Barranca

[James Gryphon]

Most vermin leaders in the Redwall series live and die as cowards. From Mokkan fleeing his island on a boat, to Slagar running and falling into a well, to Kurda running away from her former slave and tripping and dying on her own sword, there's no end of examples of leaders that, when the chips were down, didn't have any fortitude.

There's one certain swashbuckling stoat, however, that I believe has a certain heroic edge to him, surpassing just about every other villain in the books in bravery, and in 'moral qualities' (such as they are among villains).

That would be Barranca, the captain of Freebooter, and the founder of the rebellion against Ublaz Mad Eyes' tyranny.

In Pearls of Lutra, when he first comes back to port, we find that he's a very popular and beloved captain. All his crew and peers appreciate having him around, which speaks well of his ability. His dominant personality traits are shown when he fearlessly confronts Sagitar Sawfang and her trident-rats, completely unconcerned by their blustering demands.

Unlike many other vermin characters, Barranca also has some affection for his kin and crewmates. When he finds out that his brother's been killed, he reacts out of emotion and immediately begins to plot revenge. Being such a well-liked captain and leader, he has no trouble enlisting allies to revolt against Ublaz.

After all of this, he ends up trapped on Freebooter. All of the other captains are with him, and they're being chased by a boatload of trident-rats, who have been instructed to capture him (and kill everyone else). Barranca doesn't demonstrate an ounce of cowardice as he boldly fights off wave after wave of enemies, in spite of significant disadvantages in both numbers and armament.

Sadly, this corsair's tale has a tragic ending. After having been captured, his crews finally come to rescue him. Displaying complete trust in his crew, he embraces who he believes to be a trusted friend and the chief among his rescuers, Rasconza, only to be ruthlessly betrayed and murdered.

I could go on, but the quality of my writing is exceptionally poor right now, so I'll leave off here. If y'all have any thoughts about this great, underrated pirate captain, feel free to post them here.

[Dotti]

Sir James, as always, your writing is FAR from poor!   
Barranca is different from the other villains in that there's something rather admirable about him.  He seems to have one of those magnetic personalities.  One of the things that makes him popular with the vermin is that he actually has some level of concern for them and expects other leaders to feel the same way (as demonstrated by his foolish belief that Ublaz would deliver new parts for the boats just because Barranca threatened to kill the trident rats appointed to be captains.).  This is extremely rare among villains, most of whom couldn't care less if the beasts under their command all perished.  It almost gave him an air of innocence, and (unfortunately) led to his downfall. 

[Tiria Wildlough]

Barranca is my favourite corsair after Romsca and the freebooters from Triss. I was soooo disappointed when Rasconza murdered him. >:(s

[Nightfire]

Did anyone ever notice how in the illustation in the chapter where Barranca is first intoduced, then he looks like a wildcat? I have an illustration to go along with this observation:

[Dotti]

I love that picture of Barranca, even though it doesn't really represent his species terribly accurately.  He just looks like such a daring swashbuckler guy. 

[Nightfire]

He seriously looks like a wildcat. 

[Tiria Wildlough]

He does NOT look like a wildcat.
(At least, not to me.)
I was so mad that he was killed off by a dirty trick.

[Nightfire]

Yeah. I was really mad at how he died. Barranca was the first corsair that I had ever truly liked that was evil. He was pretty cool. 

[Romsca]

Yeah. I was really mad at how he died. Barranca was the first corsair that I had ever truly liked that was evil. He was pretty cool. 

Barranca was not evil! What were you thinking??? He was cool because he was a vermin that WASN'T evil. An evil stoat would never care about his crew.

P.S. Romsca and Barranca should have gotten married

[Romsca]

I just found out that Barranca means "ravine" in Spanish
Doesn't make much sense to me

[Tam and Martin]

I liked him.

[Kitsune]

Cool topic! 

[Sanddunes]

I wander what it will be like if the Woodlanders fought someone like him

[Ashleg]

Barranca would probably win.

[Sanddunes]

Barranca would probably win.

that's probably why Brian killed him off