A Geek History of Time - Episode 309 - I Saw Goody Warren with the Efrafa! Watership Down Part III

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Okay, so there's there there are two possibilities going on here. One you're bringing up a term that I have never heard before. The other possibility is that this is a term I've heard before but it involves a language that uses pronunciation That's different from Latin it and so you have no idea how to say it properly an intensely 80s post-apocalyptic Schlock film and schlong film, you know, it's been over 20 years, but spoilers Okay, so so the Resident Catholic thinking about that. We're going for low Earth orbit. There is no rational. Blame it on me after.

And you know I will. They mean it is two o'clock in the fucking morning. Where I am. I don't think you can get very much more homosexual panic than that. No. Which I don't know if that's better. I mean you guys are Catholics. You tell me. I'm just kind of excited that like you and producer George will have something to talk about

That basically just means that I can show up and get fed I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect an artery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a middle school level world history teacher here in Northern California and I have gotten to two of my favorite units of the year in my classes. My seventh graders are studying the Black Death which I always love teaching because what I tell them is I am fueled by your suffering and I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you there's so much satisfaction in watching them go green around the gills in the in the class right

after lunchtime what I'm describing the symptoms of of but I have to admit it it it I enjoy it and at the same time in my sixth grade by two sixth grade classes, we're talking about Sparta and Getting the opportunity to to essentially roast the Spartans Gives me life. Having having the opportunity to point out to my classes that so understand that as a Spartan bride on your wedding night,

you would leave the wedding feast before your before your new husband and your mother and your sister's other female members of your family would help you prepare your mother and your sisters other female members of your family would help you prepare by shaving your head and dressing you in the red cloak that Spartan warriors wore and then you would go into your wedding chamber and lie down with your back to the door so that when your new husband came into the room you would look like all of his buddies that he'd been sleeping with in the barracks since he was seven years old. So and then just and then just watch the ones that are paying attention and thinking about about it. Make the connections in their own heads without me having this day. And so that that gives, as I said, that gives me life. So that's what I've got going on. How about you?

Well, I'm Damian Harmony. I'm a US history teacher at the high school level up here in Northern California. And I recently had a discussion with my partner. And the discussion was, despite all outward appearances, again, larger fella shaved head very often or not not stone-cold Steve Austin shaved head well not stone-cold Steve Austin shaved head ringmaster shaved head um but Yeah Yeah, close cropped head and and larger fella Not a particularly deep voice, but certainly a commanding one. Yeah And my partner said today. Yeah, it was today. She said a very complimentary thing. She said oh, but you're soft I was like, yes

because I Do not like the idea that on site I am someone that people Might not be able to trust and I understand and accept that that is true. Yeah. But the fact that like she identifies me as soft is quite the compliment to me. I was very glad to have that. I'm going to keep that in my back pocket as it were. Yeah.

Because I don't want to be hard in in a hard world Yeah, no that makes sense. I want to help other people get stay soft in a hard world. Yeah, but Yeah, it just it was it was really nice that that she recognizes me for For that and that that is a goal of mine, so yeah Yeah, well the fact the fact that you aspire to Like when when Harry Potter was something we we talked about sure it's always stuck with me that you Wanted to be in Hufflepuff. Yeah, you know

like No, I want to I want to be the guy you know that's that's supporting the other guys Right I want to be I want to be the one that's you know a very a very Yeah, the support is supporting Nurturing that's what I'm looking for you know nurturing kind of vibe. Yeah, you know not not being the nurturing kind of vibe, you know not not being the Frontline striker, but right, you know, yeah or you know being the frontline striker is fine

More more because I'm a better tank but yeah, I you you you give off you give off. Yeah, okay I can shrug this off. I'll take it. Yeah You give off you give off. Yeah, okay. I can shrug this off. I'll take it. Yeah Yeah, if I'm if I'm a tank I'm the oh, oh really motherfucker really? Bring it or is that kind of a lightning rod? But at the end of the day like during non combat. I'm not just sitting there sharpening a sword. I'm Cooking like yeah, you know yeah yeah, so yeah like that. Yeah so Anyway, when last we spoke we had just gotten through with the 1970s iteration of a watershed down We're gonna fast forward to the Halcyon days of 2018 when everything was better because

We elected one of the most qualified candidates for president and finally got free college and enshrined women's reproductive rights in the Constitution. It was it was a good time. Wait did I did I fall through a? Portal somewhere into a I mean awesome universe the majority of the people voted for that so I assume that's what we got No Because this time the majority of the people voted for fascism, and that's what we're getting so It don't don't do it, but Sometimes shit. That's the It don't Do it but

Sometimes shit. That's the way shit goes yeah, okay, so in 2018 I mean Fuck me in the good ass um in 2018 Netflix oh, I broke you It's just because you said it and and and and my brain Twigged to Adam Sandler's delivery of that line on his album. Yeah, and it just it came out of nowhere is perfect There there was there was a lot of really clever stuff on that album there was a lot of stuff that was just It shouldn't be that right most of it was dumb shit. Let's be real

but Yeah, respect respect respect respect right he got a respect and respect But uh actually a friend of mine apparently he had his first experience with fellatio listening to the the the toll booth Boy there's a formative memory fucking hot on yes Yes indeed. It's a formative memory. Okay great fucking hot on yes Yes, indeed. It's a better effect so Wow Anyway, so it's 2018

Netflix Netflix ran a four-episode miniseries of the very same property I Wonder why very same property. I wonder why. Kind of a point. OK, so so I may be I may be kind of jumping the gun a little bit with this question. But a little bit ago, you know, I was talking about

Shogun and talking about the differences between being in 1978. interestingly, or 79, a four-part miniseries, and then the newer one being a 10-episode limited run series, and the ways in which that allowed for more you know depth and nuance and portrayal of characters and all that kind of stuff would what do you say that this changed to a a four-part thing rather than a feature film Did that have a similar impact? Yes on the story they told absolutely Much greater depth of character more variability amongst the bunnies a lot of the critiques that held true for the 78 version

Absolutely would not hold true for the 2018 version Okay, so yes Just you know it you are always if if done with even a minimal competency You're always going to have a better story told if you take four hours to tell it versus one When it's something based on a book, right if it's not based on a book I would say perhaps not Yeah, if it's not based on a book there's there's the chance for it to become bloated and full of filler Right if you TV a movie then you may not be as successful because it was a movie first if you TV a book Or you TV a comic book I think absolutely yes Okay, you will you will find a greater depth

So sense yeah all things being equal by the way because the other problem is like if you TV yeah All the all the all the vagaries involved in the differences in production all that kind of stuff We saw that with a lot of Marvel series and a lot of Star Wars series. Right. So anyway, they run a four-episode mini series of the same property. Luckily for us, nothing important was happening during this time in which the version was

developed. But just in case I'm wrong, let's look at the production history first. In July of 2014, the website Digital Spy reported that Watership Down was being developed into a BBC TV animated series. Now, this is different than the 1999 through 2001 animated series. And it was initially expected to air during a family-friendly slot on BBC one And for those that don't know okay BBC one is the most popular channel historically in British programming And it's traditionally the station for children's programming Yes, and

And the the phrase that they usually use is pre watershed Yes, talk about the timing. Yes. Yes. Now in April of 2016 the Hollywood Reporter ran an article that Said that the series had been picked up by Netflix and it gave several specifics The show would now be co-production between BBC one and Netflix and it was developed and produced by Biscuit Films and And it was developed and produced by Biscuit Films and 42. 42 was a British production and management company that had done Collide and The Titan, neither of which I know anything about,

but they seemed like good credits. Watership Down's screenplay was written by Tom Bidwell, who was a writer for several BBC One successes. Some of these I've heard of, EastEnders, Doctors, and a few others. Okay The article went on to quote BBC Drama commissioning editor Matthew Reed who said quote before there was Harry Potter. There was watershed down I'm gonna break in there for a second

weird pairing But it's booked to movie I get it I get where they're going but weird it's I think I think you like hot dogs? Here's bubblegum. It's like what the fuck? Yeah, I guess I can get them both at a football game. You're right. I think I think and that quote came from what was this person's role the drama commissioning editor of the BBC Okay Okay, so like Corporate management type

So Yeah, that is that is a really bizarre kind of comparison Right now. It's bizarre In many ways, but the thing that he focuses on is the book to TV thing or a book to movie thing Because he said he goes on to say quote Richard Adams's novel is one of the most successful books of all time and one of the biggest selling books in history It is fantastic to what or it is fantastic to have the opportunity To bring a modern classic to a mainstream BBC one audience with such an incredible roster of actors alongside the talented team overseeing animation

Which is essentially a long way of saying we're gonna make a lot of money off of this which is exactly what I expect from somebody Who is in the position of BBC drama commissioning editor like to be honest most of the Hollywood Reporter articles bragging on the vocal talent and the money that they hope to make which is absolutely fine After all it's not like there's important cultural shit happening in April of 2016 now the Opening narration was different in in that it was shadow puppets this time. Like they were animated, but the style was shadow puppets.

And the opening scene setting narration was far less static. Okay, it used to be very like the pulsating this and it was fairly static. Netflix and BBC One left behind the watercolor tradition in favor of dynamic animation. And there's a lot more ancillary dialogue as Hazel went looking for Fiverr as well. Now the critiques of the animation being really awful were very, very right for the most part. Like if you watch this iteration you have to get past the animation and not like getting past it in the way that you had to get past the Clone Wars style of animation. Okay. Like this is just bad animation. Like the things that I like

was that the the breathing of the rabbits varied and adapted to the scene. I thought that was a good detail. It was heavy breathing when they'd be running. It was hyperventilating breathing when they were scared. I liked that. And Fiverr's visions were actually much more compelling as well. He was running through still moments, like he was moving through these still images that were still three dimensional in his brain, through these still images that were still three-dimensional in his brain instead of just like blood seeping in, you know? And we see his visions as reflections in his eyes too. I thought that was brilliant. But at the same time, like, it's bad animation. And by the way, there are also immediately more

females visible too. And you can see different characters that are featured that weren't previously featured. But none of that really makes that much difference to the story. And while they were planning to leave, Holly came with another Ousla officer and Bigwig voiced more disgust in being in the Ousla before joining Hazel's group. before joining Hazel's group. So, yeah, I mean, that's what's going on in the plot, and I'm going to get more into the plot, but you mentioned the animation. Yeah, off mic, I took a moment to look,

because I haven't watched the 2018 series, so I took a moment to to look because I haven't watched the 2018 series So it took a moment to go on on YouTube and and look it up. And yeah, it's it is No kidding like objectively badly animated yeah with the level of Technology with the level of the art in 2018 there's no reason Right it had to look like it looks it

It's a low polygon count like yeah, you know it looks like a an early 2000s video game that's Interestingly enough, and I think this comes a little bit later in in my my script, but somebody said that it looked like PlayStation 1 graphics for a cutscene Yeah It looks like the little bit better than that, but not a lot not by much like it honestly it reminds me of the

cutscenes for Warcraft, this real time strategy game. Yeah. OK. Yeah. So I would go with that. Yeah. Now that being said, though, I do think, though,

that the animation when it came to their breathing was very purposeful. And I think they did a good job there. But that seems to be as far as they went doing a good job. And yes, the voice work is goddamn amazing like they got some of the best voice actors of the generation Just like the previous one had done. Yeah, so You know, um, but yeah a big wig doesn't like being in the Ousla. He's a much more cantakerist character through the whole thing Which is which is interesting.

