YMMV / Redwall

• Accidental Innuendo
  • In The Long Patrol: Arven to Pasque,
    "D'you see that sword? Did you know that it has the power to make pretty hare maidens happy?"
  • The very same book also had this comment, after Log-a-Log shot an arrow into Skaup's paw. There's nothing weird about it, except the comment was "ribald." Look up the word ribald. Now read this comment and you'll find it to be strange...
    "Be sure t'bring that arrow with ye, 'twas a good shaft!"
  • Also in the same book, Rinkul intended to "do that pair 'ard'n'slow afore dawnbreak" and there's a thoroughly disturbing passage about Gurgan Spearback using a spear to poke around in a hole in the side of the hill which is leaking water.
  • The unintentional Minion Shipping archery thing in Salamandastron, and the names, and the moles have been known to pronounce "came" as "cummed".
  • "Quean" also does not mean what Mr Jacques says it means. By this point one really has to wonder if he's doing it deliberately.
  • Some of the characters' names are questionable at best. One of the most infamous examples is a fox named Felch, since "felching" refers to a rather vulgar sex act. The hare Stiffener Medick is a much more straightforwardly suggestive example (a "medick" is a type of plant, and a lot of characters have plant-themed names, but just try reading the whole name without giggling).
• Alas, Poor Scrappy:
  • Veil Sixclaw. He spends a majority of his life being a Jerkass, and then suddenly sacrifices his life to save Bryony. No one even misses him.
  • Ovus, and to a lesser extent Prince Bladd. Scummy even wrote a poem/eulogy mourning him and his late captain.
  • Vitch. He spent the last moments of his life being a slave after Slagar betrayed him. And when he's finally freed, Matthias tells Mattimeo to spare him because he has nowhere left to go. And then Slagar appears from nowhere and kills him for no reason.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • So, was Veil Evil All Along, or was he driven to evil as a result of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and the self-righteous prejudice of the Abbeydwellers, only to rise above his circumstances to make a Heroic Sacrifice?
  • The Redwallers in Outcast of Redwall, especially Bella. Did they really care about Veil, but got tired of his naughty behavior, or were they all Bitches in Sheep's Clothing who pretended to like and accept Veil, but secretly treated him with indifference behind his back? None of this is helped by the fact that Bella intentionally named the ferret Veil because it was an anagram for "evil" and "vile."
  • Bryony. Did she really love Veil as though he were her own son, or was she so excited with taking care of him that pretending to be his mother was just a playful game to her—a game she became obsessed over, because she was determined to prove the Redwallers wrong and that Veil really was capable of being good? Also, her reaction to his death. Did she really believe that there wasn't a shred of kindness or good inside of him, or was she so traumatized by his death, and so tired of the Redwallers telling her "I told you so" that she forced herself to agree with them, despite know deep down in her heart that she was right all along and he did have good in him? Or was she perhaps just trying to obey his previous wish that she go back and tell everyone he was bad, including herself?
  • Is Martin the brave purehearted warrior that the Redwallers have immortalized in their history? Or is he simply a hardened traumatized veteran who has way too much bad luck in the past?
  • King Bull Sparra seems to be very forgetful, but his sister Dunwing warns that he pretends to be a fool to mask his inquisitive and manipulative true colors. So does he really have a bad memory, or does he just pretend to as part of his act?
  • Emperor Ublaz "Mad Eyes" isn't just a typical Redwall insane villain; he's a victim of The Peter Principle. His flamboyant sense of personal style, ruthless willingness to betray anyone and to use terror to keep his underlings in line served him well as a pirate captain, and complemented his genuine mastery with a sword and hypnotic powers, allowing him to claim the island of Sampetra as his home base and the army of weak-willed monitor lizards living there as his unstoppable muscle. But then he tried to set himself up as a warlord instead of a "mere" pirate captain, and these same strategies and qualities quickly destroy his handful of genuinely loyal men and turn all of his minions against him. Even his obsession with style and looks seals his doom, since it drives him to burn more resources than he ought on the Tears of All Oceans.
  • Does Mokkan the Marlfox really think, rightly or wrongly, that all of his siblings are willing to kill each other for their inheritance, or is he just saying that to justify his betrayal to himself, and/or to stir paranoia and discontent among the others? Aside from Lantur plotting against the others and Ziral trying to strike at Mokkan with an axe as he discusses his belief that only one of them can survive (which she could have seen as self-defense), the other siblings seem to get along fairly well for Redwall villains.
• Aluminium Christmas Trees: Carving fortifications into naturally occurring mountainsides was an actual practice in medieval Central Europe and the Middle East, making Salamandastron's design not at all unrealistic.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • The death thing might be a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance: the death rate in Mossflower is much, much higher than in 21st-century Western Real Life societies, so they get used to it quickly, and while they don't seem to have a God as such they're a lot more certain of an afterlife than many people here are.
