#berryheart on the other hand!!!

[himboblaze]

curlfeather girl they will never make me hate you

(how did this turn into a berryheart post oops)

[bonefall]

Big question cause I’m so mad about how they were used: any ideas on changing Berryheart and Curlfeather from this book?

I have ONE controversial opinion and you must allow me this;

Curlfeather not apologizing to Frostdawn kinda rocks as an idea.

Obviously it reads as insulting because of how they gave Berryheart a Tom the Wifebeater ass Redemption Death in this book, and the general way that they've not approached her with the nuance she deserves is frustrating. I agree.

But hold my hand and walk with me. Imagine Curlfeather, mauled and bloody before the daughter she died saving. Frostpaw's gone through so much fixing the damage she caused, furious at the state her mother's in, the mess she made of RiverClan, all the suffering everyone's gone through... and Curlfeather says,

"I don't regret anything."

"Really? REALLY? I go through all of that, I come ALL this way, and you won't even give me a rotten little sorry?"

She doesn't give her mother a chance to respond, lashing her tail towards the grimmace that hangs off the side of her shredded cheek, "You're not sorry for how you lead to yourself looking like THAT?"

Frostpaw shoves her scarred throat foward, "You're not sorry for THIS?"

She claws dig into the sodden black earth of the Dark Forest, "You're not sorry you're HERE?"

Curlfeather is quiet, her remaining eye stoic like a stone. Frostpaw begs furiously, "NOTHING?"

"I will vow on our blood that I will not lie to you anymore," the demon's tone is soft and honest, "and I hope that means more than the insincere apology I could offer you otherwise."

Just when it feels like Frostpaw has so much anger that her body can't handle it, pain stuffs itself inside her in equal measure. Her stomach is sick with love, throat choked with affection. It takes her a minute to form the word,

"Why?"

"When my father, Reedwhisker, was taken by the Kin, I saw how they broke him. His uncle, Stonefur, did not buckle under Tigerstar. My grandmother Mistyfoot quietly rescued the Clan from his accomplice, Leopardstar, while Mistystar willingly worked alongside a vicious impostor."

Now that Frostpaw is the one who's waiting quietly, Curlfeather's voice flutters hopefully, "I was willing to do anything to restore my Clan to greatness," the specter pads foward, touching her nose to her daughter's trembling forehead, "except sacrifice you."

She didn't expect to feel the harsh sting of her daughter's paw smacking her across the nose. She reels back.

"You don't get it! It's not about YOU! It's about everyone you hurt! Dont try to pretend it was all worth it, you didn't make anything great, you just broke it!"

"I had to break it so it could be set back stronger. I gave you the chance for the power, and now you are making it better than it was."

"That was in spite of you! You told me to trust no cat and I had to unlearn that!"

"I saved you when I could have escaped with my life."

"From a situation you caused in the first place!"

"It was a warrior's death!"

There is a silence that settles over them. Curlfeather is snarling in offense. Frostpaw looks, again, at her mother's fatal wounds, the defensive stance. She's reminded of how the cats of other cultures don't always see scars as rewards for a fight survived-- just reminders of pain you've gone through.

"...it was a warrior's death," she agrees, gently, watching tattered hackles smoothen out, "...and now you're dead, while I'm still alive."

The emotion in Curlfeather's face is solemn, but otherwise incomprehensible to her daughter. The expression on Frostpaw's is equally unreadable to her mother. This is the only thing they will ever understand about each other-- that there is an irreconcilable difference between them, steeper than the divide between sky and earth.

The last words the demon speaks to her daughter are, "I love you."

It's only years later that Frostdawn can say, "I love you too."

[bonebabbles]

On one hand I'm still annoyed that this plot resolved itself absolutely nonviolently, and I've been very vocal about how poorly I think of the Gathering Challenge that resulted in Berryheart's exile. It frustrates me that this is resulting in More Talking instead of real action

On the other hand, I can take it at face value. It's fun that tigerHeartstar comes home and is like "EMERGENCY HOUSE MEETING. IF UR GONNA TALK SHIT, SAY IT TO MY FACE." Lmaooo

I also unironically really like how Frostpaw hears this, and says, "Well, what have I got to loose anyway? INVADING RIVERCLAN WAS CRINGE" and then tigerHeartstar calls her over for a private meeting.

"Uhh?? After everything I've done for you?"

"You asked for honesty and I gave it to you!!"

"...hmm. Actually, indignation cancelled. You've got guts, kiddo."

Fun exchange. I have problems with the plot at large, but Frostpaw's interactions within ShadowClan are interesting and enjoyable.

[shattered-reflections-au]

Fluffvember 28, Inside joke // “I definitely missed something, didn’t I?”

--- --- ---

After Red's initial explanation to Blue, the colour got in on the joke. it wasn't anything bog, he just understood the goofy pet names Vio and Red called each other. Berryheart, Violetshadow, and other, even more outlandish amalgamations of two words that somehow had to follow a naming scheme? Blue couldn't make sense of it, but he was in on it.

though, he had played with the rules a little.

"good morning LemonCardboard."

"good afternoon SharkPencil."

"evening, TomatoClock."

