History Literature / Redwall

The AnimatedAdaptation was made by the Canadian company Creator/{{Nelvana}} and featured 36 episodes over three seasons - the first based on the original book, the second on ''Mattimeo'' and the third on ''Martin the Warrior''. It was played on Creator/PBSKids ([[CreatorsOddball really]]) by way of American Public Television in the United States and Creator/{{Teletoon}} in Canada. The show's respect for its source material, its strong writing, and unforgettable characters have garnered it great praise, and it is widely considered among Nelvana and Teletoon's all-time best shows, as well as one of the true icons of Canadian animation. You can see it in its entirety on Nelvana's [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUIixndCOJ8yNBH3FmtlUTxDj-sfBxPEx Treehouse Direct channel on YouTube.]]

* BigBad: In order: [[SatanicArchetype Cluny the Scourge]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Tsarmina]], [[ManipulativeBastard Slagar the Cruel]], [[TheMentallyDisturbed Gabool the Wild]], [[BeautyIsBad Ferahgo the Assassin]], [[ArchEnemy Badrang the Tyrant]], Urgan Nagru, [[AbusiveParents Swartt Sixclaw]], [[AgentPeacock Ublaz Mad Eyes]], [[GeneralRipper Damug Warfang]], [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Mokkan]], [[WickedCultured Vilu Daskar]], [[JerkAss Ungatt Trunn]], [[BigBadWannabe Gruven]], [[DirtyCoward Princess Kurda]], [[TheGrotesque Kharanjul the Wearet]], [[AxCrazy Gulo the Savage]], [[CatsAreMean Riggu Fellis]], [[CunningLikeAFox Vizka Longtooth]], [[CreepyCrows Korvus Skurr]], [[BloodKnight Zwilt the Shade]], and [[TheDreaded Razzid Wearet]].

** Particularly in the case of Skalrag the Fox. In the books, he's put on the torture rack before being hung from the gates and shot full of arrows. The animated series simply has him being tickle tortured.

* WarIsHell: For a children's series, Redwall doesn't hold many punches. In the first book, at the end of the first battle with Cluny's horde, mention is made of the price of the battle - freshly dug graves and a filled infirmary.

* WickedWeasel: Weasels are AlwaysChaoticEvil, so...

--> '''Tsarmina''': Yes, jellybrains. You and Ratflank take them one by one to the cells.
-->'''Brogg''': Yes, Milady.
-->'''Tsarmina''': Will you stop interrupting me and listen! All anyone ever says around here is 'yes, Milady' or 'no, Milady'.
-->'''Brogg''': Yes, Milady.
-->'''Tsarmina''': Shut up!

-->"I'll kill you just like I killed Log-a-log!"
-->"You can't. I'm facin' you, Fenno, you stabbed Log-a-log in the back!"

* OffModel: The animated series has some examples:
** In "Sparra's Kingdom", [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/redwall/images/3/38/Winifred_TV_Series.png/revision/latest?cb=20100908225407 Winifred's eyes are drawn without the sclera, making them entirely blue]]. This was thankfully corrected for her later appearances, ''especially'' when she became an AscendedExtra in Season 2.
** In "Favour Returned", [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2020_01_25_redwall_sparras_kingdom.png Bigwing is colored like Warbeak as he says "Plenty ratworms dig, quick fast!"]].

* SingleSpeciesNations: Zigzagged, as, while many species do live among themselves, this is mostly due to isolation and many have few problems living with different species.
** The titular Redwall Abbey always is home to mice, moles, otters, hedgehogs, squirrels, and the occasional badger or hare.
** Shrews and some hedgehogs live on logboats, but always welcome heroes (since they usually serve as transportation).
** Salamandstron is notable for being populated by hares and a family of badgers, who lead a strict military life as they protect the eastern coast from pirates.
** On the villainous side, vermin (foxes, rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, cats, and other carnivores) travel in great hordes, and there is little interspecies rivalry, although a vermin leader sometimes favors his own species over others. As one of their common traits is a very direct approach to discipline, no one ever complains.

** In an early scene in the first book, claims that Cluny's horde is all evil is met with cries of "That's right, give a rat a bad name!" implying that there are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil rats]] living in Redwall. This is most certainly not the case in the future.[[note]]Except for Grubbage.[[/note]] The first book also implies generally that not only rats but other "vermin" are ''not'' AlwaysChaoticEvil, but the later books have the opposite being the case, aside from a few exceptions.
** The Guosim(Guerilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower} are very different in ''Redwall'' from their latter depictions. They're led by a president named also Guosim and decide everything by comunal vote with Log-a-Log a just a respected elder. Later books begining with ''Matimeo'' would drop this and make Log-a-log the chieftain with the name becoming a title used by all other shrew leaders in the books.

