#ashfur does not feel the same lol

[the-owl-tree]

I'm just saying I think Ashfur being Hollyleaf's mentor would have been more interesting than him being Lionblaze's...

soooooo true, i think with tbc it would have been really interesting if we got to see more of this code revering side of ashfur who hammered in the importance of being faithful to it in hollyleaf. like not only does that add to both their characters, her murdering the mentor who instilled her values into her.....mwah very nice

[sparrowsoupp]

so a ‘swiftpaw lives’ au is nothing new here BUT hear me out:

in this au, everything happens as it does in the first arc up to the night where swiftpaw and brightpaw sneak out of camp to fight the dogs. as they are leaving, cloudtail somehow sees/hears/notices and is obviously suspicious so trails them into the forest secretly.

as they get closer to the dogs’ den he realises their plan and confronts the pair, trying to get them to return to camp. swiftpaw is defiant and argues back, escalating into a fight as cloudtail tries to physically knock some sense into swiftpaw. brightpaw looks on in horror trying to break up this fight. this is obviously not a very quiet battle, considering the participants are two bullheaded teenage boys, and so the dogs are woken up anyway.

swiftpaw leaps into action as brightheart freezes in paralysing fear. as a dog lunges at her, cloudtail notices and leaps into the dog’s jaws, pushing brightpaw out of the way in the process. in a burst of fear and strength, brightpaw notices swiftpaw unconcious and unable to move with a missing leg and grabs him to run away, escaping from the dogs and leaving cloudtail to bleed out and die (hence the main catalyst for differences in this au: cloudtail dies in swiftpaw’s place). she doesn’t realise this at the time, hoping cloudtail will understand since he is still up and fighting, and not thinking about the consequences of leaving one cat alone to fight a pack of dogs.

bluestar renames them in the same way lostface was named in the original arc, brightpaw being renamed lostface and swiftpaw being named dogleg, and fireheart is ANGRY with the pair (and himself) for the needless loss of his nephew’s life. no renaming ceremony is held, and they are made to keep their names in rememberance of their foolishness. (sidenote: i think this would also spark a major shift in fireheart’s good nature and personality, leading to MAJOR knockon effects for the rest of the series, but i haven’t thought about it too much yet and also i need to reread the books) and because cloudtail isn’t around to advocate for lostface’s warrior retraining, she is relegated to be a medicine cat and never really emotionally recovers in the same way she could in the books because cloudtail isn’t around to offer her that emotional support. she also very much blames herself for letting him fight a battle that he never signed up to fight and dying in the process, the overwhelming levels of guilt weighing on her constantly to the point where cats are a little creeped out by how empty even her remaining eye looks.

on the other hand (paw?), dogleg is left seething with anger and bitterness towards his clan. (i imagine him after the attack as a somewhat ashfur-like character, except much more extreme) a lot of his toxicity and anger would be taken out on lostface, one of the only cats he talks to anymore, and instead of brightheart and cloudtail entering a very healthy and positive relationship instead lostface ends up in a secret (VERY toxic) relationship with dogleg. she remains attached to him i think because of the trauma they experienced together. i have to think more about that, though. (maybe even kits?)

in the end something something dogleg forces lostface to start poisoning food as the clan’s medicine cat to take revenge on other cats like bluestar or fireheart. i think this culminates in dogleg turning very traitorous somehow.

that’s what i have so far! feel free to sends asks/tag with suggestions or ideas of knockon effects of this change. thanks for reading this big ol paragraph of me rambling about cats lol, appreciate y’all 🦭👍

[bonefall]

Warrior cats finds new ways to be misogynistic every day, I swear. We can't even get a full on "this relationship was abusive," we get a handwavey "[it was] problematic to say the least." And we only get THAT much in the context of laying the blame on Yellowfang for Ashfur's presence in StarClan. Her "pRoBleMaTic" relationship was only acknowledged because they directly connected it to Ashfur and letting him into StarClan, because poor Yellowfang and her skewed idea of what constitutes health love are to blame for why Ashfur was in the position he was in StarClan... MAYBE??? Because this article WRITTEN BY THE "STORY TEAM" is written like it's by a fan just throwing out theories! Just before the Yellowfang section is a part where they basically blame him being in StarClan on Hollyleaf for killing him! "The manner of his death MAY have been what clinched his place among the stars" and "PERHAPS StarClan took the deceitful circumstances surrounding his death into account and felt he deserved to live on in StarClan, despite his faults."

It really feels like they looked at this question of "how could such a violent, hateful man be let into StarClan where he could then become the main antagonist of a whole other arc later on" and answered it with "lol. Idk. But maybe these two individual women are to blame because they fucked up? StarClan isn't infallible and all, but we're gonna spend a few paragraphs specifically focusing on these two individual women being to blame before we start questioning StarClan's decisions as a whole."

SO TRUE GO OFF

God forbid we ask bigger questions about StarClan being flawed, ZOOM IN on these two women! Maybe it's his ATTEMPTED MURDER VICTIM'S fault he's in heaven because she successfully killed him!

I realized the article was from a few years ago, which feels even worse honestly. How the hell can you write this and then end your stupid arc on a cutesy StarClan oopsie, "Even we make mistakes sometimes 8)" while coming down so hard on Dark Forest redemptions in the same breath? Does SC believe in redemptions like the article says or not?

[morningmask27]

Ivypool's heart rant under the cut lol

WHISTLEPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW, my little Whis is important, WHISTLEPAW is a big part of the story (hopefully). Oh boy, I hope they won't do Whis too wrong with this book or I'll go fight the Erins myself.

this little scene was very funny to me. Whistlepaw is a shit fighter confirmed

we also get descriptions for the new children, FINALLY. Don't think anyone expected Branchkit to be fully white, but the Erins like being chaotic with their pelt colors, so whatevz. I've already played with fully white kits in this family, Branchkit is deaf now.

Anyways, I am pretty okay with Ivypool and Rootspring hanging out to mourn Bristlefrost. It's touching in a way that they bond over this shared grief (also impressed they mentioned Antpelt. They do remember things from time to time. Impressive)

The way they made Wrenflight have a crush on Rootspring does annoy me just a bit. Crush shenanigans will obviously annoy me personally more, but they truly couldn't find anything better to do and they had to make A Girl fall for Root? (Also I don't know my SkyClan family tree that well surprisingly enough, so I don't have the ability to immediately say if these two are closely related. It seems okay, but who knows). They also made her a

whoopsies </3

However I truly don't feel like Ivypool should be deputy at all in such a situation. It's stated multiple times that she hasn't done a good job at her tasks or even Be On Time and I do wonder why Squirrelstar never immediately choose Cinderheart to be her deputy (also girlpower <3). I am slightly aggravated with Ivypool's worries that she'd be replaced on the long term by Cinder, who in two phrases looks to be such a better deputy than Ivy, so that weird entitlement was a bit annoying tbh. Hope it gets addressed, but I assume it won't.

Fernsong is a nothing character and that doesn't change all that much. He's ~moved on~ with Bristlefrost's death and it does characterize him a bit, but goddamn I didn't know who I found more annoying when he and Ivy were talking. Thriftear and Flipclaw look like they'll be completely forgotten by the story after their one Obligatory Scene and it's a bit disappointing. Fernsong did mention multiple times specifically taking care of the kits, but in such vague terms that it just sounds stupid. Why are the Erins still so wishy-washy about having Fern live up to his earlier promise?

