What's your favorite warren and why?

[Darkling Nocturnal]

Well, especially in the series, we have pretty much warrens to like.

But what is your favorite warren? And why? Come and participate at the poll 

My favorite warren is... well... that's not so easy as it seems 

I would say, my favorite warren is Cowslips Warren

Everything is false within it. A warren, built on lies. And in the series, there's a creepy atmosphere, when Fiver begins to feel uneasy.

In Efrafa, we know that there is danger. In Darkhaven, we know, that there is danger. But Cowslips warren is devious and insidious. And the hazard is ubiquitous.

Buttercups Warren: 1 (4.5%)   
Cowslips Warren: 4 (18.2%)   
Darkhaven: 2 (9.1%)   
Efrafa: 3 (13.6%)   
Redstone: 2 (9.1%)   
Sandleford: 1 (4.5%)   
Watership Down: 9 (40.9%)   
Total Votes: 22

[Capt. Rake Nightfur]

I'm looking at this in a very Bigwig-ish way here, and I'm afraid that I've twisted the question a bit,

I'd pick Watership Down. It is the most easily defended from attack, being able to see anything that is coming towards you, and for a great distance as well, being so high, which leads me to my next point, the hill, any enemy would have to climb up the down before getting to the warren, and the defenders would be fighting with from above, giving them an advantage. There is a reason for the expression, "fighting an uphill battle".

Secondly, it is a very livable place, there is plenty of food, clean air, and has a great view I'm sure. The only weakness I can think of would be the tunnel to Efrafa in the series, but we saw the way it was defended and it would be able to be held by less defenders than there are attackers if they stay in the bottleneck.

I give the following reasons as to why the others are not as easy to defend and/or are not hospitable to live in (Note that I am not necessarily taking into account the rabbits that live there and their ability to fight):

In Buttercup's Warren they have the maze, but that's about it, we saw that a fox eventually found it's way in, and any elil with a sense of smell could follow the trail that is most taken by the rabbits there. It is livable enough though, and the humans are around and they are good to the rabbits so I would say that this is a close second.

Cowslip's Warren is snared everywhere, but if the attacking party did any forward scouting, they would know this and would stick to the open areas, away from them. Once they were past the snares, the entrance is easy enough to find. The general ambiance steers me away from the place though, creepy and full of death and fear, "like trees in November".

Darkhaven is a bit odd, it seems to have only one entrance, and would be defended well enough but living there is a hazard, as seen when Granite gets hit by the falling rock, and the dynamite going off nearby. In addition to that, it is just a dump and I don't see why anyone would want to live there.

Efrafa in the book is a very well-placed warren, easy to see approaching enemies and the lack of connecting tunnels means that if one were to be taken, the others would not be. So it would be a good choice to defend, but not to live, thanks to the system under which it is run.
In the series, it is just a bad idea; a low-lying area, surrounded by trees and bushes, allowing no sight outside to where enemies might be, and a giant dead tree that screams, "Here I am!"

Redstone would be my third choice, it is nice to be sure, and it was not in too much danger, until the road crew came through and destroyed everything. I really don't have much to say about it other than it was shown to have been overrun quickly, but that was when there was no one there other than Captain Broom.

Sandleford is the place that makes the most sense for a warren to be, when looking at it realistically, an open field with food and space. It was a very normal warren, where not much happened (until the men came), but the Owsla seemed a bit rough with the rest of the population.

So there, Watership Down as my first choice, Buttercup's as my second, Redstone third, Sandelford fourth, and the last three tied for least likable/livable.

Wow that was long!

[Myrkin]

I think I would prefer to live on Watership Down (not surprising, I know). They have a good view, nice competent leadership and easy access to food (although you need to go farm, if you want to eat something special). From there you can see approaching predators long before they will be within attack distance, so it's pretty safe up there on the top of the hill even when you graze on the surface. It's like being inside the warren, but you know, outside.* Also, from time to time there is some crisis to solve, so you don't need to worry about dying from boredom.

