Aideen

I'm not gonna give her too much guff for how OBSESSED she was with Rohan, because...

u_u

I have recently come to realize that she, dear Aideen...

... was just like me fr fr u_u

As in "eight-to-nine-year-old" me, who was down bad for two characters and two characters only: Angus (obviously), and Raphael from the Ninja Turtles. Those 80s movies and the live-action show that aired around the same time? That was my jam, I guess. And I got as far with either of them ('them' being fictional characters and 'I' being an nine-year-old) as Aideen, who's like a century old or something, got with Rohan. And I didn't have to do a fraction of the shit she did. You're gonna strike one deal with Maeve to curse Deirdre with some hair, then five minutes later, strike another deal with Maeve, but "oh this time the magic's being cast on me so it's totally different" - HE KNOWS YOU LIKE HIM. HE HAS SHUT THAT SHIT DOWN EVERY SINGLE TIME, GOD YOU AND NINE-YEAR-OLD ME WOULD'VE BEEN BEST FUCKING FRIENDS, BITCHING ABOUT THIS SHIT TOGETHER

I'm right, by the way. At one point, Aideen had a conversation with a rabbit. She can put up with a child who's a) in this with her, and b) not competing for her man. Here's more hair, Aideen, go have fun.

Anyway! As far as my original take on her went, she's... fine? I think I thought she was fine. I didn't have strong feelings towards her one way or another as a kid. At most, I was mildly annoyed, 'cause her story was so closely to pining over Rohan, which meant whenever she was on screen, I probably knew it was gonna loop back to Not Angus eventually. But she was also having a one-sided catfight with Deirdre, which I think I remember finding funny. I could take her or leave her, basically. When I rewatched the show for the first time, I was surprised to even find her in the opening credits; I had no idea how she'd been that involved.

After rewatching the show with a somewhat broader attention span, I've got more things to say about her.

Let's get that out of the way. How big are you supposed to be, Aideen? Are you an apple? Like - are you the size of one apple? Then how come when you're around other fairies in Tir Na Nog, you're still comparatively one-third of their size?! There's one episode where she turns into a human, and she's standing beside Rohan like, "I'm short, but I'm short-like-Deirdre - normal 'short-for-a-human' height." But there's another episode where Rohan shrinks to the size of a fairy, and she's like???? Barely up to his chest, maybe????? And then in another episode, she shapeshifts into/possesses the body of a tiny mouse, and it's like?????? How come every other fairy in this show has picked a size and stuck to it, but Aideen's just slappin' around her height slider for fun?

Zero consistency in a fun way. She was a fantastic get-out-of-jail-free card. It's to the point that I don't understand how, early in the show, when the four of them are trapped under some boulders, she's like, "Ohhh, I don't know if I can use my powers to move away such large rocks." But then she's like teleporting their mystic weapons around, creating illusions of dog bones, flying into a box that Midar enchanted and that Fin Varra said he couldn't break just for her to break it from the inside...? I love it; it's fun, and it makes Rohan an even bigger asshole for stringing her along when hE GODDAMN KNOWS SHE'S INTO HIM.

I didn't ship them, btw. I just didn't appreciate his audacity. "oh i don't like fighting with my friends" BOOOOOO GET OUT OF HERE WITH THAT, SHE'S GONNA TELEPORT YOUR KIDNEY OUT OF YOUR CORPSE WHEN SHE FINALLY GETS OUT OF HER DENIAL.

It's very "of that time." Grrl power for the maximum one (1) main female character, but a supporting female character still gets reduced to "girl with a crush tee-hee."

Over Rohan. Angus is right there. But whatever - it kept her off my eight-year-old crosshairs.

I think they did the Rohan-pining storyline fairly well. Yeah, she had a bit of a pattern, but at least they gave it a new twist each time so you could reasonably figure out why she thought she was doing something new.

It's the "butting heads with Deirdre" plotline that I didn't really like. Especially in the early episodes, where Aideen was needlessly antagonistic towards Deirdre when she still trying to get her armour or figure out how to tame Pyre... At that point, Rohan needed all hands on deck to figure out how to find Draganta, so Aideen trying to sabotage that was - in a word - sus. But it also didn't make sense that her and Deirdre never had a 'Come to Jesus' talk, where they actually put some sort of compromise in place. They just oscillated between 'Almost friends!' and 'Aideen 100% yearns for Deirdre's death,' and it felt sloppy. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't executed super well.

See - now THAT'S what I'm TALKING ABOUT. They way overlooked the potential for this. I know Garrett was only around for like four minutes total in the show, but the one moment he and Aideen have together? Where Aideen's like, "Oh, you agree? Rohan and Deirdre are a problem?" And Garrett's like, "Yeah that shit's annoying, I don't like it." That was INSTANT synergy. That's the vibe Aideen and nine-year-old me would've had - and the show dropped it! God, imagine an episode where the two of them conspired to split Rohan and Deirdre up. There could've been some tantalizing growth they almost reach about how far they're willing to go to get the attention of others who don't want to date/marry them. And then at the last minute, they decide, "Nah, we're awesome, we've just gotta try harder next time."

I think giving Aideen a partner-in-crime would've made her bickering with Deirdre less inexplicable. As it is, Aideen's the only one going off like that, and no one's calling her out for anything but the symptoms of that root problem. Having Garrett in the mix would've been a lot of fun. They're both bitchy. They needed to unite.

She was cool. Not much to say about her. I liked her, thought she was feisty - as the show intended - and she was resourceful and capable and smart and all that. It sucked having the others talk over her so much; as glad as I am that she didn't betray them to the Sentinels, they/Rohan specifically would've deserved it. I'm a little surprised they didn't lean further into Ivar's connection to the Silver Chalice, and that chalice's connection to fairy magic with her. I think her and Angus got enough interaction (L-O-L at Angus flirting with Deirdre also pissing Aideen off purely as an extension of her crush on Rohan). I liked the interactions she had with Cathbad, who treated her with the most respect out of anyone. I especially love that she was an Ancient Fake-Ireland cellphone - so handy. But it sucks that the only reason she's around at all is Rohan. If he ever left, she'd get nothing out of staying to help the others, so it says a lot about her underdeveloped friendships with them. Cathbad, maybe she would visit, but I can't see her stopping to chat with anybody else.

... Would've really liked to know why Aideen found Rohan in the first episode and planted a vision in his dream. Literally what was up with that. Maybe they could've mined it for content if the show had taken off (or if the merch sales had), but there wasn't a single whiff of interest in explaining it within the show's actual run. She was up to something, but she got away with it. Damn.