Awesome / Redwall

• Awesome Music: The audiobooks. They've got in-between-chapter music, and they have a full cast to actually sing the songs.
  • Bryony's seasons song from Outcast of Redwall is really pretty.
  • "Home Returning" from Outcast of Redwall.
  • "Kroova's Song" from the start of Triss. The singer's voice is especially nice, making the song all the better.
  • "Dawn" from Loamhedge.
  • Also how when Gulo's hordes are working themselves up into a frenzy in Rakkety Tam, their chant gets an upgrade from The Power of Rock.
  • The otterclans' war song from High Rhulain. Just when all hope seems lost for Leatho, he hears this triumphant song drawing nearer, and joins in.
  • The TV show's theme is absolutely epic, made even better by Martin the Warrior's declaration at the end.
  Martin the Warrior: I am that is... my sword will wield, for me!

Redwall

• In the first example of what would become a series-spanning pattern, Martin the Warrior's spirit slowly but surely driving Cluny insane throughout the story. Or maybe it was just Cluny's imagination.
• Basil Stag Hare in general, being the series' ur-example of the simultaneously eccentric and badass hare. Special mention goes to his first appearance, when he hams it up while effortlessly diverting Cluny's flunkies' attention long enough for Matthias to rescue the vole family.
  • In the animated series, there are multiple instances where Matthias's courageous but reckless ventures would have failed if he and Basil weren't on the same wavelength. This is most notable when Matthias goes to retrieve the stolen tapestry, as well as when he sets out to rescue Warbeak from Cluny and Asmodeus.
• The Hoist by His Own Petard demise of Cheesethief. If anyone deserved a giant arrow in the chest, he did.
  • And of course, Constance again for being able to fire such a massive arrow.
• The final confrontation between Matthias and Asmodeus is full of awesome. Especially when you hear it on audio with Brian Jacques reading it.
• The epic final battle for Redwall Abbey in the same book as well. With Matthias and Cluny going sword to tail all through the abbey.
• Matthias' mere entrance to that battle is awesome enough, appearing clad in Martin's armor and wielding his sword and shield, to Cluny's horror now that his previous visions have come true.
  Matthias: I AM THAT IS!
• Matthias' true Crowning Moment comes shortly after that, when he's up in the bell tower during his final battle with Cluny the Scourge. Cluny has a hostage, so Matthias promises on his honor as a warrior that he'll come down from the tower if the hostage is released first. Cluny agrees, and Matthias comes down... after he cuts the rope holding the bell, which falls and crushes Cluny to death. Proving once again that just because you're honourable doesn't mean you have to be an idiot about it.
• Constance the Badger using a giant oak dining table as a rat-flattener, then catching another rat — Fangburn — in a fishing net and swinging him repeatedly against a stone wall. How she kills the latter in the animated series is even better — and surprisingly, even more violent. She seizes Fangburn and lifts him off the ground, raising him head-first to her mouth and biting through his skull, complete with a loud Sickening "Crunch!".
  Constance: (quietly furious) You're mine.
• Cornflower, a young mousemaid who has never fought in a battle, singlehandedly rebuffing Cluny's surprise attack by throwing her lantern and burning his siege tower down. The fact that she was visibly terrified throughout the whole encounter only adds to the awesome.

Mossflower

• Skipper's battle with the vermin army commander. He manages to launch the guy into the air, so that he lands on a bunch of otter javelins sticking out of the ground—and otter javelins are sharpened on both ends.
• The Battle of Salamandastron. Boar the Fighter kicks ungodly amounts of Searat ass, as do Martin and his friends - not to mention the hares. The battle ends with Boar pulling off an epic Taking You with Me on Ripfang, and the others proceed to capture Ripfang's flagship, sail it back up the Mossflower River and use it to turn the tide of the war against Kotir.
• Martin's entire battle with Tsarmina. It's cat versus mouse, but this time the lone mouse drives the cat back and into the water, partially by triggering her insane phobia of it.
  • What makes it even better is the fact that, while Tsarmina begins the battle uninjured, Martin had just been wounded in the thigh by her arrow in a confrontation the day before and is limping. The fight is so vicious and Martin is so tenacious that it's easy to forget that on top of the injuries he's fighting someone much, much larger than him to boot. Then there's a wonderful line further emphasizing the warrior-mouse's greatness, comparing him to a creature about nine times his size:
  "Martin, the one that fought like a great male badger."