He still joins Hazel's group. This is the same story, but it's much more fleshed out despite the animation not being. The crossing of the river in the new version wasn't to get away from a dog, but it was to get away from Holly's Ousla. And Holly, Captain Holly, maintains an antipathy toward Bigwig much stronger than it had been in the previous. And so was Bigwig's lack of taking Hazel

seriously for a while. He refused to acknowledge Hazel as the leader. There was so much more tension between Bigwig and Hazel that there wasn't in the original. And what doesn't change though is the overall theme of leadership being feckless, aloof, and or oppressive enough for them to want to strike out on their own. Each rabbit seems to have a more specialized gift. So the leadership is still shitty. Each rabbit seems to have more specialized gifts than the others to offer the group as well. So Blackberry is exceptionally creative. Dandelion's exceptionally fast and so on and so forth. Interestingly, you can't tell the difference

between most of the rabbits this time either. Now, that is narratively, that makes a lot of sense. We're talking about bunnies Who live out in nature right? They're all gonna be brown and tawny But in the original there were some gray ones there were some darker ones there were some lighter ones so lot lot tougher, but For instance dandelion specifically draws away the corva which are birds He's very swift bigwig fights for him pretty quickly.

Bluebell is a storyteller. And Bigwig stays mad at Hazel and constantly questions Hazel's qualifications as a leader in front of everyone. Very much betas him like in the way that the beta was originally conceived, which is too sharp in the alpha, right? Right. Hazel is also less absolute and readily acknowledged as a leader, and he has a lot more doubt

about his own abilities. And honestly, there's a lot more pathos here than in the original cartoon. Cowslip's Warren is far stranger and has more menace to it. Cowslip himself seems a little bit more loony. They also meet a gal named Strawberry who herself is a bit cuckoo. And she's there, as far as I can tell, as a sadder rabbit version of the girl and real genius.

Mm. You know, just weird. Are we friends now? You know, that kind of thing? Mm-hmm Now while they're there hazel's group is much more joyful in the presence of cowslips Warren as well And hazel's internal conflict is much less internal and much more external Mmm. Okay the I think this is the the the Netflix effect. I think you have an American company

helping with with this So I think that's a big part of it The relationship between the rabbits also has more room to grow and so each set of rabbits have different relationships with each other and So each set of rabbits have different relationships with each other, and they're much more developed. Bluebell and Blackberry, for instance, have this love-hate relationship between the two of them, a frenemies that aren't really enemies. Just one's constantly annoyed, and the other one's constantly over-eager.

Bigwig is way more forceful in his personality. The snare in the snare scene is a far more hidden thing. And Cowslip's Warren actually tries to keep Hazel's band from leaving the Warren to help Bigwig this time, instead of just being passive observers or a death cult. And Fiverr is the only one who actually bit through the peg that was holding the snare down, to the point where he bleeds himself.

And the rabbits don't simply accept Bigwig's false death and mourn it. They're visibly upset before they start to speak in unison. And this time strawberry leaves with them. So by the end of the first episode, Hazel's bunnies have come down to the farm where the Hutch females were. They pass it by and they make it up to the top of Watership Down. And none of them say it was made for us or anything like that. Just the fact that they'll be able to see anyone coming for miles around is what deserves remark.

Now, Holly comes and meets them there, and he lets them know that their old Warren was gone, and he admits that Fiverr was right about everything, and then he collapses and lets them know that nobody's safe there at Watership Down. Now, as they pull away, to end the episode, we get a sweeping, almost like a drone going through, view that feels very much like where're where soran is making orcs

Okay, and we just barely meet wound wart at the end of the episode making plans on killing most of them and questioning one of them Similar to music to Lord of the Rings to just add Ting ting you know like so we don't yeah, we don't have the moment with the dough coming to him saying We want to leave there's none of that. It's just It's somehow he knows they're there and we're gonna go we're gonna go fuck him up. Yeah So that's that's our plan and again you have that music of when you're going is it called or think where? And again, you have that music of when you're going is it called or think where?

Soram on is walking. Yeah beneath beneath or think yes, it has that same vibe You know how you're going through like an industrialized. Yeah. This is a it clearly used to be a Industrial complex of some sort but it's been stripped down to basically its foundations and a few half walls and a few Chinese Okay, so you're going through there and you're seeing how rabbits have reclaimed the earth. Now episode two opens with Hazel gently asking Holly to recall his story. And one of the many things that I liked about this series more than the original movie is that it gets at the emotionality of the rabbits much, much more than the original. And so while the animation is lesser, the actual pathos is greater. So if you can get past the animation, it's a better, I think it's a better product.

There's very little exposition of Holly's story. It's all visual, which again makes sense. This is a visual medium, but paired with the music, the scene is fucking harrowing. It's actually very reminiscent of World War I movies when people are being bombarded by artillery and they can't fire back at it. And it's clear that they're going to meet a tragic end. It's that kind of like running through and being shut off and running through and getting the gravel tossed on you and running through and being stuck. And two quotes from Captain Holly, stick out to me, both of which were not during flashbacks. You flash,

you come back to his face saying this and then you get back to the flashbacks. He said, quote, in the end, my injuries were sustained not at the hands of humans, but at the claws of my own friends and family desperately trying to escape. at the hands of humans, but at the claws of my own friends and family desperately trying to escape Wolf yeah So and then the other one was and and this is this was said in the original as well at least in part Quote where there are humans there is death. We must steer clear of them at all costs shall I continue hazel? So steer clear of them at all costs. Shall I continue, Hazel?" So, there's just this idealism of the countryside, right?

There's this humanity civilization is a ruination. And I totally get, like, if you're a bunny, yes, it is. They filled in your warrants, they did all that, you know? Now, Captain Holly also recounts how he came upon the Ephrapha, and a runaway from them, Limp runs past him to warn Holly about the Ephraphans. And I believe that was Blackovar. And he tells Holly to get as far away from the Ephraph as he can and as he's running up to Holly and Holly's Looking and watching this he's running out of the mists. It looks like he's coming out of no man's land. Oh shit. Yeah

Now by this point big wig is pressuring hazel But he's doing it while acknowledging that hazel is the leader because hazel helped save him from the snare He's again very much the beta to hazel's alpha every decision hazel makes big wig questions him, but he doesn't challenge him anymore He pushes hazel to address the lack of dough's problem And he points out the lack of balance that it represents because they only have strawberry with them. So there's one And that means the the bucks are going to start fighting each other that it represents because they only have strawberry with them. So there's one. Yeah. And that means the the bucks are going to start fighting each other. Also there's a point that they talk about, and I really like this, they are looking to make a warren. None of the bucks know

how to dig. And it's acknowledged that does are the ones who are really good at that. So they can't make a good warren if they don't have does because those are the only ones who know how to do that They are a vital part of a community Okay now at the same time making a Warren is literally making a home so We need homemakers. That is subtext. But like they're a valued part. They're not seen as lesser or anything like that.

And and the bucks that are trying to they're like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. They're so worldly and competent and they recognize how incompetent they are Right and big wig straight-up says like we need does we need to make a Warren We can't just hide out up here all the time. We need to be underground, right? We need to dig yeah and Then he's also right about the lack of balance that having only one dough Represents because all these bucks are gonna start getting randy and they're gonna fucking fight each other. And almost immediately,

Hawkbit and Dandelion start fighting each other and abrading each other to try to get Strawberry's eye. You know, it'd be like, well, I thought this, you know, and Hawkbit, he doesn't think that. And then they start physically fighting, and Bigwig jumps between them and just knocks the both of them back, which pretty badass move, but then he turns to Hazel

in a very I told you so way and reminds Hazel, like this shit's only gonna get worse. You need to find us women. And none of this was in the original. It was very sexless. This one, it's still sexless, but it's clear that there's tension around the fact that they need women Yeah um, and i'm gonna

Go out on a limb and i'm gonna say that is the netflix effect that that is an american audience Just yeah, yeah, because But also I haven't read the book I haven't read the book this might have been a bigger plot point in the book that I just didn't know And I don't know when you read it It's it's been a long time I was possible years in junior higher high school you're infusing the memories together possibly, too Yeah, it's possible

but of of the kinds of things that a British writer and a British audience would would expect to have an anvil dropped on like that right you know the the overt no no man Romulus called he says you need to deal with this. Yeah, you know That level of lampshading on it. Mm-hmm is not British That's you know the criticism one of the many criticisms from you know, British critics and And you know any any Brit who wants to you know? Say something derogatory about American audiences is that you know stuff like that is highlighted

More directly and more overtly. Yeah in in American works just because as a culture that's something that we Point out. Yep more morely, and it's left It's left unsaid and and you know it's it's inferred You know in a more British context mm-hmm Yeah, well in this one. It was it was I mean there was a significant amount of screen time and dialogue dedicated to it Yeah, there's no inference. It's just right dude. Yeah, we need them now Yeah, we need them to help build a home and also to keep us from fighting each other like it's gonna get worse Yeah, and the difficulties of starting a new is much more of a plot point here instead of like well, we're here. We've made holes

Let's go And it this makes sense. It's a four parter. So it's not confined to an hour and a half feature film. Right. So the issues are allowed to be explored to greater extent, it kind of reminds me of the Star Wars Episode Three novelization compared to the movie because you get into this is what it feels like to be Anakin Skywalker. This is what it feels like to be Obi Wan Kenobi. This is what it feels like to be Anakin Skywalker. This is what it feels like to be Obi-Wan Kenobi

This is what it feels like to be Count Dooku like Right the chapters that start with that is like and this is what it feels like to be Mace Windu like they are really Well done chapters. Mm-hmm The gull whose name is Kahar I forgot to say that last time who used to be played by Zero Mostel Which by the way, I think that was zero mustel's last role. I think he died two months later. Yeah Tracks yeah, Kihar is now Scottish instead of Balkan um Not I hate yeah, I suppose sure and and he's less willing to help as well

He was actually played by the 12th doctor If that matters to who? Like I'm gonna fucking remember Oh Peter Capaldi sure him. Yeah Sounds right. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah, okay You're not a Vivian. Sounds right. Yeah, all right, yeah. Yeah. Okay. You're not a movie and nevermind.

Yeah. Yeah. So the second episode centers on getting Doze, first and foremost, but with a couple of subplots in play. Okay. First off, Captain Holly's PTSD. It further connects us to the Ephrifah and it further connects us to the Ephrathah and it further connects us to

Kihar's rehabilitation. Like all of these things are happening as like A1 or B1, B2, B3 of the subplots. In this series Kihar actually abandons them almost as quickly as he can at first but then he flies past Ephrathah and speaks to himself about the stupid rabbits which kind of bugged me because in the as quickly as he can at first. But then he flies past Ephra Fah and speaks to himself about the stupid rabbits, which kind of bugged me because in the original it was stupid bunnies and that just fit better. But K'Hark crashes and burns actually and he lands back at Watership Down crashing and burning because he wasn't ready to fly. And so he comes back and he's like, yeah, I saw the does and efferfa, and because I'm so generous, I came back.

