Things Better Left Unvisited:
Exactly What It Sounds Like, Mates.
If you asked a random woodlander or resident of Castle Floret during the time of Urgan Nagru's occupation, what is the single most disturbing physical feature they might frown upon about the fox Warlord?
If you said "The...fact that he murders other creatures for no good reason and took over our homeland?" then I'm terribly sorry, but you'd be dead wrong.
It's the fact that he wears clothing made from skin. That's right. Goodbeasts are PeTA. It doesn't matter to them that a lot of the creatures that wear skin are carnivores anyway and its just a practical and resourceful use of some leftover inedible bits. The wearing of skins or bones is absolute taboo in the society of the goodbeasts. C'mon, it's absolballylutely savage an' barbaric, ol' chap.
Before I made mention of the Redwallers being sort of vegetarian. They're almost vegan, especially in the later books where Brian Jacques decided that you really don't need eggs to bake a cake and have it turn out to be, oh, I dunno, a CAKE, and they even omit fish from the elaborate feasting scenes for the most part. But the truth is...
They're not even vegetarian. Not if you follow PeTA's rules of conduct on vegan and vegetarianism. You can neither consume nor WEAR products created from killing a (non-fish) animal by their standards.
"But Spider," some reader with a doofy voice will invariably protest, prompting a hard glare from the rest of youse trying to pay attention to the lecture in Redwall-o-nomics 414, "The goodbeast species don't wear skins or furs. That's only the vermin, or the woodlanders raised by vermin. I GOTCHA NOW FOOL!"
After you lot kindly beat that idiotic man senseless, I shall explain this theory o' mine with good rational thought, as the rest of you have displayed admirably by expressing any confusion quietly and in a civil way, unlike Doofy McOutburst MacSpearfodder over yonder.
Class, do you remember what the scabbard of MARTIN THE WARRIOR'S OWN FREAKING SWORD IS MADE OF?!
*Matthias Discovers More Than a Sword*
The little mouse with the big destiny which he calmly and nonsensically took in stride earlier snuck ninja-like into the nest of that bastardly sparrow King Bull Sparra.
"Hmmm...How has this Abbey survived so long with basically one of the most evil Warlords in the book, aside from Cluny, living with an army of a thousand practically on top of our heads?" Matthias wondered to himself randomly. But no time for that! He must find the Sword of Plot Advancement! For some reason!
"Oh, yes. Finding this one sword which seems nearly impossible for any normal, non-God-like-author-favored character to get is definitely the way to win this war with this one rare group of evil rats and technically enslaved other rats and weasels that only numbers about six hundred." he went back to the topic, "Nope, sending for the Long Patrol wouldn't possibly work. Neither would using subterfuge with that fox we swindled to rally the hundred impressed ones to our side so we could assassinate Cluny for real. Only this sword, which is totally not magic or special in any way other than it isn't a big pile of rust by now, can save the day!"
Stumbling, he tripped and fell behind an overstuffed sofa, which was in a bird's nest for some reason, and came face-to-object with the sword scabbard of Martin's sword. As the young and on-alert mouse reached out to lovingly stroke the fabled item it was immediately clear that something was wrong.
And, no, it was not that the sword wasn't in the case. It was something the sheltered little beast found far worse...
"I-I-It's m-m-m-made of... SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
YES. Redwallers and other goodbeasts are depicted as owning, using, and never freaking out about, items constructed wholly or partially from leather and bone. It baffles the mind in many ways: First, do they not KNOW that the belt they wear is made of the treated hides of other creatures?
Perhaps the skin, fur and skeletal garb taboo only applies when the source of the material is obvious. With leather there is no fur, with otter tailrings the bone is smoothed and no longer in the shape of a recognizable bone. Do they import leather and bone goods form some other land, blissfully unaware that they are wearing a chunk of cow skin or even something a little more similar to their own kind, like a hedgehog?
Or... is there a more sinister explanation?
Could it be possible that they know the leather is just skin...because they skinned the dead carcasses of the foebeasts' bodies piled up from all those wars outside their gates themselves?
Even worse...
Do they habitually and casually skin their own dead? You never see an open-casket funeral or any kind of memorial service where the unaltered body is visible in the entire series. You only see the part after they are six feet under already.
Maybe there's a very very good reason for that. No need to frighten the Dibbuns, eh?
More may follow. If you like, you may leave an as-of-yet unanswered bit of unusual Redwall yore as a suggestion, but it is more than likely I'll cover the grand majority of oddness and unmentioned unmentionableness.