Essay: Good vs. Evil

One issue I would like to discuss is the general, all-around weakness of the main villains in most Redwall tales. None of them (with the exception of Cluny, who was too difficult to defeat with only swordplay) can face up to the hero of the novel. Let me give a list of examples:

In Martin the Warrior, Badrang was shaking in his fur when Martin completely outmatched him. Though Martin sustained a few wounds, Badrang was completely scared and unnerved by him. Badrang had the longer and better weapon and the advantage of size, but Martin completely dominated the combat.

In Marlfox, an expert assassin was killed by Janglur in one-on-one combat. Janglur was armed with a small sling, and the Marlfox was armed with a double-bladed axe. The fat squirrel beat the expert assassin without breaking a sweat!

In Triss, the protagonist beat Princess Kurda easily. The ferret was an expert swordmaster, but an untrained, amateur squirrelmaid beat her hands-down.

With the exception of the Wearet, none of the villains ever had enough skill to defeat a main character in a duel. This strikes me as grossly unrealistic. Also, every one of the villains were deathly afraid of all of the protagonists. In contrast, many villains of other novels fought viciously to the death. I understand that the protagonist of the novel has to defeat the villain, but is it very realistic to have a 100% success rate? The main character could fail a duel early on and win one later. If you read all of the books, you will see that no single villain can defeat a good hero in his/her prime. When they do defeat a hero, it is because they have superiority of numbers or the hero is wounded/exhausted/ambushed. This is certainly an area that Brian Jacques could improve on. Feel free to provide your thoughts on this subject.