So he lies a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And since Hazel and Bigwig and Fiverr are getting does from the farmhouse, the others decide absent their leadership that they'll explore what Kehar told them without checking in with Hazel first. This time on the trip to the,

what's that called, the the farm, Bigwig is the one that gets attacked by the cat and he fights very hard against the cat who whoops his ass. Well, yeah. Because it's a cat and it causes the three of them to flee Well, yeah. Because it's a cat, and it causes the three of them to flee without having freed the hutch rabbits. So now you have multiple attempts at it instead of like, okay, get this plot point done. Yeah. And because Bigwig doesn't want to admit that he got beat, he projects onto Hazel for Hazel

being soft and squeamish. Like I would have won if you weren't so squeamish and ran away. And since this version already has Hazel feeling doubt, he lets those doubts out in the dialogue. And so here's Bigwig and Hazel. Bigwig says, what in the name of Frith has gotten into you? Hazel, I'm leader.

That's what's gotten into me, Bigwig. Your leader, a leader who could drown in a puddle of water. Oh, you've got the fear in you. Hazel, I'm leader. That's what's gotten into me, Bigwig. Your leader, a leader who could drown in a puddle of water. Oh, you've got the fear in you. I can see it in your eyes. Your mind's going, Than. That's the truth of it. No, not Than. Tharn. Um, that's the truth of it. And Hazel fires back. The truth of it is that if I make one bad decision, like the Threorod did at the Old Warren, we will all end up dead. We're talking about a guy who is deeply suffering because he feels such a weight of responsibility of leadership and the struggle to do right by his people. to do right by his people.

A leader who cares more about that than just his own power and what he can gain from it. A leader with a conscience in 2018. So, Holly, Blackberry, and Blueberry are, the Blueberry, no, it's Bluebell. They're all found by Captain Orcus, is the head of the effort for Oslo Orcas yeah, right boy, right? I don't remember if that names in the novel, but wow Yeah, and it's OR CH is so wouldn't look like the god of death or kiss. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah Yeah, it's Orcus, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, Demon Lord of Undeath. Yeah. There you go, we're done. Yeah. So, and he brings them back to Ephrathah, and this is how Holly came to Ephrathah in this version, whereas in the old version, he got beaten up being a part of them and whatnot.

This version highlights the rigidity and the malevolence of the effort funds all the more too. And there's a lot more detail showing how hierarchical and fascist they are. The does are absolutely kept as second class citizens. It's a brutal fucking society. People have certain marks and that dictates where they can go and those marks are like

Smashed into there or like carved into them by a wild crazy fucking rabbit. Um Like with a giant claw. Oh god. Oh, yeah, it's it's Great. Yeah, you know and and your mark determines when you can go out and shit like that and you get which does and they don't get a choice There's no agency there. It's literally there's like planks that go across what look like wells, but they're not wells They're just like parts where the foundation gave way The does are down there and they can walk back up to the plank, but the bucks get to walk across the planks I mean, it's very literally hierarchical. Oh wow and they can walk back up to the plank, but the bucks get to walk across the planks. I mean, it's very literally hierarchical.

Oh, wow. And in this one, Holly still has the backbone to call out the structures, because he was traumatized by Threra, and what happened in his old war, and he wasn't traumatized by this, although this will lead to a lot of that. And so he actually straight up says to, and he wasn't traumatized by this although this will lead to a lot of that and so

He actually straight-up says to oh Who was it? I think he he says it to Captain Orcus. He says to him you lack animality Hmm and an Orcus says without turning around what did you say to me? You have no integrity animals don't behave like men if they have to fight they fight if they have to kill they kill but they don't devise ways of hurting other creatures and Then he turns then Orcas turns around and comes up to him says if you speak out of turn to me again I will have your tongue next time you see me. You'd better wish yourself invisible will have your tongue. Next time you see me, you'd better wish yourself invisible. So, yeah, I mean, it's just very stark, right?

You called out to people in power and they come and threaten your life. This series is absolutely giving us two different options in 2018. You've got one, which is a group that sticks together and wants to only grow in healthy and fair ways and then two a group that seeks to conquest control and Make sure that they live in a system where might makes right as long as they're in charge. Yeah

Now big wig isn't quite of that mindset, but he certainly has leanings in that direction and yet He accepts hazel's leadership and he For a while he calls him hazel raw Ironically, but eventually it's begrudgingly and this is evidence that he would rather be decent Um than empower now holly makes his case for bringing the does back and he goes to wound war he So he's the one who approaches wound warden says you have overcrowding you need to solve this problem Yes, okay. And again, he's like I come to you sir. You're in charge here. I noticed these things Would you like would you would you be okay with us taking does away? He's very much sticking to the structures of how most rabbit societies go.

But Woundwort informs him quite quickly that, no, you don't get any does. He's like, okay, well, we'll be on our way then. He's like, who said you could leave? And that's the moment where Holly realizes how truly fucked they are. And it's so much more menacing than the original And just to juxtapose that menace strawberry Hawk bit and dandelion have built the Warren together Strawberries the only female right and while dandelion and Hawk bit are Working their way through a tunnel and they're struggling with it and they're fighting over

You know and and trying to help each other but getting each other's way Strawberry comes around the other end and she's already finished off the entire rest of the warren Yeah, well Yeah, so just like you get that that, you know, you got the menace, but then you got that like the homesteading and the joy of it and the Wohful difference in competence between the males and the females And then hazel goes off alone to free the does from the hutch

The does and effer Fah tell holly what the process is because they're gonna get marked, right? and how they'll be marked and how that determines when and where they get to go out. And behind her, another female named Nettle starts going off. She says, quote, they tell us it's to keep us safe from humans in El Il. They tell us it's better to give up a little liberty

in exchange for safety, but it's a load of old lindry beard. And like, Heisenthe is like, dude, calm the fuck down. All right, you're gonna get us in trouble. And Nettle's like, I'm sorry, I just get so pissed, you know. And she's, so the Warren that the Efrifal live in is a bombed out or burned down complex. And it's some sort of factory.

It's down mostly, like I said before, down to its foundations, but there's still some metal grating on the floors, on some of the floors. There's a spiral metal staircase and there are some stone tunnels and a metal grate. It clearly had access to sewage at one point. And as one of the does is getting marked by a frothing at the mouth, long clawed lop, which is the only lop that we see. So he's clearly crazy. Heisenthlae actually turns to Halley and says, in Ephrifah, even the soil has ears. If by some miracle we did manage to get out,

they destroy everyone you leave behind. Mm-hmm. So she also turns to, I believe, oh God, not Danny Lyne, I think Blackberry. I think she turns to him and says to him, if it's not Blackberry, I think it's Bluebell. I think it's Bluebell. She says, do you have a favorite memory?

He says, yes. She's like, think of that. Like, memory. He says, yes, she's like, think of that. Like, cause you see this like gnarly fucking claw on the, on the mad lop. And it's, it's bad. And it's a very clear and stark choice. And as the doe is being held down and he pushes her head to the ground and turns her sideways and he claws her, the mad lop does one of the captains guarding them averts his eyes and

Holly calls him out. He says don't you avert your eyes captain your party to this and Then the captain says I'm following orders. That's what soldiers do Yeah And I think this captain campion actually okay. And then and Holly says take it from me What makes a good soldier is not always what makes a good rabbit? All right, so Holly then encourages Heisenthal to run away with him and unlike in the original She's actually much more cynical and much more practical. She absolutely helps everyone get through their marking much more cynical and much more practical. She absolutely helps everyone get through their marking.

Again, have a fond memory, that kind of thing. But then she tells him that they both have no reason to trust each other. So don't talk to me, right? Now Holly, Bluebell, and Blackberry make a break for it after being marked, being wounded. Hazel and company are trying to help the does escape the Hutch and both involve a chase through a complex. Hazel and Fiverr and I think, no, I think Hazel's just doing it on his own this time. There is an effort that runs through the human household. It's very fun. Hysenthe actually helps them to escape by attacking the Auzla and giving them all a chance to flee, much to her own detriment and danger.

And what we're seeing in this episode and in the series is that despite the difficulties, working together and fighting for each other in the Dark Crystal, they would have called that resisting, that is the path to success. And if you have a choice, you have a choice, living in oppression or fighting oppression.

Also, if you are trying to run away from them, if you run toward the train tracks, that'll help you because it'll run down the Ousla chasing after you. toward the train tracks that'll help you because it'll run down the Ousla chasing after you. Also, also also, Hazel shows time and again that being a leader means sacrificing yourself for the good of those you lead.

That's what Hazel did and he actually got shot by the farmer. So, and the black rabbit comes and visits him and basically is like, no, you ain't dying yet, dude Like you got a lot further to run I'll see you later The third episode starts up more with the effer fa and again, I'm gonna point out that this is 2018 So I get why they're focused on the autocratic versions of bunnies and showing how brutal That is to the audience because it's fucking 2018.

Now Orcus came to Woundwort and he demands to know where Hyzenthlae is because Hyzenthlae led to the escape that got a bunch of rabbits run over by the train. One of those was Orcus's brother. the train one of those was Orcas's brother. Okay. Woundwort stops him, slams him and pins him to the ground and says he who thinks death, because Orcas is like I'm gonna fucking kill that bitch, I'm gonna fucking kill her, where is she? And Woundwort's like, well slow your roll, slow your roll, and he's like no she deserves death and he just grabs him and just tosses his ass to the ground and pins him down and says he who thinks death is the gravest of punishments knows nothing of what it is to suffer Hers is the spirit that emboldens the Doze captain break hyzenthal a and you break them all

Wow Yeah, so I didn't think wound work could be any more evil. Right? The very next line I have was very obviously evil. Yeah. Yeah. And yet, people chose to stay in that efforfa. They chose to stay in that warren,

both through fear and through despair, but also those in power liked being in power. Yes. So we're seeing this stark difference between force and leadership, between leading and ruling, quite honestly. And there's a lot more discussion about infiltration and freeing the Doze and starting a resistance in Afrofa in 2018. Now, in this series, we also see them having to fight a fox that wasn't in the original. And it seems very expendable to the plot, to be perfectly honest. But it was something that I think was in the book.

So they kept it in the thing. I don't mind it. It's actually what in this one, this is what gets Bigwig to Ephrifah because he's running from the fox and it kills like one of the like three people in the patrol And it also shows hazel the trick about how to lose a bigger animal Or how to loose a bigger animal against his enemies Okay, because the Fox killed a bunch of them and the Fox just fucks up the Owsla Now much of the beginning half of this episode is about isolating not trusting it's about being fearful and it's about accepting autocracy none of this shit was in the 1978 version because such a thing was so far off from the

Imaginations of the audience that there's no need to allegorize it but in 2018 it's Absolutely pointing out the effects of a resistance losing hope falling amongst themselves and whatnot and It also continues to point out that the leader If the leader is worthy of the name, then he fucking leads Right. So in November of 2018, do you know what all of Europe celebrated? Oh, well, the end of World War I. Yeah, the centennial. Yes.

