#brokenstar and tigerstar okay that was a two time thing

[animegenork]

Tall Shadow did not deserve to have her Clan be a walking disaster that keeps falling apart, what is she being punished for 😭😭😭

[bonefall]

do you have a quick link to information about Brokenstar, Runningnose, and Skypelt? I'm curious about the story behind Runny's acorn necklace and I want to read about Brokenstar becoming SkyClan's guardian, and how he was able to follow Firestar/help him restore SkyClan. i've been having a hard time finding it

I need to finish (or at least *reasonably complete*) the SE where Fire and Broken go to resurrect SkyClan. That is called Firestar's Quietus. Brokenstar's origin, which completely replaces Yellowfang's Secret, is called Brokenstar's Cataclysm and that's another one I need to complete.

The exact story has undergone a lot of revision SO I'm gonna take a quick break to try and compile some Best Hits of BB!Runningnose's and BB!Brokenstar's dynamic to get you up to speed, and make a definitive list of what's currently canon to Better Bones

And, because this is DEFINITELY the change that raises the most eyebrows and it's a good opportunity to make an intro,

"Elder Bones, what's all this I hear about your Not-Totally-Evil Brokenstar?"

He's still evil lmao, but he's not BORN evil in BB. NO ONE is.

BB is a story about culture. It's about a lot of things, family, anti-authoritarianism, xenophobia... but at its core, Better Bones is about how people impact culture, and how it acts on people.

Something I realized early in this process is that Canon Brokenstar, who is a born-evil punishment for SkyClan's exile (this is CANON, go re-read Yellowfang's Secret if you don't remember!), only made worse by abuse and enabling, does not effectively tell a story about culture.

Depending on your reading, Canon!Brokenstar is either a cosmic horror story or one about abuse. Could Yellowfang have saved him (and ShadowClan) with love? The book implies no, it was his destiny, just the medcat den was hers.

But looking at Canon!Lizardfang who let him get bullied*, and Canon!Raggedpelt who enabled him every step of the way as Sagewhisker held Yellowfang back, you could also read it as someone who was treated so horribly that he did horrible things to others. That he wanted respect and this is how he got it

So, okay, you could read that it's the fault of this bad woman, bullying, and this overly permissive dad that he became a baby killer. Problem solved?

HOWEVER... the Erins also refuse to actually write about people who unironically love his philosophy, because they don't want Brokenstar to be systemic. Blackfoot, the posterboy for a Broken-supporter, gets to reckon with how sad his childhood was and how he was only ever a mislead kitty who Truly Loved His Clan, as opposed to Brokenstar, who was Born Evil And Did Not Truly Love His Clan.

Blackstar's greatest flaw wasn't xenophobia, or hatred. He wasn't groomed by a society that glorifies violence and pushes a might-makes-right mentality. He just followed The Bad Person. With the death of The Bad People, society is fine :)

This is a recurring dichotomy. Leopardstar was good all along, Tigerstar was bad all along, Needletail was good all along, Darktail was bad all along. The Erins are not telling a story about how Clan Culture produces villains, or how it makes good people do terrible things, they tell stories about treacherous Evil People who always had a seed of badness inside of them.

-Onestar's Confession, Page 704

This is their guiding philosophy, and it's what Better Bones sets out to reject.

So, Brokenstar.

I realized while drawing him this one time that I was making him look too much like Tigerstar. Charismatic and puffed up, ready to twist the code to fit his own ends. Then it hit me-- why am I telling the same story twice?

BB!Tigerstar is the inheritor of Thistle Law, apprentice of Thistleclaw, with a backstory where he was a lonely, abused child and seeks respect to fill that hole. He's getting all sorts of reduxes to explore him, and the way that violent ideologies recruit (and prey on) angry and lonely people. Why should I just... have two Tigerstars, but one of them is explored less?

AND, I would waste the fascinating idea that Brokenstar is a manifested curse. Why remove something so cool, when instead, I could lean into that...? Then I started to realize...

Why didn't they ever connect Brokenstar to the resurrection of SkyClan, if he is this manifested curse?

So, enough preamble. Come below the cut and I'll tell you about the story in Better Bones so far...

BB!Brokenstar is not born evil. He is born angry.

He was ALWAYS going to happen. His birth, his ambition, and his fury were inevitable.

This is a curse that was laid generations ago, at the end of Ripplestar's Rot.

The last-ditch attempt to save SkyClan was literally crushed by StarClan itself, blasting the base of the blighted 5th Tree of Fivetrees and sending it toppling down to smite Ripplestar.

That tree was the symbol of SkyClan and their place in the forest. All the love, comfort, and memories that they had ever put into that oak had a power of their own-- and they took form on that night.

Brokenstar is not the only "entity" of this type. Star Flower, eons ago, was another. BB contains many new types of entities beyond, and even adjacent to StarClan. Gods, curses, guardians, other religions of equal standing...

But he needed to be born to someone. In return for Dawnstar's kindness, taking in Cloudstar's young children (Re: Ripplestar's Rot), ShadowClan would be the eye of the storm.

And it would be a Cleric who bore him, just like Larkstripe, who had been cruelly separated from her only kitten.

Yellowfang, Shroompelt at the time, this was before her Dishonor Title, saw when he was born that he was furious. She'd never seen a newborn look so angry.

In Brokenstar's Cataclysm, she only gets the opening chapter. It's enough to establish how Sagewhisker pressured her into the role, the lengths she went to in order to keep this secret, the reason for his name despite it not matching his tail.

NOTE: Brokentail's name, Kanochswash, means Broken-in-half-tail. He has two breaks in his tail, making three segments. It matches the way the oak was broken, once at the base, again against the rock, but it is actually obvious in Clanmew that his name does not refer to his tail.

Or, it's obvious to Lizardstripe at least... who is VERY different in BB. Old followers will know, she is a very loyal friend of Bluestar herself, and a member of her inter-Clan friendgroup, the Forget-Me-Nots.

She really doesn't want to be in this situation, doesn't LIKE being a mother, and Mudfoot is unhelpful... but she's the most perceptive of the Forget-Me-Nots. She hears that name, sees Shroompelt's distant eyes, and it clicks. She sometimes looks for things to complain about so Shroompelt has an excuse to stay in the den for a while.

But Lizardstripe is not raising Brokenkit. Raggedstar is. Raggedstar is Brokenkit's Mi, and Raggedstar alone. He's pointedly adamant about that, and as soon as Brokenkit doesn't need round-the-clock suckling, he started sleeping in the Leader's Den with dad.

Unfortunately, being the golden child of the leader did not pair nicely with Brokenkit's short fuse.

And he made a little friend.

What first drew Runningkit to Brokenkit was that he was very large. Runningkit LOVED pissing off one of his siblings, and then hiding behind his bestie who was younger than them but already as big as a stump.

When Lizardstripe tried to do anything about this, Raggedstar would get pissed off at her, insisting that his son needed to be with his friends.

Together, the two of them learned they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they stuck together. With Runny's brain and Broken's brawn, they weren't even a year old and already unstoppable.

And their idea of "unstoppable" was... mostly getting seconds when they'd already eaten and pushing against the horrors of bedtime. Sneaking out and collecting acorns. Being allowed to practice with the warriors.

Even better, since being the leader's kitten meant everyone tended to be extra nice to Broken to butter up to Ragged.

If they got what they wanted, they were sweet to adults. But from watching her son, and from being friends with Lizardstripe, Shroompelt knew that they could be vicious when they wanted to be.

And from a young age, Brokenkit knew that he needed to become Brokenstar... and Runningkit promised he'd get him there.

You might be noticing something.

Brokenstar was always loved, very, very much.

Spoiled? Absolutely. A little bully? You bet.

Not yet more than the sort of things angry, spoiled kids get up to.

The point I'm meticulously building here is that BB!Brokenstar WAS LOVED, and he loved in turn.

It won't stop what is about to happen.

Brokenkit was only a few months old when his father became leader, after Cedarstar was killed in the war with WindClan. Heatherstar wanted the Mothermouth Moorland; a floodplain just beyond the Carrionplace, which grows flax and many other medicinal flowers.

It was something the two clans had fought over before, that IS the code's Right of Challenge, but Heatherstar wanted all of it. She'd even killed the practice of tunneling to dedicate all of her forces to take it.

If you are not strong enough to keep something, you do not deserve to have it. This is what the Code says.

And strength is what Brokenkit quickly learned.

Taking extra bowls of food means nothing in the fall when the prey grows fat, but ShadowClan's marsh freezes fast.

You can't whine up a second bowl when not everyone even got a first.

Do you defend your territory? Or focus on survival? When the challenges are frequent, you have to go without eating to defend them.

And yes, you're hungry, but it's for a reason.

Brokenkit wasn't out of kithood when he saw his first death, because people were already dying before he was born.

In skirmishes, in hunting accidents, to infection because they didn't have enough herbs. Starvation in winter.

From a very young age, he was taught this is the way of Clans, and this is because of WindClan.

And his ambition to become deputy only became stronger. Runningpaw hatched a plan to get into the Cleric den, against Shroompelt's will.

Brokenpaw got into fights at Gatherings over ShadowClan's honor, enthusiastically bowled into battle against WindClan raids, became Raggedstar's best little rat hunter.

And he saw clanmates he loved dying.

Over many years, through his warriorhood, into his deputyship.

Cloudpelt, Foxheart, Toadskip, Nutwhisker. Lizardstripe was killed during an event called Heatherstar's Last Stand, her neck snapped by the WindClan warrior Flytail.

Heatherstar died, and her much more reasonable and peaceful deputy, Tallstar... continued to keep the Moorland she won.

ShadowClan went through that last winter, again trying to win their land back, but beaten so hard they couldn't mount a resistance. More cats collapsed in the snow, Mudfoot was one of them.

WindClan won. The land was theirs now. Out of his magnanimity, Tallstar reached out to Raggedstar and made him an unprecedented offer. He would give him a tax of rabbits, for peace. ShadowClan would stop attacking, and formally acknowledge that WindClan was the victor of the war.

A peace deal, a surrender.

Tallstar didn't have to do that. If his Clan won, it was his land in the eyes of StarClan. He had no obligation to reach out in this way, and Raggedstar acknowledged that.

But it made Brokentail SICK.

He couldn't believe that Raggedstar was going to buy this, let WindClan keep THEIR LAND and just send them back some of their own rabbits. What happens next?? What if WindClan decides to come further south, what then? What will Tallstar ask for next? What price will his warriors pay for the blood they spilled?

And this is the moment that Brokentail kills his father. On his last life, frail and weak after an entire life of fighting, he decided that the last kindness he could give him was a quick death, preventing him from taking that deal.

Runningnose sprang into action as soon as he'd been told about it; helping him to cover up the murder.

And together, they turned to TOTAL war.

Once, as an apprentice, Brokenstar recalled the words of a warrior at a Gathering. A parable of thistles-- how they don't care what attacks them. They don't hold back. How they will choke out the whole field who they can thrive.

Is that not the conclusion of Might Makes Right? If you can, you must, before they do it to you.

An apprentice becomes a warrior-- stop that from happening.

Don't let your enemies escape to fight again-- kill them when you have the chance.

Their herb stores are just as limited as yours-- dwindle them with infection and poison.

WindClan Must Pay, every single one of them. All the Clans are tomorrow's rivals, they have to go too.

Everything is for ShadowClan, and he was LOVED for it.

well.... by many.

This is about Brokenstar and Runningnose, but I must mention that there's also a lot of people who oppose him. Who realize this as evil. Nightpelt, Cinderfur, Deerfoot, Dawncloud and Stumptail are some of them.

And, importantly, Shroompelt was one of them. Whenever she learned of some code-breaking thing they'd done, she would make waves about it.

The word of a Cleric has an immense amount of weight, and it prevented Brokenstar from ending this war once and for all.

So Runningnose, as always, constructed a plan. Brokenstar decided it was a sacrifice that must be made.

Marigoldkit and Mintkit (kits of Rowanberry and Clawface) were in the Cleric's den for an infection.

Marigoldkit was a blind girl, and very fussy about taking her medicine.

Shroompelt would serve it to her in a berry capsule, either knout or rasp, a naturally red berry one.

Runningnose simply swapped her medicine with yew, and made sure that Mintkit was able to witness his sister being fed red berries over many days.

When Marigoldkit died, Mintkit was a distraught child who could only communicate that Shroompelt fed her "Red Berries," like the ones he'd been taught to stay away from.

Shroompelt IMMEDIATELY turned on Runningnose, accusing him of killing a blind kitten.

And he turned it on her. She'd fallen right into his trap. "You did this! You've been wanting us to stop fighting WindClan, and now you've stooped so low that you're trying to get rid of StarClan's only other messenger! You've killed your own nespring!"

Many cats of ShadowClan had completely lost patience with her before this, and were now shocked to see that she'd do such a thing. While some suspected the truth, in the end, Brokenstar's word is law.

And his law was that he would show mercy on an ex-Clanmate. But from here on, her name was Yellowfang, so that the world may be forewarned that StarClan rotted her teeth from so many lies as she walked in exile.

Brokenstar's Cataclysm ends on the WindClan Massacre. A bloody event where well over a dozen cats are slaughtered, and Brokenstar resurrects an ancient practice at the bellowing request of his warriors-- Kitten Stealing.

(The only time BB!Brokenstar uses a child soldier is during this battle, apprenticing Badgerpaw early so that he can participate in the all-out assault.)

With WindClan gone, he turned his sight on the other two. The Clans were cursed to die as they lived-- overpowered by a stronger, more bloodthirsty tyrant, violently driven out just as SkyClan had once been.

From there, the rest is very close to canon. Brokenstar is deposed by a coup, one that NEVER would have succeeded if it wasn't for Bluestar and her apprentice, Firepaw. The Curse is thwarted by change. Cats of different Clans working together in the name of righteousness.

Bluestar could have gone, grabbed the kits, and come back, but she knew that WindClan would never be able to return if Brokenstar was still in power.

This time around, ShadowClan's plague was intentional. Runningnose infected Nightstar on purpose.

He wanted to eliminate a weak leader... and a treacherous rogue who had defied his own.

Collateral damage was acceptable, if it eliminated as many of Nightstar's supporters as possible.

And yet, his brother Deerfoot survived. Sentimentality? Just luck? Who knows.

If Runningnose has any regrets for anything he's done, it's only this. That he cleared out ShadowClan for Tigerstar's rule.

He approved of him at first, interpreted signs to benefit him, even killed for this old ally of Brokenstar...

but Tigerstar's goal was to abolish ShadowClan, and make a TigerClan of his own. Brokenstar never wanted this, and neither did Runningnose.

What Runny really wants, more than anything, is what Brokenstar wants. Destroying WindClan is a bonus, eliminating all of their enemies is anger that they were able to obstruct him. Runningnose thinks he loves power, but what he REALLY loves is his ability to get Brokenstar what he wants.

