#StarClan is inconsistent in a lot of ways

[tearwolfe]

I'll borrow a warrior cats book from the library and see how it is before buying a book.. shivers in fear, i did not know that..

yeah for sure do not buy them. there's also a bunch of free PDFs online you can read!! or check them out through libby or whatever online library service your local library uses if you don't mind reading from your phone.

gonna use this chance to highlight issues with warriors under the cut!! because i've spent so much time being with this series i have a lot of thoughts. i want to let you know i am not trying to cancel warriors or anything, there's just a lot of issues and i like talking about it.

CW: misogyny, pedophilia, ablism, racism

Okay, we're going to start with the more annoying aspects. First of all, Warriors is written by a ton of different people. They have the main writers outline the plot, and there's a bunch of other people that fill in all the empty space. Kind of an interesting way to do it, but that's why Warriors is able to publish several books a year. Erin Hunter is just a penname for a group.

INCONSISTENCIES

Why do I bring this up, what's the issue? The inconsistencies, dude. There's so many. Character appearances change between books. Dovewing's eye color changes frequently, for example, to the point where there was an internet war about how she would be represented on the Warriors Wiki. Another example is Mapleshade, a cat that's been prevalent as a villain since Crookedstar's Promise. In that book, she's referred to as a ginger-and-white she-cat, but after that she's been described as a calico (er, tortishelle-and-white, because Erin Hunter is somehow allergic to the word calico). Appearances aren't the only inconsistency. Character personalities are a big issue. After the first arc especially, characters will lose what charm they had in their personalities. Suddenly Spottedleaf is in love with Fireheart/star after she dies, suddenly Yellowfang is unwelcoming towards cats who find themselves breaking the Warrior Code (despite being a codebreaker herself and having compassion toward other cats while she was alive). The authors also seem to have trouble keeping track of characters. On one page Sandstorm leaves camp to go on patrol, and a paragraph later she is seen STILL in camp, talking to someone, despite having been written to leave camp. It's a very bizarre series to read. (Other inconsistencies include miswriting names [Ravepaw incident], using the wrong pronouns, and entirely confusing cats between each other). Heavystep also died a few times because the Erins forgot that he died.

MISOGYNY

Outside of poor writing, we're hit with misogyny. Main female characters, in POV, are written at least a little bit better than any of the other she-cats. However, as soon as the next arc starts and she's put out of the limelight, the authors have to give her a mate, give her kits, and make her a mother. There is only ONE POV she-cat I can think of that didn't die and never had kits. Twigbranch is literally the only one. This isn't a dig at being a mother at all, however whenever the Erins DO make a former main character a mother, that's the only trait they give them. Rarely do these she-cats continue to carry the personalities they were given initially.

It's not even a secret that the fandom dislikes when every she-cat is boiled down to being just a babymaker. The Erins literally killed off a she-cat because the fans didn't like the fact that her only personality trait was mom. Yes, this actually did happen.

There's lots of victim-blaming misogyny with whatever is going on between Squirrelflight and Bramblestar and between Leafpool and StarClan. Bramblestar will literally say the worst things to Squirrelflight and the narrative makes it seem like he's in the right. It's not wrong to display unhealthy relationships in media, but if you're writing a KID'S SERIES, it's extremely irresponsible to constantly write the victim as being wrong. This applies to how StarClan blames Leafpool for everything that's happened to her, despite the fact that Crowfeather was also a part of the equation.

Don't even get me started about Spottedleaf's Heart. In summary, Spottedleaf was groomed by Thisteclaw from when she was a kit (and he was a Warrior), and the narrative only makes Thistleclaw a bad guy because he was training in the Dark Forest, not because he is a predator.

ABLEISM

It's absolutely crazy how ableist this series is. In arc one, we have Brightpaw, an apprentice who gets mauled by dogs, and as Bluestar watched, as what she thought was going to be her death bed, she decided to give her her warrior name- a name that she would be stuck with in StarClan. She chose "Lostface." Brightpaw would eventually recover, loosing one of her eyes in the attack, and would live with being called Lostface until Firestar was able to rename her (to Brightheart). The whole renaming thing feels gross enough, but Brightheart is probably the best case scenario of ableism in Warriors, as she was allowed to function as a regular Warrior in the clan. Cinderpelt wasn't so lucky. She was a Warrior apprentice who got hit by a car, mangling her leg. She was then forced to become a Medicine Cat because she "couldn't hunt or fight" (despite the fact that real world cats are able to function completely normally while missing a limb). Longtail lost his vision in a fight with rabbits and he was retired early to the elder's den, despite wanting to be a Warrior. Jayfeather was blind, so he was made a Medicine Cat despite wanting to be a Warrior. Briarlight was paralyzed, so she was put in the Medicine Cat den most of the time despite wanting to be a Warrior. This is a very common theme in the series. Any cat who isn't fully able-bodied is often made to be a Medicine Cat or an Elder, even if that's not what they want. Literally every single Medicine Cat in ThunderClan since Spottedleaf through to Alderheart never wanted to be a Medicine Cat.

Being a Medicine Cat isn't supposed to be a bad role, but the way Warriors uses it as a cop-out to make disabled cats have a more "plot interesting" role without allowing them to be a Warrior is really weird.

ANTI-INDIGENOUS WRITING

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, however, many Indigenous readers have brought up a lot of issues the series has in terms of being culturally insensitive to native tribes. There's a well-written document that explains this in full detail.

IT'S KIND OF JUST BAD?

The writing isn't good. This goes back to the multi-writer issue. These people can't keep track of their characters or plot, so a lot of things just sort of fall flat. The best plotlines can be found in some of the novellas and graphic novels, and then I think it's because they're mostly written by one person.

How come StarClan can be so vague to living cats, but when we get POV in StarClan, they just act like normal cats? How come Ashfur randomly was super powerful in the Dark Forest/StarClan, while every other cat wasn't? There's just a lot of unexplained stuff, it's very weird.

Warriors is a very interesting series because it's pretty bad yet the fandom is huge. I definitely recommend watching Warriors Multi-Animator-Projects, reading fancomics, and fix-it fanfics instead of actually reading the books. The fans are so, so talented, it's crazy how a never-ending series of children's cat books has created such an insane fanbase.

[mothdapple]

Why I'm a Froststar Truther

(Spoilers for all currently released A Starless Clan books below.)

I wanted to lay out all the evidence for why I believe that Frostpaw will end up the leader of RiverClan by the end of ASC. I’ve formatted my arguments into their own points below! But, for the sake of a fair discussion, first I think I want to start with the reasons against Frostpaw.

Reasons Against:

1. She’s too young/inexperienced.

Honestly, I think this is the strongest point against Frostpaw ending up as leader. The books have told us that Frostpaw and her siblings are now considered to be warrior aged (despite timeline inconsistencies,) but Frostpaw is still a young cat. In TBC, Bristlefrost was also considered “too young” to be deputy by many characters in the story. 

However, what I will say in Frostpaw’s defense here, is though she is young, she is not inexperienced. Her journey to the Park and back and time in exile from RiverClan has given her a lot of experience that many of her Clanmates lack. And, although she is young, she has also gained the respect of many other Clans/their leaders due to her bravery with spying on Splashtail and helping WindClan during the storm. It is also not unprecedented for a young cat to become deputy/leader. (Look no farther than Firestar— a cat who ASC brings up frequently… almost as if the writers are trying to make a point about something? See my point 2 in reasons in favor below.)

2. Frostpaw wants to be a medicine cat.

I’m honestly not sure if this is even true (I elaborate in my reasons in favor of Frostpaw below.) In fact, I’d argue that if we compare Frostpaw’s desire to be a medicine cat to Mothwing’s (another contender for leadership,) I think Mothwing likes being a medicine cat WAY more than Frostpaw. We know that Mothwing chose to be one after first training to be a warrior and has never faltered on that decision in the years since. Even after the difficulties Mothwing faced as a medicine cat who doesn’t believe in StarClan, she has always persisted because she loves it so much.

3. If Frostpaw becomes leader, RiverClan will be left without a medicine cat with a connection to StarClan.

I think the books hint that this is not the case (see point 4 below for more thoughts.)

Reasons in favor:

1. Frostpaw was “never meant to be a medicine cat.”

Although Frostpaw has a strong StarClan connection now, she is confirmed by the books to have “never meant to be a medicine cat.” The exact scene where this happens in the prologue of Thunder is quoted here:

“This wasn’t her destiny!” Thunderstar mewed imploringly. “She was never meant to be a medicine cat.”

“No.” Riverstar’s tail twitched. “But things have changed. If RiverClan is to survive, it needs a messenger. A powerful messenger.”

This wording here around Frostpaw being a “messenger” is ambiguous enough that it could mean that she still isn’t supposed to be a medicine cat despite her (now real) connection to StarClan. Or it could mean that her fate was changed by necessity so that she is supposed to be a medicine cat now.

I would argue that the former case is more likely than the latter because Warriors books as a whole are extremely deterministic— we have never had a confirmed case where cats have been able to escape or change their fate. All prophecy works that way in the books. For example, characters like Brokenstar and Tigerstar were declared to be murderous tyrants from their births, and there was no escaping that fate for them.

Therefore, for the internal logic of the Warriors world to remain consistent, then I think Frostpaw’s destiny still is not to be a medicine cat. (Also if they just wanted Frostpaw to be a medicine cat, why did Riverstar respond by calling her a “messenger” rather than just plainly calling her a “medicine cat?” Or “a medicine cat with a StarClan connection?”)

2. There are strong parallels between Firestar’s and Frostpaw’s stories.

The plot of ASC contains very obvious parallels to the first arc. They are both stories about a young protagonist learning the “true” ways of their Clan, uncovering treachery within their Clan, in which an evil cat wants to become leader of their Clan, (treachery which their Clanmates initially do not believe,) and then working to defeat this traitor. These two protagonists both also have strong connections to StarClan, with a StarClan guide who sends them omens and prophecies to assist them on their journey. The only difference is that Frostpaw is currently training to be a medicine cat and Firestar was a warrior. But, their paths look very much the same, and so I feel like their destinations will ultimately be the same too. 

3. Additional Foreshadowing.

If the parallels to the first arc aren’t convincing enough foreshadowing, the books contain a lot of other hints that Frostpaw’s ultimate role is as the leader. Besides what I already mentioned about Frostpaw’s fate not being that of a medicine cat, many of Frostpaw’s interactions with Riverstar point to her being his chosen for leader. 

