Links Around the 'Net
Here's a round-up of all the other sites by fans of the show I've found. I'll start with the more obscure stuff and dump the links to the modern fandom at the bottom. So - uh... bby u gotta scroll :P
Remember: I'm also a fan, so if you know about any other sites or have any of your own stuff to share, please tell me! I'll add it to the list. :D
The More Obscure Stuff:
The Webring Round-Up
A more specific round-up on this site to say which of the sites below were part of an old web ring called, "Cathabad's Chamber."
Cavern of the Mystic Knights
The single-greatest fan-site to have ever been made for this show. Straight from 1999, with character shrines, some fanfic, and rankings for the possible character romances. This is what - ultimately - inspired me to make my own site: I wandered onto it when I was maybe... 13? Younger? And it stuck in my mind for ages afterwards. But I was never able to find it again until an absolute legend on Reddit dug it up on the Wayback Machine.
Click to expand for more of my thoughts! 💖
Some of the images are broken, but shockingly very few! It really only impacts the relationship rankings, so lemme use my Big Adult Brain to remember what the author gave them:
I'll make my own rankings eventually, but I'm still just delighted someone had that idea in the first place. What an absolutely charming site, and a wonderful blast from the past. This is OG fan-creation; they don't make it that anymore. So consider this my step towards bringing a bit of that vibe back.
Rachel, wherever you are, I hope you're still having fun, and I liked the Arabian Knights fic you wrote. ^_^ I hope you-in-1999 would've vibed with my site too.
(hey i should read her Tommy/Kimberly stuff someday too! i literally only found about it right now. damn - ships that pass in the night, amirite?)
Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog Preservation Project
This is the person who made that currently-best-version-of-the-show-available playlist on YouTube. Genuinely my hero, and I love the comments he got from other fans who were delighted to see the show again.
Cathabad's Chamber
This is an absolute treasure of a website - truly early 2000s, made on Angelfire, abandoned and allegedly moved to a new site that actually doesn't exist anymore. And you'll see that I've linked to one of the pages in it rather than the main page. That's because the main page's link is broken past the landing page, so you can't actually get to any of the stuff that's still on there. The hyperlinks are the only way to do it.
I'm not sure what the best way of archiving this thing is. It's on Angelfire, so it feels like it's on borrowed time, but I don't want to upload it onto this site and come across as if I'm stealing it. I do have a copy saved though, just in case it's ever taken down later!
Update from like six months later, in April 2025:
I've had a beautiful breakthrough! When you go to the site I just linked above, the original Cathabad's Chamber, you get told to go to "http://members.xoom.com/mearain/MysticKnights/MK.html" if you go its main page and then try clicking on something else. I could never find a copy of that site, so I just assumed everything was lost forever.
BEHOLD:
Cathabad's Chamber - PART. TWO.
We're back to using the Internet Archive, which is totally fine! And what's wild is that I finally made a connection between this site and another one I have listed below: Mystic Knights Fanfiction Archive! The creator of this Cathabad's Chamber site, when you look at that sweet fire graphic in the bottom right and also the url that Part One was trying to direct people to, is "mearain." That's the same owner of the Fanfiction Archive! Which means that the next piece of the puzzle to find all the other Cathabad Chamber sites might be to look for the Mearain's Fan Fiction Webring now! :D THAT'S SO EXCITING!!
Click to expand for more of my thoughts! 💖
As for what this site is, other than just 'beautiful' (in terms of content; the site itself is plain but still quite nice): I'm a glutton who's been served an absolute feast.
They're pretty damn well done! They've finally pushed me to make a new page where I'll give my own commentary on what someone else wrote. :D
With a period-accurate reminder that we didn't always have reruns on demand! (wow a home release would've helped a bunch of people huh)
This also has links to images of the toys, but unfortunately those weren't archived. GrnRnger Toy Guide below has you covered, though. :)
We're talking guilds, fan art (wasn't archived u_u), narrated music videos (which - holy shit - ARE archived??! Not all, but so many!), fucking NEWSLETTERS, where they were APPARENTLY organizing some sort of Mystic Knights CONVENTION, and apparently at least Vincent Walsh and Ben Palmer were confirmed to attend OMFGGGGGGGGGGGG HOLY SHIT, I AM GONNA HAVE TO POST MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS EVENTUALLY AREN'T I, MY HEAD IS EXPLODING (I can't confirm these are real but what if, WHAT IFFFF), RPGs... somehow, and dead links to message boards anD OTHER WEBSITES??!!
I don't want to say, "I need to lie down," but - like...