  • One season old babes get in fights and kill other beasts. Young teenagers watch close friends die, sometimes in very horrible ways. Salamandastron is a particularly fun case: Samkim stumbles upon a dead Brother Hal, then is accused of murdering him, and just days later sees several shrews and Spriggat partially eaten by a giant snake. On the Western Shore, a surly teenager is almost eaten alive by reptiles after seeing that her adoptive father is about to be attacked by a superior military force and is so vastly outnumbered that the next charge will doom him. To the north, a young otter and a dibbun are attacked by crows who'd quite like to eat them alive. Back at the Abbey, everyone is dying of the plague. No angst!
  • One of the most jarring examples is in Taggerung when Deyna and Tagg's mother and sister are helping to organize a feast and contest very soon after the murder and disappearance of their dearest loved ones. They try to get past their disappearance, but Deyna's mother ends up breaking down and crying, and Mhera wasn't doing much better.
  • Dauncey's death in Rakkety Tamm and Asio's death in Eulalia! segue immediately into what's for lunch that day. Asio's is especially jarring. Also, Sister Atrata's death. All but two characters seemed to forget she even existed after she died, and were relatively unscathed.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Many fights between the protagonist and the Big Bad are a Curb-Stomp Battle. It is far easier to list the major villains who weren't this and put up a good fight or managed to take someone with them in the final battle: Cluny the Scourge, Queen Tsarmina, Ferahgo the Assassin, Ublaz Mad Eyes, Ungatt Trunn, Gulo the Savage, Zwilt the Shade, and a couple of vipers (although, to his credit, Damug Warfang probably would've made the list if he fought literally anyone other than Lady Cregga). Everyone else were only dangerous as army commanders at best, and many of them failed even at that (Ublaz gave Martin a good fight, but was a terrible leader, spending most of the book being outwitted by his own rebelling corsair crews).
  • Strangely averted with Badrang in the TV series. The battle between him and Martin is somewhat longer and more epic than in the book.
  • Intentionally subverted in Eulalia!. Because we all know if Gorath had been consumed with the Bloodwrath, he would've killed Vizka Longtooth in two, maybe three sentences.
• Anvilicious:
  • The Veil Sixclaw subplot from Outcast of Redwall goes well out of its way to tell us over and over again that if you're "born" evil, there is little to no hope for redemption, and you don't have a shred of kindness in your heart. Even if you sacrifice your life to save someone you love. This is especially jarring, because The Bellmaker, the book that came out before this one, proved that you can be evil, realize how awful being evil is, have a Heel–Face Turn, and be forgiven for every bad thing you've done in your past.
  • High Rhulain constantly keeps reminding us with Tiria that you shouldn't discriminate against women, and that any female can do the same things a male can do. Clearly Brian Jacques forgot that he already tried to show that with the dozens and dozens of other female badass heroes (and villains, for that matter) this series has to offer.
• Ass Pull:
  • Some of the Big Damn Heroes moments. One of the biggest ones occurs in Marlfox when Song and Mighty Megraw save Burble, Dann and Dippler from bloodthirsty reptiles. What makes it an ass pull is that somehow, Song found her long lost grandfather and her long lost aunt AND it turns out that her grandfather had raised a small group of hedgehog warriors who managed to kill all the reptiles. AND they all managed to find and practically patch up the Swallow, even though it almost split in two after plunging down the waterfall. This all happened in about a day by the way.
  • Veil's death in Outcast, which came out of nowhere. It seemed like that was thrown in there just... because. And it falls into Fridge Logic, since Veil Took the Spear for some beast he had no problem trapping inside of a cave and leaving to die just a few chapters earlier, and he definitely did not show a change in attitude between then and his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • In The Sable Quean, the appearance of Ambrevina the badgermaid in Althier - which once was a badger stronghold - is rather pat. Not only is she an expert slinger and warrior, but she's looking for Flandor - and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when Diggs informs her Vilaya murdered him that lasts nearly a third of the book. She's also dreamed of Salamandastron and Lord Brang. When she ultimately meets up with Brang after heroically defending Redwall from the Ravagers, he makes her next in line to the throne.
• Awesome Music: The TV show's theme song.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Veil Sixclaw from Outcast. Some people sympathize with him because he's a Jerkass Woobie with a tragic backstory who always falls victim to Fantastic Racism by the Redwallers. Others don't give a shit, thought he had an unjustified Freudian Excuse, and considered his subplot to be an absolute waste. Some would even go as far as saying he ruined the entire book.
  • Felldoh. On one hand, he took the Leeroy Jenkins route and his actions resulted in the exact opposite of what he wanted to do. But on the other hand, he's badass, courageous, and had the balls to attack Badrang by himself and humiliate him in front of his entire army by whipping him like a slave. If Badrang wasn't a stinking coward, summoning his goons to protect him, Felldoh would have no doubt killed him. And unlike Martin, Felldoh didn't waste his time dealing with a bunch of Wacky Wayside Tribes. Killing Druwp certainly helped in his favors as well.
  • Horty is either a hilarious Butt-Monkey who has his occasional badass moments, or he's a whiny, annoying hare.
