Rohan/Deirdre

Let’s set the stage a little.

Do I think this ship had any chance of happening in the show?

Yes. Obviously. This was the ship they hyped up.

Would I have supported the two of them actually getting together?

Pretty much. Yeah. If Deirdre had to pick somebody for marriage, Rohan’s the best, accessible, long-term choice out of the four Knights (and you’re right, that is a lot of qualifiers for a simple yes or no. We’ll get to it).

Did I want them to get together?

Kind of. I’m on the side that Deirdre should’ve been a single Queen, like Maeve, or had a fun little harem made of all four of the guys. And Rohan seemed like he’d be fine with being single, too. He made such a big deal out of being a knight; he probably would’ve been happy swearing an oath of loyalty to his Queen, then running around and stabbing other people in her name. But they’re such Girl Character + Boy Character that I can’t help rooting for them out of habit alone.

If they were together, do I think they’d be happy?

Yeah. I guess. Probably. I mean, it does risk a bit of a ‘Nagging Wife and Harangued Husband’ trope. Deirdre was supposed to be opinionated and confident in her opinions, and that usually translates to Bossy™ later. Rohan did his best to be polite – especially around others in positions of authority – but had a temper, which usually becomes, “I drink and say ‘yes dear’ a lot.” But I think for them, if Rohan married her and became King, he would’ve been a competent King and Deirdre would’ve respected him for that. They would’ve seen each other as equals. I hope. It was still the 90s.

And the million dollar question: what do I think of the ship overall?

Fuckin’ snore.

Stage set – let’s fight.

Rohan, as a character, is fine. He’s the hero, he’s the leader, he tries his best and usually means well, but occasionally he has ‘more to learn’ and has to fix any mistakes he makes, which he immediately recognizes as the mistakes they were and always vows to do better. He’s “The Good Guy.”

It’s not something a different actor would’ve improved upon. Lochlann O’Mearin was okay, but one thing I appreciated was how he’d take Rohan from 0 to 100 whenever the guy was upset. That alone gave his character more personality than I think the script deserved, so props to him there. He also had an excellent ‘quiet’ voice, which would turn Rohan into a bit of a Gentle Giant – almost meek – whenever he was being polite or feeling uncomfortable. That one hill and sole valley of emotion is what makes me like his acting choices today, and I firmly belief if he’d tried to do anything more than that, they would’ve told him to tone it down. He can be a BIG hero, but he’s not supposed to be a big personality. He’s there to moralize the others: after their emotional journeys, he’ll support them or scold them, and through whatever stance he takes, we learn if the show’s saying they did a Good thing or a Bad thing.

Deirdre, as a character, is better. Much more nuanced. You can’t just throw the word “princess” out and let that fill in the blank the same as you could with Rohan and the word “hero.” Yes, she’s polite, smart, compassionate, wears dresses, and has marriage as one of her main story lines. She’s also snobby, proud, commanding, argumentative, and will pull rank to get her way. Those are both standard interpretations of a default princess character, and she fits them both.

However. Deirdre also tried to use her inherently nurturing femininity to soothe a beast, and when it was not soothed, she punched that dragon in its fucking face. One of her best friends had the opportunity to change his life, and she not only tried to bribe him into wishing for what she wanted instead, but actively worked to coerce him into doing it through emotional blackmail. The main antagonist of the show arrives to ask for a one-on-one duel to decide a multi-generational war between their kingdoms, and after she’s baited into it with “Oh, I guess you can’t make big decisions without daddy” and Rohan and Cathbad rightly scold her, she pulls a beautiful one-two combo of, “I’M THE QUEEN FOR THIS EPISODE, I MAKE THE DECISIONS” and “:( i mean unless you disagree with my decision” and it’s fantastic. She also just has a lot of fun banter and sass with the other characters, where we see she’s not afraid to throw out a few unladylike remarks, and even takes a few of them in return, good-naturedly. She’s got a personality beyond a single archetype, is what I’m saying.

Acting-wise, Lisa Dwan did her job well. I haven’t seen any of her other stuff, and I heard she’s a big stage-play actress now (yay!), but she didn’t need to reinvent the wheel with Deirdre. The script gave her enough stuff to work with, to the point that – if I may be so bold – any ‘competent’ actor could’ve given us a passably similar performance. The show knew what it wanted going in when it came to this character.

Why am I mentioning the actors?

‘Cause when I say, “Rohan and Deirdre had no goddamn chemistry,” I don’t want anyone thinking it had to do with the acting. It didn’t. The acting was fine. There might’ve been potential for the acting to add more to mix, like maybe improv or certain gestures or looks or whatever, but that’s not on them. That’s on the direction of the show. And the show did not direct them to have chemistry.

Oh, the show assumed there was chemistry. That’s the Girl Character + Boy Character thing. But none of the actual groundwork had been laid by the characters.

Why?

They had next to no interaction on that front.

