bonefall

[bonefall]

Wow you posted this right as I was reading all abt dishonor titles

Anyway gonna ask now else I will forget again, if you wanted the cats to have like notebooks/sketchbooks,what's the closest thing to use because idk if you think the kitty cats invented ways to make paper

In BB, the cats haven't advanced quite enough to be creating books, but they actually create parchment!

Parchment is essentially super fine, light leather. There's also vellum, made of calf skin, and slunk, made of fetal skin, which are even finer and higher quality.

(I wish I could say which of these that mouse skins would result in, but I have yet to find any record of people even trying to make it out of mouse pelts. So I'm just calling it parchment, until someone, someday, somehow, can confirm if mouse skin is as fine as vellum or slunk.)

As a carnivorous society, they have a LOT of small animal carcasses, and the Kitchen Patrol's job is to make sure every bit of prey is processed... so, every animal is skinned, even if it's just for practice. Hence the abundance of leather.

Interestingly, Clan cats don't really have a "purpose" for parchment. It's just something they make out of prey that was skinned improperly, or which has a skin that's too damaged to make a good pelt. Scraps that would have gone to waste anyway.

Making parchment is especially popular in ShadowClan as a sort of "arts and crafts" thing for kits and apprentices. It requires a chemical bath made out of fermented scraps to soak the skins for a while, so it's essentially a way to introduce children to the ShadowClan Art of never wasting anything.

The Clans will eventually be creating some basic "art" in the near future, and might have a few permanent drawings in personal collections right now, but currently parchment is considered a "plaything." Mostly just used to make crafts, or fold up herbs, or draw on, etc.

(Clan version of kids making slime for funsies)

So if you want to zip ahead and make sketchbooks, make them out of parchment! Another good thing about it is that it can be washed and re-used-- so once your Warrior owns one, there's no stress about constantly making new pages.

(Funfact: you know how some books have straps or weights as decorations? That's a leftover from parchment binding. Parchment "breathes," reacting to moisture, so those decorations were initially made to keep the book pressed flat. They were kept in the switch to paper simply because they look cool.)

[bonefall]

"How big should a Clan territory be?"

For the dozens of people who have asked this over the last couple of years!

This question comes in a lot of forms; "How big are the Clan territories?" "How much space does one Clan need?" "How much land should I give my Clans to exist in?" The answer is a bit complicated, and depends on the type of land, what you're going for exactly, the setting, so on.

But, broadly, there's TWO particular factors at play here; How anthropomorphic you're portraying your warriors, and how productive the land is.

Factor 1: The Anthro Scale

I'm starting with this one because it could you the simpler answer. The Erins write Clan cats like humans in cat bodies, with massive social units and communal living. Realistic feral cats don't act like Clan cats. They are only semi-social, due to domestication.

See, a Clan cat will "share" territory between all of its members, and some Clans have canonically hit populations of over 50 individuals. Real feral colonies consist of "overlapping circles" of somewhere between 2 - 15 cats, most of them related females.

This is relevant because, even in densely populated areas with as much food as they can eat, truly feral colonies will have about 2 cats per 5 acres, capping out at about 15 members. Queens will hang out together and raise their kittens communally, but they will hunt and patrol in their own "circle." These boundaries are violently enforced against outside cats, especially if it's too crowded.

(Toms have circles 5x as big as a queen's, overlapping several territories. They're also considerably less social.)

So, if you wanted to incorporate some cat behavior into your Clan's mindset about how big their territory should be, while still being willing to sacrifice a bit of "realism" for groups over 15-ish members, simply take Clan population and multiply it by 2.5 acres.

30 cats = 75 acres. That's a little under 57 football fields, if you're American, or 50 football fields, if you're European.

Extra reading: How realistic cat territories work. Contains the numbers I'm referencing.