  • Martin from The Pearls of Lutra. He's either a kind, caring, badass hero who is the spitting image of his ancestors Mattimeo and Matthias, or he's a very boring Invincible Hero surrounded by characters far more interesting and fleshed out than he is.
• Cargo Ship: Gabool/Bell. No, really, he does the I Have You Now, My Pretty routine with it and licks it.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Crazy Is Cool: Cuthbert Blanedale Frunk, a hare with Multiple Personality Disorder in High Rhulain. On the flipside, he's also a Sociopathic Hero with a pretty tragic backstory.
• Creepy Awesome: Shadow from Redwall and Zwilt the Shade from The Sable Quean. Farran the Poisoner from Salamandastron could probably count, except the fact he had no actual dialogue or character development, he ended up "just creepy"
• Designated Villain: Generally speaking, anything that hunts the Always Lawful Good characters is treated as a villain for that reason. Any sympathy or respect towards a creature's right to live tends to end at the "It eats us!" line, and there is no way a member of the typical prey species will perceive something like Asmodeus as anything short of pure evil. However, in the context of Redwall this comes as a bit of hypocrisy on the author's (and in a couple of cases even the characters') part, when similar unapologetic sapient-eaters (Stonehead, Aluco, etc) are treated as good friends, as long as they target vermin or reptiles. Granted when it comes to snakes it's less predator and Omnicidal Maniac since they are hostile to everyone and unlike Captain Snow can't be reasoned with.
  • Zassaliss, Harssacss, and Sesstra, the adder triplets from Triss. Their mother was murdered right in front of them when they were young, a mace and chain cuts into their tails and binds them together, and they've still managed to survive by learning to hunt as a unit. They're treated as monsters and their death is mocked simply because...they eat woodlanders.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Veil gets a lot of this due to his more or less Taking the Bullet for Bryony. The various bad things he did (attempted murder, robbery, trapping Bryony and Togget in a cave earlier) tend to be forgotten.
  • Vermin species in general are depicted as Always Chaotic Evil with a very select few exceptions, but a good chunk of the fanbase loves to believe otherwise. Foxes are especially prone to this, because the internet loves foxes.
• Ending Fatigue:
  • The Legend of Luke's climax came at the end of Part 2, making the five remaining chapters a bit hard to finish.
  • Taggerung could've ended in multiple areas, especially when Deyna returned to Redwall safe and sound. It doesn't.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Has its own page.
• Evil Is Cool: Many of the villains in the series range from Hate Sink types to just plain old scrappies, but some do earn their stripes:
  • Cluny the Scourge, the OG Big Bad. Unlike most that came after, Cluny is both a cunning strategist and a vicious warrior who's not afraid to get his paws dirty, giving Matthias one heck of a climactic duel. He also remains a credible threat all the way through and remains one of only two villains to have conquered Redwall in any way, shape or form, showing that his fearsome reputation is well-earned.
  • General Ironbeak from Mattimeo is the fiercest fighter in all the northlands, and also incredibly clever. To the point that of all Redwall villains, he’s come the closest to capturing the abbey. Wayne Best’s performance for him in the TV series is particularly memorable.
  • Plugg Firetail, often agreed to be one of the few redeemable characters from the widely-loathed Triss, stands apart from the ineffectual Big Bad Princess Kurda as a charismatic and cool-looking fox who also holds the unique distinction of being one of the very few Benevolent Boss-types in the series. Makes it doubly painful he's killed off in an anticlimactic manner, with even his own crew mourning him.
  • Ferahgo the Assassin, Big Bad of Salamandastron, is one of the most effective, brilliant, and stylish villains in the entire series, effortlessly evading his treacherous minions' attempts to kill him after he's been horribly burned alive and killing them without ever breaking his stride. His death counts, too; Ferahgo faces down a Bloodwrath-afflicted Badger Lord barrelling straight towards him and manages to slay him in a Mutual Kill in the story's climax.
  • Rasconza, the scene-stealing Starscream in Pearls of Lutra, especially when compared to the foppish and hilariously inept Ublaz Mad Eyes.
  • Zwilt the Shade from The Sable Quean, is one of the most fondly remembered villains of the series' later run for being a cool, cunning sable (a species previously unseen in the series) who also manages to put up a legitimate fight in comparison to the legion of villains in the series who serve as an Anti-Climax Boss (or suffer Death by Falling Over — including the titular Sable Quean herself, who trips and falls on her own poisoned dagger.)
  • Slagar the Cruel qualifies more under Love to Hate in the book version of Mattimeo— he's one of the most cunning villains in the series, but that still leaves him a high-functioning Smug Snake at best— but the animated TV series has him voiced by Tim Curry, injecting the character with his natural charisma and making for one hell of a memorable villain for the second season.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: You’ll be hard-pressed to find many fanfics that don’t deconstruct the books’ Good Animals, Evil Animals Black-and-White Morality (with varying degrees of success), usually by showing that the vermins’ villainous nature is (at least partially) the result of Fantastic Racism, fueled by the woodlanders being Noble Bigots. This is commonly done via the Redwallers and/or other woodlanders being forced into a situation where they have to work together with vermin and/or encounter one or a group of them that aren't actively hostile, pulling the woodlanders out of their comfort zone of being the unambiguous good guys. Inevitably, this creates a growing wedge between the truly heroic and open-minded ones and those whose bigotry runs too deep for them to change and adapt.
