The General Welcome Thread

[Ashleg]

Aiko, I've seen your art around!
Your style is very clean.

Lessee...
My favorite Redwall villains are Vilu, Cluny, Sawney, and (shocker) Gabool.

As for heroes, I liked Matthias and Tagg.

[Aiko]

@Tooley: Oh, well I think I saw some older contest being posted on fanfiction.net, or maybe from when Highwing posted their own parts from some contest. Somehow I found my way here and got hooked. That was so long ago I nearly forgot! And thank you very much for your detailed comments on my art, that's exactly what I was going for.

And honestly, most of my gripes with the Urthblood series are just personal taste. I have trouble keeping up with such a massive, constantly shifting cast. I'm the kind of person that prefers to get really attached to a smaller number of characters on a deeper level. Still, I do think Highwing does a pretty good job with the cast despite that, and the epic scale is something that is hard to pull off well. He does a good job of juggling so many plot points.

Some of the innovations he introduces in the series feel like bit much, makes it feel more modernish and a little out of place. Again, I think that's cool and unique, but it's just not my preference. The story as a whole is still interesting enough for me to enjoy.

There's also the relative lack of female characters who get to fight, or play a large role in the plot, which is a massive pet peeve of mine. Like, compared to the later Redwall books where even vermin armies have some females, most of the larger forces in the Urthblood series are exclusively male (the only groups that I recall having any females at all are the Long Patrol and the Gawtrybe). And within the large cast in general, there are few females in a leadership role without being the wife of a more powerful character (Mina and the Abbess are the only ones I think). And even setting those categories aside, most other characters that get a large amount of focus are also male. And most characters, whether woodlander or vermin, adhere to traditional gender roles way more than in the original books. Still, this issue is just the kind of thing that can happen, even when the author doesn't intend for things to come across that way. I'm glad that the latest book introduced Latura as a plot-important character, even if it's in a passive way. It's really a testament to Highwing's writing skills that I am still an avid reader despite this flaw that would normally turn me off a work.

@Gabool: I think I've seen you as well. Thanks for the compliment, that's exactly what I aim for my art to look like.   

[Airan]

Apologies, everyone. I would have been more active in this thread, but I've been taking care of finals and just got done yesterday and had some much needed R and R. Anyways, I'm here now and can actually talk without feeling guilty.

with many characters to my name but the only one worth reading is Istvan.

I might be biased just because I wrote in it with you, but I enjoyed Rexim, heavy accent and all, in RV6.

http://frostedmountain.deviantart.com
I don't act mature there. At all. (And the Redwall stuff is old).

Your work is very good for someone of your age. I'm studying for a career right now in art and I can safely say it was better than my work back then, lol. Really crisp character designs. They'd look good animated, I feel. Keep drawing and improving, and I'll shoot a watch your way. Also, you apparently watch me too already, so thank you again :)

Hi, I'm Aiko, and I've read several of the previous contests a while ago, but I just found out about this new one from the Redwall's Legacy forum (I'm Doggo over there).

I've been a longtime fan of the series, and started roleplaying a couple years ago (and am now juggling around 9 different characters). I also draw a lot of fanart.

I enjoy writing in general, though I don't do much fantasy (Redwall is the exception). I'm a prolific reader of fanfiction, and am developing several story ideas of my own that I have yet to post.

Hello, Aiko. Welcome to our forum. Sorry I would have given a more formal welcome earlier but as I said above, busy busy. I look forward to seeing what writing and art you make :)

favorite Redwall book is The Bellmaker.

Hands down, no question. I honestly can't think of one that comes close, except maybe Long Patrol.

I'm also a big fan of the Bellmaker. I enjoy the switch in protagonists from Mariel and Co to Joseph and feels like it ties a neat little bow for their respective characters and storylines. Except for Rufe Brush who goes from being this stoic warrior character in Mariel, to being someone who freaks out over taking a life in Bellmaker. Ah well, no book is perfect.