God, just get a divorce if you're not going to talk at this point. Wdym The Father of the kit you just lost doesn't understand the grief you're going through. Okay he's a cardboard made to feel whatever's necessary, but still, this is dumb

*chanting* divorce divorce divorce divorce

Anywaaaaaaays. Harestar gets one emergency gathering, as a treat <3

That was Whistlepaw's little sister, so obviously that would be traumatic (I will bite the Erins if they forget in the rest of the book) and

Whistlepaw does not like public speaking. Whis already had a same-ish reaction last time in Thunder when lying about Frostpaw's death, so this is a funky character trait.

Anyways, Whis <3 (they also don't let Whis finish explaining that damned dream. Constantly interrupting with useless comments. Goddamnit, you don't help a cat that doesn't like public speaking already by constantly speaking up and stopping the story)

And as I yelled in another post, Cloverfoot gets a few good lines here. Not a lot, but she's rational

Whistlepaw gets two free mom's

I find the group of cats so funny to. Ivypool, deputy of ThunderClan and hero of the dark forest, Dovewing, one of The Three super powered cats that saved the Clans, Rootspring, light in the mist, helped to defeat Ashfur and has sister powers, Icewing (joins a bit later), senior warrior of RiverClan, trained in the dark forest too and then there's Whistlepaw, apprentice with a dream. (This will make for a funny daily Whis drawing lol)

[hadescabin]

why do you want to get rid of tigerdove instead of trying to fix it??? no shade or anything.

TW// GROOMING, MANIPULATION because quite honestly, there's nothing there to fix. it's just bad from the bottom down. i've seen really great rewrite aus that age tigerheart down to dovewing's age, so that they pursue each other as apprentices, which is something i considered doing since it doesn't really change much in terms of the story. however, i've come to the realization that the age gap isn't the only thing wrong with the relationship. That aside, Tigerheart is very manipulative and awful towards Dovewing, throughout the entirety of the time they've known each other, and even now that they have kits. Someone in my TigerDove is grooming post brought up a great example of how he even went out of his way to have a whole incel breakdown to Ivypool when she stood up for herself and cut off their relationship when he was trying to pressure her back in.

("Your sister who I've groomed since she was 13 put her friends and family over me" is a crazy thing to say and rage about btw. People like to say that bumbledove is worse for the incel stuff, have completely forgotten that Tigerheart, or many men in the series really, throw a fit when they don't get what they want. It's just worse when you keep in mind that he spends 4 books isolating and manipulating her into a relationship with him since the moment she was a child, and lovebombing her when she fights back. See: their argument about Dawnpelt in The Last Hope). People seem to have this misguided view that Tigerheartstar is this sweet himbo blorbo who loves his wife and kids, when in reality he's the complete opposite. Canon establishes him as someone who is very sneaky and great at manipulating the people around him to get what he wants. This isn't just an "Ivypool is biased" thing (though I do admit that she does hold some), it's just canonically established as the type of person tigerheart is.

(This actually isn't the first time someone points it out in the book, though I decided to stick with Squilf since she is a lot more reliable than someone like Bramblestar LOL). While it's certainly true that he cares a lot about his family, to the point where he selfishly puts them above everything else, it's also true that he just isn't the best father. Let's not forget how he actively victim blamed Shadowsight for being manipulated by Ashfur, and ordered him to constantly remain in close proximity to care for someone who took advantage of him. Between that and him kicking out nomads from their own territory, Tigerheartstar can be interesting in the way that he's consistently written as having these glaring flaws such as poor judgement and selfishness. Which, as much as I hate the guy, I do like that about him, and therefore wish to keep that in. However, I run into 2 problems. To start off, I don't feel comfortable writing a grooming relationship in my rewrite, it's not a subject I wish to touch. Second of all, even if I do age down Tigerheartstar, I really don't want Dovewing to be trapped in an abusive relationship, especially since her arc is about escaping that. It wouldn't make sense for her to escape to the same clan of the guy who manipulated her. It honestly makes more sense if they just remain good friends, not every forbidden meetup plot line needs to be romantic (like Firestar sneaking out to meet Princess). Maybe there will be a point in time where Tigerheart(or Goldenheart/paw in my rewrite) tricks Dovepaw for herbs or something, but it's established as awful on his part, and it very much nearly ends their friendship, which serves as a small wakeup call for him (Goldenheart is very spoiled in my rewrite so he's just used to doing whatever to get what he wants even at the expense of others). I don't know though, I still need to workshop it. TLDR: Outside of the massive age gap, similarly to relationships like BrambleSquirrel, TigerDove is unintentionally written to be too toxic (in this case it's grooming) for me to try and fix. "Fixing" TigerDove, would be "fixing" Tigerheartstar, which you really can't do, since him being awful is just his character. I really don't feel comfortable trying to pretty up a grooming relationship anyways, best to cut it out. edit: i decided the "evidence" i used with jayfeather wasn't exactly accurate in showing what I was trying to say, and that it would be best to cite from a more recent book. so i decided to replace it with an excerpt from Squirrelflight's Hope. dont get me wrong though it's still very much an example of him being antagonistic in the series even way back during OOTS.

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Personal Ranking of Warriors Novellas

Nobody has asked for this, but I decided to do it anyway because no one can stop me. I have finished all 21 of the existing Warriors novellas (took me a month bc the library was slow lol), and am going to rank them from my favorite to least favorite. In most cases this is vibes-based rather than based on the quality of writing, because they're all kind of the same level of bad. I'll try to include a short summary of each plot as well.

Ravenpaw's Farewell - I went in expecting this to be the gay one, but WOW was it gay. It's set before SkyClan left to join the other Clans at the lake, and details how Ravenpaw and his husband Barley helped their niece and nephew Bella and Riley journey to SkyClan to hopefully become warriors. Ravenpaw has been a favorite of mine since basically the beginning, so getting to see him one last time AND getting a lot of adorable gay shit with him and Barley was a fucking delight. Ravenpaw sadly thinking they've never spent a night apart since he first moved in and Barley coming to apologize after a big fight and saying "my home is wherever you are" and Ravenpaw delaying his place in StarClan so he can be there for Barley when he dies, and the last line is him as he dies thinking "I'll wait forever for you" HELLO????? This is romance, happy Pride!!!!

Mistystar's Omen - Me placing this one so high is for a couple of silly reasons: a) I just have a soft spot for Mistystar and I liked seeing more of her, and b) I liked that it contained a character growing and changing their opinion even if it was for goofy reasons. The bar is on the floor lmfao. This one is centered around Mistystar's discovery of Mothwing being an atheist, and the fallout of that. We love drama! We love betrayal, even imagined betrayal! I really don't think the series has properly explored how the atheist cats interact with the rest of their Clan who does believe in StarClan, and I got a lot of that in this one and mmmm delicious. It did get some of the timeline completely wrong, but based on vibes I kind of loved this one.

Spotfur's Rebellion - I like that some of these novellas are set during an existing book and just deals with some of the stuff happening in the background. This is about Spotfur fucking around a bunch in her youth, finding ways to break the rules up until she realizes she's going to have to break the rules to help her Clan (i.e. take down not-Bramblestar). I like that Spotfur did a lot of stupid shit when she was younger, because I feel like even when POV characters fuck up, the narrative is almost always on their side, so it's kind of fun to get to see a character getting in trouble for fucking around. It's also fun to see not-Bramblestar from the POV of just a bystander, basically. Oh, and I liked her and Stemleaf - I did not feel like we really got a sense of their relationship in the main series 7 so this was some nice backfilled relationship stuff. I liked them rescuing Thriftpaw and coming up with the suggestion to Bramblestar for a new rule to prevent putting more cats in danger. It's fun to just see mundane Clan shit sometimes.

