Mattimeo is the third book in the Redwall series, though chronologically, it follows Redwall and precedes Pearls of Lutra. It was published in 1989 (1990 in the US). It was adapted into the second season of the animated Redwall TV series in 2000 and ran for 13 episodes.
Mattimeo contains examples of the following tropes:
- Albinos Are Freaks: Malkariss is a disgusting albino polecat and is running an underground cult that employs young woodland slaves.
- Ascended Extra:
- Tim and Tess Churchmouse are only babies in Redwall, but play a somewhat larger role in Mattimeo.
- This also applies to Sam in the TV Series, as most of his scenes in the Redwall adaption were Adapted Out.
- The Artifact: Basil Stag Hare's name. Redwall ostensibly took place in the real world, and Basil often went on about how impressive and majestic stags were - it's why he chose his name. However, by the time of Mattimeo, Brian Jacques had changed the setting to remove the real world and most larger animals, and so stags no longer even existed outside Basil's name.
- Bait-and-Switch: Slagar pulls this at one point, tricking the heroes into thinking he hid his captives in a cave. Once they are inside, he triggers a cave-in that blocks the exit.
- Battle Bolas: Slagar the Cruel, The Heavy of the book, uses a bolas as his weapon. He uses it both to attack and to intimidate. In the Animated Adaptation, he throws it at a wooden chair, shattering the chair to splinters, just to demonstrate what will happen to his slaves if they don't obey him. He later uses it to attempt a stealth kill on Matthias, though he fails. Subverted in that he's a Dirty Coward, only using his bolas in sneak attacks and running away from any open fights.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Kites like Stryk would normally eat the Redwallers, but since they rescue her from death and nurse her back to health, she becomes devoted to them, especially Sister May.
- Berserk Button: General Ironbeak hurts Sister May because she dares to stand up to him when he tries to bully the Abbot. Cue Stryk coming in roaring about how she's going to kill Ironbeak for daring to hurt her friend.
- Big Damn Heroes: Happens several times. Perhaps most notably when the sparrows come to the aid of Matthias and Orlando just as they are about to be overwhelmed by a wave of enemies.
- Bottomless Pits: There's a chasm south of a desert that's so deep, there's no known bottom. Slagar tries to thwart the pursuers by cutting the bridge down. Luckily, the pursuers had made friends with an owl, who's able to fly down to where the bridge got hung on a rock and haul it back up.
- Bright Castle: Redwall Abbey. Not necessarily a castle, but close enough. Serves a home for the characters, and one that must be protected against an army of hostile birds later in the story.
- Butt-Monkey: Vitch is treated almost as badly as the slaves that he helped abduct.
- Character-Magnetic Team: What starts off as a team of three and steadily gains more and more characters until they are a small army.
- The Chase: A large part of the story revolves around the heroes tracking their missing children across the country.
- The Cavalry: When all the Redwallers have been captured by General Ironbeak and he's threatening to massacre them, Stryk Redkite and Constance come bursting in to rescue their friends.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Mr. Squirrel (Jess' husband), Plumpen the doormouse and Constance's beaver friend were hardly major characters in Redwall, but they weren't so much as mentioned in Mattimeo.
- Circus of Fear: Invoked. Slagar and his minions disguise themselves as a travelling circus so they can infiltrate Redwall Abbey. They actually do put on a performance for the Abbeydwellers before giving them all sleeping drugs and kidnapping the children.
- Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: Slagar forces his band and slaves to climb a very steep cliff using only a rope ladder. The heroes soon follow.
- Clever Crows: While Ironbeak and his band are certainly fiendish, they are also very clever, outwitting the Redwallers at every turn to the point of almost completely beating them.
- Creepy Crows: Most of Ironbeak and his followers, with Mangiz the crow seer being a standout with an eerie air about him.
- Cult Colony: The Kingdom of Malkariss. Made up almost entirely of rats with a zealous devotion to their ruler.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ironbeak doesn't stand a chance against Stryk, who kills him in short order. Mangiz is likewise dispatched from one smack of Constance's paw that slams him into a wall.
- Death from Above: Given the number of avian characters in this book, it should be expected.
- Dragon Ascendant: Nadaz tries to assume leadership of Malkariss' cult after Malkariss is killed. It doesn't last long.
