Martha's Paralysis

[Hickory]

So, what's up? Based on what I know about the spinal cord, it's impossibe for her to recover, an in the book they said it was from shock. Any suggestions?

[The Skarzs]

Part of her mind must have not been functioning, either from subconsciously not wanting to walk, or by something separating it from the rest of the mind.

[JangoCoolguy]

Lazy writing, plain and simple.

Oh yes, I went there.

Hey, it's no secret Jacques was just going through the motions (and not very well) with "Loamhedge"

[Banya]

I'm agreeing with Skarzs here; if she's spent her whole life believing she can't walk, and then believes she can... sometimes our minds hold us back as much as our bodies do.  We've seen again and again the little guy (i.e. a mouse) gather the courage and skills to take a stand against evil.  Loamhedge provided a whole new enemy to be conquered.  It was one of the most encouraging books of the series.

[Gonff the Mousethief]

Well, if any of you have seen Downton Abbey, one of the characters had a back injury, and the doctor said he could never walk again, however he did. If I remember correctly, he spinal cord was in a state of "shock", but the doctors thought this unlikely. This could have been the case, combined that she didn't believe she could. I may have the details wrong on the "shock" thing, but I'll go back and rewatch that episode.

[SoranMBane]

Lazy writing, plain and simple.

Oh yes, I went there.

Hey, it's no secret Jacques was just going through the motions (and not very well) with "Loamhedge"

I actually agree wholeheartedly with this; Loamhedge is one of the very few Redwall books that I outright dislike, and a lot of it has to do with Martha's recovery (and also with Martin deliberately sending a bunch of creatures on a futile quest, thus getting two of them killed, just so one hare maid could walk again, but that's not what the thread's about, so I'll leave it lying for now). I think it would have been better if she had somehow manged to save the day without a magical recovery, thus proving to herself that she was still useful even with her disability. It would have sent a much better message to all the children reading who actually do have to live with that sort of thing.

[The Skarzs]

Every writer has their poor book.

[BadgerLordFiredrake]

It may just be a neurological issue.  If any of you have read any of Oliver Sacks's books, particularly An Anthropologist on Mars, he mentions cases where people, with surgery to restore their vision, have little to no vision afterwards - their eyes work, but their brain is not prepared to handle everything.  Just a thought...

[The Skarzs]

Another thing where a lot of it has to do with the mind rather than the body part that doesn't function.