Thank Heaven for the ROC

By Spring Brookring

Well, it’s November, and in America, November means Thanksgiving—seeing family, being thankful, and stuffing yourself with food. I know this holiday isn’t celebrated in Europe, but there’s no reason Europeans can’t be thankful, too. So here is a list of Redwall-related things that you may wish to be thankful for.

* The Redwall series. After all, without Brian Jacques and his wonderful tales, this article wouldn’t even exist.

* The Internet. ‘Nuff said.

* A group of people who were obsessed enough and creatively insane enough to start the ROC.

* The invention of forums, which assist you in staying up all night talking about penguins and banana bread.

* Caffeinated drinks, which also assist in staying up all night discussing hole-punchers and dead fish.

* Flat screen computers. Face it—they’re just cool.

* Numerous websites and other guides that seem to love helping people perfect their writing and role-playing skills, so that when you role-play with them they are not clueless newbies.

* All those e-zines that keep you entertained, up to date, and wondering. *cough*Yn Nor*coughcough*

* The hard-working writers, editors, etc. at said e-zines.

* All the people you role-play with. A one-person role-play isn’t that much fun.

* Actually, all the people you talk to, period. I know no one in person who is as obsessed with Redwall and fantasy and writing as I am. When I first stumbled into the ROC I was amazed that so many people who were as insane as I was wanted to talk to me about rodents with swords.

* All the other fantasy/sci-fi/whatever authors out there that provide you with the means to be obsessed.

* Print-ups, downloads, and games that people make for no apparent reason except that they like doing it.

* Fan art and fan-fiction that no one is obliged to make, and still the ROC abounds with it.

* The Redwall TV Show. Alright, alright, you probably didn’t like it (I know I didn’t), but some people must have, and the fact that a television company created a TV show based on books about talking mice and not action figures in metal suits proves that not the whole world is sane.

* The webmasters and webmistresses who update their sites and bring you the latest news on your obsession.

* Sugar! Everybody likes sugar, right?

* Martin the Warrior. Aw, come on, he’s the main character of the series, pretty much. You gotta like him.

* That weird, twisted, ROC insanity.

* The fact that humans are such an advanced civilization that we can write books on talking rodents, publish web sites about them, and then discuss them (and often many other things as well, including explosives and llamas).

So that’s it, everyone. Have a good month, and perhaps remember to be thankful for one of these things. Then again, I suppose that remembering is asking rather a lot. Toodles!