"Fire within me! Earth beneath me! Air above me! Water around me! Forest before me!"
The best way to describe this sentai-esque series that aired in the '90s on Fox Kids is either Power Rangersmeets Irish mythology or Star Wars in a Medieval European Fantasy where Darth Vader is a woman.An island resembling medieval Ireland was divided into two kingdoms: Kells, ruled by King Conchobar; and Temra, ruled by Queen Maeve. Maeve, who believed she was entitled to rule the entire island, made a deal in the first episode with Midar, a dark fairy who speaks in the third-person: she would help him take over the fairy kingdom of Tir Na Nog in exchange for a green crystal whose sorcery would help her conquer Kells.What had once been a stalemate between Maeve's Mooks and Conchobar's red-clad soldiers now tipped in Maeve's favor. Backed into a corner, Conchobar, at the advice of his court druid, Cathbad, sent Cathbad's apprentice, Rohan, and Rohan's best friend, Angus, to find the legendary warrior, Draganta, who was supposed "to bring peace to Kells for a hundred lifetimes." After meeting up with Ivar, a prince from a distant kingdom pursuing a thief, and realizing Deirdre, Conchobar's daughter, followed them, the four stumbled into the kingdom of Tir Na Nog. After a quick few episodes of secret tests, the four were judged worthy of inheriting the Mystic Weapons and Armor and becoming the Mystic Knights.After a week of defeating the Threshold Guardians who guarded their armor, taming Pyre the Dragon of Dare, and learning Rohan was actually the warrior Draganta, the Mystic Knights settled into their routine: Maeve conjures up a Monster of the Week. The knights fight it with just their weapons. When that doesn't work, they transform into their armor and destroy the monster with their weapons. They return to the castle to chase out the Temra soldiers Maeve sent in while they were busy.
The Mystic Knights were:
Rohan, an orphan raised as Cathbad's apprentice before learning he was the long-awaited Chosen One Draganta, making him the leader by default. He is the only one who can control Pyre, the Dragon of Dare, whom he summons with the Dragon's Breath Dagger. Rohan revealed in one episode his heart's desire is to know who and where his real family is. Be Careful What You Wish For...
Angus, Rohan's best friend and roommate. The two grew up on the streets together, and Angus was — and still is — the troublemaker. Rohan trusts him unquestionably (the power of their friendship was once enough to free Rohan from a spell), despite his reputation as a trickster and pickpocket. His skills in that area frequently come in handy.
Element: Earth
Mystic Weapon: Terra Mace, a mace that shoots large boulders and creates earthquakes
Deirdre, the Rebellious Princess of Kells, who finds herself a habitual blackmail tool. In the finale, it took all of one minute for Maeve to grab her and the knights to sulkily abandon their weapons as if it had become routine, which it had. Fortunately, no one in her world seemed to notice, anymore than they were bothered by her tendency to pull rank whenever she wanted to get her way. ("That's a royal command.")
Element: Air
Mystic Weapon: Whirlwind Crossbow, a crossbow that shoots strong blasts of air
Ivar, a prince who was passing through Kells on the hunt for a thief who stole a priceless chalice from his kingdom. He eventually learned that very chalice was located in Maeve's throne room, since it was Midar's portal between Earth and the Dark Fairy Realm. His dedication to retrieving the chalice almost matched his uncanny ability to track anything and everything.
Element: Water
Mystic Weapon: Barbed Trident, a trident that shoots streams of blue electricity.
Prince Garrett, a Sixth Ranger who came to Kells to carry out his betrothal to Deirdre, who instantly shot him down due to his initial severe superiority complex. After a period of fighting the team after being Brainwashed by Maeve, Cathbad realized he was destined to be the fifth Mystic Knight. Deirdre firmly refused to go through with the marriage, but she tolerated him as a teammate, even giving him a kiss good-bye when he left almost as quickly as he came to escort a stranded princess home.
Element: Forest
Mystic Weapon: TwinTimber Axes, which are supposedly "sharp enough to slice a stone in half," but were usually used to shoot energy blasts
Other characters included:
Fin Varra, the fairy king of Tir Na Nog who gave the Mystic Knights their weapons and armor. They frequently came to him for help but more often than not heard Figure It Out Yourself, in riddle form.