It's also very important to know; feral cat density is completely tied to food availability, the big numbers numbers are for cats whose needs are met. Cats are solitary hunters, and when they feel like they have to work for their food, they become VERY territorial. The density of cats in rural areas can be as low as 1 molly per 15 acres, even lower for toms, and they will leave if hunting is not easy.

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT FEED FERAL CATS. Please GOD they are SO invasive, please do not give colonies food, they still hunt when they're full so you just end up concentrating a ton of predators in one place. They are not warriors with a law against disrespecting food, they are just kitty cats with silly kitty instincts

I have a suspicion that most of the people who are asking the question aren't really looking for a "realistic cat" answer, though. We LOVE our big cat Clans with their complicated politics around here. You're probably wondering how much land you need to feed your population!

Factor 2: Land Productivity

The exact amount of space is going to vary a lot, because it's more about productivity of the land to sustain a prey population than it is raw size. Remember what we learned back in Warrior Bites: Dietary Needs; a 30-cat Clan will need approximately 3 pounds of meat (10,500 calories) per day, which is about 2 rabbits, or 105 mice.

Here's some visual examples of what I mean. This one (1) acre homestead...

Has 20 patches of high-value crops, plus an orchard, AND livestock pens. This territory alone could attract enough crows, mice, rats, rabbits, and sparrows to feed all those cats daily. That's not even counting the humans themselves, who may be friendly enough to the colony to toss them kibble occasionally.

(this is why cats domesticated themselves. Even without the free food from the humans, farms are extremely productive hunting grounds.)

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Mall, which is a whopping five (5) acres...

Would be utterly barren. Best food you're going to get out of this wasteland is the leftovers humans toss out, and maybe the rats and pigeons that scavenge as well. It's 5x the space, and yet, infinitely harder to feed the same amount of cats.

So, the most helpful bit of advice I'm gonna give you is this; DON'T ask yourself "how big should this territory be?" You're starting with the wrong question. Start with a real location, and think about how you'd find 3 pounds of meat a day in that area.

It will be a LOT easier to think about the logistics in those terms, and this will lead you to the waaay more productive (and fun) worldbuilding questions. Such as;

"Where would the good hunting spots be?"

"What kinds of animals would they be eating? What sorts of beasts can threaten them, here?"

"How many of these animals would my 30 cat Clan need to hunt a day to equal about 3 pounds?"

"Where would these animals be getting THEIR food?"

"Is there enough habitat in the area for the prey to breed and nest? If not, is there more land beyond the territory that the prey is coming from?"

"Where would infrastructure like dens, walls, and dirtplaces go? What would these be made of?"

"Are there any neat spots for the cats to casually hang out on?"

"What would make for a super cool arena for my climactic narrative boss fights?"

"Does this area have unique stage hazards that my cats would have to learn to deal with?"

"Which sorts of plants and herbs would they encounter?"

If your Clan is tool-using, like BB!Clans are, then you can ask even more advanced questions. Like, where you'd find kindle for fire, what objects you can use as crafting materials, and what might make for unique trade goods.

Think about other things related to your Clan's biome-- in a tundra or desert, there will be less for prey to eat, so the territory will be large to cope with the low density. If there's a major body of water, they might have a constant supply of aquatic prey from upstream. Hunting grounds might change based on the seasons.

Also remember not to underestimate how fast small animals breed, and how many of them there can be in one area. Even using low estimates, 1 female mouse has 6 pups, 7 x 6 = 42, 42 x 6 = 252, 252 x 6 = 1,452. It takes only 4 months for mouse population growth to get exponentially ridiculous.

Finally, remember that prey can vary. A well run Clan would be able to generally understand when they've been overhunting one particular species, and start shifting gears to lift the "pressure" off that population.

(In my cultural expansions series, this management task is assigned to one of the new roles-- the Head of Hunting.)

[bonefall]

the. the ukraine windclan thing?

me in my therapist's office as his eyes dart anxiously between me and the clock, if im being honest

[bonefall]

speaking of the erins, you hear kate cary is stepping down?

I did! Honestly, I'll have to be real with you, I have no strong feelings about it.

