She's also constantly hanging around him and joking with him, and he's practically always the first to follow after her or sit near her. Any time she's letting loose and doing something un-princess-like, it's because of him, and the show is constantly cutting away to his reaction at stuff she says rather than to Rohan's reaction. And she's constantly intervening on stuff.

Angus stomped off somewhere again? Deirdre's the one looking around the castle.

Angus is on trial lmao? Deirdre's actively insisting that she put in a good word even as he's like ":) no please seriously stop helping"

Angus is all pissed off at the latest thing Rohan did? Deirdre's either ">:( angus stop that" or ":'( Angus please don't go"

Like - she's *constantly* focused on him.

What makes it great is that I think *Angus* assumes it's a Rohan/Deirdre end game too. He's happily chatting with her and ';) flirting', but the second Rohan's showing literally any interest in Deirdre or anyone implies it, Angus immediately backs off again. He's loyal to a fault (lmaooooo in-between his "HOW DARE YOU, I'M LEAVING" tantrums), so he's always going to pick Rohan over anybody else - which means the guy's literally invented his own love triangle just to make sure his best friend is happy.

I loveeee iiiiiit.

THERE IS AT LEAST TWO OF US, AND POSSIBLY EVEN THREE SOMEWHERE

There's one episode where everyone sneaks into Maeve's castle dressed up in Temra armour (I think it's 'Tyrune Returns'), but they get caught because their armour's not fitting, and the Temra captain who starts questioning them and really zeros in on Deirdre. At one point, she actually has to give some sort of answer, so she uses a fake guy voice. Even though they all have to look as serious as they can because they're literally about to be revealed - they cut away to Angus after she does that, and just from context alone, you can tell he's laughing hysterically. He didn't let the green-skin-thing go even after Deirdre turned back, so he for sure brought that up again some point later. 💖

And then just that super cute moment where the two kings switch places and Dierdre and Angus are stuck trying to organize a feast for Fin Varra. That one part where she goes over to talk to Angus but she's covered in flour from having a fight with the baker, and Angus just gives her a little boop on the nose and laughs about it - and she's fine with that, like it's a totally normal thing for someone to do to a princess, and one who's regularly yelled at people for not addressing her with more respect. She literally just moves on with the conversation 🥰💖🥰💖

She genuinely does go out of her way to impress him. She likes impressing all of them, but there's an actual effort when it comes to Angus - probably because he's the one who'll actually tease her if she can't do it, since the others are way too aware that she's a princess. He's pretty much the only one who talks to her like a person (for better or worse and sometimes it's for worse 😭), so whenever she does impress him? Huge win - it makes her entire week

Ivar even does that during the pickpocketing episode 🤣 He's so mad that he sucks at it, and then there's Deirdre, who was paying veeeeery close attention to what Angus was teaching them. The best thing about Garrett joining the team is that Ivar finally has someone to join in on saying, "Are you seeing this?! How is nobody seeing this?!"

👀 and about Garrett

I love how he randomly says to Deirdre, "Oh, I get it, you prefer Rohan." And it cuts to Angus being like, "Yay! The princess and my buddy! 💖 That is what I want and support 💖" And it cuts to Deirdre being like, "ooooooooh, so close. :/ You don't even know how complicated this gets, bud."

Especially because she tries to reply with something like, "Well, to be honest, Rohan is -" and then she's interrupted. That - to me - did not sound like someone starting to say, "Rohan is my heart's truest desire." It's more of a lead in to, "Rohan's a bit rough around the edges but I would absolutely pick him over you," or "Rohan's been a great friend but he's just a friend, also btw was angus into the whole being-tied-up thing earlier? asking for a friend. a different one. you wouldn't know her."

I'm absolutely a multi-shipper for this show. I just spin a mental wheel of "whose week is Angus gonna ruin today" and run with that, but I've snapped back to it being Deirdre right now 🤣

Loose 👏 polycule 👏 indeed 👏

Throw in Cathbad's equally stern eye, and this whole castle is just "Who keeps letting him in here?!" with Angus being like, ":3c teehee it's a team effort"

I've just realized that whole template for this Angus-centric polycule is that episode where he gets a wish. It's him being taken on increasingly crappy dates and then stomping off because "Everyone I'm simultaneously dating sucks 😠 I'LL COME BACK WHEN YOU APPRECIATE ME"

Chef's kiss 💖

And you're right: it doesn't make sense until the camera slowly pans to Angus going 👋😉

I'm still hoping there was a day when Aideen says, "Oh! You like Angus! I'm sorry, princess, let's be friends," followed by ten minutes of Aideen talking with Rohan, followed by Aideen screaming, "WAIT WHAT"

LITERALLY EVEN MAEVE SAYS IT WHEN SHE KIDNAPS HIM IN THAT EPISODE WHERE HE GETS HIS ARMOUR. And Torc's like, "Ya he's a thief of pockets and hearts :P" GODDAMMIT ANGUS WHO IS SAFE FROM YOU

Holy HELL this should've been the first episode:

Conchobar (i googled the spelling): We need to make alliances, we need Draganta, we need to unite Ireland

Rohan: Well, I'm Draganta and I've got this friend... 👀

Angus: I do require snacks

Rohan: ya he needs snacks

Conchobar: What can he do?

