Riggu Felis (High Rhulain Spoilers)

[Tiria Wildlough]

OK...I know there has been a lot of debate over this.
SPOILER
Tiria slings the barb that was embedded in Pandion's mouth, and kills Riggu Felis. Some people may say she kills him effortlessly, but I don't think that's the case. For a start, it probably takes a lot of practice to get that good with a sling, (she did it from a boat, if I remember correctly). Secondly, would you rather have her fight Riggu at close quarters, and get terribly hurt, or maybe killed? He would have easily defeated her any other way. Give her a break!
Just defending my favourite character. Please leave your opinion if you have one.

[Skalrag of Marshank]

I totally agree, Tiria. I was kind of expecting a more elaborate battle, but, oh well.

I just finished the book last night. I found it kind of ironic that she used the iron star that he had used to catch Pandion in the first place.

[Captain Tammo]

The main hero-villain death wasn't as personal between them. It was the first time she saw him I think. However, Jacques made up for this with the side battle of the otter clans and catgaurds, and then gave us another battle after that with Pitru.
I've tried using a sling before and it's EXTREMELY difficult to be accurate (at least for me anyway ) so for her to hit Felis with a metal barb that's not perfectly aerodynamic and even, and off of a rocking boat, is truly incredible
One thing that makes it one of my favorite stories is that the good guys are OUTSIDE of the fortress, unlike all of the other redwall books (except MTW and Mossflower). And since it's not in Mossflower, it makes things more interesting and less of a cliche IMO.

[Skalrag of Marshank]

I love the fortress books. 

A refreshing change of pace, if you will.

[Stonewall]

I believe that the main reason for upset regarding Fellis's death is that it was over so quickly. This is a bit of a let down for two reasons. First, given that Riggu is put over as a fierce warrior, and how we've seen him in aciton and we know him to be good, we really wanted to see him in an epic fight scene. Second, I found it hurt Tiara's journey a bit that her big obstacle that she spent the book trying to overcome is done in a second. We have seen her preparing to become a warrior for so long, and then her time of actually warrior-ing, and getting to act the hero, is brief, making it not seem quite as fullfilling a conclusion. We don't see what she's learned, and we don't entirely feel that she's accomplished everything she could. Also hurting her cause is the fact that the other two main character (the male otter and the older hare, whose names I'm araid I've forgotten) get to do quite a bit of hero work in the story, with the otter constantly harrassing Fellis, and the hare going down in a blaze of glory. All in all, I think the dissapointment comes from the fact that the readers wanted to see more of Tiara in her moment of glory than what we got, and thus the climax wasn't as satisfying as it might have been.

[James Gryphon]

I'm one of the people that has criticized High Rhulain, and to my knowledge, the first one to do so on this forum. In fact, I was even the one to say that Tiria killed Felis 'effortlessly', so I've been in this side of things before.

Here are the reasons why I dislike it, though.

First off, in most of the other stories, the hero experiences some kind of growth, or at least displays an admirable personality trait that the readers would do well to mimic somewhere along the line. It's been a long time since I read High Rhulain, so I could be wrong, but I don't remember whether Tiria experienced any particular growth anywhere in the story. She started out at the top, and the issue wasn't so much how she could be improved as a person as where the heroes could put her so that her amazing skills would be best-used. This doesn't strike me as an interesting plot.

It has been said that the sling accuracy wasn't "effortless" in that she had to have a lot of skill to pull that shot off. That's what I'm trying to get at, though; the book built her up as so elite that there's no real challenge anywhere in the story for her. It'd be like if Skipper, in Mossflower, was a master of otter judo, and instead of having the grueling fight scene that he had with Cludd, he just sidestepped the weasel's charge and then pushed him into the pit of javelins.

Secondly, her effect on the plot -- and also Frunk's, when he killed every one of the villains at the end of the book -- is virtually instantaneous, and there's no significant challenge for the party afterwards. Think of what it would be like if we did the same sort of thing in Mossflower.