Riverstar sends Frostpaw on a journey of self-discovery to the park in order for her to heal and learn what makes a good leader. The good leadership traits that Frostpaw learns about, she possesses herself. While at the park, Frostpaw also realizes that RiverClan needs a leader who can guide them in the old/true ways of their Clan (through meditation and the like,) but she is the only RiverClan cat who knows these “old ways.” So who else would teach RiverClan them but her?

Frostpaw is devoted to StarClan and wants to do what she perceives that they want, but she personally is not that attached to being a medicine cat, as seen by her enjoying her time training as a warrior. It’s not until Frostpaw starts to get real visions that she starts to believe that she needs to be a medicine cat (not because Riverstar told her— just because she assumes that having a connection to StarClan automatically means she needs to be medicine cat, although Firestar’s story shows that’s not the case.)

Riverstar appears to Frostpaw during Splashtail’s “leadership ceremony.” If the purpose of this scene was just for Frostpaw to prove to Puddleshine that Splashtail was evil, then Splashtail telling Podlight about all his evil plans and mocking StarClan aloud would have done that. But instead, the writers went a step further and had Riverstar appear and bow his head to Frostpaw during the “leadership ceremony," as if implying “this wasn’t meant for him, it’s meant for you.”

4. Bee is going to come back into the story.

Bee’s vision of standing on a frozen river with a lot of cats watching him is too obviously connected to RiverClan to mean nothing. With Wasp returning to the park with news about the trouble that's happening, the books have perfectly set up an opportunity for Wasp and Bee (or Bee alone) to go back to the Clans to help. Since Bee is strongly hinted to have a connection to StarClan due to his dream, I think he will become RiverClan’s medicine cat. (Thus fulfilling RiverClan's need for a medicine cat with a connection to StarClan if Frostpaw becomes leader.)

[sirenemale]

i love love loveee warrior cats analysis because it's fascinating to do deeper dives into characters and scenes, finding new ways of viewing and talking about them, and you can get some really interesting ideas out of it, but also incredibly frustrating because you see what the authors failed to deliver on for some unknown reason-my main belief is that it's a combination of needing to put out books fairly regularly and that they've realized that they can put out books riddled with spelling errors, inaccurate lore, and a rather shoddy plot and still make bank. at least you can put the things you've noticed into your own works!

Literallyyyy

There's so many angles you can consider warrior cats from and analyze the characters by because of the inconsistencies and the author teams consistent misogyny, ableism and racism ect

You can take it by the character actions overall, try to draw a through line for them that explains character shifts.

You can try to identify a point where they were a character and then became inconsistent or flanderized. But how can you do that when warrior cats will interchangeably cast its characters as Antagonistic assholes from book to book regardless of if it's inline with their personality. How do you even center a character in a series that will wholesale change the moral baseline of the world at random to suit the current plot.

And all fandom is gonna have ppl coming away with radically different takes on characters, but I think the sheer inconsistency of warrior cats makes that tenfold in a fascinating way. Especially when you add in the amv/map scene creating a secondary soft canon that people learn about the characters through.

But yeah no it's 100% the schedule, we know they don't use a series bible, we know the remaining core authors just write a skeleton and pass it back to ghost writers who don't read the previous books. I also think it just refuses to really try new things, the new books try to critique the clan structure and starclan but it's too afraid to commit to any real upheaval. They're still banking on nostalgia in a lot of ways by still centering on thunderclan, first and second arc nostalgia, and the 3 pov arc structures. I know the recent series it seemed like it'd benefit from being a pure riverclan pov for example.

It's definitely informed how I write, and what kinda topics I'm interested in. Unfortunately it takes me like 5000 years to do work on my own stories but I will immediately drop everything I was doing to write wc analysis.

[wander-wren]

one thing i’m really excited for in Three of Swords (po3 rewrite) is figuring out how to balance fanon and canon interpretations of characters. especially since i have to choose which fanon interpretations to use!

i got into warriors around what i’m unofficially dubbing the middle age, bc i like naming things, it’s fun. this coming after the golden age of the fandom, yknow, firestar doesnt like waffles and sss warrior cats and emo scourge and cringe ocs. to my eyes, the fandom culture after that was focused on improving art (better animation and art and fanfic overall, i remember a ton of guides on how to avoid common fanfic mistakes) but still had a lot of the same trappings of early fandom. especially in the opinions about characters—remember everyone hating dovewing and loving ivypool?

then in the past few years its like things have shifted. the demographic as a whole feels older now, but maybe that’s just me—i don’t know how popular wc is with the current eleven year olds. but i’ve seen a lot of “x character deserved better” and “i was wrong about y character” type sentiments (i was one of them! sorry, dovewing). some of the same topics keep being retread, but the consensus on them has changed. there’s probably an essay in there somewhere.

but back to Three of Swords. i haven’t actually reread po3 in a while (it’s on my list, lol), so all my own thoughts are also colored by nostalgia and years of fanon. i have a lot of space here to explore breezepelt, since the story will be windclan-centric, and i have to decide what to keep from canon and from fanon, as well as deciding what role i want him to play. i want to make the Three a little scarier, more powerful and more mystical, really set apart from their clanmates, but i don’t want to lose too much of their canon personalities.

even starclan could go several ways. are they malevolent, benevolent? powerful or incompetent? with crowfeather now being the three’s mother and nightcloud being present but not directly a parent, how does that change their characters? i still think crowfeather was absolutely unprepared to be a parent to breezepelt, but the circumstances are wildly different now.

and what about onestar and firestar? with the three in windclan and firestar still receiving the kin of kin prophecy, how long will it take to put together, and what does that do to clan relations? what version of onestar do i even want to write, with how inconsistent he is?

and i’ve said it before, i’ll say it again: what the hell am i supposed to do with sol? i definitely want him to play a bigger role, but i’m still throwing around ideas as to how to do that and how he ties into the larger dark forest plot.

the final thing i’m really adamant about is portraying these cats as, well, young. nightcloud, crowfeather, leafpool, and squirrelflight all started the new prophecy as apprentices. in my rewrite, by the time the Three are born they’ve only been warriors (or medicine cats) for 4-5 moons. that makes them adults for a little less than a year by the time the Three are apprenticed, which is when i’m thinking of starting Three of Swords unless i can think of something interesting to do in their kithood.

they’re very young and have had really tumultuous apprenticeships/early adulthoods, and that’s not stopping anytime soon. the Three are incredibly young, and every individual thing they deal with would be a lot, but all of it? i know the fandom view on hollyleaf specifically has been shifting from this sort of badass murder queen to the scared, confused kid making bad choices she was, and i want to write about that. and give lionblaze a character beyond “fighty man goes dark side.” and give jayfeather a character other than “grumpy snark. also is blind.”

annnnd this got away from me oops. happy anniversary. i have a love-hate relationship with po3 because it’s got SO MUCH happening but also NOTHING happening.

[morningmask27]

hoo boy, Lilydawn has some mad potential for these asks.

What would they be embarrassed to admit about themself? What would they deny about themself?

Ly would defnitely never admit fae's nosy. Courtesy of having Dovewing's canon powers of super-hearing, Lilydawn can know what everyone is up to (with some small caveats). This combined with a desperate need to over-protect faer littermates made faer become nearly a helicopter-sibling.

This and also faers naïvité. Fae wants to believe other cats and ends up doing extremely dumb things as a consequence. Ok it's also true the cats fae trusted were faer mentor and faer brother's mentor, but it kinda backfired anyway, and Lily has a bad habit of keeping on digging that grave.

Opposite to the above: What would they proudly admit, and what would they like to claim about themself?

How devoted and kind fae is. Fae cares so much about ShadowClan And faer family and will to go great lenghts for them. When Scorchpaw fled, fae spent days looking for it constantly, never resting in the hopes of catching a glimpse of it. Fae cares a lot and will never stop.

If caught in an inconsistency or a hypocrisy, how do they react? How would they go about fixing it, or alternatively, how would they go about denying and deconstructing it?

Since Lily constantly wants to be perfect, fae would feel terrible; faer actions hurt others? that's not good, fae never intended to. Fae would scramble everything up and immediately try to change. There are no second chances for fearself.

How much, and how deeply do they think about other characters' opinions that aren't about them specifically? For example if they knew one of their friends liked or disliked another person, how much thought do they give it?

Like with the previous one, Lily wants to be perfect, so if a cat fae admires dislikes a specific cat, fae'll also be wary of them. Fae doesn't have a lot of opinions of faer own when it comes to other cats, fae just likes and dislikes whoever faer closed ones do.

unless obviously a few of faer loved ones Do like a specific cat, but others' don't and it's complicated and then Lily will just flee from the problem.

Are they able to perform something 'Quick'? Do they prefer to sacrifice time over quality, or vice versa? How do they dispense effort per task?

Quick thinking is something faer does quite a few times, because fae is constantly on edge. Constantly trying to be everything at the same time and perfect at it too, so one thing that is sure is that fae would Never sacrifice perfection for faster action, unless it's a matter of time and death, and even then.

How patient are they with themself vs. Others? Why, and how so?

This cat has perfectionism issues so bad that any failures of faer part will be dealt with immediately. Fae Will Be perfect Now, or so help me StarClan fae will not stop until fae does, even if it puts faers health a bit in danger.

How seriously do they carry other people's worries? How much does this impact their actions?

Fae can't feel others' worries like that, but if fae knows another cat is worried because of something fae will try to fix it. Any problem of one of faer loved ones is also faer problem now.

What would make them focus on themself more?

no. <3. ok well, maybe if faer loved ones really stressed the fact that fae's running faerself ragged and should take care of faerself, then maybeeeee fae'll do it, for them, not for faer.

What would they Not want to change about themself? What parts of their self do they cling to, desperately? Even when those things would be already gone?

faer loyalty, and devotion. fae will still not stop being so much for others, even if it supposedly hurts faer.

How do they tread around controversial opinions? Is it case by case, or depending on company? In what way? Are they assured in their worldview or unsure? Are they open minded?

Avoid them as best fae can. You will not see a single hot-take from this cat. Fae keeps them hidden away on a place of faer head even fae can't access. Fae follows the opinions of others'. no critical thinking follows, or none that matters anyway because fae does nothing.

How easily do they relate with other characters?

fae's stuck in faers own head filled with worries and constant guesses of how things are going to happen, fae does not have time, or ever thinks about relating to other cats. Fae's got three cats to micromanage, an apprentice/warrior role to fulfill, a position as a talented member of ShadowClan to keep going. Fae just never thinks about it. When fae does it's not very good because fae struggles to understand how others' don't understand things like fae does, but in the end fae just stops thinking like that because it leads to complicated questions and even more worries.