Our president at the time refused to attend because it was raining and he didn't want his hair to look bad. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. And I remember being... yeah. Ashamed and disappointed? Yeah, ashamed, disappointed, embarrassed. Yeah, I was very embarrassed. Incandescently fucking furious. Yeah, like like We knew this thing was coming up and we chose to send

The worst possible version of ourselves to be in charge and represent us there. Yeah, and and The I Wonder in in the months to come whether I will still have the capacity to be Disappointed or surprised that I had at at just the rank lazy level of shittiness

involved because because the the idea that you don't even have enough self respect as As a politician as a public figure respect as as a politician as a public figure to recognize that not going to that is going to make you look ridiculous and stupid and you know And and and being so completely Tuned out so completely out of touch That that you would not realize that

You're you're so far up your own ass That you that you don't recognize that that's a that's like a dipshit move Yeah, that's like that's malignant narcissism. Yeah, I mean yeah And and I remember even at the time going you know he's he's been here for two years now Mm-hmm. How am I still shocked? Yeah, but I but I but I would but like that one was one of the ones that I was like even this really right even this Right like you're so goddamn ignorant. Mm-hmm Yeah, you know

Meanwhile hazel got shot and he's limping along having been shot so that he can help his Warren Yeah to get what they need having been shot so that he can help his Warren to get what they need. Bigwig's attempt at infiltrating is much more fleshed out too. He's matured through this series, third episode in, and Clover is doing all she can as well, which highlights the sexual distinctions and also the fear involved in being a female

in such a society. Because he meets a female named Clover. Now as Bigwig is being toured around by Campion, they let him know that the Owslau have tremendous rights and the sexual rights he has over all the does. Now Wundwort intimidates Clover and tells her of his need for multiple queens. Clover is one of the What do you call it? She's one of the hutch rabbits that gets away. Okay, okay, and and they find her and they bring her in right? She's much softer than all the other rabbits

There's a lot made about that. Yeah and so Clover is is doing what she can and She knows Hazel and she speaks to bigwig about hazel briefly But wound wart actually summons her to his lair and he tells her of his need for multiple queens quote an Empire is born not in a lifetime, but over generations Now Heisenthal was part of that escape and

So she's kind of and and she got the shit kicked out of her for it and They basically have broken her Which is what wound warts goal was and she tells the bunnies and they basically have broken her, which is what Wundewort's goal was, and she tells the bunnies, and she knows she's gonna be killed too. Meanwhile, Blackavar's being paraded all around is like this is what happens when you try to run away.

Now, Heisenthal is gonna be killed, and she's like, death sucks, so do what you can to stay alive. She says, quote, stop fighting, they will always win. You all keep hoping for the winds to stop blowing when instead you should learn to steel yourself against them. Wow, that's bleak.

Yeah, now it kind of reminds me of what the, it feels like it's the inverse of what rose told Finn which is They win by making you feel alone Right, you know, but then clover responded to her don't give up yet. There's still hope Heisenthal a responds in efferifah hope is your enemy Hmm now i'm Which which feels very um And Ephrathah, hope is your enemy. Now I'm which which feels very Shawshank Redemption too.

But I mean, there you go. Like you went from hope to no hope and it's your enemy. Now I'm not sure which captain then tells the does After hyzenthalase sent to Cap Norcus. He says quote now it has come to my attention that some of you have been singing Anyone caught doing this will face a severe punishment So Do you remember in? 2018 I believe it was there was a good deal of hay made around

a certain person running for Congress being in a video where she was dancing on a rooftop. Yeah. Yeah, because- And it was all Breakfast Club shit. Like, that was the best part. It was like, I was like, oh, she's doing the scenes from the Breakfast Club. She looks so happy. he's like yeah, you shouldn't be happy

And then like and my favorite Counterpoint to that was oh, so wait. She's not allowed to do anything goofy or stupid and then a picture of Ryan From when he was you know I don't know older than AOC was at the time doing doing some goofy picture you know with with barbells the baseball hat on backwards like oh really oh yeah and it was like wait so he does that and oh yeah that's you know he's he's's, he's, you know, cluttering around being a dork. She does that and she's unserious and unqualified to be in Congress. Right. Like fuck you. Right. Um, you know,

no. Yeah. Uh, and, and then all of the commentary about, you know, conservatives just don't understand joy. Like you, you have, you have turned yourselves into a movement that just does not appreciate Joyfulness. Yeah, you're a death cult. Yeah Yeah, no like Yeah, so there you go now clover gets summoned to wound wart and and she tries to make a deal with him she says I will be your queen in exchange for Heisenthal's life.

And he laughs at her, which is the first time we see any shred of joy on Wundwort's face. But it's not true joy. It's evil joy because he rebuffs her and tells her that the choice is either you go down to the deep burrows where no one will ever see you. because he rebuffs her and tells her that the choice is Either you go down to the deep burrows where no one will ever see you or you're my queen and Then he says quote it matters little to me, which? Wow the cruelty is the point Yeah, by the way in his talk with her He actually says he's like I was a hutch bunny too and look what I've become So you and I are hutch bunnies. We should definitely be making children

so there's a bit of like aristocratic bloodline bullshit going on there, too Yeah, yeah, there's some there's some clear direct Nazi allegory there like You think your Uber bunnies yeah Their hoochin bunnies did your hoochin bunnies their hoochin ponies So again the cruelty is the point right yeah, and at the end of the episode a storm is brewing up So that's you know never been symbol of for anything Never heisen the lays get she gets brought out to an electric tower for her for her execution at frith down

And what's interesting is that like you know it's one of those metal electric towers? There's a buzzing. Bigwig is actually tasked by Orcus, if I recall correctly, to end her life under pain of his own death if he doesn't do it. And then in the distance, we actually hear Oh, God, what's her name? Thethoeniong, one of the bunny one of the female bunnies at The farm no no at at effer for she starts singing and then all the bunnies start singing And They start resisting. Oh shit, and the doze start chanting. We shall be free

We shall be free and they surround the one guard who's telling them to stop singing. And meanwhile, then you cut back to Heisenthal who's facing her fucking execution, and she tells Nettle, real quick, she's like, hey, real quick, lead the Does, lead as many people who will follow to gather and gather as many as you can to escape out of the west side of the Warren. I know I'm gonna die, but do that and you'll save as many as possible.

And Nettle's like, okay, yeah, absolutely, right? So even as she's facing her death, Heisenthal is planning to save people. And then we find out that Nettle has been spying on her the whole time. And so she goes and she narcs on them. Now the does are chanting, we shall be free, we shall be free.

Right, right, right, right. They scare the guy. Bigwig is being told, he's like, all right, you've got a killer. And he basically says, I didn't write it down exactly, but he basically says, you know, I'm not a storyteller, I'm not a very clever rabbit,

I do one thing and I do it pretty well and I know who my real enemy is and he's like holding her head down He's got this miss paw up. He's ready to and then he just fucking goes off on the guards who are there to witness her execution and whoops their asses And when they flee and I think he says something, you could stay and die or you could run and tell your friends. But when they flee, he turns to Heisenthalai and he asks, do you have any fight left in you? And she's like, yeah.

And he's like, all right, let's go, let's meet everybody over on that west side. And she's like, oh, I was lying to Nettle. I knew. And so she and Bigwig then go through the Warren which is now empty because Nettle's gotten back. She's told Woundwort, she told all of the other guards and so all the guards have left and they're waiting on the west side. And so now they're going through the Bigwig and and and Heisenthal they are going through the entire Warren and getting Everybody out and he beats the fuck out of the guards who are guarding black of our That's the ones where he's like you could stay and die or you could run and tell but either way you better choose

Mm-hmm, and so he gets black of our and he's like you got any fight and he's like what else do I have? and so they they just go. And while the animation is absolutely trash, the cinematography is absolutely on point. It is incredible. All of the escape is masterfully framed. You feel trapped with Big Wig and Hazel's group when they get trapped in their final leg of the escape from Ephrathoth.

And that's how the final episode ends, or the third episode ends. The fourth one opens and it's the final one with this silent home movie video, like eight millimeter approach approach to a fox chasing a rabbit back to his warren. And I think it's Hazel's dream having been wounded. Okay. And then we go back to Woundwart's man surrounding Hazel's escape party under the Iron Road. And in this series, Woundwart isn't heterochromatic, he has a milky eye.

And right as he's about to attack Bigwig, Kefarr comes down and flies in and smacks him and scares the shit out of them all, and he's come back. And this scatters Woundwort's men in the rain, and Hazel's party's able to escape. And so when the Efrifens have regathered, they're having a meeting, this time without Wundwort.

And they're talking about the problem without him, right? And they're like, clearly, and it's basically like the subtext is clearly he's lost it. Mm-hmm. Now Wundwort comes out of his warren and he demands to know who called the meeting, because there's usually a council meeting and he calls it And campion mentioned that they called it because he's been sleeping in the whole day

Mm-hmm, who does that remind you of a couple guys I can think of It's 2018 and there's a two-year long history of our president not waking up early and nobody making decisions until he has. Now Wundwort allows all of his officers to voice their concerns and when one of them actually does he's like, alright, you're all here. What concerns do you have? I really want to hear it. There are no bad ideas, that kind of thing. And one of them actually says, well, like, yeah, this is, we're a little worried here. We're spending a lot of time chasing after this thing. We could just let it go. And he absolutely backs this sergeant down,

and he says, quote, "'Those of you who are not loyal to me invite outsiders to steal our doughs. Those of you not loyal to me hate Ephra-fah.'" to steal our doughs. Those of you not loyal to me hate Ephrifah. Oh, hey. Doesn't that sound familiar in a bad way? Mm-hmm.

And then. What do you hate America? I don't hate America. I hate that one motherfucker. I hate what he's doing. I hate, I know. To this whole place. Yeah, I mean, yes. I hate what he's legitimized. I hate that one motherfucker. I hate what he's doing. I hate this whole place. Yeah, I mean, yes He's legitimized. I hate him. I do I'm not gonna lie

It's not Christian of me, but I do You know And and all of his lackeys pretty much loath them deeply same way like no them deeply same way like no Because they they're the the very threat against America that they purport to be saving. Yeah from Speaking of which he finishes off his his chastising of Everyone with saying quote in effer far we run from no Eliel. We are the Eliel Wow speaking of that, you know, not following the,

you know, mythic archetype, not remembering your lessons. There you go. Very next line. Ha ha. Like, and again, that's his speech, that they're not anything like what rabbits started out to be. The thing that would help rabbits to survive. No. We're beyond that. It's kind of like they're they're better. Yeah, I mean this this goes this goes back to the to the

futurists Mm-hmm This is this is the automobile and yeah, and you're not a sizing a fucking car crash. That's that yeah Fucking car crash that's that yeah One passage that you talked about talking about the futurist has stuck with me forever because how fucking crazy you have to be right But I mean yeah, it's that's that's You know we're we're better than that. We're no longer attached to our base The thing that makes us us yeah, yeah, we. Yeah, we have moved beyond and it's like,

no, no, you still have the big long ears. Right. You still herbivores. Hey man, being born here still makes you a citizen. Yeah, but not the right kind of citizen. Like fucking, you know. Yeah. So yeah, meanwhile, Hazel is speaking to his new rabbits

to just set up the, because this whole thing is about contrast, right? He highlights that he was privileged to know them and to lead them and he looks forward to becoming all of their friends. He highlights that they've earned their freedom,

but now they have to fight to preserve it. Quote, because the battle for liberty is one for which there is no end. And if we fall fighting, if we stop running, then at least we knew what it was like to run. I stand here not asking you to follow me, but to follow each other. Let's help raise each other to our strongest selves Now let's go home Ow I would like to point out that he has basically turned watership down into a sanctuary city

Yeah, yeah, uh, yeah refugees, uh-huh and that their strength comes from their diversity and inclusion And their equity their DEI I mean fuck they had a bird on their side. I mean yeah, like not not even not even the same species Yeah, like not even the same Family right like right not even a mammal, right? just So so do you remember the ad that came out in? 2019 so this is after this but yeah how telling

where somebody basically Made a really shitty version of like the final scene in the Avengers and It was I am inevitable and they put Trump's face on it, you know and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so are we gonna try to be the LL or are we gonna try to fight for freedom? Yeah It's 2018 time to choose, right? Yeah Now of course this means that they're gonna be attacked by the effort fought Watership down and they have to defend their new lives in one

climactic battle because prior movie and because book Right, but we also see what a wonderful life they may have in effort in Watership down Until the danger picks up and then the rabbits sent, what's cool is they sent the Owsla that's scouting toward them from Ephra Fah and Hazel shows how quickly he's learned and matured as a leader because he's decisive and he already has a plan that he puts into play and Bigwick pretty quickly acquiesces to him too. Hazel goes down to Wundwart as an emissary, saying that he's a friend of Flaley.

