190: Netflix miniseries Episode 4 Part 3: A Message from El-ahrairah

[@Furrylag]

I really hope this podcast does not end.

[@Higurashi_otaku]

I also want to say something about the siege in general and why it is better than the 1978 movie. In the movie not only a minute after the siege begins Fiver has his vision. Before the tension even can build up we come with a solution. The miniseries finally have the time to showcase some smaller quarrels, much more attempts to stop the Efrafans until they all are in a desperate situation with barely any hope of winning and already losing one of their comrades. That Fiver has his vision now is much more effective and it is giving their plan with the Nuthanger Farm much more the feeling of a last desperate attempt to shake off Woundwort.

[@Higurashi_otaku]

In my last comment I mentioned two moments, that makes this whole siege look worse than in the 1978 movie even if otherwise it is done much better. In the section you covered it is Hazel telling Bigwig about the trick with the chief rabbit. This diminishes Bigwig's resolute and steadfest comment when he is heavily injured and close to exhaustion from the book. The Bigwig from the book don't need Hazel to tell him this, he accepts Hazel as his leader and will even give his life for him and defending the warren. It is not something done out of trickery, but the sign of deeply loyal rabbit. And this is something the miniseries clearly diminishes here by making Bigwig's best moment just something Hazel plotted with him to trick the Efrafas.

[@thewatershipdownpodcast1300]

Very good point. I will make sure to mention

[@Higurashi_otaku]

The death of Holly, even if you criticize it for being a bit too poignant with Hyzenthlay cry about him is in my opinion one of the best changes from the original source this miniseries did. I still think the siege of Watership Down needs a victim and Adams originally planned that it will be Bigwig who have to pay the price, but changed his plans because of his daugthers. So technically the book would have Bigwig as the victim of the Efrafan attack only that Adams never gone through with it. But every scene from Bigwig's fight with Woundwort, his resolute and loyal call to Hazel, his dreaming hinted to his demise, that Adams just seemed to have changed later. The 1978 movie has Blackavar. And here we see the key difference to Holly much better. We have an actual death, that demonstrated only one thing: Woundwort is a brutal, vicious killer who finishes off his victims in mere seconds without so much as breaking a sweat. We have no one to cry for Blackavar (like Hyzenthlay for Holly), not even one who notices his death. His death is there to foreshadow a brutal, bloody fight later. And this takes out the tension a bit of the conflict in the movie, it is a more a gory spectactle than a tenseful fight. And here the miniseries is much better by having Holly die for something worthwile by defending Hyzenthlay his beloved one from enemy rabbits. Blackavar could have stayed behind with Bigwig and nothing would have changed. And Holly's death has a profound effect not only on Hyzenthaly but on all the Watership Down rabbits and even on Campion.

[@SJHFoto]

There is not one change here that I liked. In addition to that, I think what really annoys me is how this movie seems to dumb things down and add action scenes for no reason. I know "modern audiences" don't have the attention spans of yesteryear, but it is still annoying