😭💕

Episode idea for the second season that never was: New Best Friend, where Lugad seems to be replacing Rohan as Angus' bestest buddy.

'Cause I know Lugad was supposed to be re-introduced at some point as a sixth Mystic Knight (of Light). And I know how big Rohan is on family - he almost instantly crumbles at the thought of fighting Lugad once he finds out they're brothers.

And I also know Rohan puffs up over people praising him for being the legendary Draganta. This kid is starved for gold star stickers. He loves being told he's doing well.

And I also-also know that he panics and starts acting stupid when he thinks something's wrong in his relationships. With Deirdre and Garrett, that meant inviting himself onto all of their dates. With Lugad, that meant basically being ready to throw down his sword. With Angus, that meant snapping at him instantly with twice as much 'ill-temper' as he accused Angus of having. Same for when people doubt him: he immediately gets shitty at everyone, and it's mostly Angus having to tell him to quit being a dick (which Rohan mostly uhhhhhh ignores to continue his dick-being).

Most importantly, I know Angus and Lugad were on pretty rough terms with each other. That whole "Rohan's betraying Kells" thing - oof, that set him off faster than any time Cathbad's called him a petty little thief.

I also-also-also know that Angus, for all that he jumps into the middle of a fight to protect everyone else, is actually mostly terrified of everything until it's a) something's managed to 'master', or b) something he's turned into a joke.

For the first one, look at how he scared he is of Pyre every time he's gotta go near this dragon, riiiiight up until he realizes that he's not gonna take that shit from Rohan's-asshole-dragon while Rohan's already being an asshole in that episode. A few episodes after that, he's escorting a fear-cursed Rohan to the cave and being like, "just go pet the dragon lol it's not hard" when the curse is making Rohan yelp every time Pyre moves. Later, Angus turns out to actively give Pyre orders and summon him; Pyre = mastered in Angus' books.

But for the second one, look at how Angus'll run around Cathbad's chambers doing whatever tf he wants, 'cause Cathbad's in his mind as 'joke'. Except for when Cathbad gets pissed, and then Angus shuts up right away or starts backpedalling. That's when the joke ends and he suddenly switches to being cowed or cornered or furious.

What that means to me is that when Lugad finally comes back to join the team, Rohan's delighted because his brand-new, long lost brother is here; Deirdre's happy because Lugad was getting along with her; Ivar and Garrett are okay with it because he's proven himself to be on their side now; and Angus is very quiet.

Again, Rohan is huge on family, and he's gone out of his way to call Lugad his brother as soon as those dots got connected in his head. Angus isn't going to come right out and say something negative, but the silence would be deafening and Rohan would never let that rest. At best, Rohan would wait until he could pull Angus a little over to the side (maybe while Lugad is warming up to Ivar and Garrett while watching them spar), and then he'd start insisting on knowing what Angus truly thinks.

Which would be something like, "Uhhhhh your brother is the scariest thing I've ever seen, and how do you know he won't smash us into bits the first chance he gets?"

Rohan gets predictably offended by that, even though Angus was actively trying to avoid giving an opinion in the first place. But Rohan would've dragged it out of him because Rohan wants everyone to be as loudly enthusiastic about anything he's excited about, he takes it personally when Angus gives him that honest answer. Plus the guilt of having called Lugad a monster would probably bubble up in Rohan's mind; he's overcompensating in how he reacts, just as he snapped at all of them in episode 49 (I think) where he's pissed they don't trust him to fight against Lugad after he JUST SPENT EPISODES outright telling he couldn't fight against Lugad.

So Rohan gets pissed, and just when him and Angus are in the middle of their "What are you trying to say? That he's our enemy after he helped us defeat Maeve?" / "Ugh - calm down, Rohan" shtick, Lugad starts sparring with Ivar and Garrett and sends them both flying across the training yard. That perfect timing lets Angus end the squabble by telling Rohan, "I'm saying he doesn't have to be our enemy to hurt us."

The whole first act of the episode would be Rohan angrily venting at everybody else that he can't believe Angus doesn't trust Lugad. Ivar would point out that Lugad did fight with Temra for quite a while. Deirdre would add that Lugad's fairly scary-looking, even if he's sweet, and that they all know Angus gets jumpy around things that look scary. Rohan can't really disagree with those points but he'd brush them off all the same as Angus deliberately refusing to give Lugad another chance.

I'd like to think Garrett (who I truly believes has a bunch of brothers back home, and that's why he's the one being married off in some other kingdom) would say the bond between Rohan and Lugad as brothers is undeniable - but Angus isn't Lugad's brother. The two of them don't have that bond. And whatever it is that led to Rohan and Angus being so inseparable, that's their bond, and Lugad doesn't share it with Angus.

This would be Rohan's terrible source of inspiration to get Angus and Lugad to become friends: Angus loves hijinks and mischief, so if they can get Lugad to go along with that, surely Angus will see how fun and harmless Lugad is. There is officially nothing more important than getting Angus and Lugad on good terms with each other, and it's the sort of enthusiasm they've all seen go badly before, so there's a particular look that Ivar, Deirdre and Garrett share with each other.

