DVD in Region 2 on October 8, 2007. Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a rating of 89%, based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Lucy Lawless exudes steely charisma in Xena: Warrior Princess, a swashbuckling actioner that transcends its origin as a spinoff and becomes a fully realized saga in its own right." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly, giving the season a B+: "Xena is Wonder Woman on steroids, and Lawless — with her dark bangs, moon face, light blue eyes, and small, grim smiles — plays the warrior princess with barely concealed delight." Awards U.S. ratings Influence on the lesbian community Xena has enjoyed a particular cult status in the lesbian community. Some of the lesbian fan base see Xena and Gabrielle as a couple and have embraced them as role models and lesbian icons. Xena's popularity was successfully utilized by Subaru when trying to establish a healthy base of lesbian customers: one ad had a car with the license plate "XENA LVR" (Xena lover). A subject of much interest and debate among viewers is the question of whether Xena and Gabrielle are lovers. The issue is left deliberately ambiguous by the writers. Jokes, innuendo, and other subtle evidence of a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle is referred to as "lesbian subtext" or simply "subtext" by fans. The issue of the true nature of the Xena/Gabrielle relationship caused intense "shipping" debates in Xena fandom, which turned especially impassioned due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights. Many fans felt that the sexual nature of Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was cemented by an interview given by Lucy Lawless to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay". "There was always a, 'Well, she might be or she might not be' but when there was that drip of water passing between their lips in the very final scene, that cemented it for me. Now it wasn't just that Xena was bisexual and kinda liked her gal pal and they kind of fooled around sometimes, it was 'Nope, they're married, man'." The Xena fandom also popularized the term altfic (from "alternative