Back on my Mystic Knights bullshit 🫠

You know how I'm always bemoaning how miserable it'd've been if Vincent Walsh actually left the show for season 2? I don't even know if that's true at this point - I think I read it on a fan site, and I've said it so often to overcompensate for how little I like that idea that it's gotten stuck in my brain 😭

And you know how apparently they would've also had another Mystic Knight somehow, based on the Battle Fury promo toys? One called Liam? Supposedly the Mystic Knight of storm, even though that steps on Ivar and Deirdre's elements?

Okay. So.

Logistically, what does the show lose if they lose Angus?

That is a lot. It's kind of hilarious how much he was pushed to the front of the show, and how much the marketing kinda just glosses over him as "Rohan's friend." He is tanking the shit out of these plots. 👏🏽

Anyway!

Let's say Angus leaves. Me, making everything angsty, pictured a big fight between him and Rohan: they started talking about Rohan being a prince, then wondering if Rohan was the first-born or not, and then Angus started theorizing who came first, which spiralled into talking about what kind of people Rohan's dad and Lugad's dad had to be to want to be with Maeve.

And I'm gonna say Angus is in the wrong here, 'cause Rohan started the last big fight so it's Angus' turn. He's supposed to know how sensitive a topic 'family' is to Rohan, but he very wrongly assumes that he can keep making jokes about Maeve like they always have. But with Maeve being Rohan's mother, it's not funny anymore. Rohan snaps back. He goes low. He starts picking at the family that Angus never even talks about, saying that as bad as Maeve is, at least she did something with her life. What legacy did Angus inherit?

I'd love for that to spiral into Rohan saying Angus has nothing to show for all the shit he's talking about Rohan. Angus is a Mystic Knight - because of Rohan. Angus gets to walk through the castle - because of Rohan. Angus has a place to live - because of Rohan. Whether or not Angus brings up how Rohan's only lived long enough to "do" all those things "for" Angus because of Angus taking care of him as a kid doesn't matter. That was then, this is now, Angus has wasted his life looking after someone who doesn't need his protection anymore. Rohan's Draganta now, remember? And possibly heir to the Temran throne? What's Angus got?

I want Rohan lashing out in that way where he's physically unable to stop even when he's screaming in his head that he doesn't mean it. And for his part, Angus - after stomping off - does realize Rohan didn't mean it. But that doesn't mean those words weren't said, and after thinking about them, Angus decides... maybe it is time to move on. He's threatened to leave before but always stayed because... well, Rohan's his home. And Rohan needs him. But Rohan - some part of him at least - doesn't agree. So maybe it's time to take that for what it is, see this as some sort of... gift? Perhaps?

It's a bit of an OG Irish Goodbye. Angus maybe leaves a letter - "I'll come back someday. I promise. Love you." - but leaves. All the while, Rohan - who felt the rising dread of Angus being gone for too long after what was said - goes looking for him. Maybe he actually catches Angus, just walking along (maybe leaving Tir Na Nog after returning the mace to Fin Varra). They apologize, they laugh it off, they're gingerly friends again, and although Rohan's breathlessly relieved, the laughter keeps lasting a bit too long with too much silence in-between. And Angus seems to have so much pity in his eyes that he won't explain and Rohan won't acknowledge.

Angus tells Rohan to get something back at the hut. Rohan, refusing to question it, goes off. When he returns, Angus is already gone. Even when Rohan waits and waits. Even after Ivar finds him to bring him back. He only moves when Deirdre and Cathbad have convinced him that it'd be better to wait where it's warm (Rohan's waiting as hopefully as ever but his blood's been cold since Angus left his sight).

It takes days for it to sink in. It takes weeks for Rohan to admit it. Months go by, and Rohan almost purposely stops mentioning Angus altogether, and suddenly gets hostile whenever someone else brings him up. He changes, getting angrier and lost in himself, and decides to focus on playing the part of the legendary warrior instead.

A year goes by.

It's Rohan's birthday. Well - near-ish enough.

A messenger appears with a gift for Rohan, and a letter. From Angus. And it's written as if Angus was just casually telling him about an exciting adventure that morning: he's in another land right now, and there are no dragons there, so some friends tried to make what they thought Pyre must have looked like. The package is a sewn together... turtle-faced dog with bird wings. A toy. Lumpy. Nothing like Pyre at all.

No one really knows how to talk about it or Angus without setting Rohan off, and Rohan says nothing out loud about it. But for how close he keeps it at night, it stays wonderfully clean and cared for.

Enter. 👏🏽 Liam. 👏🏽

I do not like Liam. I do not know - nor care - what his character concept was going to be. Because he is Not Angus and therefore he is Sucks. And I'm gonna take that concept and stick it straight into Rohan's head.

With everything the show loses with Angus, what would they want to regain with a new character added to these other ones?

So really, again, what do they lose when they lose Angus?

"🐶💕 i wuv u rohan, you're my best friend"

"🐶🌧️ o no i am in jail"

"🐶☀️ yes i love to help my friends, i am loyal"

Like, basic, basic, basic, basic things like that.

