Alternate Universe Theories - XWP and HTLJ
We know there are many inconsistencies between the Hercules telemovies, and the Young Hercules, Hercules the Legendary Journeys, and Xena Warrior Princess tv shows.
Five years ago DWOMT put forward a theory on Reddit about HTLJ and XWP.
[**https://www.reddit.com/r/legendaryjourneys/comments/lii9ho/crazy\_theory\_hercules\_and\_xena\_eventually\_split/**](https://www.reddit.com/r/legendaryjourneys/comments/lii9ho/crazy_theory_hercules_and_xena_eventually_split/)
Before I’d read this, I came up with a similar theory which created several new timelines that, incidentally, could also be used to help explain some of the “ten years ago” contradictions in Xena’s history in XWP.
Allow me to summarise here.
Let’s start with Young Hercules. When he was 18, Hercules went to the Academy where he met Iolaus and Jason (who was still only the Prince of Corinth, not ruling it yet). A number of the YH storylines involved characters and stories that contradicted the other two series, eg.
* The story of Eurydice and Orpheus – which is different to XWP, where Xena is blamed for Eurydice’s death in *Girls Just Want to Have Fun.* * Castor and Pollux – in YH one of them died, however, they both turned up later in XWP’s *Little Problems* * When Hercules met the Amazons – in YH it was aboard a ship, but, in the first Hercules telemovie, *Hercules and the Amazons*, I had the impression that was the first time Hercules had come across them. Perhaps he had met Cyane’s Amazons earlier in his youth, but not Hippolyta’s Amazons until the telemovie.
In that telemovie, Iolaus dies, however Hercules petitions Zeus who turns back time and Iolaus lives. This is the beginning of the **second timeline or reality**. Interestingly in the telemovie *Hercules and the Maze of the Minotaur*, Iolaus references the Amazons which, in theory, in this timeline, he wouldn’t have met, so perhaps Hercules told him about the switcheroo Zeus did.
I hold to the theory espoused by Star Trek: The Next Generation episode *Parallels* where every important choice that is made in a person’s life, spins off two parallel realities, which is why YH’s stories can continue in that series and that original timeline/reality/universe, whereas the HTLJ and XWP shows we see are in different realities.
In this second reality, Callisto’s mother and sister are killed by Xena’s men at Cirra as referenced in *Callisto.*
Four episodes later, Xena kills a young boy at the Temple of the Fates, then beseeches the Fates, and they send her back in time to *Remember Nothing*. When she returns, she doesn’t kill the young boy – he lives – hence the **third reality**.
The next reality starts after Hercules meets and marries Serena, who then dies. Not long afterwards, he and Autolycus go back in time using the Kronos Stone which Autolycus stole from King Quallus. They change that past and Serena lives, creating the **fourth reality**. This is the one referenced by DWOMT in their post. It coincides with XWP Season 2.
In this fourth reality, Xena and Gabrielle are about to get embroiled in The Rift (XWP Season 3). Immediately after XWP’s *Maternal Instincts* but before *The Bitter Suite*, Hope’s ashes rise and are coalesced in HTLJ’s Season 4 *Armageddon Now* episodes. Callisto turns up, and there is a flurry of time travel with her and Iolaus, creating several new realities.
In the first new reality (the fifth one overall), Hercules was never born, therefore, there could have never been a Young Hercules series and all that happened in it. Ares never knew who Iolaus was because there was no Young Hercules.
Without Hercules unchaining her heart (HTLJ *Unchained Heart)* Xena became The Conqueror and Ruler of Corinth. She still has a son named Solan, though it’s not clear how this fits in with Borias. Obviously in this reality she must have won against the Centaurs which is why she managed to rule over Corinth.
Xena is about to attack Cirra except in this timeline, Callisto had a mother and father, not a sister, and it was her parents that were killed at Cirra, not her mother and sister (as in a previous reality).
Autolycus never stole the Kronos Stone from King Quallus who, instead, presented it to Xena who killed him anyway. She eventually put the stone onto her sceptre. Although she wasn’t rescued by Xena in *Sins of the Past*, Gabrielle wasn’t a slave as in *Remember Nothing* \- instead she is a rebel as it's a different reality.
When Iolaus steals the Kronos Stone from Xena, he goes back in time to fix things, creating another reality in which some things from that previous one stuck, eg. it’s still Callisto’s parents who died in Cirra, not her mother and sister. After all, in XWP Season 5, after Callisto goes to Heaven, it is her **parents** she gets to catch up with.
In this **sixth reality**, HTLJ's *Norse by Norsevest* (Season 5) occurs around the time of XWP *A Tale of Two Muses* (early XWP Season 4) which is before XWP's *Between the Lines*, where Gabrielle and Xena are thrown into the future and their reincarnated souls cross paths with a reincarnated Alti. They bring her back to the 'present' which her reincarnation had already lived, so that would present another blip in the realities. In other words a **seventh reality**, which is where the Rheingold Trilogy occurred, hence the differences.
In this reality, Xena killed Hades amongst other Greek gods, which is how Caesar manages to escape Tartarus in *When Fates Collide* (XWP Season 6). It’s interesting that Callisto was sent to Hell, and although her lord, who had to be Mephistopheles not Lucifer because of XWP Season 6 (*The Haunting of Amphipolis* and *Heart of Darkness* episodes) had expressed an interest in Caesar, he went to Tartarus instead.
At the end of *When Fates Collide*, yet another reality or timeline has been created, because both Xena and Gabrielle remember the circumstances leading up to where they then are.
So, what can you take out of this? Good news actually. For all those episodes you didn’t like, just remember that in Another Reality they probably didn’t happen!
By the way, if there is a timeline change I’ve overlooked (quite possibly in HTLJ as I don’t know it as well), then let me know in the comments and I’ll adjust my reasoning accordingly!