Everything he's ever done has been in pursuit of that goal. He doesn't care that he'll be going to the Dark Forest in the end, that's where Brokenstar is going to be. Hell is wherever he isn't.

In life, neither one of them knew anything about the curse, or destiny. Brokenstar reconnects with memories in his death.

And he started having dreams of SkyClan, which he communicated to Runningnose through channeling.

I'm working on the full outline of Firestar's Quietus right now so I'm going to be a bit more brief;

Runningnose got Firestar involved on this quest because he's a little goody two shoes. Of COURSE he would agree to help... that's who Firestar is.

He brings him to the moonstone, where a scene similar to canon plays out where StarClan tries to encourage him to go back to his Clan and ignore what he now knows.

And, of course, he tells them to shove it.

Firestar's Quietus is a book about righting wrongs. Brokenstar as a curse means that what he needs, in the end, is peace.

The peace he needs is the knowledge that SkyClan will be saved, and that it will survive.

Runningnose is willing to let him go, in order to get what he needs. He passes off an acorn necklace to Firestar, so that he can channel him with ease on his journey

In this gesture, it becomes real that he will go to an afterlife without him. After all he'd ever done and been through.

So, he hesitates before handing it off, but makes Firestar promise to take good care of it.

On this journey, Brokenstar and Firestar do a lot of bickering about how SkyClan should come back. The sort of values they should have, who should lead it...

But in the end, Brokenstar realizes, they will be something new. They'll choose their own path in life, because that's what it means to be alive.

And his final action is to face The Rats, now supernatural creatures of their own, finally dispelling the threat that faced SkyClan.

Having done his job as a Guardian, he can finally rest. His necklace is buried overlooking the Gorge, returning SkyClan's guardian to them.

Eventually he falls during AVoS, in Darktail's attack, killing several of the kin and their rebels and allowing Leafstar and co a chance to escape.

For more on Skypelt, see this little guide I made on the afterlife locations. Hopefully one day I can clean this up into its own entry.

More stuff to check out (that I found while searching for other posts but are cool and I'm re-sharing);

Jaggedtooth isn't a villain anymore

"What's your favorite ShadowClan-adjacent change?"

First post I made on Tigerstar's Paws

Brokenstar's two honor-kits, Littlecloud and Rowanclaw

On curses and anger

"What does Runningnose think of the other TPB Clerics?" Hates em!

A rundown on all ShadowClan leaders post-Ripplestar

Cedarstar sketch

First post on StarClan Technicality Brokenstar lmao

IN-DEPTH QUESTIONS ABOUT SKYPELT

Some specifics on the religion/entity/magic mechanics in BB

[phoenixofheaven]

Okay so, I haven't really come up with the background, but that's okay! I'll come up with one now ✨

I feel like in this AU, Tigerstar and Brokenstar are that rich couple who live in a giant mansion who are always fighting and accusing each other of cheating and shit 😭

In this AU, Brokenstar and Tigerclaw get into a fight (prbly about a cat that Brokenstar spends a lot of time with, like I said, jealous rich couple 😂) and Tigerclaw is like "You're done ... you're done" and poisons him the next morning.

Then he's all like, "oh shit everybody's gonna think it's me" and he calls the police pretending to be the cat he believed Brokenstar was cheating on him with and goes "i just killed my boyfriend hehe"

But little does he know, somebody already called the police on him. When he finds out he'd like "oh wtf i'll just grab the money and burn everything down", so he does.

While he's on the run, he get caught by the police and is arrested. People have been watching this whole thing unfold on TV and so reporters are on the scene and taking photos!

Knowing that it's Rich!Tigerclaw, he probably got caught at a Gucci store or somtheing and his response would be like "I gotta slay while on the run! Hello? 😾💅✨"

I even thought of bringing my old hypokits for these two back and having them give a statement on the whole thing. One would be like "This isn't true. Daddy would never!😿" and the other would be like "Yeah, that sounds like him!🫡"

so yep there it is lmao

I watched the MV for Paparazzi by Lady Gaga and got this idea for a TigerBroken AU where Tigerclaw eventually poisons Brokenstar and burns down his mansion then gets arrested while the cameras are flashing.

It won't leave my head. 👁👄👁

[strelles-universe]

Okay now I need to know what would happen if sori joined a different clan. What would he have been named what would his warrior name end up being, would things for his clan go differently , how would his life change?

Very long post ahead - I got carried away my bad

n ShadowClan scary names are meant to intimidate evil beings and show strength as a warrior. He might've still been named Leopardpaw just because it's an honorable name, but other names include Salamanderpaw- (for his bright coat) or Adderpaw- (for his normally kind demanor). Then as he's a scrappy cat, I can see it going into Salamanderclaw or becaue ShadowClan would be more aggressive about his origins, Addersnap because he's be snarky and insulting all the time.

He would defintely have fought the hell out of Brokenstar every step of the way and he probably would've been the one to put his pride aside and go ask ThunderClan for help. Let's say his name was Adderpaw here and he becomes semi-decent friends with Sandpaw while he stays with ThunderClan with Brightflower seeking help. He does return to ShadowClan when ThunderClan helps dethrone Brokenstar but he remains on friendly terms with her and Dustpaw who's absolutely heartbroken about the death of his brother Ravenpaw and the disappearance of Graypaw.

Graypaw who he finds camped out in ShadowClan territory covered in mud and frickin terrified. He agrees not to say anything about him being there and looks after him until Bluestar's sudden death in qhich he interrogates him. Graypaw admits that Ravenpaw confessed that Tigerclaw killed their deputy and when Graypaw was helping him escape, Tigerclaw ambushed them. Ravenpaw didn't make it but Graypaw was able to escape to ShadowClan where he'd been until Adderpaw - now Addersnap - found him.

Graypaw probably becomes a medic from this point having learned a bit from Spottedleaf and from experimenting or secretly speaking to Turtlepaw about herbs. Addersnap becomes deputy and acting leader while Nightstar suffers through the illnesses.

ThunderClan is under strict military control with Tigerstar making constant raids on the Shining Sun kicking off a war between the two. Addersnap appeals to Magpiestar who is wary about siding with ShadowClan but trusts him and agrees to stand against ThunderClan while RiverClan remains neutral until the last minute. Sandpaw now Sandstorm leads the rebellion against Tigerstar and when he dies, ThunderClan chooses her as leader.

Adderstar probably elected Littlecloud as his deputy, Applescratch is his executioner and his first-born daughter would be his heir. Sandstar takes over as ThunderClan leader with Dustslash as her deputy. Leoparstar is big chillin with Stoneswipe and Magpiestar eventually gives up the reigns to Deaddstar who elects Quietmelody as his deputy.

---

RiverClan defintely would've named him Leopardpaw- or Ladybirdpaw- for his coat. Because Leopardshine is there, if named Leopardpaw he'd have to practice twice as hard to be seen as capable and likely would get a name honoring his focus and dedication - Leopardbeam. If named Ladybirdpaw he'd more follow along just being a good warrior - probably prefers dry-hunting to aquatic hunting and definitely friendlier towards ThunderClan than his clanmates would like. Actually, he's so friendly that Ladybirdpaw would probably become Ladybirdtongue as a diplomat.

RiverClan probably gets the Sunnignrocks deal much faster considering Ladybirdpaw is willing to actually listen to them about why they need the rocks and isn't clouded by history. He consistently fights his clanmates about the need to broker peace with ThunderClan and is very vocal about his opinion on chasing out WindClan a second time even as his clan starves. The non-sense that happened with Brokenstar lasts a wee-bit longer but Bluestar takes action against him and temporarily occupies ShadowClan territory until all of the rogue stragglers are hunted down and imprisoned.

In fact, he's so deeply against driving out Magpiestar's clan he outright refuses to fight. In RiverClan, diplomats aren't necessarily meant to fight - and in some cases they're actually discouraged from figthting - but Ladybirdpaw outright refusing to assist his clan was more of a statement than anything. Stormstar sentenced him to constant tasks alone that he did without question and refused to change his mind - when the patrol left for the attack, he tells them that when they return defeated, they'll know the stars were disappointed in them.

Stormstar gave him a lot of credit for now crowing "I told you so" when RiverClan came back after ThunderClan intervened. He did name him Ladybirdtongue though and promised to listen to him more - something that resulted in the rejuvenation of RiverClan after Ladybirdongue worked out a deal with ThunderClan. They later recieved refugees from ThunderClan caused by Tigerstar's lust for power and violence against anyone of non-clan blood.

Deputy Stoneswipe all but loses his shit when it's revealed that Tigerstar murdered Bluestar and claimed it was for the good of the clan. Ladybirdtongue is at Leopardstar's side for this incident as ThunderClan allies with ShadowClan in an attempt to strong-arm them into joining him after assassinating both Magpiestar and Deadfoot sending WindClan into political chaos.

By the end of it all, Sorrelshine becomes Sorrelstar, Sandstorm defeats and overthrows Tigerstar and becomes Sandstar again albeit with Ravensnap as her deputy; Raven having faked his death after revealing the truth to Bluestar. Bluestar sacrificed herself for him and he wants to be a good leader for her. Grayplume is clumsy and bit naiive but Ladybirdtongue likes him well enough - they're mates on the low and complain about their idiot clanmates always wanting to fight good-naturedly. ShadowClan is mostly fine; Scorchstar takes over with Lizardstripe as deputy.

---

WindClan would be the most interesting - in this instance he'd probably be seeking out his father's mate. Magpiestar would name him Copperpaw (since Hraye means "copper") after his father. Copperpaw would probably experiment with being called Firepaw. Flashpaw and Cyclonepaw before settling on Coppertempest as a warrior. He'd likely be an escort and when Magpiestar retires and Deadstar takes control, he becomes WindClan's new deputy and the first Escort deputy in recent WindClan history.

He fights pretty damn hard when they're driven from their home and makes good friends with the ThunderClanners who bring them back. He harbors a deep distrust for ShadowClan - understandably so. Magpiestar retires early as Brokenstar tried to murder Copperpaw and he took the blow from him + all the hunger had him die a couple times. Copperpaw becomes Coppertempest when he absolutely destroys a rogue ambush patrol led by Brokentail.

Most of this AU would be Coppertempest dealing with the complaints of him being an escort who knows nothing but camp politics and being leader. The other stuff with Tigerstar is certainly important but it wouldn't be the main focus as he's struggling to get a handle on the civil war arising. His clan eventually settles down and accepts they may be wrong about him - and of course he is the best option as deputy. Coppertempest gets along well with ThunderClan who has always rushed to WindClan's aid; when Bluestar is attacked, she managed to escape and takes refuge in WindClan as Bluedawn and explains what happened even as Tigerstar claims that she was abusing her power at the next Gathering.

Supporters of Bluedawn are killed off or sneak away to regroup in WindClan as well with the intent of taking back their territory. It's a hard battle but they do succeed - Bluedawn retakes her title as leader and names Longtail as her deputy because he was a mole for her and her supporters during all of this mess.

[theanoninyourinbox]

I'm back with another cat who deserves to go apeshit. It's Leafpool. It's like she was born just for StarClan and everyone to shit on her. Unless the Erins retconned it Sandstorm pressured Leafkit into becoming a med cat. Sure she did come to like it later but she had her own mother try to tell her to follow that path.

Then when she listened to StarClan and followed her heart she comes back to see her mentor dead by a badger. Then she is pregnant with Crow's kits when they split up and has to deliver them outside of the Clan and give them to Squirrel to raise as her own while she has to pretend to be the Aunt to them.

And StarClan for some ass reason got in their feelings about it and treated Leafpool like 'Wah how dare you break the code that the clan equivalent of a teenage mom in ye olde times created because she was stressed out and really shouldn't be a measurement of every medicine cat?'

And even though it was Leafpool who found the warrior version of Black Mecca, the pool she was named after and the thing that connects the world of the living to StarClan, no one acknowledges this at all and goes 'Holy Smokes, she is practically the next Moth Flight, you know that cat that found that sparkly blue stone in that cave before the two legs came and destroyed everything. Maybe we should at least give her deserved respect and that she can make mistakes like everyone else.'

Like Leafpool found the Lake version of the Moonstone to keep the Clans from running around like headless chickens and would have made the panic of having no Moonpool because it was frozen look like a cake walk because they wouldn't even have a Moonpool to have it be frozen.

Instead of saying 'Okay Leafpool, you did break the Code but since you helped the Clans not degrade into Godless Heathens, you can keep your role. It's not like you gave birth to Brokenstar 2.0 and helped save lives after all' nearly everyone treated her like she was a pariah or the next coming of Tigerstar.

Hell, when Leafpool died, that's when the Moonpool froze. It's like they were connected and when she passed, it too 'died.'

( Don't even get me started on that trial shenanigans, because I will rant until I hit a word limit LOL )

And while Holly, Lion, and Jay had every right to be mad at her but they didn't have to go out of their way to be that antagonistic since nearly every cat in the Clans both dead and alive already treated her like a yeast infection or you know, try to force her to commit suicide by the berries that did in Brokenstar.

I just kinda wish Leaf snapped back at Holly during that moment, even if it will be out of character.

'I know I gave up the right to me your mother and you every reason to be mad at me, but I will NOT have you use that tone against or say such things to kewhen you know how The Clans and our Ancestors view Kin Slaying in cold blood. Let alone killing a Medicine Cat. Firestar will be forced exile to you and when you die you will not grace the stars of Silverpelt.

And many cats broke the Code. Will you kill Crowfeather too? Technically Tawnypelt broke the Code when she went to ShadowClan and had half clan kits. Should she be slain by you as well? And Firestar was a kitty pet by birth. Should Sandstorm die for giving birth to half kitty pet cats?

If making me eat them truly will make you feel better, then do it. But my death will not be quick or pleasant. I only ask you as my final wish is that you look away as I choke to death, because I still love you, and I don't want you to see how a cat choking to death looks like.'

And Hollyleaf is so stunned she doesn't run off to the tunnels, but does come back to the Clan until a week to fully comprehend what happened.

Sorry if this came off as ranty but Leafpool deserves better.

Oooooooo this is Good Stuff! I’m not even going to write a lil story you already did Amazing! Go off Leafpool! Let Leafpool Be Angry! Let her R A G E! She was Wronged! I cannot express how good this is!

[sunset-embers-warriors-designs]

I have several ideas about how I would have written Starclan’s function in warriors and I MUST write them down I must express them. I have two different ideas, one in which I maintain the canon fact that Starclan cats can fade/be killed, and another in which I do away with the fading thing.

First, a few things I would want for Starclan regardless of whether or not the spirits can fade: 

- All cats, regardless of the age they die at, are given a full warrior name. Kits or apprentices who die early are either named by their leaders at their vigil and carry that name to Starclan, or they’re named by Starclan spirits. 

- After a leader dies, the -star suffix is removed and they return to using their warrior suffix as a Starclan spirit. Perhaps the -star suffix is given up right at the moment of death, or the -star suffix is given up after the leader ceremony of the succeeding leader to indicate an official transfer of leadership.

