... is Angus magic?

... Is Cathbad hiding that from the others? But like, kinda in cahoots with Angus about it?

Yes I'm back on this again, I'm sorry. It's hurting my brain because I had a loose "I hope he is!" headcanon, and now I'm like, "Oh snap, he might be. And him and Cathbad might both be consciously aware. This is a theory now."

I'm gonna have to watch this show for the umpteenth time (instead of only skipping around to my favourite episodes), because I saw episode 6 the other day - the one where Angus gets his armour - and noticed something:

That's not the magic part.

Cathbad usually says a little rhyme before the powders work, but not every time. Maeve almost always says something when she's using her scepter, and by and large, those rhyme too. Except the one in episode six where she summons the Bull of Temra because lol. Both of them are magic and their rhymes just pop up off the tops of their heads - or they've very secretly been memorizing that shit off-screen. Whatever.

Angus can use the powders. He's a little all-over-the-place when it comes to making them, but he seems to be A-OK with putting them to use if you get one in his hand. So is Rohan, though. At the very least, Rohan's able to summon Tyrune by following a ritual with its steps written out, and even able to go backwards through that ritual to hurble-burble-kids-show-logic reverse it.

So it seems like:

I think the rhyming - for an in-universe explanation - helps focus the magic to give a specific effect, and going without just gives it a general effect that have maybe 70% of the job done, which is enough for most tasks. See: Cathbad lighting Angus on fire (a little) because Angus is sitting in the throne and goofing off. Doesn't need to be specific, just needs to be 'over there' and 'get his ass'. Compare that to Cathbad putting some weird-ass magic-reflection effect on Rohan's sword one time, which was based on magic Cathbad had to dig up from a really old scroll that took a while to find.

So.

The magic part.

WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT LODESTONE, HUH

Cathbad gives that to Angus, and the only instructions were, "It'll lead you to where you need to go. Like, the fight. It'll take you there."

At no point was Cathbad like, "This is highly attuned to that one specific area. It's like a compass that'll point exactly there."

At no other point was Cathbad like, "Yeah, lodestones are great. I gave one to Rohan and Ivar and Deirdre so they could find their armour, so here's yours. You know, the normal thing I do."

And at no point is Angus like, "cathbad i can't work with this, you need to give me the little spell-thing that i have to say, what's the on-switch for this rock"

No - Angus is like, "🙄 awesome, bye," and keeps it with him, and then proceeds to do zero searching for any words that go with it between breaking into Cathbad's room again and dousing himself with laughing powder. This isn't a character who'd go, "Oh, laughing powder! Well, let me put that to the side and do a fifteen-minute off-screen search for the lodestone spell." He's a get-it-and-go guy.

BUT THE LODESTONE

This magic 'direction' rock that Cathbad doesn't give to anybody else, but that he freely gives to Angus (you know, the person Cathbad is always hiding his magic stuff away from), in a show where HAVING SOMETHING MAGICALLY POINT THE WAY would be EXTREMELY helpful, and that exists to point Angus towards somewhere extremely specific, is something where Angus can independently go:

Like, it's actual magic. Something is being cast here. It's not as elaborate as "Tyrune ritual over a fire," but it's not as foolproof as "Hold it up and it'll do its thing for you." It doesn't 'go' until Angus says what he says.

And rocks in this show - crystals, I mean - get a big thing made out of them constantly. That prince-kid was able to use Maeve's scepter but shot everything to hell because he didn't know how to use it, so that runestone needs a specific kind of focus to do anything useful. Same for that crystal she summoned the hell-wizard from. Same for the Tir Na Nog jewels that bring everyone downstairs. It's either "Do something vague and general" or "Do something super specific".