While I've criticized certain statements of hers in the past (that bit about Tom the Wifebeater was a doozy), I don't know her personally. I also don't even know how much control she had, functionally. I don't feel like I have enough information to have a well-based opinion, here.

What sticks out most to be is the fact that... well, with Kate and Vicky gone, only Cherith remains and we've lost any small window we did have into the writing process.

It's been a long time since we'd just get casual information drops on places like Facebook or authorial chats, but with this, it feels like that era truly is dead. We will never again get another Su Susann's Missing Kits drop, or a letter to a fan that tosses up a name like "Skunkpaw," or the writers sharing their good and bad takes. Or anything else like that.

Dgmw it's understandable, and I can guess why that era ended (probably the Spottedleaf's Heart controversy, and the ukraine windclan thing). WC is charted by an unknown collective team, now, who generally keeps their anonymity well-guarded. It's probably for the best.

So... on the subject of Kate Cary stepping down, I thank her for the work she's done and hope her future pursuits are fulfilling! Without her, WC might not be here today. For all the yowling and growling I do, I wouldn't be putting so much effort into my various projects if I didn't profoundly love the series she helped to form.

[bonefall]

I swear the next time you turn your back on the erins there going to find a new way to make the family tree worse somehow ... That or drag the tribe back into the plot

Every time I turn my back, Moonpaw Discourse happens, so I must never turn my back ever again. We're on lockdown on Bonefall.tumblr.co.uk

[bonefall]

Unrelated to the new book blurb:

do you have any tips on processing the absolute mess that is the family tree? Like, how does one put it into smaller bites for re-doing/adjusting? How does one even begin to rework it when it's such a confusing tangle?? I'm just so overwhelmed by the tree(s), and I've read the whole series (because I would love to re-work it, but FUCK).

I will be 100% earnest with you; reworking the tree from scratch as a single person is both difficult and time consuming. I have a penchant for it, and even I'm not completely done. I make my reduxed trees totally free to use so that others at least have a jumping-off point for your own "cleaner" Clans.

So my most helpful tip would probably be Don't. PLEASE take my trees and cut them, prune them, bonsai them, clean them up even more than I did, anything you'd like. I do not wish this fate on my worst enemy.

That said-- let's say you love pain as much as I do, or you just want to see how much work I put into these trees. I'll babble about my process.

This is my WIP file for the ShadowClan Family Tree. Consider this image a content warning for self-inflicted pain and suffering 💕

Uhhh and also; an ACTUAL, serious content warning. Because of the nature of them asking how to fix trees on their own, I have to talk a little about incest. It comes with the territory.

A few things to know before you start;

You will need a FUCK OFF MASSIVE monitor for this. Mine is an ASUS a little under 2 feet long-- I've tried doing this on my smaller, secondary monitor, and these trees just get too big to work on.

FamilyEcho will not cut it. You NEED an art program. You will have to do this by hand, because there is no lineage-drawing tool that can handle families this large and tangled.

You will need to decide your "rules" beforehand. How closely related are you allowing valid couples to be? Are you allowing Queen's Rights? Can you add OCs, and if so, how often? On this point-- I have my Three Strict Rules, and do not use OCs. Because of this, I do a LOT of research beforehand and usually have the wiki open as I work on these. I'm always scouring for forgotten warriors to use for this.

There are going to be multiple drafts. You will not do this in one go. That does not mean you "failed" or you're "stuck," that's a good thing.

With all of that out of the way.

Usually, the first thing I do is pick a Clan to work on. There's over 1,000 cats in this series, so I break that up by picking one group at a time. Once I do that, I draw out the canon chart.

In this case, I've already drawn out all of the canon charts. River, Thunder, Shadow, Sky, Wind.

I call this a Diagnosis because I'm taking a look at what the problem is, so that I know what I'm fixing. In Shadow's case, it's a solid brick of inbreeding with a "missing generation" line. In ThunderClan's case, it's mostly a Robinwing x Fuzzypelt problem. Each Clan has its own unique issues.