Green was used to being left out of the context of things, but this was getting out of hand. His brother and two of his roommates had started speaking in the most confusing code imaginable, and he wanted in.

Green finally cornered his brother one Thursday night.

"what the fuck is going on?" he asked Blue as he was putting away the pots and pans from tonight's dinner.

"whatever do you mean, GrassSpatula?" Blue said simply. Green groaned.

"that. what does that meannn???" he begged.

"i have no idea what you mean, LavenderCutlery." Blue continued, smirking.

"Green can't have that one!" Red called from the living room. "lavender is purple."

Blue nodded.

“I definitely missed something, didn’t I?” Green asked, looking to Vio as he came in to put his plate away.

"it's just something from a book series Red and I used to read." he explained coolly.

"right," Green muttered, "you're calling each other "StrawberryPotato" and stuff like that because of a book series?"

Vio shrugged, "pretty much."

Green shook his head, defeated. "weirdos,"

[sparrowlovesskittles]

Alright time to finally show off my live notes in my usual way (messenger screenshots)

Also I didn't mention this bc I was suspending my disbelief as much as I could but. The entire clan of riverclan could've just like. Guarded the kits and murdered Splashtail easily.

This book was very silly.

Other random notes in no particular order:

-Whistlebreeze and Frostdawn are very cute names and very cute (girl)friends. I like that Frostdawn got a meaning to her name :3

-Nightheart and Sunbeam considering Frostdawn 'like family' is SO sweet

-I liked how things ended with Berryheart EXCEPT when Sunbeam said she could pretend Berryheart was still alive. Her conflicting feelings on her mother after her death were handled well but that line in particular stood out as odd to me.

-I really DID enjoy Frostpaw/dawn's 'drifting between life and death' chapters, especially how her scenes with Curlfeather played out. But Nightheart and Sunbeam's chapters in between were soooo boring and pointless.

-I actually think it's kind of sweet that Jayclaw was trying to tell Frostdawn that she could stay dead if she wanted to, trying to persuade her that RiverClan wasn't her responsibility and that she didn't need to feel guilty if she couldn't handle it any longer. One of the only cats who really cared about her feelings. It's just kinda strange with the context.

-Like I said even if I think Curlfeather and Berryheart ended on a bit of a hollow note I do think it was realistic even if not particularly satisfying. It just felt like they didn't quite get a proper ending? Curlfeather especially.

-Don't love the way Splashtail is written to be mentally ill. Like it is a little different, it's not a Mapleshade situation where she was hallucinating her kits telling her to murder people, Splashtail WAS actually seeing Curlfeather's ghost (or I believe so anyway) but the way he was written was a little uncomfortable.

-Frostpaw murdering Splashtail is SO GOOD!!!!! BEST part of the book hands down.

-ASC will always have a special place in my heart, because it's the first arc that I've read live from start to finish.

-That said I think I liked TBC more. ASC was really fresh and interesting at the start but as it went on you started to realise that they weren't going to follow through with potentially interesting plotlines that they set up. Splashtail especially had so much potential to be fresh and interesting and they really let him fall short. This arc was very similar to last arc and I think TBC handled it better. The ending of TBC felt huge, bombastic and interesting, but ASC kinda fizzled out, I doubt it will have much of a lasting impact. It tried to set up some 'starclan bad' points but ultimately spent too much of it's time talking about the importance of starclan to really start anything meaningul. But I still liked ASC a lot even if Splashtail ended up being a big disappointment of a villain imo.

-I really liked our protags from this arc especially. Frostdawn is one of my all time new favourite cats.

-Sunbeams friendships with Lightleap and Blazefire kinda got dropped though and that was sad and disappointing.

-Graysludge and Mistslime are hilarious names. I feel bad for them but god that was funny.

-But also speaking of them. When Frostpaw wakes up they're not even mentioned. They also kinda left her when she was weak and dying. Can we address this please.

[troutfur]

Tonight is Writer's Choice night because I said so and because I binged the whole of the new book over the course of my day off and it gave me ideas.

Tomorrow we're back to taking prompts from the audience, in accordance with my guidelines, but as a clarification since I've got more than a handful: Mapleshade's Vengeance is in fact one of the books I haven't read. And I'm not sure it's a book I even want to read. After the whole "yeah it's totally a good idea to write an article telling kids that if they don't jump into a flooding river to save someone else they're going to Hell, just get social media to shut up" fiasco from last year it just has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Preamble out of the way, enjoy Sunbeam's ThunderClan polycule, feat. pfurr dynamic worldbuilding:

On the night Nightheart went missing, Sunbeam went into her new nest feeling dejected. The whole of ThunderClan had been buzzing with a celebratory atmosphere but hearing her mate had left had her double-guessing herself at her decisions so far. The cryptic reassurances from StarClan Squirrelstar conveyed to to her had for sure not had remotely close to the intended effect. With no clear reason why he was gone she was left wondering if Nightheart’s wenwi --his maternal grandmother-- was even telling the truth or just trying to save face for her awbyyo --her bloodline.

As she settled in to sleep, Sunbeam felt a paw prodding at her side. “Hey.” Sunbeam raised her face to see the tortoiseshell face of Nightheart’s sister.“I know you haven’t officially joined the pfurr, but... would you like to sleep with us? At least until my brother’s back.”