Mattimeo

• The Reveal of Slagar's true identity. He previously appeared in Redwall, but was bitten by Asmodeus. The only other character in the series to survive an adder's bite is Sunflash, a freaking badger, and Sunflash was given immediate treatment by someone who knew an old remedy for snake venom. Slagar passed out, then woke back up and crawled all the way back to his mother's den, then spent an entire winter treating himself to recover fully.
• Warbeak's Big Damn Heroes moment. Sadly, this was her Dying Moment of Awesome.
  Orlando: "I've known creatures ten times her size without a quarter of her boldness."
• At the end of the book, Matthias and Orlando responding to Nadaz's rantings by destroying the giant statue of Malkariss he is hiding in. With a sword and an axe.

Mariel of Redwall

• The weapon of choice of the title character? A large knotted rope!
• When Abbey Dibbuns Bagg, Runn, and Grubb singlehandedly stop a searat invasion at night by cutting the vermin grappling ropes with kitchen knives.

Salamandastron

• Urthstripe the Strong's Taking You with Me with Ferahgo the Assassin.

Martin the Warrior

• Brome managing to BS his way into Marshank and, with the help of Keyla, free all the slaves. Even when the exit to the escape tunnel collapses and most of them are past the Despair Event Horizon, Keyla just decides he's had enough and digs them all out of there with his bare paws.
  Keyla: "Shows what you can do when you have to."
• Felldoh's duel with Badrang. He takes down his enemy in the coolest way possible (while smiling the whole time), then proceeds to beat him senseless, just as Badrang used to beat his slaves. While he does then get killed by Badrang's horde, he still wipes the floor with most of them. Bonus points for taking a javelin to a sword fight.
  Felldoh: "You had me beaten when I was little more than an infant! My father was beaten with the rod because he was old and slow! You never made me cry out!"
• Martin grabbing his stolen sword while Badrang is still holding it and forcibly turning it back into the tyrant's heart.

The Bellmaker

• Blaggut when he strangled his evil captain after the captain murdered an Abbeydweller, and then returned to Redwall to own up to it, even giving them the permission to kill him if they wanted. (They didn't).
  Blaggut: Sorry, Cap'n!
  • Three words: Blaggut got up.
• Finnbarr Galedeep's Curb-Stomp Battle with Urgan Nagru. He does something you'd expect a burly otter like him to do: Finnbarr throws his twin swords to the ground and fights off the Foxwolf using nothing but his claws and teeth. At The Climax, he picks up Urgan by his tail and neck and smashes his head into a heavy log, cracking his skull and driving the wolf skull's fangs into Urgan's head. Oh yeah, he did all this after he got slashed in the face and stabbed with a spear.

Outcast of Redwall

• Sunflash killing two adders. By himself. With his bare paws. Then surviving their poison after being bitten multiple times. All this was in Part 1 of the book, which was several years before he Took a Level in Badass and became the Badger Lord of Salamandastron.
• Skarlath is pretty much made up of awesome moments, especially his Big Damn Heroes moment when he attacks Warpclaw.
• Sabretache's duel with Captain Zigu. "You have lived the life of a coward, now learn to die like a soldier, sah!"
• When Veil Sixclaw finally meets up with his father Swartt, he goes into full-on Deadpan Snarker mode, and it is awesome. He won't stop even when Swartt starts making death threats. Then he dishes out an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how Swartt is a coward who abandoned him, and that he considers him his ultimate enemy.
  • Followed up by his Heroic Sacrifice to save Bryony.
• Sunflash punching Swartt's head in before throwing him off a mountain, finally ending their life-long grudge match.

