#even bristlefrost is the kid of like

[wander-wren]

i was trying to avoid spoilers under the assumption that i would Eventually getting around to reading tbc and asc, but im bored and i want to watch videos about them and i probably wont read them for a long time, so i went to the wiki to see whats up!

my official take on tbc is that the concepts seem very cool, but i cant say much about the execution or smaller details ofc. ashfur being the imposter feels like a really good choice, i dont know if thats controversial, i'm like 3 years late to all this lmao but i thought i saw some posts about him not making sense.

i mean, his connection to squilf and bramblestar alone...plus, yeah, he wasn't super into the code in life, but all of the events leading to his death WERE caused by codebreaking, and with leafpool especially going to starclan after inadvertently contributing to Ruining His Life, he might get mad about it? i kinda get it. also the whole concept of him possessing ashfur is so so horrifying and sad to me and has anyone written fic about this from squilf's pov???

also, ALSO, i skimmed a light in the mist plot summary bc i was still bored but it seemed cool. i dont remember if people were mad about that when i came out, just that it was Everywhere. kudos to the erins for actually carrying a plot through six books instead of splitting it in half for the first time since, like, tpb. po3 and oots dont count bc they didnt Have a plot.

but i was trying to think about why the new gen (arcs 6-8) arent as popular/getting much attention and why the fandom is slowly falling off post-oots. which, there are a lot of reasons, but this is one of the main ones i haven't seen anyone discuss yet (tbf, again, i was avoiding spoilers until literally today, so).

like, think about the new prophecy, power of three, and omen of the stars. they all happen VERY close together and are deeply intertwined. lionblaze and jayfeather even get to be pov characters for 2 arcs instead of one! and no pov characters die! except flametail but eh!

then we get to avos. we lose needletail, what, three books in? then violetshine literally becomes a mom to one of the broken code protags, and, again, only reading plot summaries, but she Never Came Up. neither did twigbranch. alderheart did some, mostly by virtue of being a medicine cat and therefore important to the plot.

and now, in the broken code, we've lost bristlefrost. i havent gotten to a starless clan yet, that's next, but i know flamepaw/nightheart is sparkpelt's kid, and sunbeam and frostpaw are the kids of random side characters (at least, they didnt stand out to me?). i'm not saying it's inherently bad that they're not connected to the previous protags (you could argue its a positive for sure), but it's contributing to this feeling of disconnection in the new books, i think.

i DONT think we should keep doing firekin as protags. i am perfectly happy putting that line to rest. but we introduced twig and violet and needletail, those are brand new bloodlines and focusing on them instead would be really really cool.

what you did the first time worked, erins! do that again! like. they had the opportunity to decimate the clans in oots and essentially start with a clean slate for avos/tbc/asc, but they chickened out. changes to the code shouldve been FIRST. new mains unrelated to firestar shouldve been FIRST.

actually, avos did have that potential. that was Good and Correct except for the part where there were no significant culture changes and too many tnp-era cats are still around. but like, okay, firekin! we like firekin! alderheart is my BOY. he is familiar, or related to familiarity. GOOD. he brings in needletail, twigbranch, and violetshine, so they feel connected to familiarity too, rather than just "heres some kids of cats you've never heard of. care about them."

and then they just. gave us bristlefrost and shadowsight. more firekin, woo. forget about twig and violet, oh and needletail is dead btw. i'm sure everyone has talked and talked about the tragedy of finally getting a she-cat who doesnt want kits but it's TWIGBRANCH. ugh.

anyway, yeah. all the protagonists for the first four arcs were interconnected and important to each other and i'm not getting that at all with the new arcs and i think thats why its hard for me and other fans to like, care.

plus also firestar and other fan favorites died and the prequels immediately came out and stalled the continuity for a while at just the right moment when a lot of fans were poised to lose interest. and then they did. and here we are.

this isn't what i meant to make a post on but i did! woo

[doomedcousins]

ivypools heart excerpt thoughts

this book feels like it was made in a lab to piss me off. genuinely every little thing in this excerpt besides that one little moment with shadowsight and dovewing makes me want to rip my hair out

ivypool would not fucking act like that.

