Okay, one thing that's bugged me for a while is that in Mossflower, it hints that Martin and Co. took about a season to get to Salamandastron. Just to GET there, mind you. But, for one thing, we follow them for what, seven days? I haven't read Mossflower in a while, so my calculations are a bit off. But there's NO WAY a season takes a week. And what happened to the mountains there, anyway? They only appear in one or two other books, right?
Anyway.
In Legend of Luke, Martin and Co. get to the north shore and back in a season. It's obvious that it takes a while, since they stop for supplies numerous times. When did the Mossflower group really do that?
My question is - Was this just plain ole inconstistency, forgetfulness on BJ's part, something else, or a combination? What are your thoughts in this matter?
They took Log-a-log's boat in Mossflower.
There are many such inconsistencies in the Redwall books. Perhaps if there weren't as many I'd like them more.
Quote from: Sagetip, the hare on November 06, 2015, 09:17:36 PM
They took Log-a-log's boat in Mossflower.
Not the whole way. Just half, if that.
In Mariel of Redwall it took her just two or three days to get further up the coast than Martin did in Legend of Luke.
In the Long Patrol Cregga and her army crossed that distance in a week, ending up at the ridge about a days travel away from Redwall. According to Log-a-Log in Mossflower should take a season to travel unless they had a boat or went over/under the mountains.
At the end of the Long Patrol one of Salamandastron commanders claims he wasn't expecting the Patrol to have returned yet. Saying it would take them the better part of a season? What?
They then tell him they traveled most of the way by water, however it still took them twice as long as it had when they had marched towards Redwall...
In Outcast Sunflash crosses these mountains with his otter friends claiming they were more like large hills. He later returns and they are now massive mountains, with caves and cliffs. These trips take a day if even that, however it is later stated in the book that it took Sunflash two seasons to return to his mountain fortress.
And even later in the book Pearls of Lutra the characters cross the distance between Redwall and the ocean more then once and the journey takes less then two days. Furthermore the two shrews that escorted the vole what's-her-name claimed they had escorted her there in one day, and she had doubled back and rejoined the crew in half a day before they had cast off. What? I don't know about you but she didn't seem like an Olympic runner to me.
The best one however is in the Rouge Crew when they roll a whole flipping ship though what should have been high mountains. Twice! Clearly by this time said mountains had melted into the earth disappearing forever. Plus the large lake had dried up and turned into a massive water meadow. And the earth can't decide how large it really was...
I'm going to chalk up these mistakes to the sacrifice of story telling. Clearly the world was changed to suit the needs of the story. Sacrificing realism for story has never seemed to bother Brian, though making a map would be nearly impossible.