Angus: idk - this, i guess

Rohan: :)

Conchobar: I don't get it, you're just holding hands

Angus: ya he likes it

Rohan: :)

Conchobar: no but is that a spell or something?

Angus: might be. pretty much all i know is that when i put my hand out, i get another a royal stuck on it

Ivar: it's surprisingly effective

Conchobar: who the hell are you

Angus: you learn to stop asking

Deirdre: WELL I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA, LET'S KEEP HIM

Conchobar: YOU TOO?!

Angus: ya that one's new, i've been here for years but i guess i've always beelined it for rohan ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ also i didn't want to be rude and go for anything until my bestie was ok with it

Rohan: he's very considerate

Angus: i will refuse to learn table manners but sometimes i sing

Cathbad: You can't really get rid of him for long, he knows too many of the guards.

Angus: 😉

Cathbad: I've tried to make the best of it by making him pick royal herbs instead

Conchobar: does that count?

Cathbad: It's counted so far ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Conchobar: ok fine, angus go pick herbs while i figure out how to deal with this

Angus: ok

Rohan, Deirdre, Ivar: :)

Conchobar: ALONE.

Rohan, Deirdre, Ivar: >:(

Angus: uh-oh that means my hands are free again. I'm either gonna pick a lot of herbs or I'm gonna find a brand-new mystery prince and a *lot* of answers on how I feel about being tied up

Angus: 🤔

Angus: no, i can do both :)

#angus is the bard of the group pretending he's the rogue lmao

There's conversations between Ivar and Garrett when they talk about how difficult it is to be a prince. Deirdre gets stuck with so many subplots about the duties of being a princess. There's literally a potion that only works "with the heart of a Queen." Everyone talks shit about how big their kingdoms are to each other. Rohan can't get into that until later, but he gets up on his high horse about being Draganta. Deirdre gets pissed off when she learns a lowly druid's apprentice was listening to official royal peace treaties with Maeve.

In this show, titles are important. Royalty is important. Lots of things are reserved *just* for royals.

And Angus is like, "ya i'll take some of that super special only-for-the-royal-family nectar please :3 No, more of it. Why yes I can do this dumb little group dance to welcome Garrett to Kells. How? Idk I'm a quick learner ig"

Which, like, has me with my various headcanons about whether Angus really *is* the only non-royal or not. Canonically, yes, he's just Some Guy™ - but:

Like - you and I are in full agreement that he plays dumber than he is (separate from how he's also an idiot uwu), and sometimes I watch this show and think, "... Damn. He's playing deliberately dumb. How is he moving so fast from 'haha prophecies on a bit of paper are stupid' to 'rohan i am being the voice of reason here: please don't skip steps on the prophecy to go pet a dragon. :( u know i'm gonna go either way (😉) but please don't :(' followed by 'oh noooo am i getting my armour last? oh noooooooooo'?"

So I dunno - some of my HCs have it so Angus was like, "I am a prince and I am 8 years old aaaaaannnd... being a prince sucks lmao i'm running away, oh wow this is kells? This is soooo cooooool i live here now" And who would ever question that? Maeve actively hid the thing about Rohan, which means a kid showing up in the village of Kells and never saying he was royal will never be asked "are you sure? maybe you're secretly a prince"

But the fact that the show went with, "We are bestowing five people with the destiny of becoming the Mystic Knights: Rohan, the prince of Temra; Deirdre, the princess of Kells; Ivar, the prince of ??atlantis or something??who knows lmao; Garrett, the prince of Rheged; and Angus, Some Guy™!" only gets funnier when you realize season two was gonna say, "And Lugad, the other prince of Temra!"

They have done more for Pro-Polycule Theory with that than anything else 🤣 Here you go, Angus, why don't you hang out in the castle with your girlfriend until you stop fighting with your boyfriend (who seems to be the only person who Angus get annoyed at for pulling the I'm So Much More Important card (headcanon-wise, Rohan would've been the only non-royal) 👀)

This actually just reminded me: Angus has either always been really good with a sword or got way better at it over the show, 'cause the timeline sorta moves like this:

So basically, Angus - the guy whose main weapon is a rock on a string - is better with a sword than a trained prince on a quest from another country to get back a chalice, but not as good as Garrett, whose main weapon is being a dick.

And the reason I thought of that is 'cause the episode where Angus and Rohan have that actual, legit fight, Rohan basically tells Angus during practice that he sucks at using a sword (compared to Rohan, I mean). And hooooooly shit, that just made me realize how totally justified Angus was to be pissed off by that. I thought Rohan had a point because his main weapon is a sword, but it's actually a super low blow from the guy who lives in the exact same hut and comes from the exact same kind of childhood and to say it someone who really can hold his own against Rohan too. And that's still not even when Angus leaves!!

