kotir-propaganda

[kotir-propaganda]

Commission for @Bemused_Wizard of his Redwall characters Silvertongue the fox and Greeneye the rat.

Seems they’ve gotten into some trouble, but Greeneye isn’t bothered.

Art © me.

Characters © @Bemused_Wizard.

= = =

Commission guidelines and prices: https://www.furaffinity.net/commissions/alexjohnson93/

Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/alexanderjohnson

#not my art #redwall

[kotir-propaganda]

A merry Christmas from Kotir!

Verdauga seemed like a decent dad in the few interactions we see him have with his kids, I bet he would’ve given them presents he thought would help them become better warlords. Gingivere’s is probably a book on running a kingdom.

For day 5 of the Redwall advent calendar, a project organised by @redwallthoughts

#not my art #redwall

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Long time no art post! A @redwall-secret-santa gift for @melly1, featuring Matthias and Cornflower celebrating their first Christmas together with little Mattimeo! Thank you for the super cute prompt, I hope you like it- have a wonderful Christmas c:

#my art #redwall #an oldie but a goodie

[kotir-propaganda]

what anthro media was your "furry gateway"? (etc. lion king, warrior cats, etc.)

mine was absolutely sonic omg im currently reading the IDW comics again and its getting me sm more into itttttt

#redwall made me a furry twice #my mom started checking out the books from the library and reading them to me at age 5 #so I drew a lot of animal people already in the 90s #then I got a computer in 2001 and looking up the official redwall website led me to fansites and eventually the furry fandom #gateway media indeed

[kotir-propaganda]

tim curry fox freak

#not my art #redwall

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found a few of my WIP shots for this piece. the dibbuns were scanned in from paper sketches, everything after that was painted via mouse.

#my art #redwall

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generic paperclay otter lad made in 2018! maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way

#redwall #my art

[kotir-propaganda]

And the Winner is:

Mossflower!

Mossflower had been declared the Best Redwall Book, beating out Martin the Warrior at 58 to 42, with 101 votes for Mossflower, to 73 for Martin the Warrior.

I’ll be honest I fully expected Martin the Warrior to win.

First round of the next poll, Best Warrior, will hopefully be up tomorrow.

#MOSSFLOWER SWEEP #!!!!!!!!!!!

[kotir-propaganda]

rating actual medieval names i have found as a medieval studies student but they get progressively more unhinged:

William de Appeltrefeld: 8/10 bc appeltrefeld sounds like a nice place to live. who wouldnt want to live in a field full of apple trees? points deducted cause there are like fifty bajillion williams in england

Luke de Luka, merchant of Luca: 6/10. ur parents really werent creative huh

Hugh de Wlonkeslowe: 7/10. looks like a straight person trying to keyboard smash. *laughs in english place names*

Roger Smert: 10/10 absolute banger of a name. does it make any sense? absolutely not! but you guys. i dont think you understand. smert!!

John de la Bro: 7/10. when ur such a bro that its literally ur name and 800 years in the future its all people know of u

Hugh Sad: 7/10. weve all been there buddy

Gaylarde de la Mote: 10/10. slay. i bet this guys mote was the gayest mote youve ever seen

Hugh de la Penne: 9/10. we stan a pasta man

Richard de Astlegh: 10/10. verily, he shall ne'er give thee up, ne'er let thee down, nor shall he run with great haste and desert thee, he shall ne'er cause thee to weep, ne'er bid you farewell, ne'er shall he speak wicked falshoods in thine ear or cause thee harm

Bindo Hug: 8/10. who is this man a hobbit???

Eudo la Zusche: 6/10. deadass sounds like something youd see in a really bad fantasy novel

William crisp: 7/10. w h a t.

Asser son of Licoriz: 7/10 there is so much going on here i dont even know what to tell you

Baldwin Panik: 10/10 cause this is a heckin mood

Richard Cok, aka Dick Cok: 69/10. nice.

#ok which redwall book is Bindo Hug in

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#MOSSFLOWER SWEEP #AAAAAAAAAAA

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a little paperclay figure of Rogan I made back in 2018!

#my art #redwall

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Artfight attack of Rogan for @mongoosefangs

Hope you like this!

#redwall #not my art #art for me

[kotir-propaganda]

I will concede that the original Redwall is really very good, even though BJ hadn't quite found the direction for the series yet. With things like the horse cart and locations that were presumably built by humans it almost feels more xenofiction than anthropomorphic fantasy, closer to something like Rats of NIMH or Watership Down than any other installment in its own franchise. And sometimes I think it could have been cool if Redwall had kept going down that path.