“I...” Sunbeam was a bit taken aback. She turned her face towards two other cats cuddled with each other, their faces expectantly towards her. Those must be her empf --her nestmates-- Sunbeam guessed. “I thought Nightheart slept alone. He did mention you but with how he spoke I thought he was a--”

“Oh no, no!” the molly was quick to interject. “StarClan no, he’s not nearly bad enough to be a hug’koo.” In their language that was a word meant ‘cuckoo’, but it could also mean a cat that had been expelled from a nest. “He just has fallen into the habit of sleeping on his own. Being made a warrior late and all.”

“But he left his Clan to court me,” Sunbeam protested. Having let that slip out she wanted to swallow back her tongue. Berryheart would certainly have thought that an offense grave enough and she hoped upon reconsidering Finchlight wouldn’t agree with that view.

“And he’s not going to lose his place in his birth pfurr from that,” Finchlight said with a shrug. “You just try again the other way ���round. The elders may say it’s disrespectful but I’ve always thought it was jus the smart thing to do.”

“It’s not like I have a sibling to share a nest with who I care about offending,” Sunbeam mused, rising to her paws as she followed Finchlight back to her nest.

“Really?” she asked. “An ul-arramew? You don’t very much act like one.”

“No, it’s not like that,” Sunbeam said. “I have two brothers in fact. But one of them took a SkyClan mate and the other was not very pleased. And so...”

“Oh,” Finchlight said. “I’m sorry I pried.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sunbeam said. “What’s the courtship period for if not for meeting your soon-to-be mate?” The word she used there was empf for in their language there’s no distinction between one’s romantic partner and any other cat one share a nest with.

“Settle in,” Finchlight offered as she carved her space between alongside the other two cats, a golden tabby tom and a pale brown molly, who were already settled on their nest. “It should be enough for all four. We had it expanded for Nightheart forever ago but since he insists on being by his lonesome.”

“Hey,” Sunbeam greeted with a flick of her tail which the other cats responded to in kind. Though everyone in the nest was cozy and fit rather neatly the atmosphere didnt’ seem yet conducive for actually going to sleep. “So... Nightheart never mentioned any other empf other than her sister. When did you all start courting?”

Myrtlebloom and Bayshine went wide-eyed in surprise for a moment before clarity dawned on them and they gave an amused purr.

“We didn’t court,” Bayshine --the tom-- clarified. “We’ve just... kinda always shared a nest.”

“Pryyp?” Sunbeam piped up.

“Our wipfurrs” --that means mothers-- “were always close. And Sparkpelt had not been in the right mindset to nurse or take care of Finchy or Nighty towards their first moon or so. So they nursed with us and the habit of sharing a nest just kinda stuck.”

“Did he never tell you?” Finchlight asked.

“No, he didn’t,” Sunbeam said in surprise. “That’s lovely of her and lovely of you. When he spoke of ThunderClan he always stressed other things.”

“Typical,” Bayshine said with an eyeroll. “Such a complainer that Nightheart. There was once towards the beginning of our apprenticeship when he...”

The nest continued gossiping about their missing member until sleep overtook them. As she drifted off into sleep, with her head rested on the soft fur of her soon-to-be empf she began to give off a purr. There may be a piece of their nest missing but now she could work on loving and being loved by the rest of them.

[snowyfrostshadows]

Wind Spoilers under the cut

Well.

That was certainly a book.

The prologue was kinda funny with Splashtail deciding to reject the nine lives from Starclan and using Curlfeather's choice to receive them as one of his reasons to kill her making him one of the stupidest villains in the series.

They can do as they always have and give a leader their nine lives regardless of that cat's actual morality or actually do something interesting for once and refuse to enable an antagonist.

He gets ahold of all this power but one good hit or sickness and he's dead. Alright. Great planning skills there bud.

But then I realized that Splashtail's decision frees Starclan from having to make that choice.

This way they can stay the wise (yet somewhat powerless) spirit cats the clans can turn to for guidance.

Speaking of Starclan giving out lives, I hate how everyone knows Nightpelt's story despite it never actually being public knowledge. Hell I don't think Fireheart found out and he figured out everyone's secrets.

But no. Since readers know every single trivia bit and history of the clans, the cats get to as well which is so....boring.

It takes out some of the awe and way histories can be changed and retold to fit certain narratives or having characters actually do some digging and discovering things out for themselves.

I know this is primarily a series for children but Erins I am begging you, give your target audience some credit. Kids are smarter than most people give them credit for and actually you know. Enjoy a good mystery here and there.

Another thing that was frustrating to read was having cats ask permission to move the plot along or sit around in a circle discussing stuff and judging each other for it. I. Can kinda see what the Erins are trying to do; make things more of a group decision and have older characters/past povs part of the story but man. In actuality, it just makes things drag on and characters flatter.

I miss the days when cats could sneak out and move the plot on their own and show off their own initiative. With Nightheart and Sunbeam waiting around for permission it just. Makes them feel...... incompetent? Like they literally can't do anything with being told to?? And this makes their chapters a slight pain to go through because nothing really important happens in them or they're just there to observe Frostpaw 's plot and comment on it I guess.

