If you think that those special things that Xena does are uniquely Xena, you're wrong.
But, of course, Xena does these things in her own unique way...

Somebody on the creative team of Xena: Warrior Princess has watched a lot of Brigitte Lin movies. Brigitte Lin, for those of you who have never seen her, has made many different kinds HK movies over the past 20 years or so. Sometime around the late '80s, however, she started making more and more movies where she played the same type of character: stoic, enigmatic, highly-skilled and deadly--but the most important manifestation of this persona was that "don't-fuck-with-me-or-you-WILL-die-stare."

Look familiar?

You gotta love a woman who can catch an arrow in mid-flight...


...but you really gotta love a woman who can catch an arrow in her teeth! These grrls make a habit of it...

If you haven't seen Drunken Master 2, seek it out, rent it, see some of the most amazingly-filmed fight scenes ever--especially the final 20 minute scene where Jackie Chan falls into a bin a burning coals, drinks industrial alcohol & spits fire, is set on fire, is hit by large barrels...you get the picture...

But in the meantime, Xena spits a pretty mean fireball herself...



as does this guy...

When Xena does the neck thing and gives her "I've just cut off the flow of blood to your brain..." speech it makes me think that she must have learned it from Asia the Invincible, the Brigitte Lin character from the SWORDSMAN 2 and SWORDSMAN 3: THE EAST IS RED. There are pressure point scenes galore in both these movies, as well as many other HK movies.