#Watership down discussion

[vixymix101]

Richard Adams accidentally writing the most indigenous feeling fictional story is honestly so funny-- like, he HAD to have taken inspiration from irl indigenous cultures theres no way he didn't the guy literally studied history--

Perhaps I'll make a YouTube essay discussing it and why Watership Down resonated with me a lot as an indigenous person, and how the stories the rabbits tell about their folklore reminded me fondly of elders telling me stories, and how el-ahrairah is LITERALLY just nanabozho bc I just have to--

Would y'all wanna hear an in depth explanation?

[colloquialcolors]

huh so. watership down. is a solid book. solid. book. compelling characters, thought through world building, build up and payoff in good amounts, somehow pretty hopeful despite the ongoing danger and threats throughout. like. damn. nice.

and honestly. less tragic than i was expecting! excellent. holding these little rabbits in my hands.

[excitedrainbow]

Aabria’s tags:

For those asking: It's 5e because Aabria is tired of playing nice and wants to kill some stoats

Hope this helps 😊

[adventures-in-mangaland]

Another Dead Boy Detectives Fic Rec List

Netflix sucks and I'm sad, but the Dead Boy Detectives fandom continues to be awesome, so here are some more very quick fic recs!*

Tonight's the Night You Fight Your Best Mate's Dad by Opossum_Subatomic

Everyone's Alive College/University 5+1 things fic featuring Charles bringing Edwin coffee and slowburn payneland. Also Family/Wedding Drama involving Everyone Thinks They're Dating so acute is verges on Fake Dating. This author is seriously fantastic, everything they write is gold.

You should also check out Kissing Lessons, which is a high school AU that does what it says on the tin while also giving non-binary Monty and polyamory.

Ornithology by Rosie447

Monty gets a job working at Tragic Mick's. This one's not actually payneland, being gen and Monty-centric. I know, gasp. It's a fantastic and very sweet exploration of Monty discovering his sense of self post canon and works as a great metaphor for recovery from toxic family/relationships. Also, the ex-animal solidarity and bonding with Mick is lovely.

what some circumstance stole by Chrome

The Sandman crossover featuring Edwin and Hob being kidnapped and tortured together. Their friendship is really wholesome with eventual Father Figure and Found Family Feels for the whole agency and background Dreamling.

dandelion wine (life and death in summertime) by world_wanderer

Payneland Right Person Wrong Time AU in which neither of them die but they still meet and become friends. The May/December friendship is sweet but tragic, with a bittersweet ending. Superb.

Mirror Image by Anonymous

Charles' afterlife gets taken over my an evil shape-shifting doppelganger, leaving him with plenty of time to regret never talking to Edwin about his feelings. Angsty but with Feelings Realisation and the Power of Love and Friendship vibes.

my healing needed more than time by babyseraphim

Case fic with de-aged Charles! Baby Charles is precious but be prepared for discussions of childhood trauma/abuse.

The same author has also written I'm So Aces at Babysitting, which is a really cute two-chaptered AU featuring Charles and Edwin babysitting the kid versions of each other, with bonus Crystal and Niko doing the same. It's very wholesome and the author writes little kids really well.

Pouring into me by tragedy_machine

Love me some "Charles wants to date Edwin to figure out his feelings but gets turned down" fic. Feelings are hard, OK?

thank u, next by KiaraSayre

Edwin fucks and Charles seethes. It's very funny and also features some interesting worldbuilding with the Fae.

Like We've Never Known Hurt by dearheartdont

Just cute established relationship PWP and praise kink. So good.

all of these hollows by handwrittenhello

The boys are alive again but sans memories. Can they still find each other and prove their devotion to the Night Nurse?? While also evading heavenly and hellish forces trying to keep them apart??? Very interesting concept executed well.

Suo Gân by emryses

The agency takes on the case of a traumatised Edwardian ghost searching for her missing baby... Read it for Edwin family feels.

Where Primroses Bloom by PantryJesus

Reading aloud as a love language and Watership Down feels. Idk, I'm now convinced that Edwin is kind of rabbit-coded with the whole "if they catch you they'll kill you. But first they must catch you" thing. A lovely well written fic.

I'm so sick of online love by Hse11z5

College/University AU where the boys meet through a dating app. It's cute.

you can have the best of me, baby (and I will give you anything) by aletterinthenameofsanity

Again, it's the Friends with Benefits but with real feelings and mutual pining for me. Now has a Charles PoV companion fic.

True Love's Kiss by Asidian

In which Charles curses himself with a Sleeping Beauty enchantment in order to confirm his feelings for Edwin and Crystal is the real MVP. I love this one because the boys are both SO stupid but in very different in-character ways.

I also recommend Promised, in which they kind of play the Green card angle to keep Edwin out of Hell? Which honestly needs to be more of a trope. And Tight Quarters, starring the boys trapped in a magic circle, leading to Forced Proximity induced Feelings Realization (in more ways than one! 😉).

Something I Can Turn To by DontOffendTheBees

I love some domestic fluff, in this case as an Everyone's Alive/Childhood Friends AU in which the boys are poor but happy living together. I liked how they both survive their respective traumas, but Reality Ensues.

I also recommend Lived My Whole Life Before the First Light for a lovely but melancholy Soulmate AU that goes for the "seeing colours" trope for extra wistful angst.

