Would Xena have killed Eve, had Alti’s soul had replaced Callisto’s?
I was watching Them Bones, Them Bones the other day and it occurred to me, what would have happened had Alti successfully exchanged Callisto’s soul for her own. In the episode they never actually mention Callisto as being the baby’s soul but that’s how I’ll refer to it.
I think the first place to start, is to compare the souls of Callisto and Alti. Callisto was born an innocent child and the events in her life were what drove her to do the things she did. It was anger and hate that manifested themselves to drive her to what she became, eventually loosing the thread between vengeful and psychotic.
I know that some people don’t like Callisto’s redemption, but I thought it was fitting end to her character. I don’t think Callisto would have ever let go of her anger if it had not been for Xena’s divine intervention. The hate ran too deep in her soul to want to fight the darkness. So, up went her soul to Heaven, encountering Gabrielle and then helping Eli (with the permission of God, I suppose) to resurrect our heroines. With her magical touch, she gave Xena a child and la-la-la, Seeds of Faith, then put her soul into the growing baby.
I won’t pretend to know what exactly a soul is or what is carried in a soul. Was Eve growing up into Livia made easier by the fact that Callisto’s soul carried a past, still unfulfilled, hate? Is part of Callisto’s, now Eve’s soul, made up of evil? Do souls all carry the same amount of evil, and you just have to choose to fight or submit to it?
On saying that, Alti’s soul was evil. Pure evil. We do not know Alti’s past, but we know her future Alti, was not a Callisto. If you go by the unproduced Sticks and Stones script, Alti has always been evil, and X&G have always fought against her.
So we know that Alti’s soul; past, present and future is destined for evil. Callisto’s soul, being reborn as Eve the messenger for Eli, indicated that their soul is not evil.
So, coming back to Them Bones and if Alti had replaced Callisto’s soul with her own. Would Xena kill baby Eve, the reincarnation of Alti? There’s another tangent to this question, that of Hope. Xena was willing to kill Hope, even in infant form because she believed she was evil. So with Hope, she came from Dahak and gestated in about a day. Baby Eve came from and angel and would have spent about 8 months in Xena’s womb with Xena being maternal and waiting for her child to come into the world. That would make it a lot harder to see evil in baby Eve then in baby Hope.
When Eve was Livia, with the aforementioned non-evil-Callisto-soul, Xena was going to kill her if it came down to that. Again, that soul was saved by another divine intervention. Anyway the point is, Xena was prepared to kill her own daughter even if there was a chance of redemption. If Alti was reborn in Eve, Eve would be destined for evil and Xena would know that there is no redemption for her child.
Do I think Xena would have killed Alti/Eve? It’s a very difficult question, but no, I don’t think she would have. Nor would Gabrielle. I honestly don’t believe that Xena would be able to kill Eve, no matter what. Killing Livia would have been different I guess because she was an adult who Xena had never known, despite their blood connection. If you’re thinking, "Well, it wouldn’t do much good killing her anyway because her soul would just be reborn somewhere else!" you’re very clever. I was thinking if Eve/Alti was killed, the Amazons would have known a way to bind/destroy her soul or something.
Anyway, so that was a long rambling entry based on a question without much of an answer. If you read it, good on ya!
What do you think Xena would have done?
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