It cuts away to Rohan trying to coach Lugad through some of the tricks he and Angus would get up to as children. All of these go terribly wrong - either Angus doesn't even notice them, just happening to miss them playing out, or he sees them being orchestrated by Lugad (with Rohan being out of sight) right before Angus himself gets blamed for whatever happened and being sent to jail. Obviously, this has Angus yelling at Lugad while the guards drag him away.

With all that having blown up in Lugad's (and Rohan's) face, we cut to Lugad talking with Deirdre somewhere else. Deirdre wants to know how the 'bonding' is going, and Lugad slowly says, "Bad." Rohan's been acting strange, Lugad explains, and making him do things almost like it's a trap to make Angus mad at him. That's a legit worry for Lugad, who's been tricked and betrayed so many times already, but Deirdre assures him that that's not what Rohan's trying to do. Angus is as important to Rohan as Lugad is (😒), almost like brothers themselves (🤗), and Rohan just wants the two of them to get along.

Here, Lugad might actually ask if Angus doesn't like him because he thinks Lugad is a monster. I'm assuming that trust and 'only' being half-human would be the two key insecurities this poor guy has. Deirdre, I think, wouldn't lie to him because of how important being trustworthy is to Lugad. She'd gently explain that Angus gets frightened easily - but that Angus also laughs easily, which is why Rohan's been trying to get Lugad to help with various pranks.

Right then is when I want Angus to just appear out of a corner, covered in dust, having freshly escaped from the guards who were taking him away through one of his many secret paths across the castle. After patting off a full cloud of dirt and cobwebs off of himself (going ":3 hi princess" while Deirdre's hacking up a lung lmao), he's like, "Those were supposed to be pranks?! Were they Rohan's ideas? 'Cause he has terrible ideas and those were exactly the kinds of pranks he'd come up with."

That episode with that little prince-kid showed that Angus'll relent and take pity on someone who seems sorry. Lugad actually is sorry, because he knows how much Rohan wants them to get along, but he doesn't like pranks or tricks very much after everything he's been through with Maeve and Nemaine. Angus agrees with that (mostly just happy that Lugad/Rohan's not gonna get him locked in jail again), and thinks for a sec. Then he says, "You wanna go smash some boulders into some trees? :)"

It's such a "Ugh, boys 🙄" thing for Angus to suggest, but Lugad is ecstatic at the prospect. So he leads the way out into the forest, and Angus follows along, maybe giving Deirdre a look like, "Hope he doesn't crush me by mistake. 🙃" And then he's off to go babysit his little brother's little brother ('cause sure, let's call it that lol).

Cut back to Rohan, who can't find Lugad anywhere, and who just came up with a better prank that's sure to get Angus to laugh. But as Aideen flies in to tell him, Lugad and Angus are already off in the forest. They nearly squashed her with their dumb boulders. Rohan's a bit surprised that they'd be off without him, but... well, that's what he wanted, so this is good news.

He goes to the forest to find them, almost gets squashed himself, and walks up to see Angus and Lugad laughing and having a great time. They'd invite him to huck some boulders too, but Rohan's mystic weapon doesn't do that and he doesn't have super-human strength like Lugad does. Rohan shrugs it off, just happy to see them happy, and leaves them to it.

Skip ahead a few days, and Rohan isn't nearly as pleased. Apparently Angus and Lugad are off training somewhere together - even though Angus was the one afraid of Lugad accidentally hurting someone. And why does it have to just be the two of them anyway? Since when does Angus get up so early? Rohan hasn't seen him at all lately - and when he does, Angus is too tired to do more than eat whatever Rohan's purposely saved for him, and then sleep.

I can picture him whining about this to Garrett (probably with Ivar there too), since Rohan would also want to ask if any of Garrett's brothers - since Rohan's new to having a brother - are closer to Garrett's friends than they are to Garrett himself. Real unsubtle pity party. Classic Rohan.

Garrett would break the unfortunate news that while brothers will always have the bond of family, that doesn't inherently mean brothers have to be friends. I'd love if that's when Ivar perks up, saying that he has siblings as well, and two of them wished him luck on his quest by marking his map with all the places they thought he'd fail before he ever retrieved the chalice (he beat them all by making it to Ireland :3). That's why it's good to have friends outside one's immediate family as well.

This is horrible news to Rohan. Unlike Rohan, Angus is very goddamn popular. When they grew up, kids in the village always flocked to him rather than Rohan. No matter how hard he tried, Rohan was always just the 'weird' one - Angus' friend, never worth having his own name. He's never asked Angus what it was that made Rohan seem interesting enough to talk to. He's simply been unquestioningly grateful for it so he didn't run the risk of reminding Angus how little Rohan brought to the table. Now that Rohan's Draganta, it's been different - and more difficult, surprising him. If Angus found an easier friend in Lugad, one who can do dumb things like throw rocks at trees, then where exactly does that leave Rohan?

Ivar and Garrett, who Rohan would've explained this all to, listen patiently before reminding him that was what he wanted: for Angus and Lugad to be friends. It leads Rohan into a true Classic Complaint™ of a cry that, "Yes! Of course! But not best friends!" And with that, Rohan sets off to go find those two, leaving Ivar and Garrett behind to brace themselves for whatever this storm is.