I love that episode in particular, and there was one part in the beginning that took me so long to figure out. Rohan just went one-man-army on a bunch of invading soldiers and the village is thanking for him it. Angus is doing his little, ":3 ya he's pretty great" hypeman thing for Rohan, and then he makes his usual joke about wanting gold from the villagers as a thank you present - and Rohan's like, ">:( Not cool, Angus." And I never got why Angus went from like, ">:( okay, wow, crabby" to "Rohan fucking sucks, he's such an asshole, I barely want to be at this stupid ceremony thing" and brooding in the corner. It seemed like such a whiplash of tone, but I blamed it on being a kids' show and went along with it and just assumed Angus was kinda picking a fight for the sake of the plot. Out-of-character, but whatever.

Then I realized how innocuous Angus' joke about gold is - like, he says that all the time, and he's only ever half-serious (lol). But Rohan went full "You're such a child, be better" on him, and it's kinda... not the first time by that point...? But it's the most openly scolded Angus has ever been from someone who's been on the same level this whole time.

So all of that, and for Rohan to actually say in front of Conchobar later that Angus started it is sooooo fucking rich - let alone that ":( What's wrong with Angus lately, he's so touchy these days" line later. I totally get now why Angus walked off. But he STILL HASN'T LEFT YET, 'cause he only actually leaves once Rohan starts shittalking him behind his back about stealing shit. And I can't believe how I misunderstood the episode, 'cause I just assumed it was one of those 'Both sides were wrong, let's just move on' episodes. But no - Rohan was the antagonist in that completely, and it's a little bullshit that Angus (who has to come back from rightfully leaving to save Rohan's ass) is like, ":/ It's fine. That's just what friends do. You're still my favourite" at the end.

The disrespect 😭 Especially when you realize these two were poor peasant kids and that Angus is always obsessed with food as much as gold, and it's like, "Dude, why do you think all that stealing happened?"

So I'm gonna be cheeky and disagree with you by saying, "Yes, he gives people back what he gives them... unless it's Rohan, in which case Angus just puts up with it until he finally explodes, and then he looks like the hotheaded one".

😌 well, there's our angst

garretts main weapon is being a dick fucking took me out lmao its so true

angus actually mentions like twice that he was the one who taught rohan to fight when they were kids. and i think rohan acknowledges that too at some point.

and i bet angus had to fight for his life more than once as a child. not only because of being an orphan kid on the streets and relying on stealing food, but also because its war times. he probably had to defend himself against temra soldiers before... him AND rohan. and probably other kids too.

and god youre so right, rohan is such an ungrateful friend to him. angus seems to be of the belief he doesnt deserve to be treated better, he snaps super easy but rarely gets actually angry... and when he does he leaves (if hes not cursed lol) rohan is incredibly disrespectful to him, but since he has better social standing, he gets away with it a lot. because hes 'more worthy' (hes a cunt most of the time but eh its a kids show lmao)

just the fact that rohan gets accepted as a druids apprentice, despite clearly not having an inch of talent in the field of magic, while angus stays hungry and without any protection in the town? and rohan repeatedly sends him away. we all know he got taken in because he has his silly tattoo and for no other reason.

angus takes so much shit, its small things that seem normal to everyone, because thats how its always been, so when he snaps theyre like "whats wrong with you? get your temper under control, stop being so sensitive." and i think the episode with the wish is the only one in which they actually sit down and go "aw man, we were assholes."

and angus doesnt even hold a fucking grudge?

maybe his life had so many betrayals and shitty moments and hes been treated like shit so often, he just decided at some point to shrug and keep going. to make a light joke about it and just... leave it behind.

oh and side note lmao but since angus fights with a rock on a chain basically, its a weapon with a rhythm. you have to get the moment of movement just right, but you can also catch blades with the chain and strangle people. angus must be physically rather strong, because his weapon is heavy as fuck. and well, rhythm weapon... hes still a bard lol

It's always seemed like Angus knows Rohan isn't doing it on purpose. Arguably that's even worse, but there's a whole "He can't help it" undertone to it when Angus needs more than "He's just joking". :( And the pattern I caught for whenever Angus is like, "Okay, enough, line's crossed" is that Rohan said in some way, "I'm stating a fact right now. Even if it's a joke, it's based on a fact about you. And everyone knows it, so you have no reason to be surprised.'

Because that's the thing: I don't see Rohan as being malicious. I see him being a big, dumb oaf who doesn't know how to react now that's there's more than just Angus telling him he's been great this whole time. It's Angus in the second episode who says, "You're a champion with that sword :)" [insert *very* sincere expression 👀 ty mr. walsh, always appreciated], so how else is Rohan - from Angus' POV - supposed to know that 'I know better than you when it comes to swords' is an asshole thing to say?

And I get the sense that Angus hides a lot of details from Rohan, too. Getting to be the known thief to the point that you get a friendly visitor every now and then prooobably wasn't a easy feat to pull off. And it probably wasn't nearly as walk-in/walk-out as Rohan absolutely makes it seem in the first episode, either. :/ But how's Rohan supposed to know when it's not like he's ever been thrown in there, doesn't have to steal, and gets all his info about it from Angus?

