Roar

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Roar was a short-lived FOX network show from 1997, the brain-child of Hardy Boys alum Shaun Cassidy.

Conor (Heath Ledger), a young Irish warrior, is trying to unite 4th century Ireland against the invading Romans. Longinus, leading the Romans, is secretly the cursed-to-be-immortal centurion who stabbed Christ at Calvary. The show freely mixed Christian tradition, Celtic Mythology, Druidism, and, barely, smatterings of history. And then there's the Roar. What heck is the 'Roar'? Did anybody ever figure it out?

Roar was not very well received and lasted less than one season, with only 8 of the 13 ordered episodes aired. The complete series is now available on DVD.

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Provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Catlin and Molly, as well as many other guest-stars. In fact, it was more unusual if a woman wasn't an Action Girl.
• Ambiguously Gay: Pasolinus seems rather inordinately fond of his Evil Albino slave.
• Anachronism Stew
• And I Must Scream: Longinus' eventual fate.
• The Archer: Catlin
• Arc Words: "From this life, to the next."
• Arranged Marriage: Conor and Molly (symbolically at least).
• Bare Your Midriff: Catlin, and in fact, most of the women.
• Batman Gambit: "The Cage"
• Best Her to Bed Her: Minus the "bedding" part, it would seem Vorgeen was this, as Tully tells Conor mid-fight that she won't agree to unite the tribes unless he beats her in combat.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Conor and Catlin are both friendly, easy-going people--but when they get mad ...
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Diana and Longinus.
• Big No: Connor, when he runs back home and sees it burning to the ground with his family inside.
  • Catlin too when Shannon is shot. See Les Yay below.
• Black Vikings
• Book Ends: Conor is hunting a deer in the first scene of the first episode, and sees it again at the conclusion.
• California Doubling: Filmed in Queensland, Australia - leading to the amusing sight of gum trees and the sound of kookaburras in Ireland.
• Catch Phrase: "Sweet Bridget!"
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Glas's mother. Where was she when Glas is murdered?
  • Tully is absent without explanation in the final three or so episodes. Catlin is absent from the finale.
• Dark Secret: Catlin is a Christian. This was a big deal back then.
• Deadpan Snarker: Diana

"Such drama. Are you sure you're not Greek?"

• Death Seeker: Longinus.
• Decoy Damsel: Catlin and Tully lose their horses to one of Longinus's followers in this manner.
• Despair Event Horizon: When Longinus loses the Spear of Destiny to Conor and realizes that he's doomed to live forever.
• Did Not Do the Research: Longinus is a villain here, but according to Christian tradition, he was a convert to Christianity shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus. He's also venerated as a saint by some denominations--this was at least Lampshaded in "Red Boot", in which Longinus tells Diana: "They haven't made a saint of me...yet."
  • Not only did Rome never conquer Ireland, it never even tried. And for that matter Rome was pretty much caput by the 4th c. Far from being victims of oppression the Irish of the period were merrily raiding Great Britain for slaves and loot. One of their victims was St. Patrick who flourished in this time period and doesn't get so much as a mention.
• Disposable Woman: Clare. Played by a young Keri Russell, the writers soon realized their mistake and kept trying to find ways of bringing her back.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Longinus, though he's wide awake when he has his prophetic visions. Also notable is the sheer span of his visions--when experimenting with rudimentary dynamite, he has flashes of nuclear weapons.
  • Also Shannon and her family, though they only have visions of impending death.
• Dressing As the Enemy
• Establishing Character Moment: A doozy of one for Diana. Her lover enters her chambers to find her writhing about in a mud-bath. Knowing he's leaving on a dangerous mission, she deigns only to blow him a kiss. As soon as he's gone, another man emerges from the mud, gasping for breath. She tells him: "you missed a spot" and pushes him back under again. Need we say more?
• Evil Albino
• Evil Weapon: The Lance of Longinus (a/k/a "The Spear of Destiny")
• Evilly Affable: Diana remains polite and regal throughout her dealings with the Celts (most of the time).
• Fake Irish
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Fergus, on occasion
• Fiery Redhead: Vorgeen
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Conor
  • The Lancer: Fergus
  • The Smart Guy: Galen
  • The Big Guy: Tully
  • The Chick: Catlin
• Follow the Leader: Created in an attempt to ride the fan-wave of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
• The Force: The titular "Roar."
• Friend to All Children: Fergus
• Girl of the Week: Conor had plenty.
• God Save Us From the Queen: Queen Diana
• Hell-Bent for Leather: 4th century Irishmen wearing tight leather pants is historically inaccurate, as the actors themselves acknowledged.
• Heroic Fantasy
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Conor and Fergus
• Hey, It's That Guy: Marcus Cole as a Roman General, Virginia Bryce (Wesley's second season girlfriend) as a Banshee, Hayley as a young Catlin, Mary Alice Young as Fergus's childhood friend...
• Inevitable Waterfall: In "Doyle's Solution"
• Infant Immortality: Averted.
• In the Hood: The Druids.
• Killed Off for Real: Glas
• Lady in Red and Woman in Black: Diana, reflecting her manipulative, seductive persona.
• Like Brother and Sister: Fergus and Catlin. It's cute.
• Milky White Eyes: Catlin gets these temporarily after the Romans inject her with drugs. Has nothing to do with Prophet Eyes.
• Not Even Bothering With the Accent: Tully, who sounds neither Irish nor African nor any other dialect that would make sense. He's an American.
• Oracular Urchin: Glas
• Overprotective Dad: Fergus
• Religion Is Magic: Most particularly in the episode with the scroll.
• Rescue Romance: Conor meets Catlin after rescuing her from the Romans. Somewhat subverted in that at the time, he's in love with someone else.
• Parental Incest: Done briefly, when Fergus is initially quite attracted to Molly before he realizes that she's his daughter. It's hinted that the attraction only stemmed from her resemblance to his wife. Later he leers at her naked body behind a veil before realizing that it's Molly.
• Platonic Life Partners: Catlin and Tully.
• Public Domain Artifact: The Lance of Longinus.
• Shirtless Scene: Conor a couple of times. Fergus is perpetually shirtless.
• Stuffed in The Fridge: So long, Clare.
• Suck Out the Poison: Shannon does this for Conor after he's been hit by a poisoned arrow.
• Taking the Bullet: Clare jumps in front of a sword strike meant for Conor.
• Ted Baxter: Diana, at least until the second to last episode, in which she pulls off a magnificent plan.
• Title Drop: At the end of the first episode, Conor stands at the edge of a cliff and roars. In subsequent episodes, this clip is used in the intro when the title is shown.
• Token Minority: Tully, in one of the most unfortunate examples of this trope considering he has few lines, little in the way of personality, and virtually no purpose in the Story Arc at all.
• Tribal Face Paint: The Celts wear the familiar blue face paint in battle.
• True Companions: The gang, along with the rest of those who take refuge in the Sanctuary.
• Unholy Matrimony: Longinus and Diana
• The Vamp: Diana, to both Conor and Longinus, though she does have a couple of genuine Pet the Dog moments.
• Warrior Prince: Conor
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Clare was set up as a recurring, if not major character, only to be Killed Off for Real halfway through the pilot episode. It's worse when you take into account the Retroactive Recognition: she's played by a young Keri Russell.
• Whip It Good: Tully
• Who Wants to Live Forever?
• Would Hit a Girl: Conor gets in a tussle with a woman chieftain - though it's clear he's holding back a little.
• Would Hurt a Child: Longinus
• You Can't Fight Fate