Mossflower is my single favorite book, but I think the actual best excerpt of writing comes from Redwall itself. Abbot Mortimer's death speech made me bawl the first time it was read to me at age 5 and it still makes me cry at 34 and I'm not ashamed to admit it either!!

#redwall

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#MOSSFLOWER SWEEP

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You’re so right about all of this.

The neat thing about the opposition here is that we only had Cluny the Scourge and his band to compare them to before this (and he was framed as being kind of weird! “give a rat a bad name” and all that! and the way there were apparently a bunch of weasels etc. just vibing peacefully in the forest before he conscripted them!) It’s not unusual that Gingivere and Sandingomm are nice and Verdauga seems like a fierce but ultimately lawful ruler. This is presented to us as completely normal! Tsarmina is the odd one out for being a jerk!

I’d say that the only other major villain who comes close to being this intriguing is Slagar in the very next book, but I’ll go on a tangent about him another time :)

We do see a handful of vermin who end up redeeming themselves further on in the series, like Blaggut and Romsca, and while they tend to be great and memorable characters in their own right, it’s always more of a fluke going forward, the exception to the overwhelming rule. But these rules didn’t exist yet when Mossflower was written, and the characters and the world itself are more interesting for it.

Mossflower has so much going for it, like I’m not even being biased because my blorbo is in it. I will die on the hill of it being Best Redwall Book for several reasons.

-It’s as early Redwall as you can get without actually being Book 1. As such, it avoids a lot of subjects and patterns that would later become repetitive tropes… but it also avoids the Book 1 jankiness of horses and human structures and the implied existence of Portugal. The world as we will come to know it feels more or less fully realized here. The abbey’s not here yet, but its foundation literally is- and we also get our first look at Salamandastron and the extent of Mossflower Wood as a whole.

-It has some of the most solid protagonists around. The legendary hero Martin is here, but he’s at a low point for most of the story and has to work his way up to that legacy! And this is where he does it, this is what future Redwallers remember him for, not the events of Martin the Warrior. Also, Gonff is here? Hello? Maybe the single most charismatic character in the series? Not to mention Dinny, how often does a humble mole actually get to go on a quest in these books?

-This isn’t even getting into how badass all the rest of the woodlanders are, too, but… they absolutely are. This is a small band of rebels that’s been driven from their little houses, they don’t have the luxury of those huge sandstone walls to protect them, but they’re still fighting like hell and outsmarting their enemies to boot. Some of them are seasoned fighters, but some of them are just ordinary families, all banding together to take back their homeland. And they keep it up the whole time! They’re not just waiting around for a guy with a sword to tell them what to do!

-The villains are probably the most nuanced in the whole series. Seriously. There are four whole wildcats here (don’t forget Sandingomm!) and only ONE of them is unquestionably evil. It’s absolutely implied that Verdauga was a fearsome warlord in his day, but if nothing else, he raised ONE kid who turned out to be about as Lawful Good as you can get, and he actually scolds Tsarmina for being mean to her brother!! I wish we could have spent a little more time with Verdauga, honestly, I have so many questions for this man.

-There are a decent handful of morally grey characters here, actually. Chibb spies for the woodlanders, but he’s not the most dependable and is motivated by payment more than sympathy to their cause. Snakefish allies with our questing heroes, but he minces no words in warning them that he’ll just as soon eat them if it comes down to it. Even Argulor is really just out here looking for a bite to eat and can you really blame him, because ashleg is a snack

-Tsarmina herself is irredeemably cruel, but even still there are multiple facets to her. On one hand, she’s scary- big and powerful and ready to rip into anything/anyone with her bare claws. At the same time she can be a clever strategist when she wants to be- poisoning her father and framing her brother, and later manipulating two of her obstacles, Argulor and Bane, into taking each other out. And still yet it can be kind of funny to watch her in action, as she gets humiliated by the resistance on multiple occasions. And maybe there is even a little pathos there, as we see her mind start to slip, and get some glimpse into the deep fear and paranoia that completely overtake her at the end.

-There are just great supporting characters on both sides. Mask is amazing, Fortunata is fantastic. And yeah, Blorbo Supreme Ashleg is here, and I don’t NEED to write a whole essay about him to promote Mossflower as a whole but… having him here is nice! It helps!! May we all follow his example and pursue happier lives for ourselves!!!

-Mossflower laid the foundation for so many events and characters of later books. I mean yeah, it’s a prequel. It’s there to support the first book and by extension, everything that comes after. But so many other great titles in the series have a direct line to Mossflower, from Outcast to Long Patrol to Lord Brocktree and more. Did you enjoy those books? You’re welcome. The threads were already there, just waiting to be expanded upon.

