#Bluebell Watership Down

[cardinalcompass]

The relationships in the BBC show is one of the reasons I downright hate it. I've never seen the 1999 show, but I hope it does certain characters and their relationships better. One of the things I love so much is the platonic love between so many of the characters, and all of the shoehorned romances made the BBC show SO hard to watch. My family and I will ALWAYS hate that Strawberry got gender swapped just to have a stupid love triangle between Hawkbit and DANDELION of all characters (who they completely changed his character for, he has none of his original personality, rip to my favorite non-protagonist character) only to then slot Strawberry with Bigwig (BIGWIG) right at the end.

I always loved the bond in the book between Bigwig and Hyzenthlay. It wasn't romantic, but it came out of mutual respect and a mutual goal. If I'm remembering correctly, when Bigwig was thought to die after the Woundwort fight, Hazel and Hyzenthlay would barely leave his side.

So many relationships are so artfully written in this book, and I understand that in adaptations it can be difficult to translate them well, but it felt like the miniseries shunted them ALL to the side in favor of romances that didn't even work.

This is with all barely mentioning how some characters don't have their original personality or role in the story, taking away their ability to create some of their closest bonds. Bluebell taking over Dandelion's original role means that (Dandelion was stuck in a love triangle that shouldn't have existed--) he was never with Holly when they were escaping from Sandleford, saving his life by giving home something to cling onto (his jokes) taking away one of Holly's most important relationships in the book.

Strawberry, too. By making him a female character, Nildro-hain never existed, one of HIS closest bonds before joining the main group and literally the reason he joins them in the first place (which is fridging unfortunately but it is known that the main book had an emphasis on the male characters. I believe that if they wanted an important female character earlier on they could have made her live rather than gender swapping a different character)

I have so many more thoughts but this rant is already long enough lol.

Tldr, I'm disappointed with the BBC adaptation both in terms of relationships and how different characters were changed in ways that were infuriating

What do you think of relasionships in watership down?romantic or friendly or brotherly etc?in different adaptations and fave to worse?

That’s a lot of things to comment on, but I feel that it’d be obvious to say that the book(s) handled these kinds of relationships the best. Holly and Clover, or Hazel and Hyzenthlay, or Fiver and Vilthuril, were all handled subtly but with obvious devotion and care. The same went for characters that had a close friend or companion or even sibling, like Hazel and Fiver, or Holly and Bluebell, or even Strawberry and Nildro-hain. The book takes time to express fondness, even if only briefly.

In the animated series, Hazel falls for Primrose out of nowhere. And them making Blackberry a doe is bad enough, but for them to throw in some random romance with Campion was ridiculous. All the romances in this one were handled badly. However, the relationships between close friends or siblings, for instance, Hawkbit and Dandelion, were done well.

The BBC adaptation did a pretty sour job of it. Dewdrop wasn’t necessary. Clover’s romance with Hazel came out of nowhere to the detriment of more important relationships, like Hazel’s relationship with Fiver or even Bigwig. Hyzenthlay’s romance with Holly was literally just there to be a gut-punch when Holly ends up getting killed, and Strawberry’s romance with Bigwig came out of Frithing nowhere.

I think the main issue is that the book(s) made clear that rabbits are rabbits, and while they are sometimes devoted to their mates, they’re still a colony-type species first and foremost. The romances in the book(s) are downplayed because the characters are RABBITS, but in the series, they’re written more as humans, which isn’t a change that works. Romance as a subplot doesn’t work when the characters are non-anthropomorphized rabbits.

I liked the mate pairings in the book just fine, Most of them work very well. In fact, I can’t really think of any that don’t. The close relationships between Hazel and Fiver or Holly and Bluebell or even more downplayed, trusting friendships, like between Hazel and Blackberry, are artfully done. Hyzenthlay’s respect for Blackavar shows through. Pipkin’s vast admiration for Hazel is incredibly sweet and heartwarming.

My only true complaint when it comes to non-romantic pairings is just that the adaptations, sadly, don’t often tell the full stories of El-ahrairah, with the sole exception of the animated series, which isn’t always faithful. And probably one of my favourite relationships in the series is that which is between El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle. And the latter, sadly, hasn’t been in any of the adaptations, as of yet. 

[saturncoyote]

Started missing drawing rabbits so here’s a bunch of em

[augment-techs]

Watership Down graphic novel reaction/icon images: PART II

[canisalbus]

can't stop thinking about bunny vasco and machete as bluebell and captain holly from watership down... joyful roguish comedian pairbonded to the most tortured soul he could find

.

