History Literature / WatershipDown

From 1999 to 2001, a LighterAndSofter TV series adaptation was broadcast on British and Canadian television, made in collaboration with Canadian network Creator/{{YTV}}. The series revolves around Hazel and his friends trying to settle down and protect Watership Down from outside threats and natural disasters. While this version was made for very young kids, it was praised for its mature story telling and world building, and also had an AllStarCast with actors such as Creator/StephenFry, Creator/KieferSutherland, Stephen Mangan and Tim McInnerny. Richard Briers and Creator/JohnHurteven return, this time as Captain Broom and General Woundwort respectively. The show also uses an instrumental rendition of "Bright Eyes" for its opening and ending credits. Its page can be found [[WesternAnimation/WatershipDown1999 here]].

From 1999 to 2001, a LighterAndSofter TV series adaptation was broadcast on British and Canadian television, made in collaboration with Canadian network Creator/{{YTV}}. The series revolves around Hazel and his friends trying to settle down and protect Watership Down from outside threats and natural disasters. While this version was made for very young kids, it was praised for its mature story telling and world building, and also had an AllStarCast with actors such as Creator/StephenFry, Creator/KieferSutherland, Stephen Mangan, Richard Briers, and even Creator/JohnHurt, this time playing General Woundwort. The show also uses an instrumental rendition of "Bright Eyes" for its opening and ending credits. Its page can be found [[WesternAnimation/WatershipDown1999 here]].

** The only reason they accept this is because the farmer is also exterminating ALL other threats. The human threat is their ONLY threat, and there's an unspoken understanding that the human threat will never exterminate the warren outright.

* AndroclesLion:
** Hazel encourages the other rabbits to help out non-aggressive animals, in case they ever need help, which starts with a mouse. It pays off with the mouse telling the rabbits about a good feeding place, Kehaar acting as their scout and air support, [[spoiler:and the mouse giving them advance warning of the Efrafan attack, which likely saved the warren]].
** "The Fox in the Water" has El-ahrairah wandering and offering advice, which pays off when a snake he helped, who had heard of his good deeds, grants him temporary hypnotic power to defeat the foxes plaguing the warren.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Lampshaded regarding Woundwort's LastWords. "Dogs aren't dangerous! Come back and fight!"

* ShroudedInMyth: Half the rabbit folktales are half-remembered [[TwiceToldTale legends]] of forgotten rabbit chiefs, now associated with El-ahrairah.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GladIThoughtOfIt: The rabbits want to use a bird to find another warren with does, so Bigwig pours out their troubles to Kehaar, who comes up with the idea of searching for it himself, whereupon Hazel lavishly praises Kehaar for thinking up such a clever idea.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Again, a common rule in rabbit warrens, but taken to an extreme at Efrafa. It's common for strong rabbits to get the choicest plants to eat, first pick of does, etc. At Efrafa, rabbits who lack Owsla standing aren't even allowed above ground outside a fixed rotation, and the only way to get into their Owsla is to be an excellent fighter (and it's apparently bucks only).

* NoPronunciationGuide: Partially averted. There's a Fictionary, but Adams says names like Thethuthinnang and Thlayli are to be pronounced with a "wuf-fluffy" sound. The pronunciation guide only tells the reader which syllable is stressed (el-a-HRAI-rah, THE-thu-thin-NANG).

* InsaneTrollLogic: Lampshaded regarding Woundwort's LastWords. "Dogs aren't dangerous! Come back and fight!"

* HellIsThatNoise (InUniverse): ''Everyone'' is freaked out by the sound of Fiver snarling and howling like Rowsby Woof. (But it gives Hazel the idea that saves the warren).