If you guys like Bellmaker though, well then... you guys might like what I have in store for next year. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Now because I'm curious, and because I feel like this will spark some debate: what's everyone's favorite villains and heroes?

Swartt Sixclaw is my favorite villain in the series, and it bothers me slightly that he doesn't have as big of a fanbase as some others. I like him a lot just because of his character progression. Because Outcast of Redwall takes place over such a long period of time, it allowed Jacques to show how warlords truly come to be in the universe. Swartt starts off as a leader of about a band of 6 or so, and over the course of the book amasses an entire horde through sheer trickery and intellect. He was a lot of inspiration for Captain Blade.

Others I like are Slagar for his personal vendetta and goal, Zwilt the Shade for being the most fun 'blood knight' character the series has had, and Ungatt Trunn for being the one guy to actually take over Salamandastron. For random mook villains, I like Romsca for obvious reasons and Gliv from Sable Quean for being the only vermin in the series to say she 'loved' someone.

Hero wise- Martin of course. Dude had a rough life. I also like Sunflash- (I genuinely like everything about Outcast of Redwall except the actual Outcast part). Buckler from Sable Quean was a good change of pace from the typical hare, so he stood out. I think Luke is one of the coolest characters in the series though. He feels pretty real, and I enjoyed seeing his interactions with young Martin- though they were brief.

I found out about this contest from your post on Redwall's Legacy. Most of my art is here: http://mystic-shale.deviantart.com/ and here's a set I only posted to tumblr,

And I'm going to send you a watch as well. Happy Arting :)

[Zevka]

Quick note before I hit the road for today: by request of several people, I've added a 10th category, The Beast Who May or May Not Be Crazy. won't be around much today, but will check in later.

[Zevka]

My personal favorites include Lilith (I loved our mad scientist woozle too!), Sal, Poko, Nyika, Biara and Scully from various MOs, as well as Gloria, Seth and Steep from The Emperor's Decree 2.

Out of my own characters, my favorite is Zevka, but I also loved writing Zash. Ventilation makes me cringe in hindsight, but I also have fond memories of Nallmian, my first character.

[Tooley Bostay]

[Urthblood comments]

Agreed on the cast thing. For the most part, Highwing does an admirable - and even amazing - job handling such a large cast of characters, and giving them all a richness of personality. One of the highlights of his series is how he manages inter-cast relationships. I've read very few books where I can hate a character's guts, but completely understand where they're coming from and empathize at the same time.

That said, he really needs to start justifying the characters' presences. By that, I mean giving them some storyarcs to keep the reader's interest hooked. Some of them get this (Latura, the Abbess, Machus, etc.), but others just sort of... waft along. Sure, they interact with characters and do things, but I'm still wondering when, say, Winokur or Cyril is going to really do something. Couple that with him constantly introducing new characters, and it does get a bit tiresome.

Been a while since I read through the story. I think how he writes his female characters is fairly solid, and I can't remember having any complaints in that regard (Mina, in fact, sticks in my mind as a wonderful example of my above comment--a character you hate but legitimately understand and empathize with), but I do recall thinking at several points that - of the main cast of characters - things tilted a bit too far in having a male-centric cast. I don't think the problem is so much not having enough females in leadership roles(though there was certainly room for it in the Long Patrol and in Urthblood's gathered forces), but there just being a lack of engaging, influential female members making up the core cast. There's, what, Mina, the Abbess, Latura, and Mona, and that's over the course of three huge novels. Definitely should be more. Heck, the Badgermum of Redwall has been completely shafted off to the side, when she could have been a really interesting character (and there even was some effort to build up a storyarc for her in the first novel. Ah well).


And ooh, a new category! Though, it comes just when I've got my three already picked out. Hrm... it does perfectly fit a concept I had rolling in the back of my mind before the contest went live. I'll have to consider if I want to swap one of my other category choices around.

And Nallmian was fantastic. Still ticked that he didn't get the chance to finish off his story.