[doxiedreg]

So I read the watership down graphic novel a few days ago (it was very good, great adaptation of the original book though some things were missing/lacking) and it gave me the itch to draw bunnies again. So instead of, idk, cooking or eating dinner I drew a bunch of watership down bunny rabbits :) Its almost 12 am and im starving but I just needed to get it done today, i wanted to share the watership down love. Who knows, maybe if I had stopped, it would have ended up in wip limbo/hell and i didnt want that to happen Anyhow, I sadly wasnt able to fit everyone but I tried to include most of the main bunnies. I was gonna squeeze blackavar in there but i was all out of brain juice and also canvas space. I used photo references of wild rabbits to try and get the shapes right but the ears were very challenging. Im afraid some might have turned out looking more like hares instead but I really tried my best! (this took me like over 4 hours rip) I also tried really hard to make their coat colors and patterns varied but still believable/natural-ish. Vervain is a lil random because honestly i didnt know what to do for him so i just let the vibes guide me. To fill the empty space beneath pipkin i included tiny El-ahrairah, the black rabbit of Inlé and frith because i despise having empty space on sketch pages. Anyhow im gonna try to figure out what to eat now, hope you guys enjoy!

[godzilla-reads]

Bluebell, my beloved 💙

[“I wouldn’t care about my spirits,” said Bluebell, “if my legs weren’t so tired. Slugs are lucky not to have legs. I think I’ll be a slug.”

“Well, I’m a hedgehog,” said Hazel, “so you’d better get on!”

“You’re not,” replied Bluebell. “You haven’t enough fleas. Now, slugs don’t have fleas, either. How comforting to be a slug, among the dandelions so snug-”

“And feel the blackbird’s sudden tug,” said Hazel. ]

[sketch-shepherd-art]

WaterSHIP down hehe amirite?

Anyway these sketches are really shitty but I've wanted to draw some of my favorite gay WSD ships for pride month for a while

Also some of these ships are VERY specific to certain versions of characters in various adaptations so I might as well clarify them:

Hazel x Bigwig (1978 movie)

Hazel x Campion (1999 series)

Fiver x Silverweed (1999 series)

Bluebell x Blackberry (2018 miniseries)

Clover x Hyzenthlay (2018 miniseries)

[finalhaunts]

So who was gonna fucking tell me the voice actor for Hobie also played these two

[spinnysocks]

i love this silly littol guy so much he makes me giggle

[willowbirds]

Headcanon: Bluebell and Captain Holly are bonded bunnies 🐇

[hazyaltcare]

Can I get a pendulum reading to answer the question "Am I kin to Fiver from watership down?" And if any form of yes "was my connection with Bluebell and Dandelion romantic in any way?"

My Question: Is the anon I'm currently answering Fiver (Watership Down) kin?

The Result: moderate no

Always remember you know your kintypes best! If something about the answer I came to seems wrong to you, dont ignore that feeling as it can help you find the true answer you seek. Still, I hope this helped regardless.

Mod Haze (☀️Sol)

[cozy-kjune]

“Does and bucks, and cute baby rabbits(korean line), I’ll tell you a little story✨😉”

In netflix series the “Watership down”

Did you know that the Amuro touro(Furuya Rei) from detective conan and the Bluebell (korean voice actor Park seok tae) are the same voice actor?

Well I don’t know the ohter country but yeah

[misskriemhilds]

:(

[naylte-bryhlath]

My favorite WSD is the book because it had Bluebell in his rightful place

YES literally!! I love book!Bluebell, he's so fun and I love his dynamic with Holly.

[nildrohainenjoyer]

ROUND TWOOO!!!! I changed the images I thought it’d be funny, here’s the link to the first round’s post

Link to the new poll here!

(Why am I using not tumblr polls may you ask? I dont feel like it also so I can do it across platforms!) Also I included the vote numbers below the cut, a total 44 responses! It was at 20 for a while so Im glad I advertised it again haha

Sorry Holly.... seems Bigwig beat you!

Seems fitting

This one was pretty close, I think like 2 votes close, Blackavar stays losing

Thank god Bluebell won I think i’d be scared if Cowslip did

Beat by god

Actually surprised by this Vervain is such a shithead but feels like he could really fit being a sexyman

HAWKBIT FOUND DEAD

Also a close one! Silverweed cleared a god

[fantasywatershipdown]

Bluebell!! I LOVE Bluebell, he was one of my favorite characters reading the book. He's just such a funny, sillay guy, in spite of everything. I like to think his optimism and good humor is his own way of fighting back the tragedy and spitting it square in the face. Best clown.

His design shapes and colors definitely draws from bluebell flowers! I also knew I wanted to prioritize his cheerful jokester nature (over his role as an Owsla officer?? I think it's implied enough in the book that I can assume he was, even if not outright stated, but to which ???? YOU? who made you an officer?? Holly?? (maybe that makes sense actually 💀)), so I gave him big jester-hat-ish ears and rounded shapes and soft colors.