The only way to have someone attached at the hip to Rohan to the point of sharing a hut/life is if they grew up completely attached to each other in the first place (Angus), or they came in instantly starry-eyed over Rohan.

The only way to have someone constantly and humourously thrown in jail is if they knew the risk and went for it anyway (Angus), or they "🐶🌧️ o no" their way into there.

The only way to have someone stupidly and steadfastly self-sacrificing for their friends all the time is if they try to always undercut it with a joke (Angus), or openly treat it as the obvious thing to do.

🙂 Folks.

The Legendary Warrior Draganta is getting a squire.

Very much against Rohan's will.

I want Liam to be somebody who so desperately wants to squire for a knight. Maybe he has his own destiny that says he'll squire for the greatest knight to ever exist, so he's always looking for who that person might be. And then he hears about Draganta ending a two or three-decade long war after getting mystical weapons from the land of fairies, and goes, "🥹✨ It's hiiiiiim!"

Wherever he's from, he goes to Kells to find this warrior. And he meets Draganta - sees Rohan on the battlefield, cleaving through some monster that was summoned. And he's so overjoyed and delighted that he instantly trips over himself to pledge his allegiance. If only Rohan will have him, Liam will be absolutely devoted to Rohan's care.

Rohan: "😠 I don't need a squire."

Wrong. 👏🏽 Answer. 👏🏽

Liam sits outside of Rohan's hut all night ("🐶💕 i am waiting"). Makes breakfast. Sneaks in to clean. Tells him updates on what he's heard from the guards. Rohan ignores him, skips breakfast, messes things back up the way he had it, and goes to talk to the guards himself. Liam tries to tidy up Angus half of the hut - Wrong. 👏🏽 Decision. 👏🏽 So Liam never touches that side again ("🐶💕 obvi very special"). Repeat for weeks.

(we thought aideen was down bad 🙃)

The others can't understand why Rohan doesn't like him. It's not like Liam's some snot-nosed kid or anything. He's the same age as Rohan! Maybe older! And he's an expert with a shield and sword, even better with a shield and hammer. He's squired for dozens of knights that were almost enough to be the greatest ones to ever live - Liam knows how to fight, how to strategize, how to dodge, how to do everything and show the others a thing or two. In training, he knocks them down gently and quickly helps them up, showing them how to counter that move and endlessly complimenting their skills. There's not a cross or even neutral word to come out of him, and he's so delightful that the others are won over instantly.

They wonder if Rohan suspects Liam of being a traitor. Cathbad uses his second sight to check - but Liam is perfectly honest. And no, Rohan says that has nothing to do with it. He's had years of practice of knowing when someone's up to something, and Liam isn't anything like that.

He doesn't elaborate on what it could be. He doesn't elaborate on much these days.

Liam's fine with that - most of these knights are very focused and it seems like they're angry, but all that training and sword work has them burning all that off 🐶💕 Liam just has to prove himself, he tells the others. A warrior like Draganta won't just take the first person who comes along to squire for him.

One trope of these shows is having the "Takes Things Too Literally" character. I don't want that to be Liam exactly. He could be unfamiliar with Kells' culture, but I want his deal to be "Trusts Rohan Too Earnestly." Rohan, after all, is best friends with Angus. And it wasn't an 'opposites attract' sort of thing - they were both little shits; Angus was just a professional at it. 💖 So Liam getting thrown into jail over and over isn't a case of, "Oops, I misunderstood the rules!" It's Rohan actively telling Liam to go do something that sets Liam up to be hauled away.

On one hand, it's good to get some goddamn space from the guy.

On the other...

... Rohan's - just... constantly reliving what he thinks Angus must have felt. That fight they'd had, the one where Rohan went too far, where everything broke, where he thought he'd fixed it again, and where Angus told him to go do something and Rohan did and came back and Angus was gone...

It doesn't feel like Angus, when Rohan tries to subconsciously act it out. Rohan's doing it out of spite and anger. That wasn't what was in Angus' eyes. But that's as far as he'll let himself think about it before he's angry again and withdrawing.

I can imagine that at the mid-point of the season, Deirdre might ask Liam about this. She's worried he's being bullied, in a way. Liam agrees that he is - shockingly aware - and says a good squire carries all of his knight's burdens. That includes those of the spirit as well. Because he isn't stupid, and he knows Rohan is mourning someone. Out of respect, Liam's deliberately avoided asking or learning anything about it until Draganta (I have to assume he only ever calls Rohan 'Draganta') tells him what he's allowed to know. But he can't ignore the signs of it, the empty space, the way Rohan will start to turn and abruptly stop as if he's about to say something to someone he suddenly remembers isn't there. Liam knows. If this is what makes Rohan feel better, he's happy to be of service.

Deirdre: "🤨 That's... I mean - okay, I guess."

Anyway, Liam sticks around and Rohan's got no choice 'cause yadda-yadda vision yadda-yadda fairy yadda-yadda Mystic Knight of Storm. Enjoy the mystic shield. It's an umbrella.