the constant hammering in of how Sad Ivypool is about her Daughter feels so flat because they literally did not do anything to flesh out their relationship when bristlefrost was alive. also because i dont like ivypool

rootspring is going to hell for making bristlefrosts sacrifice about how she could have been a mother i dont care how much the books tried to sell their relationship to me this is straight up the worst and if i see anyone talking about how sad his life is ill kill myself

i don't even think they remember anything about shadowsight its impressive how little they gaf about it in a book about its cousin, who, as i have said before, literally died to save its life

^ though honestly i think they literally forgot that bristlefrost and shadowsight are kin. like they go on about ivypool and her sister and their respective dead kids and then coincidentally shadowsight is literally never brought up despite its significance in the topic

ivypool would not fucking act like that

i dont like that dovewing and ivypool are suddenly good friends now i dont like it. ivypool should be miserable and alone forever as she continues to let clan culture destroy her in an attempt to be "more loyal" she should hold onto her grudges until it kills her

fernsong is such a nothing character i honestly dont understand why they keep trying to tell me that bristlefrosts parents were actually good at parenting. look me in the eyes and tell me bristlefrosts parents were present in her life outside of when she was a baby

wrenflight im sorry they're setting you up to be yet another woman who's entire character centers around romance im so sorry

[kivira]

Draw you favorite Warriors _____

Yep, that's me with a new warriors challenge

So, here I'll post the reasons why

Mother & kit

So, Ivypool and Bristlefrost are not the most important and well written relationships, but I like to headcanon them, and just preying for writers not to make Bristle come back in her mother's novel

Siblings

I adore how Stonefur and Mistyfoot had their own calm River Clan live, before the big drama of first series. Also a great idea is their similar design. Just not so popular but rather iconic duo

GAY ship

Okay, okay. I know that here is usually Tall×Jake or Raven×Barley, but I really like relationships of Talltail and Barkface. I mean a brown medicine cat was earlier to see beauty in Tall and they are so cute

Father & kit

Just Tree and Rootspring. Those relationships exist, they are not toxic and work so well in first 3 books of the Broken Code. And just the way they acted together is so nice

Friendship

So neat. Jayfeather and Briarlight are awesome. They are really happy and funny. Just they remind me of something from past. Something from childhood.

HETERO ship

At this point I don't know who likes Oakheart more, or Bluestar. OK just kidding. Although I still think that it's the best forbidden romance in WC. Cause it was one of first ant rather plot relevant.

Grandparent & grandkit

There is no that much of those relationships, but I think Tawnypelt and Shadowsight are just adorable together.

Mentor & apprentice

Ohhh, here they are! A nightmare of Thunder Clan. I like how Tigerpaw and Thistleclaw had their dark and cruel story together. And even though they are really not positive characters they were happy to make some shenanigans

LESBIAN ship

Alright. Before Whistlepaw and Frostpaw I didn't have any favorite girl gay pair, bit now I truly adore those girls. Just, I think, most creative ships are all about medicine cats. But I prefer for Mothwing to be AroAce so no Moth×Pool for me.

[bonefall]

It's so funny that your idea is that DOVE should be the one mad because of course they make Ivy throw a hissy fit about their circumstances being different. Girl, your daughter chose to make a valiant sacrifice. Her kid's death was entirely preventable

To be clear; I'm unsure if they're going to give Ivypool another hissy fit. I only read that there is apparently going to be a scene where Dovewing and Ivypool (and also Icewing) bond over having dead kids.

And, I don't really like the idea of that, on its face. Even if this scene is written to be a very straightforward, positive moment of understanding between all of them, I feel like Dovewing's situation is so different from the two of them that I'd find it interesting if she was kind of offended by the comparison.

ESPECIALLY if it was Ivypool making an attempt to connect with Dovewing over this, y'know? Assuming she's totally being good intentioned here, legitimately trying to connect with her estranged sister over what she thinks is a similarity.

Bottom line is, Bristlefrost laid down her life to end tyranny. Beetlewhisker was an adult who chose to take the offer of demon training, and died standing up to Brokenstar. Rowankit was a baby, sick and in pain for days at his mother's belly while his father and older sister raced for a cure, as a parcel of lifesaving medicine sat untouched in the next territory over.

If anything, I'd prefer an Ivypool hissy fit, because I'd like to see her be framed as unreasonable, OR show how bereavement is causing her to lapse into old, bad behaviors. I strongly hope the narrative will examine the differences here (ESPECIALLY if this SE's theme is grief) instead of having the three of them "connect" in an uncomplicated way.

