I Think He Just Wants To Be Grumpy

I think he just wants to be grumpy

A summary

This is everything I need in life

Aaaaand this is where most of my concentration has gone for the past little while. Over on the Redwall re-read discord, we’ve (ok well probably mostly me) kind of developed an unofficial cast of characters. I’ve had a lot of fun designing them and forming their personalities.

Featured here:

Stonecrop: Current Badgerlord of Salamandastron. Extroverted and go-with-the-flow, likes to tease and joke, though doesn’t always realize how hurtful some of his words can be. Preferred weapon is a double-bladed polearm scimitar. Always down for a good fight.

Lilium: Current Badgermum of Redwall (and, jokingly, of the Discord server, which is how this all got started). Originally from a farm. Very practical creature, rather quiet and introverted. Was going to marry Stonecrop, but she found being in such a formal environment incredibly stifling and didn’t like the expectation to wait hand and foot on her soon-to-be husband while also being expected to never lift a finger to do anything by herself. 

Lilium and Stonecrop balanced each other out well–she would rein in him a little bit and convince him to think something through before saying/doing it, while he got her to come out of her shell and be more comfortable expressing herself instead of bottling it up. But when Lilium realized how unhappy she was living at the mountain, Stonecrop was too dedicated to his role as Badgerlord, so they broke up. They do genuinely miss each other and still have moments together the rare times that they see each other, but neither of them really want to admit it.

Marina: A mouse, and surprisingly the main antagonist of the story. Marina has spent most of her life working for/in close proximity to the Badgerlords. She was always very impulsive and scrappy, and she’s got killer aim with throwing weapons (literally and figuratively). I haven’t quite figured out exactly what triggers it, but she ultimately turns against Stonecrop and tries to attack him and the mountain, but fails, losing an eye in the process. She then drifted out to sea and was taken in by a passing ship (the Wavewar) and treated for her injuries. As soon as she was healed, though, she took over and made it her mission to go after Salamandastron.

Rulf and Brinna: A pair of stoats, and a very happy couple (aka fulfilling my desire for a healthy vermin relationship in the Redwall universe). Rulf is captain of the Wavewar, the ship that takes in Marina. Marina hits him in the head with a boat hook and severely injures him. His girlfriend, Brinna, manages to get them both off the ship and onto the shore near Salamandastron, where she meets Stonecrop and is able to convince him to give them sanctuary in the mountain, where they form a tentative truce to stop Marina and get their ship (and crew) back.

Swartt says shoulda woulda coulda

Integrating this in my vocabulary starting today

Bella: You scored a 25/27 on your mental health questionnaire.

Martin: So that means I'm good at mental health, right?

Abbess Germaine, entering the room: Hello, I'm your crisis counselor

Martin: Ah, beans.

Some villain hordes have absolutely eaten small sentient animals before, and the Redwallers are always horrified if they find out. Redwallers would never eat thrush. In my mind, it’s not that the thrush aren’t sentient, it’s that Ascrod eats them anyway. I imagine the thrush is semi-sentient and keeps mostly to itself.

Hey redwall??? Why are owls sentient but thrush are still non-sentient??

!!!!!!! Perfection

This one might not make a lot of sense out of context, but I can tell you that we have a lot of fun on the Redwall re-read discord. :D

There was a joke going around about what Salamandastron would look like if it had giant Hollywood-sign-style letters on it, and in typical chaotic discord fashion it…devolved? Evolved? Take your pick.

Also, when we were reading Martin the Warrior, a fellow member made a comment about how Skalrag was just trying to have a “hot girl summer” and didn’t get it, which has led to a lot of hot girl summer cruise jokes and why the last panel was necessary.

P.S. these are technically the first drawings I ever did of Marina!