'Cause when Rohan does see someone messing with Angus, he is there to put a stop to it. He was also the only one to be like, "Yeeeah, i'm not gonna leave him in the Temra dungeon just because King Conchobar says it's too dangerous to go get him out. We're saving him." But Temra = 'bad place' and Kells = 'good place', and with how often Rohan flies off the handle about getting to settle a fight, it's probably safer to tell him that everything in Kells' prisons is kittens and sunshine so a twelve-year-old Rohan doesn't fuckin' dragon-kick the nearest guard for not treating the peasant-child-pickpocket like a first-class guest.

(just to add: lmao this is all to be like, "Why does Angus put up with this? 😠" 'Cause that whole 'uwu he doesn't really mean it' is not gonna fly without some very character-driven apologies and wake-up calls where Rohan finally pulls his head out of his ass. I KNOW YOU'RE THE LONGEST-MEMBER OF THIS POLYCULE ROHAN BUT WE PUT YOU INTO THIS THING AND WE CAN TAKE YOU OUT)

About being a bard, though 👀 I brought that up 'cause it's my other major head canon about him. I used some stuff from DnD to be like, "Wow, Bards seem able to learn a lot of Druid spells," and he plays a few instruments and sings a few songs and maybe he's not actually exaggerating about how charming he is (EVERYONE WANTS HIM CARNALLY), and at one point, Cathbad straight up sasses Rohan about how he's never said Rohan was a good apprentice for a reason.

So I've always thought, hey, maybe Rohan doesn't have any actual talent for being a druid's apprentice, and Cathbad found that out soon enough. But this kid's friend - who's insatiably interested in magic, and who does whatever Rohan says - does have talent and keeps hanging around. Cathbad can't get away with raising two kids to be his apprentice, especially when one's a known thief, and even if Rohan didn't have that mark on his arm, there'd be no reason to switch to Angus anyway: right now, by having Rohan in the castle, it's a two-for-one deal on getting Angus for free (and a more obedient version of Angus, 'cause that kid's not gonna listen to Cathbad directly).

There's one episode where Angus is off getting herbs because Rohan told him to, and he has to go back later to get more herbs because Cathbad tells him to. And he whines the whole time about Cathbad giving him orders, but then says, "I should be the one giving orders" - and why would you say that, Angus? 👀 What do you know?!

rohan is a big dumb himbo and angus usually just sighs and waves it off because "what am i supposed to do with you, my beloved stupid bestie." but i agree, that he knows that rohan is mostly just insensitive and a bit dumb does make it worse. ah angus my poor baby...

angus seems like the guy who tries to play everything off as "no big deal" and he doesnt seem to want to worry anyone. not actually at least. he would like people to worry about him, that much is clear, either from his whining or when he is genuinely hurt and believes no one would come for him anyway.

god rohan would take on all of kells to defend angus, it does take quite a bit for him to genuinely believe angus knowingly fucked something up. he always seems more suspicious than accusing like "dude im used to you doing stupid shit, what did you do" vibe. and even then he would defend him in whatever way he can.

and fucking hell everyone DOES want him carnally, half of the reason why he survived is probably that hes good looking, smooth talking and has good humor and can laugh at himself.

OH angus with a talent to be a druid but no one ever actually told him!! he probably has suspicions because whenever he fucks with the powders stuff actually happens! i cant remember rohan effectively mixing powders for anything tbh. cathbad really went "its a two for one deal, i might even feed angus on occasion!" lmao

and hes smart, i bet he either figured it out or overheard cathbad talking about it to someone (or muttering about it lmao) because angus has a talent to just stand in the corner or hide somewhere and hes rarely actually caught unless something else happens or he is not alone. so i wouldnt be surprised if he feels used or maybe not fairly treated, because he COULD become a druid.

we need some knightly polycule fics, like for real, i want to see their dynamic play out... fuck we would have to write that ourselves, wouldnt we? us, the two people keeping this tiny niche fandom alive ahaha

I'm reblogging this so I have it but otherwise HIMBO ROHAN IS CANON ROHAN 👏🏼

I'm gonna have to think about how fics like that would even work 🤔 I 100% believe he'd have his one-on-one moments with everybody, and that he'd do a liiiittle bit of a "This part is just between us :)" thing to keep each of them unique (I think he'd get bored if it was the exact same relationship with each of them, and that he's into this because they're already so wildly different from each other). And I also believe that his order of favouritism would be Rohan, then Deirdre or Ivar (depending on who's more fun at that moment), and then Garrett, but - like...

Rohan is *so* dumb. Poor Aideen - but she doesn't know what Angus knows: Rohan does not catch onto stuff like that (and I'm picturing a lot of "I didn't wanna ruin the friendship :P You seemed happy enough" replies from Angus once Rohan asks him why nothing happened sooner). He'd be the last to ever realize what was happening with everyone and Angus would never have the patience to wait around 'til he figures it out. Ivar (and it would be Ivar) could literally sit Rohan down and say "uhhhh this isn't exactly how you'd talk about someone you're 'just besties' with" and Rohan would still have a very, very, very long road from ":)? But he's always been my best friend" to "... oh. OHHHHHHHH. Ohhhh, there's other stuff :O" And he'd be pissed off the entire time 'cause until he figures it out, it's endless whining: "Why is Angus suddenly spending every day with Garrett? Garrett sucks! I'M NOT ANGRY I'M JUST ASKING"

Istg their dynamic would only be 20% having a pleasant time with Angus, and 80% Angus ignoring them while they're having their character-specific tantrums, 'cause they're all whiny royals and they're all super insecure.