- Disney Villain Death: Slagar ends up dying when he accidentally falls into a pit he couldn't see while trying to escape.
- Easy Come, Easy Go: When Slagar delivers the Redwall kids to Malkariss, Malkariss promotes him to Warlord and promises to build him a stone fortress aboveground. A minute later the heroes show up, and Malkariss threatens to "deal with him" after he has "dealt" with the intruders.
- Exact Words: After Wedgeback carelessly dropping his dagger allows the children to temporarily escape, Slagar expresses disappointment later and says he would have to "let him go". Wedgeback begs while repeating those words, to which the fox obliges. By the time the poor stoat realizes what his boss meant, he is dropped off a mountaintop to his death.
- Evil Counterpart: Although it isn't explored much, Malkariss has turned the sunken ruins of Loamhedge Abbey into a dark mockery of Redwall - instead of an abbey manned by mice in green robes that celebrates harmony, it's an abbey manned by rats in black robes who practice slavery.
- Evil Old Folks: Malkariss - the evil leader of the underground slaving empire - turns out to be so old that he's mostly blind and nearly crippled.
- Fantastic Racism: Within Slagar's gang, the weasels and stoats aren't fond of each other. When Slagar abandons them, they turn on each other.
- Feathered Fiend: Zigzagged. General Ironbeak and his band of bird warriors are horrible, cruel creatures while the Sparra and Stryk are good friends to the Redwallers.
- Food Porn: Redwall Abbey is known for its food. All of the different food and drink that is mentioned should be enough to get mouths watering.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Chickenhound may have been a thoroughly unpleasant character and an accidental murderer, but once he became Slagar he spread misery all over the country, kidnapping all the children he could and murdering anyone he could murder conveniently.
- Go Out with a Smile: Log-A-Log dies with a smile on his face after keeping his promise to Matthias to help him find his son.
- Gory Discretion Shot: In the book, Skan gets grabbed by the Painted Ones, and by the time Mattimeo and the other young ones can pull him away, he's dead. Auma has to carry his grisly corpse out. In the animated series, this is changed to just having him grabbed by the Painted Ones and then the next shot is one of his empty manacles.
- Grew a Spine: Cynthia Bankvole borders on being The Load for the young woodlanders who have been captured by Slager, being a whiney nuisance who can't seem to do the most simple things without complaining about them or crying she wants to go home. But she is the first one to speak up and defiantly say she will not be cowed into being a slave for Malkariss.
- The Grotesque: Malkariss' description borders on this, notably being one of the few characters in the entire to outright be called gross by the prose.
- The Heavy: Slagar is the lowest ranking of Malkariss' various officers, outranked by Malkariss himself, Nadaz, the Wearet and Stonefleck. However, he's the villain that drives the plot.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Warbeak and the sparrows come to the rescue of Matthias and Orlando against Stonefleck's army, tipping the battle towards the heroes at the cost of nearly all of their lives.
- Log-a-log is mortally wounded after intercepting a spear meant for Matthias. He passes his title to his chosen Guosim shrew in his dying breath.
- Hoarding the Profits: Slagar the Cruel elevates this to a business model — recruit a crew of slavers, trap some children, sell them to the Kingdom of Malkariss, manipulate the crew into killing each other so he can keep all the profits, rinse and repeat.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: The Badger and the Bell, giant boulders which resemble a badger's head and a bell.
- Jerkass: Halftail the stoat is the nastiest of Slagar's slavers, to the point that even the other slavers don't like him much. Threeclaws, a weasel and Slagar's second-in-command, is also considered by the slaves to be the second-worst of the slavers.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Reading Mattimeo before Redwall will spoil the plot concerning Slagar/Chickenhound's origin.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Stryk Redkite plans to name her nestling after Sister May who nursed Stryk back to health after her injury. Sister May is flattered but would like the child to be called May rather than (as a result of Stryk's chronic Accidental Misnaming) Sissismay.
- Old Master: Log-A-Log has been the leader of the Guosim for a long time and is still a force to be reckoned with.
- Older Than They Look: Vitch is a rat who happens to be so small and undersized that he can pass for a teenaged mouse. The reason Slagar's gang tolerates him is because they can use him to infiltrate.