Inevitably, Rohan gets attacked along the way. I assume it's Nemaine and Midar as the big bads at this time? Even though I'm 90% sure they would've had Maeve come back eventually. Anyway, those two could've had a B-plot about how Lugad becoming friends with any of the Mystic Knights undoes the training she'd put him through to suppress his human side. Bad enough that Lugad was so distracted by Deirdre's original kindness, but now he's out in the forest playing with the last of the knights to have truly shown distrust? So whatever creature Rohan runs into, it's made clear that it's on a collision course to attack Lugad and Angus.

He gets knocked to the side, which is enough to convince him to summon his armour. But when he catches up to it again, it's already found Angus and Lugad, and he's not going to intervene in time. He calls out instead, and Lugad spots what's coming their way - and knocks Angus into the air and sailing into the forest to disappear.

Rohan's horrified in-between fighting whatever creature this is. Lugad saying, "Don't worry, he told me I could do that," doesn't do much to reassure him when he knows Angus does not enjoy being thrown around like that (😏). They finish this monster off, and then Rohan sprints into the forest to go find his friend.

... who he finds under a massive pile of leaves.

Rohan asks why all the leaves are down, since it's too early in the year for them to fall. But Angus - spitting those leaves out - says it was for their new training space. Rohan looks around to find massive piles of leaves built up everywhere around them, presumably from all those trees they cleared out of the area.

"Now when he hits us across the island, we have a better cushion to land on," Angus explains. "We even made padding for him too, so he doesn't hit as hard."

I know Lugad has a helmet or whatever, but I think it'd be cute to have him proudly showing off whatever padded cushion they've made together and strapped to Lugad's arms.

Rohan asks if this stuff really works.

"It's helping," Angus says, climbing out of the leaf pile and looking incredibly sore. "But I'm gonna need more leaves."

Lugad's delighted to have a reason to explode more trees with boulders ("BUT WATCH WHERE YOU THROW THEM, LUGAD" / "ok angus :3") and runs off, leaving Rohan and Angus together. After the unusual silence between them, Angus asks what Rohan's doing here anyway. Rohan tries mumbling something about passing through, then eventually admits that he was looking for Angus. It's a perfect opportunity for a callback to when Rohan was ignoring everyone to focus on Pyre, and he seizes that opportunity to say, "You were missing me, huh? :P"

Except that Rohan freely confesses that yes, he was. He's happy that Angus isn't scared of Lugad anymore ("LUGAD, I DON'T HAVE MY ARMOUR" / "sorry angus :3") but he hasn't seen Angus in days, and it's back to feeling like when they were kids. Angus agrees with that, because "If I remember anything from back then, it was you getting me into trouble over your 'pranks'."

Rohan can frown and protest, "You liked my pranks!"

"You'd get lucky with some -" Angus is gonna talk right over Rohan's attempt to interrupt. "- but mostly, I liked spending time with you. We didn't need pranks for that."

Rohan would reply a little sombrely, like that question about why Angus even talked to him as kids is on his mind again. He'd start to say something like, "I wish you'd told me then. It would've saved me from having to come up with so many ideas."

"And it would've saved me from even more nights in jail," Angus says. "But you'd always visit, and that was the best part of being there."

I think Rohan - legendary warrior or not - would chicken out at that, and decide not to ask Angus his real question. And Angus would notice his friend sinking into his thoughts, and put a hand out on Rohan's shoulder.

"For what it's worth," Angus tells him, "some of those pranks were brilliant. Even when you got caught me."

It's familiar territory. It gets Rohan to smile and hit back with, "I thought you were some great thief who could run away?"

"I was - which is what the guards I was escaping would learn, right up until I ran into your 'pranks'."

The good mood would be added onto by Lugad bursting back into their clearing holding a whole-ass tree, proudly declaring he found some great leaves for Angus to get knocked into. Angus would propose they go off to find more leaves than that - enough to make enough padding to cover himself in cushions, since clearly the leaf piles aren't enough. Lugad goes running back into the forest, and Angus - after one more clap of his hand on Rohan's shoulder to make sure Rohan's alright - walks after him.

Aideen will, of course, flap down to see what Rohan thinks. For his part, he'll say, "Everyone was right: this is what I wanted. And I'm glad to have it. Angus is too good of a friend to keep him just for myself, and I know what it's like to be alone in Kells. Lugad needs him right now."

Aideen would merrily coo that Rohan learned a wise lesson, and that maybe Rohan wasn't the only one alone when they were growing up. Maybe Angus was alone more than they knew, and maybe those visits Rohan paid to him meant even more than that.

I see Rohan giving a noncommittal smile, like he isn't going to argue but also doesn't fully agree. He just says, "Maybe I'll ask him someday. Or maybe it's enough to know that he likes me for whatever reason he has, and simply appreciate that I'm not the friend he's throwing boulders at."

Which should be just in time for the credits to roll and for us to hear from off-screen, "THE BOULDERS!!"

And an equally off-screen, "sorry lugad :3"