--

this cat has problems, and this was very fun to write

Getting to know your character better

Here's some (hopefully) less basic things to think about when deepening your character.

- What would they be embarrassed to admit about themself? What would they deny about themself?

- Opposite to the above: What would they proudly admit, and what would they like to claim about themself?

- If caught in an inconsistency or a hypocrisy, how do they react? How would they go about fixing it, or alternatively, how would they go about denying and deconstructing it?

- How much, and how deeply do they think about other characters' opinions that aren't about them specifically? For example if they knew one of their friends liked or disliked another person, how much thought do they give it?

- Are they able to perform something 'Quick'? Do they prefer to sacrifice time over quality, or vice versa? How do they dispense effort per task?

- How patient are they with themself vs. Others? Why, and how so?

- How seriously do they carry other people's worries? How much does this impact their actions?

- What would make them focus on themself more?

- What would they Not want to change about themself? What parts of their self do they cling to, desperately? Even when those things would be already gone?

- Do they think of something as "Their thing", even though other people would disagree? Why so? Are they just not as open or upfront about it as they think? Or do they have gaps in self perception?

- Opposite of the above: Are there some things that others would consider "Their thing" in relation to your character, but they disagree? Why?

- How do they tread around controversial opinions? Is it case by case, or depending on company? In what way? Are they assured in their worldview or unsure? Are they open minded?

- How easily do they relate with other characters?

[fangirlsovertoomanythings]

Bluestar

Alrighty!

Favorite thing about them: She's a fairly well-written character, despite the inconsistencies in personality she has, especially after she died and became a StarClan cat. She enjoys being a good mentor, tries to be a good leader, but at the end of the day she thinks too highly of herself to realize when she's wrong or has gone astray. I also find her religious crisis a bit too relatable, but I won't get into it haha

Least favorite thing about them: Other than the personality inconsistencies after she died, there is also the fact that, when she was alive, the writers never knew what they wanted her to be. A good, selfless leader? A harsh, egocentrical leader? A caring mother, or a hardened warrior who has lost too much? It got so bad that I don't know anymore what exactly I remember her as. The woman ignored Fireheart's warnings, then instead of resigning when she felt she could no longer lead, she was irresponsible and kept her position, worsened Brightpaw's PTSD, left Fireheart practically alone, and almost went to war with WindClan for no damn reason? What the fuck Richard

Favorite line: I don't remember the exact quote, but the moment where she regains a bit of her awareness a little before she dies and screams at the dogs before attacking them and falling to the river. Not really a line, but this moment was an entire vibe

brOTP: I don't think she had anyone as close as a sibling other than actual siblings, so no

OTP: As much as Oakheart and Bluestar is canon, I prefer Bluestar and Yellowfang. They are two mothers who had given up on motherhood and watched their children grow up away from them, not to mention the fact that they are two very motherly figures to Fireheart throughout his journey. When Yellowfang shows up at the camp, if I remember correctly Bluestar starts treating her less like a prisioner and more like a guest once she discovers her identity as ShadowClan's doctor (of course, that includes political reasons aswell, but she respects her). They are also seen a lot around each other after their deaths, and their spirits often banter about prophecies and all of that. They're a couple to me, man

nOTP: I don't have any, unless someone ships her with Fireheart, in which case: NO. NO. NOOOOO

Random headcanon: I'm not sure if it's canon or not, but she's the sort of mentor that doesn't take it easy even if it'd boost your self-esteem. Even in your first fighting challenge, she's already giving her all even if you barely know any fight moves. She thinks it's fairer this way, because her apprentices will face far more experienced warriors in battle; and when her apprentices are able to immobilize her or even accidentaly hurt her during training, her praise is earned and the apprentice feels that because the woman was NOT faking her loss.

Unpopular opinion: I don't know if she deserved to go to StarClan all that much, honestly. Though I understand her reasons, her later years as leader were awful to the point where her irresponsibility forced Fireheart to break the Warrior Code to protect the clan at least on one occasion. Her irresponsibility also indirectly caused the death of Swiftpaw and the permanent injury of Brightpaw, and nothing is going to erase that fact. As much of an asshole that is Thistleclaw, he wasn't a bad mate to Snowfur and as far as Bluestar's Prophecy lore went his biggest crime was being unecessaringly violent, and that was the only POV we had until Spottedleaf's Heart came out. I don't know, man, I just don't think this woman deserved StarClan at all. If Frecklewish can go to the Dark Forest for "not grieving the right way", how the hell is this cat in Kitty Paradise?

Song I associate with them: Stand in the Rain - Superchick. The first animation/edit I saw of hers had this song, and now it's permanentely printed in my brain.

Favorite picture of them: I can't SAVE IT, but it's one in the older artstyle where she's in attack position in the middle of a bush, her big ol' eyes looking at the audience. Creechur

[seadramonster]

Why some cats aren’t in the DF

Since the beginning of the time we learned where certain cats went, a lot of people have been asking why certain cats went to StarClan or the Dark Forest. The most popular examples being; Thistleclaw (before Spottedleaf’s Heart), Ashfur, Rainflower, and Appledusk.

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that the Dark Forest is where all the bad cats go, no matter what. But that’s not what we’ve been shown in canon. Let’s take a look at all of the Dark Forest cats to see what they did that made them go to the Dark Forest and use the information to figure out why the cats people think should have gone to the Dark Forest went to StarClan instead.

NOTE: I’m only going over the cats in the Dark Forest whose crimes we know. Cats such as Houndleap, Maggottail, and such who we barely know anything about will not be discussed, since we have no idea what they did. Although we can assume it was something similar to everyone else in the Dark Forest.

Antpelt- Antpelt chose to join the Dark Forest because "These are my Clanmates more than WindClan ever was. Where else would I go?". He could have been in StarClan, but chose the Dark Forest instead.

This shows us that a cat can, if they are capable of going to StarClan, choose to go to the Dark Forest instead.

Brokenstar- Heavily broke the code by training kits too young, killing them and his own father (perhaps even others offscreen), exiling elders, and driving out another Clan

Darkstripe- Attempted to kill a kit by tricking her into eating poison, betrayed his Clan not once, but twice by leaving to join Tigerstar and then joining BloodClan immediately after.

So why is Darkstripe in the Dark Forest for being a traitor and other cats who left their Clan not? Well, aside from attempting to kill a kit, Darkstripe was never loyal to any Clan, just Tigerstar. And when Tigerstar died, instead of fighting alongside his new Clan, he instead betrayed them, too. 

Cats who leave their Clan for another usually do so with good intentions and are either loyal to their new Clan, or end up returning to their old one and are loyal to that one now that they realize it’s where they belong. Even if the decision was selfish, it was never done so to harm others. Darkstripe just wanted to be on the winning side, and once Tigerstar was gone, he had no one left he cared about except himself.

Hawkfrost- He just wanted power and wasn’t afraid to turn on his own Clan to obtain it. It’s heavily implied he struck up a deal with Mudclaw to help him take leadership from Onewhisker, he talked Ashfur into luring Firestar into the fox trap, and then tried to kill Brambleclaw when Brambleclaw refused to kill his own leader.

Mapleshade- I know a lot of people have pity for her and all, but like. She was a literal serial killer. She fell in love with a cat from another Clan, had his kits, lied to her Clan about the father of her kits by letting them believe it was the cat her mate had accidentally killed, made the stupid decision to take her kits across a flooded river in the middle of a storm, and it got her kits killed. Then she killed a medicine cat, the cat who she had manipulated into believing Mapleshade’s kits were her brother’s, attempted to murder a pregnant queen, and killed the father of her kits. Mapleshade was a victim, yes, but so was everyone she killed. She was not forced to go across the river, she chose that path herself. More on Appledusk later.

Redwillow- Joined the Dark Forest in the final battle against the Clans and was killed by Blackstar. Pretty clear why he ended up there

Thistleclaw- The big one. Spottedleaf’s Heart confirmed he chose the Dark Forest and this is all but confirmed in Crookedstar’s Promise already when he reveals he thinks StarClan are weak fools. While he was loyal to his Clan, he was also incredibly bloodthirsty and made it obvious that he wanted to destroy the rest of the Clans. A medicine cat had a whole prophecy saying he would bring unnecessary war and bloodshed as a leader. He also nearly had his apprentice murder a kit and attempted to kill the deputy of another Clan. It’s possible he may have killed cats from other Clans or from outside the Clans offscreen, but as far as we know, he didn’t kill anyone from his Clan.

Tigerstar the first- I don’t think I need to explain this one

So what do we know about the Dark Forest from this? What qualities does a cat need to have to be in there? Well, they.

Need to have betrayed their Clan maliciously and have little to no loyalty whatsoever, even to their new Clan if they have one,

Needed to have severely broken the code by either murdering cats without good reason or attempting to kill an innocent kit,

And/or could have gone to StarClan, but chose the Dark Forest instead

The Dark Forest is an extreme punishment for cats who were never loyal to their Clan, or who killed others without a second thought. It’s not meant to be the place where bad cats go. It’s meant to be the place where traitors and serial killers go. Cats who are bad people but never really did anything wrong still go to StarClan, because at the end of the day, they were still loyal to their Clan as a whole.

So now it’s time to go over some cats people think should have gone to the Dark Forest, but didn’t;

Ashfur- This one was the subject to heavy debate. Here’s what I think. Ashfur may or may not have known what Hawkfrost was doing exactly. It’s possible he didn’t know Hawkfrost’s entire plan and thought Firestar getting caught in a fox trap wasn’t part of it and ran to get help. Or, maybe he decided he didn’t want to go through with it after all and chickened out.

As for what happened with the Three... Well, he did attempt to kill his Clanmates, but again, nothing came of it. He chickened out again. And it should be stated here that like. The three were adults. They were not harmless kits! They knew of their powers at this point! Nothing was stopping them or even Squirrelflight from just grabbing Ashfur and hauling him off the tree or throwing him to the fire. Especially Lionblaze whose entire power centers around him not getting hurt in a fight. It would have been a four on one fight if everyone fought him off. They could have easily stopped Ashfur at any time, but they didn’t, because the plot demanded they didn’t. They were never going to die there, not without a fight. Maybe if Ashfur had died there, he would have ended up in the Dark Forest, but he didn’t. He never actually killed anyone, never actually physically attacked anyone himself, and even warned the Clan that his leader was in danger. He was just focused on getting revenge against one specific cat, but we never saw him treat the rest of the Clan poorly. And for StarClan, his loyalty and the fact he never actually killed anyone was enough to let him in on a bullshit excuse.