Dining at the Ritz by TerresDeBrume

Meeting the Parents fic in which Edwin's parents are awful and Charles is Not Having It. This has Everyone Thinks They're Dating and autistic Edwin stimming representation, plus discussions of racism, classism and ableism. The fic is also part of a great Modern AU series in which the boys attended St Hilarion's at the same time and Charles saved Edwin from a non-supernatural but still almost deadly prank. Highly recommended!

The Case of the Couples Retreat by juliasfanart

Listen, I can't get enough of undercover fake dating/relationships at a couples retreat, OK? Some minor angst but overall very cute and fluffy.

acu (aysar cinematic universe) by ObsessedWithFandom

The agency is hired to solve the mystery of Charles' death and bring his killers to justice. I'm genuinely obsessed with this series; I love its OCs and Charles having an exboyfriend gives Edwin a fun crisis. Plus haunting Charles' killers is very satisfying and cathartic. Just imagine they're Netflix execs, y'all.

*Not actually quick, as it turns out. 😅

I love doing these lists because I always think I've only got a few recs and then I look back over my recent bookmarks and I've got a metric ton of great fics to rec. You guys are so talented. ❤️

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippets: Free Day Friday

Well, not a snippet. A whole durn one-shot. No title yet, so let's just call it "Responsible Adults, or, Damas Wants A Raise"

(This mentions a hilarious headcanon that rose from a discussion of game weapons with @troblsomtwins829 and @segaphantom , one I intend to use from now on, where it was decided that red eco shockwave ammo is what Wastelanders give their kids when they're first learning trigger discipline, and Jak is the equivalent of a kid bringing down a grizzly bear with a plastic baseball bat. Also featuring swears borrowed from Watership Down because rabbit language is a lot of fun tbh)

It should have been a perfectly straightforward event. Fourteen candidates who had finally passed the initial terrain tests to Kleiver's satisfaction, finally able to go at it with weapons. Only Scatterguns for now, of course. Live ammunition would wait for those who passed their first trial. Those left standing would receive their gate pass and first amulet, everyone who had dodged the lava but not their comrades' shockwaves would be scraped off the sand and delivered to the on-site hospital. They would have to wait another month to retake their trial.

It was standard procedure.

They'd done it hundreds of times.

But this time, it was immediately apparent that something was amiss.

One man broke out of the pack before Damas could even explain what was expected of a first trial. He ran between the cover provided by the matter formers like his life depended on it, gun swinging uselessly on his back.

Well. That one probably wasn't going to last.

Damas sighed and checked the tiny screen that showed him the Arena from a closer view. Oh. That was the Krimzon Guard who had turned up at the temple, begging for clemency in the wake of Praxis's death.

Well if he survived this, his record was clean. But if he didn't-

Well that was one less Krimzon Guard in the world.

Behind him, down the stairs leading to the interior corridors of the Arena, Damas heard an alarm siren. He frowned. What could be so urgent as to sound an alarm back there? Was a patient coding?

The king twitched one ear back to listen for details while glancing periodically at the ring.

"All personnel, all personnel, be on the lookout: an unaccompanied minor is missing from Ward 2. Light hair, underweight, believed to be experiencing medical distress-"

Damas blinked. How on earth had a patient gotten out of the children's ward without someone noticing? Oh, Dr. Petros was going to spit fire when he found out.

"It's going to be one of those days," Damas grumbled, rubbing his forehead, "I can already tell."

He was correct.

A chorus of surprised voices began shouting in the stands, and Damas squinted down into the Arena. Amidst the chaos, the tattooed soldier formerly of Haven was still fleeing for his life. He occasionally fired behind him, but focused mainly on looking for a way out of the Arena. And now Damas could actually see his pursuer.

The figure was small -- tiny, compared to most of the candidates in both height and weight. It wove in and out of the combatants with an unusual speed and grace. But something was wrong.

"What the-"

Damas stood.

"Asa," he said into a handheld radio, "Don't activate the lava. Can you get eyes on the field and tell me if I'm actually seeing someone in hospital scrubs out there?"

"If what?!"

The man running the matter formers went silent as he peered out of his booth further down the wall.

"Bloody Frith! That guy doesn't even have a gun! They're not allowed to be unarmed for trials!"

"No, no they are not." Damas tightened his jaw. "But if he's unarmed-"

Then what's the Krimzon so afraid of?

The mystery candidate passed near the drone camera, and Damas almost dropped the screen entirely.

"Embleer Frith!" he swore, "It's that kid!"

It was the boy he'd found in the desert, barely alive, the one with a dead man's beacon in his hand. It had only been two days! Foundlings weren't permitted to take Arena trials until they had been declared medically sound for three consecutive days after their rescue!

Damas suddenly remembered the call from Petros, informing him that the young man was not, in fact, an adult from Haven. That he was in reality a young boy, covered with some deeply concerning scars. And the doctor had been very insistent about the foundling not being of age for combat trials.

The alarm from the hospital continued to blare, and Damas had a sinking feeling that the unaccompanied minor and the kid he'd hauled out of the desert were one and the same.

Who had allowed this?! The foundling definitely hadn't passed the terrain test yet -- he hadn't even reached the minimum age allowed to compete yet! He never should have gotten past Kleiver in the waiting hatch!

"Oh don't tell me," he breathed.

The Arena had been compromised. And that meant that the results of the fourteen candidates' initial combat trial were compromised. If Kleiver didn't have an incredible explanation for this, heads were going to roll.

