The Urthblood Saga: Difference between revisions

* [[Jumped At the Call]]: After learning that Urthblood's army is travelling to Salamandastron to confront Urthfist, Cyril decides to sneak out of Redwall, dress as a soldier and come with them, [[What an Idiot!|despite not having any combat experience or fighting skills]]. Subverted, quite fortunately, since he's immidiately found out and [[Refused By the Call|told to go back to the abbey.]]

* [[Living Lie Detector]]: As a result of his [[Seers|prophetic powers]], Urthblood is able to detect whether someone is telling the truth or not almost flawlessy, and is even able to engage in limited [[Telepathy|mind reading]] to gauge the general character and trustworthiness of his target.

* [[Lost in Translation]]: In-universe example. An old nursery rhyme that is popular with the abbey children was originally a poem describing the effects a seer has on the [[Psychic Block Defense|time he lives in.]]

* [[Made of Iron]]: Due to a combination of [[Bio Augmentation|medical]] and [[Alchemy Is Magic|alchemical]] treatments, his status as being [[The Chosen One|chosen by fate]], and just general [[Badass|badassery]], Urthblood is able to shrug off wounds that would kill most other beasts.

* [[Psychic Block Defense]]: Urthblood is apparently able to do this to the ''[[Up to Eleven|entire era he lives in.]]'' More specifically, Geoff the recorder finds an ancient version of an old nursery rhyme that turns out to have been a poem about how a seer living in a specific era prevents past seers from being able to make predictions and prophecies about that era.

* [[Real Men Don't Cry|Real Warriors Don't Cry]]: Cyril is of this opinion. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|At first...]]

* [[Screw Destiny]]: Urthblood does what he does partly to avert the coming crisis, or at least to weather it.

* [[Secret Path]]: It is revealed that there is one through the mountains that seperate the Western Plains, and Redwall, from Salamandastron. This becomes important for several events in The Crimson Badger.

* [[Shades of Conflict]]: The series examplifies several shades during its run.

** [[White and Gray Morality]]: The general shade of the conflict between the Redwallers, who are for the most part truly good and striving to do what's right, and Urthfist and the Long Patrol (and to a lesser extent Urthblood and his forces) who are also convinced they're doing what's right, but are decidedly more willing to use more [[Shoot the Dog|questionable means]] in their struggle.

** [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: The conflict between Urthblood and Urthfist.

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Urthblood has no problem with this trope if he believes it's for [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|the greater good.]] The earliest clear-cut example is when he chooses to execute the captured searats from the submarine, apparently after having applied some brutal [[Cold-Blooded Torture|"interogations"]] on them first. He justifies it to Winokur, by whose Redwall standards such acts would be appalling, by claiming that they would only have caused more trouble and misery if they were set free, that they would have slowed them down too much if they'd brought them with them to Salamandastron, that the Guosim they'd stolen their children from would have done the same if they were handed over to them, and that by gazing deeply into their eyes, he [[Mind Probe|could see]] that their souls were completely beyond redemption. While his reasons in this case does appear to have merit, it's always left ambiguous whether he's telling the truth or doing these things out of simple convenience.

** The searats' fish-shaped submarine that Urthblood discovers is possibly a shout-out to the [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea|Nautilus.]]

** The title of the fourth book of TCB comes from a song by the [[Grateful Dead]].

* [[Unfortunate Names]]: Of the "Rhyming Names" variety; one of Urthblood's captains is called Perrett... the Ferret.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Urthblood receives plenty of these over the course of the series for his many questionable actions. Usually, [[I Did What I Had to Do|he just ignores them.]]

* [[Would Be Rude to Say Genocide]]: During a meeting between the Redwallers and the Long Patrol, it's revealed that shortly after Urthblood ran away from Salamandastron after receiving his prophecy, he was captured by a tribe of pygmy shrews who planned to use him as forced labour. Since he had much less control over his inner Bloodwrath in those days, and [[Berserk Button|hated slavers]] above all other types of villainous creatures, he flew into a [[The Berserker|berserker rage]], breaking free of his restraints and slaughtering most of the tribe, including several children.