- The point behind everyone having a warrior name in Starclan as opposed to any of the “determined by status” suffixes (kit/apprentice/leader) is to further express that all cats are equal in Starclan. There aren’t any clan borders in Starclan’s hunting grounds, and neither should there be different ranks.

No Fading Starclan:

- Cats in No Fading Starclan are given otherworldly wisdom upon entering Starclan, regardless of the age of the cat. All of Starclan shares the same knowledge of the past/present/future.

- However, this knowledge takes a form such that Starclan aren’t able to express it to the living in clear and understandable ways, which is why they speak in riddles when delivering prophecies. Like Starclan is trying to translate some kind of language of the universe into meows and at most it does like a google translate quality.

- Individual Starclan cats each have a limited amount of spiritual/magical energy which they can use to interact with the living world. The longer the clans all exist, the more manpower Starclan has, which explains why their abilities from arc 1 to arc 4 grow from “clouding over the moon during gatherings” to “entering the living realm to fight a ghost battle.” 

- Similarly, the Dark Forest spirits have their own kind of energy that grows the more cats they have in their realm. However, as a punishment for their sins, they don’t get their godly wisdom, and their ability to reach out to the living is a little foggy. They ARE, however, able to latch on to cats who have negative energy surrounding them, and will try to bring troubled souls into their ranks prior to their deaths so they can gain more energy when those cats DO die.

- In this AU, spirits can’t be killed, so the Starclan/Dark Forest battle ghost casualties (Tigerstar, Hawkfrost, Spottedleaf) will not have died. Instead, the buildup to the battle is the Dark Forest attempting to take power from Starclan by reaching out en masse to the troubled living cats with the end goal of “replacing” or at least being on par with Starclan in terms of power, in order to maybe fight their way into the good afterlife or continue reeking havoc as revenge on Starclan/the living. The battle itself is then the Dark Forest’s attempt to overthrow Starclan and gain control over the living clans to ensure they stay in power. Ivypool’s role of convincing her fellow Dark Forest trainees to fight for their clans/Starclan instead then takes away the power the Dark Forest had built up for itself, and having this rejection of the Dark Forest’s influence become a part of the clan’s history/culture keeps the Dark Forest from rising back up. Not to mention, the Dark Forest having used to much energy to manifest and do battle will have left them drained, especially after their defeat, and even if Dark Forest cats have the ability to replenish their individual powers somehow, it would take a long time to do it.

- Spottedleaf continues to exist, as previously mentioned, but as a general rule in every single one of my AUs she and Firestar aren’t romantically interested in one another at all. The only interest Spottedleaf would ever have had in Firestar was because the “Fire Alone Will Save Our Clan” prophecy was Her prophecy, she was the one to interpret it, and she felt responsible to see it through even after her death. When Firestar dies in the battle, Spottedleaf feels that her role in that prophecy is finally through and she just does regular Starclan cat things like climbing starry trees and eating ghost mice.

- In the case of the great battle, spirits who have manifested on the physical plane I think should still have the ability to kill the living, so the deaths in the great battle still happen just for the sake of being consistent with who’s alive in what arc.

- Also regarding the great battle, perhaps Tigerstar’s spirit can kill Firestar’s mortal form, gloat about it, but then Firestar’s spirit rises up and with his Starclan Spirit Powers he takes Tigerstar down. I just think that would have been cool.

Fading Starclan:

- In Fading Starclan, there are actually two levels of Starclan, but the living clans only KNOW about one. The living clans know Lower Starclan, the Starclan made up of recently dead/not-faded spirits who impart the prophecies onto the living. Lower Starclan are Also recipients of the prophecies they then translate to the clans, but they don’t fully understand them and believe these premonitions to be coming from some essence of the universe. 

- In fact, the prophecies are first foretold by Upper Starclan, which is made up of the energies of the faded spirits. Upper Starclan spirits, since they’re faded, lack the identities they had in life and are more accurately interpreted as a hivemind. Like a God with a million faces. Upper Starclan are the ones who block the moon with clouds, control the weather, and do stuff like set fires in the living world to impart prophecy.

- Lower Starclan functions more like a transitional spiritual plane. It’s a place for the spirits to rest from their mortal lives, and then eventually shed their previous personalities and ascend. Lower Starclan being given the prophecies first to then give to the living gives the living cats more reason to listen, because these messages are coming from spirits who are still personable and likely cats who the living interpreters knew and respected in life.

- The Dark Forest is a place to hide away the spirits of cats who would impede on the goals of Upper Starclan. They eventually fade away too and are permitted into Upper Starclan because they’re no longer a threat without their mortal memories/personalities getting in the way of their roles as God(s). 

- The Tribe of Endless Hunting’s spirits also fade away into Upper Starclan because the two groups have the same origin. Like Endless Hunting and Lower Starclan manifested because of the split in the groups and Upper Starclan just said “Okay We can work with this”

- True Reincarnations only occur when an Upper Starclan spirit returns to a mortal form. Jay’s Wing, Lion’s Roar, and Dove’s Wing’s spirits had all faded into Upper Starclan but were reborn as new mortals in order to fulfill the Power of Three Prophecy. This also explains why they have “the power of the stars”, they were part of the Cat God Collective prior. Cinderpelt/Cinderheart was a “reincarnation” that was NOT sanctioned by Upper Starclan, which is why Cinderpelt and Cinderheart have separate souls. 

- The reason the Power of Three thing happened was because Upper Starclan saw their Dark Forest Timeout corner spirits being naughty and worried that those spirits weren’t as out of the way and not hurting their goals as previously presumed. The battle was orchestrated to reinstate faith in Starclan and have some of the more troublesome Dark Forest Spirits fade so they would stop causing trouble. Technically, Tigerstar, Brokenstar, and Hawkfrost are all part of Upper Starclan after the great battle, but none of them have those identities anymore, or at the very least, those identities are not “in use.”

- The only spirits that can walk in Both Upper and Lower Starclan are legendary/historical figures like the clan founders and probably other significant cats who have legends made of their life experiences. 

- Goosefeather, by some mistake or intention(?) was granted a mental connection to Upper Starclan instead of just Lower Starclan like other medicine cats, which is why his visions were so intense and so far into the future, and just the sheer number of them. He could see Lower Starclan spirits as well like Beetail because I guess if you can connect to Upper Starclan than Lower Starclan is just a side effect. 

- Spiresight and Shadowsight might also have this connection to Upper Starclan? Idk I can’t decide. Shadowsight did as a kit at least, but perhaps Upper Starclan decided to chill after seeing how poorly Goosefeather’s connection turned out for him.

- Upper Starclan’s concept otherwise is very vague. Their goals seem to be to ensure the continuation of the clans, which ensures their growth and power, but power for what reason? idk what to do with that

Since the Broken Code arc isn’t complete at this time I’m not sure what direction I wanna take for either Fading or Not Fading Starclan to explain Starclan’s disappearance or Ashfur’s ability to mess with other spirits... perhaps in the Fading version, Ashfur is the one Lower Starclan cat to discover Upper Starclan and figures out how to tap into his full spiritual ability before shedding his mortal personality and uses this to cause chaos. idk what to say for Not Fading rn tho

[rainsnap]

Warrior AU inspired by yet another song I listened to and that’s:

What if the timeline was extended a bit in the first arc? Have it be that Brokenstar is the main villain of the first arc (outside conflict) and Tigerclaw as a secondary villain (inside conflict).

OKAY SO:

Rusty and Princess are kitnapped by Brokenstar, who is in need of more young warriors due to his whole kit killing training program. Rusty and Princess grow up under this harsh rule, making it to their apprenticeships. During this time, Spottedleaf gets the fire prophecy and Bluestar begins keeping an eye out for fire.

During a border skirmish between Shadowclan and Thunderclan, Graypaw is injured by a cat who he says “has a coat like fire.” Catching Bluestar’s attention. During the next gathering, Bluestar sees Rustpaw and takes an interest in him. Meanwhile Graypaw, Ravenpaw’s, and Rustpaw’s friendship begin to grow.

Just as Bluestar is plotting a way to steal Rustpaw, Rustpaw and his sister Petalpaw appear in Thunderclan’s camp. As it turns out, Graypaw and Ravenpaw had been meeting Rustpaw in secret and have plotted to save him and his sister.

After this, Rustpaw becomes Firepaw and Petalpaw returns to the life of a kittypet, becoming Princess once more. The story continues on similarly after this point, only with Redtail’s death happening while Fireheart (no longer an apprentice) is in Thunderclan. Ravenflight witnesses Redtail’s murder by Tigerclaw and flees with Graystripe and Fireheart’s aid. Tigerclaw becomes deputy after laying the blame of Redtail’s death on Ravenflight because clearly an innocent cat wouldn’t run away.

The whole fight with Brokenstar happens, he’s imprisoned and blinded by Thunderclan and Tigerclaw helps him and all that good stuff about Tigerclaw taking over Shadowclan as Tigerstar. Bluestar dies by the dogs and Fireheart becomes Firestar.

For several seasons after, Firestar and Tigerstar remain at war with each other. The clans turn into two with Lionclan and Tigerclan. Things are tense in the forest.

Firestar is called away by a vision to seek out a fallen clan of cats. Thinking they might help him rid the forest of Tigerstar, he journeys with Ravenflight to the remains of Skyclan. After Skyclan is reformed, he doesn’t understand why he was sent so far away from home to help strangers. Especially when the new Skyclan is unable to return with him to help him in the war against Tigerclan.

He returns home only to discover that his mate Sandstorm and his deputy and friend Graystripe have been imprisoned by Tigerstar. Horrified, Firestar turns his back on Starclan, feeling misguided for leaving his home unprotected. He declares a final war against Tigerclan to end it all.

The war begins and Firestar fights with all his might, only to be struck down in battle by a strange black cat. While regaining his life, Goosefeather appears to him in a vision and warns him of a greater danger yet to come. The son of Brokenstar’s son. Goosefeather reveals this cat to be nothing more than a kit, telling Firestar that he must kill this kit to ensure the clans survival.

Firestar refuses and decides instead to steal the kit and to raise him as his own. Goosefeather says that this won’t work and blood will be shed no matter what.

Firestar returns to life to face the black cat, Scourge. Slaying him and frightening away most of Scourge’s cats. After this, Firestar breaks into the nursery and finds not only the kit he must slay, but Sandstorm! He learns that Sandstorm is heavy with kits, but thankfully isn’t the mother of the kit from the vision. The two escape, with Firestar and Sandstorm stealing the two kits in the nursery. (As their mother was slain in battle and Sandstorm refused to leave them to die).

During this time Graystripe is freed and the battle is won. Tigerstar has vanished too, only to be discovered in his den ripped in two. The doing of Scourge.

It is then that Firestar realizes the point of his journey to Skyclan: there always needs to be five clans. And so the clans split once more and peace is had.

Meanwhile, the dreaded kit from the vision is growing besides Firestar’s own kits. This kit? Is none other than Bramblekit, the son of Tigerstar, who in turn was secretly the son of Brokenstar this entire time. (Tigerstar’s mother had an affair with Brokenstar. Pinestar was informed of this through a vision telling him to kill Tigerkit. Pinestar refused to believe any of this and fled to the life of a kittypet. When Tigerclaw learned of the truth of his parentage he was proud to have Brokenstar as a father and not a weakling like Pinestar.)

[morningmask27]

I know you wanted variety in aus but my head is full of these cats.. You don't need to elaborate on this one if you don't want to, I'm just sharing, but imagine Yellowfang runs away with Brokenkit au. Like, fuck it, I'm your mom and dad (bigender Yellowfang?) and I'm not gonna give you the chance to become the menace to the clans that Starclan claims you'll be. You'll grow up in peace my son.

I just think that would be nice

in this au Yellowfang would take Brokenkit with her and the two would become kittypets. Yellowfang can't really bring herself to trust twolegs, but it's safer than being a loner or a rogue while taking care of a young kit.

they would be inside cats and spayed/neutered (okay no, brokey had one litter of kits before he got neutered) and they would live happily together (Brokey is named Henry, Yellow's name is Marguerite). henry and marguerite just live happy and peaceful lives it is a bit difficult for shadowclan because they don’t have a healer (they have to get help from windclan who sends barkface over, things are pretty tanse and poor runningpaw is getting a speedtraining and still gets named runningnose(poor man))

starclan still wants shadowclan to be all broken and sad for tigerclawstar to take over and be the real revenge for having banished skyclan all those moons ago. and raggedstar is angy so he gets with foxheart and they have a litter of kits(honestly it’s also very unpleasant for foxheart to be raggedstar’s posessionmate) one of these kits does the same deal of killing raggedstar and becoming leader, thicketstar, but this time they didn’t want any of it to happen, they were just pestered by starclan the entire time to do what they did. 

so they become leader, they are told by starclan to drive out windclan, to train kittens, ... all the atrocities that brokenstar would do, they do so, but they do the bare minimum. kits are apprenticed at 4 moons, but they aren’t thaught how to do vicious battle training before they get older, these apprentices also never go out to fight. so many of the kits that died because of brokenstar never died. volepaw, mosspaw, mintkit, marigoldkit, blossomkit, swampkit, badgerfang and all the others survive 

but eventually the other clans are done with shadowclan’s constant pestering (probably because they sent clawface to get some thunderclan kits and killed spottedleaf in the confusion) and thunderclan kicks thicketstar out. firepaw is with them. firepaw ressembles thicket quite a lot in appearance (henry had some kits remember) and firepaw feels weirdly connected to shadowclan bref runningnose is sent to train an apprentice asap, he takes cinderkit and she becomes thunderclan’s healer, later when barkface comes back running and bark train cinderpaw before making her a full healer (it’s bonding time babey)

some of the more vile cats (brokenstar’s canon followers) flee shadowclan with him and now there’s a power vacuum. sadly if thicket tries to return to shadowclan they’ll get thoroughly stripped of their life and shadowclan might get completely stripped of its existence so they play it cool. their followers aren’t very happy with their insistence on giving up the lives and leaving the clans alone so they force thicket to stay with them and they do the battling and when tigerclaw uses the cats to throw a coup they help him. tigerclaw is banished, but thicket stays and begs fireheart to let them stay. fireheart agrees because come one, this man isn’t going to chase away his great uncle (after some genealogy tracing they realise that nutmeg, fireheart’s mother, is henry’s kit and thus the two are related) 

bref tigerclaw goes to shadowclan and also after nightstar dies due to a shortage of lives because the other leader is still there tigerstar becomes leader (but he doesn’t have any extre lives this time) the tigerstar stuff still happens like in canon, the dogs get some bites on swiftpaw and brightpaw, he fire (but since yellow isn’t there and cinder din’t get hurt by the monster because well she didn’t have a reason to go there cinder follows fire and gets her leg seriously injured. mudfur and barkface team up to help her heal properly, but they have to amputate the leg because of how messed up it is. bref this doesn’t change anything about cinder’s quality of life she’s still doing her thing.)

anyways. bloodclan, yada yada scourge kills tigerstar, everyone realises that he only had one life, hah. and blackfoot also gets killed. so shadowclan has yet ANOTHER power vacuum and thicket is tasked with taking back shadowclan’s leadership. they don’t want to after everything that happened and name someone else deputy before giving up the lives they still had left and retiring in thunderclan, and being fun family for firestar and his lineage 

also smudge is the one to recreate skyclan and he becomes smudgestar, the end;

[mallowstep]

Dark AU (A Shadowclan Consensus!)

