabrielle gets over-excited -  she hid the   
   scroll in the scabbard.   
      
   A woman runs up to say its raining dinars in town. So Gabrielle and Ares, and   
   Aphrodite and Minya   
   go looking for the peddler. Gabrielle sends Joxer to The Caves.   
      
   Gabrielle and Ares are following wagon ruts Gabrielle decides belongs to the   
   peddler with the cart   
   full of dinars.   
      
   They go to The Cave where Joxer is trying to disarm the barbarians, but he   
   wakes them up instead.   
      
   Minya and Aphrodite show up. There is bedlam as everyone is running here and   
   there, grabbing and   
   losing the scroll. Gabrielle gets it and writes down something. The peddler   
   grabs it and runs out   
   of the cave with everyone chasing him. Gabrielle says she wrote for the scroll   
   to go to Xena.   
      
    Thallonius sees the peddler being chased by the barbarians chased by the   
   three naked Gabrielles   
   chased by Minya as a sign and starts to attack the valley.   
      
   Xena shows up with a cart full of fish. She figured out what was going on   
   after she read the   
   scroll. She asks Aphrodite what the exact spell was. She says it was, "Lies   
   will make the world go   
   'round, till truer words are written down."  So Xena tells Gabrielle to watch   
   her and write down   
   everything exactly as it happens with no embellishments.   
      
   Xena starts fighting Thallonius and his men with the cart full of fish and her   
   sword. Gabrielle   
   writes it down and Aphrodite's and Ares' powers are returned and they   
   disappear.   
      
             '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''   
      
             Another comedy episode, and a semi-Xena-lite episode with her gone   
   for most of it. But   
   that was okay, Gabrielle more than made up for her absence.   
      
             It was nice to see Ares and Aphrodite, and Minya back. Lots of plot   
   holes, but since it   
   was obvious everyone was having such a good time, they don't really present a   
   problem.   
      
             Have to mention the three naked Gabrielles.   
      
             And how gorgeous Alex Tydings is. She certainly has the figure for   
   Aphrodite!   
      
             We all knew Gabrielle's abs were rock hard, but to be able to stop a   
   sword point - that   
   IS hard!!   
      
      
      
   Some of the better lines-   
      
             Ares (about Xena) - ".I only made her the warrior. She [Gabrielle]   
   made her the legend."   
      
      
      
   Almost Everyone (reading) -- "Gabrielle awoke with a jerk."   
      
      
      
   Aphrodite (after she falls on Ares) - "Whoa! Wipeout!"   
      
      
      
   Ares - ".We were starting to - warm up to each other there, weren't we?   
      
             Gabrielle - "Yeah, we were."   
      
             Ares - "I didn't like it."   
      
             Gabrielle - "Right back at'cha!"   
      
      
      
             Joxer - "Minya, where are the barbarians?"   
      
             Minya - "They stopped fighting and ran back to Barbaria."   
      
      
      
             Minya - "You know, I expected more from the god of war. I mean,   
   without his powers, he's   
   just another man - just another - big old - leather-clad - well-muscled -   
   gorgeous, hunk of -   
   bad-boy - man."   
      
             Gabrielle - "How are those hormones, Minya?"   
      
             Minya - "Raging. I, uh - I might go see - Hower."   
      
   ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,   
      
             But I can't let it go without at least mentioning a few things -   
      
             Aphrodite is a goddess, how hard would it have been to make the   
   graffiti disappear?   
      
             I guess Gabrielle was using a fountain quill (with its own ink   
   supply).   
      
             Couldn't have Gabrielle just written something like, "Xena came back   
   to Gabrielle."?   
      
             Why wasn't Joxer's sword in the scabbard?   
      
             Why were the barbarians after the scroll?   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)