[blimbo-buddy]

Okay a lot of this is based on how I interpret the two but Fuck man I just think about how no matter who survives between ShadowSight and BristleFrost, they’re still gonna be miserable in life. They both live with guilt of the others death, yes, but there is more to their misery.

ShadowSight lives not feeling like he stopped anything, in the end AshFur still took someone he held dearly to his heart. Cats still look at him like a monster for what he’s done, he feels hollow and the only thing that could have kept him going was his family and newborn baby siblings. But even then, poor RowanKit still dies. He still has to be the one to help smear the scent of death off of his baby brothers fur in preparation for his funeral. Who’s to say he wasn’t the one to discover that he had passed? He feels horrible. He lived, and everything is worse now.

And BristleFrost, oh she dreamt of starting a family with RootSpring. The tragedy isn’t that she didn’t get to have kids with him, but the fact that had she lived, she would have started a family with him. Had she lived, she would think she’s content in life, she has her children and her mate. But those were dreams fueled by the Clans emphasis on a molly’s devotion to her tom and she had only realized that when it was all too late. She’s nothing more than RootSpring’s wife. And it’s not like her parents would be any support either. Her father promised her mother that he’d be there for their kids but where was he when she was being exiled, where was he when she was having nightmares as a kitten, providing no warm fur for her to cuddle into for safety. And her mom? She doesn’t know if she truly knows her, same for her father. Bristlefrost, had she been the one to live, would have thrown her life away for a tom, and it’s only until now that she realizes this fate worse than death itself.

[wc-confessions]

I know people hate Ivypool for having kits, but I personally like it because I can relate to her that way.

I was very against having children of my own for a solid 26 years (old fan I know). I was dealing with a lot of trauma and lived in an unsafe environment, kind of similar to how Ivypool felt during the omen of the stars. Then, after the dark forest battle, she eventually settles down with a mate and has children. I too found myself someone once I was in a safe environment and at first was hesitant because I didn’t want to give up the life I had child-free, but ended up settling down and having children because I personally found strength in motherhood and giving my kids the life I never had, breaking toxic cycles and becoming someone reborn in a sense to be there for the next generation.

Ivypool is a cat I always loved since her first appearance, and seeing her go through similar life events like me was also touching. When Ivypool lost Bristlefrost, it also was around the same timeframe I lost someone dear to me. I adore how she kept her warrior spirit, even as a mother, and never lost sight of what her Clan or her family meant to her.

Ivypool is a very special cat to me, and I am looking forward to her Ivypool’s Heart book. I named our dog, Ivy, after her. I’m excited to see how else more this cat grows along her journey, and I’m excited to one day share this series with my own children once they’re old enough.

.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Am I insane for understanding what Ivypool said about Bristlefrost vs Rowankit… like it wasn’t right of her to say in that moment but her loss of bristlefrost is exponentially greater than Dovewing as they’ll be reunited in death and Bristlefrost can’t.

Oh yeah, regardless of how people feel about what she said asks, she is 100% factually correct in regards to that Dovewing will see her child again and Ivypool will not. Dovewing’s child still exists, she will see him again one day unless something totally unexpected happens to cause either her or his soul to be destroyed before that can happen. While Ivypool will never see her child again no matter what.

Not something that should be said to a grieving mother (although like I say I totally understand why Ivypool said it even if she shouldn’t have), but while obviously both of them are going through a lot of pain, eventually Dovewing will see her child again after it all, despite the suffering she is undergoing she has that guarantee she will see her baby again while Ivypool doesn’t have that.

Although I will say Dovewing also will most likely also be grieving the cat she never got to know in her son, he never got to grow up, and that in itself is a loss Ivypool won’t understand since she’s never lost a young kit. And it isn’t a loss Ivypool understands as in her pain during what she says, she puts Bristlefrost being an adult above Rowankit being a child on the grief pain scale.

So I’m not trying to say one grief is worse than the other or anything like that, just saying that in regards to specifically saying that “you will see your kid again and I won’t” Ivypool is factually correct there.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

unpopular warrior cats opinion but i actually like blossomfall being a mother! preferably not with thornclaw as her mate but still. canon blossomfall being a better mom than millie was! some people in this fandom seem to think that all they have to do to make warrior cats not misogynistic is make female characters not have children, which is.. problematic, and doesn’t even address teh issue

Warrior cats misogyny is a special brand, I swear. We really can over-correct at times.