Below, the boy had caught up to his quarry. Every single blast of the Scattergun, he dodged. Then the former guard shouted something; Damas couldn't make it out, but from the footage his lips seemed to be forming the word "free" or "freak".

Yells of both excitement and alarm filled the stands as the renegade patient just

Changed.

Purple sparks flickered over his body, like lightning. Every part of his body the sparks touched drained of all color. This was not the pallor of the dead, this was the white of bleached bone, and teeth. Black horns rose from ragged hair. Black claws were barely visible on each hand. At this distance, even his eyes looked black.

What. Was. That.

The KG screeched, firing without aiming. But the demonic boy launched too quickly to be tracked by the drone, taking the guard to ground. Damas knew without looking that the man was dying. He didn't even scream. There was only a pitiful gurgle as claws pierced his throat.

Damas turned the volume as far up on his screen as he could, just in time for the monstrous form to recede, to vanish as though it had been a mere hallucination. Spattered with blood, the boy from the desert stood up on shaking legs. Just barely, the drone caught his vicious hiss.

"Not so funny when you're the one with a mouth full of blood, huh, Tyber?"

He spat on the dying man.

And then his knees buckled.

Damas had seen enough.

"Stop the trial!" He commanded, waving guards towards the Arena. "The Arena is compromised! Get the candidates back to barracks, and send Kleiver to me, immediately."

He started to leave the booth, then turned back to the radio again.

"And find whoever was in charge of Ward 2 this week! And for the love of the Precursors get that kid out of my Arena!"

Oh, heads were going to roll.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Jak could hear shouting long before the creaking wooden platform reached the top of the shaft. He'd already been tense when the two big Wastelanders pulled him off the cot someone had dropped him on. If one of them hadn't been carrying Daxter, it was very likely that Jak would have tried to kill them, too. Now he started tugging experimentally at his arms, checking their grip.

"Quit!" One of them scowled at him. "The king’s mad as it is, don't make it worse!"

"-Didn't drag that kid off death’s doorstep just for you two to send him right back!" A raspy voice was yelling, "So you tell me, Rezzik, how a patient -- who Petros already told me was a minor based on musculoskeletal scans -- got into the Arena -- unarmed -- during a combat trial!"

The voice that responded was the skinny guy Jak had shoved away from him when he first woke up.

"Sire, the boy just-"

"I didn't ask about the boy! Tell me what you did! You were in charge of the children's ward this week, not the boy! When I want to hear the boy's side of things, I'll ask him myself!"

The other guards holding Jak's arms sucked on his teeth nervously.

"Oh, he's pissed," he whispered. "I wouldn't want to be the nurse right now."

"Or Kleiver. They're in deep weeds," the other agreed.

The elevator locked into place and, for a moment, Jak forgot the shouting. They were inside. And there was water. Water. Inside. Vast pools of it like an indoor oasis. Trees lined the room, dropping the temperature by several degrees. And this had been built by hu'men hands! How?!

"Well there he is." The raspy voiced man -- oh, Jak had seen the guy with the staff on that balcony of that stadium -- made an impatient gesture in his direction.

"Back from the dead, are you? You've certainly caused a fuss, young one. Care to tell me exactly what you were doing unarmed in a combat trial?"

"A combat what?" Jak answered the question with a question.

The man with the staff steepled his fingers in front of his mouth. He inhaled sharply and wheeled to face the skinny medic.

"Rezzik!"

Rezzik put his hands up defensively. "He was unconscious, my lord! He wasn't expected to even be lucid until Se'enday!"

The king dropped his face into his palm.

"Oh my gods," he groaned, "He doesn't even know where he is, does he?"

"Uh, "he" is right here," Daxter snapped.

Every person but Jak jolted.

"It talks?!"

"Oh what the rot what the rot-"

"Oh that's so cursed-"

"Why does it talk?!"

Daxter whistled sharply.

"Yes yes, I'm a miracle of premodern medicine. Moving on! Who are you mooks, where are we, and what's all this about Jak and a combat trial?!"

Jak glowered at the ground.

"Saw Tyber. From the prison. He's dead now."

Daxter's ears drooped and his eyes widened. "Oh..."

He reached down to pat Jak's shoulder.

"The creep had it comin', Jak. You did good."

"Well. Considering you apparently weren't conscious until now, you can't be expected to have known," the man who was probably the king groused, "but entry into the Arena is restricted to those aged eighteen and older for a reason. So. What I need to know is who let you through that gate."

He pointed at the sullen man with the big mustache.

"Did he or did he not make any attempt to stop you?"

Frankly, Jak couldn't remember much about how he got onto that field.

"Wouldn't have mattered if he did or didn't," he muttered, "he couldn't have stopped me."

The king narrowed his eyes at him. Then he seemed to actually see him.

"Ah, what are we doing- Jin, Faro, let go of the kid! Get him some water for the gods sakes, he just passed out on the battlefield!"

Then he turned to look at the guy he'd called Kleiver.

His voice was much quieter now. And somehow that was more frightening.

"Kleiver, you know the procedure for new arrivals," he said softly. "Three days' recovery and approval from Maud or Petros before First Trial. So what made you let a boy in hospital clothes through that gate?"

The big man sneered. "Did you see the anklebiter?! He was out for blood! He ended up fine, di'n't he?"