... so it'd look exactly like the normal show 🤣

Including how when one of them gets an attitude, Angus shrugs and hangs out with someone else, unless Rohan has the attitude, in which case Angus breaks up with everybody and storms off and out of Kells 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Angus = everybody's common ground

Rohan = Angus' patience with everyone's shit

I could see Deirdre and Garrett wasting tons of time being like, "Wow 👀 I can't believe 👀 how appealling 👀 Angus 👀 grew up to be 👀" and immediately following that up with "😍 Surely he'd appreciate me completely changing him into a more dignified and noble lord" (for Deirdre) or "😍 Surely he'd appreciate all the cool crap I have and can brag about forever" (for Garrett). And Angus taking one look at that, looking at Ivar, saying, "You planning any of that shit?" The second Ivar's like, ":) I know a lost cause when I see one," Angus just says "good 😌" and walks off with him instead to go torment some Temran soldiers and make out or find a cave or something ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Rinse and repeat until Rohan finally has an answer for, "🤔 But what's better than being my best friend? The word 'best' is already in the name..."

Btw, I think this solves how Angus can play so much off as not a big deal: he just cycles through 'em until he has a good enough distraction from whatever the problem was 😝 Not great when it's actually something serious... but when it's those pettier annoyances that he's not genuinely hurt by? It works! 💖

LMAO weekly polycule meetings without Angus to piece together what shit he's hiding from them this time. "ok let's compare notes: is he sad or is he angry and hiding it or is he in pain or is he just hungry. yes, garrett, we're all well aware that 'hungry' is always kinda mixed in there permanently. let us know when you figure out water's wet too 🙄 polynoob."

... WAIT, FUCK, THAT'S JUST THE EPISODE ABOUT THE WISH AGAIN 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Okay, fine: weekly polycule meeting to talk about some asshole prince who talked shit about Angus for being a commoner, and they're all salty about it four days later

Rohan: Let the council of "fuck that guy" begin

Garrett: >:O there's a lady present. I'm so sorry, princess. Rohan must not have been there when manners were being taught in the tiny, tiny villages of Kells that day (so small, your kingdom)

Deirdre: no it's fine, i named it that

Rohan: it was longer so i had to trim it down

Deirdre: also more profane

Deirdre: more conjugations of the word 'fuck' :)

Rohan: anyway are we gonna challenge this guy to a duel or what, dibs on the duel

Garrett: I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR FIVE MONTHS AND HAVEN'T DUELED ANYONE YET, THIS IS BULLSHIT

Ivar: you duelled me

Garrett: 😒 that doesn't count, that was easy

Rohan: for things to do with Garrett, talk to Angus about the council of "Wtf is that guy's problem". This is about that other prince

Garrett: no one else has a council, i bet 😏

Ivar: this might be a good time to mention that Angus has already - and I quote - 'shanked that guy's guard and stole his horse', so anything we're doing should probably focus on covering that up

Rohan: a horse doesn't count as revenge 😠

Garrett: it's the 'fighting Ivar' of solutions 😠 we need to bring pain

Ivar:

Deirdre: that council convenes after this one

Ivar: thank you

Rohan: all in favour of physically lifting this guy into the air, carrying him to a lake, dangling him over that lake until he apologizes to us -

Deirdre: to angus

Rohan: this isn't about Angus 😤 he already got his crap revenge and this was an insult on all of us

Ivar: I'm partial to wherever Rohan was going with the lake

Garrett: ooh you can fry him

Ivar: I will be frying him, yes 😌

Rohan: then it's settled: this man drowns

Deirdre: DROWN HIM >:U

Ivar: IT'S FAIR >:U

Garrett: AND HIS HORSE >:U

Ivar: GREAT IDEA GARRETT, YOU GO GET THE HORSE

Garrett: obviously who else 😌

Ivar:

Ivar:

Ivar: ok he's gone let's start the other meeting

Angus: ok great also i've been here the whole time and you four are nuts lmao i love you

Rohan: me the most though right

Angus: yes rohan

Deirdre: WHAT

Angus: (deirdre plz u know how he is)

Deirdre: >:( fine. (i know the truth)

Ivar: 😉💖

Angus: 😉💖

EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO THE WISH HOLY SHIT AHAHAHAHAHA

sometimes he sets rohan up with deidre like "there you go, get some romance going, thanks" and watches them fondly from the sidelines, leaning slightly against ivar who is doing something completely different and just likes when angus is kind of touching but letting him do his shit.