I personally didn't like Ivypool getting pregnant, she always struck me as the adoption type if she was gonna be a parent, but the Erins hate adoption, so that was out the window.

I liked Blossomfall being a mom, I just wish we got to actually see it! I do think canon!Blossomfall would make sure all her children know they are loved, and can always come to her, even when they are fully grown. You don't just stop being your parent's child the split second you're an adult, and when I see people making it out that Blossomfall should have just "gotten over it" I will also remind them that a fresh 18 year old is still pretty much a child, and that while yes, her anger was misdirected, Blossomfall was pretty much still a kid. Your parents suddenly becoming cold and snappy at you still hurts, even when you are a "grown ass adult". You don't suddenly stop needing your parents the second you turn 18.

Millie was a terrible mother to all 3 of her children, and to be quite frank was... Kind of a pointless character.

But in Warrior Cats Rewritten, Millie... Doesn't really exist. Silverstream barely survives Feathertail and Stormfur's births, and goes on to have the B Triplets. Millie may make an appearance in The Last Clan.

For WCR!Blossomfall, she and Ivypool have a Sire, a loner tom named Thrift, heavily implied to be from The Guardians. He looks exactly like Thriftear. Ivypool, having heard about Silverstream's 2 traumatic pregnancies and births, promises that Blossomfall won't have to lift a finger the moment she is carrying, that she will do everything for her, so she can just relax, and maybe think of some cute baby names.

I like to think that she wanted to name one after Briarlight, but Briarlight insisted not to. Back when Mousefur was alive, cats got her name and Mousewhisker's name mixed up all the time! Briarlight watched over the babies when they arrived and the 2 sisters are incredibly close.

She is pregnant for quite a while, heavily so during Tigerheart's Light, and pushes Ivypool to go find Dovewing with Tigerheart. Ivypool was worried about her and hated Tigerheart, but Blossomfall pushed her to get up and go, that she would be fine. That she didn't have to like Tigerheart, but she owed it to Dovewing to go help him find her and make sure she was safe.

Blossomfall loves her children. Plumstone, Thriftear, Flipclaw and Bristlefrost are her kits, and she cherishes each one. We see it in Princess's Parting, Plumkit, Bristlekit, Thriftkit and Flipkit are all very close with their Mama.

She deeply grieves the loss of Bristlefrost and Flipclaw. Flipclaw hasn't passed, but he lives in the mountains with his mate Hawk Feather. Soon enough, Plumstone will join Shadowclan to be with Gullswoop, leaving Thriftear alone.

She is trying her best to be there for her lonely daughter, along with her wife and sister.

As for her relationship with her mom, it withered while Silverstream worried herself sick over Briarlight. She had to unlearn things about disability and she really damaged her relationship with Briar, but she also did end up being a bit absent for Bumble and Blossom, snappy at them because she wouldn't sleep for days... They reconciled during Dovewing's Silence, when all is said and done, but Blossomfall vowed to never let her kids feel the way she felt, not for one second.

[nanistar]

i saw ur nightheart posts and i noticed u hate him quite a lot and im curious for the reasons why! i hope it doesnt sound rude! its a genuine question out of curiousity not an attempt for you to justify ur opinion, personally im aloof when it comes to nightheart i think hes just an edgelord tbh

nah you're not rude dw i get it. tbh i don't hate HIM as a character, i mean he's kinda annoying but whatever. instead i hate everything about him as a written extension of the authors and their views. nightheart isn't real, and doesn't have opinions but they authors do and they speak thru him to a young and volatile audience that might not know better. (which is also why i don't buy the "unreliable narrator" thing)

they twist the female characters around him to fit their narrative of "poor misunderstood sadboy" surrounded by "cruel mean women". squirrelflight, sparkpelt and even finchlight already had personalities, squirrelflight especially is known for bending rules for what she views as "the right thing", so why would she turn around and scream at him for wanting to change his name? why would finchlight, in one book, support his name change and stick up for him, only for in the next book to completely turn around and call him disrespectful and selfish. they needed to create more drama for him. before his warrior ceremony, he pulls off dangerous stunts trying to show off during his test, and it ends up blowing up in his face and fails, and he doesn't see this as HIS failing, he blames squirrelflight and his mentor for "expecting more of him because he's related to firestar" which??? and for that plot point to be given to him instead of his mother sparkpelt who is multiple times described as the spitting image of firestar? but she's like, totally fine with it. she's never given anything to do ever until she becomes a mother, (except disagree with alderheart like once and be the "rude misunderstanding woman" for his story too.)

