Do we like Callisto?
A character from Xena: Warrior Princess (1996-2000)
Our score: 2 out of 10. Her grudge is understandable, but she takes it out on everyone near Xena. We'd feel for her and still never back her.
Callisto is one of the best-known villains of Xena: Warrior Princess, the fantasy-adventure series about a former warlord who is trying to atone by protecting people. As a child, Callisto lost her family in a raid from Xena's conqueror days. When she shows up, she is a skilled, laughing, vengeful fighter. She argues that Xena made her what she is.
The show makes her a dark mirror of Xena. Both are fierce warriors shaped by violence, and Callisto is what Xena might have become with no chance at redemption. That is why she works as a character. Her pain is real and her taunts hit home, so she is both funny and frightening.
Her score is low because of what she does with that pain. She sets traps, stages massacres to ruin Xena's name, and hurts people who had nothing to do with her loss. Her story is sad, but she picks cruelty again and again, so we can't back her.
Callisto does not stay a one-episode villain. She kills Gabrielle's husband Perdicus, comes back from apparent death with supernatural help, and gains new powers. Later she is pulled into a story about redemption, where Xena offers her a very different kind of ending.