Appledusk- A shitty, shitty person. But overall, loyal to his Clan. We never saw what Appledusk was like to the rest of his Clan offscreen. All we know is that he was cheating on his mate with Mapleshade (who Mapleshade clearly had no idea was his mate). That’s basically the only crime we’ve seen him commit. Is he a bad person? Yes. Yes, he is. But he never murdered someone, and admitted to his Clan he thought his relationship with Mapleshade was a mistake. As far as StarClan was concerned, that’s all it was. A mistake. He was a loyal warrior who died protecting his real mate and their future kits from a traitor, and had likely proven his loyalty in other ways offscreen.

Rainflower- Another case of “terrible person but ultimately loyal to their Clan”. Rainflower never killed anyone as far as we know, or even broke the code. She treated her son horribly, but I don’t remember her ever being rude to anyone else. And even if she was, as we’ve seen, being a bad person isn’t enough to land you in the Dark Forest.

Mudclaw- He may seem like he belongs in the Dark Forest, but here’s the thing. StarClan was never against Mudclaw’s leadership. Tallstar made the decision by himself. For all we knew, Mudclaw would have made a better leader than Onestar or been exactly the same. Tallstar changed his deputy last minute on his deathbed and didn’t do the ceremony correctly. The only cats who saw were cats of another Clan, and the one he was making the new deputy. Mudclaw had every right to challenge the decision when it was announced. From his perspective, another Clan was lying about their friend being chosen as the new deputy. Of course he was going to feel wronged, because in a way, he was. It’s possible StarClan may have even rejected Onewhisker, if Mudclaw had not revolted at the time he did. I don’t think Mudclaw’s death was divine intervention, either. Not every bad weather event that happens in Warriors is StarClan’s doing, even if the cats think it is. I think it just Mudclaw being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was still loyal to his Clan, he was just trying to get back the position he thought had been stolen from him.

Oakstar- Oakstar is the one who exiled Mapleshade and her kits and everyone thinks this means he belongs in the Dark Forest. I. Disagree with this. Yes, he exiled the kits, but that isn’t actually against the code? The only codes about kits are that they can’t be apprenticed before six moons and no cat can neglect a kit in pain or in danger. (an extra rule is they can’t be out of camp without a warrior) You probably can’t throw out just a kit on their own, but Mapleshade’s kits weren’t alone. The kits were with their mother. 

A single mother in the wild can and will raise kits on her own. Will they all survive? It’s unlikely, but there’s no guarantee they would survive in the Clans, either. Not being in a Clan does not mean these kits will die, just like being a Clan doesn’t mean they’ll all survive. There was a good chance at least one of those kits would have survived to adulthood. Oakstar probably thought Mapleshade would take them somewhere safe, or, if she did take them to RiverClan, that she would use the bridge that led across it up by fourtrees instead of the flooded stones. He only told her to the leave the territory. He never told her where to go. Mapleshade is the one who chose to take them across the river in the worst spot possible.

Let’s look at it from Oakstar’s perspective; Oakstar had just lost his son and an apprentice in a big battle. His daughter is still grieving for the loss of her brother, and it’s likely Oakstar is still grieving, too. And then Mapleshade becomes pregnant and the Clan mistakenly lets them believe that Oakstar’s son is the father of her kits. Only for them to later discover the cat who caused the deaths of Birchface and Flowerpaw, a cat from another Clan who they all believe killed Birchface on purpose, is the real father. What else was Oakstar going to do? The Clan wouldn’t have treated those kits or Mapleshade fairly. Their lives would have been miserable. Think of what happened with Tawnypaw and Bramblepaw, only the entire Clan is against them, not just a handful of members. Exiling them was likely the merciful thing to do.

As for the “no neglecting a kit in danger” code, the kits weren’t in danger until Mapleshade herself put them in it. There was no mention of foxes, badgers, or anything else in ThunderClan’s territory. The only issue they had (the snakes), had been dealt with already. No, they couldn’t have known it was like that in other places, but as long as they were in ThunderClan’s territory, those kits were safe. And there was no reason to think they’d be in immediate danger in other territories either.

The Clan territories are actually rather safe, all things considered. Threats like foxes, badgers, and the like are dealt with quickly. The only real threats in another Clan’s territory are the cats who own it, who would probably not attack a queen just passing through with her kits. If anything, if she had met with ShadowClan or WindClan first, they might have even allowed Mapleshade to stay, once she explained everything to them. At least until the bad weather had passed.

So, yes, all of the cats above were terrible, but they never actually did anything wrong by StarClan’s standards. They were loyal members of their Clan who made some mistakes, but ultimately never killed anyone or severely broke the code. Just being a bad person isn’t enough to send you to StarClan. As long as you’re loyal and don’t actually kill anyone, they don’t care.

[mothbug]

ppl who HATE hate yellowfang simply do not get it

[willoillo]

I spent like all of today reading through book 6 cuz I needed a mental break today, which means I have completely finished this first arc!!

Thoughts on book 6 first:

As... Should be obvious from how quickly I finished it, I really liked this one. This book wasn't plagued with any of the pacing problems that the other ones had, and both the heartbreak and the victories felt well-placed and hard-earned.

The twist with Tigerstar in the third act was spoiled for me, unfortunately, but I think it still had the intended effect. It is kind of an anticlimax for his character? But I feel like it was a fitting end.

The ending itself was very satisfying. It feels like it ties together the story so far, which is... Incredibly tricky given how all over the place the series has felt. But it manages to pull it off, and it does so in a way that makes it feel purposeful. It's a very strong ending.

Now, onto the series as a whole...

I'm gonna start with what I liked, because there is a lot to like!!

I think the idea of the clans is relatively well thought out; how the different environments shape the kind of cats there, what kind of food they're likely to hunt and the difficulties they'll face, the various characters we meet... It does really feel like a setting one could sink their claws into and never really let go, and given how frequently the clans change loyalties and how quickly the cats grow up it seems really easy to fit your own characters into.

I also think the naming conventions are interesting!! How clan names are chosen, the way they change as a warrior develops, the unique terms for illnesses and the seasons and other common things. Fresh kill in particular has entered my vocabulary and stuck there cuz it's just such a good descriptor in my head.

I do love the focus on, like, legacy that the series has? With this focus on growth from kit to apprentice to warrior, and how important teaching the next generation is. It also ties in really well with the passing of the seasons; no matter what else is going on, the seasons march on, bringing their own challenges and forcing the cats to adapt to them.

I definitely fell in love with a lot of the characters, as well? The interpersonal relationships and how they grow and change, as well as how they don't, really breathe life into the world. From what I've seen, I'd say that Cinderpelt and Sandstorm are my favorites, but I also ended up falling in love with Greystripe and Silverstream's doomed romance, as well as Bluestar's quiet compassion.

I like the way Starclan is handled; they feel present the entire time without disrupting the tension or providing an answer. The messages from Starclan always feel like a mystery to be solved, which makes them engaging and kept me guessing.

The kitties are a lot of fun to draw, unsurprisingly; I still might make more art, if only for fun, and I'm really happy with how Bayflower turned out. I have a Warriors OC now and I wouldn't give her up for the world x3

That said, no series is perfect, and this one was... Kind of a bumpy ride. Lots of ups and downs. The clans beyond Thunderclan aren't very fleshed out beyond their like, broad characteristics and the few characters from them we meet directly, quite often the story feels aimless and things come together either too late or not at all. There's a fair bit of fatphobia and ableism in it. The villains in particular aren't very fleshed out; they only get to be a complex character until they've chosen their side.

The biggest thing that frustrated me though, is how inconsistent the series is. Some of these books were excellent, others were frustrating, and most fell somewhere in the middle, with moments that I absolutely loved compared with moments where I got so bored or frustrated I had to put down the book for a bit.

I'm not surprised by this? It's very common with long running book series, especially ones with multiple writers. But it still made me really unsure of what to think and made the experience less enjoyable overall.

Given how many books this series has, and how bumpy the ride has been so far, I think that this is where I get off. It's been an enjoyable time, and I'm very glad to have read the series, but there's A LOT of books and I don't feel comfortable committing to them after my experience with this first arc. I'm sure there are gems in there, but I don't feel like digging for them.

That said, if you have a particular book you think I should read, or an arc I should skip to so I don't miss out on a character you love, now's your chance to tell me!! I'm not averse to reading more in this setting, I just don't want to commit to the whole series.

Overall, this was a great time, and I'm glad that I read this first arc. There's a lot to love here, and I no longer feel lost or confused by the kitty references, which is great!! I can like. Get some of the jokes, and watch animatics without being completely lost, which is ESPECIALLY a boon. I adore fan animations they are the COOLEST thing.

Library found their copy

So it's time to do this!! If I enjoy my time I'll keep reading, but I make no promises.

[amirisqueer]

OLD 2020 ART

A silly AU I made a couple years ago. I still think it's kind of fun. Here is the original description:

"So, first off, this is going to be pretty loose concepts for a Warriors AU I had in mind. I need to work on personal projects at the moment, so I won't go too into detail with this. Additionally, I should have reread Power of Three and Omen of the Stars before this, to make it more detailed and accurate, but again, I need to work on personal projects.

I may come back to this when I have time for it. As for now, it'll stay pretty loose. Unless some of you want to mess around with the concepts, and I fully welcome you to do so! It'd be really cool to have a bunch of people putting their ideas into this, and making it a community thing!

I've removed anything to do with Rock, the ancients, the stick, and the Tribe, because they're all pointless and irrelevant to the plot, and contribute nothing to the story. The undergroud tunnels remain, but they're left a mystery.

Anyway. On with the villainy.

PoT and OotS were disappointing, to say the least. PoT had a good build up, and had tons of potential, but, as usual, the Erins wasted it. OotS is a hot mess; like PoT, potential was wasted, the plot meanders, there are far too many inconsistencies and plot holes, character motivations are weird, characters are unlikeable and boring, a ton of important points in the story feel really contrived, and it's poorly written over all. I still enjoyed these arcs, though, just for how bad they were.

I think it would have been really cool if the Erins explored the potential for villainy Jayfeather and Hollyleaf had. Jayfeather expresses quite a bit of resentment and disrespect for Starclan, and seems to feel like he's above everyone else bc he's part of a prophecy (one that really never is used or explored meaningfully). He's also pretty interested in plants that harm people, which is unique for a medicine cat.