and speaking of mothers... sparkpelt lost her mate as she gave birth, two heavily traumatizing things happening simultaneously. she had post-partum depression for a while, which is a serious and debilitating illness that KILLS people. yet she was still able to feed the kits, she didn't abandon them. they had plenty of attention from their family and from the other nursery cats. they were never once neglected. she was only out of commission for about a month before squirrelflight helped her back on her feet but that doesn't matter, because for the narrative, (and by the fandom) she is treated like a horrible abusive mother who neglected her kids on purpose. which. first of all crookedstar couldn't even LOOK at his daughter for the first week of her life and he is heralded as nothing but a loving father. second, nightheart goes on and on about how she left him and how she is hardly his mother because (lilyheart? i dont remember) one of the other queens helped raise them for the first month. the erins tie the worth of their female characters to how good of a mother they are, and any deviations from the nuclear family with a working husband and a housewife are automatically bad in their eyes,( yet they killed off ferncloud because she was "too annoying" for being a loving nursery mom.) (also think about how anti-adoption they are. the second the po3 secret was out, suddenly brambleclaw and squilf were never their parents despite literally raising them) they are horribly misogynistic, and their female characters are just pawns for either manpain or to be baby machines. this doesn't even begin to touch on how boy crazy the female protags have been lately, bristlefrost was interesting at first but eventually just turned into a wife for rootspring and then fridged for manpain, and sunbeam suddenly deciding shes in love with nightheart even though he stalked her and creeped her out???

adding on to this point, during ashfur's takeover, sparkpelt is EXILED from thunderclan (after being mauled by dogs, and by who she believes to be her father btw) she BEGS imposterstar to let her stay because of her family but he refuses. finchpaw chooses to go with her mother but flamepaw stays behind. then in his POV parts, he goes on and on about how she walked out on him!

again, nightheart the character: not real. he's a puppet for the authors to speak their misogynistic rhetoric. i would LOVE if he was just kinda a whiny emo dirtbag, or an actual unreliable narrator and whenever he complained everyone around him rolled their eyes and was like "ok nightheart" . remember that scene in meet the robinsons where bowler hat guy is telling his tragic backstory and he's talking about ppl at school and his narration says "they alll HATED me" while everyone in the scene was like "hi goob cool binder!" or "hey wanna come hang out with me later?" THAT'S (hilarious) but also what an unreliable narrator is. if that was nightheart it would be so funny. but instead, he HAS to be right, he HAS to be mistreated by all these mean horrible women. sorry for ranting, i promise im not mad at you.

[mspaintisevil]

Regressing (warrior cats)

(also spoilers for asc wind)

But anyway I hate nightsun it’s boring and more cringe then rootbristle. Sunbeam is just so “girl so boy has a love interest”. From the start where the most annoying guy she had one convo with is like “we are boyfriendgirlfriend now” and she didn’t get to have any input on that? And then the Erin’s barely make her hang out with nightheart except for when they are talking about his stupid challenges and because she feels like she has to because he put her on the spot. Then he up an leaves the clan he was joining for her (again girl he just met), and then she’s suddenly so over the moon about him that she Has To Go After Him. AND THEN as she’s completing her tasks to join his clan (again she still isn’t sure about how she feels about him) HE LEAVES (not his fault on a quest from God but still). And then when he comes back they are madly in love and talking about babies???? I wanna know what med cat herbs Sunbeam is on and what dose I need to take for the same effect.

Atleast with RootBristle Rootspring and Bristlefrost were only just thinking about it atleast bristlefrosts random no buildup feelings for Rootspring was before they even talked about dating instead of Rootspring being “I like you, you are my girlfriend now”

I know these are kids books and I shouldn’t expect much out of romance plots but I really don’t like the message of “If a guy likes you and says you are dating you are just supposed to go a long with it” ESPECIALLY since girls/young afab ppl are the most likely to read these books

Aside from the most obvious flaw of Erin’s Are Incompatible With Writing Romance I really fucking like the current series especially wind, like this is the most excited I’ve felt about a warrior cats book in a hot minute

[t4twnyclaw]

i think i have many thoughts about a starless clan arc, and only ONE of them good. spoilers for the ENTIRE ARC below.