Flaley is the other name for Bigwig. Okay. Wundwart thinks that Hazel is just an emissary of Bigwig's, not the leader. Now he never lies, he says, I'm a friend of Thaley's. Hazel offers a compromise and he's rebuffed. He's, and he's like, we could live in peace, exchanging things, we could be over here,

you could be over there, we could watch out for each other. And Wundwort wants to hear none of it, and he says, tell your chief rabbit I look forward to seeing him again. So stage one. Again, Haz hazel tried he fucking tried honestly it kind of reminds me of The second season or the third season of What's the Walking dead where Rick is like we could share this to the governor. Yeah, the governor's like nah and Then the siege begins right hazel handles objections and doubts from within the Warren

And then he gives a speech about the importance of defending their home and that galvanizes them Wound wart at this point is also not interested in taking prisoners at all or hearing anything that contradicts his thinking. And so he orders the Ephra'Fen to storm the tunnels that very night. Fuck the siege, we're storming. And during this fight, Holly gets killed. In this iteration, Holly dies. And Heisenthal is left bereaved by it. Mmm. And Heisenthal is left bereaved by it. Now, the vibe that the siege and the attacks give

is a very London underground kind of vibe during the Blitz. Because it's literally a warren. Loud thumps, rumbles, dust falling. Yeah. And while they're under siege, Hazel stays. Just like to point out, Hazel is a leader who stays and defends his people when there's an attack. Yes. So anyway, in this version, Hazel tells Bigwig to tell the Ephraphans that he guards this borough for his chief rabbit because he's taken a measure of Woundwart's mind.

He's like, trust, there's even a line, he's like, when you are worn out, when you have nothing left to give, tell them this thing. And Bigwig's like, why? He's like, trust me. And Bigwig does. Now Campion disobeys Woundwort because Woundwort is heading into the tunnel saying,

let's go, I don't care how many of us die doing this, we're gonna kill them all. And Campion's like, no, bro, this is kinda fucked up. And if I recall correctly, this is, yeah, this is when Fiverr is having his vision, so they hear this moaning coming from it. And Campion's like, whoa, no, enough's fucking enough. This is failing the vibe check.

This is not, I'm not down for this. And Woonward is like, no, we're going into those tunnels. We're gonna whoop some ass now. And again, Hazel's, or not Hazel. Holly has already died. Um, and campion says, uh, I'd rather be a good rabbit than a good soldier. Oh, well, there you go. And then Orcus is like, you don't talk like that to our boss. And he turns on Orcus and he's like, motherfucker, I'm bigger

than you. I will whoop your ass. You might be my equal in rank, but you are not my equal in fighting. You want to fucking go? Let's go. And Orcus kind of backs down. And Campion takes a whole bunch of his guys with him. He's like, we're out.

We're getting out of here. Bigwig then gets to fight Woundwart this time. Hazel goes to free the farm dog and leads him back to the Warren, just like before. And it's a fairly even fight between Woundwart and Bigwig, but Woundwart is so much more ruthless. And he keeps getting the better of Bigwig. Despite Bigwig doing more damage, doesn't seem to matter.

And then Woundwart offers Bigwig to come back to Efrifah, which I thought was kind of interesting because it's like Woundwort, he's ruthless, but he's like, I am getting torn off. And so he's like, all right, you've proven yourself. You come on back to Efrifah and you could have whatever you want. And that's when Bigwig knows that he needs to bluff.

So he's like, no, I'm here to defend this Warren for my chief rabbit until he comes back and tells me I'm gonna defend this Warren for my chief rabbit. And he's like, your chief what, what? Like it gives him pause. And that causes Woundwart's men to be like, oh, fuck that dude.

Like we've seen big like no Boss We're gonna like you got this. That's cool, but we're gonna go wait for you outside. Yeah, it will be Yeah, we'll be out back after all you know big wig is the match for wound wart and he's not the chief Yeah, and they've got command of a bird, whatever else they have. Fuck, yeah. Right? So Bigwig comes out to fight Wundwarts forces

that have been reduced now. And you know, like he basically chases, and Wundwart goes out, he's like, no, no, get back here. And so Bigwig chases him out. And then he's ready to take on the rest of them. He's ready to die. He's ready to be that soldier. There's so fewer of Wundwort's forces that it's noticeable,

but there's still enough of them to surround him. And he stands broken and battered against them all. And just at that moment, the dog comes chasing over. Well hazel comes over the hill uh, and uh, and big wig just shouts hazel raw With absolutely no irony this time Um, and that causes wound wart to laugh He's like hazel roth. That's your fucking leader. Are you kidding me? And then the dog comes

fucking leader are you kidding me and then the dog comes and then like all the rabbits they just fucking bolt right yeah one wart stands his ground because he's from Florida and he or Texas yeah you know but he stares the dog down and he gets this maniacal fucking smile and the two of them go for it and he says we fear no Elio I fear no dog. I fear nothing and they dive at each other and again, like I said Animations dog shit here, but the the cinematography is gorgeous They dive at each other and then it pans to their shadows on the ground because it's daytime now. Their shadows being you know lit by the sun you know that's how shadows work yeah but their shadows on the ground and then just pauses and then the shadows

fade away and it's much more cinematic and then we see at least a generation later, maybe more. Bigwig has landed with Strawberry. Hazel and Clover are out by the water and Fiver comes and sits with him after Clover goes back in and she's like, and no falling asleep out here this time. You've been getting tired lately. He's like, I'll be in, I'll be in. Fiver goes and sits with him. Everybody's happy. There's children all over the fucking place talking and all kinds of wonderful stuff. Strawberries kids are like teasing Uncle Dandelion.

Like all this shit's happening. Fiver comes out and he mentions what an honor and a privilege it's been to serve and work with Hazel as his leader and as his brother. And Hazel turns to him and says, are you all right, Fiverr? And Fiverr says, oh, yes, I just came to say good night to you. And that's probably Fiverr's last vision about his brother. And the other one, again, it was a very British thing So it was understated and we were younger and we didn't know our feels this one. I absolutely know what this feels like Hazel lies down to a very peaceful rest and he breathes slower and slower again

They get the breathing right they don't get much else right, but they get the breathing Yeah And he's approached by the black rabbit who came to see him once before when he'd been shot to let him know It's not that that it wasn't his time then this time it is his time Quote you've been tired recently haven't you old friend? Well, I can do something about that I've come to ask you if you'd like to join my Ousla. We'd love to have you and I'm sure you'd enjoy it you needn't worry about them and After that bluebell and I'm sure you'd enjoy it. You needn't worry about them. And after that, Bluebell, and he dies.

And then Bluebell is an old man. Like you can see, like he's got like tufts of gray. And he's telling them the story, telling the kids the story of Hazel Ra. And it's actually the opening chapter of the Richard Adams book. And Fiverr looks up and sees his brother in the clouds. And sometimes when it's really goddamn dark and awful, a resistance is the only way to

fix it. And on the other end of that resistance, if you've completely eradicated the the awfulness, you have a chance at something wonderful or people will easily forget and decide to go back to wound wart because reasons yeah yeah yeah now once water shipped down released in Netflix and BBC one after a budget of 20 million dollars or 20 million pounds actually Wow on December 22nd through December 23rd of 2018 the reviews were less apt to fawn on them. One of the problems this production faced was that it was reviewed by adults who'd actually

grown up with the childhood memories of the original cartoons and or were raised by people who read the book. Right. So nostalgic colored glasses caused them to review this, I think, poorer than they should have. Because predictably almost every review remembered the trauma of watching the first cartoon and mentioned that Richard Adams wrote a grown-up book for children. So I found this by Lucy Mangan who was writing for the Guardian in December of 2018. She said the following, quote,

who this one is for is not clear. Which, by the way, breaking in, isn't that exactly what we heard in 78? Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're making a cartoon. It should be for small children, but it's dark. Right.

And like, kind of grained in places, yeah. And if you read the book, you won't like it. But if you haven't read the book, but you do like it, it like that, that one reviewer from like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She says, on the one hand, the aesthetic is more sophisticated than Rosen's cuddly conies bounding about a brightly colored landscape. A host of CGI experts were brought in to make a leperine fur and movement realistic, which also wildlife's

limits to natural variation being what they are, has the unhelpful effect of making all the rabbits virtually indistinguishable from each other. All the true drab greens and browns of the countryside and its wildlife are determinedly reproduced and the the first lightning of the gloom doesn't come until 45 minutes into the first of the two feature-length episodes. I cannot see anyone under voting age applauding this choice. On the other hand, compared with Rosen's idiosyncratic hallucinatory masterpiece, it is far too tame and de-resoninated to engage adults. No rabbits struggled over dead bodies

of their gassed comrades as the developers tear up the burrow. No truly terrifying visions from Fiverr. We do not see Hazel's rabbits marked in Ephrifah, and yet the new general Woundwort looks like a Flopsy Bunny compared with the real one. Yes, I said real real come at me. Oh Yeah, you're not you're not coming at this with this preconceived notions and in a chip on your shoulder not at all

Right. She gave it two stars and she pointed out that if you'd seen the prior one There was a rate that was a rating you would agree with Quote the part of my soul that started screaming when big wigs and snare Revealed the truth of cowslips warren woke from what turns out to have been the lightest of slumbers As soon as the new one popped up, but I doubt the latest rendering was enough to move anyone not primed by such early trauma Um, that's that's a whole set of assumptions I That's that's a whole set of assumptions yeah, they're like Don't making a question here. Yeah, I don't feel like she gave it a fair shake as its own thing and

It could be that I'm I'm doing it wrong by looking at each one as its own thing No, I don't think you are I think there's there's a place in criticism for for both I Would I would tend to say if you're going to come at it with? That level of you know preconceived expectations that should be something you you explicitly state yeah you know what I mean rather than rather than just shitting on it and us having to kind of parse the fact that, oh yeah, okay, you came at this with a, you know, already ready to crap all over it

because of the formative nature of the other one. It would be like if we didn't identify the lens we were using to look at Andor. Yeah, that's a good analogy, yeah. Now, Carol Midgley of the Times reviewed it Yeah, that's a good analogy. Now Carol Midgley of the Times reviewed it at the same time and she gave it 3 out of 5 stars. 2, 3, I mean we're within, they're both saying it's mediocre.

The new BBC Netflix version of Watership Down promised to be less gory and distressing than the 1978 film, and it was, which means our children were spared our trauma, doubtless feeling more snowflake ammunition. She started her review off by saying that it wasn't too harrowing. And what I get a kick out of is that like, a lot of the reviews that I read were like, okay, okay, it's not as gory as the original.

And in fact, if you remember, mentioned the the TV series from 99 2001 Started with we will not be as gory as the original like we're not gonna kill rabbits off like okay Everybody seems to be having to address that elephant. Why okay? Just gonna throw this out here. We're not going we're not gonna be as gory as the original We're not going to kill rabbits off if you don't kill any rabbits off What's the point of the fucking story? Well that was a TV series that I didn't review. Yeah, no, I know I know right like Do you understand?