Pearls of Lutra

• Magnificent Bastards Ublaz Mad Eyes and Rasconza's Xanatos Speed Chess in Pearls of Lutra is full of Evil Win.
• Martin III's duel to the death with Ublaz.

Long Patrol

• The final battle, with the Redwall alliance versus the Rapscallion horde clashing in the largest pitched battle in the series.
• Cregga Rose Eyes' —and the rest of the Long Patrol's— Big Damn Heroes moment.

Marlfox

• Lady Cregga, an old, blind essentially grandmother/nanny figure managed to use a longbow to fire an arrow from the Abbey to kill what was believed to be the leader of the invaders. Again, old and BLIND.
  • It should be noted that another badass old lady, Grandma Ellayo, was aiming for Cregga, and a third party in the scene is noted to have never seen a longbow drawn that far. The end result?
  The badger released the string with a mighty twang. The arrow carried on, straight through the fire, across the lawn and out through the open gates on to the flatlands, despite the fact that Ascrod was the first target it passed through.

The Legend of Luke

• Luke the Warrior's Heroic Sacrifice, holding his enemy trapped as the ship they're on sinks.

Taggerung

• The best line of the book: "For my father!" *Swish* *Thud*
  • It doesn't hurt that this happens immediately after Deyna took an arrow to the chest and kept charging towards Vallug like the arrow wasn't even there.

Triss

• Also from Triss though only in the backstory, King Sarengo, father of Argarnu and grandfather of Kurda and Bladd. Unlike his descendants he earned his title. He went up against the mother of the three adder triplets by himself and achieved a Mutual Kill. Most villains in Redwall would flee at the mere sight of an adder, but Sarengo, having lost his weapon and dying of poison, fought and killed her with his teeth.
• The adder triplets. Dude, they effectively got a HYDRA into a book with no real magic. Gotta feel for the snakes, though, especially the only female of the three - imagine spending your life literally joined at what passes for your hips to both your brothers...
  • What really makes them badass is the fact that they're ten times more dangerous than Princess Kurda and her entire army. Who do Princess Kurda and her whole army kill of relative importance? Drufo. Who do the adder triplets kill? Ovus, Bluddbeak, Captain Plugg Firetail, and Shogg, who was one of the main protagonists. Talk about Hero Killers.
• Captain Plugg Firetail, the only vermin captain in Redwall history to be genuinely missed by his crew. Without a single ambitious Number Two to be found among them, they completely collapse when he dies.

Rakkety Tam

• The death of Brigadier Buckworthy Crumshaw. He charged across the Abbey grounds wielding only his cane, with three arrows in his chest and a sliced apart face and he still grabbed Freeta's sword, twisted it around, and rammed it into her throat before dying. How much more awesome can a Taking You with Me get?
• Wopscutt's Heroic Sacrifice in the same book.
• Rakkety Tam's battle with Gulo the Savage. For reference, Gulo the Savage is a wolverine, and probably the most dangerous enemy combatant in the series. The only one who comes close is Ungatt Trunn, a male wildcat in the prime of his life, and his opponent, Lord Brocktree, is a badger lord. Rakkety Tam isn't even in the same size category as Gulo, and he still manages to come out on top!
  • Tam manages to deliver some pretty good zingers to Gulo during their Boss Battle.
  Gulo the Savage: (Shouting various gory threats) I'll eat thy flesh and gorge on thy bones! Your heart is mine!
  Rakkety Tam: Yours? You cannot have my heart, 'tis promised to a fair pretty maid!