he kind of coordinates between them and rotates through but i bet sometimes he kind of wants them all together, but thats usually too much effort and has to happen in deidres room in the caste because she has the big bed AHAHAHAHA

i wonder how many times angus just watches rohan and garrett, chin in his palm and sighing "...i really am into morons." and deidre turning around like "excuse me?" "oh no, princess, i wasnt talking about you of course, how you i ever?" "mhm thought so." and angus rolls his eyes and mutters "im also into arogant royals, what a surprise" under his breath ahahahahaa

I just wrote this on my other reblog but I took too long to send it so I'm rewriting it here: weekly polycule meeting to talk about some asshole prince who talked shit about Angus for being a commoner, and they're all salty about it four days later

Rohan: Let the council of "fuck that guy" begin

Garrett: >:O there's a lady present. I'm so sorry, princess. Rohan must not have been there when manners were being taught in the tiny, tiny villages of Kells that day (so small, your kingdom)

Deirdre: no it's fine, i named it that

Rohan: it was longer so i had to trim it down

Deirdre: also more profane

Deirdre: more conjugations of the word 'fuck' :)

Rohan: anyway are we gonna challenge this guy to a duel or what, dibs on the duel

Garrett: I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR FIVE MONTHS AND HAVEN'T DUELED ANYONE YET, THIS IS BULLSHIT

Ivar: you duelled me

Garrett: 😒 that doesn't count, that was easy

Rohan: for things to do with Garrett, talk to Angus about the council of "Wtf is that guy's problem". This is about that other prince

Garrett: no one else has a council, i bet 😏

Ivar: this might be a good time to mention that Angus has already - and I quote - 'shanked that guy's guard and stole his horse', so anything we're doing should probably focus on covering that up

Rohan: a horse doesn't count as revenge 😠

Garrett: it's the 'fighting Ivar' of solutions 😠 we need to bring pain

Ivar:

Deirdre: that council convenes after this one

Ivar: thank you

Rohan: all in favour of physically lifting this guy into the air, carrying him to a lake, dangling him over that lake until he apologizes to us -

Deirdre: to angus

Rohan: this isn't about Angus 😤 he already got his crap revenge and this was an insult on all of us

Ivar: I'm partial to wherever Rohan was going with the lake

Garrett: ooh you can fry him

Ivar: I will be frying him, yes 😌

Rohan: then it's settled: this man drowns

Deirdre: DROWN HIM >:U

Ivar: IT'S FAIR >:U

Garrett: AND HIS HORSE >:U

Ivar: GREAT IDEA GARRETT, YOU GO GET THE HORSE

Garrett: obviously who else 😌

Ivar:

Ivar:

Ivar: ok he's gone let's start the other meeting

Angus: ok great also i've been here the whole time and you four are nuts lmao i love you

Rohan: me the most though right

Angus: yes rohan

Deirdre: WHAT

Angus: (deirdre plz u know how he is)

Deirdre: >:( fine. i know the truth

Ivar: 😉💖

Angus: 😉💖

LMAOO your post having Angus say "also into arrogant royals" - Deirdre, you're not off the hook for being a moron yet. One brain cell among them and Angus'll grab that the way he grabs gold

But also the idea of him being like, "okay some of you suck at dating me. So I'm gonna split you into teams to practice and when I come back, I better see improvements. >:( Also if anyone asks, i've been here the whole time and not wherever tf the guards accuse me of being, they're liars"

Also jfc, the idea of polycule playdate-nights for Rohan and the others

"guys you know i love rohan but he's on some thin fuckin' ice, so garrett you go challenge him and work off some energy, deirdre you flash him a bit of boob, ivar you just hold me :) 'cause if you don't i'm gonna lose it and stab him I KNOW HE'S DUMB BUT BY DAGDA THERE SHOULD BE LIMITS"

Also-also 🥺 I love the idea of Angus really only sitting still for Ivar. Rohan, he's always rough housing with. Garrett, sitting still and making too much eye contact is staring at a bull: you've got a storm comin' - fight or bragfest. Deirdre would be way too pleased that Angus is finally being polite, so he'd never do it just to mess with her. But he's actively playing like... chess or whatever it is with Ivar, and as long as they're not on patrol (which is where Ivar got all annoyed about sitting too long), it seems like the time where Angus would finally say, ":) ok yeah, let's be quiet and near each other."

That'd be their unique thing, I think.

With that said, and knowing how competitive Ivar gets, Angus might also find it hilarious to see how fast he can make Ivar switch between Placidly Pensive and FIGHT ME IRL 😝

Meanwhile Garrett - for all the headache he'd be otherwise - would actually be a very fresh start for Angus. All those dumb jokes people keep making about him (the number of times everyone's called him stupid is almost equal to how many times they've called him handsome) are ones where Garrett could very easily be like, "🤨 Of course you're all slow compared to me, but Angus isn't stupid." Not necessarily in a "I must defend his honour~" way, but in a matter-of-fact "I give credit where credit is due, which is why I give myself so much, because it's always due. But on that note, your 'jokes' make no sense."

