A badger-proportioned building would only be about half the size of a human one, and the walls are still pretty damn thick. I don't think the horse could do a lot.
In case anyone was wondering how my sword making is going...the first printout, when I glued it together warped a bit, so I needed to change up what I was doing. Reprinted a whole new set (and made sure all parts had 100% flat bottoms this time)
I print in ABS because then I can make a little plastic slurry using leftover 3D print parts mixed with acetone to make a glue that holds incredibly well on the pieces.
I then glued each half together, let that dry, got a new dowel rod (smaller than the previous one, which is what I think partially caused the issue.) I let it sit for like a day and then sat to glue the two together. The gems are not glued in yet, I still have to "finish" those so they shine right.
This time around I got a package of clamps from the local hardware store, and used as many as I could to get the sword to flatten against itself, and have no gaps.
Let's cross our fingers and hope this one comes out better!
I know this is a joke, but it was Rawnblade and Dandin that killed it. Rawnblade got it out of its hole after he fell in by accident and then Dandin cut it in half with Martin’s sword. Awesome scene!
Uh... Mariel is also not canonically a grasshopper mouse??? Obviously this meme was part of an AU that I made multiple posts about???
I'm sorry, I know this is kind of aggressive, but I feel like you're being needlessly condescending about something that I think is clearly labeled as an AU.
Spotted your tags on a recent post and I just wanna point out the Pure Ferrets aren't French. They're supposed to sound vaguely German, and I suspect with the "Pure" motif they're supposed to call to mind certain history. British fiction is a lot more flippant about Nazi references than American fiction - we developed political correctness much slower and also feel we have a right to joke about them since we were more in danger than America. Also some Viking influence with the runes and fjords.
Thanks for the correction! That actually makes a lot of sense. You're probably right about the cultural difference being why I didn't see it! As an American, it wouldn't occur to me that anyone would just write that sort of thing without it being hugely controversial, so I guess I subconsciously read it a totally different way. Maybe I will reread Triss with that in mind and see if it comes off differently to me.
So I decided a little while ago to do a full series reread of Redwall. I’m still early in it, I just finished Redwall and started Mossflower, and you know what? Might as well express my thoughts as I go. Blacklist “redwall reread” if you don’t want to see this, there WILL be spoilers.
So! Thoughts, on reflection, about Redwall:
Something I forgot along the way is just how competent Matthias is right from the start. Granted he lives in a society that hasn’t seen war in several generations so it’s not like he has a lot of competition, but he still goes from Bumbling Novice Who Doesn’t Quite Fit In to a martial and tactical powerhouse alongside Constance, the one who closed negotiations by picking up an entire banquet table and throwing it.
And not only that, people listen to him! As soon as negotiations break down, Matthias jumps in with a plan and all his elders listen. I watched the animated series growing up, which was… not super great, quality wise, but enjoyable enough for a kid. And one of the changes the show made was playing up Matthias’s childishness and inexperience. In the adaptation, when everyone’s panicking about the legendary warlord marching on the abbey, Matthias jumps in with this rallying speech about how they’ll fight back, and the abbot scolds him for it. “No more talk of fighting,” when Cluny the Scourge is almost at their doorstep. In the original book?
“Do? I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll be ready.”
The Abbot could not help shaking his head in admiration. It seemed that young Matthias had hidden depths.
“Why, thank you, Matthias,” he said. “I could not have put it better myself. That’s exactly what we will do. We’ll be ready!”
(Years later, a certain wizard in a certain film adaptation would ask a question calmly.)
This book has a beaver in it. And a horse. And the mention of a dog. And Portugal.
Speaking of which, one of the many things that I think sets this book apart from the rest is that it feels like Jacques is making an attempt to write a book that takes place in a smaller Mouse World that exists within a larger world. The abbey is mouse-sized, of course, but an entire army of rats rides in on a single horse-drawn hay cart. Matthias climbs hay bales in a barn and falls into a cat’s mouth. Again, Portugal exists.
Idk what my point is, it just goes to show that BJ really was gradually building this world as he wrote it. I didn’t obsess so much over canon continuity, I just came up with my own explanations for things.
Ah, phonetic accents. I have mixed feelings about phonetic accents these days. I know logically that it’s better to avoid them, but like. I read the moles’ dialogue and try to imagine what it would look like without every word misspelled to exaggerate the dialect, and I just. Couldn’t visualize it. Moles just aren’t moles if you aren’t rereading their lines two or three times to parse what they’re saying. (Excepting Egburt the Scholar, of course, but I won’t see him for several books.)