CONTEXT: ASC is the only arc that I actually followed from start to end, when I got into TBC and AVOS those arcs were already complete and I spoiled myself and had a general idea of the plot and characters of that arc. ASC is the first arc ever in the WC series that I followed from start to finish; and I finally understand when other WC fans mention forgotten character arcs/unfinished plot-lines and rushed endings because oh my god ASC had all of these issues.

first of all. the villain. Splashtail.

I'm not going to lie I really enjoyed him in STAR. He is no Hawkfrost or Brokenstar but his kit-stealing motivations in Star were actually really nice to see. If this side of him was explored earlier on , oe eluded to I wouldn't be as disappointed but the problem here is: that his character shift slipping into madness isn't as smooth as it could be, and I feel like this in the previous book as well, where he seemingly drops his 'nice guy' facade completely.

Tigerstar the First's spiral into evil and madness is done way better. He's depicted as a loyal abiet a bit ruthless warrior, and a respectful family man (He does genuinely care for his kids.) and then he spirals and ends up killing and threatening his clanmates in gruesome ways. (Leading dogs to Brindleface, just blindly killing Runningwind and Redtail, Gorsepaw. etc.)

But at the same time you can see why people follow him, and why SC was eager to elect him as leader. He actually shows leadership skills. He feeds SC, he's a *warrior*.

The way Splashtail's descent leaves ALOT to be desired. It sucks because I loved the Macbeth-like lens they try to spin with Curlfeather and Splashtail but it just ends up falling flat, to me. Splashtail is just some teenager with no charisma skills but he could've been written like Tigerstar 1.

Unfinished plots/Plotholes

While ranting and raving about Splashtail I remembered how in the earlier books, It seemed like He and Berryheart (and their supporters) had a plan together from the beginning. But then STAR comes around and Berryheart and Splashtail's plan seemed to just be...her joining him? merging SC and RC? It seemed like it was a bigger deal in the first few books but it just felt like it fell flat here. Was their plan to try and vote Tigerstar 2 out of his position?

Tree specifically is mentioned twice, having to mediate the SC invading RC situation and both times I'm pretty sure we don't get a follow-up. And he seemingly did a bad job because RC still is really really, hostile against SC. So...Maybe he shouldn't be a mediator if he can't even mediate...correctly?

Leaders can be 'voted' out yet RC doesn't do this with Splashtail when he threatens kittens and obviously doesn't have the best interest in mind anymore.

One of the first lines Nightheart has is about Leadership being fluid, and being a shared responsibility between a few cats. In STAR, RC does just this when Splashtail is killed, even having two representatives during a gathering. I don't understand why RC just tried to disband instead of trying this out...

In STAR Sparrowtail has a conversation about family vs clan duties to Tigerstar 2. as if Tigerstar 2 doesn't CONSTANTLY put his family above his clan.

In STAR Frostpaw acts like she's never heard or seen of Leopardstar but...isn't Leopardstar the first Starclan cat she ever sees.

When Nightheart returns to TC It's implied Finchlight knows what heartbreak feels like, in regards to romantic love. WHO DID SHE LIKE...

Things I liked

Frostpaw, that's it. Frostpaw's POV actually carried this entire ARC. Even in TBC Bristlefrost and Rootspring's POV's may have dragged a bit (especially Rootpsrings) But they still contributed to the plot and characters greatly. Here, Nightheart and Sunbeam POV's mostly involve just each other and their feelings for each other to the point I think, it's obsessive.

I liked the warrior code changes, and I liked seeing Berryheart try to get Tigerstar 2 demoted, even if it was disappointing to actually witness and see play out.

I REALLY loved the names Splashtail gave Mistpaw and Greypaw. and I really like the idea of leaders giving new names as a punishment-of sorts. It reminds me of the cruel names from the first ARC.

I loved the relationship between parents and how that effects Frostpaw and Sunbeam. I wish we actually had more content of Lightleap and her parents, maybe to see how that effects her but whatever...

final thoughts

Sunbeams relationship with Nightheart wasn't anything new I really wanted to see her interact more with Lightleap and her family. Just, overall having Sunbeam STAY in SC instead of *immediately* joining TC would've been better. We have had all these arcs in TC's POV and just having Sunbeam stay in SC would've been SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

Having her realize she loves SC's territory and wants her kits to experience what she experienced so in the 2 month timeskip she and Nightheart move to SC instead would've sufficed.

overall. maybe a 4/10. and that 4 is completely from Frostpaw.