[Aiko]

@Tooley: Yeah, the female characters he does give focus to are just as interesting as the males. I really wish he would write more females like that. I especially enjoy Mina as a character. You rarely find a female character that is interesting and complex despite being hatable, and I especially love reading characters who I strongly disagree with and dislike, but still find interesting enough to get invested in what happens to them.

Gosh, I really should decide on what categories to submit for. Good thing I just finished my last term of college yesterday.

[Matra Hammer]

Submit for the category you hate the most. Then another one by random number. Then another one on the suggestion of a non participant who has no idea what the list is for.

Or, y'know, do what feels good. No wrong answer.

[Istvan]

I'm 2/3 down and the 3 app limit is really starting to chafe, there are way too many fun ideas for this setting it's hard to narrow it down to just a few

[Zevka]

Would people be in favor of raising the limit to a max of 6 apps? Or is that excessive?

[Tooley Bostay]

Hmm, 4 isn't a bad idea. That said, to keep things fairly spread out, I'd recommend still only having 3 apps eligible to all be in the Top 30. So, say someone submits 4, and let's even say that they're all good. The best of each category, even. I'd suggest you and the judges select only the best 3 to actually make it into Top 30, even if the other 1 is still better than their competitors.

That way, people can get those really cool apps out of their system, and then leave the rest into the hands of you and the judges.

[Frost]

Back from obscurity! And ready for some readin' and writin'. Frost here, glad to see you all again!

...and promises that no dingos will make an appearance in this tale. ;)

[Tooley Bostay]

Hey, Frost! Pleasure to see you back around. =D

Funnily enough, this is probably the one contest where a dingo wouldn't stand out too badly. Curious specimen would be welcome in a coliseum. (Didn't quite understand all the hate poor Rail got for his species. I wasn't crazy about the app itself, admittedly, but I don't necessarily see the reason to be so hardlined on the species.)

[Airan]

Would people be in favor of raising the limit to a max of 6 apps? Or is that excessive?

I'd suggest if you do this to only raise it to four apps, just because it makes it so that those who submit six have a massive advantage over everyone that could only manage 2 or 3. I don't really think it's necessary with how many people seem to want to apply anyways. Closer to the deadline though if there looks to be a few categories that might go unfilled, or you think you want to add some more competition to lower populated categories so there's no one getting in by default, you could maybe do something like what I did in MO3, where I let everyone who had already written and turned in 3 apps, write a fourth.

That said, to keep things fairly spread out, I'd recommend still only having 3 apps eligible to all be in the Top 30. So, say someone submits 4, and let's even say that they're all good. The best of each category, even. I'd suggest you and the judges select only the best 3 to actually make it into Top 30, even if the other 1 is still better than their competitors.

I'm not a big fan of this either. I feel part of the application process is choosing which of your own ideas is the best and choosing them as what represents your writing. If you've come up with six ideas, or written six applications, it should be up to the writer to narrow down which of them they think is their best to submit to be judged, and which of them they would prefer to write as in the story itself. Which of your six apps you submit to be judged should be entirely the writer's decision, it shouldn't be the decision of the judge.

I'm very comfortable with the limits we have right now, and while I'm happy that everyone is exploding with different ideas and is inspired so much by this setting and story, I don't think that alone justifies a need to increase how many apps should be submitted. As I said above, maybe if one of the categories is looking kind of unpopulated, you can let people submit a fourth, but otherwise, I really don't see a need to increase the limit at all.

[Vizon]

Zev, you're the one who sees behind the scenes. Only you know how things look app-wise. You're running this contest, so you're the one that will have to read a zillion apps if you up the ante too much.
That said, I wouldn't mind being able to submit four, personally. I have a lot of fun ideas. But turning those ideas into apps won't necessarily help those characters to all live a life of fiction. At most only one  will endure past those <750 words. So it's kind of a Catch 22 for me as a writer. I want to bring all my characters to the party because I love them all, but I know only one will make it there (or none). And that character also might very well die a grisly death at the afterparty. So submitting more characters is a bit like...losing more characters (if that makes any sense). So if I love them, should I really want to submit more of them to scrutiny and death?

*holds characters close*