(We even see some of that specific vs vague thing with Rohan as he uses King Fin Varra's walking stick over the pool in Tir Na Nog; Rohan can't really control it and isn't saying anything to 'focus' it, other than that he's searching for something. Super adorable that it goes to all of Rohan's probably-favourite-moments of Angus (lmao get dunked on), but also, Angus is the one saying, "😒 you don't know how to use that thing" before Rohan even tries. It's the one thing Maeve and Cathbad say to everyone who's getting into magic they don't know how to use, and suuuuuper interesting that Angus is telling Rohan that instead of letting Rohan just try or even volunteering to do it himself. It's kinda like Angus knows enough about magic to not expect anything to happen when it's fairy magic being used by someone who's not a fairy, and certainly not as precisely as what they're trying to do. That's the only time he ever seems to give up on magic: when it isn't working, but he doesn't have any issue with using the lodestone. (Also I vote for 'Rohan lucks into it using his main character powers with a minor in being an awful apprentice' for how Rohan got the fairy magic to work.))

All of that to say...

Cathbad giving Angus that magical lodestone, which needs magical words, which he does not give to Angus, but that Angus comes up with on his own, and that only Angus gets despite it being very equally as useful for the others in getting their own armour, and that Cathbad gives him like it's no big deal, and that Angus (correctly!) accepts like it's no big deal to him either, and that Cathbad hands over pretty damn sarcastically, tells me...

And here's where I get into the part about 'cahoots': you know when that lodestone would've been super helpful?

Finding Tir Na Nog.

This lodestone was in episode six, so yeah, they could've forgotten about it by the later episodes (when it would've really helped them find a lot of stuff), but episode one was quite literally, "Find this magic place." And Cathbad did not give Angus this rock - or Rohan.

And like 👀

Angus uses the lodestone very freely.

By himself. There's no one around when he casts this except the horse.

But when they're off to find Tir Na Nog, it's Angus and Rohan.

So like 👀

I'm wondering if my thinking that Cathbad isn't helping Angus is a 'thing' they do to cover up that no, Cathbad is teaching Angus shit too. But secretly.

Druids do seem like assholes, even with each other, and sometimes Cathbad gets a little, "You should be a better apprentice" with Rohan about non-magical stuff (the dude's given up on Rohan doing anything magic). Since Cathbad's like that with Angus literally all the time, especially about magic (he sounds decently fond of Angus when they're talking about anything else, but 90% of their conversations are about magic so 🤷🏽‍♀️) and about using magic on him, I can see that being a little, "That's just what magic users do to each other: rain down torment! Constantly! It's our love language uwu You learn new spells by surviving the ones I zap you with BUT PRACTICE OUTDOORS YOU MENACE"

(Which - another point - Cathbad doesn't seem overly concerned by the idea that Angus got shrunk a second time during that episode where Midar's pretending he is Angus. And that's well after the episode where Cathbad intentionally shrunk Angus, and where everybody gasped like it was the first time ever. Could be a ":3 glad to see you were practicing that torment i rained on you before. you half-did it lmao you noob")

Who knows? Maybe too many druids in one place is bad. Maybe Cathbad's only allowed to have one apprentice because Conchobar (or the Druid guild or whatever) is super strict, and Cathbad got the source of the magic around Rohan confused. Maybe Cathbad's actually uhhhhhhhhh... keeping Angus safe from people who'd be very interested to know the kid with the sword who can't cast a damn thing without it being written down and is therefore the worst apprentice ever and not a magical threat and everybody knows it is not actually the real apprentice here.

It all comes back to me being like, "Cathbad, you give Angus a lot of shit - a disproportionate amount - while being willing to use 'I'll teach you some magic' as a bribe to wish for rare ingredients and handing him magical rocks soooo sarcastically that no one's actually going to think you genuinely helped him, except for Angus, who just won't think you helped him enough."

👀

I like it.

Watch me stumble on a scene I forgot about where they're all like, "ya everyone uses lodestones, they're super easy"

Cathbad puts so much emphasis on Angus being a thief. And - yes, Angus is one, but Cathbad takes it like it's a personal insult to him and to Angus himself. Like "You aren't living up to your full potential," building off that time when Angus even admits that Cathbad doesn't think much of him.