On another tangent, I. have no idea what they're doing with this arc's villains.

The first few books set them up as cunning and clever cats whose strengths are in being subtle but now... they're kinda all over the place.

Curlfeather was the mastermind but apparently just. Did this all on a whim because her mate died and picked a random apprentice to share her plans with but couldn't bother keeping up a pretense of even pretend respect around him and just. Spoke down to him. Okay

Berryheart wasn't happy over the new rule allowing cats to swap clans and was willing to start up a evil book club and set up a sort of rebellion of sorts but then....they just...don't really follow through with that? She gets exiled, curses out the clans, and then....joins a clan she hated to the point of accepting a co-leader ship position from an unstable teenager openly stating his plans to attack her former clan and she's just okay with it because I guess she's just.......an unreasonable woman...

Alright.

And then there's Splashtail.

On one hand, I'm a lil disappointed on how far off the deep end he's gone but absolutely fascinated at the decline in his mental state.

He got his power.

He exiled Frostpaw.

Managed to convince nearly every cat around the lake she's the insane liar and then.

He just. Loses it.

Makes his clan fight each other with claws out, doesn't bother to allow the camp to be cleaned, kills his own deputy and appoints a cat who by all logic, would maybe be the first to kill him given the opportunity as deputy and he's portrayed as the biggest threat to the clans.

Him. One, singular cat that the leaders of the other clans know only has one life.

That any one of them could kill proving to Riverclan that Splashtail wasn't approved by Starclan and was actually lying about Frostpaw.

But no. We get yet another book with everyone sitting around talking about what should be done and why they can't and basically holding Tigerheart back by his tail to keep him from cutting this arc's runtime in half.

The poor man sees the problem, has a solution, wants to end problems before they impact literally everyone in yet another clan wide war but gets called the Real Villain for most the arc by everyone.

Frostpaw and Tigerheart are the real MVPs of this arc in terms of story and literally keeping me invested in this thing.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

The reason I love Ashfur and Berryheart as antagonists so much is because they’re so real. Pluck a handful of people off the street and the chances at least one or two of them will know a Berryheart or an Ashfur (minus the ghost stuff. Lol), either personally or through a friend, is very likely.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the more dramatic villains like Darktail, far from it! It’s just nice to have realistic ones too, and it’s even better that they’re written so well, which can unfortunately be hard to come by. They’re such believable characters.

I totally agree! I really love how Berryheart and Ashfur were just background characters until suddenly they weren’t. Usually in warriors villains and other antagonists are built up or introduced to the audience as villainous from the start. Berry and Ash were just seemingly normal people until something happened in their lives that ultimately set them down a darker path. I hope we get more antagonists like this in future, they’re great to have.

[cloverpurr]

💔📝☯️💋 for the ask thing!

💋 : is there any ships out there you absolutely hate for genuinely no good reason at all. like its not problematic in the slightest, if anything it's one of the better ones, you just cannot bring yourself to enjoy it

any ship involving jayfeather or shadowsight honestly . . . in my head they will forever be aroace so whenever i see any ship art for either of them im just like . he would NOT be mates with them !! lol

as for specific ships, ive never been a fan of shadowsight and sunbeam or sunbeam and rootspring or leafpool and hawkfrost... to me with the sunbeam x shadow/root ships it just feels like people are shipping her with any tom she interacts with as a way to be like "look! this character would be a much better mate than nightheart!" and arent actually putting any thought into the ship outside of that. leafpool and hawkfrost just doesnt appeal 2 me though. im a mothpool truther <3 hehe

📝 : if commanded to, without warning, approximately how many paragraphs could you write about your favorite warrior cat before you ran out of things to say

i could write an entire essay on nightheart's character i think. probably 8 whole paragraphs until i start repeating myself haha

same goes for leafpool too as shes one of my other favs , i could probably write a whole essay about her as well :3

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

the relationship between the three and squirrelflight/leafpool has always been interesting to me and god i wish it was explored more in canon... i feel like we never really get to see hollyleaf's true Road To Redemption and her coming to terms with everything and forgiving leafpool and squirrelflight until she dies. i really wish she wasnt killed off in the last hope btw that still makes me so mad grgargharhgar harghaarhgar hgarragh she could have been so cool and such a good character but rargh. rghrgrrrgh

honestly i love any dynamic between a cat and their parent bc thers so many rocky parent/kit relationships in wc and i love them all to death because i love projecting my own parental issues on to them . this also includes nightheart/sparkpelt and frostpaw/curlfeather and sunbeam/berryheart and the three/leafpool (and squirrelflight)... even rainflower/crookedstar and eventually crookedstar/silverstream, the ending of crookedstar's promise where he struggles to even spend time with silverkit after willowbreeze and minnowkit and willowkit's death is Heartbreaking, when he's still grieving and pushing away his one remaining kit who doesn't even know he's her father... gah. ghhra.a.rghgr hrg ahgr hahrhgh (positive) (i love relationships like this theyre so good)

💔 : have you ever lost friends over warriors related topics?

