But it didn’t rain. Christopher Robin had made a long table out of some long pieces of wood, and they all sat around it. Christopher Robin sat at one end, and Pooh sat at the other, and between them on one side were Owl and Eeyore and Piglet, and between them on the other side were Rabbit, and Roo and Kanga. And all Rabbit’s friends and relations spread themselves about on the grass, and waited hopefully in case anybody spoke to them, or dropped anything, or asked them the time.
#Rabbit's friends and relations
In a little while they were all ready at the top of the Forest, and the Expotition started. First came Christopher Robin and Rabbit, then Piglet and Pooh; then Kanga, with Roo in her pocket, and Owl; then Eeyore; and, at the end, in a long line, all Rabbit’s friends-and-relations.
“I didn’t ask them,” explained Rabbit carelessly. “They just came. They always do. They can march at the end, after Eeyore.”
“What I say,” said Eeyore, “is that it’s unsettling. I didn’t want to come on this Expo—what Pooh said. I only came to oblige. But here I am; and if I am the end of the Expo—what we’re talking about —then let me be the end. But if, every time I want to sit down for a little rest, I have to brush away half a dozen of Rabbit’s smaller friends-and-relations first, then this isn’t an Expo—whatever it is—at all, it’s simply a Confused Noise. That’s what I say.”
And Christopher Robin and Rabbit and all Rabbit’s friends and relations went head-over-heels backwards . . . and on the top of them came Winnie-the-Pooh—free!
So, with a nod of thanks to his friends, he went on with his walk through the forest, humming proudly to himself. But, Christopher Robin looked after him lovingly, and said to himself, “Silly old Bear!”
So for a week Christopher Robin read that sort of book at the North end of Pooh, and Rabbit hung his washing on the South end . . . and in between Bear felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer. And at the end of the week Christopher Robin said, “Now!”
So he took hold of Pooh’s front paws and Rabbit took hold of Christopher Robin, and all Rabbit’s friends and relations took hold of Rabbit, and they all pulled together. . . .
And for a long time Pooh only said “Ow!” . . .
And “Oh!” . . .
And then, all of a sudden, he said “Pop!” just as if a cork were coming out of a bottle.
Chapter 2 of Winnie-the-Pooh is a problem but we're almost free of it. But I want to focus on "Rabbit's friends and relations", the unnamed Winnie-the-Pooh extras who show up when a crowd scene is needed. The drawing of friends and relations continues onto the next page, not posted yet on the Pooh account, so here they are.
Who are they? Is Piglet one of them or does this one just look like Piglet? I want to know more about the hedgehog, and the bugs that are definitely helping.
Why is Rabbit the character who has a posse? Do these friends actually like him? Does he have a personality cult around him despite being such an asshole? Do these friends see a different side of him than we see via his passive-aggressive fake friendship with Pooh?
It does fill in the world more than the default that you'd expect, which is "everyone in the story is friends with Christopher Robin and Pooh and nobody else in the woods exists in a way that matters"