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One-Scene Wonder: Snakespur plays a significant role in the revolt following Slagar abandoning his slavers, after having not been so much as mentioned previously in the book. - Only Sane Man: Scringe, a ferret in Slagar's gang. He's not nice enough to be a Punch-Clock Villain, but he takes his job seriously and isn't unnecessarily cruel to the slaves. He's also the one that puts together the successful recapture mission after the slaves escape.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Log-A-Log is mentioned to be tiny even for a shrew but a fierce fighter nonetheless.
- Piranha Problem: This happens to the heroes when they are forced to Abandon Ship. Fortunately, none of them are actually devoured.
- Poke in the Third Eye: Mangiz, a seer, is unable to use his powers while inside of Redwall. It appears that the spirit of Martin can do more than haunt dreams...
- Pragmatic Villainy: When Halftail whips a slave who asked for water, Slagar stops him, gives him a reprimand, and orders that all the slaves be given food and drink. This isn't borne out of kindness, however, it's just him recognizing that hungry and thirsty slaves don't move as quickly.
- The Quiet One: Stonefleck, a rat that commands Malkariss' above-ground army, is very stoic and taciturn, sometimes not even bothering to respond when others speak to him.
- Red Shirt Army: The Guosim seem to have unlimited numbers despite losing a great number to Stonefleck's army. There's still enough of them to battle with the forces of Malkariss, who seem to have forces without end. Subverted with the Sparra. There's implied to be hundreds of birds under Warbeak's command that engage Stonefleck and his army to rescue her friends but all but five of them are massacred.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Skan betrays the Guosim shrews and the heroes by telling Slagar they're coming, mainly because he's being a rebellious little brat, so Slagar enslaves him and his band.
- Rope Bridge: A very long and very old one over a deep canyon.
- Scarecrow Solution: Cornflower pretends to be Martin the Warrior's ghost in order to trick and demoralize General Ironbeak's forces.
- Seers: Mangiz the crow can predict the future with startling accuracy. However, once they arrive at Redwall, Martin starts to block his visions, causing Ironbeak to become short-tempered with him as they no longer have an edge over their enemies.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Friar Hugo, killed by members of Slagar's band while trying to rescue the kidnapped children. The slavers got away anyway.
- Series Fauxnale: Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo make up a full trilogy, each one focusing on one of the mouse warriors: Matthias, Martin, and then Mattimeo. At the end of Mattimeo, Matti has a baby mouse born he names Martin II, bringing everything full cycle and wrapping up all the major plot lines found in the three books. The series would then continue on two years later as Mariel of Redwall came out, with minor questions and plot lines brought up in the first three that would be continued over the next four books.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Cornflower and Sister May both get moments during Ironbeak's siege to show that while they are gentle mice, they are not to be messed with.
- Shown Their Work: Cheek is initially fearful of a large river and is teased by Basil for this. Baby otters are actually initially afraid of water until their mothers teach them how to swim.
Cheek learned late because he's an orphan. - The Siege: During the second act, while the warriors are away, Redwall Abbey is attacked by an army of corvids lead by General Ironbeak and his seer Mangiz.
- Tagalong Kid: Cheek is around Mattimeo's age but accompanies the adult warriors on their quest.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Log-A-Log throws his short sword at Stonefleck, killing the rat leader. Partially justified in that he doesn't toss it so it spins over and over again but instead throws it like a spear, which is the only way to really have any accuracy when throwing a sword.
- Underground City: The Kingdom of Malkariss, which rests underneath the ruins of Loamhedge.
- Would Hurt a Child: Slagar outright threatens to cripple and leave for dead any slave that tries to escape him. At one point, one of his band mentions "finishing off" one slave who was too weak to continue moving. It's also mentioned that none of the non-Redwaller slaves would have had the nerve to try and escape because they'd seen what Slagar did to slaves that tried it. General Ironbeak is also not above threatening to toss a toddler off of a roof. His rooks massacre the baby sparrows left behind by the rest on moving in. None is actually harmed on-page though.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Sparra are never mentioned after this book despite the ending stating the few survivors have begun to rebuild their numbers in the loft. Possibly justified, as with only four birds, they could hardly populate more than one or two generations before quietly dying out unless they recruited more wild sparrows to live with them.