Hollyleaf is a stickler to the warrior code, though we see her twist it and her logic to fit what she wants, especially when she goes out of her way to murder Ashfur, and threaten Leafpool. She's also shown to be very ambitious, and wants to be leader one day. She wants to be important to her clan, and be respected.

Lionblaze, in this AU, is a lot softer, and much more caring and gentle. While he does want to be a great warrior, he doesn't enjoy fighting, which makes his power a point of angst for him, since it's one that enables him to hurt other cats without any physical consequences to him. Lionblaze in the books always stuck out to me as particularly bland; he was just another cat who wanted to be the greatest warrior, who loved fighting, and was aggressive. I want a soft, gentle hero. I want a hero who can and will fight for what he believes in, but would much rather take a pacifistic route.

Again, I need to reread PoT and OotS to refresh myself, but bear with me.

What if we explored this in a way that made Jayfeather and Hollyleaf villains? These traits certainly make it easy.

What if Jayfeather grew especially resentful of Starclan, and, upon learning of the prophecy and how much power he held, turned against them? After all, Starclan gets increasingly annoying, petty, and downright irritating as the series goes on. They act as though they know more than the living cats do (which they don't, and this is shown multiple times), and instead of actually doing anything to help the clans, they give vague omens and signs that could easily be interpreted as anything!

So Jayfeather, resentful of Starclan, plots against them. He wants them to hurt. He wants them to admit they're no better than anyone else. He wants them to stop being so pretentious and full of themselves. He also hates Starclan for making him blind, and, like he said in The Sight, he wishes he had never been born because of it. Jayfeather's bitter and vindictive nature is explored a ton here.

He comes up with a plan to wrest the clans from Starclan's control. He wants everyone else to resent them, too, so Starclan will lose what power they have over the living cats. And to do that, he'll need to take over clans and spread his ideology, much like Sol.

Meanwhile, Hollyleaf wants to be leader, as mentioned before. And Jayfeather sees this as an opportunity. He's the mastermind behind all this, as the most intelligent of the three; he's the one pulling the strings.

By the way, Hollyleaf has a power in this AU. Her power comes from her dedication to and belief in the warrior code; she can always tell when cats are lying, and when they have broken the code, as well as convince them to believe in her own convictions, too. The more she believes in an idea, the more easily she can persuade cats to take her side, and believe in her version of the truth.

And so Jayfeather uses her. Throughout the books, he'll help her become deputy, and then leader, by strategically poisoning clanmates (as well as cats from other clans) to help her gain power. He's also making up visions, too, and manipulating clan politics, trying to turn them against Starclan that way, too. He tells Hollyleaf the things he reads in other cats' minds to help her find weaknesses to exploit.

Hollyleaf believes that what she's doing is right, and that she's fulfilling the prophecy, and making Thunderclan strong. In reality, she's simply carrying out Jayfeather's attack on Starclan.

Lionblaze, meanwhile, is blissfully unaware of this. He does what he does best; fight and try to be a good warrior. The best he can be, in fact. While Lionblaze isn't very intelligent, Jayfeather is wary of trying to involve him, because Lionblaze is a genuinely kind hearted cat, whereas Hollyleaf isn't.

Also! Throughout the PoT arc, there are tons of bonding moments between the three; for Jayfeather, it's all manipulation, but for Hollyleaf and Lionblaze, it's genuine. I've always been irritated by how Warriors never actually shows bonds between families and friends; the books just usually go "they were friends" or "they were family" and that's it. It makes all the family/friend deaths so unemotional and contrived when they happen, because the bonds are never explored. I don't care that Feathertail died; you never showed me the relationship she and Crowfeather had. His grief feels fake, and I'm not invested, at all.

In addition to this, friendships between the protagonists and side characters are also more deeply explored. For example, Hollyleaf and Cinderheart would have a very deep, loving friendship, and Lionblaze and Berrynose would have a friendly rivalry, but are also there for each other. Lionblaze also deeply cares for his family, and loves his siblings, Brambleclaw, Squirrelflight, Firestar, Sandstorm, and Leafpool dearly. Hollyleaf is close with her mother and father too, of course, but not quite as close as Lionblaze. Jayfeather is too wrapped up in his hatred and fantasies of revenge to really bother with friendship or family, and thus is viewed as even more prickly by his clanmates.

Jayfeather makes sure to make Hollyleaf look like an excellent warrior and leader, helping her find opportunities to do so. He encourages her to use her power to persuade Firestar to give her an apprentice, so she could be made deputy, and it works. Eventually, she'll use this power on Firestar to convince him to make her deputy after Brambleclaw dies.

Also! In chapters from Jayfeather's POV, it's shown that he grows to hate himself, too, for his actions. He knows very well what he's doing is wrong, but he keeps doing it. He feels horrible for using Hollyleaf the way he does, and feels slimy and gross about it. He thinks he's too far gone, that there's no hope for him. So he keeps making things worse and worse, and hates himself every second of it.

This only serves to make him more bitter and resentful, and he lashes out at clanmates even more, taking out his anger and other mixed emotions on them. It's pretty clear he's developed some sort of depression. At this point, it's obvious that revenge on Starclan won't make Jayfeather happy, at all. But that's what keeps him going.

Eventually, Sol comes along, and Jayfeather sees him as an ally; after all, he's trying to dismantle the clans' belief in Starclan, too. With Sol, he helps spread disbelief and strife, leading to Shadowclan being reduced to the state it was in. Thunderclan is following lead, though a bit more slowly, because, annoyingly, Firestar and Brambleclaw are still there.

So Jayfeather sneakily poisons him, without any cat in the clan knowing. He, of course, does this after Firestar has taken a liking to Hollyleaf, and during his grief, Hollyleaf goes and consoles him, as well as giving him advice on who the new deputy should be, strongly hinting that she thought she would do a good job, by stating traits that she has, and that Firestar has seen in her.

So! She becomes deputy! Lionblaze is, of course, proud, but he's a bit unnerved by the fact that Jayfeather and Hollyleaf don't seem bothered by their father's death. The fire scene happens at some point, and they learn about Squirrelflight's lie. Ashfur is still killed by Hollyleaf to keep the secret. And this time, she doesn't spill it.

Sol is also eventually killed off, because when Jayfeather realizes he's also trying to destroy the clans, not just ruin their belief in Starclan, which isn't what he wants. He doesn't want Starclan or the clans to die; he wants Starclan to suffer. So, he comes up with a plan to kill Sol, and Hollyleaf executes it.

At this point, Hollyleaf too is becoming resentful of Starclan, and twists her version of the code to fit with that, silently vowing to enforce it when she becomes leader.

Thunderclan is starting to grow really angry with Starclan, due to Jayfeather's and Sol's influence. Firestar continues to have faith in them, and the clan slowly turns on him, seeing him as a weak and incompetent leader. Other unfortunate things start to happen as well, like prey being scarce in greenleaf, warriors being injured more, fights on the borders breaking out, etc. It should be noted that Hollyleaf also uses her power to help convince the clan of Jayfeather's beliefs, and it works really well, seeing as she believes them herself. The majority of clan starts to believe that Starclan has abandoned them.

But not all of them, which is key to the rest of this AU!

Hollyleaf believes this too, and believes that the clan would do far better being lead by her. She speaks with Jayfeather about this, and, of course, he's pleased by it. They hatch a scheme to kill Firestar in secret, using a lethal concoction of herbs and framing it as a sickness.

Also! As Jayfeather's ideology spreads, other medicine cats' connection to Starclan grows weaker and weaker, until, finally, at the end of the PoT arc, they cannot communicate with Starclan at all. Only Jayfeather can, as that's one of his powers.

Once Starclan is entirely cut off from the clans, Cinderpelt's spirit (in Cinderheart) is released; her link to Starclan has been severed, so the whole reincarnation sort of thing no longer works. Cinderpelt is instead stranded in some sort of limbo, and never finds her way back to Starclan.

However, Leafpool has noticed Jayfeather's interest in toxic plants, and grows suspicious of him... so she must be killed, too. While gathering herbs with Jayfeather, Hollyleaf ambushes Leafpool and kills her. Jayfeather has Hollyleaf injure him, too, so he can frame it as an accident with some rogues, which he just barely got away from. Hollyleaf is never mentioned in his explanation, so she's completely free of suspicion.

Two of the three never learn of their true parentage, and only Lionblaze ever really cares about it, because of his deep connection with his parents, grandparents, and aunt. Lionblaze later learns about it from Squirrelflight.

With Leafpool out of the way, they can finally kill Firestar. Jayfeather slips deathberry juice into some of Firestar's fresh kill, and, when the leader is unconscious and in the medicine den, Jayfeather poisons him with more and more herbs (like foxglove, water hemlock, deadly nightshade, etc), which prove powerful enough to kill all his remaining lives.

The clan doesn't suspect a thing, and grieves for him, despite his weak leadership. This further reinforces the belief that Starclan has abandoned them.

Hollyleaf becomes Hollystar. And, despite everything she's done, she gets her nine lives. This is because, since Hollystar and Jayfeather are part of the proohecy, and supposedly hold the power of the stars in their paws, they can force them to give her nine lives. Especially with Hollystar's power of conviction.

I'm not sure who her deputy would be, but it would have to be someone incredibly loyal to her. Perhaps Cinderheart, seeing as they were close friends. Maybe they even get to be a cute, villainous lesbian couple. You know what, they do. CinderHolly is canon in this AU.

However, Lionblaze notices how unbothered Jayfeather and Hollystar are by Firestar's death, and starts to suspect the worst. He has kept his faith in Starclan, by the way, despite his siblings' attempts to sway him. He has also gathered a small group of the clan together who still believe in Starclan, and they worship in secret at night, outside the camp. This group, critically, includes Whitewing and Birchfall, Dovewing and Ivypool's parents. It also includes Squirrelflight and Sandstorm, who were, of course, incredibly loyal to Firestar.

With Hollystar in her leadership position, and a blindly loyal deputy and mate are her side, she pushes her anti-Starclan agenda, and actually forges an alliance with Shadowclan and Blackstar. They promise to help each other in the coming days, seeing as Starclan has left the clans, and they can only depend on each other.

Windclan and Riverclan are horrified, especially the medicine cats (except Mothwing, she actually sees this as wise), but through Hollystar's conviction, these ideals infiltrate the other two clans. Each clan splits into factions: those who have faith, and those who do not. Consistently, the latter groups are larger.