Hollyleaf's Story - This one is about Hollyleaf's time in the tunnels immediately during and after killing Ashfur, and how she met up with Fallen Leaves until she returns in series 4. Hollyleaf is a cop but I always kinda liked her tbh. I find her rigid adherence to the warrior code and the way it fucked with her head interesting. Anyway, it was neat to just hang out with her in a different setting for a bit, and I kind of liked that it never did a big reveal with Fallen Leaves - I can't recall exactly when we find out he's a ghost in the main series, but I feel like the novella did a good job of planting clues but not outright saying it. I also liked the little sidequest she had with the baby fox, and then it not remembering her and attacking her later - nice little bit of realistic tragedy.

Thunderstar's Echo - This deals with Thunderstar having to name a new deputy after the death of his deputy and best friend Lightning Tail; as he did it at moonhigh the day after Lightning Tail's death, this is established as part of the warrior code and laws later. I have the original Code of the Clans edition somewhere and I genuinely cannot remember if there's a contradicting story that explains this rule in there. But anyway, regardless, I enjoyed this one because I think Thunderstar is probably my favorite of the original leaders and it's nice to hang out with him. I liked him outsmarting the dogs after they killed Lightning Tail, and I liked seeing more of his friendship with Lightning Tail earlier in the book. There was also a little moment with him interacting with Clear Sky's younger children where he's touched that they consider him a brother and I just thought that was really cute - I like it when Warriors remembers family bonds outside of the super obvious ones.

Tawnypelt's Clan - This is about Tawnypelt feeling destabilized in ShadowClan after the defeat of Darktail, the death of her mate Rowanstar, and her son Tigerstar returning with his ThunderClan mate Dovewing and their kits. She commits some light kidnapping to try to help one of the kits, who is having seizures and needs to be taken to the Tribe of Rushing Water for help. Now I'm a little biased because Tawnypelt has been one of my faves for a long time, but I do really love hearing from her. I love that she's not always right, and kind of a bitch, and in this story I love that she is confronted with a couple of difficult choices and has to work through them. I'm always happy to see the Tribe too, and I'm an old softie but seeing Stormfur and Brook's children (including the one named Feather) brought a little tear to my eye. I'm not a Shadowsight stan or anything but I like that he got some help with his visions from Skywatcher, and that he got to bond with his grandma. This got me really hyped for more Tawnypelt POV next year in series 9, tbh. Also it dealt with Shadowsight's illness/visions in a way that was compassionate, unlike another story we'll get to later.

Tree's Roots - This is about the first year or so of Tree's life, starting with his life with the Sisters and chronicling some of his time wandering alone up until he meets his father Root, who he bonds with but later loses when Root sacrifices himself to save his son. We got more of the weird lesbian separatist cat colony! (OK they are not lesbians, but also, it's funnier to say that.) I basically just enjoyed getting to hear more about their totally batshit radfem ideas about male cats vs female cats and how when toms die it's chill, because toms are of the earth, so them dying is just returning to the earth?? It was bonkers. Also I cannot recall if we knew that Tree's dad was named Root, and I found that context about his son Rootspring's name really cute. Again, the bar is on the floor and I found the novelty of information fun.

Shadowstar's Life - This one was pretty objectively bad and nonsense but THE DRAMA. It's set right as Shadowstar, the first leader of ShadowClan, is living her final of nine lives, and is uncertain what will happen when she dies for the last time, as she is the first leader to lose all nine lives. I enjoy the way that leaders often get really weird and paranoid in their last life, because it's very stupid and obvious but also very realistic behavior. And in this case it was a mini mystery novel, as Shadowstar tried to sort out who had tried to knock her into the path of a speeding car in AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT. When she finally figures out who it was, there is a very dramatic confrontation and she ends up killing the cat who ultimately kills her, and hearing her confession as she dies.

Leafpool's Wish - This is about Leafpool's discovery of her pregnancy, and how she and Squirrelflight left ThunderClan temporarily to conceal the pregnancy and introduce the resulting kits as Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw's. I am nostalgic for series 2 and I always enjoyed Squirrelflight and Leafpool's relationship, so I enjoyed that aspect of this one a lot. I also appreciated the explanation of how exactly they pulled this switcheroo off, as I always did wonder that lol. I don't know if this was objectively that good but it appealed to my nostalgia!

Daisy's Kin - I make some jokes about Daisy, but I do kind of like that there's a permanent midwife cat in ThunderClan - it's nice that there's space for someone whose skills are not necessarily those of a warrior. In this story, she's experiencing a combo of empty nest syndrome and deep grief from the deaths of all but one of her adult children, and strongly considers leaving ThunderClan for good when her ex Smoky desperately needs assistance with his newborn kits after their mother dies. I really liked the heightened tension in this story - though I knew Little Daisy and Coriander would survive, it was still really stressful reading about their attempts to keep these newborn kits alive without a nursing mother around to feed them. Daisy's inner turmoil made perfect sense, and I enjoyed getting a sense of her character beyond just "midwife" and "mother," although obviously both of those played a significant part in the story. Finally, I thought it was adorable how Mousewhisker was so excited to meet his baby siblings and how he and Daisy promised to come visit them.

Pebbleshine's Kits - I think this is the beginning of a section I will refer to as the Net Zero Information Books. Sometimes these novellas contain interesting insights into characters, or little peeks into events we got hints of in the series, but sometimes they are like this one, which is about Pebbleshine's travels while pregnant after being separated from SkyClan, as they were journeying to the lake. The problem with this is that, while it's an interesting premise, it ultimately cannot contain any new information (except possibly that Pebbleshine and Tree briefly met up, but I think he mentions this in the books proper), and therefore is kind of useless. Wait, actually I did just remember a bonkers thing that happens at the end of this: Pebbleshine opts to become a ghost to watch over her newborn daughters rather than go to StarClan???? Did we know this was a choice they could make before????? I said "what." out loud when I got to this part.

Cloudstar's Journey - Similarly to the above, this story is just leading up to the dramatic scene at the Gathering where ancient SkyClan is forced to leave due to their territory being destroyed. Not much useful information or character insight here, just kind of a bummer. I will give it some points for having cute moments with Cloudstar and Birdflight, but other than that it felt a little pointless. I think I said in an earlier post that this was one of the better ones, and by that I think I meant "this one didn't piss me off." I would've preferred, and I kind of hoped from the title it might indicate, the doomed journey of SkyClan and how/where they all ended up after having to leave.

Dovewing's Silence - This is set directly after The Last Hope and deals with Dovewing, Lionblaze and Jayfeather not having their powers anymore. I don't mind Dovewing; I know she's a divisive character but I like her fine. This just kind of felt a little pointless to me because...we know they lost their powers, and we've seen them living without them in series 6.

Mothwing's Secret - I wish this one had been better, but it just kind of annoyed me. I did like the scene of her and Hawkfrost as kits when they lost their brother and I think it did a good job of fleshing out their relationship and how they felt like they only had each other to depend on. But Mothwing felt weirdly passive in this, in a way that I found kind of OOC? And also I just find Hawkfrost really irritating lmao sorry. I did like that we got some insight into how she interacts with her job as a medicine cat despite her lack of belief in StarClan.