** In ''Mossflower'', Bella says that Salamandastron is ruled exclusively by male badgers, and rulership is passed from father to son. In later books there are several female Badger Lords, and it's never mentioned whether any of the Badger Lords after Sunflash are related to each other apart from Rawnblade Widestripe.

** Any victim of Asmodeus in ''Redwall''. Which explains how [[spoiler: Chickenhound escaped his fate, albeit not unscathed, come ''Mattimeo''.]]

* MoodWhiplash: Many of the novels are well-known for jumping from a death-laden battle scene to flat-out humor. ''Mossflower'' has Martin encoutering a massive crab with giant pincers, and shortly after it begins to attack him, Gonff [[HilarityEnsues shoves a stick between its claws and dances with it, joking about it the whole time.]].

* FiveManBand:
** There have been a few of these in the series, but the group from ''Marlfox'' seems to fit the tropes best.
*** TheHero: Dannflor.
*** TheLancer: Dippler.
*** TheSmartGuy: Burble.
*** TheBigGuy: Sollertree (for a short time).
*** TheChick: Songbreeze.
** These can often be seen amongst the bad guys, such as in ''Redwall'':
*** BigBad: Cluny the Scourge.
*** TheDragon: Redtooth, [[spoiler: later killed and replaced by Cheesethief...who is then also killed and replaced by the trio of Darkclaw, Killconey and Fangburn.]]
*** EvilGenius: Killconey. [[spoiler: Mostly for his work on the tunnel.]]
*** TheBrute: Fangburn.
*** TheDarkChick / SixthRangerTraitor: Sela.

** Some of the more gruesome deaths (mostly of villains) include: being boiled to death by scalding water, having their spine snapped and ''still living for hours after'', being asphyxiated after paralysis, getting shredded to pieces by pike fish, getting force-drowned, being eaten alive by giants snakes, being eaten alive by [[CarnivoreConfusion cannibals]], being eaten alive by spider crabs, being thrown onto a row of sharpened javelins, being flayed alive, getting a smashed-in skull, being cloven in two with a sword or axe, being stung to death by thousands of bees, and the usual [[LosingYourHead beheading]], [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling]], and [[PoisonedWeapons poisoning]]. Several good guys die this way as well.

* ForeignQueasine: Tagg is initially apprehensive when he hears about "snakeyfish pie", a pygmy shrew delicacy made from elvers (young eels). He winds up loving it due to the fact that it's prepared in such a way that it doesn't look, smell, or taste like an elver, which is rather ironic, as eel's real world deliciousness has driven it to the point of being endangerd.

* GoodAnimalsEvilAnimals: Played to a T. Vermin are evil; mice, badgers, moles, and so on are good. There are exceptions on both sides, but not many.

%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: The Major from High Rhulain.]]
%%** And so many others, like.... [[spoiler: Shogg, Bragoon and Saro, Warbeak, Mask, etc....]]

* HypercompetentSidekick: Stringle. Since his boss was Gruntan Kurdly, that's not saying much.

** Jodd's full name is ''the'' single longest one in the series. According to him, YouDoNOTWantToKnow what it is, and when it's revealed it spans roughly ''two and a half lines of text'' before he gets cut off. Captain Tramun Josiah Cuttlefish Clogg also counts.

* PsychoForHire: Baliss, who was hired by Korvus Skurr to strike fear in the Redwallers. [[WhatAnIdiot Not his best decision...]]

* YesMan: In ''Mossflower'', Tsarmina complains about Brogg being this to her. This doesn't stop her from keeping him a position of power, nevertheless.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: [[StockNessMonster Slothunog]] in ''High Rhulain'' is implied to be a surviving Mesozoic sea reptile.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: In the book ''Martin the Warrior'', Martin brings his sword with him when he departs for Mossflower Woods, but in the cartoon he leaves it behind, making it harder to explain how his sword got to Redwall Abbey as Martin in both continuities never told any of his companions where he was headed. Additionally, if the planned season based on ''Mossflower'' came to fruition, major concessions would have to be made in the plot as Martin having the sword was a fairly significant plot point.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_castle 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.

* PoisonedChaliceSwitcheroo: Lantur poisons [[spoiler:her mother]] in ''Marlfox''. Swartt Sixclaw pulls off a good one in ''Outcast'' by poisoning the chalice itself instead of the wine. In the latter case, [[AnAxeToGrind Balefur]] even Lampshades this outright when Swartt invites him to sit down and have some food: "Yer a canny creature, Swart, ye drink from the bottle an' ah drink from the silver cup, eh? Is that what yer thinkin'?"