What what the value of this story is right? Like that's that's that's if you want to tell a story worth telling in this in this way, huh? They're gonna have to be some dead bunnies like that's that's a really harsh Sounding free is a point but narratively it's necessary. Yes like like Oh damn it What's his name Prometheus has to have his liver torn out. That's right. You know, Loki has to be suspended, you know, with a serpent dripping venom into his eyes.

Like this is part of the archetype. This needs to be there because otherwise the rest of the narrative serves no purpose. Right. Clank. Yeah. Yeah. Now she joined the criticism of the CGI, which frankly is a very well-learned critique. It looked like early fan films of Thomas the Tank Engine You know the number of analogies for just how bad the animation is that we're that we're we're

Sharing here. Yeah Yeah, if you haven't seen it folks just understand. Yeah. Yeah having gotten a glimpse of it. I'm like You know you're you're recommending this to me, and I really I really want to give it a try, but the clips I saw on YouTube I Might not be able to do it. It's I Felt the same way about bad wars. Yeah, and as it turns out Clone Wars and rebels was really fucking good Yeah, you adapt like yeah. Well. Well, and here's the thing. This is kind of the distinction I'm going to make there, is there's a difference between art style and visual resolution.

True. You can look at the way the artist, the stylized nature of the animation in the two Star Wars series that you mentioned, in Rebels and in Clone Wars. You can look at that and go, you know, that's not to my taste. You cannot argue it is badly animated.

That's true, that's true. You can argue that this is badly animated except for the breathing Yeah, well yeah, and and the framing again the cinematography is fantastic. Yeah, the animation is dog shit Yeah, the rendering is garbage. Yes, you know It just so yeah it you know what it reminds me of that that one person who tried to restore the picture of Jesus Oh, and made him look like somebody had just like gotten to the juicy center of a tootsie pot That is that is an absolutely perfect metaphor

And I will never be able to look at that, that, that complete botch of a restoration job the same way ever again. Yeah. That, that hurts, but I also can't stop laughing. Um, like, Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. It's yes.

That's a good, that's a good comparison. Like good Lord. Why did you do that? Yeah, it was just bad choice after bad choice after bad choice. Yeah. Now, uh, Mangan, uh, and midgley both kind of agreed because they were both viewing it through the lens of a nostalgia, a nostalgia monocle. I wasn't as affected by it as I was by the 1978 film, but obviously I was young then and now I'm not. But the length did dilute the effect for which we can probably blame Netflix. I liked the end though. It's like, again, I think it's very similar to being like, I don't know man, I read Princess Bride,

this is no Princess Bride. Like, it has that same vibe. Yeah, or on a level where there was more fidelity to the source materials, like, well, you know, the way they did the Lord of the Rings Yes, you know, it's the movie You know there aren't very many people who crap on the Lord of the Rings movies because of their comparison to the books

Yeah, but they do exist and I feel like it's kind of the same thing Yeah, I mean, you know that could be you didn't put in my favorite thing or you interpreted it differently than I liked Yeah, well, yeah, I mean amongst amongst. There's also that yeah Tolkien fans There's the two biggest things like that that show up are you know, where's Tom Bombadil? Yeah, and the answer is he doesn't translate to cinema and and really the pacing would suck if he was there Right in the first movie and then Where is the scouring of the Shire and the answer there is again? We're making a series of movies and already three hours long. It's already. Yeah, it's already way too long and

For a modern audience that's not going to have the same right Resonance that's right. It's not going to have the same resonance. It's not going to be the same lesson. Yeah, and honestly they get at it. It's interesting what you mentioned there, because in some ways they get at those two tones in the Hobbit movies, and everybody bitches that the Hobbit movies were too long and too many, but if you look at that, oh god, I don't remember the fucking names, but like the bear guy,

Bjorn? It's kind of a bombadil kind of opening. Like it's a very different thing because he's a menace and oh god, he'll eat dwarves. But it feels very bombadilesque because he's really not necessary to anything in that movie. He's not. He's cool. He's dope. But and so that feels that that kind of scratches a Bombadil itch. Whereas the um the the the really shitty guy who is You know at the Bardstown the the floaty place with all the fish, the captain and Tenille or whatever their fucking names are.

Those two seem very much scour the Shire types. And he keeps going for power and keeps going for power until I think a woman slaps him or some shit. But anyway, so Ed Power, writing for the the independent reviews it with only two out of five stars He says quote despite an all-star cast this adaptation of the Richard Adams classic is less tooth and claw and Then it is shrug and head shake you can't swing a rabbit for all the reboots and remakes popping up at the moment So it was inevitable that Richard Adams' classic and infamously traumatizing the children's novel about warring bunnies should be the latest childhood

touchstone reimagined for a modern generation. So just shitting all over, you know, remakes and reimaginings in general. Yep. Which like this is the example, you know? Yeah. Which it's true It's 2018 like there was so many fucking sequels that were coming out at that time. They're not wrong But yeah Yeah, I fully agree with the idea that You know the filmmaking industry and media in general need to come up with

Original ideas instead of retreading stuff. We've seen a dozen times before Hello yet another series of Batman movies but You know you got to give those Their product you got to give the end result. You know a fair shake on its own merits, right and here Again, you're coming at it with an axe to grind clearly right, you know and again nothing is made in a vacuum if it was then these would be much shorter episodes that we're doing but At the same time like you have to kind of do both

you have to look at it in and of itself and you have to look at it in the history and I think he did fine within its history, but he didn't separate it out in any way to look at it as its own. He goes on, by the way, to point out that the real flaw of the series was that it wasn't scary enough, that it, quote, lacks the visceral knife twisting of the earlier movie. So which of course reminded me of that one woman that I went on a single date with who said you know the downside about my job is that we don't show kids drowning anymore. And it was a lifeguard thing and and I kind of get where she was going

But it's a weird fucking statement to make on a first date. That's that's yeah And I get that you're passionate about it you want kids to survive and and I think seeing a video of a kid drown Would probably make me take that shit way fucking serious. Like I get where she was going Maybe a second date talk Or third maybe yeah. Yeah, you know like like, you know when when You know somebody Well enough to understand the nuance Right in their character. It felt very equus like it felt like whoa

In their character it felt very equest like it felt like whoa You're going really hard in the paint about stabbing and I is stabbing the horse's eye like right away Can we like like immediately? Yeah, we not do that. Yeah. Yeah There's level of intense there that I would want to shy away from and he's kind of doing that same thing and it's impossible To get away from any comparisons to the 78 version that I found in any review. But also anyone writing in 2018 is also likely to not be someone who was writing in 1978. I mean, that's a four year span, right? So that means necessarily that the memory is that

of a child's, if they were of age at all for the first one and So like that that's that's another thing that's another layer to it now now Ed power At least pointed out the fidelity to Adams's book in the longer exploration He said yeah because there was so many more episodes exploration, he said, yeah, because there was so many more episodes, they were able to get more into Adams' book and they did that. But then he blamed a lot of all of this on the tepid effect of the big studio and international studio system that waters things down for mass consumption. Now that's also potentially true.

He's the one that had my favorite line about the graphics, which was a bit hyperbolic, but at its core, it was very true. Quote, it is a full-blown evolutionary throwback resembling a PlayStation 2 cut scene circa 1999, which is extraordinary considering the rumored 20 million pound budget. Wow. Yeah.

Now his critique ends with this scape. Quote, without the darkness darkness is Watership Down really Watership Down? And if you take away that malice and malincoly, what is left? It's a question that the new adaptation never gets around to answering. I'm sorry. Did you watch the series that my co-host just described? Right.

Because without the darkness... Dude set up a rape camp. Like... It does not get any darker. Never mind all the violence. Never mind the mad lop like slashing people Yeah, ever file was a rape camp like For God's sake. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, and again, you're not you're not actually looking at its actual own merits You're looking back to an idealized memory, right of of what the first one did to you you emotionally uh-huh and the fact that you're a grown adult now, right? And so this this does not have the same level of right impact Means that to you well, it's not as dark. No no, it's fucking darker It's just that you're older and you've lived through some uglier shit speaking of Why was this conceived of and produced from 2014 to 2018? Oh

I wonder why money dear boy, obviously, but also What made folks think that the world was ready for a retread of the VHS trauma classic? For starters, let's look at 2014. There were several disasters happening in 2014 that would definitely sow doubt in people's minds on both sides of the pond. In America, the Elk River chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia,

made the water for 300,000 people undrinkable. So we've got environmental disaster. And a lot of this had to do with the fact that after a company merger in 2013, the federal and state governments regulators of the chemical storage containers and sites since 1991, when the company had been two owners prior. Add to that the lazy regulations of West Virginia in general that required Freedom Industries, which is the

new name of the thing, to only have an industrial stormwater permit and nothing else. They were supposed to test rain runoff once a quarter and then send the results to the Department of Environmental Protection. This did not require an examination of the stainless steel storage tanks that held 40,000 gallons of, oh boy, here's the long word, methylcyclohexamethanol, also known as MCHM, which is a colorless oil that smells vaguely of licorice. Information on this chemical was lacking and so was inspection of its storage containers. The MCHM was used as a substitute for diesel fuel that had previously been used until air

regulations required greater filtration and or storage regulations. When this spill occurred, I believe it was January of 2014, there were contradictory affirmations of what had happened at the authority and regulatory levels, which meant that more seeped into the groundwater from a one-inch hole in the storage container. And by the end of the day, the governor and the president both took steps to provide assistance. But this disaster had such an impact that the hospitals in and around Charleston, West Virginia had to ration water, schools had to close in eight different counties,

and the legislature of West Virginia began investigating the loopholes that allowed freedom industries to delay reporting the leak to anyone. And that's how 2014 started. Fuck. The following month, the Ebola virus hit hard in West Africa, seizing the imaginations of the world.

And that was right ahead of the Sochi Olympics. So in rapid succession, you have a chemical spill that shows the neglect of state and local governments in America, the outbreak of an epidemic that shows the risk at which the world is for a horrible disease, and Russia putting on an Olympics that is incredibly hostile to LGBTQ rights. And this would actually lead right into the annexation of Crimea, so that's awful, and importantly, the press seemed to cow to Putin and praising Russia to avoid politicizing their Olympic coverage, choosing instead to side with the oppressors.

