Bennu Kenobi - Watership Down
In light of recent events, I’ve been thinking about Watership Down. And for the longest time
I’ve had the mental image of Bennu standing in front of the past!Jedi
Council, being interrogated on how she and/or her mother survived a Jedi
Purge.
And Bennu laughs - but there is nothing humorous in her voice as she hurls the quote at them. “‘All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies!’” Her voice is a storm, her words are knives of pain-that-never-happened, death and heartbreak and terror. “’And wherever they catch you, they will kill you. But first – ‘” Her eyes gleam in something like satisfaction. “But first, they much /catch/ you.’”
And there is triumph in her voice now, and a victory like the rising sun. “’Digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning! Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed’.”
And the moment passes, and Bennu is – simply a woman again. A young woman, in a worn robe – and a smile twitches at the corner of her mouth. Wry. A little self-depreciating, filled with a gentle amusement – it’s Obi-Wan Kenobi’s smile on her face, and Bennu has never looked more like her mother then in that one moment. “Mother told me the story when I was little.” She shrugs. “And that’s what she taught me to do.”
