User blog comment:Heather the dragon rider/Defenders of Redwall (old)/@comment-2142396-20160925072321

Whoohoo, I read this – I said that I would, didn’t I? Yeah, with months’ time of lagging behind, but I’m following this. ;) Firstly, I didn’t expect to like the re-imagining of the movie/series characters as much as I did, but you did such a good job there! I love how you Redwall-ized the characters, their species fit their personalities perfectly. I think the squirrel twins are definitely among my favourites, they can always lighten the mood with their antics. :D And another thing I really like about your writing is the humor – all the little jokes and funny situations make me smile every time.

I like how Spikelout acted like sort of father figure to Hiccup, even if he couldn’t be as proud of him as he were of his own son. Snotspike, though… The heck you are doing? Being mean to Hiccup is one thing, but outright pushing him out to die in the rockslide is another. Let’s just hope Snotspike wasn’t thinking clearly at that point… I was actually on the edge about Dewrose at first – I always loved her bold and fierce nature and her strong leadership qualities, and I like the idea of her wielding a battle axe instead of more traditional ‘feminine’ light weapons and training in secret to use arms. Maybe that’s why she is so resentful toward Hiccup, because he gets all the attention from the older warriors despite not really deserving it, but she doesn’t? However, I can’t say I liked her tendency to snap a lot, but now it seems that Dewrose is slowly improving her attitude toward Hiccup and other beasts on the team and working on her temper, so I like her more and more with each chapter.

I like how inquisitive Hiccup is despite being physically weak, and his family history is intriguing. There are just so many questions! How the blue wyrm symbol connected to Hiccup’s father? And there is Hiccup’s name on the belt buckle – what if it belonged to one of his ancestors with the same name, and he was actually named after him and not because of him being a runt? I rather like this theory, because I can’t imagine Hiccup’s parents giving him such diminutive name otherwise. Speaking of family, what did Torwin mean when he spoke about the third mouse looking like Errol and Hiccup? Maybe Hiccup has more relatives out there than we all think… You know, I can’t help but remember a picture of Kristov you once made who looks remarkably like Hiccup… And then there are Dagru’s words about how his sword Deathkiller was once taken from a mouse king of some kind – it’s unlikely that it’s connected to Redwall and Martin the Warrior, but I do sense some kind of plot behind it. And that magnetic stone must have some significance as well…

Skut is a really cool character, and Dagru is… astounding? It’s unusual to see a fox being so outgoing and friendly, and yet so skilled in fighting, and because of that I kept guessing at his motives and whether or not he was sincere. Still, I like how he looked out for Hiccup, it was so touching. I wouldn’t have guessed him being a runt with such an energetic attitude, but it does make sense that Dagru would want to somehow compensate for it in the courage and skill at least. But really, Dagru? One day you all but call Hiccup your brother, and the next you go and try to kill him over a sword, and then you even blame him for leaving you behind! *headdesk* After this, I guess it was a good thing the questers never told him about their mission or where they came from… Oh, there is another question I wanted to ask: in all your Dagru pictures, he has three black stripes over his left eye – are these scars, paint or just some strange markings?