Swartt Sixclaw, also known as The Pitiless One, is the main antagonist of the Redwall book Outcast of Redwall by Brian Jacques. He is a vicious, psychopathic ferret warlord who is obsessed with hunting down and killing Sunflash the badger, who wounded him while escaping enslavement.
What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]
- In contrast to most Redwall villains who are often cool and enjoyable like Cluny the Scourge, Swartt lacks these traits for the most part and his sadism, cruelty and pettiness are emphasized by the narrative. His treatment of his family also makes him hit home in a much more realistic way.
- He's overly smug and sadistic but lacks competence as a horde leader, often needing Nightshade to bail him out of trouble and being physically intimidated by three tougher vermin (one of them his own son) over the course of the story.
- He enslaves Sunflash the badger and horribly mistreats him, tormenting and beating him for several seasons.
- He's motivated by a petty grudge against Sunflash and wants to kill him as slowly and painfully as possible because Sunflash crippled Swartt’s paw while escaping, despite that being his own fault.
- While he often relies on his advisor Nightshade for help, he treats her badly as well and doesn't care about her on a personal level.
- He regularly betrays and murders his allies, including his mentor Bowfleg, and is one of the worst bosses in the series as he treats his horde terribly, telling them they will follow him without question or die, and even the wives and children of the hordebeasts are subject to his cruel whims.
- He takes Bowfleg's daughter Bluefen as his wife and treats her as a trophy, but has no emotional attachment to her. It's even implied that he may have raped her, as they ended up having a child despite Bluefen clearly being afraid of Swartt.
- He also doesn't care when Bluefen dies in childbirth, having her buried with scant ceremony, then hands over his infant son to another hordebeast as though the child has nothing to do with him. He later abandons his son during a battle without a second thought.
- When informed that his captain Wildag and Lardtail the rat are conspiring against him, Swartt orders Lardtail to force-feed Wildag a dead crow, resulting in him choking to death. Swartt then falsely accuses Lardtail of murdering an officer, executing him as he screams for mercy.
- He dismisses the death of two of his bodyguards during a crow attack, saying he would have killed them himself for not warning him, then orders two other guards executed for sleeping on duty, ordering this to be done in front of the entire horde to teach them a lesson.
- He gets his captains to support him by appealing to their greed, telling them they can take all the riches of Salamandastron for themselves, while leaving the rank and file hordebeasts with nothing.
- He sends Balefur the fox into a death trap for challenging his authority, with Balefur being killed by snakes alongside two of his closest friends.
- He launches a lengthy attack on Salamndastron, where Sunflash rules, while manipulating his rival Captain Zigu into being killed in a dangerous charge. He treats his troops as expendable and will sacrifice anyone if it means killing Sunflash, which gets most of his army killed.
- He hires an assassin called the Wraith to murder Sunflash, planning to dispose of the Wraith once the job is done.
- He has Nightshade stage an ambush that kills Skarlath, Sunflash's closest friend, then abandons Nightshade to be killed when Sunflash comes for revenge.
- He belittles and threatens his son Veil when reunited with him.
- He captures Sunflash and states his intent to torture him to death, and threatens to do the same to Veil for standing up to him.
- He tries to kill Veil's adoptive mother Bryony when she tries to rescue Sunflash, and when Veil tries to protect her, Swartt fatally wounds him with a javelin, showing no emotion over killing his own son.