A Couple Prototype Minifigures From The Upcoming Rocky Mountain Minifigs Woodland Creatures 6-figure

A couple prototype minifigures from the upcoming Rocky Mountain Minifigs woodland creatures 6-figure initial release.

Planned figures:

Dark Tan Abbey Mouse with Sword

Orange Abbey Mouse with Sling

Long Patrol Hare Officer with Spear

Long Patrol Hare Soldier with Spear

Corsair Rat with Cutlass

Vermin Wildcat Sage with Staff

I love "best friends forever" Song and Dann. They remind me of Mariel and Dandin, who are also a great pair. They're so fun. I love them.

I guess, if your name is Dan(n), you're destined for a qpr.

Dann: Song, can I talk to you for a second? Song: Yeah, what’s up? Lemme guess. You and Dippler are having problems and you want me to teach you how to kiss? Dann: What? No, stop that. I know how to kiss. I’ve read books.

I hope you enjoyed the book!!

I am particularly interested in your first bullet point about the Dark Forest vs. Hellgates. I know Jacques has said that he purposefully did not include religion in the Redwall books, although the Abbey itself has obvious roots in real-world religion (and, for that matter, the word "Hellgates").

"There is no religion in my stories and no hidden meanings. What you see is what you get." -Jacques, via the Redwall Wiki

The way I always thought about it, the Dark Forest isn't really a direct metaphor for heaven in that it's not a place goodbeasts go when they die, but a way for woodlanders to speak about the death of their peers.

The Dark Forest can be a safe place, as Mossflower is familiar to its woodland inhabitants, but it can also be frightening. I remember that characters from The Rogue Crew get lost in a dark part of Mossflower wood where birds don't sing and the sun doesn't shine through the branches. The Dark Forest is also not the only place that is used in talks of death. Vermin, of course, are often damned to Hellgates. Goodbeasts also speak about peaceful meadows in which their friends now lie (a metaphor that I have always particularly loved).

I've seen people talk about the Hellgates as a curse. That is, beasts will be cursed to Hellgates or speak fearfully of the Hellgates, but they are using the word primarily as a linguistic and cultural idea. I thought that was interesting. My partner suggested that the Hellgates were inside the Dark Forest, which is also fun.

So, upon reflection sparked by your comment, I think that anyone could "go to the Dark Forest." This includes Gormad Tunn. However, the Hellgates may be reserved only for villains.

However! I am only speculating about my favorite stories in the world, so I don't mean to correct anything you said. Thank you for the post and the thoughts it provoked <33

Thoughts on The Long Patrol

ok we're almost done this blog will be about Other Things again

Soon Gormad Tunn’s spirit would be at the gates of Dark Forest. Dark Forest is the equivalent of a peaceful afterlife. Hellgates is...not. Was this killer under the impression he was going to heaven lmao 

Seeing young uns pick their weapons at the mountain forge and learn to be Salamandastron hares is nice. 

💯 Forgot Cregga was Ruler of Salamandastron. 

Abbess Tansy my girl 🌟 Arven is the only known animal to go from Warrior to Abbott and that's only bc he was truly the last option (mentioned in Marlfox).  

There's a mention that if Salamandastron did not stand, the entire country would be overrun with vermin. Chapters later, Eyebright says they can only defend the West and shores in front of them. We never see a recurring other fighting force in the series with a permanent dwelling. Smaller bands and groups fill in the blanks but the mountain really doesn't cover a wide swath. 

We have another odd throwback to how the time periods differ or what their lengths may be. This book iirc is kind of the barrier between fairly directly chronological (Arwen acknowledged Auma, who was Badger Mother in Pearls of Lutra and the young kidnapped badger in Mattimeo) and great centuries may have passed (in Triss, Skipper is noted be the distant descendant of The Taggerung.)

all that to say how did Russa’s tomb never become a landmark? She also died too early I feel. Should have been more like halfway in the book.

Gaduss unlooped from his belt a greased strangling noose 4 fashioned from animal sinew. This vermin probably skinned some creature down to the muscles and ripped out the sinew to use as a noose. Wow. 

Squirrels don't really have a subculture in this series after like book 3. The Squirrelqueen stuff amounted to nothing, there's a minor mention in Outcast of a squirrel language, a handful of squirrel characters have surnames and familial legacies (mainly Dann, Tan, and Triss) but that's it. Even hedgehogs have Waterhogs. Mice subculture is truly just Redwall as a whole. There are more mouse brothers and sisters and rulers than any other species, although after the initial trilogy, Mariel and Joseph, and the Martin/Luke stories, mice aren't the main characters again until doomwyte.  For a series that's stereotyped as “fighting mice”, that's incredible. 

“O’er The Hills” could have a nice melody 

It's a lot fresher than I recall. The tropes work because the Patrol naturally wanders the country. The villain is smart. Redwall itself undergoes a change. The only tiresome part is Pasque marrying Tamm, it's always a Gentle Healer Maid who can sorta fight marrying the lead.

This also happens to Salixa in Eulalia...also on that ridge.

I'll elaborate more but I don't think most of this series is as repetitive as people like to say .

Martin: I forget, but I do NOT forgive. Martin: I walk around hating bitches and I can't remember why.

Incredibly written, both of you, friends. I love all of Martin's story; his patronage toward all abbeydwellers and even goodbeasts beyond Mosslfower, and especially the tragedy and unfinishedness of his earlier life. I don't know why, but I find safety in the things that Martin lost and the way that is accepted and respected in the story. I think Jacques writes very good characters.

Also, I find it symbolically interesting that Gonff went on to father many children, while his best friend's life ended with no offspring but generations of Redwallers to call family. Their paths are both opposites and parallel. And Jacques always said that Gonff was inspired by himself.

I remember the thing that most struck me in Redwall as a kid was that I expected Martin to have a wife and kids. He’s the spiritual father of the abbey with Germaine as its mother, he’s a mentor/father figure to the various orphan protagonists even if he is a ghost. The ultimate unattainable dad.

But, hopping back to Mossflower, he’s a virginal hero-knight, kindly but aloof compared to the more involved Gonff. Back further to Martin the Warrior, his relationship with Rose is beyond kids’-book chaste. I can’t even remember if it’s canonically a romance or just by implication.

Some of that may be the Christian influence, Martin as Galahad or a Christ-figure, unsullied by earthly desires. Kid me remembered it more as an abortion or stunting of his role in the story. He’s the hero. He’s supposed to win the day, get the girl, settle down, have a brood. Instead, Jacques takes care to show him as a person missing something. He’s incomplete.

From the earliest point in his chronology, he’s lost away from home. We never see him in his natural habitat. He loses the girl who was supposed to be his great love. He can’t even have Timballisto, who seems like one bright spot and then gets gently referred to in the past tense in Legend of Luke. Martin’s defining characteristic is that he’s an outsider, he’s too late, he’s stopped short, he’s unable to achieve his destiny as the hero, he has to instead become the mentor

Redwall Abbey