I think my lifelong obsession with ferrets can be traced back to Killconey. I just. I know he’s a villain but I just love this guy so much. He’s adorable, he’s got a solid head on his shoulders, and he never tries to screw over his comrades, murder his comrades, bully his comrades, or flat-out lie to Cluny to get ahead, like SOME people, Cheesethief. RIP Killconey you were a good henchman and Cluny shouldn’t have thrown you at Matthias to get chopped in half.
Sela named her son Chickenhound no wonder he didn’t mourn her. Of course, his idea of a better name was “Mousedeath” so it’s not like he had room to judge.
The thing about phonetic accents is that as a general rule they're used to mock the accent, demonstrate how people who use it don't really know know how to talk "correctly." Absolutely to be avoided in most cases, because even if that's not what you mean you could accidentally offend.
In the case of Redwall, however, the phonetic accent is a demonstration of love for the mode of speech. There's no way to interpret the books that leaves you with the impression that the author had anything but the utmost respect for people who spoke the way moles do, and imported their mode of speech into his story because he wanted others to respect them too. There is, of course, Egburt the Scholar and his claim that it makes them sound uneducated; however this seems to be a joke, as he is quite alone in this opinion. Moles are widely regarded as some of the smartest animals in the world. Even the vermin cockney and the language of the ridiculous pygmy shrews from 'Martin the Warrior' are treated fondly; these groups have problems but the way they talk is not part of it (except, of course, for the swearing). There's none of the lingual jackassery like that explored in 'Pygmalion' here; the accents are flavor only.
Which leads me to my next point: every accent in the book is a real accent you might encounter in the British Isles. More importantly it is a work of preservation. I unfortunately do not have a source on this so take it with a grain of salt, but I've been told the speech of the pygmy shrew tribe (of all the accents the one most arguably a separate language) was a rapidly dwindling accent, one that has few speakers left. It might be lost entirely soon -- except it won't be, because it's been meticulously recorded in a book, and hundreds of thousands of people have learned to speak and understand it almost incidentally -- people who would never have picked up a book about at-risk dialects. (I do wish there was an appendix with information about these accents and their cultural and historical relevance so that people could know more about the accents they've learned from reading it. Also don't take this as fact at all; I heard it from someone who's attended one of Brian Jacques' bookstore talks but I don't have a documented source on it. If anyone else has information for or against this claim please add on!)
Would I recommend, based on this, that just anyone start using phonetic accents in their books? Mmmmm, probably not. As I said before it's easy to come off in a mocking tone even if that's not what you intend. That was most likely avoided in this specific case through a combination of a very earnest writing style, genuine love for all of the borrowed accents, and sheer accident. It's not a 100% never ever ever do it rule, but it's. Very tricky, and usually not worth the risk.
You’re walking through a scrubby desert in the American Southwest and you hear a high, quavering, little, howl coming from the underbrush. Is it a small coyote, perhaps a chupacabra?
In fact, it is a much more ferocious and marvelous creature–a werewolf mouse (Onychomys torridus).
You may also know it as the “grasshopper mouse”, a more common but much less fearsome name.
The grasshopper mouse is unique among mice and rodents in general in that it has an exclusive taste for the flesh of the living. This tiny werewolf feasts upon insects, scorpions, centipedes, and even snakes and other mice. They are frequently known to sate their ravenous hunger on highly venomous prey that is significantly larger than they are.
For example, this is an Arizona bark scorpion. Their venom is extremely painful and even potent enough to kill humans in rare cases (though this is usually only a threat to the very young, the very old, and the immunocompromised). Their venom is easily able to kill mouse-sized rodents.
Well, except for the grasshopper mouse.
(Animal Death Warning for the video linked below).
The grasshopper mouse is not only capable of killing and eating Arizona bark scorpions, but through some fun biochemistry shenanigans they feel no pain at all from their sting. Essentially, compounds in the scorpion venom bond to a different receptor in grasshopper mice than they do in other animals and as a result the venom compounds block pain rather than causing pain.
To use an extremely clumsy and oversimplified analogy, it would be like if someone stabbed you with a syringe full of poison and your body turned it into morphine. This talent is of particular interest to scientists, who would like to harness the mouse’s biochemical shenanigans to help control pain in humans.
The icing on the extremely-weird-animal cake is that grasshopper mice defend their territory by howling, like tiny little werewolves. 10/10 fantastically strange little beasts.
Note: this is all my own opinion!! Totally cool if you don’t agree :3
Also, this isn’t criticism! Redwall is my favourite series and I love all the books.