Deirdre seems to have fallen in with the joke about Angus being dumb, Ivar seems to have deferred to the other two and gone along with it, and it's Rohan's favourite thing to say about Angus, so really, the only one who could stand up to it now is Garrett - to notice and to say anything. Angus himself sure as hell won't; that's his 'thinking it's what he deserves since he's heard it so often' problem. But when Rohan gets inevitably testy about someone disapproving of him and retorts, "It's a joke between best friends and we've had that for a lot longer than you've been here" - which he can say to literally anybody, since Rohan's got the ultimate seniority with Angus - there's Garrett to do that 😌 face and instantly reply, "That means you've been telling the same, tired joke for even longer than I thought you'd be embarrassed to admit."

Angus is - uh...

... gonna be making that 😬 face a lot when Rohan's looking, and kinda going 👀 whenever Garrett speaks his mother tongue of backhanded compliments to neatly put people (*cough* Rohan) in their place over what they've been saying. Which might lead to Garrett going 👀 at Angus once enough of Angus' good qualities get defended and quasi-hyped up for him for once. Like "Huh. 🤔 Maybe I should allow this hot peasant to be in my presence after all. I make him sound so intriguing."

One walk through a forest after that, and Garrett doing some Ugh-So-Matter-of-Fact-About-It "You shouldn't let them speak of you that way. Not even Rohan. You're a Mystic Knight, not just a peasant, and you should be commanding the respect that earns in a place like this," and Angus is like, "😳 I take back a third of the things I've said about you this week."

"what did you say about me"

"those council meetings are secret 🙃"

Ahhhhh - more thoughts, but I put it in a new post to help break it up a little!

Okay, for Rohan and Deirdre and what you said about Angus pushing them into a corner for some light romance: I do fully ascribe to the idea that Angus knows everyone yeah-sure-okay wants his body, but assumes it's not like it'd be anything serious. That's why I have the idea that Angus and Rohan wouldn't have anything between them until Rohan figured out what he was feeling wasn't entirely best friend/brotherly after all: Angus is totally happy with what he has, has no reason to change anything and risk losing it, and gets enough attention that he doesn't 'need' Rohan anyway - and Rohan is Rohan, so it's gonna be a long wait for him to discover what's up.

Which means that I still think - polycule or not, and whether or not he's right - that Angus personally assumes Rohan and Deirdre are gonna end up together. First Rohan's a druid's apprentice actually living in the castle, then a Mystic Knight, then Draganta, then an actual prince in his own right.

And Angus does think Rohan's the best thing ever (and as much as I'm pointing out what a dick Rohan is, the feeling's mutual 'cause Rohan thinks Angus is the greatest thing ever, too. The problem's more that Rohan doesn't realize he's being a dick, and that his near-endlessly patient friend has feelings. Since Rohan doesn't suffer anyone treating Angus like shit, he'd probably have a meltdown once he realizes, "Oh my Dagda. I'm the asshole 😨" and spend a month crying in a cave and two more months desperately trying to make it up to Angus until Angus is like "🙃 this is worse than what you were doing before"). All that to say, Angus is rooting for Rohan to be happy, and being with A Princess™ that Rohan already seems to like is a good way to make that happen.

So I see Angus still being like, "👀 rohan i think the princess likes you, you gonna do something about that?" And even if Rohan's like, ":/ I thought about it and I really only liked you after all" or ":3 no i'm shy," Angus is gonna go, "👀 ok i'll set you two up, you'll thank me later, shut up aideen"

For Angus and Deirdre (LMAO remember when we were talking about that?), I do still love that Deirdre always cuts loose when she's with him. She's so polite in front of her dad and he's quick to scold her when she's got a little too much bite in what she says, and over the show, she goes from 'prim and proper with the odd slip of the tongue' to 'I DON'T CARE WHAT WORDS I USED, I'M STILL RIGHT, SHUT UP FATHER'. And he's so fuckin' cheeky with her - openly! One time, doesn't he say something like, ";) Fine, if you're gonna be like that, I won't tell you about the dream I had about you last night" while he's sitting on her left and her dad is sitting immediately on her right. And he gets away with it!! 🤣

So I love her dynamic with Angus: on-screen, she's got a habit of breaking character as a polite princess (first episode: she kicks him for kicking her and his answer isn't "omg i'm so so sorry princess," 'cause it's ">:O WELL I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS YOU, THAT'S YOUR OWN FAULT") and almost sinking to his level, but still defaulting to that politeness and Royal Highness voice when she's nervous, stressed, pressured, or basically out of her comfort zone. I think Angus would start showing her more of her own kingdom by taking her around Kells without the crown and fancy clothes, and getting her to act as a person. Very Jasmine and Aladdin honestly :D Imagine her actually getting friends outside of the people who know she's the princess and realizing, "Wow. People... can actually like me because I'm me...?"

If anything went wrong - if someone was rude to her - the other three would immediately drop the ruse and shout at everyone to respect the Princess of Kells. Angus would be like, "ok so here's a rock, and what you wanna do is throw it at that guard, and then you're gonna accuse this other guy who just mouthed off at you. Then that guard's gonna kick the shit out of this guy, and that's how we solve problems without needing to stab anybody by ourselves. :) much cleaner"

Last thing - about my Bard headcanon: so DnD treats Bards and Druids as two different types of magic. I love that, because it explains why Angus would be magical enough to mix some powders together, but not actually able to recreate what Cathbad does (or that one little shitty stowaway prince that got Angus stuck to a wall once). Since they're different kinds of magic and Angus copies the method that a Druid would use (which Cathbad can teach), it doesn't work out the same because he needs to be doing it the way a Bard would (which Cathbad can't help with).