Lionblaze is incredibly upset by this, and is torn between his love for his siblings, his care for his clan, and his faith to Starclan. Hollystar starts to weed out the disloyal cats, the ones who still have faith in Starclan, and makes them sleep in a separate den from the other cats. She keeps a close eye on them, and monitors their movements at all times, with the help of Cinderheart, Jayfeather, and a few other extremely loyal warriors.

One evening, Lionblaze manages to sneak out from under the gaze of his clanmates, and eavesdrops on a conversation between Hollystar and Jayfeather. He learns of their manipulation, and how they killed Brambleclaw, Leafpool, and Firestar, and, in fury, attacks Hollystar. This grabs the whole clan's attention, and during the battle, Hollystar loses a life.

Lionblaze, being the big hearted cat he is, stops fighting once his sister dies once, horrified at what he's done. However, the clan has turned against him, and he, as well as the other Starclan faithful, are driven out of Thunderclan territory. Hollystar has convinced Thunderclan that any Starclan faithful cats are dangerous traitors, and, at the next gathering, encourages the other clans to drive them out, too.

Lionblaze and his group, meanwhile, shelter beyond Thunderclan territory, and Dovekit and Ivykit are born. They slowly recover their strength, and set up a sort of temporary camp. Lionblaze tells them about Hollystar and Jayfeather's treachery. All the cats are bereft, and have no idea what to do. Soon enough, though, a group of Shadowclan cats find them, and reveal they've been driven away, too. The clans by the lake have all lost cats, and they are weaker now, which is critical for OotS. This is where the PoT arc ends.

Hollystar's regime is as strong as ever in Thunderclan, and the rest of the Starclan faithful cats in the clans have been driven out. The Dark Forest sees this as an opportunity to take advantage of, and starts recruiting warriors and apprentices to their cause to destroy/take over the clans, or whatever the DF was trying to do. Like. Seriously. What exactly were they trying to accomplish?

We'll just go with destroying the clans, due to their festering, bitter hatred for Starclan, and how the clans wronged them in their past lives.

Starclan is completely cut off from the clans, except for Lionblaze's group, which has become its own sort of clan. Each of the groups of Starclan faithful have found their way to him, and they live an unsteady, unsatisfying life outside the clan territories. They want to go home. They want their clans back. But if they dared set paw at the lake territories again, they'd be killed.

Enter Dovepaw and Ivypaw. Despite not really being a clan, the group has still continued clan traditions, and Dovepaw is apprenticed to Willowshine, while Ivypaw gets Brightheart. For extra drama, Brightheart and Cloudtail were split over the Starclan debate, and Cloudtail remains with Hollystar.

In this group, there's a lot of quarreling over who's in charge, as they don't really have a leader. They eventually agree to have a small council of four cats, one from each clan, to lead them. Lionblaze, Tawnypelt, Heathertail, and Mistyfoot are the leaders of this group, and they are trying to form a plan to take the clans back. Tawnypelt was also able to convince Tigerheart to remain faithful to Starclan, so he's here, too.

Squirrelflight, in a soft, emotional scene, reveals the three's parentage to Lionblaze. Instead of driving them apart, this makes them grow even closer, as they both understand what it's like to care for their siblings deeply, even when they've done something wrong.

The fourth cat from the prophecy remains, and it's Dovepaw. She doesn't have any powers, and yet she'll be key to turning the clans back to Starclan. During their time spent as a group, the borders between the clans here dissolve, and they become united and strong.

Dovepaw is actually trained as a medicine cat here, and is the only one in the group who can connect to Starclan. Her faith is particularly strong, given how her life began with being driven out of her home. This is how the connection between the clans and Starclan is slowly restored.

Meanwhile, in the clans, as the year progresses, things get worse. The draught happens like before, and a patrol is sent upstream to investigate the cause, like before. Leopardstar dies, and someone replaces her; possibly Reedwhisker. Perhaps he didn't go with his mother, and remained with Riverclan. This could be a source of grief for Mistyfoot, and affect her actions in the rest of the arc. Reedstar it is, then.

The DF keeps training and corrupting warriors in the clans, and as the arc goes on, some of them start to fear that Hollystar was wrong, and that they should've stayed faithful to Starclan. Of course, no one says this; anyone who speaks like that is immediately exiled.

Hollystar practically controls all the clans, given her power. Her propaganda has taken hold of the leaders' minds, and they all follow her suggestions. Jayfeather is both happy and dissatisfied at the same time; he is glad Starclan is suffering, and frequently visits them to gloat, but he feels that something is wrong. He isn't truly happy. He's still bitter cold and angry inside.

If I'm being honest, I barely remember what happened in OotS between the first and last books. The whole arc was a disaster, and, like I said, its plot was boring and meandering. I apologize for the stark lack of detail in this part. Like I said though, this is just a loose concept for this AU, and anyone can add their ideas to it, if they want!

Essentially, in the end, there are 3 factions fighting: the Starclan faithful, Hollystar's clans, and the Dark Forest. Jayfeather, once he learns what the DF is up to, is upset about it, and opposes it, simply because he doesn't want the clans destroyed, he just wants Starclan to suffer, and have them watch helplessly as the clans live perfectly well without them.

Lionblaze and his faction also, through the arc, spy on what the clans are doing, and learn how things are slowly falling apart. This isn't so much due to the lack of Starclan, but due to the Dark Forest taking advantage of that lack of faith. Had the DF not been an issue, the clans would have made it perfectly fine through that period of drought, and lived well w/o Starclan's influence.

Ivypool is also recruited into the DF like usual, but this time, she immediately knows something is up, bc of Lionblaze and the rest of the group having such firm faith in Starclan, and passing that onto the kits. However, since Ivypool is smart, she decides to spy there, along with Tigerheart, which give the Faithful an advantage. There, they finally have a name: the Faithful.

Hollystar's clans eventually learn of the threat from the DF, and things devolve into panic. Hollystar and Jayfeather are losing control, and both the DF and the Faithful take advantage of this.

Dovewing is especially gifted with speech in the AU, and is really compassionate and dedicated to what she believes in. She rallies a good portion of Hollystar's clans to the Faithful, and their numbers grow steadily. She is, in a way, like a cleric in DnD, and Lionblaze is a paladin. Dovewing does most of the speaking, while Lionblaze does most of the fighting.

Then, the battle breaks out. It's DF vs the Faithful vs Hollystar's clans. Like the Great Battle in the other books, this battle is chaotic, takes place all over the clan territory, and a ton of cats die. Hollystar and Lionblaze have an intense encounter, and Lionblaze pleads her to see sense and join their side. However, she is too far gone, and too convinced of her own flawed beliefs to listen. Hollystar is killed by Lionblaze in an emotional battle, and Jayfeather is eventually cornered, too.

Lionblaze also pleads with him to switch sides, and it is here that Jayfeather finally reveals what he's been doing all along, and has his traditional villain monologue. At the end of his monologue, he admits that he isn't happy with how things turned out, and feels hollow, numb, and bitter cold instead.

Jayfeather loathed himself as much as he loathed Starclan. He knew his actions were wrong, and hated himself for it, but he couldn't stop himself. He wouldn't. From his first kill onwards, he thought it was too late for him to change paths, that he'd always be a despicable, miserable cat. He sees no chance at redemption, and asks Lionblaze to kill him. When he won't, Jayfeather eats the deathberries he had kept with him, killing himself.

In the end, the Faithful are victorious, and take back the clans. Lionblaze, however, is completely devastated by all the loss. He had lost family and friends during all of this, and feels utterly swamped by grief. The loss of his siblings hurts the most; not only had he lost them to death, but he had really, truly LOST them; their personalities had completely changed, and the cats he once knew had vanished.

Despite this, he pushes through with Dovewing and Squirrelflight's help. Lionblaze becomes Lionstar, at the urging of his clanmates. He names Squirrelflight deputy, and Dovewing is his medicine cat. The clans are recovering from Hollystar's reign, and are turning back towards Starclan, for better or for worse. Either way, their faith has only strengthened during this time, and once again, the medicine cats can connect with their ancestors.

So! That's it! That's the villain Hollystar and Jayfeather AU! In my opinion, this is MUCH better than how things actually went in the books, and I would have rather had things go this way. Potential isn't wasted (as far as I know), and each of the three is more fully explored.

The OotS part is definitely lacking, because like I said, I've forgotten what happens through most of it. Lionblaze also gets a bit shafted, because I wanted to focus on Jayfeather and Hollystar, and also because I don't know his personality as well. I really wish I had given him more content, but my pool of ideas was a bit shallow for him :'D. If any of you have any ideas for him, or for the rest of the AU, please feel free to share them!!

I may come back to this in the future, after I've reread PoT and OotS, and add more details. For now, though, it is this.

Let me know what you guys think! I'd love to hear your ideas, too, like I've said a billion times before! As I've said many times earlier, I think it'd be really cool if you all contributed too, and we made this a community thing!"

[solargoose]

I think part of what makes warrior cats as a series so fun and so frustrating is that anything can happen. There are no hard and fast rules, and even the things we think of as hard rules could be tossed aside at any moment if the writing team decided they wanted to do something different.

On the one hand, it creates a sense of endless possibilities. It’s anarchy. You think the cats should go to space? You want them to change everything about the warrior code? You think cat reincarnation should be real, and maybe they should be reincarnated as other animals, or a human person should be reincarnated as a clan cat? You think more cats should have superpowers, and some of them should be super weird? You think all the random cat disappearances/changes/cats dying twice should be explained in canon? Sure! Why not? 

On the other hand, it creates a lot of inconsistencies. If there’s a plot element or world building detail you really like, it could be done away with in a second. Some things are lost intentionally, and others are just forgotten. We lost fading that way, and the idea that starclan cats appear as they were happiest. We lost a particular favorite of mine, that riverclan cats decorate their nests with pretty shells and rocks. Technically none of these things have been properly retconned or written out, just forgotten. They could come back, and you could even assume they’re still true, but they aren’t really in the books anymore.

[brackenfire]

thoughts on a light in the mist / the broken code arc

Okay. I've had two meals and a good night's sleep since I binge-read Light in the Mist in a Barnes and Noble yesterday, and I'm ready to talk about it.

pLEASE keep in mind that everything I'm going to be saying here is my own take. If you disagree, I'm more than happy to engage in discourse and hear other people's takes! but please don't attack me for my takes and opinions, they're just my opinions.

ALSO: I usually read warriors arcs as they are releasing, and then once I sit with them for a while I go back and binge them all in a row, so I can brace them up as an arc and not just as individuals. I haven't reread TBC yet, so my commentary on the past books might not be 100% accurate.