Once you know the issue, step two, start drawing out what you want to do and keep. For example, let's say that you want to use the Ivy/Dove as Holly/Cinder kittens idea.

I generally try to start with the "modern" cats and work backwards, but it can also be helpful to just doodle out floating "branches" that you want to work in backwards.

You can see examples of those in my ShadowClan draft, up there, but I've zoomed in and circled them.

Don't be afraid to draw "notes" like this. You can just grab them and drag them around when something clicks!

Getting back to our "example" tree with Holly/Cinder Ivy/Dove, you might notice now that Lionblaze has no mate. Another thing I do when I see an immediate problem but don't have a solution in mind yet is use a little ? mark. You don't want to get hung up on deciding everything RIGHT away.

Now, this is where my 3 Strict Rules would come into play, in two ways! I'm sure you'll be able to spot them. For one, Lionblaze has waaaaay too many kids here who would go on to have kittens of their own, so I'd start breaking them up. For two, this tree makes Ivypool and Fernsong a first cousin pairing, something I don't allow.

You can fix this in any number of ways, and I'm sure there's someone out there shouting their preferred Lionblaze ships and Alt Fernsong Parents like they're the crowd on a game show, but for this demonstration I'm going to do this;

Here, I decided I didn't want to undo FernIvy, but I still want Fernsong to be Clanborn with two parents, so I have removed him from Lionblaze and given him unknown family. I've also taken Sorrelstripe and Spotfur, and moved them to a little spot on the side. I can now use them to patch up the little ? placeholders.

You'll also notice this is already becoming a mess. This is why you will need to redraw this a few times, for readability. The best tip I can give you for that is that families who only have one kit to carry on the lineage should go in a long line in the center, but otherwise, offspring who do not have kits should go between their siblings who do.

It's easier to visualize it imo, so here's what I mean;

The vast majority of the time I spend doing these is just "puzzlework." Trying to figure out a way to make line connections look good, making sure cats are far enough apart, trying to make "wishlist" stuff work.

Here's some insight to that with the big ShadowClan mess I showed at the beginning of this post;

And, mind you, this is Draft 3 of this tree. Those grayed-out parts of the first image were my first two. I wasn't satisfied enough with them, so I started from scratch several times!

I wish I could share some kind of good, simple process for this, but unfortunately I don't have one. It's just a lot of work, familiarity, creativity, and problem solving. I spend days, sometimes even weeks on these. My intention is that they can be a fandom resource that's easier to read than the website tree, less carelessly inbred with more thought given to immediate family units, AND more comprehensive.

In any case, I hope this was insightful, or these tips I share helped in some way!

[bonefall]

Hijacking this particular post to jump into the "Spottedleaf Retcon" conversation happening on the dash right now, because I want every word I add to be prefaced by This.

While Firepaw essentially had a crush on Spottedleaf from the first minute he sees her, I do think the mutual return of those feelings was a "retcon" in some way. It's one of these two things;

The writer didn't initially have them in mind when first having Spottedleaf interact with him, but added them after she had already died during the course of TPB.

The writer had them in mind all along, but didn't properly set them up in Book 1 during Spottedleaf's brief life, and so was made to add them later.

She dies in the first book to provide an emotional loss for Firepaw, so that he and you as a reader have a personal connection to the dead cats of StarClan. Her absence then provides a "place" for Yellowfang as the new medcat of ThunderClan, and her presence as a ghost guides the main character through the story's supernatural elements.

This was her role as a character, her purpose as a narrative element.

(and, personally, it's why im obsessed with her in my personal fanwork. characters who spend more time in the narrative dead rather than alive make me go feral.)

Misogyny in media isn't typically entirely black and white, "bad" and "good" writing, The Right Choice for the story and the Wrong Choice for the story, they're simply connected. The poem Matsuda wrote is uninterested in the quality-- maybe that "plot twist" did pay off. Maybe that was the "very best idea" anyone could think of. At the end of the day, the boy is brimming with life and the girl is dead and it isn't shocking because we've seen this many times before.