"Fine?! Look at him!" The king gestured sharply in frustration. "He's wearing pajamas!"

"If he'd passed out two minutes sooner he could've died!" Rezzik gasped, appalled.

"Sire, this clearly wasn't the hospital's failure," he said, turning to the king. "This oaf put my patient in danger and-"

"Enough." Damas held up his hand, face hard.

"You are both to blame for what ultimately derailed the trials of fourteen candidates. Rezzik, I leave your penalty to be decided by your superiors. But Kleiver-"

He glared.

"Your only chance at retaining your position is if that boy had an extremely valid reason for hunting down that candidate."

Jak edged away from the guard offering him a canteen. "What counts as valid to you?" he asked pointedly.

The king paced to the edge of his dais, watching Jak with eyes a little too knowing. He folded one arm behind his back and studied him with none of the fire that had been directed at his own people.

"Newcomer, I will ask you only once, and you need only answer once. The man you killed: did he give you those scars?"

Jak went rigid.

They'd seen his scars.

They knew.

Nausea rocked him, crawling up his throat and tasting of shame.

"Boy?" The king pressed, "Did-"

"No." Jak practically spat the word out. "He kept me from escaping. He laughed. And now he's dead. Got a problem with that?"

The king scoffed slightly. He glanced back at Kleiver.

"You are fortunate today. I will retroactively approve an exception for the boy this once as a case of justified retribution. Do not let it happen again."

"Sire," Rezzik piped up again -- guy just didn't know when to keep his mouth shut -- "Arena exceptions must have signed affidavits from the guardian of the minor, mustn't they? As the attending physician, shall I-"

"Don't be a pot-stirrer, Rezzik," Damas said flatly.

Jak muffled a snort and exchanged amused glances with Daxter. At least he wasn't the one getting yelled at.

"No," Damas said, tense again and gritting his teeth, "Since apparently I am the only reasonable adult in this entire godsforsaken room today, I'll complete the affidavit."

He waved dismissively at the group.

"Do not compromise the trials of our candidates again. Negligence costs lives, and weakens our city, gentlemen."

Kleiver looked like he had a few choice words to say about that, but he dipped his head respectfully and marched away without a word. Jin and Faro cringed at each other, then made to grab Jak's shoulder.

"Come on, kid. You need to go back to the doc-"

Jak shoved Jin away and stumbled back.

"Don't touch me!"

Rezzik raised his hands placatingly, approaching as if the boy was a frightened baby animal.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, we only want to help you! I know you must be scared, but if you'll just let us get you back on the IV-"

Jak didn't hear anything else after that.

They were going to inject something into him.

They were going to strap him down and inject something into him-!

His breath shortened as he ducked Jin again. Faro was surprised enough by the elbow strike to his gut to loosen his grip on his gunstaff, and that was all Jak needed.

He ripped the weapon from the guard's hands and swung it in a wide arc, eyes wild.

"Get. Back."

Daxter snarled next to Jak’s ear. "Nobody touches my pal. Keep your filthy needles to yourself, or better yet, stick them up your-"

"Hey! Come on!" Faro complained, "That's custom, kid! You can't just jack a Wastelander's peacemaker, that's just not on!"

"You're not taking me back."

Jak swung the gunstaff again.

"I'm not going back there!

You can't take me back! I won't go back!"

Damas frowned and started down the steps. "What the bloody bones did you people do to make him do...that?!"

"That's...that's what I was trying to tell you before, sire," Rezzik said meekly as he backed away from Jak, "We didn't release him from care, he had some kind of...panic episode. Ripped out the IV and nearly killed Jessop on the way out."

The grinding of teeth was audible even at the bottom of the stairs.

"Petros is going to strangle you if he finds that you didn't take precautions with newcomer trauma," Damas said sharply.

"But we didn't know-! He was unconscious!"

"Get out."

Damas pointed to the elevator.

"Send Petros up here with his file after he deals with you."

When the guards didn't immediately follow the medic, Damas growled. "All of you get out! I've had enough foolishness for one day!"

"Sire," Jin gulped, "The uh, the boy-?"

"He's fine. I have to ask him questions for paperwork now thanks to at least one of you."

That left Jak and Daxter alone with the really really pissed off Wastelander King. (He hadn't even known there were enough Wastelanders to have a king!)

For almost a minute the man paced, swearing very colorfully under his breath. After six or seven very slow, deep breaths, he finally seemed to get control of himself again.

"How do you see needle scars and not think "hm, perhaps someone should stay with him to explain when he wakes up"? It's not that complicated!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned.

"Is it the full moon this week? It must be. Everyone's lost their twice-rotted minds around here."

He took another deep breath, and after letting it out slowly, he sat down on the edge of the dais.

"Well, I can hardly think of a worse introduction to Spargus than that, but I hope you won't hold it against me."

Jak kept the staff clutched tightly in his hands, but didn't aim it at the man yet.

"Who are you? And what's Spargus? I know it isn't in Haven. Nobody cares what age you are in Haven."

"Definitely not Haven." Damas buried a curse in his hands.

"Gods I hate that place."

Daxter scowled. "Join the club."

"My name is Damas. I am the king of the territory of Spargus, and the man who pulled you out of the desert that surrounds us. And you are going to be an interesting case, I can tell."

Damas used his staff to drag a box from the side of the throne to just beside him. After some digging, he came up with an oddly shaped piece of metal.

"Ah. There it is."

