#You could have swapped the Bracken cameo with any other elder and it would have been the same
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bonefall · 1 year ago
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You may have answered this before, but how are you handling characters that don't believe in starclan, like mothwing and cloudtail? Personally I thought it was interesting when reading the books, considering cloudtail, but only to a point because it's very hard to write atheist characters in a setting where there's undeniable proof of the gods/spirits/etc. Like, how did they explain the literal forces of heaven and hell battling on earth??
As An Atheist Myself ™ I have a lot of feelings about the two of them. I think the short answer is just that in a setting where gods are literally undeniable facts of life, "Atheism" looks more like Dystheism, the belief that they exist, but are not worthy of worship.
That seemed to be the conclusion at the end of Mothwing's... i forgor the name of her novella 💀Mothflight's Blaspheme Boogie. It's actually why it's one of my favorite novellas, I really like the way it closes out with Mudfur trying to sales pitch StarClan's goodness to her, she doesn't buy a fucking penny of it, and ultimately concludes that the comfort it provides to her Clanmates is valuable to them but doesn't have to be for her.
So that's how I want to handle them. They have an outsider perspective to the fact that this is a theocracy, based on gods that can be vindictive and vengeful. Scourge/Iceheart is also joining these two, he actually is going to have a minor but important role in Squirrelflight's Horror as a ghost basically giving insight to what happens when you don't worship StarClan when you die.
With him and Mothwing I really know what I'm doing. Mothwing is insight to Leafpool, especially in TNP where she is now a POV, and observing how the though of StarClan influences the behavior of the cats around her. Scourge is killed in the Great Battle and serves as a ghost to witness their trial. Cloudtail...
Cloud's still evolving. He's going to be a supporting character with Ferncloud in her SE and exploring the feelings he has towards Ashfur, now his apprentice, becoming a villain. How he did his job perfectly, raised him with a deep respect towards the warrior code, and that lead to the person he is today. How he couldn't have done things "better" because this DID raise him the way his society expected him to.
But his dystheism is kind of secondary to that. I think the story I've got for him is fine so far, but it needs more of an 'ending' that I can't decide on until they finally kill him in the main books.
#Bone babble#honestly chief I hate that Cloudtail is still alive#I wish that ThunderClan lost an elder in that last outbreak#I profoundly dislike how the elder's den contains 4 cats the Erins found too marketable to kill#3 of them from the same litter#In my heart Brackenfur died in Po3 and Brambleclaw followed him as deputy#And Thornclaw is a villain#It's FRUSTRATING that they can't let go of these TPB cats and their dynamics as a group are boring#They're nothing like the elder's den in TPB because THAT elder's den actually had dynamics#One-eye was old and wise but hard to get information out of because of her age#Smallear was a frequent problem and extremely nasty#Half and Patch were more friendly and welcoming especially to Cloudpaw#That's good!#But THIS elder's den is generic nice old people now. If they even get screentime at all#Wasted opportunity to turn Thornclaw into the new Smallear#especially since we had a whole thing with Nightheart being a brat#You could have swapped the Bracken cameo with any other elder and it would have been the same#Cloudtail should have been dead by now#Dead actually doing something#In fact fuck like... ONE change to the warrior series without changing anything else?#Cloudtail should have gone into the DF to confront ashfur not fucking Graystripe#Squilf's cousin and ashfur's adopted brother#graystripe stop DOING this to me I LIKE you im one of the only people in my circle who DOES#You're ANNOYING with how much screentime you soaked up you dripping wet writer's pet#Cloudtail hasn't done anything in like 20 years#He's still completely coasting off being a TPB cat#Can't believe this turned into Yelling at Cloudtail hour
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