SPOILERS FOR A LIGHT IN THE MIST / THE ENDING OF "THE BROKEN CODE" LIE HERE. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT AND CARE ABOUT SPOILERS, I WOULDN'T CLICK THE READ MORE IF I WERE YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

TL;DR, in no particular order:

1.     Bristlefrost/Rootspring

2.     Graystripe

3.     Shadowsight

4.     Ashfur (spoiler, I’m unhappy)

5.     “Firestar breathed”

6.     NEW CHANGES BIG CHANGES COMING NEXT ARC YES PLEASE???

-

HOO BOY WHERE TO BEGIN

The Broken Code has been one of my least favorite arcs. It’s just not been great. Book 1 was promising, but book 2-5 really kind of just…were disappointing, in a lot of ways, and the inconsistent writing was the least of its troubles. It had great potential but suffered in a lot of ways too. This book really helped mitigate that for me, and while it didn’t bring it back up a lot, it put it in par with AVOS for me (but my favorite arc is POT so like who am I to talk about plot).

ALitM actually kind of redeemed this arc for me. I left this book and this arc a shell of who I once was but, overall, satisfied. Of course, it’s not free of issues (what warriors book is, esp. recently), but I could stand for a reread.

1. Bristlefrost

*sigh*

Her death broke me. That whole chapter, with her despair turning into hope and love, and the flashes of what could have been really solidifying in her mind as memories because of course that’s what happened, how else could she remember if they didn’t happen, she loves Rootspring, and just ruin me why don’t you.

Time and again I’ve heard that the top ways to make a character’s death as devastating as possible are to make them die mid-character arc, have an unsatisfying recompense for those they were closed to, and describe their funeral in little detail if it’s described at all. All of those boxes (with the exception of the first? I’ll get to that) are ticked and ticked again. She’s not in the Dark Forest, she’s not in StarClan, she’s just gone and her family and friends and Rootspring just have to live with that. Ivypool didn’t even have a body to bury.

People are upset, and I get why. I am too! It felt anticlimactic, it felt like a last-minute decision at best, it was so heavily foreshadowed that by about the fifteenth time that Rootspring thought “if we get out of here” I just said “okay one of them is going to die, I don’t know who, but one of them will, there’s no way they won’t with how heavy-handed they’re being about this”. It felt like the Onestar-Darktail-underwater-lake-battle from AVOS but we got to see it under the water instead of on top of it.

Here’s thing, though—I’m glad it ended that way.

HEAR ME OUT.

How many times have we seen female protags, or even female side and supporting characters, taken from their own individual character development to become “character trait: mother”? Female characters who lose their personality and/or social group upon having kittens and get reduced to “mother cat who has no personality of her own after popping out some babies and her only character development is seen only when it’s directly related to the development of her children”? Millie. Ivypool. Dovewing. Cinderheart. Sorreltail (!! Remember when she and Leafpool were best friends??). Ferncloud(? maybe?). Hell, half of Bluestar/Bluefur’s character arc is her avoiding becoming this trope! The only real examples of this not being the case is Squilf and Sandstorm!

Bristlefrost, by killing Ash, atoned for the time she spent (albeit unwillingly) assisting Ashfur in Bramblestar’s body, and the best atonement we could have gotten was what we got, with her killing Ashfur and dying knowing she’d served and protected her Clan (which she talked about all the way back in book 1).

What would have happened if she’d lived? We would have gotten Rootspring making a huge fuss out of leaving his Clan to join ThunderClan (growing their numbers even more, which they for sure don’t need), a little bit of outside-looking-in at Rootspring trying to settle into ThunderClan, then they have a handful of side character children and they both become boring happy background characters.

Did her death break all my bones? Yes. Am I glad that’s the ending she got? In a way, yes.

I do hope we see more of Rootspring learning to cope with that in the next arc

2. Graystripe

MY SON

It was his time. His death was really sad, although it was great to see him get to see Millie and Briarlight (I thought it was so funny how angry Silverstream and Feathertail were at them even though it’s absolutely on par with Silver’s characterization we got in Leopard’s Honor), we got to see a lot of the funny, quirky Graystripe we haven’t seen in a while (haha he’s a chonky lad), and he’s reunited with Firestar.

2a. Firestar

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Listen we haven’t seen Firestar in so long and we got to see him AND WE GOT A FIRESTAR POV AGAIN AND HE GOT TO SEE GRAYSTRIPE AND DARKSTRIPE FINALLY GOT WHAT WAS COMING TO HIM

-Image: a zoomed in picture of a book page with the phrase “Firestar breathed” circled in red, with the caption “*INCOHERENT SCREAMING IN THE MIDDLE OF A BARNES AND NOBLE*” from Snapchat-

I just love my pretty orange boy okay I missed him ;^;

3. Ashfur

*inhale* Okay.

This was unsatisfying, anticlimactic, and where the FUCK WAS HOLLYLEAF?? We don’t even get the “book Voldemort death, where someone broke Ashfur’s neck and we see his body and it’s poetic because he was just a bad icky cat who was just an asshole and then we watch him dissipate like Darkstripe and Darktail”, we get the “movie Voldemort’s death where he explodes into sparks because he’s the big bad” but he just evaporates because he’s so bad he can’t be killed legitimately?

Glad he’s gone. Wish it could have been a little more satisfying.

4. Shadowsight

OKAY BUT I’M IN LOVE WITH WHAT THEY DID TO SHADOWSIGHT

We have a meddy cat who doesn’t believe in StarClan, sure, but it’s so cool that they gave us the medicine cat who fully believes and loves his ancestors and simply cannot. He’s attached to the Dark Forest! That’s SO COOL! I so hope they do more with that in the next arc, please StarClan please let’s see more of our little dark baby boy please

5. Changes to world structure/warrior code

I’m so glad they addressed this.

It’s something that’s needed to happen for a long time, and it’s refreshing that they finally addressed it, and I’m surprised they actually did. I’m looking very forward to see how that goes in the next arc (and hopefully more changes follow in its footsteps).

-

All in all, this was a tragically satisfying binge read. I had a good time with it, for sure. Could be better but could have been far worse. 8/10.

[mallowstep]

I'd love to hear some ✨StarClan Slander✨ from you

starclan fucking sucks and i'm not afraid to say it.

ugh. where to begin.

okay, starclan sucks in a lot of different ways. like, a lot. it sucks from a narrative perspective, it sucks from a lives-of-cats perpsective, and it sucks from a worldbuilding perspective.

like: starclan is incredibly inconsistent as worldbuilding. it. gah. that part is most in my control when i write, so i try to really like. maximize said control. but if you compare the description of fireheart getting his nine lives to any modern starclan scene, it pisses me off. starclan is so fucking Cool, and now it's not.

i could go on for a while, but it's more of the same.

and then from a narrative perspective like. it causes so many problems. and i don't mean starclan causes problems for the characters, i mean starclan is simultaneously the cause of a lot of problems while the narrative wants us to believe they are the good guys. starclan causing problems? interesting. starclan causing problems but they're Very Good Actually? lazy.

this is a small thing but like it bothered in tbc? okay so. the fact that the clans' relationship to starclan has changed doesn't bother me. it's really interesting. they've been through this time of massive upheaval, something which often correlates with this uptick in spirituality.

i do not need convincing to believe that as the clans have gone through these past ten or fifteen years, with an exodus and the whole great battle (even setting aside the religious implications and just focusing on: big battle, lots of betrayal, lots of death), and everything with skyclan and darktail, yeah!

like, there was a spiritualism wave in the us after the civil war because that's what people/humanized cats do in those times. they latch on to spirituality and religion. why do you think witchcraft is on an uptick again in modern times?

however the problem is the Narrative never acknowledges this, which makes it feel not like an intentional culture change but authors being lazy. i'm not sure what's worse: authors just leaning on starclan because it's interesting and easy, or authors simply failing to convey the nuances of culture change.

whichever makes the erins sound better, pick that one. i have no lost love for them, but i try to keep my criticisms factual.

anyway, i digress, here's my favourite example:

in tbc, it's this Big Deal how the moonpool is the place of the medicine cats, and other cats cannot enter, Nope No Sir, which, like, really fucking confused me.

what?

do leaders not speak with starclan anymore? is that. is that not a thing?

i mean, in tpb, leaders visit the moonstone all the time. apprentices visit it before coming warriors. it's pretty normal.

and i'm fine with the culture of the clans changing for the moonpool to be a medicine cat exclusive: that does not fundamentally bother me. there's even the smallest nod to this idea in po3, during outcast, when they mention that the tradition of going to the moonstone/pool has fallen out of favour, and maybe that's bad.

and like, yeah, okay: i don't really understand Why it fell out of favour, especially in thunderclan. thunderclan had the Longest journey to the moonstone, and now they have either the shortest journey or one of the shortest, so there's really no excuse, but like. that's diaspora, you lose things, i'm okay with that.

what i'm not okay with is the sudden transformation of the moonpool to a Holy Place only Medicine Cats can touch. like, mothwing has been to the moonstone: she knows this isn't how it was. the others are young enough to not know, but then, when did this idea get started? who put it in their heads? why?

jayfeather has had so much pov, it wouldn't be hard to explain. he could've even taught alderpaw about it. or something could've been slipped into an early shadowpaw chapter. it really would not have taken much: a single line in outcast or something was all i needed to accept the moonstone/pool visitation tradition was dead (even if i think it should've continued), but unless i've forgotten, this is just. never explained.

this is how it Always Was (even though it wasn't, and there are cats who should Know it wasn't).

heck! heck! mistystar shared tongues with starclan in her novella. i don't remember where riverclan was during this scene in tbc, but my point is more. someone should've been able to say something. anything.

probably before the actual scene, given how few cats would know about this: bramblestar should since he was made a warrior in the forest territory, but i'll give the other leaders a pass. all i need is like. one line. from one cat. that's it. that's all i need.

finally, starclan obviously is uhhh. evil? it's evil, right, we can all agree? there is no evil starclan au we're In the evil starclan au, i should write a good starclan au.

the thing about this one is like. it's a product of the others. if starclan wasn't Real and Tangible, then like. then like. it wouldn't matter that they gave shitty advice and did terrible things, because now you just have cats dreaming of others, searching for answers in the Strict Code, and that would all make sense.