He looked up.

"This is a battle amulet. Earning three grants adult newcomers citizenship and equal legal protections in the city."

"What if you're not an adult?" Jak challenged.

"Then you're already a citizen, but you can't vote until you're nineteen." Damas dismissed this as if it barely warranted mentioning.

"Now, understand this, boy: I am giving you your first amulet. And I will give you the modular gun. But you will not be allowed to take further trials until you pass eighteen years of age. I will hold your gate pass until such time as you can show me you have learned to survive in the wastes out there."

"You're keeping us here?!" Jak bristled.

"You're a minor. You had heatstroke. It happens. And since my people want to be idiots today evidently, you and I are going to be stuck with each other for a couple years. So you'd better get used to this place." Damas turned and stood up to stretch.

"Frith-rot-it. I have to go get the bloody intake forms, make a whole folder now- Do we even have more guardian ad litem forms?!"

He stepped somewhere behind the throne and seemed to vanish. "Amuse yourselves while I'm gone. No drowning in my throne room.".

And then he was gone , leaving the boys with more questions.

"What...what just happened?" Daxter asked.

Jak didn't have an answer.

[cinder-starlight]

Watership down fandom, settle something for me

I’ve been trying to watch the Netflix adaptation for a while—I’ve only really made it to episode 2 but even then I’ve seen a bit of discussion here and there about strawberry.

Before I continue—really quick: I’m not very word savvy so I just wanna give an FYI that I’d like for this to be a genuine discussion, I’d like to hear other peoples’ takes on the matter especially since there will always be different ways to see things.

Continuing: I don’t have any solid thoughts on Strawberry yet, design wise she is very cute but what absolutely grinds my gears is the fact she is only really there to be a romantic interest between hawkbit, dandelion and bigwig.

I usually don’t have a big problem with love triangles (or squares in this case) and think they can be pretty entertaining but after learning strawberry was male through other variants such as the graphic novel (if I’m correct), book and TV series—which is the majority. It kinda has me confused, why change Strawberry into a doe for the sake of romance?

I’ve seen people argue that strawberry works better as a doe or that strawberry isn’t a male name—which I’m well aware the series doesn’t exactly do female characters much justice since the majority of the story is about bucks. But also Strawberry totally works as a male name! It’s a fruit, by that logic, blackberry should also be a doe.

I still have yet to finish the Netflix miniseries and look into one of the books but Personally: I think it would’ve been nice to see male strawberry in the miniseries, especially to be there to prove the group wrong on their “bucks don’t dig” statements. It would’ve been nice to see a chipper and eager strawberry look to help out with the warren and sort of just be a fresh perspective to them all from his time in cowslip’s warren.

Again this is just my take, but I’m also curious as to what others think or wish could’ve happened.

[bittersweetresilience]

there are two directions i can go with this. first, what i've stated above. félix hesitates to touch émilie because he has trauma from being historically deprived of love. second, and far more interesting to me, émilie and colt parallels or similar relationships with félix.

how i write émilie in orbital departure and watership down is a perfect fit for this analysis, which was a lovely surprise. félix wants to be loved by émilie, his mother's twin, the curious princess. émilie is... well, it's complicated. the same way colt refuses félix's touch, émilie holds and withholds affection, though she does it not for hate or fear but for her own questionable ends. colt sees félix as a monster. émilie sees félix as a child, but not her own.

she loves adrien, in her deeply and fundamentally self-centered way. she loves gabriel, like she loves love. she loves amélie, or she thinks she does, but so much has happened now that it's hard to say. not a lot of room for love outside of that. félix's desire for her care leaves him vulnerable to her strings.

what shall we call this? the fear of rejection or the desire to be loved?

[wc-confessions]

Some WC fans need to get into more animal xenofiction. And I'm not talkin Wings of Fire or Watership Down, I'm sayin REALLY niche and/or indie novels; the kind of books hardly anyone discusses.

It's completely fine to be a fan of Warriors without being neck-deep into animal xenofiction, but the fandom's refusal to read anything else under the excuse of "WELL THOSE SERIES HAVE PROBLEMS TOO!" frankly gets on my nerves. Feel free to do you and not read different stuff but don't pretend it's somehow morally correct since you don't want to try something less mainstream. Every genre has a fair share of rotten eggs; you need to find the fresh ones.

Sorry my attitude is probably coming across as way more aggressive than intended, this is just an issue that's been bothering me more months lol. I'd love for people to start dropping xenofic recommendations around here

.

[justforbooks]

Odyssey by Stephen Fry

The last in Fry’s four-book retelling of the Greek myths is relatable and full of humour

Not long ago, Elon Musk took a break from predicting civil war to offer his followers on X a book recommendation. “Can’t recommend the Iliad enough!” he tweeted. “Best as Penguin audiobook on 1.25 speed.” He accompanied this with a screenshot of the Penguin edition of The Odyssey. Erich Auerbach, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

Still, one way or another, Homer’s great poems have fulfilled the injunction to be news that stays news. Scholars of the original Greek, or partisans of Emily Wilson’s acclaimed recent verse translations, might roll their eyes at the injunction to speed-listen to an audiobook version. But one of the great virtues of myth is that it is robust to being reimagined: The Odyssey gives us Ulysses in one direction, and The Wind in the Willows or Watership Down in another.