I wasn't expecting all this. Especially not the newsletters. Especially not links to other websites I might actually be able to find mirrors for one day.
you guys
I found it
It's real
I'm writing this out live as I check each of the links and I just found it
I'm gonna add it to the page I have above about this webring's round-up. Idk why this became my mission, but I'm so happy I've made progress on it somehow. The fandom's not gone; it just needed a gravedigger, and I'm the woman with a shovel.
fuck - the newsletters said vincent walsh got married >:( fine. i was only ten when it happened so I can't be too mad. my ten-year-old self is pretty pissed though.
WHOAP - HOLD ON
I am looking at the webring page. And what it's telling me is: THERE ARE EVEN OTHER WEBRINGS!
how the hell am i gonna archive all this
Toy reviews from 1999!
Another absolute delight! :D A treasure trove of information about the action figures, with links, details, and even prices. Genuinely a blast from the past! And even though this main page wasn't updated since 1999, there's another page (a Miscellaneous Gallery) that seems to have been updated in January 2024. That's a good sign for it sticking around!
GrnRnger Toy Guide
It's not an in-depth about what the toys are like, but it does give the full list of toys, prices, pictures of the boxes (I see what the previous site meant about Ivar getting a vase on a stick... and also their expected release dates.
Which I find pretty interesting uwu
'Cause I can't help notice how Angus has a completely ready-to-go Battle Fury figure, set to have been released in Spring 1999, but come Fall 1999 - oh wow, look at that, who's this Lightning Bolt Liam guy, and suddenly Angus isn't theeeere.
And it just has me wondering... uwu
Click to expand for more of my thoughts! 💖
"What the fuck did you do, Saban Entertainment?"
That's not a 'we no longer think Angus fits the show's direction' change. That's a 'fuck they figured out they can try asking for shit, we gotta kill this, quick move the plotline with lugad up' back-pedalling type of course correction.
You fumbled him. I'm glad you didn't get your stupid second season. And then you decide, "Oh we can just have a regular mace instead of a chain one that nobody wants to tell the actor how to use - but we're gonna give it to Garrett. tee-hee."
Henshin Grid
This guy's had his blog for a while, and it's awesome! This is the link to his posts labelled for the show, and there's one post in particular that mentioned a Power Rangers panel from 2012:
"I asked Scott Page-Pagter about Mystic Knights second season and he said he got to travel to Ireland. He told the actors to come to his house when they visit the US. He regretted it because most of them came to crash at his house. So he was with Lisa Dwan (Deirdre) when they were told "Oh did you know we were cancelled?" And it was awkward with her there as they both didn't know. He said they really didn't have any plans for the second season yet. He knew they were mulling it over. He thinks it was cancelled for low toy sales. He seemed to not be aware that the budget was used for Lost Galaxy. I couldn't ask more because time was running out at the panel." (source)
T-T What a rollercoaster.
And also lmao thank you for supporting the cast, Scott, ily. That's a good boss, and it's bad luck that it worked out so well that Lisa Dwan was there when the news broke :( At least they weren't alone? Strength in numbers?
Pazsaz Entertainment Network
I don't really know what this is, but it's got three summaries of three episodes written: Dragon's Fury, King's Bride, and Friends for Life (which is one of my favourite episodes, so I'm really happy about that.) But it also has a list of all the episodes and their original air dates, and also spells it as 'Cathabad' - like the Angelfire website did. I'm kinda tempted to go with that spelling, despite everyone today saying it's 'Cathbad,' but I'm so committed to 'Cathbad' now that I'm just gonna shrug unless I get proof from somewhere else.
Mystic Knights Fan Fiction Archive
This one's cool for a couple of reasons. One, it boasts it has the largest archive of fanfics for the show. And it's kinda right! It's got fifty fics hosted, which is absolutely phenomenal! Kudos to everyone who wrote something - I haven't read them all, mostly just skimmed through to uhhhh hunt for Angus-centric fics, but they all have such charm and passion and fun wafting off of them. I'm especially delighted by the one that gives Pyre his own story: it's a multi-chapter fic about other dragons and some stuff they got up to. Genuinely delightful. I miss this part of fandoms; people engaged enough with the story to write more about it, getting hit by the inspiration, and leaving stuff for later fans to enjoy too. And obviously, kudos to Mearin for putting the site together and hosting it. :)
Two, holy shit, it's another linked to the Cathabad's Chamber webring! If you click around, you'll get to this page, which has a direct link to the main page of Cathabad's Chamber site I linked above! It's also got its own webring ("Mearain's Fan Fiction Webring"), but I haven't come across any other websites linked to it yet. Maybe someday! So as the third CC webring site I've found to date, I'm just gonna make this separate page to list them as I find them. :D
Third, who the hell is "Goibniu"? Was that ever a character? One of the other Tir Na Nog fairies, maybe? Literally never heard that name in my life.