• Fan Fic Fuel:
  • Whether or not a certain character (mainly Vitch from Mattimeo) or one of the villains (e.g. Slagar and/or Cluny) actually survived their deaths is a popular subject for fanfictions.
  • Whatever happened to the Sparras after Mattimeo, due to them vanishing without a trace after that book.
  • The origins of certain characters (for example, Cheek Stag Otter) who just appeared without a proper introduction.
• Fanon: A popular interpretation is that the Ripfang in Mossflower is the very same Ripfang who ran off in Lord Brocktree and was never heard from again. While Jacques claimed that they're not the same creature, fans found the resemblances between the two characters and the congruities between their backstories too much to just be mere coincidence.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Ublaz is a complete and utter fop who's obsessed with pink pearls, wears puffy robes and perfume, and paints his claws. This combined with his general ineptitude kill all of the menace Ublaz was ever intended to have.
• First Installment Wins: Nearly every Redwall fan agrees that the first book is the best one in the entire series. The others are mixed.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Quite a few books in the series have been criticized for having largely irrelevant subplots. This trend got its start as early as the third book, Mattimeo, which had a secondary plotline about General Ironbeak trying to conquer Redwall Abbey that had little, if any, impact on the main plot concerning the pursuit of Slagar the Cruel. At the time, this was largely accepted, as Ironbeak and his minions were memorable villains and his side plot gave the characters staying at the Abbey a lot to do (most notably Cornflower's scheme to demoralize Ironbeak's troops by pretending to be Martin's ghost). Most later cases of this weren't as compelling to read, however, resulting in them being derided as only existing to meet a page count.
  • Likewise, the complaint of Dibbuns taking center stage and causing problems for the characters by being The Load was a plot point that started as early as the second book, Mossflower, when Ferdy and Coggs get kidnapped by Tsarmina and have to be rescued. In the early books this was tolerated mainly because the presence of the baby animals was kept to a minimum and they also contributed what they could to the plot, such as Baby Rollo actually being a big help in solving the riddles in Mattimeo or three Dibbuns slicing the ropes of the sea rats trying to ascend the walls of Redwall with sharp knives in what they think is a fun game in Mariel of Redwall. The problems started in the later books where most of the time the Dibbuns are there just to be a pain in the ass and obnoxious with their cutesy-wootsy antics, causing headaches and trouble for those watching over them, or to be captured by the villains, causing a rescue needing to be staged that would have been wholly unnecessary if the little brats just stayed put and did as they were told in the first place. A blatant example is Dwopple in Marlfox, who spends his entire screentime being a malicious brat causing trouble. When he gets captured by the Marlfoxes, he indirectly gets three named characters killed because they're trying to rescue him, something that didn't need to happen if he hadn't acted like an idiot child to begin with.
• Genius Bonus: Orlando seems a strange name for a Redwall character, which usually have English or invented names, and not a very impressive one for a Bloodwrath-afflicted badger. Unless you're familiar with a certain Italian work by the name of Orlando Furioso...
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: A disproportionately high number of Redwall fans are from the United States or Russia. Case in point: Brian Jacques made quite a few visits to the States during book tours, and Russia was one of the few countries that got a dub of the Nelvana cartoon.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the original book, Matthias tells Warbeak and Log-a-Log “It’s do or die now!” as they set off to retake Redwall from Cluny. They all survive this book, but in Mattimeo, both of the characters he’s talking to die.
  • The line near the start of Outcast about Skarlath leaving his nest "never to return" sure comes off harsher on a re-read. His fate is also foreshadowed in the line about him being "shot like an arrow" into the forest.
• Heartwarming Moments: Everything involving Blaggut. Also any scene with Dibbuns doing something cute or mischievous, or name any romantic couple (That doesn't end in death). "Broggle and Fwirl" in particular, (Broggle being so completely shy and Adorkable, Fwirl being completely innocent to abbeylife) Gonff and Columbine, Tammo and Pasque. Even Dann and Song, or Dandin and Mariel. (Neither of the last two couples are confirmed to have fallen in love, but Word of God says it's the readers' decisions.)
• He's Just Hiding:
  • A lot of people think Redtooth survived in the animated series despite apparently being killed by Cornflower, due to a rat who looks very similar to him being seen fleeing the siege.
  • Some fans also think the same for Slagar the Cruel, believing he survived his fall into the well.
  • Cluny is also theorized to have survived being crushed by the Joseph Bell.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The first book describes Cluny as a "God of War."
  • Mattimeo, published in 1989, has a pair of hedgehogs rolling together to fend off their foes. Totally a one-off gimmick that will never catch on.