Mapleshade's Vengeance - I had to really work to give this one a fair shot because I find Mapleshade's place in canon so fucking irritating. I love female villains, as y'all know, so I was so into the idea of her! Unfortunately, as we'll get to later, they retrofitted her as the Architect of Everything and that annoys the shit out of me. But anyway, as far as her own novel goes, it's definitely interesting to get her perspective on how she became a Dark Forest cat. Basically, she (a ThunderClan cat) fell in love with a RiverClan cat (Appledusk), lied by omission because her kits' father had murdered a beloved warrior in her own Clan and led the Clan to believe the dead warrior was their father, and then got caught in her lie when the medicine cat had a dream and put the pieces together. While she attempted to explain herself, the Clan refused to listen to her and kicked her and the kits out, and she attempted to take them to RiverClan but unfortunately the river was flooded and the kits all drowned. Then Appledusk confessed their relationship in front of his entire Clan and was berated, but allowed to stay, while Mapleshade was driven out, and vowed vengeance on everyone who had caused her harm. (This was kind of funny because she started having visions of her dead children calling for vengeance, and it reminded me a little of a reverse Hazards of Love 3 except the ghost children didn't kill her themselves, but I imagine this connection was an accident.) Anyway, then she murdered a bunch of cats and got killed herself and as she died, swore vengeance on Appledusk's descendants. I wish this had been better but I found her utter disinterest in taking responsibility for anything, such as her reckless behavior with her children or her wimping out when actually going to lie about her children's father, irritating as all hell. I also just find her really boring and one-note as a villain? At least Curlfeather in series 8 has the decency to be manipulative in an interesting way.

Redtail's Debt - The next three are a trilogy called "don't whine at me about what you should've done." This one is about how Redtail failed to see Tigerclaw's cruelty and ambition until it was too late, because Tigerclaw saved him from a hawk when he was an apprentice and he feels that he owes him for that, and then he accidentally killed Oakheart and got killed by Tigerclaw because he was in the way of Tigerclaw's ambition. Fine concept for a story, I guess. It also includes a scene where Tigerclaw beats the shit out of a random WindClan apprentice for crossing the ThunderClan border, and Redtail doesn't stop him, and then he feels bad about not telling him off for that. I find guilt about inaction in characters only interesting if they actually do something about it - girl, I have plenty of my own guilt, don't make me read about yours too! It also contains some really OOC behavior from a young Ravenpaw, which was the final straw for me. Don't you pretend like my boy ever tried to act like Tigerclaw, because canonically he didn't!!

Blackstar's Reckoning - This story deals with Blackfoot, the future ShadowClan leader, and how he rationalized all his horrible actions as ShadowClan devolved into full fascism under Tigerstar. I didn't have any patience for this shit in the Leopardstar book and I don't have any patience for it here. Fuck this guy and fuck this book for making me read about him and his bullshit justifications.

Pinestar's Choice - The final in the "don't whine at me about what you should've done" trilogy. This one is about how, in his final life, Pinestar begins to crave a simpler life as a kittypet and ultimately renounces his name and place in ThunderClan to go to Twolegplace. I actually don't have a problem with this arc and I think it's really interesting - my main issue with this one is that it decided to bring in a bullshit prophecy about Pinestar's son Tigerclaw, and how he would be the downfall of ThunderClan. And Pinestar went "lol welp I can't do anything about that" and fucked off while thinking "I hope you are raised to be good and brave, my son." Man why don't YOU do something about that instead of literally ignoring him and then fucking off because you were too scared to raise him!!! I don't have a single shred of patience for that bullshit behavior, sir! Truly some "what if the child has bad vibes" nonsense.

Tigerclaw's Fury - This one was shaping up to be alright - it's set immediately after Tigerclaw's banishment from ThunderClan and how he gathers up his rogues and takes over ShadowClan. Unfortunately, this begins what we'll call the "backfilling trilogy." I am totally down for Tigerclaw just being ambitious and wanting power by any means necessary, and I still think he's a really good villain. I am not down for him having had Mapleshade in his head encouraging him to be evil THE WHOLE TIME ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. This sucks!!!! What do you mean she's been there since he was born, speaking in his head like fucking Maximum Ride's weird Voice thing????? I started laughing because I couldn't believe the audacity.

Goosefeather's Curse - I was kind of into this one, although it was a HUGE bummer because basically this poor baby had visions since his literal first day and nobody believed him, and even when he got somebody who did (Cloudberry) she told him it had to be a secret, and no fucking wonder he lost his mind about it! It was kind of a realistic portrayal of untreated mental illness, I'm sorry to say, and how society sweeps it under the rug and refuses to help mentally ill people who desperately need help. And then...suddenly fucking Mapleshade was there, AGAIN, taunting not only Goosefeather but also me, the reader! Bitch, get out of here!! It made me so mad lol.

Spottedleaf's Heart - Surely, I said, this one cannot be that bad! Surely everyone was exaggerating! Oh, poor foolish me. I don't know that I think it's bad for the same reasons as everyone else, to be fair. This one is about Spottedleaf's journey from wanting to be a warrior like her idol Thistleclaw, to eventually discovering how horrible he is and accepting her destiny as a medicine cat. I think everyone hates it for the uncomfortable portrayal of a creep who's grooming Spottedleaf since she was literally a child to be his mate, which is fair because that was gross! Or maybe because it directly contradicts established canon that Spottedleaf always wanted to be a medicine cat. But actually no, the reason I hated it was because ONCE AGAIN they decided to make Mapleshade the fucking architect of every evil character's plans once again!!!! Thistleclaw being in the Dark Forest, stupid and bad but maybe forgivable. Mapleshade being directly involved with his training to the point of him bringing Spottedpaw there to be trained as well? NO I HATE IT WHY DO THIS. Wouldn't she have told someone??? There is no reason to pretend cats were being trained in the Dark Forest that far back, there just isn't. And another thing, she also witnesses Tigerpaw and Thistleclaw beating up baby Scourge - why do this. Why. Do not pretend every character witnessed some significant canon moment (also Bluestar was already there and already saw this happening!). It sucks and I hate it. The end.

[justcallmesolll]

My silly little top tens

yeen rambles #10

stealing this idea from the wonderful @whitestorm4prez bc originality is dead!!!!!!!!!!

anyways ive only read the first arc but most of the major shit was spoiled for me on the internet.

#10 Thrushpelt. i love him!! he's such a nice guy. i feel really bad for him for his one-sided love of Bluestar. she missed out frfr. but even when Bluestar makes it super clear she doesnt like him, does he hold a grudge? no. does he resent her? no. what does he do? become her friend instead. amazing man.

#9 Darkstripe. i think he's both the most hilarious and fucking balling my eyes out sad villain ever at the same time. dude just got fucked over most of his life. i mean i find him sily because every time he tries something, it fails horribly. but at the same time, he's got fucking no-one. he's alone. no friends, nothing. the one guy he trusted with his life turns out to not even care about him at all. i mean seeing him scramble to revive what little there is left of tigerstars plan, seeing everyone leave him, him realising that nobody was truly on his side. his last moments preaching for a dead man who never cared for him. his life being over like that. he never did anything meaningful, and he died like that. im gonna write more abt this a some point but yea!!

#8 Tallstar. his character arc is one of the most heartwarming things ever. yes, he was a shitty leader, but do ya know what? he grew as a person. he changed and made himself better. i also think him and Jake r cute and i LOVE the headcannon that he thought fireheart was jake coming to save him and his clan.

#7 Bluestar. RIGHT OK. i know i say i hate her but by god how can i not like her at the same time???? i mean all her life was just horrible shit. and she stuck through it. i know she was a real bitch coming towards the end of her life, but she stayed, stone faced and understanding to most cats around her. tigerclaw was just the straw that broke the camel's back. but most of her life she was so awesome.