Misogyny is mostly about trends.

In WC, important women characters are always given a story involving romance and/or children. Even Hollyleaf, Ivypool, and Twigbranch ended up with male love interests, in spite of their "main" plot being non-romantic-- no matter how nonsensical, sudden, lacking in chemistry, or pointless (fallen leaves) that choice was.

Erin Hunter (as a collection of writers, both pre and post Vicky) are obsessed with women as romantic interests.

So Canon!Spottedleaf, to me, is another great example of that.

She dies and the way they think is optimal for you to miss her is as dead possible love interest. They're not interested in the fact she was groomed by Thistleclaw (if they even realized it before the backlash), or that there's something grim in her seeing a teenager the way her predator once saw her. The irony of her life ending bloody in spite of her running to the role to escape violence isn't even on their radar.

A woman character who dies early in the series and becomes a spiritual guide to the POV... and what the writers find the most fascinating about this concept is how stupid and idiotic she is for loving the wrong men.

Not only is she nothing but a vessel for mutual pining, they disrespect her for it.

So... unlike some others in my orbit, I can understand "the hate" as annoyance with the constant romance that gets dragged onto the screen when she, as a character, is present. They're narrative tools, after all, not real people.

But man, when I think about Canon!Spotty I just get really sad. I can't get angry at her, just the generally misogynistic writing of the series.

for as much as i dislike spottedleaf, it's hard to hate her. she's a plot device designed to revolve around multiple male characters, she's firestar's dead crush, starclan guide, his lover who interferes in his love life, jayfeather's starclan guide. the narrative is so uninterested in her as a character beyond pretty medcat who died young. even her own novella was later said to be more to serve as a set up for how she'll pad after "the wrong men" again and again. the authors are just deeply uninterested in her outside of being a plot device for romance.

[bonefall]

I haven’t read these books in years WHAT is the angel fetuses. What is happening

LMAO yeah there's actually been three instances where Warrior Cats made fetuses into StarClan characters. We're joking about Moonpaw's absorbed fetus twin (Starpaw/The Voice) meeting with Clear Sky's first dead wife's unborn kids.

The first time they did this was in the last book of DOTC, on Gray Wing's deathbed. Bright Stream, last seen in early pregnancy and being carried off by eagles to be gruesomely eaten alive, shows up accompanied by Tiger Tail and Pale Sky. Her embryos.

Because they show up in this big fanservicey montauge of all DOTC's fridged wives happily living as eternal mothers in StarClan, I sardonically call them the Dead Angel Fetus Children.

(It's dark humor to cope with how much the concept freaks me out)

And with Moonpaw, I have to explain how fusion chimerism works.

There are a few types of chimeras, but when a single individual is created from the combination of two fully fertilized zygotes, that is called fusion chimerism. That's what Moonpaw is.

And you have to understand, we're talking zygotes as in cells. The fusion of haploid gametes. NOT embryos (developing major organs) or fetuses (has major organs). When multiple embryos or fetuses are detected during pregnancy, but one vanishes, that is called Vanishing Twin syndrome (VTS).

There is actually very little linkage between VTS and the chance of a baby being born with fusion chimerism. At best it's an overstated link. At worst, it is a general misconception of Vanishing Twin syndrome.

Fusion Chimeras can happen in a lot of different ways, most of them fertilization errors, very few of them involving the multiple embryos of VTS. Likewise, the vast majority of VTS cases do not result in fusion chimeras. I explained Chimerism in-depth over in this post, and I encourage you to follow my citations to learn more if you're interested.

Sooooo... we're not even talking fetuses for Starpaw and Moonpaw. If they ever were separate, it would have been as embryos at best.

Which means that Moonpaw is haunted by cells that hadn't even developed major organs.