Aideen, a Ninja Butterfly (no, seriously) who followed the Knights around, serving as a messenger and spy. She had a crush on Rohan that occasionally caused her to do foolish things, like having Maeve turn her human or accidentally turning Deirdre to stone.
Torc, Maeve's general, who was King Conchobar's right-hand man and best friend before the series, acting as The Mole before a young Rohan and Angus uncovered his treachery. He was revealed to be the one who stole Ivar's chalice.
The first (and only) season ended with a Story Arc where Maeve demanded something she had apparently been waiting for from a witch, Nemain: a powerful half demon warrior named Lugad, who the Mystic Knights could not defeat. The Warrior Of Temra Arc involved a power up for Rohan called Battle Fury, Garrett's return, the introduction of two not-so-Humongous Mecha, and a completely unanticipated Reveal regarding Lugad, Maeve, and Rohan. Maeve was defeated once and for all and exiled, and it seemed that all would live Happily Ever After. The last minute of footage, however, featured Midar and Nemain teaming up, making unpleasant plans for Kells and Tir Na Nog. Too bad the show was canceled, and they would never get to carry them out...
This show also provides examples of:
The Ace: Garrett; unfortunately, he knew this ("You confuse honesty with being boastful.") This attitude disappeared, of course, when he joined the team.
Achilles in His Tent: The episode when Angus, jealous of Rohan getting all the attention, walked out, only to return when Tyrune, Maeve's three-headed dragon, kidnapped Rohan.
Cancellation: In order to give Power Rangers Lost Galaxy a bigger budget. Production of the second series had already started when the order came down.
Expy: Aideen is indistinguishable from Disney's Tinkerbell.
The Face: Deirdre is the only female of five knights, and also the only one to regularly do more than fighting. When making alliances, who is the local head man going to listen to: The thief, the druid apprentice, the princes from the Land of Never-Heard-Of-It, or the local princess?
Invocation: Garrett only carried around one ax. Fin Varra instructed him to bring his hands together a certain way to make the other materialize, but he never did it (except for the first time) without saying, "Twin-timber axes!"
Red Shirts: No kidding — Kells' army, who are absolutely no help at all in fighting Maeve's army, wear red uniforms. Give us the Faux Action Girl any day.
Sequel Hook ...which unfortunately never came to be.
Scenery Porn: Some of it was filmed in Ireland after all.
Shapeshifting: Midar and Maeve are quite gifted in this, but no matter how many times they've been tricked before, the other characters always fall for it.
Strange Bedfellows: Cathbad and the Knights helped Maeve stop Midar from conquering the island. Midar and Nemain helped the Knights defeat Maeve in the finale.
Stripperific: Deirdre had what might have been the most sorry excuse for armor this side of Xena. Wrist guards, shin guards, and most of her torso, all right. But that leaves huge swatches of forearm, thigh and everything under her armored skirt exposed (the skirt never stayed in place.) Probably worse was her helmet. While the guys had full face coverings, she had a sorry looking thing that left her throat and the lower half of her face exposed.
Synchronization: The Mystic Weapons were apparently linked, not to the Knights, but to Fin Varra. In an episode when he was kidnapped, they completely shut down.
Token Minority: Ivar — This contributor dares anyone to find a show where this was more conspicuous or illogical.
Tully from Roar, also set in Ireland. At least Ivar had lines.
There's as many black people that are 100% Irish as there are red-haired people that are 100% Irish. With a different accent though he's a Norman I would say, therefore putting the show at before the 1100's.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Neither the Irish names, accents, or landscape is integral to the plot, raising the question, how is this a world "where Irish myth lives"?
It's a complete coincidence, but Power Rangers Samurai has the same five elements, fire (red), water (blue), forest (green), earth (yellow) and air (pink). Forest and Air were Wood and Heaven in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, so it certainly wasn't intended to match Mystic Knights, it just did.
Forest and Wood are the same, it's just that Wood has Double Entendre jokes in the West. Heaven was meant as Air. The two are the same because Wood isn't exactly an uncommon Element Number Five.
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