Update from a couple of weeks later, in April 2025:
In 2001 or so, and I think at the same-ish time that the Cathabad's Chamber site moved (since the same person hosted both of them), this site also moved to a new link. :)
Mearain's Fan Fiction Universe
Unfortunately, not all the Mystic Knights fics were saved. :( But a lot of them were the same as the ones in the link above, which is still alive. Wow, somebody should probably archive those, huh? Somebody.
Especially because the site was taken down by August 2001. :(
(Also I'm genuinely sad the pictures weren't archived, because it turns out she was a seamstress. The links still work, but unfortunately the pictures aren't there. Damn.)
Lady Lissia's Mystical Palace
Not much on this one at first. But Lissia is a main character in some of the Cathabad's Chamber Part Two stuff. In that "she was the President of the Fan Site." So I'm including this in her honour. o7
It's hard to find anything, but there's this My Thanks page she also apparently had, which I don't quite know how I got to. I would be a bad archeologist. At least I'd be having fun, though.
Last - oof - a perfect time capsule for early 2000s web design, as beautiful in its sincerity as it is painful on the eyes: Her Thoughts. :3 This is a real treasure - 'cause it's got a little bio for her, too! Her real name's Deneen, she loves Rohan and Angus the most (EXCELLENT CHOICE) and she is ALSO SWAYED BY THEIR FRIENDSHIP - GIRL, WE WOULD'VE BEEN FUCKIN' BESTIES!
Lissia, if you ever find this, go read my Rarely Asked Questions. I understand you. Especially the part where we're both like, "hahah ok this is a kids' show for kids, we're gonna be normal about that right?" (But we don't have to be. I hope you published your book, btw).
She's also got a dragon, which isn't archived, but is there in spirit. :3 And she's got - I think - the outline for her fanfic she promised on the Her Thoughts page.
Princess Deirdre's Chamber
This fan site was by Sarah, who was apparently 15 when she made this (and before she would've learned to hey maybe not put that on the internet)! And since this is from all the way back in 1999, I would've been nine years old at the time, and... I think still too young to use our computer.
Wait - let me check, when did StarCraft come out? 1998? Just to be safe, when did Brood War come out? ... also 1998? Okay, I take it back: I was on the computer, but I don't remember discovering fanfiction until I watched Beyblade, which didn't hit YTV until 2002, and I don't think I started looking around for anything until at least the season where they go to that Blade Breakers school and have to fight Kai on an iceberg or something.
She's got a fan club, which I think is separate from the Cathabad's Chamber one, and which Saban apparently said they couldn't make official "anymore." Which is hilarious wording, 'cause by that point, Saban already knew they weren't renewing the show. Also ahahahahahhaha that's so much sadder with the "My Thanks" site - which literally has a message from Lissia to Sarah saying, "Do not worry sarah, we WILL get the fan club official, I pronise!" AHAHHAHAHAAH - like one dying soldier to another in a trench! I love it!
Sadly, it looks like she disbanded the fan club by January 2002. So our friendship wasn't meant to be. u_u
Click to expand and read about the other stuff on her site! 💖
I don't know why it took so long for me to find her other pages, but she's got short Character Bios, which line up pretty well with what's in the Cathabad's Chamber Part Two site. Not sure which came first.
She's got links to fanfics too, but most of them don't work, and I feel like they're already available on the Mystic Knights Fan Fiction Archive anyway. It's kinda wild! It's not like I take ArchiveOfOurOwn or Fanfiction.net or whatever for granted, but I guess I didn't appreciate that without those centralized archives, everyone had to host duplicate copies on their own pages. Neat!
Last, I found this page about her RPG! Okay, so, apparently, back in Ye Olden Days, what they called "RPG" is what we would just call "roleplaying" now. When someone says RPG today, my mind goes to table-top games. That's not what this is. :P But she's got some OCs listed, and apparently some dedicated RPers for each character! Goddamn these people would've loved Tumblr. This has Character Blog potential written all over it.
For Real Last, she also thought Deirdre and Rohan were the best Mystic Knights out of all five of them. She's wrong, it's Angus, but she's 15, so I won't give her too much guff about it uwu
The Modern Fandom:
This is where folks are still kickin'! :D