Blackfoot: *stares at Twanypaw.*

Twanypaw: *stares back.*

Blackfoot: *waves his tail around the area, before slowly emphasizing Bonehill with said tail* "Y-you...actually CHOSE THIS?!?"

Twanypaw: "Well, at the time it looked like a great opportunity...."

Boulder: *to Russetfur.* "That idiot apprentice has NO idea what she's just shoved her head into."

Russetfur: *sniffs at a trout.* "Like we do? At least Brokenstar was understandable in his madness, we--err, Blackfoot and I, anyway--grew up with him. Tigerstar? That's an entirely different set of morals and thunderclanness madness we're in now. Do you see him hitting on Mistyfoot and acting all matesy with her? I think he has a leader monilith....on Bluestar," *she whispered, still sniffing the trout.*

Boulder: "A leader monolith?"

Russetfur: "Yeah. Ya'know, where you have this huge crush on your leader, but you also want to murder them. It's more common then you think."

Stonefur: *who they're supposed to be guarding, eyes Russetfur.* "No, no it's not." *looks hopefully at Stormpaw.* "Not even in Thunderclan, right Stormpaw?"

Stormpaw: "Well...from what my dad says, no, but he also says Tigerstar was always a little off..."

Russetfur: "Mousedung! I'm taking a concensus." *she turns to Blackfoot, leaving Boulder to guard Stonefur and Stormpaw.* "BLACKFOOT, I'M TAKING A CONCENSUS!"

Blackfoot, far too use to such things, looks at Russetfur: "What about?"

Russetfur: "About Leader Monithism." *she meowed, before yowling loudly.*

Leopardstar: *blinks at these two Shadowclan warriors calling a clan meeting at Bonehill.* "Tigerstar, Wha---"

Tigerstar: "Blackfoot what is the meaning of this?" *he growled, fur fluffed up.*

Blackfoot: "Russetfur is calling a consensus."

Tigerstar: *huffs, fur laying flat and sits down.*

Leopardstar: "???"

Tigerstar: "It's a Shadowclan thing. They wouldn't let me become leader without keeping their traditions. Warriors get to call one consensus every moon, they don't stack, and they must be completely tallied and finished before the next one is called. It's...something." *he finished, remembering the last consensus on whether or not the sky was blue, or that there was enough water somewhere that made it blue. He shivered at the memory.* "I hope this one isn't as long."

Russetfur: *eyes the gathered cats, then speaks.* "Leader Monolith, they're a thing yes or no?"

Blackfoot, and the rest of Shadowclan: "Well, yeah. It's happened."

Riverclan: "What...??"

Leopardstar: *looks at Tigerstar.*

Tigerstar: "What..."

Twanypaw: o.o

Russetfur: "Y'all might have a different word for it. It's where you have a crush on your leader but also want to kill them. It's happened millions of times."

Leopardstar and Riverclan: "No, it's not a thing...sounds like Shadowclan issue."

Twanypaw: "I think I missed that lesson in Thunderclan..."

Tigerstar: "Twany, it's not a thing in Thunderclan...stuff like that just happens in Shadowclan, " *he soothed, seemingly forgetting what clan he was leader of for a few minutes.*

Russetfur: "What? How is this not a thing?"

Mudfur: "Because no other clan has had it's leader's assassinated as often as Shadowclan and--"

Leopardstar: *puts tail over Mudfur's mouth.* "I don't know. It must be just clan differences-like how riverclan likes to swim, Shadowclan likes to...uh...."

Mosspelt: " Assassinate?"

Mudfur: "Eat my herb supply?" *he asked, eyeing Boulder.*

Shadepelt: "Sniff fish like it's poison?"

Blackfoot: "That sounds reasonable...and you never know, Shadepelt, there could be a highly hallucinogenic fish."

Shadepelt: "What."

Leopardstar: "What."

Tigerstar: "I should have taken over Windclan..." *he meowed, Solemnly, as debating broke out between Shadowclan and Riverclan before he spoke.* "Enough! As Shadowclan leader, It is my duty to--

Oakfur: "Bullshit, Blackfoot! I bet these so called poison fish exist in this 'huge place filled with water that turns the sky blue too'?!?"

Blackfoot: *looks affronted.* "They might!"

Shadowclan: *starts to argue.*

Runningnose: *huffs at Tigerstar before yowling.*"Everyone, you know the rules of Consensus! No bringing up past Consensuses, no fighting, you are only allowed to use your big cat words. Oakfur, you broke the sacred Consensus rules, you're on tick duty for a moon. Blackfoot, we don't want to hear about Boulder's huge place of water anymore, we all know he saw it because he was high. Stop defending him, and stop treading over a dead mouse, both of you. As medicine cat, I declare this Consensus a tie, and concede that half the clans have Leader Monoliths and half do not. Thus Windclan must be the other clan that does."

Shadepelt: "Never thought Thunderclan would be the sanest enemy clan..."

Mosspelt: "Me either, but here we are...."

Russetfur: *jumps down and returns to Bolder, only to look around.* "What happened to my fish?"

Stormpaw: *burps suspiciously.*

Boulder: "I buried it so it'd grow a fish tree," *he lied, purring like he'd just won a battle single pawwed.* "We'll have a fish-tree!"

Twanypaw: o.o

Tigerstar: "Really, how hard could it have been to take over Windclan? Deadfoot's only got three legs...."

oh my god okay first.

congrats because -- you Nailed the tigerstar and mistyfoot vibe and it just made me 🥰

anyway.

yess there's so much to love here. "Well, at the time it looked like a great opportunity...."fkjl; kjl;sfdk;l tawnypaw my beloved

shadowclan preparing for consensus. tigerstar strugglign to adapt to shadowclan's way of life. it's a small thing but like -- i dunno. there's Something to comedy that speaks to a broader story i don't know how to explain but it gets to me.

a;kdf;ak and "deadfoot's only got three legs" yeah but he only needs three to kick ur ass.

anyway all of this was good. i laughed really, really hard. you nailed so many dynamics but thru comedy and i just -- it's very Quality

[staircasttext]

Ep 03 Transcript: Firepaw's Two Moms

Episode 3

[intro music]

PAZ: Hi again everyone, and welcome back to Stairway to Starclan, a Warrior Cats reread pawdcast. I'm Paz.

JULIAN: I'm Julian.

LIZ: I'm Liz.

PAZ: And we are back once more to dive into the forest with some cats and see what's going on. And I think a lot's going on this week. There's some juicy chapters. Anyone, any pre summary thoughts?

LIZ: I like the illustrations that I have now, because I've had to switch the PDF because my library loan expired.

PAZ: Whichever like 12 year old took that loan away from you, how dare they, frankly.

LIZ: I don't know. They've been waiting for like a month. I think they deserve it. Okay, so the beginning of chapter 10 has just like a very round faced wide eyed little kitten looking at a leaf. It's very good.

JULIAN: The lighting on it is incredible.

LIZ: Yeah, we can post that later. That's all I wanted to draw attention to.

PAZ: It's very important. I also have in my physical book.

LIZ: Yeah, I think they're the classic illustrations then.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Yeah, mine are different in the epub.

PAZ: Oh, interesting.

JULIAN: Yeah, they're like more-- they're line-arty. I think it's a newer edition.

LIZ: Are they the kind of like art nouveau looking ones? Because those are actually really good.

JULIAN: Yeah, yeah, they're really pretty, but they're definitely different. Yeah, I am just amazed at how much politics they managed to cram into four chapters.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Here's the juice.

PAZ: It went by really fast but things really... a lot happened. So I guess we'll just get into these summaries then, and then we can discuss all of it.

LIZ: Hell yeah.

PAZ: So this week we read chapters 10 through 14. And chapter 10 opens on the next morning with another like little friendly scene between Firepaw and Yellowfang. And then Firepaw is called to a meeting with Bluestar, and Bluestar tells him that it's time for him to return to his warrior training, rather than be a caretaker for Yellowfang. Firepaw joins Graypaw and Ravenpaw for a hunting assessment, which is overseen by Tigerclaw. Each apprentice get sent to a different place. Ravenpaw is sent to Snakerocks, Graypaw is sent to the stream, and Firepaw is sent to the woods near the Twolegplace. Tigerclaw ominously says that he'll be watching them.

Firepaw heads off to hunt, and as he nears the Twolegplace, he attacks a kittypet intruder. Firepaw quickly recognizes a cat as Smudge, his old friend from when he was a kitten. Smudge is bewildered that Firepaw is still actually living in the forest and not in someone's house. And Firepaw notices that Smudge smells weird and is round and soft, and has been to the Cutter. They have a conversation where Firepaw affirms that he truly wants to live in the clans rather than be a kittypet, and they affectionately part ways.

Chapter 11 picks up with Firepaw returning to Tigerclaw with the prey he caught. Graypaw also returns soon after. Ravenpaw takes a while to return but he comes back carrying a dead adder that he killed. When Firepaw gets back to camp, he and the two other apprentices discuss the upcoming gathering. Bluestar then calls Firepaw over and tells him that Tigerclaw reported that he saw Firepaw sharing tongues with a kittypet in ThunderClan territory. And Firepaw's like, oh no, we grew up together. And Bluestar presents him on if he misses his kittypet life, but Firepaw reasserts that he is certain he wants to be a warrior and is loyal to ThunderClan.

Bluestar then informs him that Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw are to come with the other cats to the gathering. Firepaw goes back and shares the news and they have a little play fighting scene. Graypaw mentions offhand that it was really bad luck the Tigerclaw saw Firepaw with Smudge, and Firepaw realizes that maybe Tigerclaw sent him near the Twolegplace on purpose, and he wonders if this was to test his loyalty.

Chapter 12 is a pretty hefty chapter. Um, the ThunderClan cats arrive at Fourtrees gathering, and it points out some of the other important cats that are there, like the Crookedstar and Brokenstar. Tallstar of WindClan is absent, and there's no other WindClan cats at all. The cats split off into groups to talk with cats from other clans doing this brief truce. Firepaw overhears Tigerstar-- Tigerstar, bleah. Tigerclaw talking about the RiverClan battle and notices that he doesn't say anything about killing Oakheart to avenge Redtail. He then goes to join Graypaw and Spottedleaf and some RiverClan apprentices.

Then the topic of ancient great cat clans comes up and Graypaw explains the mythology behind them and says TigerClan, LionClan, and LeopardClan used to roam the forest. Lionheart chimes in and explains that there is a trace of all great cats in every cat today. After telling the story, Lionheart notices that the ShadowClan apprentice in the group looks unusually small for their age.

Then they-- Firepaw and Graypaw head over to Ravenpaw, who is telling the story of the RiverClan battle. In his story, Ravenpaw says that Redtail killed Oakheart, and doesn't mention Tigerclaw. Firepaw decides that Ravenpaw must have misspoken, but then he sees Tigerclaw watching Ravenpaw from afar, looking increasingly angry. But then the story is interrupted by the clan leaders calling a meeting.

WindClan is still absent and Brokenstar addresses the crowd. He says that ShadowClan has a lot of kids born, and that they're not dead, unlike everyone else, so they need more prey to feed their clan. He demands that the other clans let ShadowClan hunt in their territory, and says that ShadowClan pushed WindClan out of their territory to get their prey. The RiverClan leader Crookedstar says he already agreed to let ShadowClan hunt in the river, but Bluestar does not make a decision yet.

Then Brokenstar insinuates that an unnamed ShadowClan outcast is very dangerous, and that until she is killed, everyone should keep an eye on their kits. The ThunderClan cats instantly recognize he means Yellowfang. They all get really angry, and Firepaw runs ahead to tell Yellowfang about the mob before anyone else gets to her.

Chapter 13 opens with Firepaw returning to tell Yellowfang about the suspicion Brokenstar cast on her and urges her to leave before she is attacked. Yellowfang mentions that Brokenstar kept his promise to drive her from every clan territory. Firepaw reassures Yellowfang he knows she wouldn't harm a kit and asks her why Brokenstar said that. But the conversation is interrupted by the angry mob. But Yellowfang refuses to run and claims that she trusts Bluestar to be fair to her.

Bluestar does indeed address the clan and calms down the crowd using facts and logic. She forbids that Yellowfang be harmed. And then she says that ThunderClan will not give into the Shadow Clan demands and will fight them if-- hi, Kip.

JULIAN: A real live warrior.

PAZ: He's here. Hi.

LIZ: Aww.

PAZ: Sorry Kip, I do have to podcast.

LIZ: He's a part of it. He wants to.

PAZ: Um, gosh, where was I? Kip...

LIZ: Our fourth co-host.

PAZ: Okay.

LIZ: He's our cat consultant.

PAZ: You can sit there, I guess, trying to move stuff out of his way. She then plans a trip to Moonstone where she hopes to receive guidance from StarClan. Graypaw gives some exposition about Moonstone and how all clan leaders sleep there for a night to talk with Starclan and gain nine lives. There's a short scene where Firepaw sees Tigerclaw intimidating Ravenpaw, and then Lionheart tells the apprentice trio that they are going to the Moonstone as well. All apprentices must go to the Moonstone before becoming warriors.

I'm trying to keep my cat from sitting on my keyboard.

LIZ: He can stay there.

PAZ: He can't. Chapter 14 covers the journey to Moonstone which is very far away, and past clan territory. The group, including Tigerclaw, make their way through WindClan territory and still see no WindClan cats but do smell ShadowClan cats. They then arrive to the Thunderpath, which they must cross to get to the Moonstone. Tigerclaw tries to push Ravenpaw to go first, but Bluestar crosses first instead. All the cats cross safely, although Firepaw does get almost get hit by a car that swerves off the road. The chapter ends on the cats hunting and waiting for the moon to rise before going to the Moonstone. And that's all the chapters we read this week.

JULIAN: God.

LIZ: Yeah, it's a whole lot.

JULIAN: I'm so glad that that Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw passed their hunting SAT.

PAZ: Yeah, no thanks to Tigerclaw. As I was saying earlier, I do have the note that he sent Ravenpaw to snake hell. But, you know, Ravenpaw said, I will prevail.

JULIAN: There's like this one moment when they're waiting for Ravenpaw to get back where Firepaw and Graypaw are like, well, what if he got hurt? What if he, you know, needs help? And Tigerclaw goes, "Then it's his own fault. There's no room for fools in ThunderClan." And I'm like, that's a child!