There are so many episodes he refers to Angus as 'a common thief' or 'a petty thief'. Torc says it once too, but it's a fully disparaging way 'cause Enemy™ - totally different from when Cathbad goes on to get pissed at one point that Angus is "running around like the village thief." It's a sense of disappointment that Cathbad even emphasizes by setting up that little note for when Angus tries to steal the bravery powder.

So I am in love with the idea of it all being because Angus is magic, knows some magic, or is trying to learn more magic from Cathbad (and probably did!)... just to steal shit.

Like - when that bratty little prince showed up and showed Angus how to put his hand through stone, that might as well have been screaming "JACKPOT." And Cathbad mocking who he thinks is Angus (but is really Midar) for shrinking himself and getting stuck that way? It's definitely 'cause he assumed Angus only did that to sneak in somewhere.

It's also probably why Cathbad looked willing to say Angus was innocent during that trial, since despite the evidence and an obvious reputation, it was too much like common theft for him to fully believe Angus could stoop so low. I feel like the stakes were higher than 'just' jail that time. It seemed to putting their relationship directly on the line, and as happy as everyone was to find the real thief, Cathbad must've been the most relieved person in the room. A guilty verdict would've shattered something between them that I don't tooootally think they even realized existed to shatter ('cause while I'm all here for "I Have Two Sons Actually 😌" Cathbad, I'm delighted by the idea that Cathbad has no goddamn idea what to really do with kids and has never wanted to admit why he puts up with this one, eVeN iF Angus happens to be very damn smart. And Angus sure as shit doesn't think Cathbad likes him, beyond occasionally being able to talk the druid into doing Angus a favour now and then.) For Cathbad to casually go like, "Oh wow I guess we'll never know if I thought you were guilty" after that is the biggest fuckin' tell for "I was praying you weren't, you would've broken my heart :'(" there is.

So yeah, Angus wastes his life picking pockets, probably a little more for fun than any honest need at this point, but Cathbad seems to think (mostly despite himself) that there's something in there destined for more. They've just gotta... kinda... get to it somehow. :/ And every time they don't, Cathbad just sees Angus slipping further away.

🤣 No wonder he shuts Angus down so hard near the end when he asks about creating illusionary walls. Think of how much Angus could take if he could also conjure walls as cover.

I'm happy enough with where the show ended, but I'd like to think that in a future episode, there would've been one with Cathbad and Angus where it was all about that. Like Cathbad would finally snap over Angus throwing his potential away to just steal again, get caught again, go to jail again. He could actually try to cut Angus off or force Angus (somehow) to give the thievery up. Maybe it starts by trying to reason with him, then with (poorly) attempting to have a heart-to-heart, and then in a fit of anger and frustration, almost definitely because Angus steals some important potion to play around with it, actually casting some sort of spell that's supposed to 'fix' the problem of stealing. And it works! Angus suddenly becomes very well-behaved and polite.

But it also saps Angus' motivation and creativity. He has to be told what to do every step of the way, because he can't even conceive of doing something out of order anymore. He loses his ability to fight effectively, maybe even loses the ability to summon his armour (because the part of him that earned it is gone), and he stops going anywhere at all because he doesn't 'technically' belong anywhere. He doesn't have his own hut, he's not royal, he's presumably an orphan, and Cathbad doesn't ever permit him to be around. And he just gets quieter and more miserable until Cathbad agrees to reverse the spell, but the damage is done: the message was sent when it came to using magic to 'cure' him.

(Yes, this could fit into 22 minutes. The pacing of that show's quick, and going from 'Angus is in jail again' to 'We have to do something about Angus' to 'Well, that's just how Angus is, Cathbad' to 'Fine, I'll do something about Angus' to 'bad attempt to talk' to 'Angus steal more shit anyway' to 'Magic anti-steal' to 'Angus is sad' is like... six scenes.)

