Seanin

He wasn't a thing. Rip that Band-Aid off.

But what's interesting is how he became a thing!

You know how I'm always digging for other fansites? I found the "A Mystical World, A Magical Time" page, and that - I think - was how one of the major pieces of this mystery finally filled in. For the record, the piece I'm still missing is how the hell Mearain made her page so confidently (I'd love to ask her), to the point it got included in the Mystic Knights Preservation Project's download pack (picture and all - the same one I have in my explanation for why Seanin wasn't a thing). I know Mearain was one of the main folks for the Cathabad's Chamber fan club, and their president was apparently having one-on-one talks with the cast and crew... but - like, come on. Come on.

Well, fake it 'til you make it, I guess. That's how John Krasinski cameoed as Mr. Fantasic.

Anyway! The 'Mystical World' page had a neat line on it - and it's a snapshot from May 11, 1999, so that shit is pristinely preserved:

"We don't get any new eps until next September sometime." (source)

Why's that matter? A few reasons:

The page gave a shortlist of the episodes re-airing that week (re-runs from May 10 to May 14, 1999). The episodes named are: All Kings Great and Small (ep. 34), Friends for Life (ep. 37), The Lost King (ep. 36), Rohan's Doubt (ep. 40), and ShipWrecked (ep. 39). Kinda bouncing around, but definitely at the far end of the episode list overall; there are only 50 in total, remember. That means that any 'new episodes' airing in September had to be the final arc: everything from "Warrior of Temra" (ep. 43) to "Banished" (ep. 50, the finale). I guess they were saving it.

So - what happened in those final eight episodes that was worth giving its own premiere?

Introducing in those final episodes:

One final push of a commercial to sell some toys, which failed before the episodes even got to air. :(

But that's only half the picture! We know that by Spring 1999, they'd already released a toy for Lugad. If you take a look at the GrnRngr's Toy Guide, you'll see that came out in Spring 1999.

So what was happening in Fall?

As in, there were a bunch of toys slated (but never released) for Fall 1999, which included Liam, the official Mystic Knight of Storm.

Remember: we're in 1999. We don't have sites keeping us as up-to-date on news as we do now. And that matters because...

We do have a timestamp of August 11, 1999 in 'Mystical World's' guestbook. There, someone was saying:

"I just found out that there will be a new Mystic Knight for season 2! His name is Seanin,MK of Swamp. He was foretold of in the Ancient Scroll and his call is supposed to be "Death below me!" One big diff. though, he's EVIL!" (source)

So people were talking about this rumour sometime between May 1999 to August 1999. And what are the facts we have at that point?

I don't specifically know when Mearain's page was created. If she's mentioning Seanin's supposed to debut in the fall, then obviously it was before those final episodes aired. But more importantly, she's still talking about the current season, whereas the comment in the guestbook is talking about the second season entirely. So I'm confident her page was made before August, and then the guestbook comment was based on updated facts after folks learned there wouldn't be a new Mystic Knight in those final episodes. (Also - shortcut: the guestbook comment is quoting Mearain's page with the "he was foretold" line. :P)

We meet Lugad. We find out Maeve seeks him out specifically to fight against the Mustic Knights. He's a bad guy.

What did Mearain's page say while still thinking the new Mystic Knight would debut in these episodes? "Only one thing is different, Seanin is evil. Queen Maeve learns of him and decides that he will be perfect to fight against the good Mystic Knights."

Evil? Check. Queen Maeve learns about him? Partial check (she already knew about him lmao). Perfect to fight the Mystic Knights? Check. In other words, most of the facts we get on Mearain's page end up fitting Lugad. So - again, this comes across as seeing what Lugad's toy looks like in the spring but not knowing who he is yet, hearing there'll be another Mystic Knight toy in the fall and assuming that'll be a whole new character, hearing something about a sixth Mystic Knight at some point and assuming any details we get about that Mystic Knight could not apply to Lugad (who doesn't even look human), and then hurble-burble we've invented the Mystic Knight of Swamp. I'll come back to that - one sec.

'Cause what I'm saying is, "They were talking about a sixth Mystic Knight in the second season sometime between May and pre-August 11, 1999, just starting rumours. They hadn't even released the final episodes yet. They hadn't even debuted Lugad yet. And then they said, 'screw the whole thing' and didn't do any of it by the time fall came around, scrapping the toys and cancelling the show."

Why cause so much confusion? Why announce that so early?

Well, one: hype. Assuming everyone's locked in for the finale, you want them to know there's immediately something to get pumped for coming up. Start that shit in summer, if you can, especially if there's going to be a big gap between the rest of the show and its final episodes.

But two: HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Lugad = toy released Spring 1999, debuted Fall 1999

Liam = toy planned for Fall 1999, debut planned for second season

I wonder why ELSE you have to announce you're gonna get a new Mystic Knight.

I wonder why you HAVE to get ahead of rumours about any CHANGES by assuring fans they'll still have FIVE Mystic Knights to play with.

I WONDER IF THERE WERE ANY OTHER DIFFERENCES IN THE TOY LINE-UP BETWEEN SPRING 1999 TO FALL 1999, COINCIDING WITH A PUSH TO REPLACE SOMEBODY IN THE EXISTING CAST WITH A SHITTY, MORE INFERIOR VERSION.