(did that paragraph like. read? i can't tell. basically, if starclan wasn't confirmed as a real thing with real dead cats, i would be fine with starclan cats being shitty and ooc, because now it's not actual cats we know and love, it's other cats' perceptions, memories, and inferences of them as they search their ancestors for guidance from the warrior code.

so of course their advice is going to be terrible and inconsistent and leafpool is going to decide spottedleaf said she should have kits and then starclan is going to backflip when the kits are born: all of that makes complete sense as long as starclan isn't an actual place. as long as it's just religion, just dreams and omens, there is no problem with that.)

and then if starclan like. if their role in the clans had been covered more thoroughly by the narrative. if how they gave shitty advice a lot was covered. i would also be okay with it.

but the best we get is mothwing's whole "yo uh. starclan doesn't save cats. i save fucking cats. give me my god damn credit for saving your fucking life." like that's a bad thing no. mothwing. queen. please continue ur so right.

and just as a cherry on top, the ableism in starclan is exhausting. it's its own thing, really, but like. i was talking with @foxstride about this. and like. how disabled cats will just have their disabilities erased.

personally, i'm okay with briarlight not being disabled in starclan. i think that makes sense for her character. i think it is Bad that the narrative's response to that was "now that she's dead she's finally happy again!", it should have been "thunderclan failed to give briarlight the actual support she needed to be happy", but the fact that she's not disabled in starclan doesn't actually bother me.

she was sick basically 100% of the time after her accident, and thunderclan was really shitty to her. do you remember how happy she was to "get" to sleep in the warriors' den? she was a fucking warrior that was her right.

thunderclan failed her, but the takeaway is "she couldn't be happy until she was dead and her disability was magicked away." that's bad. that's. i'm not okay with that part of it.

(briarlight deserves so much better than thunderclan.)

but for pretty much every other instance of it, there's none of that. maybe, maybe, you could make a similar argument for cinderpelt, but i would disagree with it.

my cinderpelt opinion is and always has been: she would never have chosen the path of being a medicine cat for herself, but she ultimately finds happiness and fulfillment with it. like, it wasn't right that she was forced to become a medicine cat because of her accident, but it was something she did ultimately enjoy and was happy to dedicate her life to. if she was given the chance to become a warrior after she had been a medicine cat for a while, she wouldn't have taken it.

it's part of why when i'm doing like. big time aus for warriors i still make her a medicine cat. because i like her growing to love it. i like that it's not right, how it happens, but she still loves it eventually. it's a very interesting idea to me that there aren't many characters to explore it through. jayfeather and alderheart are similar, but not in the same way. anyway i'm rambling because these are all the things i thought about when writing stolag, back on topic.

so i don't think cinderpelt should have her disability poofed by starclan, i think she should keep it. i also think that cats who are injured and then aren't disabiled in starclan should be representitve of that. they should be the age before they got injured.

briarlight should be apprentice aged, a hypo-cinderpelt should also be apprentice aged. this is something i'm fine with. i make hollyleaf apprentice aged in starclan because i think she was happiest before the ending of po3.

moving on: snowkit? can apparently hear? wtf?

and y'all already know how much i hate that jayfeather can see in his dreams. i said No that's Not Canon anymore and no one (no one) can stop me.

in conclusion: starclan is bad in a lot of ways, and if it weren't so damn inconsistently bad, i think i wouldn't hate it half as much.

<3

[stimmingandstruggling]

fuck. just remembered warrior cats exists and even though a lot of that is a hellhole of inconsistent writing and toxic fandom wars...... ravenbarley my beloved gay barn cats

anyways so human ravenbarley headcanons

due to tigerclaws abuse, ravenpaw was very malnourished and tiny when he first came to the barn, but after recovering he’s now taller than barley (to be fair though barley is just naturally pretty short. beefy boy and noodle boy.)

they watch sunsets together on the barn roof and sometimes end up falling asleep watching the stars.....

it took a LONG time for either of them to confess- barley didn’t want to scare him away, raven is just very anxious

in the end raven confessed

fireheart/star said they seemed like very close friends (himbo firestar rights) and raven just very slowly looked at him and then held up their intertwined hands with rings on them

“oh. OH. you seem like a very happy couple my b”

yes they have rings barley made them they had a little unofficial wedding by which i mean they just put the rings on each other said I love you and went to do watch the sunset

they’re so DOMESTIC

barley snores, raven finds it comforting

the cheesiest couple. they’ve literally called each other their home in canon and harper collins still has the nerve to call them straight.

greystripe after finding out they’re together: gay ptide

raven misses the clans sometimes but he’s happier in the barn than he ever was there. he has a partner that loves him unconditionally, a beautiful view, and plenty of food. that’s enough for him.

they both get nightmares sometimes of bloodclan/tigerclaw. sometimes they talk about it, sometimes they just sit together.

raven said i love you first- back in the clans fire and grey would casually say it all the time so after he got more comfortable and stopped mentally censoring everything he said he said it on instinct and FROZE

barley meanwhile is in gay panic because Holy Fuck the only other person who’s said that to him was his sister and he hasn’t even seen her in ages

(barley is attention starved. fight me on this /lh)

after a very awkward few seconds he very quietly says you too and they move on

but from then on they’re both way overthinking all their interactions

bc at this point they’ve started to catch feelings

anyways barley died not long after raven did, but he made it back to the barn bc i want him to at least die in a place that reminds him of raven :(

they reunited in StarClan. i want them to be happy.

no idea if that’s canon compliant bc i stopped reading not long after omen of the stars but whatever-

raven laughs a lot, once he opens up and starts recovering. barley makes really terrible jokes just to hear him laugh.

raven spends a lot of their sunset watching just staring at barley because he looks so peaceful

anyways.

they’re in love your honor.

[twilights-800-cats]

Darkness Within Thoughts

Spoilers below!

Why did StarClan choose Ashfur to do whatever it is they wanted him to do? Why would they send him back, knowing his impact & true nature? Why him and not... say, anyone else? This outcome shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone with half a brain cell.

I’m so, so, so glad that the narrative acknowledges that Ashfur has an obsession with Squirrelflight. It’s not love, it’s a hate-filled obsession. They aren’t beating around the bush, and Jayfeather straight up saying that Ashfur’s behavior isn’t Squirrel’s fault is just. So nice. Retroactively making Ashfur kind of an obvious creep to everyone who knew him is also a pretty welcome addition.

I’m glad they included the argument from Graystripe’s Vow, it thankfully puts that super edition in a firm spot in the timeline - though it’s silly that they had to change dialogue in the se to keep the Ashfur reveal hidden. I think it would’ve been better if the se came out after, because we’d be able to read what the cats who left were up to after this book.

Shadowsight’s demotion is pretty insulting? Like, what has happened to Mothwing as a character. I never, ever considered her to be so bossy? Argumentative, yeah, but just pulling the rug out from under Shadowsight feels so out of character for her, especially when she brings up his visions like... Mothwing, honey, you haven’t had a legitimate vision from StarClan since tNP what the hell are you on?? The boy knows how to treat wounds?? 

I also really like the fact that they call what Ashfur did by its proper name - grooming. Because he did groom Shadowsight, and that needs to be acknowledged - no matter when it started, that’s what it is. Period.

HOWEVER the real insult is making Shadowsight treat Ashfur’s wounds. I can buy the other medicine cats/members of ShadowClan being uncertain of the visions he sees but making him tend to his abuser is fucking disgusting? Tigerheartstar what the actual hell??? How is that supposed to help him? 

We really did spend an entire chapter talking in circles around whether or not to kill Bramblestar’s body, huh? I mean, I saw it coming because it’s been well established that no one knows what to do and also that Squirrelflight is going to claw and scrape to save Bramblestar - I’m with Tigerheartstar tho let Bramblestar die already.

Cheddar, Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon are the best kittypet names, fight me. They’re just so adorable!

The Sisters pointing out how ridiculous it is that the Clans still cling to the whole “don’t marry outside your Clan” thing is only heaping onto the idea that they will likely be changing at least that part of the warrior code in this arc. I hope they go through with it because watching these characters try their best to explain why their code can’t change is getting infuriating, lol.

Holy shit Lightleap DID something in this book! What a twist! Unfortunately, seeing Shadowsight get treated so poorly is really frustrating and just... speaks a lot to how inconsistently these minor and background characters are written. I do like that they bring up that Shadowsight’s been spoiled by Tigerheartstar, though.

The Sister’s ritual was awesome! I honestly really want to know where they’re taking all this and I hope it ends in a satisfying way. Ashfur seems to have really messed things up and I’m hoping for it all to mean something in the end. I also really want to see Rootspring develop his relationship with the Sisters and his powers.

Bristlefrost and Rootspring... Aside from the huge glaring fault of Bristlefrost never thinking about Rootspring romantically until the last book, their moments together are sweet. Unlike some Warriors couples, they actually have traits about one another that they admire! If the start of this relationship had been thought about at all, it honestly would be a really good pairing with all that Yearning.

Spotfur’s fear of having Stemleaf’s kittens... poor gal. I’m curious if Spotfur’s Rebellion will touch on this at all, alongside fleshing out her and Stemleaf’s relationship. I hope she and Bristlefrost become really good friends beyond the content of this arc... I’d love to see them taking care of the kittens.

THAT ENDING. Good lord I feel so bad for Squirrelflight - I really, really just want the best for her. Please, Erins. Don’t kill her for Bramblestar’s sake. Do anything but that. I don’t think that, after this, Squirrelflight wants to lead ThunderClan - but, who else would do it? No other cat has been built up to be a leader, other than maybe Bristlefrost. Squirrel deserves to live happily. Please just let her be happy.

Kill Bramblestar tho. All the talk about him being a good and honorable leader feels really sour after Moonkitti’s video and Squirrelflight’s Hope. He’s an awful leader.

All in all, it’s a good book. If you’ve been keeping up with this arc, it’s worth picking it up. That ending alone gives me hope that this arc won’t fall flat in the last two books, like AVoS did.

[wc-moonsinger]

Longtail’s Weird Deputy Ceremony - EFB AU

Graystripe, Thunderclan’s current leader (though inactive) was having anxiety about leading his clan, even though he has no power with Bloodclan and Scourge are constantly dominating them. He lived solely to take care of Storm and Feather (Stormpaw and Featherpaw) and completely disregarded his leadership until Sandstorm disappeared. He would’ve asked Sandstorm to be his deputy but she had Leaf and Squirrel to take care of. He goes to Longtail and asks for his help.

Because any ceremony and/or mention of Starclan is forbidden, he had his own way of promoting Longtail, without mentioning Starclan. It is still approved by their ancestors, as they considered this an emergency and the situation is kinda sticky.

I really like this Longtail design, but it’ll probably change a lot lol. Love inconsistency.