User blog comment:Astar Goldenwing/For Freedom/@comment-26879391-20150905173321/@comment-2142396-20150908122629

Thanks for reading this! I'm glad you like Freedom and Maple; they were off focus for a while but they will certainly reappear. Speaking of Shamra, I'd say that as escaping her father is her main objective, she had already left Mossflower... but she isn't disappearing from the story. I tried to explore a different aspect of Bloodwrath with Simon as he views it as a curse, but you're right that his personality is that of most Redwall Champions.

I wanted to use 'appearances are deceiving' trick, so that's why the snake wasn't a goodbeast, though I still tried to give her a non-standard personality. I always found it challenging to write canon characters, so I'm glad to know you think Triss stayed the same (though I admit I let her to step back here so that I can focus on Simon ^^).

Rolt is one of my favourite part, too! As you probably guessed, I love Norse mythology (though the names I use are not always meaningful). Surt as a teenager... Guess he would've been mortified if he heard that, he's actually in his mid-thirties. But true, he has that 'rebel without a case' trait. ;) He may be a pain in the tail, but he really loves his family, so I'm glad you liked their interactions.

Foxglove and Kars are dear to me (in a way, Foxglove is my first Redwall character), so it's good to know their story touched you. Foxglove's going to have a hard time ahead of her... Fire and Sand, like in Firestar and Sandstorm? I'm not good with catching references, so sorry if I didn't get it...