Ergo, we're joking around about how peculiar it is that Supernatural Utero Ghosts have happened thrice.

[bonefall]

Do you think Bright Stream's angel fetus children are gonna hang out with Moonpaw's angel fetus headmate. Eternal fetus club

They're gonna play this together. They're gonna get little snacks and gather around StarClan's smallest TV (it is 2 blastocytes long)

[bonefall]

It would make much more sense if Float was in the same age range as Frost and her siblings, Float (apprentice age now) could be taken hostage by Splashtail because shes friends with frost. Also brings characterization to at least one Frost sibling

That's a good point. It would make a LOT more sense than Splashtail suddenly holding his siblings hostage just because he's evil.

Especially if Floatpaw was the first (and possibly only) of her family to try and make a statement against her brother's leadership. Have it play into Splashstar's paranoia spiral, make him feel like his own family's betraying him.

Liking it. I'll probably shuffle Trout, Rapid, and Float to be older-- have their apprenticeships overlap with the Curlkits'.

[bonefall]

moon and her headmate :3 im fond of the name starpaw for her!

based on my own experiences w some of my headmates

Let! Her! Front! She's gonna do a fortnite dance with absolutely no explaination, then let Moonpaw go right back to zoning out.

[bonefall]

Since we're talking about Moonpaw (My new favorite Girlie) I personally decided to name her Sunpaw, mostly because it's a nice parallel to Moonpaw and I love matching names between siblings

I also LOVE matching names and themes. If it wasn't for the fact there's another Sunkit in ThunderClan, I would be a Sunpaw stan too.

Thematically, I think Eclipsepaw is dramatic and fascinating, so if I can dare to hope for a canon name it would be that. But my second fav is Starpaw, if only because we probably never will get that prefix in any other way.

Plus, Moon and Star have a nice cozy nighttime vibe. Not contrasting duality-- but siblings, on the same level.

Not to mention, if Starpaw gets some kinda connection to StarClan as an in-between, the name's extra fitting. If we must do absorbed twin stuff, they can at LEAST have the symbolism pop off lmao

[bonefall]

my system has had to help a very loud.. very aggressive alter.. well, calm down. he’s still very loud, but he just enjoys screaming!! he’s learned to be less mean to headmates/herself/others!! i honestly think it would be interesting if instead of them.. like.. eradicating the “evil voice”(????) they just!! yaknow!! talk!!!! communication between headmates is very important!! it’s how we make sure things run smoothly and get someone out of front if they can’t handle it!!! moonpaw and voice friendship..

Daring to hope that maybe we can see something like this play out. It would be fresh and interesting for this arc to feature a lot of self-reflection and communication-- in fact, I feel like that was missing from the last one. A lack of Sunbeam or Nightheart actually introspecting about their issues, neither identifying nor truly working through them, just progressing as characters when the plot needed them to.

I'm loving the story of Moonie that's being "woven" by systems coming into the inbox. Most pwDID seem to agree that conflict between Headpaw/Starpaw and Moonpaw isn't the problematic part, it's the "villainization" of the voice. The "vibe" is the desire to see Headpaw/Starpaw being treated as a person within the narrative, not just as a malicious "entity."

Even without this being about representation (tho that is still important), isn't that just... refreshing?

Aren't we tired of Evil Spirit influencing the cats to do bad stuff, while Good Spirit influences them to do good stuff? Do we really need another Ashfur so soon? Wouldn't it be nice if there was some narrative, textual nuance to the situation for once?

[bonefall]

There's speculation that Floatshimmer's kits are Graysky's, since one of the kits are silver like him, you know, the dude that was made a warrior when she was a kit.

To be fair, Graysky is ridiculously young as well. He might have been described as being ready to be a warrior at the start of ASC, but he was born in Lost Stars and is only a little over a year old at the end of the last arc.

EVERYONE got hit with the Time Travel Beam... in fact. Funfact: RiverClan actually has always had a weird issue with their allegiance cats aging really fast.

