#lord Brocktree

[stearleart]

Lord Brocktree

Digital illustration of Brian Jacque's Lord Brocktree

[incorrectredwallquotes]

Brocktree: When you break a bone it will typically heal to be stronger than before. Dotti: So I should break every bone in my body over and over again until everyone is at my mercy? Brocktree: Or you could just be normal for once.

[tinybookgirl]

“Are you sure it wasn’t too much bother, havin’ to jolly well get off your bottom an’ help me out?”

“As I said, I thought you were doing quite well. If I’d thought you could have taken them single-pawed I wouldn’t have stepped in.”

“Hmm, suppose you’re right. I lost my head a bit when that flagon of rare old cider got broken.”

[redwalltournaments]

This is now my blog for any Redwall themed tournaments I feel like doing or that anyone else may suggest. Best Villain and Most Tragic Death have been done elsewhere but anything else is fair game.

Same mod as @incorrectredwallquotes

Starting out simple with best Redwall book. In order to make the math pretty I’ve included The Great Redwall Feast and A Redwall Winters Tale, additionally the semi-finals will feature triple contestants. Polls will last a week to get some traction.

Match Ups Round 1:

Redwall vs. Eualia Winner: Redwall

Lord Brocktree vs. Marlfox Winner: Marlfox

The Long Patrol vs. Mariel of Redwall Winner: Mariel of Redwall

Rakkety Tam vs. Martin the Warrior Winner: Martin the Warrior

Triss vs. A Redwall Winters Tale Winner: Triss

Mattimeo vs. Outcast of Redwall Winner: Mattimeo

Salamandastron vs. High Rhulain Winner: Salamandastron

Pearls of Lutra vs. Doomwyte Winner: Pearls of Lutra

The Bellmaker vs. Mossflower Winner: Mossflower

The Great Redwall Feast vs. The Sable Quean Winner: The Sable Quean

Loamhedge vs. The Taggerung Winner: The Taggerung

Legend of Luke vs. The Rogue Crew Winner: Legend of Luke

Match Ups Round 2:

Redwall vs. Marlfox Winner: Redwall

Mariel of Redwall vs. Martin the Warrior Winner: Martin the Warrior

Triss vs. Mattimeo Winner: Mattimeo

Salamandastron vs. Pearls of Lutra Winner: Pearls of Lutra

Mossflower vs. The Sable Quean Winner: Mossflower

The Taggerung vs. Legend of Luke Winner: The Taggerung

Match Ups Round 3:

For this round only one contestant will be eliminated, the remaining two contestants will swap competitors and move onto the semi-finals.

Redwall vs. Martin the Warrior vs. Mattimeo Eliminated: Mattimeo

Pearls of Lutra vs. Mossflower vs. The Taggerung Eliminated: Pearls of Lutra

Match Ups Semi-Finals

Contestants have swapped competitors to avoid going against the same book as the previous round.

Martin the Warrior vs. The Taggerung

Redwall vs. Mossflower

Finals

Martin the Warrior vs. Mossflower

[lostmidnightwriter]

[knightofthenewrepublic]

My interpretation of Long Patrol uniforms

[coldmouseart]

I decided to post a photo of the books I have left.

The original title of this book is "Lord Brocktree". However, we call it "The Last Battle".

[subtleshenanigans]

Ungatt Trunn redraw!

Lord Brocktree is in my top three Redwall books, it’s fun.

[happytapirstudio]

Redwall Reread #1: Lord Brocktree

1st in chronological order, 13th in publication order (2001)

(major spoilers under the cut)

Summary: The Badger Lord, Brocktree of Brockhall, journeys to the legendary mountain of his ancestors, Salamandastron, to liberate it from the cruel wildcat tyrant Ungatt Trunn.

Framing Device: A Badger Lord many years after Brocktree's time is sharing this story with the greater Salamandastron community: his wife, two kids, the hares of the Long Patrol, and various seaside neighbors.

The Goodies: Primarily Brocktree (da badger on da quest) and Dotti (a young hare, headed to Salamandastron to visit her aunt.) Along the way they pick up Ruff the river otter, Gurth the mole, and a veritable shitton of other critters, including shrews, hedgehogs, and hares of the regular and mountain variety. Meanwhile, back at the mountain, we've got Brocktree's dad, the elderly Lord Stonepaw, and his host of similarly elderly warrior hares. One of these hares, Fleetscut, is sent on a quest to recruit younger warriors; he is saved and then joined by Jukka and her tribe of squirrels. In the last third of the book, a team of sea otters joins the fight.

The Baddies: Ungatt Trunn (wildcat), leading a horde of vermin (rats, weasels, foxes, etc.) all of which have dyed their fur blue. It is his Blue Horde, and there are a lot of them. There's a major nautical component to the army--they come in on ships, and a lot of their number are former pirates--but Trunn himself is a landlubber from the mountains. Truthfully I don't know where he got this incredibly massive army (arguably the largest in Redwall history), but I'm gonna say it was daddy's money. Notable underlings include the stunted fox magician, Groddil, a ferret called the Grand Fragorl, the rat captain Mirefleck, the stoat captain Fraul, the fox captain Karangool and the searat brothers Ripfang and Doomeye.

The Freakies: CRAB MOMENT 🦀🦀🦀!!! Additionally, a big pike.

The Birdies: A flightless, short-eared owl named Udara Groundslay and a (nonverbal) grey heron named Rulango.

Noteworthy Locations: Primarily Salamandastron and the surrounding coastal area. Also Mossflower Wood, pre-Redwall Abbey. Everything inbetween falls into the category of "somewhat arid open country", though I'd say King Bucko Bigbones' Clearing deserves a special mention as a sort of verdant oasis in all that sad scrubland.