ill be real ive never actually had friends who like warrior cats. like i knew people in 5th grade who did but we never talked about the characters or discussed anything about the books we just roleplayed it during recess . . .

i do think that i probably turn a lot of Potential Friends away just because i dare to like a character that the majority of the fandom hates...which is unfortunate that the fandom has gotten to that point where liking/disliking a character will get you mass blocked by all the popular wc blogs but. oh well! at least i know im not alone in liking nightheart, there's at least a handful of nightheart fans out there <3

[the-owl-tree]

Spoiler alert but Sunbeam really followed Nighthearts ass over to thunderclan and like she was having a crisis about “being alone forever” seconds b4 like I don’t think this is a show of devotion but of desperation also how will lightleap win now 😔

everyone who either likes nightsun or hated nightsun is devastated.....not even a BOOK of a messy breakup before they reunite?? not even a handful of chapters of some sunlight crumbs of the girlies comforting each other???

on a more like serious note im hoping it does work out for sunbeam's arc and not nightheart, people dont want another bristlefrost fiasco of her losing her personality. i reeaaalllyy wanted sunbeam to learn to stand up to her mother and while i guess it can happen in thunderclan, i wouldn't have minded if she, you know, actually did shit in shadowclan where berryheart was literally trying to kill cats.

[warrior-cats-hot-takes]

Pinned Post

Guidelines! They are very important for a confession blog because people can VERY easily get out of hand! 1) Confessions that include usernames will not be posted.

Like, callout posts? If you send in something like "I think that [person] is a racist because they like berryheart", that is not gonna get posted. However! If you send in something like, "I think people who like Berryheart are racist", I WILL post it. So that you can get clowned on.

2) Me posting a confession does not mean that I agree with it.

I might, I might not, there's no way to know so do not try to ask. If you ask for my opinion on something, there's a low chance that I'll actually respond.

3) Really fucked confessions are not going to be posted.

If you have death threats in your confession, it is not going up. This includes joking about it, such as, "I'm going to [something something] Squirrelflight fans because I fucking hate her!" I do not care if you post character hate, but don't include fucking death threats? That's weird, bro.

Rules will be added as they become necessary! I am forgetful, so I won't know right away what needs to be prohibited! Please be patient with me ^^" As for other information, that section is right here! Below the little cut off line so that this isn't too long and rambly! (It's nothing totally important, you don't need to check before sending in a confession, just a little mascot character!)

I'm gonna talk about the blog mascot and just how they will work and function?

This is the guy! He's a silly character with a silly name, not meant to be taken seriously at all. I also don't plan to add reaction images for every post because that sounds exhausting, but when you think "who is the blog admin?" think of him! He's. basically a fursona I guess??? Like he's not but also yeah that's the purpose he is gonna be serving here. Some information about the character: - Their eyes stay closed most of the time, rarely ever open. They're practically unseeing? Like, most of the day they just rely on their ears and whiskers to get them where they need to go. This is because the world, as they see it, is overwhelming. It's too bright and it hurts their eyes. But they do open them sometimes! - I thought it'd be silly and fun if their eyes were like "based or cringe"? Like, if you drop a bad take around her then she's just gonna slowly open the red-x eye to look at you judgementally? I thought it'd be funny! - Curiousmind is not in a clan at all, and nobody really knows what clan they originally started in? He just stays with a clan for a few days and then goes to a different one. When he visits, he hunts for them and helps with any chores. If you asked me why the clan cats LET him do that, especially since we're experiencing A Starless Clan rn which is all about the borders and the crossing of those borders, I,,,,,, don't really know. I don't have a reason, that's just what Curiousmind does. If he ever is attacked and told to leave, he will do so right away and then tattle to the other clans about it.

[himboblaze]

i knew berryheart was going to die. i knew it. there was no other direction for her character to go. she had so many chances to learn her lesson and she just never did. even at the end, she had convinced herself she was playing splashtail. her wrongful confidence and arrogance were what finally ended her life.

and i know, technically, she died the same way curlfeather did: protecting her daughter from death. but.. it doesn’t feel the same to me. it feels like a desperate attempt to prove she wasn’t entirely evil. it feels half assed and careless, like someone praying for god’s forgiveness before committing a sin.

rip berryheart, you could’ve been a fascinating character but instead you were frustratingly stupid and never learned the lesson that was handed to you on a silver platter more times than i can count.

[bonefall]

i know u dont rework arcs untill theyre complete but im very excited to see what you do with a starless clan, theres so much exciting things happening in this arc to work with. do you have any changes you already know for sure you’ll be incorporating?

No for-sures. I don't want to make any for-sures. I have ones I'm feeling but I don't want to call ANYTHING a for-sure yet. I need to find out what the ending is, WHERE this is all going, because I have a strong philosophy in my writing that a story is like a spear;

IT'S ALL ABOUT GETTING TO THE POINT.

But we are 4/6 of the way in, so I CAN start talking about thoughts!

I'm actually leaning pretty heavily towards axing Nightheart as a POV. There's still time for the books to turn around and justify it, BUT HEAR ME OUT

(Saying AS someone who is a Nightheart Enjoyer)

So far I'm really feeling that his character would benefit from us never being inside of his head, or seeing what he's been going through. As much as I WILL stand by that I enjoyed books 1 and 2 and liked his perspectives there, I'm starting to think that it would serve the story a lot better for Sunbeam and Frostpaw to be guessing just as much as we are.