It makes it easier to see why Cathbad wouldn't eventually switch to teaching Angus (or at least also start teaching Angus): he can't. There's some overlap but ultimately, Angus is better off discovering that stuff on his own because that's the only way he'd be able to learn it. Basic things like "activate the ingredients" and "pick the right herbs" are fine, but "combine the ingredients in a Druid way" just aren't gonna happen without major adjustments to the process.

And that also makes Angus' little "I should be the one giving orders" make sense, 'cause Angus knows better as a self-taught Bard than Cathbad knows as not-a-Bard-at-all.

So not to put this whole-ass post back on everyone's dash, but I just remembered the 'Angus must be really strong to use that mace' and 'Angus (and possibly Rohan himself) said a few times that he taught Rohan how to fight' and that 'Angus is actually really damn good with a sword' thing...

... and I remembered that episode where Garrett first shows up. :D

Yeah, Angus somehow ends up tied to the tree (and gagged, jfc but also hilarious), and Rohan's like "lololol so deirdre do this to you lmao"

But Rohan's joking about that, obviously

What's not a joke is when Angus says some other guy (Garrett) did it. That's immediately when Rohan switches from making fun of Angus' apparently-common-enough-that-Rohan's-not-even-worried-and-just-starts-laughing-about-it plight (there is a WAR going on and Rohan's not even the tiniest bit like, "D: oh no, did maeve do this?!") to being, "Uhhhh, what? One guy? One? Literally?"

And that's to emphasize how dangerous Garrett is, but - like... Angus is the show's comedy relief. They don't portray him as a powerhouse at all - even despite the fact that his weapon is literally huckin' rocks, but he does it with such ease that you go "🤷🏽‍♀️ guess they're hollow rocks" - so the idea that Garrett beats Angus doesn't register as a "WOW, Garrett must be really strong!" moment. That moment only comes after Garrett kicks Rohan's ass (which is such a perfect moment of vindication for Angus, who was both trying to warn Rohan about it and was actively telling Rohan to cut Angus free so he could help).

So - a couple of things here:

Like, part of me wants to start giving Rohan a little bit of credit for always calling Angus dumb when he's so clearly not dumb. I'm wondering if that could be less "I am more clever and smarter than Angus is" and more "Some guards said they'd break his legs if they caught Angus in the royal pantry again, and Angus thought it was so hilarious that he specifically went back to the pantry, knocked each of them out, tied them up, and then said 'ok now catch me :3'. So anyway, that's why we're having so much supper tonight, and that's why four of the guards have black eyes and head wounds." That kind of dumb.

And that makes me happy because oh shit, has Angus actually been the tank of the group this whole time?! (Maybe not head-on like a 'true' tank, 'cause he's still a sneaky and talky dude, but you get my point.) More importantly, in that episode with the kids, no wonder Rohan's so excited to see someone who was getting kids to pay to huck rocks - it wasn't just that Angus definitely talked him into it, but that Angus would never actually let Rohan get into any real danger. And it also turns it from "Cathbad adopted Rohan" and into "Angus agreed to share custody but he's still basically the primary caretaker, know your place Cathbad"

😭 omg. That makes Rohan immediately running to Angus when he first sets off to find Draganta even cuter! I love iiiiiiiiiiiiit

And I'm now immediately extrapolating this on to the other three: he's their common ground and safety net and he's actively guiding them out of their comfort zone. But in my random idea for an Angus/Garrett dynamic omg 😭 that's kinda what Garrett would be inadvertently doing for Angus 😭 and that's kinda the only time it would happen that way 😭😭😭😭

Polycule can't move forward until everyone contributes

(*cough* Rohan)

(i'm joking - kinda - 'cause like I said, Rohan would tear through Ireland to protect Angus. But so much of their relationship is Angus absolutely knowing Rohan would do that, and doing everything he can - even the crazy 'dumb' stuff - specifically to stop Rohan from ever having to do that.)

(which i love, because it's the heart of this show)

(but also what does angus get in the meantime, if anything rohan wants to do to reciprocate is way too extreme for angus to let happen 🤣)

(does rohan even do the dishes?)

(canonically: nope 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣)

(metaphorically: nope)

(deirdre and ivar do, and by god, i'm gonna say garrett will make it his life's mission just to prove he's best goddamn Dish Doing master. but rohan's gonna make efforts, struggle, forget, and be back to square one over and over again, and that's where angus' ":( he's cursed with being a himbo, i know he's trying, but he has to find some other way to show it 'cause i'm getting nothing right now")

(unless angus is?! 🤔)

#rohan is genuinely getting the world's GREATEST deal out of this relationship
#and now i'm doubly convinced that angus wouldn't take a step towards deirdre if rohan wasn't okay with it
#the ultimate betrayal D: