Sometimes it's fun being utterly shameless, and today it's gonna be about Rohan being autistic.

YUP, I've gone that far with my endless pondering. Normally I never get into "X Character is autistic-coded" ideas, mostly because I don't know enough about autism to try to do it (unlike ADHD, where I can be like "Yes, Angus, we get it"). But as I'm learning more, I'm starting to see parallels and little signs that have me thinking it explains a lot about the guy.

... But again, I'm not autistic and I'm still learning about autism, so I'm gonna pop all of this under a readmore in case I'm totally wrong. 😅 I'm not doing a "Here are his symptoms" breakdown. I'm going more like, "Here are the vibes the show gives off."

Tbh, I don't even know if he counts as autistic-coded in the first place. This might be a full-on, completely-out-of-thin-air headcanon. But I like it because it's slapped on new depth to who he is as a character, and - well... why not have the Legendary Warrior Draganta be autistic? 🤗 This show's so old, it should be in the damn public domain. I'm gonna do what I want with it.

I just wanna make sure I'm not perpetuating any stereotypes 😅 I don't think I am! But I'm always nervously cautious.

How he was with other kids:

Really, it's been him and Angus this whole time. What I always found weird is why Cathbad thought Angus was such a bad influence, when he's been relentlessly loyal to Rohan at every single moment. But now I'm looking at it more from Cathbad's POV:

So Angus is - by all intents and purposes from Cathbad's perspective - King of Village Bullies, exploiting Rohan's kindness, a born thief and liar, and always just a moment away revealing that he's never cared about Rohan at all and it was a scam from the beginning.

... And then you learn that Rohan ohhhhhh is the kid who thinks being a warrior absolutely rules, and delightedly wanted rocks thrown at him (because he NEEDS to TRAIN, you see). Angus probably got tired of throwing all these rocks all the time himself (understandable - Rohan is constantly training in this show; he literally only has three hobbies: training, caring for his sword, and that one time he played a flute), so would've very lovingly decided to help his friend keep having fun by shipping the work out to the other kids instead - and getting paid for it. It's such a bestie thing to do.

What sucks is that the other kids were that happy to pay for rocks. Cathbad only asks Rohan about his parents, not about his other friends, because at a glance, Rohan doesn't have any. And that doesn't change in the show, especially when you compare him to Angus, so it's like... yeah, kids are cruel, but it seems like there was an implied level of, "Haha, hell yeah, let's throw rocks at the weird kid who never shuts tf up about being a warrior someday." Because Angus had to pull the interest from somewhere, right? Gathering all the rocks to throw at Rohan is a decent deal, but they weren't throwing them at everything that moved, and obviously Cathbad thought it was a mean thing that was happening.

So that's me being like, "... You're bullying the kid who literally always walks around with a sword? And who's willing to use that sword against castle guards? And who's actually so nice and sweet to everyone? ... Wow. I guess he was the 'weird kid'. :("

Which makes the friendship he has with Angus even sweeter, personally, because it's everyone deciding Rohan's the Throw-Rocks-At-Me-I'm-A-'Warrior', and Angus being like, ":) You're funny. Maybe you're weird, but I like that weird. *adopts you*"

It's not Angus taking pity on 'poor liitle Rohan'. It's Angus and Rohan having a blast together because of who they are and what Rohan's like.

And it does also explain how Rohan gets talked into Angus' bad ideas: "Rohan, why aren't you playing with these magic powders? 🙄 I guess you didn't notice again. Come on, let's get you started with causing shenanigans. You'd be lost without me."

And it also explains how Angus gets talked Rohan's bad ideas: "🤔 I'm gonna go pet that dragon. Angus, you can say it's a bad idea, but I would've had rocks thrown at me for free, so we're on separate pages of the Good Idea book. Are you coming or not? That wasn't actually a question, you're my best friend, you have no choice, I want you there uwu 💖" (Angus: "🤔 I am his best friend, he's got me there.")

How he is as an apprentice:

Cannot do magic. Has not made a single powder work, and the only magic he's done involved reading an incantation to release Tyrune.

He only apprentices by doing chores and swinging a sword around (HOLD UP - "Rohan, you shouldn't let kids bully you by letting them pelt you with rocks. Oh, you enjoy that?! Okay cool I'm gonna keep summoning skeletons, you go fight them so I can test them out :)").

But mostly, Cathbad has never said Rohan was a good apprentice. As they're doing inventory of Cathbad's supplies. Not magic, just basic sorting and arranging.

Rohan clearly has a regimented training routine. He's up earlier than every other Mystic Knight. He's consumed by the quest to find Draganta and tame Pyre, and throws everything he has at it, driving the others along. He's perfectly capable of taking care of his equipment - enthusiastic about it, even - and executing battle formations. But Angus straight-up says the hut's a pig sty, and Rohan takes a weirdly long time finding different ingredients in Cathbad's chambers that should have dedicated spots if they're doing inventories.

So the guy has a system, but it's his own system, and he doesn't really keep it up if he's not actively interested in it, even though it's literally his job to keep Cathbad's stuff organized.

Cathbad calling out the whole, "There's a reason I've never said you were a good apprentice" thing is like a teacher going, "You could apply yourself, you know, but I suppose I'll take what I can get." And Rohan being like, "🐶💖 No, you've never called me a good apprentice before. Are you gonna?" That means Rohan doesn't see anything wrong with what's going on, which really builds on that "I'll take what I can get" vibe.

That, to me, is like Cathbad thinking he's taking in a child, that Rohan was put into cruel circumstances by the other kids, and expecting to now give Rohan a 'normal' life of quiet chores and routines, only to learn that Rohan will do chores independently BUT only if it's connected to his special interest, and that Rohan happily put himself in those cruel circumstances and will gleefully commit himself to that again once the right idea gets put in his head, and that Rohan is not a 'normal' child looking for a 'normal' life. He's not sitting around waiting for his destiny to find him; he wants to be a warrior, so he's training for it right damn now. It's like a teacher realizing their student has a 'different way of learning,' and it's their first time dealing with that, so they're doing their best to adapt their 'normal' strategies to this 'unique' student as they can.

How he is with other people:

Super polite. Head down, especially in the first episode when he's speaking to the royals, until he gets whipped up into a frenzy and then he's full-steam-ahead and unstoppable. He goes back to being quiet like that whenever he's the least bit uncomfortable, so that's his happy place.

Follows formalities. He's the one bowing formally to the royals all the time. It might be hard seeing that unusual, almost like it should say something about Angus being the one who only ever does it half-heartedly, but Angus is the odd one out in the court. The others are all either royals themselves or grew up in the castle; Angus is from the village, so he's our glimpse into what villagers are like with that stuff - especially once they get comfortable and have to be like, "Oh, we're still bowing? Fine. 🙄"

Rohan's always extending a helping hand to Deirdre in the first part of the show, before he knows - or settled into knowing - he's Draganta. Part of that's 'cause he's got a crush on her, sure. But the other part comes off like 'That's just what you do with a princess' when Angus only offers it jokingly and Ivar (very formal) offers it sincerely. Rohan's more along Ivar's side of the scale, but he's supposed to be a druid's apprentice (i.e. not seen nor heard), so there's not really a reason for him to know to be so strict with it unless he's defaulting to the 'rules' of that particular dynamic.

It's a conscious decision to be polite, I'm sure, but it's that he's constantly making that decision - 'cause he's overly clumsy or overly unaffected or overly 'Mind Your Tongue' ranty otherwise, all of which get him into trouble with anyone who isn't Angus. Masking, basically, by sticking very closely to those rules.

But he's also enforcing those rules. Someone's disrespectful? He's intervening and correcting them. Angus most often just through sheer proximity, but anyone who's rude to someone you're not supposed to ("allowed to be") rude to, he's making sure the proper action is followed. The North Men are rude to Garrett? Garrett gets to 1v1 them. The disguised Temrans are rude to Deirdre? He's yelling at them. Lugad challenges him to a duel? It's his duel, so he gets to decide. Deirdre signs him up for a duel? "WTF DEIRDRE, BUT I GUESS I CAN'T REFUSE." Very 1 + 1 = 2 in all his interactions.

That makes the parts where he isn't sure what to do really stand out to me. :) Soft Voice Polite Rohan is adorable 💖

It also makes Angus' constant intervention on Rohan's temper stand out, too. Supposedly, Angus is the hot-headed one - but Rohan is the one who'll full-on yell at the king if he thinks the king is wrong, 'cause so much for masking when the pressure's that high. 😭 We know Angus is the one who stomps off when he's pissed at people, but Rohan is the one who disappears for days because he can't handle losing to Lugad or learning Maeve is his mother. They're emotional moments for anyone, but especially for someone who's been so fixated on a) his destiny as a warrior, and b) who his family.

And Angus makes excuses for him for that! In a nice way. "He just needs some time, give him a chance, Rohan's fine, he just gets like this occasionally." That and the constant "Calm down, Rohan" and speedrun to avoid conflict puts on this air of, "Oh, Angus might be hot-headed, but Rohan melts down into an outright rage if he gets too overwhelmed, thank goodness we have Angus here to help the guy out." (haha omg meltdown = fire lmao)

And - like... 👀

Compare Rohan to Lugad in that way - the 'monster', according to Rohan himself. Lugad's a half-demon, and Maeve doesn't care for anything that isn't helping her take the throne, so Rohan seems like a 'failed first effort' at being a child that's 'different' but not in a 'useful' way. And we don't know which half is the demon half of Lugad; maybe it's Maeve herself! Who knows? And does THAT woman have rages and special interests or what 👀💖 This is runs in the family, is what I'm saying.