MARTIN: ... so that's our quest. Bella wants to know if you'll come back to save Mossflower.
BOAR: Well, I was thinking about staying home and making you a sword so that *you* could do it, but I've been getting kind of bored here in this mountain. So sure, let me just pack up my armor and sword and we can be on our way.

The party returns to Mossflower. Boar beats down the Kotir gate with his paws and his sword, then kills all of the Thousand Eyes Army, then kills Tsarmina before she can escape. Neither Martin nor anyone else has to lift a paw to help this along. The end, and they all live happily ever after.

The basic thing is that the heroes (the otter clans) are experiencing trouble, but rather than using their wits to get out of it, or relying on some personal resolve, or skill, or really anything, there is some other character who will come along and easily accomplish what everyone else has been struggling to try to achieve. It's anticlimatic, and I don't think it really helps the book along any.

So yes, I actually would have rather had her fight Riggu at close quarters, for the simple fact that it would have 1) given us some reason to respect Riggu Felis as a villain, and either a) allowed for some heroic moment on the part of Tiria that would have made me like her, or b) allowed another character to help her out, which would show that she still needs other beasts, in spite of being the subject of this prophecy and having all of the aforementioned skills.

[Tiria Wildlough]

You didn't have to like her for it to be a good book.
OK, maybe I was a bit hasty. And I admit that it is not very likely that a single hare can kill all of those vermin. That is a little unlikely.
Still, everyone has their own opinion, and it was a good essay.^^

[DanielofRedwall]

I think that the death was appropriate, I mean, killing him with the barb that almost killed the bird, but, IMO, it definately wasn't the most exciting battle scene in Redwall. I think this was the same with Mattimeo, the war was awesome, but the way Slagar died was just... yeah. I think Salamandastron, Lord Brocktree, Mossflower, Martin the Warrior, Rakkety Tam and the Rogue Crew had the best ends for the main villain, and probably more, I just named those off the top of my head. I also liked the death of Crantor in the RP Peace to Protection! Good writing there, Tiria!

[Tiria Wildlough]

The one in Salamandastron was soo saa-aa-aa-aad.

[Romsca]

true the death in salamandastron was sad but the outcast of redwall and loamhedge had the best battles... even though the one in outcast of redwall wasn't much of a battle

[Romsca]

yeah riggu felis's death was pretty boring although it did make sense

[Skipper]

I do think it was pretty dissapointing how he died so quickly with no epic battle even though the odds of Tiria winning in a close quaters battle is slim. Maybe Leatho could have fought him, but in Tiria's benifit I thought she did well to make the shot considering it was on was on a boat which was probably bobbing up and and down abit and Riggu was probably quite far away. I do wish there was a small bit of character progression with her.

[Redwallfan7]

I love Tiria and Leatho Shellhound!

[Leatho Shellhound]

The main hero-villain death wasn't as personal between them. It was the first time she saw him I think. However, Jacques made up for this with the side battle of the otter clans and catgaurds, and then gave us another battle after that with Pitru.
I've tried using a sling before and it's EXTREMELY difficult to be accurate (at least for me anyway ) so for her to hit Felis with a metal barb that's not perfectly aerodynamic and even, and off of a rocking boat, is truly incredible
One thing that makes it one of my favorite stories is that the good guys are OUTSIDE of the fortress, unlike all of the other redwall books (except MTW and Mossflower). And since it's not in Mossflower, it makes things more interesting and less of a cliche IMO.

Oh BTW there is an evil fortress in Mariel of Redwall and the Bellmaker.

Back on topic.

I thought it was kinda cool how he died.

[clunylooney]

OK...I know there has been a lot of debate over this.
SPOILER
Secondly, would you rather have her fight Riggu at close quarters, and get terribly hurt, or maybe killed? He would have easily defeated her any other way. Give her a break!

I actually would have preferred if she had fought at close quarters, nearly died then Riggu saw Pandion, killed him then turned and got an iron barb star slung into his brain. I just would have preferred a little skirmish.