And for practically as long as we’ve had the written word, we’ve had simplified retellings of the classical myths suitable for children and tech billionaires. Stephen Fry’s chatty and urbane but slyly erudite prose retellings fit right into this tradition. His Odyssey – which was preceded by Mythos, Heroes and Troy – brings a four-book sequence satisfyingly to a close.

Stylistically, Fry mostly eschews epic grandeur for the immediacy and relatability of modern idiom. The tone is spry rather than stately, and full of humour. Cassandra – wailing fruitlessly in the background all the way from Troy – is largely played for laughs; and when Agamemnon finally makes it home, the King of Men sounds for all the world like a red-trousered bon vivant back from the golf club after a bit too long at the 19th hole:

“Well, well, well! My darling, you grow ever more beautiful. The treasure ships are not far behind. The things you see! […] What’s that you say? A bath? Oh, my dear darling wife, there is only one thing I have been looking forward to more. And that can follow the bath, eh, eh?! Or maybe can be included in the bath, what?”

If he’d listened to Cassandra, he’d know what was included in the bath, but hey-ho.

Nor, though, does Fry altogether ignore the story’s pathos and poetry. There’s moving material about the easy love between father and sons – Odysseus is pierced at having missed out on Telemachus’s childhood – and here and there Fry’s default whimsy gives way to graver passages of writing. “A salt-caked, sun-burned, wind-scoured man lies face-down and naked on a beach. Sandflies skip on the scarred skin of his back.” Penelope, waiting on Ithaca, “strained her eyes towards the bar of haze that separated the blue of the empty sea from the blue of the empty sky”.

It’s not quite, or not only, a children’s book. The language gets fruity here and there – when Odysseus reveals himself to the suitors, he sounds positively Tarantinoesque: “He asked me who the hell I thought I was. I’ll tell you who I think I am. I think I am Odysseus of Ithaca, come back from the dead to revenge myself upon you. You fucking animals.” And the sexual violence is, if downplayed, not entirely absent (though perhaps to avoid muddying the moral clarity of the story for his younger readers, Fry omits Telemachus’s massacre of the maidservants).

There’s a lot of action in the footnotes, where Fry discusses lexicology or pronunciation, digresses on modern parallels, editorialises, or floats pet theories. He notes that Odysseus’s arrival on the Phaeacian coastline on a plank of his shattered raft may be “the first ever description of surfing in all literature”. He muses on why Hera is always “cow-eyed”, and notes that “cows (to us) are rarely imperious in aspect in the way Hera manifestly was, but perhaps this is a failure of observation on our part”. He argues, with reference to Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and the name of the island Cos, that the lotus eaters are actually munching lettuce. He has Athena accusing Zeus of planning to “usher in an age without treaties, promises, honour or law”, and adds in a glum footnote: “A plan that finally has come into being in every detail it would seem … ”

This is a book with a theory, too. It completes a historic arc that has taken us from gods and titans, through demigod heroes, to the deeds of mortals in whose affairs the gods meddle freely – and it points to an era in which men, in a substantially disenchanted world, will find their own way. The trial of Orestes, in Fry’s account, is something like the thematic heart of the book. In it, Princess Erigone argues for “a new order” where “we are to reconstitute the world according to reason and sense, rather than impulse and bloodlust”, and the wise Athena “is the only god we need”. How’s that working out? Ask Elon Musk, I guess.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[krinsbez]

Random Watership Down Thought

So, I know Richard Adams got rather annoyed at people who looked at Efrafa and then asked him if he was making a political statement, declaring the only social commentary he was going for is basically asking people to treat animals better.

Despite which people often discuss whether WD is an anti-Communist or anti-Fascist work, and I am probably ignorant but does anyone discuss the incredibly blatant bit of social commentary (that may well have been entirely unintentional) that is the conclusion of the story about El-Ahrairah's encounter with the Black Rabbit of Inle?

That being, after going through that whole ordeal, he comes home to find a new generation of rabbits who have no knowledge of him, or the war crisis he sacrificed so much to save this people from, and mocked him when he told them of his struggles.

The book was published in 1972 and Adams was a veteran of the Second World War, it's uh...it's KINDA OBVIOUS what this is about, right? I'm not crazy, am I?

[vixymix101]

The song Harpy Hare weirdly fits General Woundwort, like, a LOT--

Plz hear me out on it--

The song is about a mother being super over protective of her children and hiding them away to a controlling amount to the point her children try and get away, the song even mentioning them possibly dying and also being fearful--

Of course Woundwort isn't a mother, (good lord thank god he isn't a mother..) but he IS chief rabbit watching over an entire warren, and as everyone knows he's VERY over bearing and controlling, to the point he does his best to keep the whole thing hidden away from humans and enemies.

Now I haven't read the book yet, but from what I've gathered from scouring the wiki, watching the film, the 1999 series and the Netflix mini series, Woundwort has a bit of a history of having no control in his life, and people he cared about being taken from him. (which of course doesn't justify his actions yada yada I don't condone the dictator rabbits behavior)

Because of his past, he treats his warren like something he needs to keep locked away from the world, he's the one in control now, and nothing will take it away from him--

Even pipkin (in the 1999 series) comments about how Woundwort handles and treats his warren and people. How overbearing and controlling he is and how he does so out of fear, treating the warren like a cage.

He is that harpy hare who's buried his children.