-at one point a wooden leg gets used as a projectile weapon and if you don’t think that’s the best thing ever, I don’t know what else to tell you buddy

[kotir-propaganda]

I’M NOT DONE YET i don’t have my copy of the book in front of me but I was discussing Mossflower with a buddy and he brought up something I want to expand on.

-Going back to what I said about nuanced villains. We have MULTIPLE examples of bad guys with complex relationships APOLOGIZING to each other when they do wrong. Splitnose and Blacktooth are the prototypical bumbling ineffective vermin duo here and they work well as comic relief, but the tonal whiplash when their petty argument goes wrong... well, it’s both refreshing and heartbreaking to see a goofy villain do a complete 180 like that.

Also, Fortunata apologized to Ashleg even though she was initially put off by him. They occasionally give each other shit, but they are capable of sucking it up and cooperating when it comes to their mutual goal of avoiding Tsarmina’s wrath. I would personally like to believe she was also the one who found a suitable branch for him to use on the way home. In this fanfic I will

Mossflower has so much going for it, like I’m not even being biased because my blorbo is in it. I will die on the hill of it being Best Redwall Book for several reasons.

-It’s as early Redwall as you can get without actually being Book 1. As such, it avoids a lot of subjects and patterns that would later become repetitive tropes… but it also avoids the Book 1 jankiness of horses and human structures and the implied existence of Portugal. The world as we will come to know it feels more or less fully realized here. The abbey’s not here yet, but its foundation literally is- and we also get our first look at Salamandastron and the extent of Mossflower Wood as a whole.

-It has some of the most solid protagonists around. The legendary hero Martin is here, but he’s at a low point for most of the story and has to work his way up to that legacy! And this is where he does it, this is what future Redwallers remember him for, not the events of Martin the Warrior. Also, Gonff is here? Hello? Maybe the single most charismatic character in the series? Not to mention Dinny, how often does a humble mole actually get to go on a quest in these books?

-This isn’t even getting into how badass all the rest of the woodlanders are, too, but… they absolutely are. This is a small band of rebels that’s been driven from their little houses, they don’t have the luxury of those huge sandstone walls to protect them, but they’re still fighting like hell and outsmarting their enemies to boot. Some of them are seasoned fighters, but some of them are just ordinary families, all banding together to take back their homeland. And they keep it up the whole time! They’re not just waiting around for a guy with a sword to tell them what to do!

-The villains are probably the most nuanced in the whole series. Seriously. There are four whole wildcats here (don’t forget Sandingomm!) and only ONE of them is unquestionably evil. It’s absolutely implied that Verdauga was a fearsome warlord in his day, but if nothing else, he raised ONE kid who turned out to be about as Lawful Good as you can get, and he actually scolds Tsarmina for being mean to her brother!! I wish we could have spent a little more time with Verdauga, honestly, I have so many questions for this man.

-There are a decent handful of morally grey characters here, actually. Chibb spies for the woodlanders, but he’s not the most dependable and is motivated by payment more than sympathy to their cause. Snakefish allies with our questing heroes, but he minces no words in warning them that he’ll just as soon eat them if it comes down to it. Even Argulor is really just out here looking for a bite to eat and can you really blame him, because ashleg is a snack

-Tsarmina herself is irredeemably cruel, but even still there are multiple facets to her. On one hand, she’s scary- big and powerful and ready to rip into anything/anyone with her bare claws. At the same time she can be a clever strategist when she wants to be- poisoning her father and framing her brother, and later manipulating two of her obstacles, Argulor and Bane, into taking each other out. And still yet it can be kind of funny to watch her in action, as she gets humiliated by the resistance on multiple occasions. And maybe there is even a little pathos there, as we see her mind start to slip, and get some glimpse into the deep fear and paranoia that completely overtake her at the end.

-There are just great supporting characters on both sides. Mask is amazing, Fortunata is fantastic. And yeah, Blorbo Supreme Ashleg is here, and I don’t NEED to write a whole essay about him to promote Mossflower as a whole but… having him here is nice! It helps!! May we all follow his example and pursue happier lives for ourselves!!!

-Mossflower laid the foundation for so many events and characters of later books. I mean yeah, it’s a prequel. It’s there to support the first book and by extension, everything that comes after. But so many other great titles in the series have a direct line to Mossflower, from Outcast to Long Patrol to Lord Brocktree and more. Did you enjoy those books? You’re welcome. The threads were already there, just waiting to be expanded upon.

-at one point a wooden leg gets used as a projectile weapon and if you don’t think that’s the best thing ever, I don’t know what else to tell you buddy

[kotir-propaganda]

“Zounds, you’re a bold bunny and no mistake. Come and be spitted!”

#my art #redwall #outcast of redwall #zigu deserved a bigger role tbh