Noteworthy Weapons: My main man Broccoli wields a double-hilted broadsword. With all due respect to the cover artists of both editions, I don't think that's what Mr. Jacques had in mind. I think it looked like a normal sword with a second cross guard on the blade itself. We've also got Tuna's weapon of choice, a three-pronged trident. Very nautical-core of him. Honorable mention to Dotti's carpet bag, swung about with wild abandon, as well as the hareccordion within.

Riddles: None!

Continuity Notes: Brocktree (+ Stonepaw) and Trunn are each part of their own extensive lineage of badgers and wildcats, featured in other books. We've also got a Martin the Warrior cameo (he shows up in one of Brocktree's visions.) Additionally, although Salamandastron and the Badger Lords have already been around for a long time, this book marks the beginning of I guess its "modern" age, with the founding of the Long Patrol.

Other Notes: This is perhaps the one and only Redwall book without a distinctive mouse character. Martin doesn't count, nor do the smattering of mice mentioned once in Bucko's court, as none of them have either a name or a speaking role. Squeaking role, excuse me.

Bonus Note - Homestuck: Trunn is, and I am not shitting you here, Vriska-core. He keeps his ship's stateroom full of spiders and spiderwebs, stocked with flies via the decaying bodies of people who pissed him off. Like the spider-pirate intersection is not one well-traversed in fiction, right? This is not a trope, right?? Also an uncanny coincidence that Trunn's sidekick, the crippled fox, is crippled because Trunn intentionally broke his back as a child. ?!? Alexa play X-files theme

Tapir Takes:

(1) I am a huge fan of the Brocktree-Dotti dynamic (big scary man burdened with the shadow of destiny + a sunny hyperactive little girl who seems apparently oblivious to life's darkness but can in fact dish out some serious ass-kicking.) Unfortunately, this relationship (and several others) are overshadowed by the exponentially increasing cast of characters and the forward momentum of the plot itself.

(2) Realizing for the first time that Redwall does a surprisingly good job at subverting gender roles. Not perfect, but still leagues above many movies and shows that are still coming out in this the year of our lord 2023. The girls can fight about as good as the boys, the boys can cook just like the girls, and nobody in-universe bats an eye. Some of y'all should be taking notes.

(3) Pulling out a quote in chapter 6: "If'n yore bound to take the life of a livin' thing for food, then take only wot you need. Life's too precious a thing t'be wasted." This is said by Ruff as he pulls fish out of the water for dinner. I've wondered about vegetarianism in Redwall before, and although I haven't got much to say on it now, I wanted to mark this passage for later. It's worth noting that fish are non-speaking animals in the Redwall universe.

(3.5) I'd also like to point out that the starving Horde plans to eat their captive hares once they've exhausted Salamandastron's food supply. Is this cannibalism, since the hares can talk and think same as the vermin? It's never explicitly stated in the series, but I think it's pretty clear that the differences between (talking) animals in-universe are more akin to race than species. Anyway, putting a pin in that for now.

(4) On a similar vein, I'm interested in the philosophy of Jukka and her tribe. She and her squirrels live in a patch of woods in the midst of the open grasslands, several days from the shore, but still close enough to consider themselves neighbors. In a world where nearly all non-vermin fight only to defend themselves or the weak, Jukka's squirrels are unusual, in that they fight "for profit". To them, war is a business, a means of acquiring weapons. They kill all and take no prisoners. This is all pretty similar to general vermin philosophy. Perhaps the two main differences here are attitude (vermin are cruel and disloyal even to one another, whereas the squirrels demonstrate compassion for one another and even sometimes strangers) and necessity (vermin tend to steal everything, and are unable to support themselves without exploiting others, while the squirrels really only steal for weapons, and can provide themselves with food, clothes, shelter, etc.) I'm putting a pin in this one too, because the good guy-bad guy dichotomy in Redwall deserves some major analysis, particularly once we get to Taggerung and Outcast of Redwall.

OVERALL: I enjoyed this book tremendously. Bar is high for the rest of the books, but I'm confident they'll measure up. Cheers everyone :D

[tinynavajoreads]

1 and 50 for the book rec asks?

Hello! Thank you for the asks!

1. A book that is close to your heart

I will say that I have always been a bookish person, ESPECIALLY in high school. I never really had close friends, and the one I did was also a reader so that helped. But Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques is a book close close to my heart. I read that book at least 3 or 4 times throughout my junior and senior year of high school. The whole Redwall series is great, but Lord Brocktree is one that I still think of fondly.

50. A book that made you cry a LOT

Oh no....okay, real quick, I am an easy crier. I cry so easily, it's hard for people to take me seriously when I'm upset or frustrated because of how easily I cry. With that in mind, the last book that made me cry a lot was Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. Like, I tore through that book within a 24 hour period and the ending was so sweet and lovely that I was crying for about a half hour after I was done. Even my hubby was concerned, because he's seen me cry but not that much at a book in a long time!

Thank you for the asks! See the list here and send me any you want me to answer!

[stearleart]

Badger Lord in the making

Digital illustration of a future badger lord of Salamandastron from Brian Jacque's Redwall series.

[incorrectredwallquotes]

Fleetscut: *lying on the ground and groaning* Jukka: Maybe you’d be more comfortable in your room? Fleetscut: No, I like the attention.

[captainmirefleck]

Vote for your favorite Redwall villain! Not who you think would win in a fight, but who you think is most effective as a villain or who you enjoy the most!

[redwalltournaments]

It’s the finals! Who best encompasses the role and ideas of being a warrior?

[lostmidnightwriter]

Stiffener Medick: *exists*

Half the fandom:

The rest of the fandom:

[reine-du-sourire]

The Blue Hordes of Ungatt Trunn

Leila Chatti, from "Postcard from Gone"