  • The crows in Doomwyte make a lot of cawing and croaking noises when talking. One of them?
    Korra!
  • A fantasy series with anthropomorphic rats as recurring villains you say?
• Ho Yay: So much that it has its own page.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Martin is The Woobie of all woobies. To start off, when he was only a babe, his mother, Sayna, was killed by Vilu Daskar for shits and giggles. A few years later, Luke left his son in the paws of Windred, Martin's grandmother, so Luke could go kill Daskar. Even though Martin wanted to go along, Luke told him to stay behind, promising he'd return (and we all know how that turned out). Later on, Martin and Windred get captured by Badrang and his tyrants (again, for shits and giggles) and during the trip to Fort Marshank, Windred dies. Martin spends several seasons as a slave to Badrang and his tyrants, until one day he manages to get free and slowly develop feelings towards a mouse named Rose. Eventually, the two gather up an army of their own and assault Fort Marshank, but just when Martin is about to kill Badrang, Badrang kills Rose. Martin goes unconscious for an entire season, then when he finally wakes up he goes through a Heroic BSoD and silent for several days, and only ever bothers walking is so he can head into the forest to go cry. And then, Martin decides to leave all his friends behind, and to never mention them, Rose, or her home Noonvale again so he can keep their memories and happiness locked away in his heart.
  • After that he roams the land, until one winter, he's captured by Tsarmina's forces, has his sword snapped in half, and is then promptly held prisoner for the entire season. If it hadn't been for Gonff showing up, Martin would've died. Going on a quest to find Boar the Fighter, and finding in him a rare kindred spirit, Boar goes to his death not days later. Badly wounded in his battle with Tsarmina he survives only by the skin of his teeth.
• After the journey to learn what became of his father he finally hangs up his sword, but he is stated to never find true happiness, dying without ever knowing a wife or children (although that is admittedly his own choice due to refusing to get over Rose).
  • Urthstripe the Strong's life isn't happy. Unlike Martin, both of his parents were killed before he could even speak. He's abandoned during the winter, somehow gets separated from his brother, and is forced to grow up fending for himself. He ends up becoming ruler of Salamandastron, but he and his daughter Mara don't see eye to eye. Eventually, she leaves the mountain... just when Ferahgo and his army attacks. Towards the end of the novel, Urthstripe pulls one of the most epic Heroic Sacrifices of all time. Unfortunately, he dies right when he finds his long-lost brother... and just when Mara was about to reconcile with her father.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Rose dies.
  • Veil Sixclaw dies.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Many members of Cluny's army in the first book could be seen as this. It's implied that they were genuinely peaceful creatures, but Cluny forced them to fight under the threat of death. It's hard to tell how into the fighting most of them are, but the Abbeydwellers still see them as evil and end up killing every last one of them.
  • The same goes for Swartt's horde in Outcast, who had the extra misfortune of serving under one of the worst bosses in the whole series. He assassinates their leader (who didn't see any need to terrorize the rest of Mossflower) and tells them that they are his "to the death." Most of his soldiers don't seem to care about his vendetta with Sunflash, and some are shown deserting as they realize how willing he is to throw their lives away. Furthermore, early in the book there's a throwaway line stating that many of them had mates and families, and Swartt outright says that even his soldiers' wives and children are every bit as subject to his cruel whims and commands as the actual soldiers themselves.
  • Kilconey. It's unclear if he was one of the beasts who was forcibly recruited into Cluny's army or not, but he's the most jovial and Affably Evil member of the army that we see. Some might say he only qualifies for the "jerkass" part by virtue of being in Cluny's army. Cluny ends up using him as a Human Shield, and Kilconey is sliced in half by Martin's sword.
  • Veil is a horrible child even before he starts on the attempted murder, but given the circumstances - completely abandoned by Swartt Sixclaw (thus further reinforcing Swartt's position as one of the series' leading scumbags) and raised by people that assumed he'd be evil from the get-go - it's hard to blame him.
  • Lugworm in The Long Patrol. He may be a sneaky and underhanded advisor in an evil army, but he is constantly abused by the beasts he's trying to help. After suffering enough physical and verbal abuse from the leader, Damug, Lugworm sides with Borumm and Vendace, two other advisors who are planning to assassinate Damug... but even they verbally abuse Lugworm too. And as if that wasn't enough, Lugworm is eventually killed by Borumm, supposedly for being a backstabber, even though that's what Borumm is too.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of fans will read Pearls of Lutra just for Romsca.
• Magnificent Bastard: See here.
• Moe: Gingivere Greeneyes from Mossflower. Despite coming from a family of evil warlords and tyrants, he is just the sweetest thing. Although his father and sister look down on most goodbeasts, Gingivere is caring even towards a mouse, and an outsider, like Martin. No matter what cruel things Tsarmina does to him, he can't bring himself to seek revenge on his own sister. Did we mention that he's a cat? (Albeit a wildcat.) Gingivere's innocent nature makes it even sadder when he is falsely imprisoned for his father's murder, which was actually the work of his manipulative, tyrannic sister.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Slagar the Cruel aka Chickenhound crosses this when he loots Redwall of many of its valuables and kills Methuselah even after they nurse him back to health.