->''"It's like'' [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'', but [[RecycledInSpace with mice]]."''
-->--'''LetsPlay/LuckySevenDX'''

* NumberOneDime: Redwall Abbey doesn't have many treasures besides Martin's gear (the shield, scabbard, armor, and especially the sword). That said, its ever growing tapestry, which chronicles historic events before and after the abbey's foundation, is most definitely this. A priceless artifact, the residents sometimes drop everything if a villain threatens to damage it. Several vermin actually exploit this to get the jump on them. In ''Redwall'' Cluny held on a piece of it for a while before Basil and Jess took it back. In ''Mattimeo'', Ironbeak's army pretended to tear it up to lure the residents into a trap. In ''Marlfox'', the main plot involves the heroes journeying to retrieve the tapestry after the titular villains steal it from under them.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Axtel Sturnclaw, mole berserker.
** General Ironbeak also counts.

** Many {{big bad}}s, but especially Gabool and Gulo.

* TurtlePower: The "Walking Stone", a pet tortoise, is the symbol of kingship among wolverines. How such a creature (native to deserts and tropical climes) survives in the wolverines' icy homeland is not explained.

The AnimatedAdaptation was made by the Canadian company Creator/{{Nelvana}} and featured 36 episodes over three seasons - the first based on the original book, the second on ''Mattimeo'' and the third on ''Martin the Warrior''. It was played on Creator/PBSKids ([[CreatorsOddball really]]) by way of American Public Television in the United States and Creator/{{Teletoon}} in Canada. The show's respect for its source material, its strong writing, and unforgettable characters have garnered it great praise, and it is widely considered among Nelvana and Teletoon's all-time best shows, as well as one of the true icons of Canadian animation. You can see it in its entirety on Nelvana's [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUIixndCOJ8yNBH3FmtlUTxDj-sfBxPEx Treehouse Direct channel on Youtube.]]

An AdventureGame video game series based on the books is currently in the works. In the first game, "[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/656030/The_Lost_Legends_of_Redwall__The_Scout/ The Scout]]", you play as one of two mice from a village called Lilygrove, not far from Redwall Abbey: while training to become members of a group that protect the village, Lilygrove is suddenly attacked by a band of pirates led by the wearat Scumsnout. The second game, [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/930630/The_Lost_Legends_of_Redwall_Escape_the_Gloomer "Escape the Gloomer,"]] is a text-based game set during the events of ''Mossflower''.

* AdaptationOriginConnection: In the TV show, Cluny killed Matthias's family.

* {{Kaiju}}: There are several SeldomSeenSpecies whose size relative to the heroes makes them this.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Pine martens, most prominently. And strangely enough, rabbits.

* UniquenessValue: Whatever the SeldomSeenSpecies of the book's BigBad, it's a given there'll be very few others of that species (sometimes gaining EliteMook status).

** Foxes are almost always seen as [[CunningLikeAFox cunning at best]], and treacherous at worst. No matter who they help, they always look out for themselves. Hell, the Marlfox family take this UpToEleven, having no problem killing each other if it means reaping the glory for themselves.

* {{Flanderization}}: It becomes common knowledge that hares have big appetites. This is taken UpToEleven with Bescarum (who will steal from various hosts when he gets hungry) and Diggs (who simply never talks about anything else.)

* PlotArmor: As the series goes on, it gets stronger and stronger, and covers more and more of the heroes. Earlier in the series AnyoneCanDie. [[UpToEleven Taken to extremes]] in ''Taggerung''. With the exception of Rillflag and [[spoiler: Cregga Rose Eyes]], the only good guys who die in the novel are nameless [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] or characters who were forgotten shortly after their death.

* AmbiguouslyChristian: The Mossflower woodland creatures live as a religious-type order (an abbey with an abbot/abbess, various characters referred to as brother/sister, a church named after a saint, etc). However, a supreme being is never even mentioned, let alone any sort of denomination, and though there is an afterlife mentioned, little detail has been given on it. The first book mentions Satan and Hell, [[EarlyInstallmentWierdness but no mention of them is made again]].

* TakeThat: Rabbits seem to be an extended TakeThat against BritishStuffiness and class snobbery. They're depicted as prissy, cowardly UpperClassTwits who look down their noses at other woodlanders. [[BerserkButton Notably, the single worst insult you can give a hare is to call them a rabbit.]]