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{{quote|''"It's about bunnies."''|Sawyer, [[Lost]]}}
An '''epic''' [[Low Fantasy]] adventure by Richard Adams.
Hazel, our protagonist, has a little brother named [[Waif Prophet|Fiver]]. Fiver has horrific -- and as later events prove, [[Nightmare Fuel|accurate]] -- visions of the destruction of their [[Doomed Hometown|home warren]] at Sandleford, but Hazel [[Cassandra Truth|can't convince their Chief to pay attention to some loony runt]], so he convinces a few of his friends to join him in leaving their homes to escape. Of note are [[The Big Guy|Bigwig]], one of the community's Owsla (guards), and [[The Smart Guy|Blackberry]], who is by the standards of their tribe a mechanical genius. Which is to say, he is the only cast member to even come close to understanding basic physics... like, for instance, "floating on water." Because, see, these are ''rabbits''...
[[Rascally Rabbit|Yes, rabbits]]. [[Better Than It Sounds|Bear with us]] for a moment. They're not [[Most Writers Are Human|humans in rabbit form]]. Caution is a way of life because [[Everything Trying to Kill You|death is a moment-to-moment possibility]]. They [[Xenofiction|can't count past four]] because they only have four paws (Fiver, the runt of a five-kit litter, gets his name from the Lapine word ''hrair'', [[Translation Convention|meaning "a thousand", but generally just meaning "lots"]], which is usually translated as just "five"). They think ''hrududil'' (cars and other large machinery) are some type of animal.
Only Blackberry, Fiver, and Hazel can really "think outside the hutch," so to speak. Hazel in particular quickly realises that survival as a tribe of ''hlessil'' (nomads) will require atypical problem-solving and teamwork, and thus becomes the ''de facto'' leader of the group, with a particular talent for bringing out the best in his followers and earning their loyalty in return.
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[[Watership Down/Recap|Plot Synopsis]] (spoilers)
The novel proved so popular that, decades later, Adams wrote a set of sequel stories. Called ''Tales From Watership Down'', the stories actually take place ''during'' the original novel, though after the resolution of the plot--that is, they expand on the warren's post-battle history that had previously just been given a brief mention in the original [[Distant Finale|Epilogue]]. They include what became of [[The Chick|Hyzenthlay]]; and additional tales such as "The Terrible Hay-making" and "The Hole In The Sky". Naturally, some fans like the book, others call [[Fanon Discontinuity]].
Also notable is the [[Animated Adaptation|animated feature film]] based upon the book. It's a very well-done [[Adaptation Distillation]], and while it is no excuse at all for not reading the novel, it's well worth watching. As a matter of fact, reading the novel first enhances the film. The [[Studio Ghibli]]-style insanely detailed animation fits the story perfectly, and real effort is made to respect the seriousness with which the rabbits take their quest. (As an aside, it's really hard to imagine a film version working any other way; if you'd like an idea of how Narm-ful a live-action version might have been, look for [[The Film of the Book]] ''Jonathan Livingston Seagull''.) The film is also notable for its voice cast, consisting of some of the best British actors of the day, including John Hurt as Hazel, Ralph Richardson as the Threarah, Nigel Hawthorne as Campion, Richard Briers as Fiver and Zero Mostel as Kehaar.
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* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: {{spoiler|As Hazel dies, El-ahrairah comes to make him one of his Owsla}}.
* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: The reason why Woundwort is the Chief Rabbit of Efrafa. (He killed the previous chief and a rival, taking the warren by force.)
** Lampshaded effectively in the novel itself: Woundwort presumes this trope is in effect at Watership Down as well, and is shocked into something close to fear when at a climactic moment he learns Bigwig isn't their Chief.
** Watership Down might actually be the exception to this rule. In the Sandleford Warren, the Threarah is noted for being a very dangerous fighter, and when Captain Holly arrives at Watership Down, he too assumed that Bigwig must be Chief Rabbit.
* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: General Woundwort.
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{{quote|''<big>"There is not a day or night that a doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his chief. But there is no bargain. What is, is what must be."</big>''}}
* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Bigwig may start out the story on the verge of Jerkassity, but he's very protective of Pipkin right from the beginning, seemingly for no other reason than because Pipkin is the smallest of the group.
* [[Big Brother Mentor]]: Hazel to Fiver, usually when he's picked on by the likes of Bigwig. Also a literal big brother, in this case.
* [[Bring News Back]]: The destruction of the warren, and also the warning about Efrafa. Holly is the messenger in both cases.
* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]]: Oddly averted, insofar as most rabbit terms for human inventions are translated, except for cigarettes and cars. We actually never learn what the rabbit word for rabbit is, but then again, perhaps [[Of the People|there isn't one]].
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* [[Con Lang]]: The rabbits' [[wikipedia:Lapine language|Lapine language]], of course.
* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: Cowslip's warren, where the rabbits are strong, healthy, have plenty to eat, are developing the beginnings of art and music, and {{spoiler|anyone can vanish permanently at any moment}}.
* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: Averted for the most part with El-ahrairah, as he differs from [[Jesus]] in many ways, but the comparison is inevitable.
* [[Death Trap]]: {{spoiler|Cowslip's warren, indirectly}}.
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: Strawberry. The does of Efrafa are a subversion -- their ''elil''-free warren is meant to be rabbit paradise, but instead it's an oppressive police state that is slowly killing them.
* [[Determinator]]: Woundwort ''will not'' give up his pursuit of the Watership rabbits--and Bigwig will not give up his defense of them, even after taking damage that ought to kill him.
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: {{spoiler|The farmer's daughter rescuing Hazel from the cat and taking him home.}} The chapter [[Lampshade Hanging|is even called "Dea ex Machina"]].
** Also, during one chase scene, the good guys are saved when {{spoiler|their pursuers are killed by a convenient train}}. Appropriately, they take this for an act of Frith.
* [[Deus Exit Machina]]: Kehaar{{spoiler|, whose aerial support had been essential in the escape from the Efrafans and is big and aggressive enough to deter just about any rabbit except Woundwort<ref>heck, ''including'' Woundwort on open ground without cover</ref>,}} returns to the sea before the final battle.
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* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Hazel's {{spoiler|death of old age}}.
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Such an integral part of the story that it's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the film's tagline: "All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and when they catch you they ''will'' kill you... [[Fragile Speedster|but first they must catch you]]." One of the story's best features is that it [[Xenofiction|effectively evokes the mindset of creatures]] who live with this trope every moment of their lives.
* [[Evil Genius]]: Woundwort had an advisor named Snowdrop who pretty much designed Efrafa and the marks system by himself.
* [[Fantasy Pantheon]]: The rabbits have a fairly standard pantheon of gods - Frith the creator and sun god, his lieutenant Prince Rainbow, the Black Rabbit of Inlé as a god of death, and El-ahrairah, the heroic prince of rabbits.
** And at the end, {{spoiler|Woundwort is added as the rabbit version of [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|the bogeyman]].}}
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* [[Genre Popularizer]]: There are a number of other "epic animal adventure" stories, but it is difficult to read them without comparing them to ''Watership''.
** ''[[Tailchaser's Song|Talichaser's Song]]'' (feral cats) and ''[[Fire Bringer]]'' (deer) are in what could be considered the same genre of 'epic adventures told from the perspective of wild animals.' Most works in the [[Talking Animal]] genre such as ''[[Guardians of Ga'Hoole|Guardians of ga Hoole]]'' fall into [[Civilized Animal]] territory.
* [[Ghibli Hills]]: The Downs.
* [[Giant Flyer]]: Compared to the rabbits, Kehaar.
* [[Good Scars, Evil Scars]]: By the end, pretty much everyone has scars.
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* [[Heroic BSOD]]: In Lapine, it's called ''tharn'' - the state of mind where a rabbit simply breaks and watches blankly as one of The Thousand approaches to take his life.
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Hazel's prayer.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Rabscuttle and El-ahrairah are never, ever, not together.
* [[Honorifics]]: The Lapine language has its own, though only two are mentioned; -roo is an affectionate diminutive (similar to [[Japanese Honorifics|-chan]]), and -rah means "king" or "lord" (usually used to refer to chief rabbits).
* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: A bit of a mixed bag; the rabbits, especially the few refugees from Sandleford, naturally ''do'' think humans are bastards, but the human reader can easily sympathise with their POV (see, again, [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]). On the other hand, the first story in ''Tales'' isn't nearly as subtle.
** This is subverted at the end of the novel {{spoiler|when a little girl from the farm rescues the wounded Hazel and takes him to a doctor, and later sets him free}}. This somewhat changes Hazel's opinions of humans. The construction workers {{spoiler|shooting the rabbits from Sandleford}} as they try to escape, though, definitely is playing this trope straight.
* [[Humans Are Cthulhu]]: Subverted... maybe. They're generally regarded as just one more of the elil, but some of their stories treat them as elil [[Bigger Bad|above the other elil]], which is also borne out by Cowslip's warren. Still, Hazel does get an excellent demonstration that we aren't [[
* [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place]]: The [[Fan Nickname|warren of the Shining Wires]].
* [[Intellectual Animal]]: they're about as intellectual as you can get and still be wild animals with an IQ of ''hrair''.
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* [[Meaningful Echo]]: ''"There's a large dog loose in the wood."''
* [[Moon Rabbit]]: The [[The Grim Reaper|Black Rabbit of Inlé]].
* [[Mythopoeia]]: The legends of El-ahrairah.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Again, General Woundwort.
** Note that [[wikipedia:Stachys|Woundwort]] is a kind of flower, like Cowslip. (Since woundwort is a healing herb, the name also has a note of irony.)
* [[Never Found the Body]]: {{spoiler|Of General Woundwort. With the result that he becomes a legendary bogeyman figure in the rabbit mythology: "Such was Woundwort's monument, and perhaps it would not have displeased him." This is even [[Justified Trope]], because he took on a ''dog''.}}
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: In-universe example: among the rabbits, a dead rabbit is one who has "stopped running." Which emphasizes the [[Death World|rabbit world-view]] nicely.
* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: As Hazel would have it; see [[True Companions]].
* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: Partially averted. There's a Fictionary, but Adams says names like Thethuthinnang and Thlayli are to be pronounced with a [[Captain Obvious|"wuf-fluffy"]] sound. The pronunciation guide only tells the reader which syllable is stressed (el-a-HRAI-rah, THE-thu-thin-nang).
* [[Not Quite Dead]]: {{spoiler|Bigwig, after his battle with Woundwort.}}
* [[Only You Can Repopulate My Race]]: A major plot driver for the second half of the story. The group didn't think (or weren't able) to bring any does with them, so they need to find some or the new warren is doomed.
* [[Pardon My Klingon]]: "Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!" {{spoiler|English: "Eat shit, you king of stink!"}}
** "Embleer Frith", which translates literally to "Stinking God", and is an oath roughly equivalent to "Goddammit".
* [[Rascally Rabbit]]: El-ahrairah, the rabbits' own mythological/folkloric trickster figure. During their journey the rabbits tell several tales of El-ahrairah's trickster abilities.
* [[R-Rated Opening]]
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: 'The Threarah', the Chief Rabbit of the Sandleford warren, appears to be the classic [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] when he dismisses [[Waif Prophet|Fiver's]] warning out of hand. Holly later reveals that his reasoning was actually quite logical -- most prophets are frauds, and even if they're genuine the warren would have lost more rabbits from a mass evacuation than from a flood or hunters. Tragically, the oncoming disaster is more massive than the Threarah can imagine or Fiver can explain coherently.
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* [[The Trickster]]: El-ahrairah, the rabbits' cultural hero.
* [[True Companions]]: The eight main rabbits' relationships are based on Adams' [[World War II|WWII]] unit buddies.
* [[Truth in Television]]: People more familiar with cuddly cartoons than wild rabbits are surprised how viciously they can and do attack each other, due to their extreme territoriality. Adams researched most of his protagonists' behaviors in ''The Private Life of the Rabbit'', by naturalist Ronald Lockley.
* [[Unusual Animal Alliance]]: The rabbits enlist the aid of field mice and -- more significantly -- the seagull Kehaar to protect their warren.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: {{spoiler|Efrafa. It was designed to be completely and utterly safe from humans. Before that, Cowslip's warren is seen as a perfect utopia for rabbits... [[Town with a Dark Secret|provided you never ask where anybody is]]}}.
* [[Waif Prophet]]: Fiver.
* [[Wicked Cultured]]: The [[City in a Bottle|doomed rabbits]] of Cowslip's warren have gotten into poetry, rudimentary cave art, and other human-like mannerisms. And in every dramatization Cowslip speaks with a [[Evil Brit|posh accent]].
* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[The Aeneid]]'' meets ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' [[Recycled in Space|with]] Rabbits.
* [[Xenofiction]]: Often the go-to example for explaining the genre.
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* [[Ironic Echo]]: "Can you run? I think not."
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Cowslip's warren. They do ''a lot of'' talking around the subject, though.
* [[Pardon My Klingon]]: In one notable example, an entire sentence is left untranslated ("Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!") Careful attention to the [[Fictionary]] explains why...
** For those who want the Cliffs Notes version, that's {{spoiler|"Eat shit, you stinking prince!"}}
*** Given what the oft-mentioned but never explained "chewing pellets" means, this insult is [[Fridge Logic|somewhat puzzling]]. However, "chewing pellets" can be reasonably assumed to mean the necessity for rabbits to eat cecotrophs or "cecals" from the anus, due to a double-digestive system. This substance is not poop, and needs to be eaten. The dry little poops you might see in fields are real poop and should not be eaten - i.e. "shit."
* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Bluebell, as an intentional tension-breaker, and for the heck of it.
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== TV Series ==
* [[Action Girl]]: Spartina.
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The series at its best did allow for some interesting stories that are true to the original book while reflecting modern attitudes. For example, there is the main plot of episode 2 where Hazel notes that it's unfair that Blackberry, the only doe, has to do all the burrow digging, the traditional task of her sex, and he and Fiver have to find a way to make the other bucks do their bit.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Cowslip.
* [[Art Shift]]: The characters were redesigned for season three. Some changes were barely noticeable, others were drastic. Bigwig, in particular, looks like he's been [[Locked Into Strangeness]]... which would make sense since he did just get out of a fight with Woundwort, but nobody says anything about it.
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== Lapine mythology ==
* [[An Aesop]]: Half of the rabbit folktales.
* [[Animal Jingoism]]: As seen through rabbit eyes, most of the rest of the animal kingdom is either stupid or evil or both. Slightly subverted in that dogs are presented as mindless, slobbery brutes, while cats - bitchy as they may be - are allowed to speak their mind intelligently.
* [[Bag of Holding]]: El-ahrairah's ears in ''King Fur-Rocious''.
* [[Balancing Death's Books]]: Appears in the story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit.
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