waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait

So I'm rewatching the show (again), and I'm just jumping around episode 11 "Dragon's Fury." There's a part where Angus and Deirdre find a bunch of Temrans fiddling with the plants that are driving Pyre nuts, and they're like, "Hey get out of Kells."

The Temrans reply to this by saying, "We don't take orders from women or thieves."

At first, I was gonna be like, "Well, at least Angus being a dick about girls doing anything isn't just him. He's the worst about it among our main cast, and it's one of his biggest flaws (even at the time), which is the point, but at least they're showing us that others in this world have the same sexist opinions about women. Whether or not it's historically accurate gets kinda nixed by how there's a fucking dragon, but it's good world-building." Y'know, my ususal cope for when Angus goes, "hahaha you're a girl lol."

(also he follows it this time by calling Deirdre a 'lady' so i think that's pretty cute uwu)

But then I thought about it for a second.

And it's like...

... Angus is nothing. 🤨

In a "Ummmmm, what's the world-building behind this, exactly" way.

Deirdre's a girl. You look at her and you can tell. The Temrans don't need any outside information for that. They also obviously picked at her weak point, because she's wearing a crown, and they don't say, "You're just a princess" or anything. It's targeted and it's clear.

With Angus, same thing: they call him a thief 'cause that's his weak point. He hates it. It's totally true and he still steals shit all the time lol but he absolutely loathes being called that. So it makes sense they'd throw that at him here.

But how the hell do they know?! He's not dressed any differently from other non-royals, and we've seen his old friend-thieves, who are dressed differently enough from him to not imply some kinda Thieves Dress Code. He's nothing. He's nobody worth knowing about, he's got nothing that gives it away, but the Temrans can take one look at him at clock whatever-it-is about him that says it?

I tried to guess, "Well, maybe they just know who he is because he's a Mystic Knight, so his reputation's gotten around." Because fine - totally fair... except in the sixth episode of the whole show, the Temrans are already calling him a thief! Torc brings it up to Maeve! Why would TORC know, when he has such a high rank that he doesn't need to have those details?! It doesn't change whether or not they kidnap him or where they put him after, because he goes into a regular dungeon cell either way.

But it does get me thinking :3

The first thing I'd do if I kidnapped a Mystic Knight is find out how hard Kells is gonna fight to get him back. Deirdre's the princess, so they obviously wouldn't drop it if she'd been kidnapped instead. Ivar's royal too, so maybe there's something to worry about there from his kingdom. Rohan's not revealed as Draganta yet, so he and Angus are on basically the same level of importance.

But that importance is, "We're the magical warriors keeping Kells alive." It's almost definitely why King Conchobar says they can't send a bunch of soldiers 'even for Angus' (with a pinch possibly because Deirdre's already being like 🥺 and he doesn't want to disappoint her further): Angus matters to Kells' survival enough that they can't casually lose him, which would be enough to warrant some attempt to get him back. Just being a thief doesn't change the Mystic Knighthood. Only being a thief might be worth discussing, because - again - it puts him on Rohan's level, not Ivar's. But it's useless trivia at that point.

Torc would say it to be a dick either way, but for how he'd know in the first place, he most likely heard it from the other Temran soldiers as they were bringing Angus in and was just happy to enough to mock him for it.

But then why do the Temran soldiers know? 🤔

I could see it being one of two main things:

1. Angus, hilariously, is tormenting the Temran soldiers off-screen, and they have first-hand experience with his shenanigans. I love that so, so much, but I'm also a little iffy on it 'cause he gets caught by the Kells' guards in the first episode. We don't know how, exactly, and later on, the guards make a point of showing they have first-hand experience with him, so maybe they were a lot more motivated to hunt him down. But on Temra's turf, it seems way too risky for him to be doing that. Before he was a Mystic Knight, there'd be nothing to gain from capturing him, because he isn't even one of them. He's from Kells (as far as we know 👀). And he doesn't seem to be much of a cheat or conman, so I don't think he was hustling soldiers out of their coin 'fair and square'.

2. Angus has SUCH a reputation among Kells that Temra heard about it reeeeeeal quick when they went to look for him. The imposter guards say to Deirdre in that episode, "Have you seen Angus?" So they were going after the guy by name. No description or anything, just a name. And everyone's just supposed to know who that is.

Btw, THEY DID. Rohan points them immediately in the right direction. And do you know how common the name 'Angus' is over there?! Like... uh... very! But Angus + "Who's asking? A bunch of guards" is the ultimate shortcut to being like, "Oh, him." Asking around for who set a bunch of huts on fire for when he gets framed for arson? That needs a description and witnesses and a line up and testimony. But just, "Hey, we're looking for - yeah, him. Cool, thanks"? All you need for that is the right uniform and everyone else will figure it out.

And from there, Temra just kept remembering it lol. Angus is a Mystic Knight, and it's not hard to remember that one of those four happens to be a thief. It's the dark-haired one. The other one from Kells. Bam: that's Angus.

I'm going with Option #2. #1's funny but not likely. Even then, holy helllllll, how much chaos has Angus caused in his life that he's on enough of a first-name basis with Kells' guards to ALSO be known by name among the Temran soldiers?! 😭