(He should go to a bunny therapist lol fjdbd)

But yeah those are my thoughts lol--

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 9/15/24

This week I finally checked out Starfall! I have a knack for starting shows right before their next season stats, its great. Also, kids performing a trickster myth, mysterious huts, and more!

After hearing about it for ages I finally checked out @starfallpod! I listened to most of the first season, with only 2 episodes and some specials left. I have a lot of disjointed thoughts about it. I didn’t realize Ishani Kanetkar played the lead, her voice is so soothing to me. The magic system is really interesting, I love how much the story focuses on it. Leona’s powers seem to be tied to hunger, and her masters intentionally starved her to control her. If I’m right that’s really fucked up, and explains a lot about her. The mold script was incredible. I would never have guessed that Fel used to be a cop.

In Starwhal Odyssey, I continue to love the style of “4 players, 2 are also GMs”. I love all the modern touchpoints used for this world, “Apple store planet” instantly creates such a vivid image in my head. Harker’s magic sword was awesome, and the ending was great.

@worldgonewrongpod had huts! This episode was a really cool premise, I really liked the discussion of the possible causes of the phenomena. From discussion online I've gathered that we were meant to recognize the food, but I didn't. Can anyone enlighten me?

@storiesfromylelmore this week included the incredible quote “It’s a surprise! It’s not like the last one I promise!” I love stories about deeply weird kids, I'm glad that Rion is doing at least a little better. The Littlest Mouse story felt very Watership Down to me. Now I wonder if there are any audiodramas with Watership Down vibes. I feel like it would adapt well to an audio medium. If anyone has recs I'd love to hear them.

In Case Study: Irec-A59 we're finally hearing Grayson speak! He's so level-headed about getting abducted by aliens, I feel like most people would be panicking or freaking out. The meta-narrative is interesting as well, why was this covered up?

This week's Second Fiddles episode was focused on Chameleon. They're such a fun character, and the alien shapeshifter making an annoying amount of pop culture references is very funny.

Once I'm done with Starfall I'm going to subscribe to the Worlds Beyond Number Patreon for a month so I can catch up on all the bonus content during the break between arcs, so I probably won't have a ton to write about next week.

[thispatternismine]

OMG so the Watership Down film is getting a fancy restoration including a 4K version & with a bunch of special features?? Fuck yeah!

Newly recorded audio commentary by film and animation experts Catherine Lester and Sam Summers

Vintage audio commentary by director Martin Rosen and writer and filmmaker Chris Gore (2003)

Defining a Style (2005): short featurette about the film’s aesthetic

A Conversation with the Filmmakers (2005, 17 mins): Archive featurette in which director Martin Rosen and editor Terry Rawlings discuss the production history of the film

Storyboard comparison (2005, 15 mins): a look at four sequences from the film

Super 8 version of the film (20 mins)

Humberstone Super 8 footage (3 mins): Footage shot by Arthur Humberstone, one of the senior animators on Watership Down

Designing Watership Down (2024, 5 mins): a gallery containing some of the materials related to Watership Down courtesy of The Arthur Humberstone Animation Archive

Once We Were Four (1942, 9 mins): a bunny quartet face an onslaught of badgers, bombs and birds of prey in this black comedy masquerading as a nature film, directed by Mary Field

Rabbits or Profits? (1969, 15 mins): public information film providing a potted history of rabbits in the UK

Bolly in A Space Adventure (1968, 5 mins): a short Halas & Batchelor animation about the adventures of Bolly and his friends on imaginary planets, featuring animation by Tony Guy, animation director on Watership Down

Make Believe (1948, 17 mins): Anson Dyer tells 'The Tale of Ronnie Rabbit' in this documentary showing the various stages of making a cartoon bunny

And there's a poster, postcards & a booklet! Ooh & apparently an enamel pin badge if you order direct from the BFI? I was gonna get it from HMV because I stumbled on this rerelease while browsing their website & I like being able to go into physical shops to pick stuff up, but I just checked the BFI's site to see if they had additional info & ooooh badge!

I need it!

EDIT: I notice they've also bumped up the rating. Yeah that was never gonna get a U certificate nowadays lol

[sentienttoastah]

Canto 6 possible literary reference other than Wuthering heights?

Canto 6 already ended a while ago but I’ve recently got a thought on it which I’ve already shared with some mutuals but I thought ehh, why not make a blog post on it.

This doesn’t really relate to the plot all that much and more about the literary references used in canto 6 that isn’t confirmed yet still gave me those vibes yk. But either way they still kind of count as spoilers so It’ll be under the cut for those who haven’t got there.

LONG RANT!! I REPEAT, LONG RANT WARNING!!

It’s noted that there’s many similarities with erlking Heathcliff and those abnos based on the little red riding hood fable, as well as the clear reference to the erlkonig of course and the possibility of the hunt being a reference to the fox hunting sport popular in many parts of europe (unrelated but calling it a “sport” specifically when they do it not for food or pest reasons and only for the thrill of killing a fox is very unjust) but I’ve also noticed another potential reference.

So this is going to be a far fetched stretch and I don’t know if anyone else mentioned or thought of it before but certain bits of canto 6 really, REALLY, reminded my favourite childhood novel of mine: Watership Down.

I might just be delusional but like there really were a lot of similarities that I noticed between specific plot lines. And also considering Watership Down was one of the best selling novels of all time during its golden years it’s not that surprising if Project Moon included them right??