PAZ: I know.

LIZ: He needs to pull himself up by his little cat bootstraps.

PAZ: Yeah, like they're not even the oldest apprentices. These are little babies. Please.

JULIAN: They've been training for like three months, maybe.

PAZ: Yeah. But I do think like the like Firepaw, Graypaw, Ravenpaw like friend trio is very cute.

LIZ: Yes.

PAZ: And I really like their scenes together. Like they had a little like play fighting scene at one point and it was just like, it was so cute.

LIZ: They're just some scamps.

JULIAN: That was really sweet. I also did really like that we got to see like Firepaw and Smudge, you know, talk again even though it was super weird.

PAZ: Yeah, should we just... I think there's a lot we might have to say about that scene.

LIZ: Let's get into it.

JULIAN: We can do some unpacking of that scene.

PAZ: We might as well because it is right at the beginning. So we're back to balls, balls land.

LIZ: Oh no.

PAZ: I really was, you know... wasn't sure if it was gonna come back, but it sure did.

JULIAN: I guess it does make cats smell different, but the fact that he didn't recognize Smudge, to the point that like, he fought him for like several minutes. This wasn't like a, oh I saw you from behind and didn't recognize you because you look super different. This was like, I was going to kill you. Because you got your balls stole and you don't smell right anymore.

LIZ: You get your balls stolen, it's on sight.

PAZ: I know.

LIZ: One explanation could be like, it's been like a couple months and they're pretty young, I guess, and maybe they've like matured a lot, like, because cats grow kind of fast, don't they?

JULIAN: Yeah that does...

PAZ: Yeah, they do.

LIZ: Maybe.

JULIAN: My other note here is that Smudge is now doomed to cat purgatory, to purrgatory.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: Poor Smudge.

LIZ: He's so nice though.

PAZ: Yeah, I really did like this scene though cause it was kind of like... I mean, it served to be like a closing on like Firepaw's kittypet life and being like, yes, I am a warrior now. It was cool to see him like interact with a old kittypet friend.

LIZ: Yeah but, okay, so it was nice but also, he doesn't really like question at all like that there's this divide between them now. There is... I mean I guess that's the way it's like going to be, but having the perspective of like a cat who has been both and has friends in both has not like made him question the balls of it. Like, if you do not have balls, we cannot be friends anymore, you are going to cat purgatory, and there is no way around this.

JULIAN: He drank the Kool Aid real bad.

PAZ: He really, really has, like in all aspects. And it really--

JULIAN: And then like, he goes back and they get mad at him for even talking to a kittypet and not, like, I guess, killing his old friend?

PAZ: Yeah! Are warriors supposed to kill kittypets? Like that's fucked up.

LIZ: He wasn't like that, like agog at the accusation, either. He was just like, oh no, I didn't. He's not like, Oh, I would never. That's my old friend.

PAZ: Yeah like okay, if it wasn't his old friend, would it have been like, fight to the death?

LIZ: If it was Henry.

PAZ: Oh no.

LIZ: He would have been fucking dead.

PAZ: No, Henry.

JULIAN: It's on sight for Henry.

PAZ: Oh no.

JULIAN: God, the other thing that-- Smudge mentions that Firepaw like looks really skinny. And I'm like, yeah, he's malnourished. He's eating like one mouse a day.

PAZ: Yeah, like the weird thing about that scene was like, it pointed out like the difficulty of like being a wild cat versus a house cat. But like, even though it was like realistic about it, it was still like, no, it's fine to be a warrior because it's cool. I was like okay.

LIZ: Yeah, I mean, you know what? Good for Smudge. He's fine. He's vaccinated.

PAZ: And he's like, all round and happy.

LIZ: He's not gonna get ticks.

PAZ: No, no ass ticks for him.

LIZ: No.

JULIAN: He'll never taste mouse bile.

LIZ: How do they get that? How do they even get that?

JULIAN: I don't want to know.

PAZ: Yeah, I don't need to know that.

LIZ: Okay. But I want to draw attention to like this description of, like, Smudge, because there's like-- aside from the being plump and stuff, there's like other kind of weird, physical differences. Like it describes him having like "round eyes and a narrow face, which looked very different from the lean, broad-headed cats that Firepaw lived with now."

JULIAN: So that actually I think might be a real thing. Apparently cats who don't get neutered, like early, like tomcats tend to have like big cheeks.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Oh, what?

JULIAN: It like changes their face structure somewhat. So Smudge might look different.

LIZ: Wow.

JULIAN: Cause he's got his balls stole.

PAZ: Smudge looks like a little boy and I love that.

JULIAN: [Keith Carberry voice] He's just a little boy.

LIZ: Does he just look like Oliver in your head?

PAZ: Yeah, except like black and white.

JULIAN: I keep envisioning Chloe.

LIZ: That's very good.

PAZ: This book has absolutely poisoned me because I do look at my cat now who is very round and be like, wow, idiot got his balls stole. That's why he's like that.

LIZ: Cover Oliver's ears. He cannot hear this slander.

JULIAN: Yeah, it does, it is like-- I'm glad that he gets closure on his kittypet life. It does feel very much like when you go back, like your first semester after college, and you hang out with your high school friends and you're like, oh, we've all kind of changed.

PAZ: Yeah, it kind is like that.

JULIAN: Except that the change is getting your ball stole and also living in a state of like semi hunger.

LIZ: Firepaw just went to like have a, like a one of those like natural diets in the woods, I guess.

JULIAN: God.

LIZ: And he's like, yeah, I have a mouse a day and I'm great. Oh, what happened to your balls? Oh, that sucks, bro. Gotta go.

PAZ: Is he like a Instagram lifestyle influencer?

JULIAN: Firepaw's a WWOOFer. The people who live on organic farms for free.

PAZ: Oh yeah?

JULIAN: And just move from farm to farm, that's him. He's one with nature.

LIZ: I didn't know that was a thing.

JULIAN: Yeah, it was a really big among a certain subset of folks I went to college with.

PAZ: Well, I mean, anything else about the Smudge scene?

LIZ: I like Smudge.

PAZ: Me too.

LIZ: He's just living his good life.

JULIAN: Yeah, he's a good guy.

LIZ: Good guy, great name.

PAZ: Um, I mean, aside from the Smudge scene in that chapter, I mean it's kind of just like Tigerclaw being a weird shitty, slimy guy. Cause he does send Ravenpaw to snake hell and also obviously sent Firepaw over to the like house area, I don't know, to like frame him or something like that.

JULIAN: Yeah, he's just a big ol slime.

LIZ: He's so obviously like shady. He's so shady.

PAZ: Firepaw notices him like, lurking ominously by conversations like so many times.

LIZ: He's just like there, and he's always like looking mean, and glaring, and angry. And he doesn't really think about it that much. He's just like yep, that's Tigerclaw. That's just how he is.

PAZ: Firepaw did like finally have a single brain cell in regards to Tigerclaw and was like, maybe he sent me there on purpose? Question mark. But then it was no thoughts head empty.

LIZ: It still feels more like he's thinking, oh, maybe he sent me there on purpose because he's a mean teacher.

JULIAN: Right, I think he just thinks that Tigerclaw has like resting bitch face, and that's why he's looking angry all the time, instead of he's cartoonishly evil.

LIZ: He should know the difference because Yellowfang has resting bitch face, probably.

JULIAN: They do mention her face looking squashed.

PAZ: I guess she is a Persian cat.

LIZ: That's so weird.

PAZ: Oh, a note I do have written down is Bluestar/Yellowfang.

LIZ: Right?

JULIAN: That's a good note.

PAZ: Yeah, yeah cause there's a part in chapter 11 where like Bluestar like seems fond of Yellowfang. And I'm like, oh, MILFs together.

JULIAN: MILF city.

LIZ: Do we have to call them MILFs?

PAZ: CILFs.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: No.

JULIAN: I think Liz's problem might be with the ILF part.

PAZ: Yeah, okay, that's fair. I disagree with that too.

LIZ: They're older women. I do agree that we can get into that now if you want. Or we can go through chrono--

PAZ: I mean, like it comes up in chapter 11, and then kind of comes back again when like Yellowfang is like being put on trial, by mob justice.

JULIAN: Yeah, Bluestar is like very very defensive of her. It would be a lot easier for her to just not be. So good for Bluestar.

PAZ: Mm-hmm.

LIZ: You can find romance late in your cat life. Why not?

JULIAN: You can. They deserve it.

LIZ: Yeah.

PAZ: They do. And you know, once Yellowfang doesn't have those ass ticks anymore... you know, it'll be great. They can go on romantic forest walks, and I don't know, like, plot ShadowClan's demise, you know.

LIZ: Oh, you don't want the hurt/comfort fic about Bluestar like tenderly taking care of Yellowfang's ticks?

PAZ: I... well...

JULIAN: I hate this.

LIZ: That's not a no.

PAZ: Maybe not in so much detail as we previously got.

JULIAN: If I didn't know there were ass ticks, and that they involved mouse bile, I'd be like, aw, that's sweet. But I do, and so it's not.

LIZ: Why don't they use paws? They have them. They have been shown to be putting like medicine with their paws on things. I don't...

PAZ: But just kind of like patting. Like I don't think they're... they're not like grasping stuff in their paws.

JULIAN: Well, and Yellowfang said that the reason that they were using the mouse bile was because she didn't want the tick heads embedded in her. Because it wouldn't pull the whole thing out.

PAZ: Yeah, you can't like bite them out.

LIZ: I'm so mad about this rational explanation.

JULIAN: The bile is like an acid so it makes them release their little grasping mouthparts.

LIZ: Icky.

JULIAN: [laughing] I'm sorry for this detailed walkthrough of how ticks work.

PAZ: I mean, good on the cats for like, trying not to get like Lyme disease. I don't know if cats can get Lyme disease, but whatever.

LIZ: We can find out.

JULIAN: I'm googling it right now. Can cats get Lyme disease? Probably not a concern for cat owners. This is from Cornell.

PAZ: Well, that's because my cat's not outside.

JULIAN: "Although the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is capable of infecting cats, the disease has never been seen in a cat outside of a laboratory setting." Are they infecting cats with Lyme in laboratories?

LIZ: Oh my god.

PAZ: Please don't do that.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: Please don't. Well, I mean, okay. I mean, I guess it's good that naturally they would not be getting it.

LIZ: Maybe they-- I hope they just have a cat they found with Lyme disease, and they were like, we have to cure this cat. That's a that's a really optimistic view. But I don't wanna think about this. This is terrible.

PAZ: Okay, well, tragedy in scientific ethics aside.

JULIAN: Oh, there is a really cute scene around the time when they started talking about Yellowfang, where the kits are watching Firepaw and the other apprentices come back and like, talking about how cool they are and how they're gonna be just as cool when they grow up, and it's very sweet. The kit content is generally good.

PAZ: It is very cute. They're just little babies. I think like that plus the Smudge scene kind of like ending that arc of like, oh Firepaw joining ThunderClan, like it's like, yeah, he's in it now. He is accepted.

LIZ: Yeah, it's good framing. But like, we can also follow that scene with-- because we were talking about Yellowfang/Bluestar earlier. There's this part where Bluestar's talking to Firepaw, and she says, "she's a wise old she-cat, you know, and I suspect she wasn't always bad tempered. Indeed, I think that I could grow to like her."

JULIAN: Oh, that's where it's at.

PAZ: That's what made me write that down.

LIZ: Bro, bro, it's real. Cat old lady romance is real.

JULIAN: That's some real enemies to lovers content right there.

PAZ: I just think they should have a forbidden past-- no, never mind. Couldn't word that right.

JULIAN: A past forbidden romance? A tryst?

PAZ: Yeah, a tryst.

LIZ: A whirlwind one.

PAZ: Yeah, now their feelings, being rekindled by the circumstances.

JULIAN: It would have been double forbidden because Yellowfang was a medicine cat.

[Paz and Liz gasp]

And from another clan.

PAZ: Oh my gosh.

JULIAN: So it's extra sexy.

PAZ: I love this.

LIZ: Does it have to be sexy?

PAZ: No, it's extra tasty, like good content.

LIZ: They're two on the verge of-- well, one of them's retired, I guess. Two old retired, like warrior cats, kind of, basically. I don't know. Do medicine cats count? Anyway. And they're just like after all these years, I see you again.

JULIAN: That's beautiful.

LIZ: Have you changed? Have I changed? And so on and so forth.

PAZ: I love this fiction we've created. It's what they deserve.

JULIAN: This is a rich fiction.

LIZ: Prequel. We need it.

JULIAN: I'm opening AO3 right now.

PAZ: Oh, please tell me if there's any.

JULIAN: I bet there won't be because people are fools.

LIZ: Oh no.

JULIAN: Other tags to include.

LIZ: I imagine there's 100 million tags to filter, just because of the amount of characters.

PAZ: Yeah, we already went over that.

JULIAN: Yeah, yeah. Ugh, I have to do it in the canonical tag. Bluestar (Warriors)/Yellowfang (Warriors).

PAZ: I'm on the edge of my seat.

LIZ: This is so exciting.

JULIAN: Sort and filter. 28 works! Yes.

PAZ: Oh fuck yeah.

LIZ: Oh my goodness, there's fucking riches.

JULIAN: Well, I might have typed the tag in wrong.

PAZ: Oh no.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: I was gonna say for like a book fandom femslash pairing, I was like, that's pretty good.

JULIAN: For a book fandom femslash pairing of like specifically two old.

LIZ: Two old cats from a children's series.

JULIAN: For some reason she's in-- her canonical tag is Bluefur, so I typed it wrong.

LIZ: Oh, maybe there is some stuff for them.

JULIAN: I guess that was her warrior name. Sorry, I'm a slow typer.

PAZ: No, it's fine.

JULIAN: No, there's none.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: Oh, this is tragic.

LIZ: Maybe it's not on AO3.

JULIAN: Maybe.

PAZ: It's all on FF.net.

LIZ: I'm gonna boolean search this.

PAZ: Yeah, just Google search that. Maybe it's on some--

JULIAN: Oh I'm sorry, there's a single one. There's one. It was written in February of this year. Oh, fuck yes.

LIZ: Wow.

PAZ: You should link it.

JULIAN: I'll link it in the chat.

PAZ: I was also wondering like, if there's like a lot of Graypaw/Firepaw content out there.

JULIAN: I'm sure there is.

PAZ: Yeah, when I was reading I was wondering that because they keep being very, very cute together.

JULIAN: Yeah, I'm sure there's like AMVs too.

PAZ: Oh good. Oh should we tell Liz that we did, like, without I guess spoiling context but gay cat.

JULIAN: Oh yes. Yeah, we found out that there is a canonical--

PAZ: Well like by word of the author.

JULIAN: Or not canonical, but by word of God sort of a...

LIZ: You know what? That's good enough. They're cats. I don't know how much these eight old British ladies thought about it.