Anyway, I'd want it to end with Cathbad actually doing the heart-to-heart properly. He apologizes for going so far to control Angus like that, and then moves right into "But I can't have you running around as a thief!" And it'd be over to Angus to basically say, "It's all I'm good for around here," which - hopefully - would snap a bit of shit into focus for Cathbad. With all of the insults and teasing and unsolicited lessons, Angus really has been left with the idea that being a thief all he is. Is it a good thing to be a thief? Maybe not, but Cathbad's always declared him as one, so Angus is pretty confident in that identity. And it's challenging and fun, and when it wasn't fun, it was necessary - for him and Rohan both (hint hint starving orphans).

Because I'd like that to set the stage for Cathbad to finally list some positives about him: Angus is smart, and he has a talent for seeing opportunities no one else can. He wishes it was more respectable, but the fact that Angus earned his mystic armour should've been proof enough that he was worthy. It wasn't like he stole that armour, after all. And part of his ability to see things makes him uniquely talented at combining magic powders. Something happens when he does. It's rarely ever less than chaotic, but it's always something, and that's a sign that there's magic in him that simply needs to be focused properly. (And there's that 'focused' thing again 🙄 - except Cathbad's going to have assure them both this has nothing to do with casting another spell on Angus. I want him to have to earn back a little of Angus' trust for once).

It wouldn't go on and on for hours, but eventually Cathbad would say that if it's a challenge Angus is looking for, then perhaps it's time to have a proper lesson in magic. It might be even be overdue. And as a show of goodwill, Cathbad agrees to show Angus what that potion he stole even does. He goes to get it. Just to find...

... nothing. 🫠

And Angus looking like 😬

And Cathbad going like, "... okay. That's... We'll have to make another one then, won't we?" Really, really trying here. Then saying he needs certain ingredients and has to find them in the slow mess that his inventory's become without Rohan to (badly lmao) tend to them.

And Angus is like, "oh I know where everything is :) here here here here and here :)"

And Cathbad's actually really impressed by this, because he's realizing Angus has always been an oddly precise thief when he goes through Cathbad's stuff - because he's stolen so much of it that he has an even better inventory in his head than Cathbad does.

But then Cathbad says, "Now we just need one last ingredient. I know I had some yesterday."

And Angus is like 😬

And Cathbad just picks up his herb basket and says, "At least you're aren't simply a common thief" (or something like that, whatever the kiddies would understand :P)

From there, I'd want episodes to reference Angus getting some lessons from Cathbad. He's like a weirdly unofficial apprentice - actually more like an unofficial student - and we start having him be the one to explain magic stuff that the knights run into. It'd be a great set up for another Rohan versus Angus fight, where Rohan starts to feel like he's being replaced (and maybe ungratefully throwing a lot of shit into Angus' face that cuts deep). I hope that'd end with blah-blah-blah the three of them are a family pretty much, everyone makes up, Rohan feels secure in his place again and Angus gets some actual approval from Rohan about anything for once lmao

It'd also set the stage for Angus to be practicing magic, and then very suddenly fucking revealing he's got his own. Or if it's not a reveal to him, it's a reveal to the others, because he's never been able to use it for things that aren't related to theft and he's never been consistent enough or experienced enough to want to test it in an actual battle. But the fact that he's learning from Cathbad at all would be the foundation of him being his own full-fledged magic user on the show. :3

As a bard. :3

A bard with a lot of Druid spells. :3

'cause that's my damn head canon and I'll be as self-indulgent as I pleeeeaaaaassseeeeeeeee

(also keeping a Magic-Using Angus away from Maeve is important, but imagining Nimaine finding out about it?! Maeve would force a wedge between Angus and Rohan, but Nimaine would drive it between Angus and Cathbad. Both of them, though, I can see trying to trick Angus into being afraid of himself or what others think, not really being lured in by being promised more power. That's more of a Rohan plot 😅)