We'd get introduced to Nightheart on the journey for catmint.

Sunbeam connects with him immediately, because she's tossed on this mission while she's in the middle of a swirling tide of drama. With nothing but Clerics and a hardened Rootspring to the left and her ex-bestie (exstie) to the right, he's really her only other choice for companionship. She's chronically unable to stop problems before they get out of hand, the sort of person who becomes frozen by indecision, and then here comes this Glorious Bastard

In her eyes, he's so caring, and bold, and fun! He's the first one to jump headlong into danger, to really be interested in her problems and just let her talk, and his story is so heartbreaking! A mother who's so hard on him... and his Clan is so mean all the time, but he wants to prove to all of them that he's more than just Firestar's descendant... but he was so brave to choose his own name.................

And then, when she follows him into ThunderClan, she learns he fucking lied. She changed Clans based on SOB STORIES

When she first comes, no one knows what he's been saying behind their back. Even if they did, they don't want to start trashing Nightheart right to his new mate's face. But then he LEAVES, and Sunbeam will bring up,

"Maybe it was because you were hard on him?"

And then Sparkpelt tries to agree, just to take blame onto herself and stop all this, but Finchlight's had eNOUGH and ends up setting the record straight;

"No this is DEFINITELY another tantrum. He already ran off once before."

"NO he didn't pick his own name, he stopped the whole ceremony to complain and Bramblestar gave him a compromise"

"MEAN to him?? I had to do HIS WORK because he couldn't STAY ON THE GROUND"

"Oh he's buckling under the weight of his legacy? that must be so hard. I was cat-fifteen when i punched my first fascist and he was wearing the face of my grandpa."

"His mom aba-WHAT?? ABANDONED???? OUR MOTHER WAS EXILED AND HE STAYED HOME!!!!! WE WERE CAT-FIFTEEN!!"

With this false hope shattered, Sunbeam is thrown into a devastating situation where... her mother was right. She was tricked. And now she's stuck in this new Clan without any of her old friends, without this mate who was too-good-to-be-true, the ONE impulsive choice she's made on her own in her WHOLE LIFE turns to ashes in her mouth. She can't go back, either, because Berryheart would NEVER let her live this down.

But... it's okay.

It's a slow shock, to make a choice SO impulsive and SO self-concerned, and find a safety net below her. It's going to be okay. The trials are fair. The cats of ThunderClan interrupt and speak over each other, but, that teaches her to be more assertive. Sparkpelt and Finchlight are not the mean assholes that Nightheart built them up to be, and they'll support her no matter what she chooses to do with her possible mate.

I want Nightheart TO get better, but, in order for that to happen, he has to face, and, more importantly, ACCEPT consequences. He needs to develop the maturity to say, "I acted like a brat and didn't appreciate what I had. and I'm sorry. you don't have to forgive me."

Bottom line being, Nightheart is striking me lately as a character that works best as unpredictable, because we have NO IDEA what's truly in his head. It would be interesting for him to have a novella later, but as it stands, his POV has consistently just been a duplicate since he joined ShadowClan. We gained NOTHING from splitting the Frostpaw Journey of the newest book in half POV, and VERY little from splitting the ShadowClan one into half POV.

I might reduce the POVs to 2, just Sunbeam and Frostpaw, or change Nightheart's to Lightleap. If I NEED 3 main characters, then they should all be a consistent camera on different parts of the conflict.

Again. I do not commit to changes until the arcs are done. Nothing in BB!ASC is set yet.

But here's some other little things I'm thinking,

Bramblestar is VOTED out.

He does not step down. The little "game" he played with Nightheart to create a situation to yell at Squilf, who hasn't been his mate in a long time in BB, was the LAST straw for ThunderClan.

They had sympathy for him before that point, because of what he went through with Ashfur, but his leadership was long and controversial even before the Impostor.

And there's a really strong sentiment that IF Bramblestar had been a good leader... they would have realized he was possessed sooner. So, there are those who partially blame him for the tyranny of the Impostor.

Basically; enough is enough.

Berryheart's hate group has ACTUAL consequences. Someone gets killed; probably Antfur, who survived the last arc to die here.

More fights. This arc has been too bloodless. Already planning SEVERAL sudden, random brawls in RiverClan as tensions boil.

Heartstar is going to be MORE controversial. Not controversial enough in canon imo. I don't like how Leaf and Squilf seem like they have "hypothetical" issues with the invasion instead of being able to point at REAL ones.

riverclan didn't forget how to do the chores they've done their WHOLE lives, no. I'm going to talk about POWER VACUUMS and create ACTUAL factions that begin to coagulate in RiverClan.

if we're going to have a brainless plot about how "Well Ackshually democracy has enough problems to make us reconsider not having unaccountable, tyrannical dictators, because a vote could maybe be called over One Single Issue" then I'll talk about shit like the spoiler effect, mob mentality, and factionalism. Get the hell out of my way ERIN I'll cook

No Smoky. Society has progressed past the need for Smoky. No Smokyng Area.