  • Cheesethief crosses it when he brutally murders Scragg the weasel for the "crime" of being more competent than he is. He lies about it afterwards, sneeringly telling Killconey, who was friends with Scragg, that it was his own fault he got killed.
  • In Mattimeo, General Ironbeak crosses it when he massacres the Sparra civilians in Warbeak Loft, most of them very young or very old. Of course, this is assuming he wasn't over the line already.
  • Fenno was already a Jerkass to begin with, but it wasn't until he killed Log-a-Log by cowardly stabbing him in the back that he leaped over the MEH.
  • Vilaya from The Sable Quean leaps headlong over it when she murders Flandor, an otter child, for attacking her and actually getting a solid blow in. Would Hurt a Child is what defines Vilaya.
  • Korvus Skurr is mostly a typical Bad Boss from the series, but he gets a particularly distinctive jump over the MEH when he butchers one of his own minions for the heinous crime of taking up a safe space in the heat of battle— to mourn his slain mate.
• Nausea Fuel: Slagar's hideously disfigured face in Mattimeo is enough to make the reader a little queasy.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page. Special mention goes to anything involving snakes, especially the hypnotic ones.
• Paranoia Fuel: In Loamhedge, Martin's spirit tells Martha that Bragoon and Saro need to head to Loamhedge in order to find something that'll make her walk again. In Part 3 of the book, Martha learns to walk on her own and Bragoon and Saro end up sacrificing their lives, which implies that Martin had Bragoon and Saro sent on a suicide mission. Makes you wonder now, don't it?
• Periphery Demographic: During the prime of the series, a significant percentage of its fans were high school and college age, where the intended demographic was much younger.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • See the Fleetscut section below to see how he saved himself.
  • Horty zigzagged this trope constantly. Every time he got out the heap, he threw himself back in with his whining. But by the end of Loamhedge, he finally gets (and stays) out of the heap when he and Bragoon take on several of Kharanjul's horde back to back.
  • Tubgutt. He constantly picked on Mara and Pikkle and even tried to rebel against Log-a-Log. However, after Mara saved him from The Deepcoiler, Tubgutt Took a Level in Kindness and helped them on their quest.
  • Viola, who started out being a whiny tattle-tale, but later Took a Level in Badass and willingly joined Martin and his crew to save Abbot Durral.
• Ron the Death Eater: As a corollary to vermin species getting the Draco in Leather Pants treatment, the woodlander species sometimes get treated as entitled snobs with a bad case of Fantastic Racism due to the later books increasingly adhering to Good Animals, Evil Animals morality, with woodlanders sometimes appearing to brush off vermin solely based on their species (contrast this with, say, Redwall, where the Abbey's residents were willing to give anyone of any species a chance and many of Cluny's followers were implied to be benign until he forcefully conscripted them).
• Rooting for the Empire: Let's face it, we've all rooted for at least one villain to win somewhere in the series, whether it's because they're just plain cooler than the goodbeasts, have a lot more personality than the relatively vanilla protagonists, just to have a change from the norm, or if you're simply a fan of mustelids, vulpines, and/or felines. Or some combination thereof. This can particularly happen with Cluny the Scourge since much of the book is from his perspective and he’s a legitimately good strategist, so the reader always wants to see what plan he’ll come up with next. It helps that he’s one of the only villains who actually gets into Redwall and goes out giving the hero a serious fight rather than run away.
• The Scrappy:
  • Mostly residing in Triss. It is far easier to say that the only characters who aren't Scrappies are Plugg Firetail, Drufo, Shogg, the adders, and all of the Mauve Shirt Freebooters like Grubbage and Slitfang. A breakdown of the Scrappies in this book and the flak directed at them: The Pure Ferrets (barring the late Sarengo and, to a much lesser extent, Bladd, whose Villainous Friendship with the Freebooters makes him gradually braver) are Dirty Cowards that come off as pathetic even compared to other cowardly villains in the series, Triss is a boring excuse of a female protagonist that wasn't written nearly as well as the iconic Mariel, Scarum is a selfish, gluttonous jerk that never shuts up about food and is more of a hindrance than anything, and Sagax has no personality to speak of.
  • Veil Sixclaw was an in-universe example, for very good reasons. Even after he sacrificed himself to save Bryony, many Redwallers still believed that wasn't enough to make up for all his heinous crimes (although many readers would disagree).
  • Fleetscut was leaning towards becoming one with his constant whining about his hunger and being nothing but The Load to Jukka's tribe.
  • Gruntan Kurdly, who did nothing but laze around and devour hard-boiled eggs. Which is sad, considering he was the ruler of a tribe of Brownrats that wound up becoming more dangerous than Vizka Longtooth and his Sea Raiders.
  • Jeg. You know that annoying kid you've ran into that you just wanna spank really hard, but can't because he or she will go whining to his or her parents? Picture that same kid as a smelly rat who likes to whack animals with a stick, and you've got Jeg.