I swear to God, from how often he was specifically positioning himself the closest to the camera, getting the most focus and random reaction shots, having the highest number of credits going into the show, and now damning us all to some crap about a "Mystic Knight of Swamp" even decades later (that download pack!!), Vincent Walsh - the actor, not his character - was the undisputed star of Mystic Knights. You can fire him if you want (if that's what happened), but that was the first, unstoppable domino in the whole damn show dying. He is my hero.

Basically - if I rambled through that too much - the news about Vincent Walsh leaving would've happened early enough to affect the Fall 1999 toys, but too late to affect the Spring 1999 ones. They've already revealed Lugad, and they're only hyping him up as a monster, but now that Walsh is going, the show has to pivot to talking about a new Mystic Knight so the fans don't freak about not having a replacement for him. That means the hype we're getting about Lugad's debut in the finale, and the hype we're getting about a new Mystic Knight altogether, start to merge into one - but not enough to tell us Lugad might be related to that new Mystic Knight, and certainly too soon to reveal things like, "Lugad's gonna be Liam." That's my theory, but fight me for it lmao

(Note: I hate that I can't remember where I read Lugad would be the Mystic Knight of Light. It was on Wikipedia, and I can't find it now anywhere. Not to quote fucking Fandom, but here's the best I can do for now: "Mystic Knights: Battle Thunder was going to introduce a new Mystic Knight Liam the Mystic Knight of Lightning*." (Double Note: 'Lighting' probably came from his Battle Fury toy name; check the post I link below to Henshin Grid for the pics of the promo document.) But there was another thing specifically saying Lugad was going to be introduced as the sixth Mystic Knight of 'Light'. Where the hell did that go?! I feel like such a hypocrite, calling rumours out when I can't even cite my own sources! I literally read it online somewhere - not on a fansite. And unfortunately, the closest I can find now - not where I originally read it - is this page on TVtropes about fan theories. That sucks. Like - it says Lugad would've been made the Mystic Knight of Light, yay, but what was the source for that?!)

I have no idea where the name "Seanin" came from. I have no idea where "Swamp" came from. I have no damn idea how "Death Below Me" was ever taken seriously, what with this being a show that has to say 'destroy' instead of 'kill.' So all of that? Still a mystery. Potentially, with how much fanfiction Mearain wrote, it might've been some fancasting stuff based on the news released to cover for Vincent Walsh's departure, but also with some stuff mixed in about Lugad.

but at least uwu

now I know why it happened uwu

Beyond that, and having said aaaaaaall of this, does it actually matter? No. I'm not gonna go bother the Mystic Knights Preservation Project guy or the TVTropes folks to fix their shit about calling Seanin a fact. I really don't care that much. Let people have their fun. My fun is being like, "Damn, we were edgy as hell in our youth, huh? 'Mystic Knight of Swamp,' summons his armour by shouting about death - hell yeah, I'd buy that as natural addition to a G-rated kids' show." But as much as I titter over being a graverobber of old sites, I'm not a historian, and I do not have any obligation to correct any records on anything.

But the guy from Henshin Grid agrees with me so LMAO get wrecked, Swamp Boy

Let's be honest: if someone comes up to me later and says, "Oh, Lugad being mentioned as the Mystic Knight of Light at one point was a rumour based on Liam being the Mystic Light of Storm" - sure, whatever. I'll be shocked as hell that I hallucinated it that hard, but I like the dots I've connected enough to be like, "I'm ignoring you for the purposes of my head canons uwu" That's a load-bearing note now. Damn, I wish I could find where I read it. :(

Super Minor Update (from hours later on the same day):

Forgot there was a page I already found with all the episodes' original air dates listed. According to that, the final episodes aired in May 1999. Which - yeah, makes more sense; why would you have a bunch of toys in spring for Lugad when he's not gonna appear until the fall? That's dumb, and I went to business school, so - ummm, I think I know a dumb product launch schedule when I hear one, thanks uwu

With that, it's maybe, potentially possible I jumped the gun in thinking there was a massive break in airing the show's finale, and by writing all this on the back of that core, foundational assumption. Because it says the last episode was on May 7th, 1999, and the page talking about "getting new episodes in September" gave details about episodes beginning on May 10th, 1999. So potentially, maybe it was talking about Season Two's episodes, and Mearain's site was also talking about Season Two.

... Hm.

I've decided I'm ignoring that for the purposes of this head canon uwu

I'm still right about this stuff though. And the Henshin Grid guy still has my back with receipts: there was no Swamp, there was never a Swamp, it was always only Liam, where did you people get 'Seanin' from. And I'm probably right about people mixing up the info on Lugad and Liam and inventing Seanin out of it, but we're gonna stuff that back under my head canon territory where I am 100% legally correct forever. Mark my words.

As for this page, just ignore - like, everything I wrote about the timing of the episodes and you'll be fine. "but tartra the timing's like 90% of what you wrote" - and what do you want me to do about that? Delete it? Folks, I am so sleepy

What matters is that we had fun. And if anybody asks, this is Seanin's fault. I would kick his ass if he existed for me to have had an ass that I could kick. But he doesn't, so I guess that ties our score at 1-1