#6 Cloudtail. i think hes such a silly guy!!! he's a big hot-headed atheist!!! silly guy. him and brightheart are so cute together. and yea thats it literally hes just silly thats why i like him

#5 Longtail. I LOVE HIM SM OMGGG the fan service he gets is so good. but the most important thing is his character arc. from being a bully, but all round loyal cat, to desprately trying to prove his loyalty to firestar by any means possible. longtail thinks that firestar sees him as disloyal, but firestar proves him wrong, asking him to come on the journey with him the relationship between them is so nice to see.

#4 Greystripe. what a guy. hes amazing. he puts up with firheart way more than he should have to. i mean fire is a straight up dick to him alot of the time and he sticks with him like a loyal friend. i love him hehehe

#3 Ashfur. if u cant tell already, i like villains. i like Ashfur alot actually. cant help feeling bad for him. mans had a rough time. grew up without a mother, was practically ignored by his mentor, when he finally found someone who gave him a little attention who does undeniably treat him like her mate, she just turns around and goes "yeah no lol i was just w u to make brambleclaw jealous lmao." he was plunked right on his head and left alone with no-one to care about him. the only person who slightly cared about him was his sister, and she was too caught up in her own shit to help. its the sticky feeling you have knowing that if he were just cared for right, he could have turned out just fine. instead, he was neglected and left to become what he did.

#2 Hawkfrost. i love the fan service hawk gets honestly. im a huge fan of the artwork he gets. hes cool. i like the idea of him feeling the need to prove himself to his father. but yea hes just cool thats why i like him tbh.

#1 to absolutely no-ones surprise, my #1 fave warriors character, is SOL. hes so silly. but no fr, hes the funniest fucking villain ever. he sucks ass at being a fucking warrior and he comes accross the clans and is just like "yea yk what im gonna fuck with em." he literally gaslight gatekeep girlbosses all 4 of the clans and he actually gets away with it. i also just like his whole asthetic, and THE FUCKING FAN SERICE HE GETS???? HOLY SHIT ITS SO COOL. i swear you cant make Sol fanart look bad bc hes just so fuckin cool. silly little guy!!

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

Gullswoop? What's she like in your rewrite if she's there at all? If not, just any headcanons in general?

i dunno if gullswoop would be able to have any significance in my rewrite yet cause if she does it's a loong ways away but most likely she'd still be just like a sweety who wants to be supportive

as for headcanons

i think she IS so sweet specifically because she's the last of her litter, and her brother and sister, conefoot and frondwhisker, were both killed within a very short time period, conefoot died in the skirmish with bramblestar and frondwhisker died in the battle between the clans and the rebels that soon followed, she doesn't want any cat to feel the same loneliness that she does, she probably has survivors guilt, she wants to give everyone the support that they need, especially her kin

also she grew up when shadowclan was in turmoil, she was born IN the kin and then brought to thunderclan for refuge, and then once the kin were gone shadowclan was annexed into skyclan, she didn't know a home that was safe or stable until she was basically an apprentice, which i think made her very scared of conflict, any tiny argument scares her that it'll blow up into something so much worse, gullswoop is still so young but has seen so much bullshit between growing up in the kin to tigerheartstar trying to destroy skyclan's camp, which would have been the closest thing to a stable home she had as a kit, to the absolute mess ashfur created within the clans

also i think she's funny, but in like the dry and/or sarcastic kind of way and she doesn't realize how funny she's being really and then she's like "OH that was a good joke lol"

also she's bisexual and has had crushes on quailfeather, plumstone, and now snaketooth

[disgruntleddemon]

I want to hear more about your hypothetical Antfur MAP. How would you pace it, if that makes any sense?? What would happen at the end of the song, where the mouse dies?

oh thank you! i always feel so honored whenever ppl take an interest on my aus, hcs/or map ideas hjkjhjkj

ok so i've definitely forgotten a bit of how i'd do the map, but i'll show the lyrics and the vague ideas i have for what would be happening for each scene. it's kind of long, so i'm gonna put it under the cut.

as for pacing, i definitely have hard time figuring it out. there's just a lot that happens. the song is pretty long tho, so that does help a bit. i think i have the most trouble with his head injury, his death, and his time in the df/starclan. especially cause i always picture it to one section of the song.

this would probably be a bit of Antfur at the church, and then moving to shadowclan feeling hopeful and excited. he has sort of an idealized view of how things are gonna go

this would be Antfur asking his mentor Stonewing about starclan n stuff

Antfur worried he doesn't belong in Shadowclan, also probably worried that he's not allowed in starclan

him having his first battle and feeling very shaken up by it, trying to reassure himself he is a proper clan cat

snow transition to leafbare, with Antfur huddled up in the warriors den. he gets up, determined to keep trying to hunt

dealing with winter, his personal worries, and probably encouraging Blazefire and Cinnamontail. towards the end, it transitions to when snow is starting to melt, and he gets hit in the head by a branch with the hunting patrol

inbetween the these lines and the next ones we see Antfur look dazed and then later in the med den trying to leave still determined to hunt

Antfur out hunting, still clearly dazed. he sees the squirl and chases it up a tree. at the end of "they must want to be friends" he falls and it briefly cuts to black.

at "my stomach starts to turn with thirst, why does it hurt?" we see his ghost reacting to his dead body with horror. near the end we see Ashfur off to the side. "at my just dessert is served, dig in" Ashfur tackles him, and also acts as the transition to the next scene.

Antfur jerks up, and looks around, confused and scared. he's in the dark forest on the little island.

at "now as i lay me down to sleep" we see a more zoomed out view as slowly more and more ghost cats appear, till it's almost crowded on the island.

at "i expect no dreams and no sweet goodbye to me" we see possessed cats fighting everyone

and then at "flatline in the morning light" Ashfur dies and the cats are freed.

Antfur rly just does feel "that was it? all that, and for what?" the cats start to make their way towards starclan (which is the moon lol)

cats are all crowded and talking in starclan. lots of tearful reunions. Antfur doesn't have anyone waiting there for him, he feels isolated and lonely (probably have a scene with lots of activity happening, while he sort of stands there dejectedly)

Conefoot and Frondfur briefly come up to them. he reasures them and shoos them back to their family at "mind me not and i'll mind my own"

at "and my mind held the same light as the one in your eyes" he watches everyone sadly for a moment before walking off to an isolated spot. he looks down on earth below

Antfur sings the first few lines to himself, still looking down on earth. after that we see Cinnamontail down on earth looking up at the moon. probably a split screen with the two of them. after a moment they both get up and start to leave. at that, we cut back to just Antfur.

from there i'd probably have the sound of people talking in the background be Antfur rejoining the other starclan cats. he watches them whistfully, as they don't even rly look at him. at the mousetrap sound effect, it cuts to black

for the map i'd probably wanna focus heavily on Antfur's emotions y'know? he has it pretty rough, but tries so hard to be brave and do his best. but i imagine tbc really wore him down. Conefoot and Frondfur rly are the only starclan cats he would know. and they're part of a big family with lots of cats in starclan. not to mention the fact they were born in shadowclan.

i don't imagine Antfur is sitting there like "man, i wish Cinnamontail and Blazefire would hurry up and die already" but it's definitely gotta be an isolating feeling. i like to imagine him watching Cinnamontail and her new kits from straclan, so happy for her, but sad he can't meet them yet and be a cool uncle lol

i dunno, i just have a lot of feelings on this guy. if i could do a map, this would def be one of the main ones i would want to do

[ihopesocomic]

I know u already did the mp analysis video but like... Honestly u could make an entire video on why hover sucks.

