#el-ahrairah behavior

[silverskye13]

Today some shmuck tried to rob me with a knife but i simply went "no thank you" and broke out running for the fucking hills thinking "damn this is just like. just like that one scene in redstone and skulk" cause that's the london living life 💪 imagine being me sike YOU CANT

Anon how does it feel to be the most badass person on planet earth? Jesus Christ.

I'm imagining Tanguish running beside you cheering you on. Yes! Run! Run faster! Look at the stupid look on their face! But do not stop running!

#answering asks #anonymous #i am in awe?? that you thought of this silly fic after [during??] your escape #goodness gravy #el-ahrairah behavior #All the world will be your enemy #Prince with a Thousand Enemies #and whenever they catch you #they will kill you. #But first they must catch you #Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed #also this does very much read like one of those exaggeration style redit post copypastas #but im choosing to live in a world where anon is a badass

[krinsbez]

A Watership Down Meta/Headcanon/Rant

So, both @jaybutnotthebird and @stavarosthearcane have stated that, to their knowledge, I've not posted this on tumblr, and indicated that they would like to hear it, I'm posting it now!

So I don't recall if it was stated explicitly or was, like, a rumor, but everything about Gen. Woundwort makes so much more sense when you realize he's a hutch rabbit.

Why is he so enormous? Cuz he was bred to be big and fluffy, was fed flayrah everyday, and was taken to the vet if he got sick.

Why is he so afraid of humans? Because they were the first elil he ever encountered.

Why is everything he does in complete opposition to proper lapine culture and behavior? Because he grew up not knowing anything about it.

Efrafa is, in essence, an attempt to make a warren into a hutch.

OK got that? So, here's another thing to think about. Cowslip's Warren, or Strawberry's Warren, or the Warden of the Shining Wire, or whatever you want to call it...they also completely disregard traditional Lapine culture and behavior; they don't tell stories of El-ahrairah, they make weird poetry about the inevitability of death, they keep babbling about dignity, they make ART, etc. This, by the way, is why it and Efrafa come off as so viscerally wrong, because Mr. Adams went to the trouble of putting us in a rabbit headspace, so we can understand the full horror; it's not just Woundwort's tyranny or the farmer's snares, it's that they're unnatural and rabbits aren't meant to live that way.

Now, I know what you're thinking when I say that word, "unnatural", but put down the pitchfork.

Because Hazel and Co. do a LOT of things that is outside the realm of typical rabbit behavior:

Despite being Chief Rabbit, Hazel let's the others argue with and talk back to him.

They made friends with mice and a bird.

He adopted Cowslip's Warren's idea of using tree roots to create a big central chamber

Tales (the sequel short story collection) has them adopt a (obvs. less aggro) version of the Efrafan practice of having the Owsla run patrols

They busted out hutch rabbits.

They used a boat

Meanwhile, Sandleford, the Warren that our heroes fled, was apparently the epitome of a traditional Warren and of course they all died horribly.

So, what's the difference?

It goes back to the last lines of the first myth, part of which was used as the first animated film adaptation's tagline:

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”

(I bolded the important part)

Sandleford's Chief Rabbit (EDIT: The Threarah) decided he liked things as they were and refused to change, and his people died. Cowslip and Co. allow themselves to be farmed and treat death as an inevitability, and they're slowly going mad and dying one by one. Gen. Woundwort teaches his Owsla to respond to every situation by fighting, and they break and flee when the unexpected happens. The ordinary rabbits of Efrafa are forced to live like hutch rabbits and they're miserable and not having babies.

Hazel does weird stuff…but he does so because he's in a weird situation and has to adapt. He listens to the other's concerns and ideas, he keeps an open mind, he figures out what resources are available to him, and then figures out how he can use them to protect his people.

In short? Unlike Woundwort, Cowslip & Co., or the unnamed Chief Rabbit of Sandleford EDIT: The Threarah, he is cunning and full of tricks.

(I think one of the reasons the BBC miniseries from a few years back didn't hit right is that they failed to get this)

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED Talk

#Watership Down #Random Thoughts #Headcanons

[skekteksfurby]

I've come to realize that Fire Bringer does for me what Watership Down does for a lot of others. 

There’s a lot of similarities between the two (xenofictions set in the UK surrounding a herbivorous animal with unique lore, including a god *herne/frith* and a trickster *el-ahrairah*, realistic animal behavior explained in a fictional way, made-up words for things, dark themes, violence) but honestly I find myself leaning more towards Fire Bringer despite having read WSD multiple times before. Something about Clement-Davies’ writing voice just speaks more to me.

Also hey look fb has quite a few strong female characters with actual personalities that aren’t just seen as breeding fodder. That’s a positive, too.

If you prefer WSD, more power to you, but I think that out of these two similar books, I deffo lean towards Fire Bringer.

I still haven’t read Plague Dogs yet but it’s on my shelf so we’ll see what my thoughts are on that one.

#watership down #fire bringer #tekrim text