Hares

[belle]

Except for Basil and Ballaw, they all pretty much annoy me.

[Ashleg]

Yeah. Especially in the later books.

[Cornflower MM]

I quite liked the hares, they were fun.

[The Skarzs]

I liked the hares for the most part, but did it seem like they all had a very similar personality, notwithstanding their accent?

[belle]

Pretty much.

[Ashleg]

Okay, let's go in-depth here on Ashleg's Views on Hares (tm).

Basil was great. Liked him. Liked most of the hares from Taggerung prior, but after that they seemed unable to tell apart.

But notice that I said most. The one from The Legend of Luke irritated me.

And Martha annoyed me for completely different reasons.

[belle]

Why did Martha annoy you?

[Ashleg]

Mary Sue.

Complete know-it-all, and SURPRISE, she actually CAN walk!

[belle]

Hmmm. Redwall has alot of characters who could be considered Sues. There always seems  to be that special, beautiful, perfect and virtuous character. Sometimes it works and sometimes it's just bland. But I wasn't wild about most of the characters in Loamhedge, anyway. Some aspects of the story were cool, though.

[Cornflower MM]

Okay yeah Martha was. . . Not the greatest. And okay yeah maybe the hares pretty much were a set thing: Food, jokes, "wot wot!" etc., etc. But they were a lot of fun to read and their personalities (As stereotypical as they got to be) were a lovely breath of fresh air.

[Ashleg]

I liked seeing hares that were different. Like Long Patrol majors. Cool warrior types.

[The Skarzs]

Okay yeah Martha was. . . Not the greatest. And okay yeah maybe the hares pretty much were a set thing: Food, jokes, "wot wot!" etc., etc. But they were a lot of fun to read and their personalities (As stereotypical as they got to be) were a lovely breath of fresh air.

They did definitely add to the stories.

[MeadowR]

Sometimes I get fed up of them. Especially the more gluttonous and selfish hares. Not all so bad, though! I prefer hares that are more focused.

[SoranMBane]

Most of the hare characters were kind of like the otter Skippers; they're technically different characters in each story, but functionally they're all the same character with totally indistinguishable personalities. I don't have much of a problem with the series' use of archetypes like that, though in the case of the hares that archetype ended up getting Flanderized to the point of often being insufferable. Scarum from Triss is probably one of the worst examples; even his friends threatened to disown him over how selfish and annoying he was. But when they aren't pushed to that kind of unbearable extreme, the stereotypical hares can serve a perfectly fine role as surprisingly capable comic relief characters.

[belle]

UGH, Scarum! He was just terrible! But, yes, more focused hares can be pleasant to read about.