  • Uggo Wiltud, although he was more of an in-universe example. At first he starts out as the protagonist in The Rogue Crew who starts to go through Character Development. And then halfway through he becomes the Deuteragonist. And then he stops developing entirely and becomes The Load; at some point his sole purpose in the story was to annoy everyone he ran into except Posybud. Which, inevitably, annoyed some of the readers.
  • There's a small percentage of fans who dislike Sir Harry the Muse, and consider him the Redwall equivalent to G1 Wheelie (in that he rhymes a lot with no explanation as to why he does and helps the heroes in a huge way).
  • Gruven from Taggerung crosses this over with Replacement Scrappy. He's an ineffectual, cowardly weakling who spends most of the book bumbling around Mossflower, bragging about his non existent abilities and failing at tracking Tagg. The only reason why he succeeds is his more competent subordinates and sheer dumb luck. What makes this galling is that he replaced Sawney Rath who was a Genre Savvy Manipulative Bastard with close personal ties to Tagg and who could have had much more interesting storytelling potential.
  • Trimp from Legend of Luke is condescending and annoying and contributes little, but is coddled and fawned over by most of the characters she meets.
  • From the animated series, Cynthia Bankvole. As one of the younger child captives of season 2, she's justifiably tearful and scared. The problem is, crying and complaining is all she does, and is The Load at absolute best for most of the season. Even in-universe, Mattimeo loses patience with her constant whining.
• Sequelitis: Mattimeo, one of the few direct sequels in the series (in particular acting as a sequel to the original Redwall, often seen as a case of First Installment Wins), is often seen as one of the lesser books, due to an inconsistent narrative and a good deal of anti-climax.
  • It's commonly agreed that the books took a dip in quality somewhere along the line. Exactly where that happened is a contested point among fans.
• Ship Tease: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue of Mattimeo says that Orlando the Axe became a "firm friend" of Constance and she helped him raise his daughter Auma, who succeded Constance as Badger Mother when she died. This implies that Orlando and Constance may have been in a romantic relationship at one point, but it's never expanded upon.
• Squick:
  • Along with Nightmare Fuel and Gorn, some (if not many) of the novels have rather disgusting deaths. Vermin being boiled alive, a ferret being sliced in half, a rat being crushed by a bell, a rat being mutilated by a cart's wheel, a shrew getting bitten by an adder and the grotesque body later being discovered, a rat getting thrown against a tree... and this is all only from the first novel.
  • The last two novels have a substantial amount of decapitations. Most notably when Braggio gets his head chopped off and has it stuck onto the Greenshroud foremast. Also, The Sable Quean has a mole warrior getting a spearhead impaled into his footpaw, and then later having him force it back out. Have fun reading.
  • The emetic brewed up for Fleetscut in Lord Brocktree, which contains several highly toxic ingredients. Needless to say, it did its job.
  • The animated series changed Cornflower to being the daughter of John Churchmouse in Season 1, which would make her the older sister of Tess... who is the love interest of Cornflower's son Mattimeo. Season 2 seems to have course-corrected somewhat to avoid the incestuous implications.
• Stock Footage Failure: In "Captured" (the first episode of Season 3 of the TV series), Friar Hugo appears during the obligatory feast montage... even though he was killed in Season 2.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: see here.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Romsca just briefly tells Abbot Durral that her tale of becoming a corsair was long and hard, and then immediately drops the subject. Fans never got to find out about her backstory, since she was fatally wounded by Lask Frildur in the next scene she was in.
  • This was the reason why Outcast of Redwall and Taggerung got so much flak. Both novels introduced a new plot that involved making the main character different from the standard formula (Veil was intended to be an Anti-Hero, and Tagg an Anti-Villain, or vice versa), but after much anticipation of reading something new and creative, Tagg, an otter, ends up being good, and Veil, a ferret, ends up being bad, and no one cares about him even after he sacrifices his life to save his adoptive mother. To make Veil's case particularly damning, the previous book The Bellmaker had Blaggut, who broke the vermin species' Always Chaotic Evil mold and was well-liked for it, making his plot come off as massively disappointing (and Romsca in Pearls of Lutra right afterward came off almost as an apology).
  • Both an in-universe and out-of-universe example in the case of Taggerung. The titular character removing his tattoos, assuming his original name, and settling down to a life of pure and wholesome goodness strikes the dibbun audience (and much of the readership) as incredibly unsatisfactory and boring.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • Finnbarr Galedeep from The Bellmaker serves as a trusty companion to the main cast of his book, as a hardened pirate archetype and skilled fighter who gets the honors of disposing of the Big Bad. Unfortunately, none of this helped him survive the final battle.
  • Plugg Firetail is generally considered a much better villainous character than the actual main villains of his book, so naturally the author Dropped a Bridge on Him so that the main villain can actually try and stand on their own.