PAZ: Well, it was like, the author said like, it was like canonical in her heart but the publisher said no, essentially. Which sucks.

LIZ: Yeah, it does suck. You know what, they've got clout, they can... I believe in the future of this gay cat.

PAZ: Yeah, but once we get to that character... I have to figure out when that comes up, because I want I want to talk about it badly.

LIZ: Is it a character from this series or like the next one?

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Oh great.

JULIAN: Yes.

LIZ: Okay. Also, some results.

JULIAN: Oh good.

LIZ: So if you boolean search Bluestar slash-- I made slash into like three syllables, sorry. Bluestar/Yellowfang or vice versa, and you look in images, there are some.

JULIAN: Oh?

LIZ: There's a few images.

PAZ: Oh?

LIZ: I'm going to-- they're all on Pinterest so I don't know where they're from. So that's unfortunate. So I'll drop them in the chat, cause they're there. This is existing.

PAZ: Aw.

JULIAN: Aw, that's so cute, actually.

PAZ: Oh, they're talking about their son.

JULIAN: That's really sweet. I'll try--

PAZ: Yeah, try and describe it.

JULIAN: Well, and also like when we're done with the pod, I can like try reverse Google searching it and finding the artists so we can tweet it. So it's Bluestar kind of laying on the ground and Yellowfang is sort of cuddled on top of her with one eye open looking very grouchy. And they're both talking about Firepaw, who is drawn is just the, like, smiliest cat in the world.

PAZ: It's adorable.

JULIAN: It's very cute.

LIZ: It is.

PAZ: That's their son boy.

LIZ: Oh there's another one, I, this one's just called "Son and his moms," and I can't get the link to it.

[Julian and Paz gasp]

PAZ: No, please.

LIZ: I hate Pinterest. I'm not locked in. Okay, we've gotta reverse search this later. It's very sweet.

JULIAN: Yes.

PAZ: I am so happy there is any content of this.

JULIAN: Aw.

PAZ: Oh my gosh.

LIZ: Two old lesbian mom cats and son.

PAZ: What's better than this?

JULIAN: They're all cuddled up together, and Firepaw has his arm around Yellowfang, who has her paw over Bluestar, and they're just all cuddling, and it's perfect.

PAZ: Ah, this has healed me.

LIZ: This is also a very nice, big fluffy Yellowfang. Wonderful cat.

JULIAN: Yeah. Big and soft.

LIZ: Ooh, there's a YouTube with the speed paint, and it's... Gotta look at this. Look at this thumbnail.

PAZ: Aw.

JULIAN: Oh.

LIZ: These cats are in love.

JULIAN: They have their foreheads touching.

PAZ: They're doing a forehead touch and they're smiling.

JULIAN: Oh, the music is also deeply romantic.

PAZ: Oh wow.

JULIAN: It's just like some soft acoustic guitar, but they're in love, actually,

PAZ: They are. Wow.

LIZ: These cats are in love. They have a son.

JULIAN: Perfect.

PAZ: This is fantastic. Well, I'm extremely happy there's content out there.

LIZ: This is exactly how it should be.

PAZ: Yes, I hadn't even considered that two lesbian moms and their son dynamic but it's perfect. Thank you Warrior Cats fandom. Your mind.

JULIAN: I hadn't either. All right, we do got to talk about the gathering,

PAZ: Oh well, I was also gonna mention that while we're on the topic of Yellowfang, I think Firepaw and Yellowfang's relationship is very sweet.

LIZ: Oh yeah.

PAZ: And I'm glad that they're like friends now and Firepaw like cares about her.

JULIAN: He's a good boy.

LIZ: He's very dumb but he's just like a nice young man.

PAZ: He is. But that's, yeah, I just wanted to mention that.

JULIAN: Oh, for sure.

PAZ: I was gonna let you, segue, Julian.

JULIAN: Oh, sorry. Um, yeah, no, the gathering is-- first off, it's nice to get to see a gathering because we get to see all the clans interact. I was bummed when the first gathering was like, well, the other apprentices go and, you have to stay behind and have fun. So it's nice to see the clans interact, but also, uhhhh, little fucked up, little fucked up for Brokenstar to be like, well we had more kits so... Like, I'm not against-- I think they should all be sharing their territory. But you can't just, you can't strong arm it.

PAZ: You can't just invade, like, this has to be through good faith, I think, and also like they apparently just fucking destroyed a whole nother clan. So not a good image.

LIZ: I was so sure when, when he brought up the we have more like living kittens or whatever, that he was gonna say like but since we have no resources, can you foster them and that can be like the beginning of-- no, this is just an invasion.

PAZ: Absolutely not.

JULIAN: Yeah, also Crookedstar needs to get better name SEO. Just all of the names are like...

PAZ: Yeah, why do all the, like, both Crookedstar and Brokenstar are like, get better names. Those are like scary sounding. Although Crookedstar isn't evil. He's just a pussy, I guess, literally, haha.

LIZ: Good one.

PAZ: Thanks.

LIZ: Real zinger.

JULIAN: God.

PAZ: But yeah okay, they all talked about-- they mentioned, like how many kits are dying, and I was just like, this is another reason you should all go be kittypets. All your kits are dying.

JULIAN: Well, and it's like... I'm suspicious, and I don't remember if this is actually a plot point or not, but they keep mentioning how young the kits, or the apprentices look. And it's like okay, do they actually have more kits, or are they pushing like young kits to be apprentices so it looks like they have more apprentices.

PAZ: Oh, that's, yeah I don't remember either.

JULIAN: And then they can use like their, quote unquote, "extra kits" as an excuse to strong arm into other people's territory,

PAZ: Yeah I was-- cause I was thinking maybe it was like a bad environmental-- like not bad as in a bad plot, but like environmental pollution or whatever was causing like stunted growth, but that'd be really interested if they are like faking it.

LIZ: Yeah, I thought another reason could be like, they just don't have as many adult cats so they have to like push the younger population forward more, just because of like dying, but, um, that first one is very interesting. So is that second one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was like a mixture of both.

JULIAN: Yeah, it could be a mixture of all three.

PAZ: Yeah, and I am curious how like, cause Yellowfang probably ties into it somehow, as medicine cat at the very least, so I'm curious to see how that all comes together.

JULIAN: Definitely. Yeah, no, Brokenstar's whole spiel sounds very like 1930s appeasement. Like we need more space is like a pretty big...

PAZ: I did write down is ShadowClan just the United States of America.

LIZ: Oh, man. Brokenstar voice, manifest destiny.

PAZ: Exactly. Yeah, I guess RiverClan just didn't want to get like wiped out. So they just went along with it. But Bluestar says, Not today.

JULIAN: Oh no, I really liked that she consulted her-- like she was like, I'm going to consult the clan.

PAZ: Yeah, good leadership. My favorite clan as a child was WindClan. I don't like 100% remember why now, but I was like, oh, I'm sad they're not here.

LIZ: Aw.

PAZ: Come back.

LIZ: It is also-- it is weird, at least to me, that they didn't have any like previous instances of sharing or trade or even like anything like that, I guess, prior to this, except for I guess the gathering. But I don't think there's any like, resource management in the gathering. It's just kind of like gossip and politics.

PAZ: Yeah, I mean that's a great ques--

JULIAN: Yeah--

PAZ: Oh, go ahead.

JULIAN: No, I was gonna say it's weird that there's like no negotiation of this, it's just like Brokenstar gets up and is like, hey, this is how it is.

PAZ: Yeah I mean, I have no clear idea like how long these clans have actually been around. There's probably like lore now at this point because the series has been going on so long about like those exact numbers, but the fact that there's never been sharing before seems absurd.

JULIAN: I mean, apparently, according to Lionheart, the clans have been around since they were all great cats, which I have some questions about biologically.

PAZ: Yeah, one, I don't think that's how the evolutionary tree looks because I'm pretty sure there is some other common cat ancestor far in the past.

LIZ: What would they think of like domestication, as in like the history of it?

PAZ: I don't know. To me at this point, like without knowing like how it's expanded on in later books, to me, it read as just like, oh, like mythical origin story, which is like cute, you know, but I don't know if it gets like real literal in future books. I hope not.

LIZ: This is why it has to be like in England where they don't have any like fucking bobcats or anything around.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: I did do a quick google to see if lions ever lived in Great Britain, but I could not find...

PAZ: I know they were in Europe, but I don't know if they got to the British Isles.

LIZ: I mean, zoos probably, I don't know if that's gonna ever come up. Wouldn't that be fucked up? You're a cat, you see like your ancient ancestor of myth, just like chillin in the zoo. It shakes--

They're doing better than you. Cause they're fed.

Oh, great news.

PAZ: Oh?

LIZ: Oh, what?

JULIAN: There was a lion-like creature called Panthera fossiliferous in the UK, 68 hundred thousand years ago.

LIZ: Wow.

JULIAN: Sorry, 680,000 years.

PAZ: See, that's what I'm saying, if they have some great cat ancestor, it's gonna be like that guy, I don't know. But they're cats, what do they know?

LIZ: Yeah, they're also cats from like contemporary time, so genetically, they come from all over the place from just other cats, Right?

PAZ: Yeah.

Unknown Speaker

Yeah.

LIZ: It's like, apparently, Yellowfang's a Persian cat.

JULIAN: I'm guessing that the Erins Hunter did not do a ton of research into cat genetics.

PAZ: No, probably not. Which is fine, I guess.

LIZ: That's okay.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: Oh, do we want to mention that like a listener wrote in to tell us that like UK cat culture is in fact like--

JULIAN: Oh yeah, yes. We had a listener, Harry, tell us that apparently UK cat culture is like so insistent that cats be allowed to roam outdoors that they often won't let you adopt a cat if you can't prove that the cat will have access to like a back garden. So it's basically the opposite of the way it is here in the US, where often they won't let you adopt the cat if you say you will let the cat out. So it's just like very common to let your cats roam.

PAZ: Yeah, I think it really explains a lot about Warriors' like politics around like cats being outside. And like the romanticiz-- romantic-- wow, I can't say that word. The romanticization-dah, dah.

LIZ: You got it, it's okay.

PAZ: The glorification of cats being outside.

LIZ: Like again, I guess they don't have like coyotes there. But they still have like--

JULIAN: Right, they still have cars.

LIZ: They still have cars. They still have like birds whose populations could be adversely affected by this, possibly.

PAZ: And also birds that could-- like hawks that could kill your cat, too.

LIZ: Oh my god, a fucking hawk swoops down, picks up your poor cat, and is just like, in a British voice, thanks for the snack. Bye.

PAZ: Thanks for reminding us they would all have British accents.

LIZ: They're all British cats. Just, they're very-- I don't know what accents they'd have, like regionally. But, I don't know, this could be like a BBC audiodrama.

JULIAN: Yeah, because that is a big variation.

PAZ: That's the medium you think it should be in?

LIZ: Mm-hmm.

JULIAN: I meant to look up the audio book, but I haven't had a chance. But I would guess it's not in a British accent, which is disappointing and not realistic.

PAZ: I would love to know.

LIZ: It's a good enough adaption. Can you imagine if they made a movie, like a big budget movie with cats? I don't know. That one seems kind of difficult. Anyway.

JULIAN: Did y'all ever see the Incredible Journey movie where they have like actual animals?

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Yeah yeah yeah.

PAZ: I watched that so much as a kid.

JULIAN: Yes, that's what I'm envisioning for the Into the Wild movie.

PAZ: Wow, we'd need a lot of talented cat actors.

LIZ: Julian, have you seen the Guardians of Gahoole movie?

JULIAN: I have not.

PAZ: It's not bad.

LIZ: It's not good. It's alright.

PAZ: It could be worse.

LIZ: I imagine if they had made a Warriors movie, it would have been something like that, like, pretty realistic cats but they emote like just a little too much, like humanly. They're gonna-- it's not DreamWorks, but they will DreamWorks smile at you.

Nooo.

What were we talking about?

PAZ: We were talking about the gathering. I guess, other stuff that happens there is Tigerclaw being real suspicious again.

LIZ: So suspicious.

PAZ: Yeah, I think you called it a kind of like a murder mystery plot in the first episode, Liz. It's kind of like that, where like the details about like this event are like being muddied, you know.

LIZ: Yeah, like when Ravenpaw is telling his story to the other cats, about Redtail and then like Firepaw notices Tigerclaw glaring, just like murderously staring at Ravenpaw. And he's just like, Oh, Ravenpaw must have just gotten it wrong. I will not think about this anymore.

PAZ: No. Firepaw, please.

JULIAN: Oh buddy.

PAZ: I'm also like, is Bluestar not paying attention either? Hello?

JULIAN: Well, she's got other things on her plate.

PAZ: Yeah, I guess. But Tigerclaw seems to be doing this like every hour, so.

JULIAN: Yeah, that's true. She should notice his just like ambient air of menace.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Maybe people have just gotten used to it, like, oh that's, oh that Tigerclaw.

PAZ: I hope not.

JULIAN: He's just like that.

LIZ: Yeah, but like Ravenpaw's just in his own little Hamlet thing. He's like...

JULIAN: Oh, I was so sad. He was so like excited to get to tell the story to all the other apprentices at the gathering.

PAZ: I know.

JULIAN: He was like really in his element and I was like, aw, the poor little guy.

PAZ: It was very cute that Graypaw was like, wow, who knew Ravenpaw was such a good storyteller.

JULIAN: Yeah.

LIZ: Yeah, the rest of the time he's been like so nervous and freaked out. This is like the first time he's really had like, you know, here's where he's like completely comfortable. I'm very worried that he's just gonna get assassinated.

PAZ: Yeah, that kind of is the vibe. I'm amazed that Tigerclaw-- well, okay, Tigerclaw definitely has tried to [laughs].

JULIAN: He's tried to kill him, like, at least twice on screen.

PAZ: Yeah. And everyone's just like, haha.

JULIAN: Oh, that Tigerclaw.

LIZ: He sent one of our children to snake hell, and it's all right.

PAZ: And he wanted one of our children to run out into the road.

LIZ: Also fine.

PAZ: All very fine.

JULIAN: I mean, it seems like they have a pretty like laissez faire attitude towards kit mortality, so.

PAZ: Yeah, I guess so.

LIZ: They should not because they don't have that many, right? That's the whole problem.

PAZ: Yeah. Anything else at the gathering really?

JULIAN: Not really here.

PAZ: I mean, like I guess it ends with like mob mentality versus Yellowfang. Like, once again, these cats are so xenophobic.

JULIAN: They're awful. I also, if I'm remembering correctly, it seemed like Yellowfang-- or like Tigerclaw kind of riled them up some.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Which is just further evidence that I don't like him.

PAZ: Uh huh, yeah.

LIZ: He's so shady.

PAZ: He's so-- I think I just wrote like, why is he so obviously slimy and shady.

LIZ: I mean, I guess the answer is kids book. But he's so shady.