Some of the points brought up on this blog were very powerful and concerning ones. Ie hypocritically expecting nothing to support her while not offering the same, her belittling nothing's disability and abuse faced from her pride, and the most damning thing of all just straight up being okay with nothing dying? Despite joining the pride for her.

It really makes hovers big "redemption moment" devoid of any genuine emotion. She claims to all she loves nothing and this is supposed to be their coming out but... Its not. It really does read like abuser trying to convince their victim or the people around them that their desire to control and own their victim is love.

Itd be one thing if it were an ashfur type esque situation in which Hover does get called out imo the only way to start to salvage that whole plot point in the show, but i doubt itll happen.

Anyways reading the points made on the blog really emphasized how hover and her relationship with nothing never felt right to me.

Sorry for the long rant but you had some very good points and i have feelings on this.

If we hadn't talked about MP already for nearly 3 hours, a Hover-focused video would certainly be tempting.

The thing is that we've stated these points in the review and we've also stated them up and down the comments section of the review a dozen times. Hover fans still think we don't like Hover because of a single argument (which, let's be real, was still pretty shitty on its own?? lol) she had with Nothing.

Because this is what happens when you relate to a character to such an unhealthy degree. You take any kind of shade directed at them as an attack on your character and rather than idk just finding a better and more decent character to relate to, you're just in complete denial that you looked up to a character who is fundamentally a towering, uncaring bitch.

Hover actually serves as a fine example of how messed up the characterisation is in MP. She's presented as radically different from Nothing and her family so people automatically like her because she's a breath of fresh air. In reality, the reason she's radically different is because - basically - she's an unfunny edgelord character in the midst of characters we're meant to feel for and relate to, because we're meant to feel empowered by them. She doesn't fit.

In fact, this is how Hover started out: as an uncaring, aggressive edgy DeviantART OC from the late 2000s, where her crowning moment was throwing the c slur at Hobblestep (Nothing) for simply sharing her oxygen. Unfortunately, she was barely modernised in the rebooted series and this is why she comes across as an asshole. Her creator fell into the age-old trap of thinking that a character being a cool rebel comic relief means being a bitch to everyone in the vicinity. Including her girlfriend. It's a very common issue and is one I've fallen into in the past with previous works but ultimately realised it was a form of bad characterisation.

What's incredibly funny is that the creator tried to humanise Hover and tone her down later on… by having her not be a bitch and be sensitive with the WRONG characters. Like Farleap. She never criticises her for her treatment of Nothing once and, not only that, she sympathises with her and doesn't even bat an eyelid when she bitches about her dead girlfriend. What decent person does that? If anybody shit talked anyone I cared about if they went missing, I'd smack them in the mouth.

And this is why Episode 7 falls flat on its ass so heavily. It’s just trying to humanise Hover by… making her awkwardly bond with her girlfriend’s abusers and - scarily enough - actually making the audience feel they had legit chemistry. Which is all sorts of fucking yikes. lol - RJ

[the-owl-tree]

🤔😱☯️ >:}}c

hi miles :3

🤔 : what's the biggest series plothole that's bugged you?

i think someone else mentioned the whole baby soldiers plotline in tpb being in the same book where bluestar names two babies early sooooo uh why didn't riverclan say anything about how oakheart died. like.....i know why they didn't do it, but the whole an entire clan knows that oakheart didn't kill redtail and instead got crushed by rocks feels like something to work around to me. i know it's what the story needs, i know it would have wrecked the mystery, but it does make me wish that it hadn't been a border raid that redtail was killed in but tigerclaw deliberately and privately luring redtail to sunningrocks to make it look like it was a riverclan warriors' fault.

😱 : how many people have you blocked over innocuous, not at all important warriors related takes?

none lol i guess you could say the wc-confessions blog but i generally don't think it's innocuous takes that made me ban it it's just flat out misogyny sometimes. not blaming the mods, i know it can be difficult to decide which takes to filter and whatnot, but i just blocked.

idk generally it's never really the take itself that makes me do a block but usually the tone, how they speak about others, and so on. like if you are constantly telling people to kill themselves, i'm blocking you lol

☯️ : what dynamic between two cats has got you up at night pacing for hours? (romantic, platonic, familial, etc)

leafpool and hollyleaf drive me insane i think leafpool should have had multiple moments in the series where she can't enter her own den because she remembers her own daughter trying to kill her own. where alderheart or jayfeather catch her staring at where they used to store the deathberries during sunrise.

more of an obvious one but my hc cinderholly. i will forever cling onto my hc that cinderheart knew hollyleaf killed ashfur and covered for her ("hollyleaf what have you done?"). i could put so many problems into these two.

[vixen-flower]

Shadowsight Should Kill Ashfur, Here’s Why

I know he’s a medicine cat but hear me out — out of all the cats (except Squirrelflight. If she does it I am also fine lol) it makes the most sense and would be the most interesting for him to kill Ashfur.

Here’s why :

We haven’t had a protagonist kill a villain since DOTC / NP

Iirc, the last time we got a protagonist in main series kill a villain was Thunder and One-eye. One-eye wasn’t a villain on the level of Darktail or Ashfur though, so we could go even further back to NP and say that Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost’s battle was the last time we had a built-up fight between a protagonist and a villain. While Hollyleaf killed Ashfur, this was not something we saw on screen. It would be interesting to have one of our protagonists kill Ashfur.

Shadowsight has the most connection to Ashfur outside of the protagonists

Shadowsight is a better candidate than Bristlefrost or Rootspring because he has the most connection to Ashfur. I probably don’t need to explain this part much, but obviously he was manipulated, abused, and hurt by Ashfur. It would be much more emotional to watch a fight between Shadowsight and Ashfur than Rootspring and Ashfur, especially since the latter pair barely know each other / interact and it would feel like any other villain take-down. But Shadowsight *knows* Ashfur. We’ve been built-up to this. Shadowsight has a personal reason to be angry at Ashfur. It would be a good character moment for him.

Shadowsight would be able to rid himself of his guilt

Shadowsight this arc has been very passionate about fixing what he started & is extremely guilty for what he’s done. Killing Ashfur is the best way to “fix what he started.” I’m really not sure how he could do so if he didn’t. Saving StarClan is great, but that’s not something Shadowsight himself caused. Saving Bramblestar might be another way he could “fix what he started,” but that’s already happened, and Rootspring saved Bramblestar, not him. I feel like this is the last option for him to redeem himself. Not just for other cats, but to himself.

Shadowsight would have to do the one thing he was hesitant to do

Shadowsight himself has always been pretty non-violent until he has been forced to. Example, he tried to avoid getting in a fight in TPONS until he saw Squirrelflight in danger, to which he attacked Ashfur because he had no other choice. Having a passive character like Shadowsight have to kill is SO much more interesting than having a warrior character do it. Especially as a medicine cat, especially one who is so vehemently opposed to killing, I wonder how he would dealing with killing Ashfur, even if he is a horrible person. Shadowsight tries to avoid fighting but gets drawn to it anyways. It’s just more unexpected from him. While a final battle between Ashfur + Shadowsight would be more interesting if Bramblestar was still possessed (imagine — Shadowsight has to kill Bramblestar, the very thing he tried to avoid all arc!), it still seems like the best option to me story-wise.

Shadowsight has fought him before

Er, kind of. Ashfur tried to kill Shadowsight at the end of TST. Then, in TPONS, Shadowsight attacked Ashfur. He did a little better than the last time, but he still got gravely injured. He did, however, manages to help Bramblestar and Squirrelflight. It would be interesting if we got a third and final fight between these two where Shadowsight finally wins, once and for all. I feel like, with protagonist vs villain fights, we’ve never seen the protagonist lose twice in a fight before. It would be another interesting development to see Shadowsight finally win against Ashfur after so many loses and so much build-up.