High Rhulain

• Minor character Brinty the mouse gets one. After a gannet is accidentally pushed out of the Abbey and onto the lawn, it tries to go after a pair of Dibbuns. Brinty charges the thing and tackles it, pummeling it while yelling for it to get out of Redwall until he successfully pushes it out beyond the gates and the gannet goes away. Almost immediately turns into a Tear Jerker in a shocking case of Mood Whiplash when the water rat Goldfish Poop Gang leader hops out of the ditch and kills him, though Skipper kills him with a javelin immediately after.
• Later in the same book, after witnessing her friend Pandion Piketalon's murder at the hands of Riggu Felis, Tiria Wildlough's immediate reaction is to load a barbed iron star (which had been embedded in Pandion's beak by Felis early in the book) and launch it at Felis. It pierces him through the forehead, killing him instantly. This was the same guy who had Leatho and the otterclans literally on the run at all times.
• Cuthbert Blanedale Frunk's Heroic Sacrifice while hacking a giant sea monster to death.
  • Frunk as a whole is pretty awesome. Bears very little resemblance to how dissociative identity disorder works in real life, but who cares when he's this cool?

Doomwyte

• Baliss the Slayer, a worthy descendant of Asmodeus, who doesn't let a little thing like being blind prevent him from being awesome. After he suffers Inertial Impalement and subsequent horrifying pain from his wounds, he manages to wound a bird into serving as his guide back to Skurr's lair, rampage his way through the reptiles and birds inside, survives scalding his head in the hot springs, manages to beach a catfish bigger than him, and only dies when the cave collapses on him.
• After a long and distinguished career as the book's Hate Sink, Tugga Bruster is exposed as a liar and a thief, declared no longer fit to be Log a Log, disowned by his entire tribe, and kicked out of Redwall, where he is ambushed and killed by Tala for killing her husband (turns out vermin can love too). Total number of mourners in-verse and out: zero.

The Sable Quean

• Axtel Sternclaw, Mole Berserker. Goes around flattening vermin with a big hammer and has only one good leg, but has the Bloodwrath, making him one of the very few non-Badgers to have it.
• Zwilt the Shade's death. Talk about Beware the Nice Ones...

The Animated Series

• Season 1 has a couple episodes that focus on events that didn't happen in Redwall, added to develop characters and relationships further. These supposed "filler" arcs nonetheless come with plenty more awesome moments for our favorite warrior-monk Matthias.
  • A couple of Cluny's rats have infiltrated a circus group in order to gain access to the abbey. They have succeeded in opening the gates, Cluny's armies are approaching, Matthias just watched one of them drop Cornflower over the high walls, and now he is lying weaponless with a big rat wielding a sword standing over him. Still, Matthias refuses to give in, and proceeds to duel the guy with a fire arrow he picked up off the ground. Despite being half the rat's size, he manages to force him backwards into the basket of a catapult and launch him away to his death. Later, after he finds out Cornflower is okay, Matthias uses the blunt end of a throwing knife to knock out and disable the other rat. Even without Martin's sword, Matthias proves he's capable of some pretty badass feats when it comes to defending his home.
  • In a later episode, Cluny has kidnapped Cornflower in an attempt to draw the Abbey's forces out. After a momentary Heroic BSoD, Matthias figures out where he's holding her and, with the help of Foremole, comes up with a plan to save his mousemaid... friend. Whilst in only his undergarments and wielding nothing but a kitchen knife, Matthias convinces the dormouse that Cluny used to kidnap Cornflower to help him, and they rescue Cornflower and the dormouse's wife and get away almost before Cluny even knows they're there. Appropriately, Cornflower rewards Matthias with a Smooch of Victory... and an invitation to help her finish her inventory.
• Martin's defeat of Badrang in Martin the Warrior was sufficiently badass. In the final episode of the animated series? The warrior mouse overpowers Badrang with Amballa's sword, despite the stoat wielding the much larger sword of Martin's father, and then rolls underneath him, tugging on his cape and causing him to drop the sword. In the brief moment Badrang is teetering on the edge of the prison pit, Martin jumps in, picks up his father's sword, and slays the Tyrant via Inertial Impalement. A family unfriendly but most deserved end to Badrang's reign.