History Headscratchers / RedwallSeries

* This troper thinks the reason why readers find the idea of vermin being {{Always Chaotic Evil}} more offensive than, say, the Orks from Tolkien's [[LordofTheRings Ring series]] is because they're based off of real animals. A child reading the Redwall series may mistakenly come to believe that all rats are thugs, all stoats are vicious murderers and all foxes are conniving manipulators. It's even worse for snakes and toads, who are already suffering from bad reputations as it is. Conversely, he may also think the good animals in the books like the mice, rabbits, badgers, otters and squirrels are sweet and noble in real life (obviously not true since any wild animal can be dangerous no matter how cute they look). While the books do mention some good vermin, they're so few and far between that they are more like an exception to the rule rather than proving vermin are not inherently evil. The books also don't try to delve into exactly why the vermin are such raging assholes, simply stating that they're evil and that there is nothing they can do to change their nature (like Veil) as if free will has nothing to do with it.
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** The series is actually pretty reliable about making vegetation small, whenever it's mentioned. Matthias is introduced in ''Redwall'' as a very small mouse with a number of hazelnuts held in his arms, and while hazelnuts are not very large, the real-world scale would make such things impossible -- three hazelnuts would be larger than he is. Likewise, a young tree is just about the right size for a badger's bow, while even human-scale saplings would be well oversized. The very large trees may simply be a byproduct of relatively little deforestation (and in the case of Brockhall, being at least partially if not mostly underground). Animal size... it's pretty much the FurryFandom equivalent of Superman being As Strong As He Needs To Be; any Mossflower speaking animal is exactly the size it needs to be for the plot at the time. Constance can carry a cart that's large enough to hold a big family of mice, but a couple servings of fish on a mouse's scale is all she wants to eat, even when others have significantly more. The architecture could actually go either way. The Redwall Abbey itself was constructed solely by the talking animals of the setting, and it's still staggeringly high; Jess Squirrel is described as looking like a speck at the top of the abbey, and the trees nearby are described as being more than six yards high while still being under the wall's height (while a two pound trout is considered a record-setter and large enough to feed an abbey).

* This troper thinks the reason why readers find the idea of vermin being {{Always Chaotic Evil}} more offensive than, say, the Orks from Tolkien's [[LordofTheRings Ring series]] is because they're based off of real animals. A child reading the Redwall series may mistakenly come to believe that all rats are thugs, all stoats are vicious murderers and all foxes are conniving manipulators. It's even worse for snakes and toads, who are already suffering from bad reputations as it is. Conversely, he may also think the good animals in the books like the mice, rabbits, badgers, otters and squirrels are sweet and noble in real life (obviously not true since any wild animal can be dangerous no matter how cute they look). While the books do mention some good vermin, they're so few and far between that they are more like an exception to the rule rather than proving vermin are not inherently evil. The books also don't try to delve into exactly why the vermin are such raging assholes, simply stating that they're evil and that there is nothing they can do to change their nature (like Veil), suggesting they don't even have free will.

* This troper thinks the reason why readers find the idea of vermin being {{Always Chaotic Evil}} more offensive than, say, the Orks from Tolkien's [[LordofTheRings Ring series]] is because they're based off of real animals. A child reading the Redwall series may mistakenly come to believe that all rats are thugs, all stoats are vicious murderers and all foxes are conniving manipulators. It's even worse for snakes and toads, who are already suffering from bad reputations as it is. Conversely, he may also think the good animals in the books like the mice, rabbits, badgers, otters and squirrels are sweet and noble in real life (obviously not true since any wild animal can be dangerous no matter how cute they look). While the books do mention some good vermin, they're so few and far between that they are more like an exception to the rule rather than proving vermin are not inherently evil.

*** Ah, you mean the guy being accused of prejudice has claimed he wasn't being prejudiced? Well, never mind then. ("Affectionate" stereotyping is still stereotyping.)

** Because it makes us [[CompleteMonster not sympathize with the villain who eventually gets their comeuppance]]. It does get gratuitous, but most things involving the villains do.

* The feasts usually include some sort of cheese-based dish. Nobody keeps livestock; whence comes milk for the cheese? Perhaps abbey-dwelling mothers are expected to donate their extra milk to the abbey larder?

** And the fact that there's reputedly all kinds of rich stuff (like, oh, I don't know, a shiny sword, an enormous tapestry, wines that, if traded for gold, would probably fetch a lot of money, various golden items ((the only source of this coming from the first book when Chickenhound decides to repay the Redwallers for saving his sorry hide by taking all of their valuables, then [[spoiler: killing old Methuselah, even unintentionally]]. There's also two huge bells, and the sword is reputed to be "magic" through various stories that apparently grow more outlandish with each telling.

** Because it makes us [[Main/CompleteMonster not sympathize with the villain who eventually gets their comeuppance]]. It does get gratuitous, but most things involving the villains do.

* Why are all the vermin races Main/{{AlwaysChaoticEvil}}? I can understand most cases, but when one was ''raised from infancy'' in Redwall Abbey this gets rather ridiculous.

** All we really have to tell us that Veil was evil is Bryony's word, and she may just be rationalising his Main/{{RedemptionEqualsDeath}} Main/{{HeroicSacrifice}}. A large part of it was the screwed-upness caused by having ''no fucking clue'' who his parents were or what they had done.

** Cluny was supposedly from Portugal, but this is fairly obviously Main/{{CanonDisContinuity}} by now.