Anyways, here are the other candidates for Ashie-Murderer and why it shouldn’t be them

1. Rootspring (He has no connection to Ashfur and it’s really just not subversive. Ashfur has not hurt him personally, it would be a generic hero story)

2. Bristlefrost (Tbh I think Bristlefrost could’ve been a good candidate too since she spied for Ashfur/Manipulated by him, but truth be told, it’s not on the same level of Shadowsight and Ashfur’s relationship. Also, her character has been kinda sidelined the past few books. It would be strange for a final battle between Bristlefrost and Ashfur with no build-up)

3. Bramblestar (I feel like dude has had his time to shine and there are better, newer characters who could kill Ashfur. He has had the development, he doesn’t need more. Frankly, I’m tired of this dude)

4. Squirrelflight (Well I’m fine with her doing it, she has even more reasons than Shadowsight. If it can’t be Shadowsight, it should be her, or else I’ll be very mad lol. Unrelated, but have you noticed how women in warriors barely ever fight with the main villain??? wtf??)

5. Snowtuft (While Ashfur stole his home + Snowtuft could redeem himself by ending Ashfur, I just feel like he hasn’t been developed enough to have such an important role. It would be shitty if such an important role in the story was handed off to a side-character. I’m gonna be honest, Snowtuft’s redemption isn’t really a redemption because we don’t know what he did / he doesn’t really face consequences. He’s already a good cat now. He’s interesting, but not enough to end the TBC conflict that he *just* got involved in)

6. Someone else??? (Stemleaf??? Idk man maybe his ghost spirits do a Scar and all group together to eat him. That’d be kinda metal ngl, and a bit subversive for warriors?)

I know medicine cats don’t get involved in fights, but gosh — it would be so good storywise for Shadowsight to do so. I’m crossing my fingers. I don’t think it’ll happen — I feel like Rootspring and Bramblestar are all more likely, but if it does happen, I’ll do a happy dance :]

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I'm really nervous about the new series. I feel that, inevitably, it will fall back into the same patterns we've been complaining about for years. No hate to the Broken Code but I couldn't even bring myself to read one book because I was so frustrated with that contrived Ashfur plot (tho there are some genuinely cool/creepy scenes in that arc). Like with choosing Flamepaw as a protagonist- I literally don't care about him. It's hard to care when everyone is related to Firestar now and everyone feels the weight of his legacy- he's literally Special McSpecial, protagonist extraordinaire. I don't want more poorly done romances and young couples who have kits way too soon. I want something different. TBC was trying to be different but it made a lot of the same mistakes. I think that so long as greed rules the series, change will not come easily. Also the authors are middle aged women (mostly) and their views of society is probably really outdated. Their idea of empowering is having Ivypool be a cool spy and Mapleshade be an absolute evil queen, when in reality Ivy became a generic background cat after she got a mate and had kits and Maple's life just kinda revolves around a man. Didn't they say that they don't want any female villains apart from Mapleshade for whatever reason? Real nice. Sorry for the negativity, I'm just frustrated.

(Also did you get the very long Bumblestripe AU ask? If not I'll resend it, thanks.)

To start off about the Bumblestripe ask, if I haven’t posted it then I didn’t get it sorry, I’ll definitely answer it if you resend - sorry about that, tumblr just doing what it does best I guess

And onto your ask here

And yeah I agree with most of what you say here, although obviously I actually read TBC lol, and I am intrigued about Flamepaw, but I do feel atm he might be the weakest protagonist next arc

And yeah it’s hard to feel positive about the future of these books at times, especially with all the recent controversies surrounding domestic abuse, misogyny, and ableism with these books. I still remain hopeful things can change however, but I don’t think anything drastic will happen soon

Although I am pretty excited about these new books, but unfortunately it’s been a trend recently when we get a spectacular first half of an arc then an ok to bad second half, I really hope that trend changes

[dovewingz]

ok heres my ghost/unfinished business au nobody asked for. it doesn’t have a solid plot or anything yet lol so its more like a string of ideas

summary: actually im just quickly adding this because these notes are A Bit Long. basically after hollyleaf kills ashfur he becomes a ghost instead of going to starclan and they get stuck together. this becomes especially apparent after hollyleaf runs away into the tunnels and gets lost (fallen leaves isnt there in this), so she and ashfur have to work together. it was made for the laughs (because the trope of two enemies being forced to work together is Funny to me), but it definitely has some angst/character growth potential and thats what i like in my stories :)

everything stays the exact same up until ashfur’s death

so a little while ashfur dies, he wakes up in the living world and quickly realises hes a ghost

for a while he just wanders around aimlessly, but there comes a distance where he cant go any further. when he tries to travel past a certain point, his wound really hurts (as tho it were fresh) + bleeds blue ‘blood’

while hes discovering that, hollyleaf is back at camp freaking out because she can feel fresh blood on her paws and the fur around her mouth feels damp (even tho she already washed herself clean). she assumes this is her guilt/trauma manifesting itself

something something something thunderclan find ashfur’s dead body + bring him back to camp. he follows them and realises that nobody can hear/see him (although hollyleaf seems to tense up everytime he says something. hmmmm)

he gives up on trying to push past the magic barrier and stays in thunderclan in hope things will sort themselves out or smth. he avoids holly at first bc to be honest hes a bit scared of her. occasionally it feels like shes looking directly at him which freaks him out

maybe like half way through the moon (since he died on the night of the gathering) he finally approaches her. hes in the middle of insulting her probably when she yells at him to shut up !!!!! which Definitely shuts him up momentarily because Wait You Can Hear Me????

holly is trembling + panicking, begging ash to leave her alone. she assumes this also isnt real/is her guilt n trauma manifesting. the rest of thunderclan are very confused/concerned. it all results in holly running out of camp and ash following her

insert emotional scene/fight where ash is trying to explain himself but holly is panicking so much that she attacks him. her paw swipes/claws over his neck wound which causes him to quite literally disappear. ashfur is suddenly gone and holly starts to calm down

a little while later ashfur blips back into existence. ‘what the fuck’ he thinks and immediately goes to find holly again 

alright alright thats as much ‘solid’ plot as ive got. here are some other ideas that will be worked in tho

holly gradually becomes less panicked by ashfur being there (partially bc it becomes more obvious that he isnt an actual threat, just a nuisance). however she does continue to believe he isnt real for a while

this is a contributing factor to her revealing the truth abt her parents at the gathering, cause she believes it’ll some how ‘set her free’

ofc this plan does not work as after she runs away, ashfur is there in the tunnels with her. but now hes actually stuck with her bc they are genuinely lost in the caves. in this au there arent many exits and fallen leaves isnt there to guide her