PAZ: Yeah, but like for a kid's book, it's still-- I mean, it's like fun to like be getting the clues, and kids can be like, aha. I see what's happening.

LIZ: It's very fun. He's very-- he lurks a lot, like you said, and it is fun to read.

PAZ: Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to see when it all like comes to a head, which will probably be soon. Yeah, I mean like, after the gathering is just kind of the stuff with like Yellowfang getting accused, and some more of her like mysterious backstory there. And also, advancing the Bluestar/Yellowfang agenda. Because Yellowfang's like, I trust Bluestar to be fair.

JULIAN: Yeah. And then she is fair.

PAZ: She is. She's like, nobody fucking touch Yellowfang under my watch.

LIZ: Yeah, I have that section highlighted if we want to read it.

PAZ: Sure, go ahead.

JULIAN: Yeah.

LIZ: "Yellowfang looked up at Bluestar and narrowed her eyes respectfully." She's drinking that respect cat juice. "'I will leave now if you wish it, Bluestar.' 'There is no need,' Bluestar replied. 'You have done nothing wrong. You will be safe here.'" It's very dramatic, very romantic.

PAZ: Yes.

JULIAN: Ugh, perfect.

PAZ: What's better than that?

JULIAN: We also get some more Firepaw/Spottedleaf.

PAZ: Oh, yeah.

JULIAN: Just him thinking a lot about how nice she smells.

PAZ: I think like, within this chunk of chapters, how nice she smells comes up at least twice, maybe three times. It's like, okay.

LIZ: Okay now, they are cats, but it's still weird. Because also, I think, like, heterosexual humans write like this, too, about other humans.

PAZ: Well, that was the thing in Harry Potter, I remember, was apparently, the thing that Harry would notice was smell in hair.

Yep.

Great, great stuff, great stuff to notice about someone.

LIZ: I don't know. It's the same wording for for Spottedleaf. She's always like warm and sweet, like she's--

JULIAN: Her warm, sweet breath, specifically.

LIZ: Ugh.

JULIAN: And I'm just like, have you smelled a cat's breath before?

LIZ: She's been eating like voles, cause she's like the cat in the wild. I don't think she's gonna smell like cinnamon or anything. I don't know.

JULIAN: She doesn't get those, what are the chews that you give your pet so that they brush their teeth, the little dental chews?

PAZ: Maybe she has like herbs that she chews, I don't know.

JULIAN: There you go.

LIZ: She's the only one who does. That's why she's so special. It's medicine, that's how she knows.

PAZ: Yeah, I mean, that was like kind of it for Spottedleaf stuff so far.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: For now,

JULIAN: The journey to the Moonstone is like the next bit, and it is very-- like it's a long journey. It takes them an entire day to get there.

PAZ: Yeah, if you like, look on the map-- there's no scale markers as we established. But it's like, all the way on the other side of like ThunderClan territory and across WindClan territory, and then like to a mine across the road. I guess cats are tiny so it takes them a long time.

LIZ: Mmm... they're just little guys.

PAZ: They are.

JULIAN: They're just little guys. My epub version of the map is not good quality. Sorry, continue.

LIZ: No, it's just that this group is like, three-fifths just babies.

PAZ: It is.

JULIAN: Yeah, and not only is it long, they have to cross the Thunderpath and Firepaw almost gets hit by a car because a bunch of like chucklefucks drive off the road at him, which is awful.

LIZ: That's so awful.

PAZ: Yeah, I was like, wow, like who does that? I guess there's assholes out there but like what the fuck.

LIZ: He's just a little baby.

JULIAN: He's a baby boy.

PAZ: He is. I can't protect him.

LIZ: No, he doesn't want you to.

JULIAN: That's Bluestar and Yellowfang's son.

PAZ: Their son. I also wrote down Lionheart death flag, because he has this scene-- I don't know if this is true, but he has this scene with Graypaw where he's like, don't forget what I've taught you. And Graypaw's like, I will always remember Lionheart. I'm like, This guy's gonna fucking bite it.

JULIAN: God, yeah. Did-- no, Tigerclaw came with them to the Moonstone.

PAZ: Yeah, he did. Yeah, cause he tries to get Ravenpaw fucking run over.

LIZ: What a terrible cat, terrible.

JULIAN: All cats are queens except for Tigerclaw, who's rancid.

PAZ: Yeah, sorry. We're amending the rules.

JULIAN: Yeah, the Moonstone is also in a cave called Mothermouth, which is a choice of a name.

PAZ: Yeah, I don't know where they got that one. Don't know the reasoning behind that one.

LIZ: I'm really just picturing it as like, you know, a cave, but it also looks like the the emoji that's like the colon and then a capital O.

PAZ: I think it's like, it's supposed to be like an abandoned mine because if you look on the, the human version of the map of the area, it says, let me check. It says Devil's Fingers, disused mine.

JULIAN: Oh damn.

LIZ: Mm, spooky.

PAZ: Very welcoming. But yeah, they're gonna go in that mine. Who knows what will happen?

JULIAN: I'm excited to like see more of the StarClan stuff.

PAZ: Yeah, me too. I'm all for cat magic. Why not?

JULIAN: Again, teen me was wrong. Cat magic is cool as hell.

PAZ: Fuck yeah.

LIZ: I'm excited to see it because so far it's been very, like I guess practical. They have like mythology, but it's just these are just cats living and working

PAZ: Yeah, it's also like interesting that their like religion thing is like, it's just ancestor-focused, like it's not like a one to one Christianity thing.

JULIAN: Yeah, there's no cat God.

PAZ: Like I don't think there's like a cat God or anything, as far as I know.

LIZ: I don't think I could take that.

PAZ: No, I'm pretty sure there isn't.

JULIAN: Firepaw has become Catholic.

PAZ: Oh no.

JULIAN: No.

PAZ: Yeah, I think the StarClan stuff is pretty interesting. And it definitely gets fleshed out.

JULIAN: Yeah, we get a lot more StarClan content in later books. And also maybe in this one? I don't remember.

PAZ: Uh, maybe. I mean like they're going to the Moonstone so there'll probably be like weird vision shit. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, anything-- we kind of like, went through chronologically. Anything else that anybody has to add?

JULIAN: Oh, we did see dogs in our journey to the Moonstone.

PAZ: Oh yeah. They weren't speaking, though.

JULIAN: They were vicious, and they were not speaking. So that's one point against dogs being sentient.

PAZ: Yeah, maybe that gets retconned, who knows.

LIZ: I think that's it for this chapter.

JULIAN: Yeah, I think-- do we want to move on to-- what's next?

PAZ: So we have some questions from our dear friends and listeners about the series that I think maybe we can weigh in on and help answer. So I guess we can take turns reading this. I can start. We got an email from Keesh. And I will read it out. "Thank you for cursing us with the knowledge of the ball-centric cosmology of the Warrior cats. It is cursed. I do have some stories about my Warrior Cats days that I'll share in the future as they're relevant. The ball talk did remind me of my Warrior Cats RP forum having a 'special cave,' where we would describe cats going to together and then describe a fade to black. I'm curious to learn more about the overall horniness of the Warrior Cats world, and would like to discover if the fuck cave from my RP forum is inspired by an inherent horniness of the world of the Warriors or was a horse.com original." So, where do we weigh in on the horniness so far?

JULIAN: I think it's a little column A, little column B.

LIZ: Yeah, mm-hmm.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: The seeds of it are there.

JULIAN: Because like our Warrior Cats RP forum also had a cave where we would describe like a fade to black. And so I don't know if that was like just a thing in the wider cultural landscape of Warrior Cats RP forums, um,

PAZ: Well, on neopets.com, it was not, but that's probably because it was heavily moderated forums for children.

JULIAN: Yeah, I mean, again it was you know, oh they lick each other's ears or something. And fade to black.

PAZ: Who knows what's going on in there.

JULIAN: Because we were all like, 12, and didn't know anything, and should not have been RPing anything more than that.

PAZ: And also they're cats.

JULIAN: And also they're cats. Um.

PAZ: Yeah, I can't like super remember from the future books, but I feel like I mean there is like a lot of romance in the books, but I feel like it focuses more on like the drama of it than the other stuff, because they're cats. But there is like, I think the author is trying to like convey cat attraction gets weird, as we've seen with that sweet breath.

LIZ: Uh-huh.

JULIAN: Yeah. Yeah, so I think it's-- I come down on it's both. It's the series is a little-- is inherently like trying to convey cat attraction in a way that reads very horny.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: It's just that from like the first few chapters we hear about balls. That's it.

PAZ: Yeah, there is a lot of balls talk, but.

JULIAN: The balls talk itself is not horny, though.

PAZ: No, but it's like related to like this weird focus on like having kids, I guess, I don't know.

LIZ: Yeah, I guess, like, just the presence of like cats can-- you know, the cats can have kids, obviously, and they're going to show the kids being there. It's like unspoken, I guess.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: I think where I come down is, I don't think the books are trying to be horny, but I think the authors are struggling with how to convey, like nonhuman attraction and hence it comes off, weird.

LIZ: Yeah, I guess, cause they're cats, the only way you can really talk about is like scent and other things that cats do that are like normal. They like--

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Right.

LIZ: They smell like little, little leafs and stuff, too, and that's just part of their life.

JULIAN: Right, like it's normal for cats to smell each other and lick each other. It's just that when humans do that...

PAZ: Yeah, it's kind of like a weird like a side effect of this clash of like trying to be realistic with the cats but also like very anthropomorphizing their like personalities and like thinking. So. Does someone want to read the next one?

JULIAN: Sure. This is from Alix. "Do you guys think Bluestar was intentionally gaming the system by naming Rusty Firepaw? She knew about the prophecy and she's a smart cat. I definitely would have done something like that in her position." This is a very good question.

PAZ: This is a great question that I didn't think of.

JULIAN: I also did not of that.

PAZ: But I love to think of it.

JULIAN: But it's a great concept.

LIZ: Yeah.

PAZ: Yeah, I do think Bluestar is very smart.

JULIAN: She's extremely savvy.

PAZ: Yeah, so I could see you're doing something like that, which would be extremely funny.

LIZ: She didn't have to name him Firepaw. She could have named him like Orangetail, but she didn't.

JULIAN: Well, it also brings up the question of like, if it had been Smudge playing in the forest, would she even have been like, come join our clan? Or did she specifically need an orange cat?

PAZ: Oh, that's a good question but then I guess--

JULIAN: That makes her sound shadier than I think she is, though.

PAZ: But I mean, I guess like it really is all fate because Firepaw had the right personality to become a warrior. But maybe that was like-- that did push her to like let him in, like, even beyond just his personality. She's like, wait a second.

JULIAN: That was the nudge.

PAZ: This cat's orange.

LIZ: Have you guys heard the thing about like how, for some reason, some science reason that I don't know about, like most orange cats are like boys, and they're also very dumb?

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: The very dumb part is not scientific, but

PAZ: I think it's accurately reflected here in this book.

JULIAN: Yep. Yeah, I knew about the boy thing. The dumb thing tracks from what I know of orange cats.

PAZ: Yeah, it's like there's no science behind it, but you know, there's a lot of anecdotal evidence, I think.

JULIAN: It's like how everyone says torties are really mean. Or like cranky.

PAZ: Yeah, which I also think is true.

JULIAN: Which I also think is true.

LIZ: I love them both.

PAZ: All cats are queens.

LIZ: They are.

PAZ: Except Tigerclaw.

LIZ: Who's a bitch.

PAZ: Um, yeah, I guess, I guess what I weigh in on this question is, I think she could be. And if she is, I support her.

JULIAN: Yeah, my answer is I don't know if there's textual evidence for it, but I think it's cool as hell, so it happened.

LIZ: Yep, same here.

JULIAN: Oh sorry, there's a big helicopter.

LIZ: Yeah, I'm pretty much in the same camp for that, it's cool.

Do you want to read the next one, Liz?

Sure. "Do all the random kits in this book actually grow up to become-- sorry, to be characters? I feel like they don't, so that's something to keep an eye on. Example: chapter 11, page 131. 'He recognized the little tabby Yellowfang had hissed at the day before. Sitting next to him was a fluffy gray kit no more than two months old. A tiny black kit and a small tortoiseshell stood beside them.'"

PAZ: So I went and did some research into this before the show to try and answer this question, cause I think it's also a very good question. So I went to the Warriors Cat wiki and found out that every chapter in the books has like its own wiki page.

LIZ: Whoa.

JULIAN: Wow.

PAZ: With a summary, and also like a cast of characters that appear in it. So in chapter nine where this excerpt is from, in the Characters Minor section, it does say "unnamed gray and white kit, unnamed tabby kit, unnamed tabby queen." So, yeah, I think maybe they're just non-characters.

JULIAN: Yeah, I also wouldn't put it past, given my-- like, what I know of the Warriors series where no character can be allowed to die and not have a backstory, I wouldn't be surprised if there's like a ThunderClan warrior in one of the later series who like could conceivably be these kits. But also I am not willing to do the deep dive into the Warriors wiki that that would require.

PAZ: I mean, I trust the Warriors wiki that they would list them like if they knew so I think the fact that they just put like unnamed kit seems like no one was able to really trace it.

JULIAN: If anyone could find it, it would be the good folks at the Warriors wiki.

PAZ: Yes, they're very thorough. There's also an errors mentioned in this chapter, which is "Yellowfang is mistakenly mentioned as pale gray." So they're on top of their shit.

LIZ: [gasps] She's not? What color is she?

PAZ: I think she's like dark gray.

LIZ: I see.

PAZ: It's not the right shade of gray.

LIZ: I was like, I do just like seeing just a description of just a whole bunch of small cats.

PAZ: Yes, it's very good.

LIZ: I'm very easy to please this book is-- just talks about a whole bunch of different cats, and I'm like, mm-hmm, literature.

PAZ: Yeah, and this kind of goes into the next thing that Alix pointed out, which is, "in general, I feel that the size of ThunderClan is super unclear in this book," which I also agree with.

LIZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: Yeah, I mean, it's saying like, they don't have enough like warriors. But I don't know if like they name every single warrior, or if there are just like unnamed background characters like with the kits. I don't know.

JULIAN: Yeah, there's definitely like-- like there is the allegiances section at the beginning of the book, but like any cat that doesn't have a name isn't included in it. So, it's not like a-- it's just a list of the cats who are characters and not a list of like everybody.

PAZ: Yeah, but I mean, really, how large can a cat clan be? I have seen a like stray cat colony before. Like, there was one by this like apartment complex. They were like stray in the sense that like people would put out food for them, not-- they weren't like hunting. I mean, they were hunting, but they weren't warriors. And it was quite large, so.

JULIAN: they usually don't get above like 30 to 50, right? That's me making shit up, or like vaguely--

PAZ: That sounds right but I mean, that's a lot to me. I don't--

JULIAN: Yeah, no, that's a lot. Like that's not--

PAZ: I would love to be surrounded by 30 to 50 cats.

