Redwall Quizzes: Guess the Top 20 Characters in These Books!

[FlinkyTheStoat]

I wasn't quite sure where to put this, as it's not technically a forum game, and it's not really off-topic...oh well, if you're reading this, you found it, and that's all that matters.

Anyways, back in the day, I used to do this thing where I would go through a Redwall book and count up how many words each character spoke. I'd put it into an Excel graph, color-coded by species...yeah, I was (still am?) a special brand of crazy. But then I discovered the quiz website Sporcle and realized that I finally had a place where all that data could actually be of use - and then I discovered this forum, where there are people who'd actually care about these things and maybe be interested in the results.

So I made quizzes for the following books (because they were the ones for which I had the data):

- Redwall: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/redwall-characters-by-number-of-words-spoken

- Mossflower: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/mossflower-characters-by-words-spoken

- The Bellmaker: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/bellmaker-characters-by-words-spoken

- The Long Patrol: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/long-patrol-characters-by-words-spoken

- Marlfox: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/marlfox-characters-by-words-spoken

- Taggerung: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/redwall-taggerung-characters-by-words-spoken

- Rakkety Tam: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/rakkety-tam-characters-by-words-spoken

- High Rhulain: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/high-rhulain-characters-by-words-spoken

- Eulalia: http://www.sporcle.com/games/LPCouple/eulalia-characters-by-words-spoken

You've got 5 minutes to guess the top 20 characters from each book by the number of words spoken. Have fun, and let us know how you did!

[James Gryphon]

It's great that you were able to take the time to do this, and from what I've seen they look pretty well-made. I didn't have any trouble getting it to take any of the names, which I know can be a problem when setting up Sporcle quizzes.

Play the quiz first

I've only played the Redwall one so far. I got 19/20, plus a few extra like Alf/Mordalfus and Darkclaw. Somehow, even though I got Fangburn, Cheesethief, etc., I forgot Cornflower -- I guess since she didn't do anything heroic or get in anyone's way.

My biggest surprises are that Dunwing talked so much, and that Martin didn't show up anywhere. I guess he only saves it for when it's needed, though.

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I haven't done the other ones yet, but I mean to when I get a good chance.

[FlinkyTheStoat]

Thanks for taking the time to comment, and do let me know if you get around to the others.

Redwall quiz

Yeah, Dunwing is pretty surprising. If I recall correctly, she tells Matthias quite a few stories about King Bull Sparra and how her husband was killed by Asmodeus and such, so that probably. You'll notice that trend throughout the quizzes - characters who tell stories or sing a lot of songs get a boost, such as Wandering Walt from Rakkety Tam or Boorab the Fool from Taggerung.

As for Martin, yeah, he's only got 75 words - his apparitions aren't all that inclined to stick around and chat. A better way to measure "character significance" would be number of mentions (both direct, the name, and indirect, i.e. "he/she/his/her" etc). But I think even eighth grade me wouldn't have the patience to count that up!

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[James Gryphon]

I did Mossflower right after the Redwall one, getting 19/20

Spoiler

missing Scratch.

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When I retook it just now, I managed to get all of them, with seven extra.

My scores on the rest aren't as hot:

Spoiler

The Bellmaker: 14/20. Actually better than I expected considering that I haven't actually read the book in over ten years. Many of my correct answers were because Bellmaker was the direct sequel to Mariel, so the non-villains could be usually counted on to make a return appearance. I almost missed several characters because I didn't know the correct spelling, Finnbarr and Silvamord, and did miss Egbert (who I spelled "Egburt"). The one that I really should've remembered that I didn't was Mother Mellus -- she not only appears in Mariel, but her death is one of the big plot points here, so there's really no excuse for not getting her. Finally, I missed the character at the very top of the list. I knew that there was a really talkative hare, but didn't recall his name, and since he only showed up in the one book I didn't have anything else to go by.
The Long Patrol: 19/20, second attempt. I missed Foremole Diggum. The first try that I made a few weeks back was more pedestrian, something like 14 or 15, because I missed some of the Long Patrol officers (like Eyebright and Clubrush), and I think Shad. Five extras on this one.
Marlfox: A very pedestrian 9/20. I didn't think to retry Friar Butty, didn't remember how to spell Janglur's name, and inexcusably didn't try "Skipper" ('who' is in practically every book), so those were some misses that I could have gotten. I knew there was a Marlfox whose name started with a Va, but I couldn't remember anything past that; also, I knew about the hare, but thought his name was Boorab (Mr. Jacques reusing the same character type so many times doesn't help in this game). Even so, though, I was just at a loss for a lot of them. I might remember they existed, or something they did, but I didn't remember their names.
Taggerung: I took this a few weeks back, and got a run-of-the-mill score.
Rakkey Tam: Missed most of them, getting only 8/20, but the worst is that I forgot Armel. Not getting both members of a story's romantic relationship is a huge fail in my book (hence why the Cornflower thing in Redwall was rather embarrassing).

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I've never read Eulalia, and only skimmed High Rhulain once, so I wouldn't know where to begin on those. The books I've probably read the most besides Mossflower and Redwall are Pearls of Lutra, Outcast of Redwall, and Mariel of Redwall, roughly in that order (although I used to read The Long Patrol a lot after I'd first gotten it), so these quizzes don't exactly hit my specialty. I've read those for over a ten year time period, and most of the characters are pretty well stuck in my mind in the way the others' books aren't.