(idk what happens to fallen leaves in this but the important thing is hes not in the tunnels with holly. ive left some ideas for him below for my fallen leaves fans)

so basically over time holly/ash realise that this is some ‘unfinished business’ stuff and that they HAVE to help each other if they wanna stop being stuck together

its kind of like purgatory/punishment for ashfur (helping the cat he tried to kill + who killed him) and then also a way for holly to deal with her Own family issues

also yes holly essentially reenacting his death/attacking his wound makes him disappear for a little while. he literally just blips out of existence. this is very annoying, for him

and yes also the ‘magic barrier’ is dependent on where holly is. ash is tied to her. idk how far out he can go before hes kept back but he probably cant leave the caves

at some point holly will find the exit but quickly realise that shes not ready to return to thunderclan yet. an emotional, heart-to-heart moment for them or whateva

while these notes have been very general/a bit serious i do wanna say that i initially created this au for the laughs. like ashfur is so very annoying & holly is deeply done with him. it really is just the trope of ‘enemies being put into a room and having to work things out’

i guess its a bit of an ashfur redemption au which i know is not everyones thing. i wouldnt call it a ‘everybody forgives the bad guy!’ au tho and more ‘bad guy realises that he messed up and learns to be better’ with a bonus of ‘enemies to sort-of-begrudging-friends’

potentially ashfur dies for holly during the great battle + fades bc i know that i want her to live. if he doesnt then ash will probablyyy go to starclan because i cant see any other afterlife quite making sense for him

spare fallen leaves notes for u

idea one: he also has some kind of unfinished business or connection to jay’s wings/jayfeather/the three. after he helps jayfeather in the power of three he goes elsewhere (where? idk)

idea two: he never dies in the tunnels in the first place. he makes it out alive and becomes a sharpclaw

idea three: he does get lost in the tunnels but after finding a way out, he takes it

[leporellian]

the starclan council: My Concept

so the idea of having a council in starclan is actually pretty neat but the books messed it up (like everything else lol) so here’s my Take on it. this also uses my ideas of the founders’ spirits being eldritch abominations in addition to rock and midnight actually being the moonstone and moonpool respectively 

- the ‘council’ itself is made up of thunderstar, riverstar, skystar, shadowstar, windstar, gray wing, and moth flight. some high-ranking cats in starclan (ie particularly notable leaders and medicine cats, and even a few warriors who have tall tales about themselves still told) are allowed to -attend- council meetings, but they can’t do much to influence them. 

- moth flight is eldritch-looking, like the others on the council. she basically is a massive swarm of moths, which ranges from serene-looking to downright nightmarish.

- the council members all have an instinctual vision as to what will happen next in the clans. it’s a blurry ‘gut feeling’ style vision that even they interpret differently among themselves. they arrange meetings not only to decide on who does and does not go to starclan, but to arrange prophecies to tell the clan cats of these instinctual gut feelings.

- generally, council meetings for prophecies go like this: windstar, shadowstar, moth flight, or even in some cases gray wing proposes a prophecy. another- usually another of those four or skystar when he’s feeling a bit of his old self in him- counters the idea, pointing out obvious flaws it has. thunderstar, the bleeding-heart, argues in favor of the clan cats themselves*, and tends to shy away from prophecy at all. riverstar takes neither side, cryptically saying both sides are correct and then not elaborating on how. they then all get together and ‘approve’ the prophecy (or rather, really, only 4 of the 7 approve them) and give the prophecy to a chosen starclan denizen, who then gives it to the living.

- the prophecies have been known to get mangled in translation, which has led to... Mishaps, to say the least. the council generally only cares about it if it makes them look bad.

- there have also been several times where the prophecy itself wasn’t accurate of what actually happened. but to the council, it’s the clans’ fault for being inherently fallible mortals, not theirs.

- starclan denizens are terrified of what happens if they do not follow the council’s beck and call. the council does not care for how it makes the starclan denizens look- which has led to a lot of explaining on the behalf of cats like yellowfang, who are forced to act nothing like they were in life to suit the council. everyone knows something happens to those who betray the council- but nobody knows what it is. all that is known is that they are There one day, and Not There the next...

- why have prophecies in the first place? well, the council is terrified of change. in their mind, they made The Perfect System, which allows no room for error whatsoever. despite many amendments made to the warrior code over the years changing clan life anyway, in their eyes it is The Same As It Always Was, and there is no need to change old systems of rule because they worked then and clearly must work now. (one could compare this to certain human governments today, but i will leave that connection for you to make.)

- rock and midnight/the moonstone and moonpool both have grievances with the council, but they never speak of them, instead purposely enabling the council because their own lifeblood depends on the clan cats whole-heartedly believing in the good of starclan.

- and the good of starclan does exist! but it is in the ‘common masses’ of deceased spirits... not the council that governs them all.

- some wonder if someday the council could be overthrown, and the common starclan masses could rule- but this is only a far-off dream... unless?

* note that thunderstar taking pity on the clan cats does not make him the good guy- quite a few murderers and evil cats, such as one speckled tabby by the name of ashfur, have been let into starclan because thunderstar is naive and takes pity on practically anything with a heartbeat.

[cloverpurr]

warrior cats headcanons bc why not!

these are mostly design headcanons but ehhhhh whatever

1. crowfeather and jayfeather look extremely similar. i like to think that jayfeather got crofeather's lanky, skinny and tall body type. he looks more like a typical windclan cat than a thunderclan cat, and is definitely taller than his littermates (and even leafpool!) hollyleaf is definitely up there in height and got crowfeather's windclan genes too, but she passes more as a thunderclan cat than jayfeather. lionblaze on the other hand is big, bulky, stumpy, much like leafpool. i also like to think he looks a bit like his great grandfather jake

2. crowfeather carries a silver and gray/black feather and a jay's feather behind his ear, to honor feathertail and jayfeather. jayfeather does the same with a single crow's feather. idk i just like to think that crowfeather isn't ALL that much of an asshole and doesn't completely disown his and leafpool's kits

3. dovewing and ivypool both have heterochromia! dovewing has a green right eye and a blue left eye, while ivypool has a green left eye and a blue right eye!

4. instead of all of bluestar's kits looking like her (with the exception of mosskit, but to be fair she doesnt look all like oakheart either), stonefur's body type is much more similar to oakheart (bulky and somewhat muscular), and he has yellowish/amber eyes. mistystar is almost a carbon copy of bluestar with the exception that she has lighter more icy blue eyes than bluestar. i like to think mosskit looks the same as her canon description but one of her eyes is half yellow/amber and half blue

5. hollyleaf inherited squirrelflight's single white paw, and has the same color eyes as squilf (and by that i mean like......same shade and everything. basically identical.) once she found out about squirrelflight not being their mother she would cover her white paw in brambles and holly leaves, trying to cover it up as best as she could. eventually she took the brambles and holly leaves off, after finally coming to terms with everything

6. briarlight and jayfeather would go out for walks, early early during the morning, when barely any cats were awake. not only just to get briarlight out of the den and to exercise her legs, but because she liked to describe everything she could see to jayfeather

7. when firestar first came into the forest and met tallstar for the first time, the first thing tallstar thought of was jake, and how much firestar looked like him. he knew immediately that this was jake's kid lol

8. brightheart and jayfeather liked to decorate briarlight's nest with flowers and feathers and all sorts of stuff while briarlight was asleep. her reaction is always priceless, like she never expects a thing.

9. tigerstar and brambleclaw WOULD'VE looked exactly the same......if it wasn't for goldenflower. brambleclaw is much more golden tinted and fluffy, more similar to goldenflower, which is what sets him apart from tigerstar. despite looking like a fluffy boy he is still an asshole

10. i havent even READ the broken code yet, but i like to think that when ashfur possesses brambleclaw, he changes like......a lot. his eyes change from amber to blue, and he definitely looks more like a ghost than a real.....cat. the tabby stripes on his pelt change into spots/flecks (similar to ashfur's darker flecks of fur), and occasionally little specks of ash will fall off of him, or if he shakes he'll spray bits of ash everywhere. just a little nod to him actually being ashfur, i suppose

and those are all the things i can think of! feel free to reblog this/reply to this and add more!