Living in other warrens also has some advantages. For example, in Efrafa they have powerful Owsla, which scares most (if not all) elils away, while in Buttercup's Warren they always have something to eat no matter how cold it gets during a winter. Still, Watership Down is probably the best option for most rabbits.



*Do you see what I did there?

[Darkling Nocturnal]

OK, I have to say, that my favorite warren isn't imperative the warren, I want to live.

From this stance, it's of course Watership Down.

But even when they haven't the best life quality, there are more interesting warren in WSD (like Cowslips Warren or Efrafa).

[Myrkin]

True. With Efrafa and Cowslip's Warren one can write some really interesting/dramatic stories.

[Mallow]

I would want to live in Watership Down because of its strategic and beautiful landscape and its rabbits. The loyalty of its rabbits stems from a primal feeling to care for the whole warren which is unlike other warrens where loyalty is forced through fear, political intrigue, or an owsla regime. In this way, Watership Down is ideal for any rabbit who wants to stay a rabbit.

That being said, my favorite warren is the one filled with refugees: Redstone Warren. For its short life, the warren was confronted by many challenges at once where other warrens experience them only occasionally. This warren is my favorite because it displayed the resilience of weak rabbits to morbid situations.

[Darkling Nocturnal]

When I think so, then Redstone is a really interesting warren in the series.

First, it gets abandoned. Then, it's repeopled by rabbits, who lived their live in fear and danger. They could only avert an attack of Woundwort with the help of Captain Broom (and a good portion of luck). Now, they have to manage their live in freedom, but the warren is stricken by men and elil. Nevertheless, they stand their ground. But then, the warren is overtaken by mad Woundwort and finally gets destroyed.

So, it's the only warren in the series, that is abandoned, repeopled, nearly destroyed by Woundwort, subjected by him and finally destroyed by men.

No other warren has such dramatic changes in the series (OK, Darkhaven changed from a normal warren to a junk yard, populated with babarians).



Buttercups warren is also an interesting place, given the fact, that it lies nearby men in a maze.

[Hawkbit]

Cowslip's Warren is creepy, but in a sense, I see it as the warren that people aspire to live in.  Hear me out on this one.  Its safe, you have the best food around, you have lots of time to be creative and mope about.  This is what people want--a paradise of sorts where you don't have to necessarily worry day to day about the basics...working too hard, not enough food.  The only challenge is the same we face anytime we do anything risky--don't die.  I'd say that's pretty much the ideal life.

[Hyzenthlay69]

I was going to say WSD which would be the obvious choice, but I thought about what would have happened if the Sandleford wasn't destroyed, and I picked that one because well, it was a pretty peaceful nice place. Cowslip's Warren...God no. That place gave me the creeps in the movie and the book.

[Acacia Heartstrings]

This is easy. Watership Down. For all the good reasons in the world.

[Lazy Lapine]

I quite like the culture in The Warren of Snares. It's where I would probably end up as an academic rabbit.

[Hyzenthlay69]

I quite like the culture in The Warren of Snares. It's where I would probably end up as an academic rabbit.

Cowslip's warren you mean? You'd have to be sure to avoid the snares

[Leo-rah]

I got to admit, I really thought some time about this, just to get back to my first impression: Efrafa.

I just love the scenery. It's one of the most secure warrens of course, with one impressive Owsla. It has a dark and dangerous atmosphere, with kind of 'monsters' lurking around every corner, characters that may wasn't mentioned in the media, being very fascinating on closer examination.

If you can fight, and won't have regrets to kill, I'm pretty sure you can live an easy life there. Having a target, like joining the Owsla first, and becoming an Owslafa or member of the council even later. Something like a real career ladder.

Yes, Watership Down might be the very perfect place, if you look closer at it. But I can't help myself. A place like that, would be too boring for me!  
Just like Myrkin already mentioned, it's a very dramatic place aswell, so more than enough subject matter for very interesting stories.