* EverybodySmokes: A weird variant. The ''rabbits'' don't smoke, of course, but humans are seldom mentioned without some reference to the "white sticks" they burn in their mouths. However this is a case of changing social norms- in the early 1970s when the book was written over half of all adult males in the UK were regular smokers (it's around a quarter in the present day).
* EvilCounterpart: Silverweed is the prophet and poet of Cowslip's warren, and thus counterpart to Fiver. Though strictly speaking, Silverweed himself isn't malicious - just very, very much lost in a world of his own.
* FamedInStory: By the end of the book, enough stories are being told about Hazel that he can't even remember which ones are true any more (though admittedly, his encroaching age doesn't help). Meanwhile, Woundwort has become ShroudedInMyth as a superpowered bogeyman with a touch of KingInTheMountain mixed in.

** An odd case when it comes to carrots: The rabbits throughout the book are shown to greatly enjoy carrots, and eat them whenever they can. However in real life wild rabbits seldom, if ever, eat carrots or other roots. Additionally, carrots are very high in sugar, and eating too much of them is bad for their health. One of the El-ahraira stories even centers around El-ahraira and Rabscuttle hatching a plot to steal Prince Rainbow's carrots (in large part because Prince Rainbow was deliberately trying to put one over on him). However the only place where carrots are found in large supply within the narrative is at Cowslip's warren [[spoiler:due to the humans that are feeding them and fattening them up]]. Elsewhere, they're presented as an uncommon treat, usually when they can be filched from a farm.

* SexSlave: Implied by the fact that The does at [[spoiler:Efrafa]] can be called by hares into their burrows for any reason...DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?

* HopeSpot: Just before the climactic battle between the Efrafans and Watership Downers, Hazel goes to meet Woundwart, hoping to talk him out of the war by offering a truce, along with a offer to help create a series of free-independent warrens allied to protect one another. In both the book and the animated movie, Woundwart actually spends a moment thinking over this offer, with the book actually having him consider what kind of leader he really wanted to be. Ultimately he refuses the path offered, only sparing Hazel so he can deliver the General's terms to "Chief" Bigwig.

** Against that, there are occurrences in the film - one of which is also in the book - which make it explicitly clear that both El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle are real in-universe. [[spoiler: The Black Rabbit leads Fiver to where Hazel lies wounded, one of the rabbits tries to bargain with El-ahrirah with his life for the survival of the Watership warren (something that happens to El-ahrairah himself in the book) and El-ahrairah comes for Hazel at the end of his life.]]

** General Woundwort and his Council have less excuse. They're so fixated on maintaining their authority and minimizing the risks of detection by humans that they fail to do anything about Efrafa's overcrowding, like encouraging migration or sending out expeditions to form new warrens -- even digging new burrows is out of question.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Bigwig is the largest and strongest rabbit in the story until Woundwort appears. As noted above, when Bigwig rejects Woundort's offer out of loyalty to his own Chief Rabbit, the Efrafans immediately picture someone even larger and stronger.
* AmalgamatedIndividual: The rabbits recount some of the exploits of Elahrairah, the first rabbit, and their greatest trickster. Elahrairah, the "Prince with a Thousand Enemies," is portrayed as an ingenious and innovative rabbit who routinely outsmarts his adversaries. A typical rabbit couldn't live long enough to have so many achievements, so the cunning of the Prince's descendants has been ascribed to him. It not only makes for good storytelling among the rabbits, but also works as a "con man's handbook" of trickery.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Usually the Chief Rabbit of a warren is also the strongest -- Woundwort is a particularly vivid case, as he took command of Efrafa by killing the previous chief and another rival. Averted as a plot point late in the novel, when Bigwig tells Woundwort his Chief told him to defend the run; the Efrafans panic, thinking there must be an even bigger and tougher rabbit they haven't met yet. When he fails to defeat Bigwig in single combat, Woundwort starts to feel his authority slip away.

* AnswerToPrayers: In the AnimatedAdaptation a desperate Hazel pleads with the great god Frith to spare his warren from the hostile forces of General Woundwort. Hazel even offers to perish himself to make this come true. Frith responds, "There does not pass a day or a night that some honest captain of owsla [sic] does not offer his life for his chief, or a mother rabbit offer her life for her kittens. But there can be no bargain, for what is, is what must be." It's all up to Hazel now: do or die.

* {{Arcadia}}: Watership Down.