There were five moments in the show where they did, and I’ll list them out as the exceptions that prove the rule:

Everyone’s trapped by rubble in a cave. Rohan walks out before Deirdre and turns back to offer her his hand.

Rohan and Angus are wrestling. Deirdre comes in and says she’ll fight the winner. Rohan wins and is like, “:) Well?”

Rohan tries to turn a leek into a skeleton. It doesn’t work. Deirdre teases him by saying his magic stinks.

Deirdre and Rohan are in the forest, stalking her dad. He says he respects her instincts and apologizes for doubting her. Moments later, a phantom boar runs by. Rohan does an extremely unnecessary manoeuvre where he scoops her into his arms to try and defend her from it.

Rohan’s dying. Deirdre holds his hand while he’s unconscious and says she has to tell him about her feelings.

Read those back and tell me #1, #2, #3, and #4 add up to #5.

I HEAR YOU: “Those aren’t the only moments that show they like each other!”

I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about chemistry.

For the record, the majority of moments that show they like each other happen when the other one isn’t even involved in the conversation. Aideen plots to herself about how much Deirdre’s in the way of getting to make out with Rohan. Garrett accuses Deirdre of liking Rohan as a reason for why she won’t agree to the arranged marriage. Aideen and Garrett agree that splitting those two up increases their own chances to hook up with their respective preferences. Angus hypes up how much Rohan’s gotta hurry and make a move on Deirdre before somebody else does.

Beyond that, any jealousy she feels about Rohan’s potential affections for someone else? Princess Lynette and Lady Fiona especially? All the boys are drooling. It’s not just Rohan. So I’m not singling Rohan out for doing the same thing as everybody else.

So put that aside.

How do they interact with each other?

Kinda formally, to be honest. Rohan’s polite, and Deirdre’s mostly about business. They don’t really – just... hang out. Or play. Or even antagonize each other. And that’s in a show where everyone else is constantly doing that. Rohan and Ivar hang out in the hut to drink nectar and polish their weapons (classic male bonding). Ivar and Garrett chit-chat about how hard it is being a prince. Garrett casually torments Angus about scraping the brand-new Defender. Angus and Deirdre actively and consciously trade jokes throughout the show. Hell, Deirdre has a heart-to-heart with Lugad while she’s picking a rock shard out of his hand, emotionally connecting with him.

But Rohan and Deirdre?

A lot of what they talk about is the war, what to do next, how the next part of the quest is going... It’s very rarely a moment for the two to just bond, and even more rarely is it an interaction that’s unique to them. I basically listed the five they have. I could hit twenty for Deirdre and Garrett, and he’s only got like an hour of screen time. And all of it has to do with writing and direction: they aren’t given those moments. Why not? 'Cause they’re Girl Character + Boy Character – what do they need ‘moments’ for? They’re obviously the end game. Tell, don’t show.

There’s a lot to be said about a character who’s too nervous or shy to reveal their feelings, or someone who thinks they’re from two different worlds or have too much responsibility to risk pursuing anything romantic. But I have to assume that’s the deal for them, because wow, as two characters who secretly have a crush on each other, they are having an easy-breezy-beautiful-Cover-Girl walk-in-the-park of not letting it affect literally anything they do.

When I say yes, I’d be fine with them ending up together, it’s in spite of the show. The on-paper trajectory of their assumed and eventual romance makes sense. I could see them having hints at that actual romance. But there have not been any sparks flying between them, except the ones everybody else super-duper swears exist. It’s to the point that I’d expect an episode where they get sick of everyone accusing them of liking each other, and do a “Fake Dating” prank to annoy everyone into shutting up, but end up genuinely enjoying each other’s company, because they spent time together doing something outside of talking about the plot.

But when I say, “No, I think they’re a snooze,” I mean that I’ve read the few fanfics that exist on Fanfiction.net, saw the ones about Rohan/Deirdre, found a great one about Rohan covering a candle to extinguish it as a metaphor to Deirdre about how fire can’t live without air, and was like, “What the fuck show were you watching? I wanna watch that show – I don’t know who these people are, and those two were not like this. This is a great fic and someone really resonated with the romance they created in their head, ‘cause not even a hint of this was on the screen.”

In other words: Season Two? That would’ve probably sold me on being an enthusiastic Rohan/Deirdre shipper. But Season Two got cancelled. And Season One gave me even less to work with than what they gave to Lochlann O’Mearin. On the back of what I saw in the show that aired, no, they were boring, they were a boring couple, and I get more out of her being single than I do out of her being with him.

Case in point: if Rohan and Deirdre had started episode three by agreeing they only ever wanted to be friends, what would’ve changed in their behaviour to reflect their lack of romantic interest?

Did you say “the five things I listed up there”?

And to the one person shouting, “Well what about that time Rohan said he wanted a kiss from Deirdre” – I got you covered: Never forget that I am legally always correct.