JULIAN: Feral cats, though?

PAZ: No.

LIZ: Just get the Temptations, then they won't be feral. Then you can change them.

JULIAN: Oh.

LIZ: Tempt them to this side.

JULIAN: Great news. The Warriors wiki page for cat.

LIZ: Yes?

PAZ: Yes?

JULIAN: Does talk about feral cats. "The name for a feral cat colony can also be called a clowder."

LIZ: Whoa. What?

PAZ: What? That sounds cool, but what?

JULIAN: Yep, and they usually live in groups of, like, three to 25, it says.

PAZ: Oh, okay.

JULIAN: Oh my god, this article is really detailed.

PAZ: I mean, this is the base of the whole book.

JULIAN: "Cats are small furry quadrupeds. They possess flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, retractable front claws, and non-retractable hind claws." It's like, this is the Warrior Cats wiki. We all know what a cat is.

LIZ: No, we don't. What is a cat, really? Think about it.

JULIAN: We start talking about the circulatory system, cat blood types.

PAZ: Oh my god.

JULIAN: Their skeletal and musculature.

PAZ: Just link to Wikipedia.

LIZ: Oh my god. That's amazing. Nothing but respect for this.

JULIAN: This is like, this is reminding me of the Star Wars wiki that has an entry for breasts.

LIZ: Oh no.

PAZ: Oh yes.

LIZ: What? Wait. No?

PAZ: Oh yeah.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: Wait, I gotta go find that.

JULIAN: I'm sorry, Liz.

LIZ: I don't enjoy that. I do--

JULIAN: It's all listed in-- it's all written in past tense.

PAZ: Okay. Oh my g--

LIZ: What?

PAZ: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

JULIAN: I'm crying about the image.

PAZ: The image. Are you there? Are you there, Julian?

JULIAN: I just linked it and so the image is in the chat.

LIZ: No!

PAZ: No, no no no no no, no. The page I am on does not have that image.

JULIAN: Oh, what page-- oh, I'm on the Legends tab and not the Canon tab. Sorry, I gotta click over to the Canon ta-- [shriek-laughs]

LIZ: No! That's worse!

PAZ: So the image--

JULIAN: I'm sorry, okay.

PAZ: The image featured on the page Breasts on wookiepedia.com is Kylo Ren shirtless.

LIZ: [muffled] No.

JULIAN: It's the picture where he's got his pants pulled up so high.

PAZ: Where he looks extremely square.

JULIAN: The caption is "Ben Solo reveals his chests."

PAZ: Whoever did that, thank you.

JULIAN: Good news, "Appearances: since breasts reasonably appear in every piece of Star Wars media, this list only includes specific mentions of them." Sorry. When you click over to the Legends tab, it's a picture of somebody. Some blue lady from Star Wars, who has tentacle hair, and she's got her tiddy out.

PAZ: It says "a sleeping Aayla Secura reveals a breast."

LIZ: That's such a way of phrasing it.

PAZ: Anyway, I love fan wikis. Never change.

LIZ: There is a whole subsection called "Role in Males." I will not read it. I just wanted to point out that that's there. No, I--

Ah, Wookiepedia.

There's another section called "Non-mammals with Breasts."

PAZ: Oh no. I think we need to-- we gotta get away from this.

JULIAN: We gotta, we gotta come back around to Alix's final question.

LIZ: Please.

PAZ: Yeah. Please read it. Go ahead.

JULIAN: "Where are Ravenpaw's parents? I feel like they have to be dead, given his treatment in the book. Frowny face." Um, I did a little bit of quick wiki research just now. And we know that he has parents and we know their names. Their names are Robinwing and Fuzzypelt.

LIZ: What?

PAZ: Oh my god.

LIZ: Oh my god.

JULIAN: Yes, yes, Fuzzypelt was his dad and Robinwing was his mom.

PAZ: That's perfect.

LIZ: The best name for a dad cat, holy shit.

JULIAN: But unfortunately I cannot determine the timeline of both of their deaths. Um, but uh, Robinwing had three litters with Fuzzypelt.

PAZ: Was Ravenpaw in the last one?

JULIAN: And then also a son with another mate.

PAZ: Oh.

JULIAN: But um, I'm not sure what the timeline is on that.

PAZ: Let me go take a quick look.

JULIAN: Yeah, she's also Longtail's mom with Patchpelt.

PAZ: Well, Longtail's definitely older than Ravenpaw.

JULIAN: For sure. Yeah. Are the cats polyamorous?

PAZ: I don't think so.

LIZ: I guess. No? Yes?

PAZ: I don't-- No.

JULIAN: It doesn't seem like they are, but this, uh...

PAZ: Maybe her first guy died before her.

LIZ: Oh yeah, is she widowed?

PAZ: Sadly, I don't think the cats are.

LIZ: They do kind of have a at least like a like village raises the kids situation, right?

JULIAN: Yeah, that's nice.

LIZ: Even if they're monogamous. There seems to be like a, like a group that takes care of all the cat like kids. The kittens. There's a word for that.

JULIAN: Yeah. Okay, so it's unclear when Robinwing dies, but Fuzzypelt enters the elders' den before Bluestar becomes a leader.

PAZ: So I'm inclined to say yes, they're dead based on that.

JULIAN: That would be my guess. Yeah.

PAZ: Yeah, but I don't know if-- maybe they just haven't come up yet, but I don't know if we've seen Graypaw's parents either. But he seems more well-adjusted, so maybe they're there.

LIZ: How often do like the kids see the parents? Cause they seem to--

PAZ: Well, every day presumably. They're all in the same clan.

LIZ: Yeah, that's true. I don't know. I guess we see mostly just like the training and hanging around stuff instead of like home life.

JULIAN: Yeah, I'm very-- this timeline does not make sense to me. Because Ravenpaw cannot be more than a couple months old if he's still an apprentice or like a year old at the most. And like Bluestar has been a leader for a bit.

PAZ: Plot hole. Cinema Sins ding.

JULIAN: Ding! I think the lore bible needed some updates here. This is what happens when you give all your cats elaborate backstories,

PAZ: Really, you could just say unknown, unknown parent.

JULIAN: Yep.

PAZ: But I think I think Ravenpaw has orphan vibes, for sure.

JULIAN: He does, he definitely does. I can't imagine that his parents would be like yeah it's totally find that our kid is like incredibly anxious. All the time.

PAZ: Yeah, yeah. Also if like I heard my kid got sent to fucking snake hell rocks, and like came back with a snake, I'd be like, what the hell.

LIZ: Fuzzypelt rolls up to the Warriors PTA meeting like, what. Where did you take my child? Excuse me?

PAZ: Poor Ravenpaw, he deserves some parents.

JULIAN: I know. How come Firepaw gets two moms, and Ravenpaw doesn't have any?

PAZ: Oh, not fair.

LIZ: Firepaw has protagonist hair, that's why.

PAZ: Well, that was all the questions we got, um. Thank you so much everyone for sending them in. They were very fun to answer and research. Anyone else have any pressing closing thoughts?

JULIAN: Just that if you have any more questions, send them to us at stairwaytostarclan@gmail.com.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: And we will try to answer them.

PAZ: Yeah, I'd love to do a question segment every once in a while and really dig into that lore.

LIZ: Yeah.

PAZ: So for next week we're going to be reading chapters 15 through 18. So if you're reading along, that's where we'll be at. Thanks everyone for tuning in and may StarClan light your path.

[outro music]

Bye.

LIZ: Bye.

JULIAN: Bye y'all.

[y3llowf4ng-blog]

20 warriors questions

(note: these 20 questions are a tag made by butterflyidentity on youtube! even though i myself wasn’t tagged, i decided to answer these questions just so ya’ll don’t ask later :’) ) 

- how did you get into warriors? whooo boi, let’s go back to 2012, where i was obsessed with watching animations on youtube. i stumbled across  some rad cats fighting each other, then i got deeper into the fandom, spoiling myself even more, then i decided to buy in the books in norwegian but since the names were so badly translated (example, willowpelt is aquamarine in the norwegian books, do cats even know what an aquamarine is??) so i decided to purchase them on amazon in english! i’m currently on power of three, but i already know a lot of stuff. - favourite arc? out of all the three i have read (haven’t finished the third yet), definitely the first, original arc, the prophecies begin. everything’s really nice, tigerstar being the main villian of the first arc, us learning about all the clans and duties, it’s just amazing! imo the new prophecy is very boring, i mean, they’re on the go for 3 books, then they kinda get used to the territories and blah blah blah...

- favourite book? (excluding super editions, mangas, and novellas) forest of secrets!  so much stuff happens in that book, like silverstream dying, we find out who killed redtail, the battle with the rogues and tigerclaw getting exiled, i love it.

- favourite super edition, manga or novella? yellowfang’s secret!!

out of all the super editions, mangas and novellas i have (firestar’s quest, bluestar’s prophecy and the rise of scourge), yellowfang’s secret is definitely the best one. it’s probably because it’s set in a whole different clan. but when i first read the first chapters, i was enchanted! the description of the enviornrment (even though it was leafbare like 80% of the time) was amazing. it felt as if i was actually there, in shadowclan camp, and yellowfang’s exile broke my heart :’( 

- favourite clan? my fam riverclan (ironically i’m scared of swimming in rivers, oceans and lakes irl lmao)

- favourite character? MY GIRL YELLOWFANG!! i love her so much you have no idea, my lil grump (surprisingly i dislike jayfeather haha) <33 yellowfang will always be no. 1, but i also like russetfur, hollyleaf, tawnypelt, leopardstar,brackenfur, longtail and manyyyy more!

- least favourite character? foxheart. i DESPISE her. when reading yellowfang’s secret, she was probably the first character that i was really happy to see die and i just wanted to rip her guts out?? i mean gosh, she was the biggest bitch ever, getting under raggedstar’s paws 24/7, but i mean, he made foxheart deputy to make yellowfang jealous which is really bitchy too, but i don’t dislike raggedstar as much as foxheart, even though he was a dick sometimes. i also dislike spottedleaf, i mean jfc, firestar was wondering who to pick out of sandstorm and spottedleaf even though sandstorm was who he had kits with, and she stayed at his side every time, and spottedleaf was just a “childhood crush” of his, was it even ever mentioned in into the wild that he really liked her?? he just kinda said “goodbye my sweet spottedleaf” when she died, even though im pretty sure it never mentioned how he felt about her? correct me if i’m wrong, i still hate spottedleaf though, mooning over firestar from starclan.

- most aesthetically pleasing cat? mmm, goldenflower, tawnypelt and heatherstar i suppose! when it comes to goldenflower, i’m a sucker for golden tabby she-cats (i also have a lil headcanon that she wears a small flower behind her ear ovo). tawnypelt, i loveeeee pale tortoiseshells!! she’s a beaut. lastly, heatherstar! if you haven’t read any of the super editions you’re more than likely confused about who this is. she was a windclan leader before tallstar! pinkish-gray cats sound really cute to me, and i just cant really describe how i like her design?? jayfeather’s also cool when it comes to his design i guess *shrug*.

- favourite leader? my boy sunstar! he was a really good leader, sadly, his leadership didn’t last long because of stupid pinestar who had to leave thunderclan and because of that sunstar had 1 less life :/ he was also a very good mentor to bluepaw/fur/star! he’s a goof that i love :’)

- favourite villian? bad boy brokenstar. all the things he did, training kits under 6 moons to become apprentices, drive out the elders from camp into the forest, kill with no hesitation, yet i still like him. he’s great for some reason! 

- favourite medicine cat? i’d say yellowfang, but since she’s already my favourite character out of all, i’ll go with cinderpelt or goosefeather. cinderpelt because she’s also another goof, with a sad backstory (her leg), yet she’s still okay with it. goosefeather on the other hand, he’s another grump that i like! i have spoiled myself a lot already on goosefeather’s curse, and i’m guessing that he received alotta prophecies at once (idontreallyknow)? he already knew that tigerkit would grow up to be the danger of the forest even when he wasnt even an apprentice.  - overrated character? oh gee... scourge. that edgelord is overrated as heckk. i’m not the biggest fan of him, but i don’t hate him. i guess jayfeather is also overrated. some people even refer to him as “jaybae” which is um, bizarre i suppose.

- underrated character? good ol’ runningwind. he’s a great character, not to mention he’s actually mousefur’s brother, which i totally forgot about. tbh his death was kind of sad :/ STILL, i demand more fanart of runningwind >:(

- favourite minor character? thrushpelt, rosetail and brackenfur. they don’t get all the love they deserve which is really sad?? rosetail’s death was only mentioned like ONE time in into the wild, which sucks!! thrushpelt got rejected by bluefur, which is kinda sad, but he still promised her to keep her kits safe even though they weren’t his, which is very nice of him to stay strong even after getting rejected. brackenfur’s just someone who i liked from the beginning. he always stayed at his sister’s side (brackenfur & cinderpelt are one of my favourite silbings, only with ashfur and ferncloud in the front!).

- favourite pairing? either brightheart and cloudtail, or firestar and sandstorm. both pairings are cute as heck, even though both the toms kinda ignored their mate at some point (cloudtail & daisy and firestar & spottedleaf)

- least favourite pairing? leafpool and crowfeather. honestly it’s as if the erins just added it to make leafpool a more “interesting” character?? they chill out together away from the clans for like less than a moon, then leafpool gets back, few moons later, poof! kits! it’s a really bad “couple” ugh

- favourite friendship? good ol’ fireheart and greystripe! it’s like they were destined to be bffs, or bluestar maybe got a prophecy to send out graypaw to spy on rusty?? nah jk i’m not that stupid. but those two before power of three would do anything for each other. love em. 

- favourite moment? the daylight gathering in the sight! that was probably the best thing in the book. even though it was short, it was really snazzy! i loved the fight between heatherpaw and hollypaw, and the leaders announcing the “winners”! thanks squirrelflight, love ya gal *smooch* i also love the moment where hollypaw tells brook that she no longer wants to be a medicine cat apprentice, and brook’s like “go ahead, tell leafpool, it’s okay!” i love both of them so much hhhngh

- most tragic death? okay, not gonna lie, i cried for about 2-3 hours straight after yellowfang’s death. buuuut i gotta admit, snowfur and moonflower’s deaths were also pretty sad, except i only cried at moonflower’s death out of those two. hawkheart was pretty serious about keeping windclan’s herbs safe tbh.. OKAY BUT LET’S NOT FORGET SWEETPAW. she was the sweetest (no pun intended) :(

- favourite battle/fight scene? the hawkfrost and brambleclaw one in sunset was pretty intense, though i probably like the bloodclan battle the most even though whitestorm died then :(. it was so intense like omg?? 

so there!! finally!! 20 questions answered! this took me probably an hour oops, i just thought over my answers a lot. so yeah, credit goes to butterflyidentity for making these questions and making it possible for me and many others to answer them! i doubt anyone will read this, but w/e, i still had fun writing the answers :’)