For those who don’t know; Watership Down is essentially a book about rabbits who, after one of them receives some kind of prophetic dream of destruction, leave their home warren to go in search of a new one. It sounds like a generic enough plot but it also tackles into topics of death and grief, the cruelty of nature, fjking politics, how much humans take their joys for granted and most importantly for me it’s also about acceptance. It’s a great book (and also old animated movie if you don’t want to take the time in reading, there’s a full one available on youtube) but that’s not the topic of discussion in this rant.

Now I’m not sure how to word this as it’s late into 3 AM as I write this so here’s a list of points and comparisons on why I think the reference might be there, more specifically on the erlking and the dead rabbits gang.

The Erlking and General Woundwort: General Woundwort is the Chief Rabbit of an opposing warren called Efrafa who is driven to attempt a siege on the down due to hatred and vengeance. The Erlking is of course very similar in being the “leader” of the Dead Rabbits and also having the same motivations by leading the hunt. Also noted that there is an implication I think that Woundwort wasn’t the original chief and got his position from some shady way.

The Dead Rabbits Gang and Efrafa Warren: Many members of The Efrafa, especially the lower class rabbits were actually kidnapped, trapped, forced or tricked into joining the warren. Similar to those mad rabbits who turned out to be T corp citizens who were experimented on. Plus they’re rabbits, obviously.

The Hunt and The Siege: This one is self explanatory but yeah. Both ends led their armies to attack a single, smaller-in-number group who pissed them off slightly lol. And both ended terribly.

Dante; Hazel and Heathcliff; Bigwig: Basically a comparison of characters. Dante being similar to Hazel and Heathcliff being similar to Bigwig. With Dante/Hazel starting off as inexperienced amateur leader who over time started to become more familiar with the traits of their group and soon adapted and developed their charisma. And Heathcliff/Bigwig being the more experienced and stubborn one who is doubtful at the beginning for their leader’s competence, but warms up and trusts them in the end. Plus that interaction with Heathcliff and Dante at the stairs part before they slowed down time can be compared to Hazel and Bigwig’s convo before Hazel made the run.

Woundwort’s Quote: One of General Wounwort’s quotes is “I fear no elil, I am the elil!”. With “elil” meaning “predator” or any carnivorous animal in rabbit language. Woundwort flipping the prey and predator roles can be compared to The Erlking, leader of the rabbits, hunting down our Heathcliff who is symbolised as a hound with his distortion.

There might be more, but for now those were the only comparisons I remember. I like to think of it kind of in the same way that Demian is not only a reference to himself as his book counterpart but at the same time is also a reference to La Petit Prince/The Little Prince. A dual reference!

though I might just be stretching it. What do you guys think? I’d love to hear thoughts :,)

[bittersweetresilience]

more soulmate au meta for i always have a soulmate au brain

watership down

the reason i wanted to do a nonlinear narrative was threefold. first, it reflects the tangle of amélie's psychology and the memories that have shaped her over the years. second, it allows for more parallels and foreshadowing, and for tension to rise and fall across scenes without being constrained by the timeline. third, it rules.

from the first chapter, i headcanon félix as left handed, so when he uses his right hand to enact violence on himself, it's really his father's.

amélie and félix are both victims. of abuse, of lack of knowledge, of lack of agency. but i'm just getting started with the relationships in this complicated family tree.

i named the fic after watership down, the book about rabbits, because this is a story about rabbits, and running, and family. amélie reads this book in chapter two. she's on chapter six, where dandelion tells a story.

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.

félix will remember this story.

onto the family reunion! félix calls émilie tante because she married into france. adrien calls amélie tante because it doesn't occur to him that he should speak english. all four of them were raised multilingual, so it doesn't matter anyway.

émilie prefers nicknames like love and darling while amélie goes for sweetie because émilie focuses on what the target of her affections means to her and amélie focuses on what they are like.

the books amélie references in chapter three are wuthering heights, don quixote, and to the lighthouse. unlike félix and adrien, she and émilie are used to speaking aloud.

No secrets between soulmates, right? That’s what Maman always said.

adrien says this in dead air.

We’re soulmates. No secrets between us.

and émilie says it here. of course, we know how that turns out for both pairs of twins. except félix and adrien's communication fails because they are kids in bad situations, and for amélie and émilie, well. they're different people, and the mistakes add up over the years.

now for the heavy-handed foreshadowing! we can see the seeds of the future from the beginning, with émilie's interest in dolls and archaeology. and amélie being an aromantic queen. amélie is willing to go with émilie, even if she doesn't know where they're going. and émilie is more concerned with her desire for freedom than with the consequences for other people, well practiced in getting away.

but of course the discussion of birds and eggs has everything to do with what we know is going to happen. émilie loves her sister, and ultimately she is a person who does messy, reckless things in the name of love. even if the bird will die, she gives the egg to amélie as a gift because it's pretty.

You’re a gift, Félix.

from orbital departure. speaks for itself, i think.

in the last chapter, amélie mentioned émilie's smile used to comfort her. here we see it happening. did i mention i love nonlinear narratives? for now they are just kids, and amélie is enough to keep émilie from her choices.

She turns back toward Amélie, and the featherlike shadows on her face recede.

but the future will come, and the worst of its consequences we've already seen.

finally, the entire waterside scene was a reference to félix's story in garden of dreams. perhaps amélie told him about this day, and let it become part of his weave.

[2xmiu]

warrior cats >>> watership down

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