Whistlepaw should to try and take care of her ALONE, not trained enough to take care of SUCH bad wounds and barely able to keep her trembling paws straight, and Frostpaw realizes that she's making her watch her own friend die.

Is this how her life is going to end? slipping away under the paws of someone she loves, for what? pride? to do what her mother told her-- trust no cat?

As she TRUSTS Whistlepaw? Trusts her SO much, that Frostpaw will force her to be the only witness to her death?

FROSTPAW CALLS THE HUMAN

...which in BB, is a team of researchers. She drags herself to them, and collapses. This is why they just HAPPENED to have the proper equipment on them; they're WILDLIFE VETS.

Not sure how I'm going to handle Frostpaw's Journey though. In BB, the Park Cats are already a foundational part of Clan Culture.

In all honesty, while I HAVE to praise the fact that the Erins have FINALLY created ONE outsider group that isn't malicious or defenseless... I don't much care for them.

sending frostpaw on a side quest to what's essentially a big DOTC reference. Look! It's that group we introduced in the last 5 chapters of our latest glorified recap! cooool.

We're just going to get nothing but fucking founders in every dream from now on. I'm SURE of it.

As a consolation prize to myself though I will be writing cool angel scenes of the absolute BEING that Riverstar has become in heaven.

Riverstar (normal cat): "Elder Bones I'm going out!"

"not dressed like THAT you're not!!!"

Riverstar (the manifestation of the river, the rain in the sky above, and the abyss below, and how through water we are all truly connected as one being): "better?"

I will probably keep the Park Cats and rework them significantly, but I'm leaning pretty heavily towards Frostpaw visiting a LOT of places. A holy pilgrimage.

ESPECIALLY one of the Tribe's three wards; the River Ward. The Tribe of Rushing Water believes (it's even in the name) that water connects all things.

So I think it would be really fitting for Frostpaw to learn from MANY perspectives, starting with this philosophy put forth by the River Ward.

And she realizes-- that's what Riverstar is, as well. As a being. He is mentoring her on this pilgrimage, while barely saying a word. She can feel him wherever she is, because he isn't JUST the God of the River.

He is connection. He is peace. He's water. Too much and you'd drown, not enough and you'd thirst.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: Here is the rough draft of Frostpaw's Journey

[bonebabbles]

I have mixed feelings on the Nightheart return. Generally positive but still mixed.

I really do not like the implication that this is the tipping point for Sunbeam to get radicalized by Berryheart... on one hand, she's now more open minded to her from being upset and that is understandable

On the other hand im not really liking how it's setting up Sunbeam, Scorned Woman, to have a villain arc

That sure is a writing choice, to have 3 protags related to legacy with strong influences (mothwing to tigerstar having just lost her apprentice thanks to StarClan's lack of help, Needletail, Firestar) and choose a broken romance to be what radicalizes Sunbeam

I also am just... generally not fond of Nightheart coming back yet. I don't think he HAS learned his lessons.

He did NOT have chapters and scenes examining his rashness. We didn't delve into his problems with authority. He never had a reckoning with how he was the biggest problem in his own relationships.

ThunderClan was NOT judging him for being related to Firestar. He was snapping every time they mentioned his name in his presence even when they were trying to soothe HIM about his insecurities

He didn't learn anything about wrecklessness or putting his life in danger, his major character flaw

I really did enjoy myself reading his Task Chapters, they were fun and creative! But they didn't show a progression of his character.

He just kinda went to ShadowClan and got better.

And on the positive hand...

I was hoping for this exact moment;

And I got it, which is incredibly rare for this series.

They loved him the whole time and he's finally realizing it. Thank god

I really love the way Squilf invited him back in. Stern but still caring. I adore her.

Bramblestar stepping down is IDEAL. Get OUT.

The memory of Pinestar is excellent. Thank god the cats are remembering things

[shattered-reflections-au]

Fluffvember 17, Favorite book/story / “I wanted to share this with you”

--- --- ---

"cleaning day, huh?" Vio asked, leaning against the door jam of Red's room.

Red sat on his bed, a box of his childhood items sat abandoned.

"oh you know," Red muttered, putting aside the papers in his hand, "memory lane."

Vio gave a bittersweet look, sitting down beside Red.

"what are we looking at?" Vio asked, immediately going quiet as the photos of their past came flooding in.

a picture of Red and Vio, nine or ten years old. Red in a frilly pink dress and crown, and Vio in a vampire costume. halloween.

Vio never realized it. how scared Red looked. how sad his eyes were. Vio remembered that night. photos taken moments before disaster. moments before Red's mom got spooked by a teenager and demanded they head in for the night. Red has only gotten a few meagre pieces of candy, his pillowcase looking still hollow.

Vio sighed. he remembered smuggling coffee crisp and kit kats to his cousin during lunch breaks that year.

another photo, a summer pool party, sixth grade. Red sitting on the edge of a pool, only his feet in the pool, Vio beside him smiling. the day Vio learned that Red never had learned how to swim. He remembered getting yelled at by his aunt when one of their other relatives pushed Red in.

Red never wanted to go to the beach after that.