Yep. Additional to that, we saw the removal of the Russia-friendly president ukraine by ukraine's parliament and they replaced him with uh, Turchanov turch turch Nianoff or torchanov sure. Okay. The vote in parliament was 328 to zero Oh shit with 122 members absent Unanimous but effectively a unanimous vote. Yeah, um. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's the final piece of that. From January through the end of February, there were 108 protesters and 13 police killed in these uprisings. Of course, this led to counterrevolutionary protests by pro-Russian forces, which started the Donbass War in southern and eastern Ukraine, which enabled Russia to then annex Crimea right after the Olympics and a bunch of the news cycle was taken up with this violence and awfulness Then you get to April of 2014 and Obama authorized economic sanctions against companies and oligarchs who were close to Putin And while this was going on Boko Haram made itself known by abducting a school for a little girls and women 276 in total and then also killing 310 people in a night attack

in two different towns. I remember that. Yeah, so that's all going on in the world that makes people think, you know what we need? Bunny wars. And then Netflix, remember, gets involved eventually, right? Because from March through May, Cliven Bundy, a dipshit cattle rancher who constantly grazed his cattle

on federal lands despite clear regulations that required him to pay over a million dollars in grazing fees for those lands, challenged the federal government in a way that makes Ed apologetic. Sorry, apoplectic apple yes, how do you stopped having like the twitchy I Yeah, perfect Yeah, I I got to find something in in

nerd dumb Mm-hmm to tie to the Bundy's I Think we just have it here, but yes, did you well? I mean I mean you want more directly Yeah, I want I want something more directly just just so I can spend Call it two hours Ranting about a bunch of absolute Entitled fuckwits that entire family

Or yeah, no, I think like analyzing Dallas I'll take a look but like yeah, yeah, I I spent Okay, so so we're still in 14, right? Yeah I mean if yeah, so so that's that's the one where I that's the point where the name Cliven Bundy or any of his dipshit sons Would just would just make me You know shake my head and be like what is

asshole make me you know shake my head and be like what is this asshole it was it was later I wonder was it 16 or was it 17 when they actually wound up you know trying to take over a government installation because they had the whole we're gonna get home we're gonna get there. So, Bundy sent letters titled, quote, Range War Emergency Notice and Demand for Protection, end quote, to county, state, and federal officials in Nevada. He claimed to be a sovereign citizen, asking the White Mountain Militia and the Praetorian Guard and the fucking oath keepers to come

to his aid. His son then went to Bunkerville Town advisory board, claiming that sovereignty over these lands doesn't belong to the federal government, which would be fine if he followed that up by showing which indigenous peoples had natural right to those lands. But instead, he claimed, quote, if they're going to be out in the hills stealing our property, we will put measures up, we will put measures of defense. Yeah.

Yeah, it takes a special kind of ignorant to be a follower of the solve sit movement like like you you have to be a special kind of dumb like I Because it takes an intelligence to fool yourself into believing that yeah yeah, it is it is a a weird

relative of conspiracy theory That that you know if and and and what it boils down to and the part that always gets me is you know when you'll see these videos of And the part that always gets me is you know when you'll see these videos of Sovcet people like getting pulled over for a speeding ticket or some shit. It's almost always that yeah You know it's it's all it's always some petty I am little I am the person who is named this thing and it's like oh shut the fuck off for God's sake You know your own fucking name then this isn't like this isn't you know?

Philosophy 101 you don't get to start trying to talk about the fucking cave like no being a cunt yeah That's good. I like you But like and they and they and they repeat the magic words, right? The thing is it's like they think that there's somehow this magical legal loophole at which point No, the highway patrol are gonna go. Oh, no you broke the code and you can't take you in Oh, you ordered animal fries. Okay, like you know like No dip shits. Yeah, we have a society and you're violating the rules of that society and there are consequences when you fucking do that be a grown-up and

like Yeah So yeah, um, yeah the mention of the mention of the Bundy's is just Fucking exhausting. So yeah Well Bundy in early April gathered a bunch of armed folks and private militia which what the fuck From all over the us to come and join him in a peaceful and armed protest Of the bureau of land management's removal of his cattle from grazing lands for which he did not pay Now april 10th through 12th saw an escalation in confrontations with the federal and state officials

Bundy stated to a crowd on April 12th in escalating reference to the director of the Bureau of Land Management, quote, we definitely don't recognize jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power, or policing power in any way. We're about ready to take the country over with force. Armed protesters then blocked Interstate 15. Now, oddly, this was praised by many pundits, which is weird because they normally don't like when roads get blocked. Richard Mack, the former sheriff in Arizona, advised that they put women at the front of the line of the protesters in case any rogue federal officers got trigger happy.

Now, before you go off on that, in all fairness, federal officers have had a bad history of overreacting in very violent ways with protesters. Yes. Anyhow, protesters then trained their rifles on federal snipers and rangers. Las Vegas police deputies and police were there and not allowed to wear protective gear for fear of provoking Bundy's

protesters Which is weird given how police around the country patrol poor neighborhoods But Reuters reported yeah if if if the Bundy's had been the Martinez's Mm-hmm if if the Bundy's had been black mm-hmm. Oh, yeah No, the story surrounding this would have been a thousand percent different. Yep. They would have gotten zero sympathy from anybody in the media Yeah And yeah, yeah

Yeah mmm Reuters reported that the protesters were armed, ready and willing to shoot federal agents down. The Bureau of Land Management officials backed down and avoided the violence. Glenn Beck platformed Bundy and so did Sean Hannity. Bundy claimed that his further demands for the federal agents to disarm and destroy entrance stations to the federal grazing lands where you're supposed to pay your fee After the fact came to him in a revelation from God. Oh

Yeah, no the he Especially went completely off the deep end You know Mormon Mormon prophet. I am gonna point out though, that this is not the first time God got involved with land disputes, so that kinda tracks. Well, yes. So, and then when all of this was done,

then Bundy made hella racist statements, and his supporters stayed in the area to bully and intimidate as best they could. Once supporter, a militia leader, and leader of the three percenters said to Harry Reid, quote, don't poke the Wolverine with a sharp stick, Harry, unless you want your balls ripped off. Yeah. Now that was April.

Now in May of 2014, because you remember, Netflix or BBC One announced in June, in May of 2014, terrorists detonated multiple bombs in the city of Joss, which is Nigeria's sixth largest city. So it would be like Nigeria's version of like New Orleans. Yeah. Killing more than 118 people. Nigeria was having an awful spring largely due to Boko Haram and that same month Thailand saw a coup by the Thai Royal Army and in June ISIS started its first major offensive into Iraq, leading them to kill 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets

at Camp Speaker near Tikrit, which is Saddam Hussein's hometown. Now, in June, two of the people who were in Nevada to support Bundy and his efforts shot and killed two Las Vegas police officers eating in a diner and then covered their bodies with a Gadsden flag, a swastika, and a note that said quote, this is the beginning of the revolution. Yeah. Interestingly, when this was all over, the police actually claimed that the swastika wasn't because the couple were white supremacists. It was because they were saying that the police were Nazis So that's cool the couple no one No

Number one. I don't fucking buy that Yeah, it is how they fell over themselves to say that though. Yeah, I know that's bullshit I don't I don't carry a Nazi flag to make statements that the police are being Nazis. That's not yeah No, that's that's that's garbage. What that is is that somebody in the sheriff's office? Who had neo-nazi sympathies and tried to spin that that yes? No, that's let's just use it. Yeah Yeah, fuck that yeah anyway yes. No, that's let's just use it. Yeah. Yeah, fuck that. Yeah. Anyway, sorry carry on That's okay the couple killed one civilian with a concealed Glock who'd confronted the husband but didn't realize that the wife was in on it when they

all when the husband and wife ran from the diner to a Walmart and tried to take the store over when the police confronted them a shootout commenced and Ultimately, there's there was a lot of stacking up of barriers and shit in Walmart, but ultimately, the police shot the husband in the chest, the wife shot her husband multiple times to ensure that he was dead, and then shot herself in the head. She died at the hospital. Among their effects was found a lot more ammo, some knives knives and several writings that they'd made about starting revolution and Because history copy of the Turner Diaries. I don't remember that I'm just because of course there was right

Yeah, now because history rhymes July saw Hamas kidnap and kill three Israeli teenagers Which then Israel used as justification to launch missiles into the Gaza Strip, followed by a ground offensive, which ultimately killed 2,251 Palestinians, of whom 65% were civilians. Now that's a keywording to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The Israeli government claimed it was 2,125 with only 56% civilians. I'm ignoring a lot of background. Only? Yeah. Only? Yeah. That's a majority. Yes. And 9% less. That's like... But the thing is, if you just like fuzz it and do that, you know a little thing then like people will get tired and disengage Which is the point? Yeah, I know but so fuck

Now I'm ignoring a lot of background because this is a podcast episode about bunnies The big issue going on in the UK going into 2014 was Scotland There was going to be a referendum on Scottish independence. Right. Independence leaving shit behind because of feckless leadership. And in June the US weighed in on it with a very tepid statement supporting both sides. It wouldn't happen as a referendum vote until September, where after a lot of begging from the Labour and Liberal parties Scotland stayed,

although a closer look reveals that Glasgow wanted the fuck out of there So like every every Glaswegian representative was like no we're going we're leaving fuck this Yeah, in fact that's like the majority of the no votes came from that area Yeah, anyway the through line for these first six months of 2014 shares that all of these stories share is that the world is an increasingly dangerous place and you don't know where the danger is going to come from and governments are not up to the task of preventing the dangers, only responding to it and often fecklessly and haplessly after much death. In short, the trusted institutions are inadequate to the task and it feels like the world is

unraveling in 2014. That's when the idea of running this series came into the BBC. Yeah. By the time the series released in 2018, the world was a much different place. I'll confine this to the US and the UK, but Jesus Christ, what a fucking year 2018 was. The year started out with a tiny-handed circus peanut fascist mushroom cock coward of a man who was also our 45th president threatening on Twitter the head of the North Korean government that his nuclear button was quote much bigger and quote more powerful. It's a shame that nobody more qualified would run against him in 2016 who could have warned us about this temperament.

Yeah. Yeah. Such a shame. That was January 3rd of 2018. The next week he'd called a bunch of country shithole countries. And this is probably the most benign thing that he would do that year. Because 10 days later, Hawaii's emergency management agency sent a false alarm that warned people

of an incoming ballistic missile. 10 days after the cotton candy headed, Adderall addicted, spray tanning, business ruining, diaper shitting, Fox News junker in chief threatened to use his button. You had a lot of fun with that didn't you yeah? I can tell the catharsis did not want to name him. Yeah, what else did you do? I understand? The month of January ended with a government shutdown

February Saw the Parkland shootings February Saw the Parkland shootings Killing 17 children and staff now luckily after that we finally got our shit together and made sure that no civilian would ever need access to an AR-15 ever again You know, so there's that I hate when you do that Because that should be the answer.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. The SRO, the whole job of an SRO was after COVID or after Columbine was to prevent shootings. Yeah. Instead they started getting used to like abuse children and search for drugs. Well, the SRO stayed outside of the building while the shooting went on. Now I understand that because it's scary but I'm also not trained to stop the very thing that he wasn't going to intervene on. You aren't

trained. You haven't sworn an oath. There's that. You don't have a bulletproof vest and a gun, which you've been carrying for however long your job has been on that campus, right? Strictly for the purpose of dealing with that specific situation So on a strictly human level, yes I can understand not wanting to go into the building but motherfucker that is literally what you signed up to do That's why you're being paid a salary. Now, he was later found not guilty on all 11 charges of neglect, culpable negligence, and perjury. The president, for his part, called for arming 20% of all teachers because, quote, highly trained gun adept teachers and coaches would solve this

problem instantly. Fuck that guy. This was also the shooting that led to the Republican state representatives district secretary, fucksick Benjamin Kelly, to accuse David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, now known as ex-Gonzalez, and the rest of their classmates of being crisis actors because it's really hard to believe that we keep letting this shit happen. YouTube dragged its feet on removing the bad faith bullshit videos immediately made afterwards and Jack Kingston, formerly a Republican representative in the house, said that the students were actors paid by George Soros or maybe Antifa. Russia used this to keep sowing division. One year after that, by the way, just to kind of put a

button on that, Marjorie Taylor Greene, trying to secure her place in the hottest parts of hell, heckled David Hogg as he was walking to the Capitol building that she'd later give tours So that's February of 2018. In March, the Stormy Daniels story broke and the president accepted an invite to North Korea, legitimizing the North Korean regime, thinking it was a victory. And the opioid epidemic was actually admitted by the DHHS to be way worse than we thought. Oh, and also Cambridge Analytica's story continued to grow, leading to Zuckerberg admitting that in April that 87 million Americans data had been compromised. But it's that Chinese company that's the real danger. We ignored another school shooting in May 2018, largely because of how many stars and celebrities were getting accused of sexual assault at the time.