((Some of these have secondary villains included as well))
(Spoilers below cut)
Redwall
Cluny The Scourge: 9/10 classic, terrifying. What killed him? Did the run of the bell hit his spine? The metal hanging bit hit his head? Plus this dude got tricked big time.
Asmodeous: 10/10 Matthias went feral on this dude and beheaded him. Case in point.
Mossflower
Tsarmina: 10/10 she’s so terrified she backs into a deep lake and drowns, just like her nightmares. And they did have a pretty cool fight first.
Mattimeo
Slagar the cruel: 5/10 we got robbed. Little funny he fell back into the hole he escaped from. Possible he was still alive, broken at the bottom, suffocating as they threw stones down. Just felt lackluster to me.
General Ironbeak: 3/10 points docked mostly because it was off screen. Would have loved more description of Stryk tearing him apart.
Mariel of Redwall
Gabool the Wild: 6/10 unlike Slagar, he didn’t fall into the hole, but his own trap killed him. Plus death by scorpion is kinda cool.
Graypatch: 7/10 he got what he deserved and the description of him floating downriver was cool.
Martin The Warrior
Badrang: 7/10 Martin killed him so fair.
Salamandastron
Ferahgo the Assassin: 8/10 pretty neat battle. He heckin’ dead.
Klitch: 6/10 this one solely gets points for the hilarity of his stupidity, and the terrifying description of him subcoming to poison.
Outcast of Redwall
Swartt Sixclaw: 4/10 I’m trying to remember if he was already dead once he got yeeted off the mountain.
The Bellmaker
Urgan Nagru: 7/10 killed by his aesthetic. Chump, but funny, and he took out Finbarr.
Emperor Ublaz Madeyes: 8/10 idiot forgot his DEADLY PET SNAKE. But put up a good fight against Martin 2, so. Interesting death.
The Long Patrol
Damug Warfang: 5/10 for Cregga executing him, and he manages to blind her.
The Legend of Luke
Vilu Daskar: 10/10 one of my fav deaths. The terror. The horror. The inevitability as death looms closer, and Luke’s speech.
Martin’s trauma: 8/10 he gets some closure and can have a measure of peace, finally.
Lord Brocktree
Ungatt Trunn: 10/10 my fav death. He doesn’t even die on screen. Gets snapped like a twig, and he’s still alive, just paralyzed until Groddil finds him. And the Fox gets justice; the whole Ungatt drifting out to see while his prophecy is being chanted . . .just. Fantastic. Well done.
Marlfox
Mokkan: 8/10 good for her, throwing the chain and not only hittin her target, but making him relive his nightmare.
His siblings: 6/10 there’s some good ones and some sucky ones.
Taggerung
Sawney Rath: 3/10 CHUMP
Gruven Zann: 6/10 dude needed serious help and has no brain cells, but it was kinda funny how quick he got betrayed. Plus, bonus point for being beheaded.
Triss
Kurda: 6/10 on one hand, she’s a coward and it’s irony she fell on her own weapon. On the other, lackluster.
Plugg Firetail: 7/10 snack.
Loamhedge
Raga Bol: 6/10 *squeaky toy noise*
Karanjul: 6/10 into the abyss for you!
Rakkety Tam
Gulo the Savage: 8/10 beheadings get bonus points, plus Tam yeeted this dude while injured. This dude who’s like five times his weight.
High Rhulain
Riggu Felis: 9/10 repercussion bringing back to the beginning of the book, all in all well done.
Eulalia!
Vizka Longtooth: 2/10 lackluster, both his death and him in general.
Gruntan Kurdley: 8/10 funniest example of someone getting killed by greed. Swan freaking killed him. (Honestly the brown rats finding piece is what redeemed this for me.)
Doomwyte
Korvus Skurr: 7/10 Zaran got justice for her family, so points.
Trugga Buster: 8/10 got what he deserved.
The Sabe Quean
Zwilt the Shade: 10/10 the delicious twist of a grieving wife running him through.
Vilaya: 3/10 like. Idiot.
The Rogue Crew
Razzid Wearat: 8/10 good twist, he doesn’t die getting run through but by gramps cracking his skull. Was neat.
Does anyone have a book that they know for certain was signed by Brian Jacques? Because I have this one, but I don't know what his signature looks like.
That looks right to me. I don’t have a copy of the signature but I used to work at a Barnes & Noble and they had a poster signed by him, and while it was before my time I talked to a few people who were there for the signing so I’m sure it’s legit. It must have been a circa 2008 signature? But yeah it looked just like that.
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