Anyway, digressing. If it does pan out to have Graysky as the father...

Eventually I like the idea of Floatshimmer and Graysky being a couple (their names make me think of bright sunshine on a cloudy day, making the waves of the lake twinkle with light), but absolutely not while they're so young. Both of them need at least another year or so.

(At the earliest, have their kits mid-arc, ideally later.)

That said, I'm still willing to shuffle them both a bit to be closer in age. I'm growing interested in the idea that they're like, the cat equivalent of 18 and 19-ish. Young, dumb, impulsive, ended up with kittens looong before they were ready and it's impacting their relationship negatively.

Still deciding, though.

[bonefall]

Sibling headpaw's warrior name -> headfriend

Names that are silly that I'm fond of;

Headpaw/Headtail (headass fetus twin infodumping flightrising lore while im tryna pass our warrior assessment)

Babblepaw/Babbleface (bc she wont shut up)

Moon2paw/Moon2moon

The PS5

Names that are legit that I'm fond of;

Nearpaw (closer side of the moon)

Eclipsepaw (MANIFESTING)

Starpaw (canonize the prefix erins. do it.)

[bonefall]

This you? 😅😂 Couldn’t help but make a meme.

It seems like every time something happens in the books/fandom, everyone migrates over to here. Sad that it’s Moonpaw again. Girlie’s been put through the wringer by the Erins and fans alike, and it shows some real nasty views of our day to day lives.

I look forward to how you problem solve this one 🫡

I swear this is the dynamic now LMAOO

*Slaps the roof of the Moonpaw* This bad boy can fit so much fandom drama in it!

[bonefall]

With the discussion and the mention of the voice being described as 'sinister' I don't think this is the case anymore, but reading the chapter with Moonpaw in it after reading the prolouge made me guess that starclan actually intentionally made Moonpaw fuse with her sibling so the sibling could be a guide and companion to Moonpaw.

It's still leaning into the problematic nature of portraying the fusion of two embryos as one 'killing' the other but the idea is that bc they're fused in she's kinda in this inbetween-worlds state where she can relay info from starclan to moonpaw like a messenger or a gaurdian angel, and that their conflict with eachother would be more akin to normal sibling conflict.

"You're annoying I hate you!"

"Well I hate you too!" *gives moonpaw the mental image of her crossing her arms and turning her back to her*

"... sorry"

*still giving her the silent treatment*

"seriously???"

See, that's cute. That's ideal, imo. Like you said, it still leans into the problem of implying Vanishing Twin Syndrome/Fusion Chimerism is akin to one sibling "killing" the other, but I think this kind of dynamic would have enough love and complexity to soften that.

It's usually not about eliminating all problematic aspects, that's impossible-- just being aware of them, addressing them when necessary.

After all, that's why BB's goal is generally to "address," not "eliminate." (Within my personal comfort and ability ofc, see the content warnings)

From what I've seen of the Chimerism/Vanishing Twin critique, what seems to be requested in representation is positive portrayals, not total elimination. Duality as a point of love and pride, guiding each other.

Fusion Chimeras are rare though-- and usually identified because of visible intersex traits at birth, so I'm also gonna be looking over at the intersex community to see what they're looking for in portrayals too.

And, from what I'm seeing from the pwDID in my inbox, audience, and around the fandom, what they're usually looking for is complexity in alter/headmate characters. Not "evil voices," but fleshed-out personalities, especially when those headmates have a "purpose" in the function of the system.

(Like, for example, an alter who is loud and abrasive to stand up to threats and protect the rest of the system. Or one who is very caring, good at resolving conflict and making the system feel comfortable. Personalities which were formed for a reason.)

Not necessarily always benevolent-- sometimes you do have to deal with a bad headmate, or adjust the behavior of an alter. Like a roommate you have to evict or have a meeting with. Complexity. Not just vague entities.

All that to say, Sibling Headpaw sounds like it would be the best way foward. I hope this is what we get in canon 🙏