And then in June of 2018, Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade both committed suicide, drawing attention to mental health crises, but not so we'd do anything about them, of course. Also, the Janus case was finally decided, taking away some of the most, some of the possible power of unions, because we're all a family here. In July, taking away some of the possible power of unions because we're all a family here. In July, our president first praised Putin for being Putin, but then said he held Putin personally responsible for interference in the 2016 election. The only thing I can say here is sometimes

a bottom will snap at their top. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of Northern California The only thing I can say here is sometimes a bottom will snap at their top. So meanwhile, a whole bunch of Northern California caught fire and would burn through into August. In October, there was another mass shooting that occurred this time at the tree of life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a body count of 11. In November, California caught fire again in the North and in the South. And the whole autumn saw multiple people residing from Trump's cabinet. In the UK, during the same timeline, in January, the Conservatives rejected a labor amendment to keep the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the European Union, signaling the start of the sentiment that would then later become Brexit. And about two weeks later, the

government leaked a paper that showed an analysis pointing to all the damage to the UK economy that Brexit would do. Imagine if they went through with that. Like, yeah, it would be, oh yeah, how crazy would that be? Now in February of 2018, anti-cyclone Harmot,, cool name, brought such a cold wave to Britain and Ireland that the army was called in to help stranded motorists. The thawing of these huge ice and snowstorms would then lead to flooding in southwest and northeast England, and at the end of March, there would be another freeze.

In March, the Kremlin also poisoned a former double agent in Salisbury. He and his daughter and the policeman who first attended to them were all brought into hospital in critical condition, and they would remain that way for about a month because it's a fucking brutal nerve agent. And a Russian exile was also found dead in his London home about a week later.

Yeah, tying up loose ends. In May, Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy and in June of 2018, Tommy Robinson led a 15,000 person rally of far-righters in, if I recall correctly, London. A few weeks later, anti-Brexit protesters would march in the hundreds of thousands. So fuck you, Tommy. They marched again a few days later protest against the government cuts to NHS because Yeah, well, it's it's like in the United States, you don't campaign against Social Security.

Right. In the UK, you don't campaign against the NHS. Well, you can do his campaign for privatization because that leads to more choice. Right, fuck that. Now, Boris Johnson resigned in July of 2018 from his post as foreign secretary. I assume it's because he didn't wanna be around all those foreigners.

Also, so that he could resume pissing into the tent, in August, he starts railing against Muslim women in the Daily Telegraph. In September, they recorded that in addition to all the cold waves earlier that year, that the summer had been the hottest one on record. And then in December, about 10 days before the series about bunnies, Theresa May won a vote of no confidence. But the fact that the Conservative Party had one was kind of telling. So looking at the year that the four part series about bunnies having no faith in their

government striking out on their own and then really running into the troubles that they ran into with the efferifah and how oppressive they were, it feels like there was maybe a message here, an allegory if you will. Maybe a little bit. Yeah, could be. Despite the series being written 40 plus years earlier, it's certainly disheartening that the message that people took from the original movie not only repeated, but got so much darker and meaner. And yet, looking at how Hazel and his band succeeded and found peace, one can't help but feel that Tom Bidwell's writing and Noe Murrow's directing were both infused by an optimism that was defiant in his refusal

to be tamped down in 2018. Tired, sure, low-key most definitely, but still it was there and I think that that holds true about the 2018 version far more crucially than the 1978 version did. The 1978 version was still in some part an escape from the drudgery of the late 1970s. But it didn't feel overly optimistic. It was resigned and grindy. It valued fortitude and endurance and cleverness above all.

So basically Bigwig and Hazel. And at the end, life is better, but it's not particularly infused with hope for the future, just an acceptance of the piece that they've earned away from those who would harm them and oppress them. And that makes sense. In many ways that's how Richard Adams would finish out his life happily and quiet and successful. In the 2018 version, Adams had died two years earlier so you no longer have a subconscious cultural urge in the writing or the animation toward that parallel. And it was definitely different world in the middle of an awful awful time at that time So a much more climactic and clad cataclysmic fight for freedom for your escapism and then a fantastic Best possible piece that could happen

Because fantasy in the middle of the awful. Yeah Makes sense and then you can die knowing that your fight won. Yeah. Which is what I'd wished for John Lewis. Mmm. Yes. So say we all. Anyway.

Yeah. That's bunnies. You know, I had expected that I would I would want to have beers Over the course of this when you said watershed town. Yeah, I didn't I didn't and I did Want to but not for the reasons that I had initially expected so Way to go there. Thanks throwing throwing me and throw me a curveball there Wow yeah

Yeah, what I find What I find interesting mm-hmm is The The word that comes to mind is insidiousness Hmm. I don't know if that's entirely apt, but it's the one that comes to mind the insidiousness of nostalgia Yeah that you know this this film in 2018, the series gets made, and there is no way of escaping

the urge to lionize the first one, you know, face of the new one. Yeah, this this knee-jerk kind of well, you know, it's new so it sucks you know and like I'm a practicing Catholic. So I know something about well, it's new so it sucks like that's that's That's not betrayed. That's that's a that's a core part of Catholic culture like, you know as I was going through the process of My my catechumenate joining the church was when the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, with input from the Vatican, if I'm remembering it correctly, called for a changing of the wording of several important parts of the mass. And I wasn't even fully

Catholic yet. And I looked at it and I was like, well, it sucks. The old way was better. It was like, you're not even part of the you know, looking back at myself, I kind of want to be like, you're not even part of the church yet, dude, slow your roll. Like, David Spade talked about that once when people are like, you're not even part of the church yet, dude. Slow your roll. Like, you're- David Spade talked about that once, when people are like, you're on Saturday Night Live. And he's like, you know, it was when he was on it. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, I'm on it. And my favorite thing is like talking about bands

that I don't know anything about when they're on. It's like, you know, oh, I hear Dinosaur Jr. is gonna be on. Yeah, man, but they like, they totally sold out from what they used to be, you know? And it's just like That I'm in the end. Yeah, no, I'm not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah But you know

The the way that reviews Approached it. Mm-hmm. You know, like you said there wasn't a single one that didn't somehow invoke You know, like you said there wasn't a single one that didn't somehow Invoke Yeah, the the 1978 one which I mean number one. That's a testament to the power of that one. Absolutely So, I mean there's that but by the same token it's like, you know uh give Give creators a little bit of breathing room. Yeah Cut them some slack for god's sake

um Yeah Cut them some slack for God's sake And And you know that kind of twins with The the power of that nostalgia to push creators to stick with Well, you know, we're reimagining Batman for the you know, 175th time Or you know, we're gonna we're gonna do another movie in this universe, you know, we're gonna do another Marvel film We're gonna you know do some more Star Wars or Star Trek or whatever and

Like that's great. Like more Star Wars is a good thing Oh, yeah, like, you know and more Marvel movies like sign me up. I will I will totally go see them But by the same token that takes all the air out of the room and prevents new worlds and new yes the creation of new myths yes, and like you have to find a balance somewhere. And relying on our collective nostalgia for properties that we already know. Yep. Is is eventually a self defeating strategy. You know, not not just just financially but like as a culture Do you know the the origin of the term nostalgia?

No, it's a sickness that soldiers would feel about home In the front line that they wrote about ancient Greece. Yeah, I had I had not thought about Pain something pain, lost algae. Longing. It's a longing for home, literally. But it's an illness. It grips soldiers and it's something you have to fight against and guard against. Wow. Yeah. So yes. And when the nostalgia is, I really want the drooling bloody bunnies instead of like... How fucked is society? Yeah. But that that's a better time. Like, fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Definitely says something. Because that was still escapism. That still like my god what beautiful animation and yeah And oh, I remember reading that book my kids will like the movie, you know, yeah and now it's like It's all commentary. It's not even a gory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So wow Well, cool. Obviously, that's what you've gleaned Any further or do you want to tell us what to read or take?

I'm going to make a recommendation for something to consume. OK. So a while back, I told you and our listeners about Macross. Yes. And as part of talking about Robotech, I talked about Macross and yes, and as part of talking about Robotech and talked about Macross and I spent a certain amount of time Engaging in a Macross fan pastime of saying fuck Harmony gold right?

Because of the the rights fights they got into over over those properties well fights they got into over over those properties well if you have access to Hulu if you have a subscription to Disney Plus Hulu comes with it the series that I was complaining about not being able to see who have become Oh Have become available now. Oh fantastic and Today I actually started watching Macross zero Which is a prequel? to the original Macross film Macross do you remember love and It's it is now a couple of decades old

It's it is now a couple of decades old And and it is it is amazing. I was I was I was I loved it the The fight choreography is great the story Even though it is a prequel the story manages to be just as hard-hitting about the ugliness and the horror of war as

the original Macross film was nice The animation is is solid the film was controversial amongst the fandom when it came out Controversial amongst the fandom when it came out Because it's the first series that used a blending of hand-drawn and computerized animation so all of the Mecha are

Computer animated right and when they did that there were a lot of fans that were like it's new. This is new it sucks But it's it's I you know now I've seen enough other stuff that has followed that same trend so now I'm looking at this and it's not new to me and it works and and yeah it's it's awesome highly recommended if you're able to get Hulu, go in and find Macross Zero. I'm probably gonna go on to recommend Macross Seven and altogether all the other series after it. But it is now available and I am giddy, positively giddy about it, so I'm recommending that. How about you?

I'm gonna recommend Strongmen, Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Kiat GH I AT It is what it says on the tin I think it's important to study these things I think it's important to remind ourselves of these things and to kind of pull what Patterns we can from observing these things. And since Wundwort was never heard from again, that doesn't mean his spirit disappeared. No.

So democracy has within it the capacity to create fascism every generation. So it's good to know what to look for so you can, you know, it's kind of like what are some signs of weeds? Okay, when you see those signs start tending your garden So, you know, how can I tell if a cat scratch has gotten infected? Yeah Let's have a way to stop that before it becomes blood poisoning and sepsis. Yeah, so yeah, anyway strongmen Mussolini to the present by Ruth Ben-Giott So I get where can we be found?

We collectively can be found as always on our website at what about what about what about geek history time calm? and on there you will find our 300 plus episode archive And the other places we can be found are on the Apple podcast app on the Amazon podcast app and on Spotify Wherever it is that you do find us wherever you have found us to be listening to us right now Please take the time to subscribe and give us the five-star review that you know we deserve Beyond that sir, where can you be found? review that you know we deserve. Beyond that, sir, where can you be found?

You can find me the first Friday of every month at the Comedy Spot in Sacramento with my crew, Capital Punishment, 9pm. I strongly recommend you get your tickets in advance because we sell out all the time. If you do not live locally in Sacramento, that's fine too. You can look it up online. Again, same place that you bought the tickets. Just scroll down a little bit. You can find the electronic ticket

and you can watch it from the comfort of your own home. Whichever way you do it, I do strongly recommend you come out to a show though, cause we got merch. But whichever way you do it, make sure you enjoy it and help us to spin that wheel. So first Friday of every month, 9 p.m. at the Comedy Spot, capital punishment.

Very cool. Yeah, well for A Geek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.