Get in touch!

Genuinely don't be shy about reaching out. :) I don't know how to set up comments on this thing, or I'd give you that option too, so I hope this is a good enough starting point for striking up a chat. I love this show, and I'd love to talk with folks about it.

Rarely Asked Questions:

If I'm lucky, it'll get me in touch with a new friend to nerd out about fan theories and maybe share fanfics. If I'm really lucky, multiple people like that.

Realistically, I'm setting this up for the next person that's in my boots: someone who weirdly remembered this show, fell weirdly back into it (hard), and can't find anything about it online. There's some stuff on AO3 and Fanfiction.net, but I remember there used to be other early-2000s websites set up about it.

There was one in particular that gave a grade for all the ships with Deirdre, and I remember her reasoning so, so fondly (agreed with Ivar getting an A, disagreed with Angus getting a D, agreed with the show pushing Rohan flatly and pushing Garrett a little less flatly). I can't find that site anymore. I'm assuming it got deleted over time, which sucks 'cause she had a fanfic about Ivar's sister coming to Kells. I don't really remember it, and I only skimmed it because I was in my 'snobby about OCs' phase, but I wish I could find it now. Not enough other Black fans in any fandom, least of all in one that's so ancient and apparently obscure.

Same for old Tumblr blogs. I wasn't on Tumblr back then - I was in my 'I'm on Cracked/Reddit so I'm snobby about Tumblr' phase - but I did run into an Angus/Deirdre blog that's gone now, sadly. All that stuff, all those fans... :(

So this is me shooting a Golden Record into the abyss of internet-space: I'm not holding my breath that any hardcore fans will find it (or exist), but if they do, they'll have another fan's rambling and analysis to keep them company. :) That's especially true if someone stops by after I've already switched to something else. Who's gonna be there for them? Past-Tartra, that's who. It's what I would've wanted to find for myself but couldn't.

... and then like maybe one of the actors finds this and goes "oh that's neat, let me read it, wow this is so charming and definitely not weird." maybe they look at the questions i very badly want them to answer and are like "sure here's the answer for you, gee i can't believe someone cares about my work enough to notice and ask such an insightful question." maybe they're like "omg i was actually always a massive fan of this show but i felt silly talking about it 'cause it was for kids and i was on it" and then we talk about it and agree it's fucking awesome and we're best friends and we hang out and plot a hypothetical second season - idk, it's a hypothetical, no one's gotta make a big deal over it

It's October 2024, so I'm 34 years old.

'Cause it's awesome - what do you want from me?

It's a kids' show. I'm waaaay out of the target demographic. If I was stumbling onto it now, no, it wouldn't click. But I watched it when I was eight and I still have fond memories of that, so as an adult, I can see the potential for building on those bones. I'm out here slapping it into being a whole new experience: angst where there wasn't previously angst, drama and murder and intrigue, the real horrors of war, grief, Game of Thrones-y plot, picking a character and saying, "lol you're evil now, let's see what happens," and a bunch of funny shit because I finally appreciate how hilarious King Fin Varra was. Obviously I'm doing the heavy lifting here, but there's so much I can draw from that only exists in my mind because the show exists.

So I love adding nuance to it. I love reading too far into unintended implications. I love drawing messy conclusions or revealing tragic origins for things happening off-screen or earlier in the characters' histories. It's a fun, compelling puzzle, and it's had me locked into it for a solid year now. Possibly a year and a half. I just keep coming back to it over and over.

...

Angus is hot, okay?

That's the whole reason I liked the show in the first place: eight-year-old me went, "ooh he's cute, i'm gonna stare at him," and twenty-ish years later, I absolutely stand by that. She had great tastte. The first time I rewacthed the show to check if my memory was right, I was damn-near holding my breath - but young-me doesn't miss. Then I checked to see what the guy looks like now and I'm Still. Winning.

No, I don't want to talk about how hot the actor is. I already know that. He knows that. The show itself cast him so they could acknowledge it on a weirdly (but appreciated) regular basis. No one's confused.

... but like idk if you want to talk about how hot the character is to every other character and maybe make it relevant to some sort of plot where we kick up a fight among the others, brew some jealousy, deeply wonder about how hilarious it'd be if he'd ever hooked up with Maeve then found out 'oops that's my best friend's mom' - yeah, I'd be down if you're down.

uwu

Honestly? My favourite thing is just the friendship Angus and Rohan have. Love it, love imagining how much they had to rely on each other as kids, love having that get taken for granted now that they're older, love throwing something else in the mix to make one of them think their friendship is taking on any sort of water... Just love it. Love almost ruining it purely so they come back stronger at the end. And I love seeing how it affects Cathbad's opinion of Angus too, since these two've been a package deal for most of their life.

And then after that, basically everyone with everyone.

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But in PG-13 terms. Let's not get carried away; this still is a kids' show uwu

The operative word here is 'basically.' I can pretty much get on board with any ship by finding some angle to like about it. I'll have ideas where I've paired/grouped people together that fully contradict what I had set up the day before, too. So even though ten seconds of looking around will make it obvious what I find the most compelling, I'm open to chit-chatting about whatever. Individual character analyses are top-tier content to me.

Thank you - I actually worked so hard to do that. :3 I'm still planning some adjustments - maybe a cursor effect, maybe some midi music... I don't know how to make dropdown menus for navigation, but I'm 50/50 on whether I want them anyway. Having to click-click-click means way more to me.

Do you like the sparkles? I purposely sized it so you get the classic, "Uh, your background wasn't long enough" tile effect as you scroll. And look at the watermark - it's beautiful. I'm not changing it.

Btw don't look at it on mobile. I did my best to make it okay, but there's a giant, empty, purple box at the top 'cause I can't figure out how to fix the header size. :/ This is a "best experienced on desktop" site, as far as the visuals are concerned.

HELL YEAH I CAN, SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT, LET'S BRING BACK THE CATHABAD'S CHAMBER WEBRING FROM 1999

For comedic effect. I don't give a shit.

Don't tell nine-year-old me I said that. She's dying on that hill and taking us with her. And you know she's serious 'cause she's that hyped and she didn't even watch the last episode when it aired. I finally got to it when I was like 30 and went, "wtf Maeve turns into Baroness Vashj?" Actually, I didn't even remember Lugad when some other stuff started to mention him. They said he was Rohan's brother and I was like, "Rohan had a brother?!" Then I saw a pic and was like, "who tf is this yellow guy???!!!! What's happening????!!!!! Was this on TV?????????"

So yeah - little-me was not paying attention to a goddamn thing that wasn't Angus.

Oh my God.

I was just like Aideen fr fr u_u