Out of control dibbuns

[daskar666]

Personally I always doubted that the majority of Redwall readers are members of the ROC.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Yes, with no doubt.

But that is still beside the point.

[DanielofRedwall]

I have to agree with the majority here. The dibbuns are a lot like normal kids. And as Gonff mentioned, there are the shy, non-rowdy ones as well. Sure, they can be annoying, but so can human kids. And, by the way, I thought DAB was pretty awesome.

[Gonff]

I agree with what you say about the dibbuns being unpunished. But in real life, kids never get punished any more. Most of them have their parents doing whatever they want, and are spoiled rotten. Arven made Viola have a bad dream (I haven't read that book in a while, so forgive me if this is wrong). He should have been punished, but in the end didn't. That's alright by me. If Brian wanted the dibbuns to act like so, then they will act like so.  

Yes I suppose no one does get punished these days. Oh well, I like the dibbuns for what it is worth.

[Nightfire]

I absolutely LOOOVE Baby Bungo!!! He is super naughty!

[Dotti]

Redwall has a miracle:  the Dibbuns!  Besides being cute and cuddly little guys, they also can be little terrors.  Sometimes they get away with atrocious things with virtually no punishment at all. Yet there comes a mysterious moment never really reccorded in the books (with the possible exception of Horty, Springald and Fenna in Lomehedge) when these rascally, fibbing, mischevous little Dibbuns magically turn into responsible well-mannered honest beasts.  Really, the sucess rate that Redwall has in raising its kids is astounding.  The only child ever raised at Redwall that didn't turn out to be a perfectly good beast is Veil. (with the possible exception of Orkwill Prink) And the parents dont' even seem to take much of a role in raising the children, either.  They are mostly raised by the badgermum and a few elders whose job is too care for the young.  They don't even seem to sleep with their families,  since there's a special dormitory for Dibbuns.  
Arven, Rollo, Dumble, and countless other Dibbuns all grew from irresponsible babes to classic Redwallers--industrious, true, noble, polite, hospitable, and responsible.  Many young creatures like Bragoon and Sarabando, Mattimeo, Horty & co, Samkin and Arula, and more had adventures in their younger seasons that forced them to grow up quickly; many more didn't, yet the result was nearly identical.  They all turned out ideally.  



Just my rant on Redwall's childrearing methods.    

[Nightfire]

Hmm. I always though that the reason the dibbuns are raised by the badgermum and a few elders was because they are either homeless or orphans taken in by Redwall. Because the few times when the parent is mentioned, they usually have a big role in raising their child. Example: Rollo's mother was killed by Slagar. Until then, however, she had a huge roll in caring for her child. Like how she was always there to scold him when he sung one of his atrocious songs, or she fed him at the banquet table the night of her death. It was actually her involvement with Rollo that kept her from being drugged, which led to her dying.

[Gonff]

It is amazing! I like how you get to see the young ones grow up, but it does really seem like one day they are mischievous young ones, and the next they are responsible youth.

[Plugg Firetail]

You know what I don't get?In the original redwall,when Shadow fell off the wall he broke his back.Yet when SPOILER ALERTin Taggerung,two dibbuns fell off the walls and barely got hurt.

[Lutra]

^ Bigger they are, harder they fall, perhaps?


Anyway...dibbuns...never liked them much personally.  Reminds me too much of kids in real life with parents that go "Be quiet" while the tyke runs around and continues to make noise.  Gee, how about some action?  Words obviously aren't going to fix the problem.  Sometimes I see something similar with the dibbuns...words have no affect on a good majority of them.  What's a parent to do it seems! 

[winifred]

so many parents dont even do anything nowadays,it seems to me that the dibbuns are mostly orthens they sometimes are very anoying but then again I love DAB!

[Plugg Firetail]

You have to admire the dibbuns for their wanting to help.

From High Rhulain:Grumby the hogbabe pointed toward the main gate."Ho,us is goin' to 'elp Miz Tirrier to choppa wood. Don't worry,Skip,we keep a h'eye on 'em for youse"

[Redwall Musician]

Kids will be kids, eh? Just think of it this way, not to long ago you were that same annoying Dibbun. Even if you think you were not, you were. Everyone is annoying in his own way. Would you want it all the time to be:

"I don't wanna take ee baf!" cried the molebabe.
The mother grabbed the dibbun by the tail and spanked him. He let out a terrible cry.
"You rotten Mugler!" sais the mother as she spanked him again.

"I will helped you too!" the little mouse protested.
"No!" said the badgermum with the most frightening voice, "You can't help! You never do anything right!" She kept her hold on the babe as she spanked him three times on the bottom.

Would you rather the dibbuns be like robots, never have any fun, and are always being punished?

[James Gryphon]

Well, I have to admit that if the books read like your examples, it would certainly be different...

The thing is, though, when has there ever been a real toddler that single-handedly foiled an attack on a castle? Never?

In the Redwall series, though, it happens just about all the time. I'm not saying that dibbuns shouldn't get to do anything, just that a few things -- like "the clueless dibbun saves the day after experienced, mature warriors fail" -- are pretty unrealistic, and don't personally appeal to me as much; they underrate both the main heroes and the villains.

As far as the dibbuns in Taggerung, if I remember right, didn't the dibbuns fall down into a blanket? That's a bit different than just falling off a wall; it's the difference between jumping from a burning building and jumping from a burning building into a fireman's safety net.

[Plugg Firetail]

Well I don't remember there being a blanket.There was nobody looking after them after all.