There's eventually going to come a point where the second year passes, and Rohan gets another gift and letter. He disappears with it. He hadn't realized how badly he needed this until it happened. It's Angus casually chatting again, saying he's in a new land, and their dragons are very different from the ones in Ireland. The gift is a sewn... hairy snake. No wings. Big ears. A mane around its head, grander than any horse.

Rohan has never loved anything as much as this. Not since the first gift. He tries to bring it quietly home when - of fucking course - Liam catches up before he gets there (I have to assume that Liam's made a little bed for himself immediately outside of the hut 🫠 As in, Rohan almost has to step over him every morning or faceplant immediately after exiting the flap). And Liam spies the gift, going on about where that particular type of dragon is from and all the ways those dragons interact with the people in that land and... goddammit, Rohan wants to hear more. Much more. Anything about the place where Angus might still be.

So Rohan listens, and Liam is overjoyed at finally having an 'in'.

Liam thinks this means he can strike up another conversation about dragons in general later. Liam is wrong lmao

Another year. Rohan's stopped fighting it; Liam's here, and he might as well make himself useful. It's not friendship, really. It's just a begrudging tolerance and acceptance of an ally against Nemaine. All of her efforts have been to take over the land and have Lugad rule over it. Who's Lugad? Rohan's half-brother. They only learned the other existed recently, and it hasn't been easy having to fight family. Not for Rohan, anyway.

Liam's quiet. But he understands. He's put the pieces together. It must certainly be tough, he imagines. It'd be worth mourning that kind of loss. He never says this out loud, because he sees the others only ever talking about it in hushed, private whispers, like they're afraid to even reminisce about the happier times. As a squire, though, there's a duty to help carry these burdens.

WRONG. 👏🏽 FUCKING. 👏🏽 CHOICE. 👏🏽

Skip through this part: Liam goes to find Lugad, who's been isolated away from the others and possibly even back on his island. Liam successfully makes a friend. Liam more successfully brings Lugad to Kells. Liam even more successfully reunites Lugad with Rohan, who smiles for one of the first times Liam's ever seen.

Liam alludes to having helped Rohan with his great, unspoken loss.

It would not be an understatement to say that is the last time Liam sees Rohan smile. The utter rage Rohan rains down on him is more of a storm than he - the Mystic Knight of Storm - can weather, and Liam finally breaks. Not from what Rohan says, but from the failure of Liam's duty to him, forcing those words to come about at all. When Liam quietly bows his head and leaves Rohan to his thoughts, there's an unmistakable air of pity under it.

Rohan, the Mystic Knight of Fire, is colder than he's ever been.

There's an apology. From Rohan. It takes a day. It doesn't clear the air. Liam waits a few days more to ask what he's wanted to ask from the beginning: who's Angus?

Liam's not dumb. And it's not like the others only ever talked in whispers. And it's not like Aideen isn't chatterbox. Liam knows all about Angus by now, and how shattered Draganta is to have lost the closest person in his life. But he wants to know what Rohan will allow him to know.

The endless patience from Liam wins out, and the last of Rohan's stubborn silence crumbles away. By the time night falls, they've talked about Angus so much that it almost feels like he's there with them.

It's strange to Rohan. Angus doesn't know who Liam is. There's never been a person in Rohan's life that Angus didn't know about; now there is. But somewhere on the other side of the world, Angus had hundreds - thousands - of people in his life and Rohan was here, alone and quiet, lost and cold and empty.

I want to stretch it out. The war against Nemaine is finally won, and perhaps Ivar's chalice is retrieved. He must return to his home with it. He is forever in Rohan's debt, and forever a close friend of Kells.

Deirdre and Garrett have gotten closer, what with Rohan so caught up in himself. Nothing serious, but they are still technically betrothed, and Deirdre seems less and less repulsed by the idea of marriage.

Lugad is an excellent warrior. Liam trains with him constantly. Rohan is the better knight, Liam says, compared to Lugad's raw and unrestrained power, but Rohan knows Lugad is the truer force to be reckoned with. Maeve's slow escape and creep back into power stays off in the distance thanks to this force on their side.

So...

Rohan is alone again.

Another year. Another present.

Rohan doesn't open it.

He asks if Liam wants to sleep inside the hut. It's embarrassing having someone out front in the dirt when there's a perfectly usable bed at the ready. Liam declines the bed but is over the moon about getting to be an Indoor Squire 🐶💕 Rohan stops regretting the offer the minute he realizes Angus' bed will stay safe for a little longer.

He opens the present.

Angus found a massive dragon in this third land. There's a sewn version of it with a smaller version of Pyre to show how big it was.

Rohan puts all the gifts onto the other bed, since it might as well be useful.

(yes that means liam slept outside for like two years lmaooooooo 🐶🛖)

(anyway i'm super sleepy right now. gonna end this here, night-dream about it, and maybe come back with some more)

(i love how i finally have an idea for liam that doesn't make me hate him. istg i would've flipped my shit if season two started without angus. how dare they - he was the best damn part of the show 😡)