So yeah, I'd like to choose that as my warren, getting to know all the different rabbits living  there, from the Owsla, to the scared slave, maybe a revolitionist, who'd like to throw up the whole system, and any further.

[Chipster-roo]

This is actually a hard question for me.  It all depends on the way the warrens are analyzed.  If you want to know what warren I would want to live in, it would probably be Watership Down, but s warren is nice too.

But the fact is that Watership Down seems like a boring place.  Nothing exciting happens there.  When there isn't a war going on, anyway.  But the fact remains that during times of peace, it would probably be boring.  So what would be the most exciting warren?

s warren is interesting, being in a maze and all, but really, apart from that it seems ordinary.  Maybe it isn't.  Maybe it is very exciting, but since it doesn't appear in more than two episodes, we don't really have a chance to find out.

Sandleford warren is unusual.  In the series, it's never seen, only mentionned, so you really have no idea what it is like.  In the book and film, it seems like the average warren, with its share of elil and everything, not particularely safe nor particularely dangerous.  It has nothing special about it.

Efrafa?  The book and series versions of the warren seem very different from each other (the film version seems like that of the book with less details).  In the book, it is well hidden and very overcrowded, with the marks and a very competent owsla.  It may be a nice place to live in if you don't care about the dictatorship.  It can be rather exciting if you're in the owsla, with all the wide patrols.

In the series, it's this great big hole with a big dead tree.  Not very well hidden, is it?  Also, it doesn't seem to be very overcrowded, as and have a large burrow to themselves.  The owsla doesn't seem as competent as in the book.  Also, as pointed out in Kidnapped (?), the rabbits are not healthy and if disease breaks out, they will all die.  Not really a nice place to live.  But all this  contributes to the atmosphere, which is much more mysterious and scary than in the book.

s warren is quite a warren, with their shapes and singing and greetings and .  It is also probably the most dangerous warren of them all.  In Darkhaven, sure you may be forced to fight for your life, but at least you have a chance.  Here, once you're trapped in the wire, you will die a long and painful death since nobody around will want to dig out the peg.  But the atmosphere is really creepy in all three adaptations.  So yeah, it has a lot of potential.

Speaking of Darkhaven, it's really unusual.  It doesn't even seem to be a warren, strictly speaking.  There are no underground holes or tunnels, as far as I know.  Why rabbits ever repopulated this place, I have no idea.  While it only gets introduced very late into the series, it is extremely important in these few episodes.  It also seems like a very "exciting" place with all the fighting, the conveyor belt and all the other human machines.  But this excitement comes at high price.  It's not really a place where I would want to live.

Redstone seems to have a habit of getting destroyed, first by the great sickness that kills everyone except , then by the humans.  It also would have had a third destruction, by the elil if hadn't arrived, and a fourth time, by again in The Stand.  But there doesn't seem to be anything really special about it.  It's just a bunch of rocks that aren't even red until season 3.  The first time it is seen in The Vision, it's in very bad shape.  In The Roundabout, it gets cleaned up but remains uninhabited.  In The Stand, the rabbits arrive there to stay, but that's not the most important part of the episode.  In s Way, it seem pleasently boring.  I've already talked about season 3.

Finally, I guess maybe the poll should also include Vleflain.  It's the half-Watership, half-Efrafan warren that gets established in TFWD.  Unfortunately, I haven't read TFWD, so I can't comment on it.

All right.  Let's simplify all this.  Watership Down is where I would want to live, Darkhaven and Efrafa-book are the most exciting, Efrafa-series is the most mysterious, the warren of the shining wires has the most potential and the maze warren is underused.  Sorry about the wall of text.

[Claws]

I would love to live on Buttercup's Warren for reasons that I'm not even sure of. I think that that place just suits me better.

That or Efrafa, where I could be as mean as I want and being rewarded -rather than punished, which would be the case elsewhere- for it.