Vio sighed again, putting the photos back into the box with the rest. Rose coloured glasses had blurred the red flags in their childhood. Red flopped on his back. "i was so blind, wasn't i?" he wondered.

Vio joined him. "we were kids. of course we were."

"hey Vio?" Red called.

"yeah Red?" Vio answered.

"remember when we ran away and hid in your treehouse?" Red asked, "we thought we were so bad, eating baby carrots in there until i went home for dinner?"

"yeah," Vio smiled. "that was the day I got you hooked on the warrior cats series, right?"

"of course, VioletShadow." Red said with a sly grin.

"oh not that again, BerryHeart." Vio laughed.

Red laughed. "it's been a while since i thought of those books."

"i still have all of mine," Vio mentioned.

Red sat up abruptly. "where?" Red demanded. vio blushed. "uh, don't laugh." Vio muttered. "where." Red demanded.

--- Vio shoved aside his folded summer wear, the bottom of a storage tub lined with piles and piles of old books.

"oh. my. Hylia." Red breathed, reaching in and pulling out one of the copies.

"not a word to anyone about this." Vio muttered, pulling out another book. all of the spines were broken, the more loved copies having pages and pages dog eared to hell and back.

--- another day, Vio walked by Red's bedroom door, a faded piece of paper in hand.

"hey," he hissed, catching Red's attention. Red perked an eyebrow at him, temporarily putting down his phone. "what's up?"

Vio handed the papers to Red. "i wanted to share these with you," Vio left the room before Red had a moment to look at them. Red laughed, the childish drawings of Vio and his cat personas they had made. their own narrative drawn out pulling on fond memories. the drawing on the bottom though. it was newer. Vio's art style had changed, but his ability to draw cats hadn't. "to: berryheart. i'm glad you're in my clan now."

[moonybadger]

Thoughts on the new Warriors book “Shadow”: I liked it! Not perfect, but I enjoyed the pacing and character writing. Spoilers under the cut!

We’ll start off negatively and end positively, because I feel like it!

Things I didn’t like

I wish Mothwing had been a bit more present? I had really enjoyed her dynamic with Frostpaw in the last two books, so it’s kind of disappointing that she mostly is curt with Frostpaw once she becomes a warrior apprentice and doesn’t do that much in the plot.

Actually Mothwing not talking to Frostpaw mostly felt really forced to drag the plot out longer, so that Frostpaw won’t go talk to her about stuff like her Reedwhisker vision.

Also was not a fan of Frostpaw’s weird arbitrary crush on Splashtail. It mostly felt like a way for the writers to justify why she tends to blindly trust him

I don’t really understand what Tigerstar’s longterm goal is here. Like he has Shadowclan cats sitting around in camp for... two months I think? What does he think is gonna happen? Is he just waiting for Starclan to point at the cat it wants to be leader? But I guess that’s happened in the past, so maybe not too unreasonable.

I like Frostpaw, but a lot of her plot does feel kinda recycled from Shadowsight, right down to the almost being killed cliffhanger at the end of the book.

I thought Nightheart wanting to go back to Thunderclan felt a little abrupt and I don’t really understand what changed his mind

More cats in Thunderclan nooooooo there’s already too many

I wish Nightheart and Fringwhisker had more interactions! I think they could have gotten some good character conversations out of there

Not so much an issue with the books, but I do think some of the fandom just defaulting to “the books are bad and most things in them are bad” is a little exhausting

Things I did like!

I actually thought Nightheart and Sunbeam’s relationship was really sweet and this book got me more on board with them being together

They had good banter! I believed that they actually had growing feelings for each other and that they would change clans

Love how much confidence Frostpaw had in her decision to train as a warrior! Even after she gets her vision of Reedwhisker’s murder she’s still very firm on staying a warrior apprentice

Berryheart was deliciously manipulative; it’s nice to have a female antagonist who isn’t evil because a guy broke her heart

The tasks she had Nightheart and Fringwhisker do were a lot of fun!

It’s nice to see Nightheart out of Thunderclan where he was always so angry, like oh he has a personality outside of getting super furious at everyone around him! (to the point where I was... kinda disappointed he went back lol)

LOVE Sunbeam running to Thunderclan after him, very nice and romantic

Honestly this book genuinely had a lot of really funny moments in it! Like Nightheart herding a ton of frogs into a hole and no one laughing at Tigerstar’s jokes

I WAS on Team Mothstar for the last two books, but now I’m thinking it’ll be Team Froststar? Like her switching over to warrior training really feels like it might lead up to that. There’s still a good chance Mothstar will happen, but besides that there just aren’t any strong candidates? Icewing maybe, but they do deliberately refer to her as “old”. Can’t be Harelight, cause then there’d be two Harestars

It was nice to see Bramblestar and Squirrelflight FINALLY getting along at the end of the book. I actually really like their reasoning for Bramblestar stepping down too

It’s interesting not having any main characters with a direct connection to Starclan this book and having to hear it all second hand from minor characters

Splashtail’s attempts to manipulate Frostpaw in being a medicine cat again are hilariously inept

Me, a filthy Squirrelcrow shipper watching them have one (1) interaction in this book and it’s them snarling at each other: 👀