  • Major Cuthbert, quite possibly the coolest character in the entirety of High Rhulain, especially when compared to the actual protagonist (who doesn't really do a whole lot). At the very least, his death was appropriately epic.
  • Romsca is widely praised for her redemption arc and showing that not every member of a vermin species is evil by nature, and also gets coolness points for being a badass Pirate Girl, making her an absolute favorite. So of course she wasn't going to survive the book.
  • Despite his nature as a Posthumous Character, King Sarengo of Riftgard. Being competent enough to fight an adder to a Mutual Kill with his bare paws was, on its own, enough for him to far overshadow the wimpy kids of his that serve as the book's actual villains.
  • Boar the Fighter spends most of Mossflower being hyped up as the ultimate badass who would single-handedly liberate Mossflower from Tsarmina and her ilk. Naturally, he had to be taken out of the picture by Ripfang's army so that Martin would have to actually fight.
• Toy Ship: Canon example - Word of God is that Matthias and Cornflower were about thirteen during the Redwall time period, and they married at the end of the book. And had a kid by sixteen, probably a season or two earlier.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: If a novel doesn't involve the Big Bad trying to take over Redwall, but there is still a Redwall subplot involved, it probably falls under this trope. Some examples include...
  • General Ironbeak’s segments in Mattimeo have nothing to do with Matthias' journey to rescue Mattimeo and slay Slagar, but give us one of the best and most memorable villains of the series, and give Constance, Cornflower and other side characters quite a bit to do.
  • There are no fewer than five storylines in Salamandastron.
  • The Slipp and Blaggut subplot in The Bellmaker doesn't contribute anything to the overall narrative, but since this subplot involves Blaggut, the first vermin who isn't truly evil or a Jerkass, you'll probably find yourself drawn into it.
  • Depending on how you feel about him, Veil Sixclaw's entire subplot from Outcast of Redwall can potentially be skimmed over due to being, at best, tangentially related to the feud between Swartt and Sunflash which has been solidly established as the book's main conflict. Veil only meets Swartt at the very end of the book, and he never interacts with Sunflash at all. Considering he is the title character (It's called "Outcast of Redwall", not "Sunflash Kicks Ass"), it's quite an achievement.
  • Inverted in The Legend of Luke. It is because of the Wacky Wayside Tribe subplots that the novel didn't become extremely short and/or boring.
• Ugly Cute: Many fans prefer the vermin characters. It's somewhat inevitable when your ugly, wicked villains look◊ like◊ this.◊
• Viewer Species Confusion: People who are only familiar with the Nelvana series often mistake Badrang the Tyrant (the Big Bad of Martin the Warrior) for a wolf, even though he’s meant to be a stoat, since his imposing stature, gray fur and pointed ears in the animated series don’t make him look much like his intended species.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • It's a series about anthropomorphic animals like mice, squirrels and badgers, but there are frequent battles where characters die often and sometimes very violently. The first book alone has Ragear eaten alive by Asmodeus, Brother Methuselah smashed to death by Chickenhound (who later gets bitten in the face by Asmodeus), the Abbot getting pierced by Cluny's tail, and Killconey being sliced in half.
    • To an extent, this is also in a way, the opposite trope. The usage of anthropomorphic animals may be unique and adds a charm to the books, but this also creates the impression that the target audience is much younger than it actually is.
• Win Back the Crowd: The Sable Quean certainly did this after the author published quite a few lackluster (or downright horrible) novels. The Sable Quean gave us interesting and badass main characters who developed over time, no useless subplots (except for maybe one that was resolved quickly), a new plot, smarter villains, and Zwilt the Shade. Needless to say, many Redwall fans were pleased with this book. Unfortunately, just as the crowd came back the author left.
• The Woobie:
  • Like Martin, Brome and Grumm in “Martin The Warrior” make it out okay, but they have to live with the death of Rose, whom they clearly both feel some survivor’s guilt over.
  • Poor, poor Scragg. He's first horrendously injured, then brutally killed by Cheesethief just for being more competent than him. For a minor Punch-Clock Villain, his death is one of the hardest parts to read.
  • Gliv goes from garden-variety mook to this in just one line: "He was my mate. I loved him." The fact that she goes from serving Zwilt to plotting against him - even going as far as to nurse Vilaya back to health after Zwilt stabs her - shows just how hard she's taking the loss of her other half. It's made all the worse when Vilaya kills her for having served her purpose and the narration briefly switches to Gliv's perspective as she's dying.
  • Gingivere Greeneyes. He has nothing but good intentions for everyone he meets. He dutifully takes care of his gravely ill father. And what does he get for it? Betrayal. His own sister, Tsarmina, frames him for poisoning their father, Verdauga, in order to usurp the throne. Gingivere is forced into a cell deep in the dungeon with no one to talk to, and, on top of that, Tsarmina forbids everyone from even speaking Gingivere's name. He is kept there for at least a few months, and it's implied that he is not taken care of nearly as much as Martin, who was imprisoned in a cell closer to the dungeon's entrance. Fortunately, he is eventually freed, but the whole experience must have been harrowing for him.