[silverofakitty]

So this October month has been really hectic, but to make it up to yall I'm gonna post an evil character everyday till the rest of October!

Starting off with Antpelt since he’s chronologically first on my list (also makes sense to put him after Ivypool). Ok, so I know he's not exactly a villian, but he did go to the Dark Forest, so I'm counting it. He wasn't the nicest either. I just think his story is tragic, had he survived he probably would have been like Icewing or even a chiller version of Breezepelt. I would have liked to see him be a less-extreme version of Breezepelt in contrast (much like Harestar & Crowfeather). Heathertail is the closest we got to that.

IVYPOOL'S HEART SPOILERS (kinda) I just realized Ivpool talked a lot about Bristlefrost and Beetlewhisker dying forever in the Dark Forest, but I don't remember a thing about Antpelt. Didn't she kill him and felt really guilty about it for several books later?? I guess he really is forgettable (kidding lol)

Quick design wise, didn't want to make him too special, but I liked the idea of missmatched ears and eyes. Also tried a lengthy body type since he's a WindClan cat and it would fit him more.

[disgruntleddemon]

potential thunderclan pairings the erins could've used instead, because god damn, why do they keep making pairings related:

Stormcloud X anyone: seriously, he's an outsider, let him have kits instead

Mousewhisker X anyone: same with Storm, but honestly, idk if there's anyone in his age range

Sunbeam X Nightheart: not a popular choice, and tbh i don't rly want them to have kids, but at least not related

Shellfur X Fernstripe: would have been SO so good. Shellfur's even a tortie!

random thunderclan cat X suprise othe clan mate: Bayshine and Thriftear was already out of no where. why not just have it be one of them X some other rando clan cat instead. plus, if it was Thriftear, it would add an extra sad layer with Bristlefrost. you could maybe do the same thing with something like Bayshine X Needleclaw

tbh i'm not sure if there's any other not related options? maybe Twig and Fin, but they might be distantly. i just don't want them to have kids.

really ,they should've just skipped thunderclan this arc. have Moonpaw be a windclan baby or somthing lmao

[higgyandthebattlecats]

PROTAGONIST POST

pov designs! Read More for small design notes! will update links as I draw them

FIREHEART/STAR - for fire coloured, I decided to imply yellow-orange-red with his stripes

BRAMBLECLAW/STAR - I feel like comparing his tabby pattern with Flame, Alder, Shadow, and Tawny kinda shows the Tigerstar tabby pattern.

LEAFPOOL - thought adding lines to the stripes by her eyes could imply more leaves or more stress

SQUIRRELFLIGHT/STAR - definitely has some of Firestar's tabby pattern

STORMFUR - I wanted him to look like an old man when he's a kid, kinda like how I think of Graystripe.

FEATHERTAIL - ear tufts extend to the side of the ear for a feathery look and fuzzy Graystripe chin

HOLLYLEAF - Leafpool's eye shape! also you may notice that for black cats, I draw their fur thinner by their ears. this is a small personal thing bc I've noticed that the fur is thinner there and it's especially noticeable in black cats

JAYFEATHER - blind =/= cataracts imo. His eyes can be unfocused/"lazy eye". His ears being thinner?? at the base is inherited from Crowfeather

LIONBLAZE - at first it's very believable that he's related to Brambleclaw, but then you notice his ears, eyes, eyebrows, nose, tabby markings above his nose/over his eyes are either more similar to Leafpool or just not from Brambleclaw...

DOVEWING - green eyes with a golden ring around the pupil. it's not visible here but she's got a white spot on her butt, based on a common trait among rock doves. small eyes, nose, and ears, kinda emphasizing how her power to see/smell/hear is even more unbelievable and supernatural

IVYPOOL - ear notch shaped a fun way. Despite her more prickly personality, she still gets the fun hair swirl like Dovewing

FLAMETAIL - ArchdemonSains on toyhouse has a flame-point Flametail, and I thought it was a perfect idea. These colours are also on Tawnypelt

GRAY WING - warm gray to contrast brother, slightly darker points. not visualized here, he had gray on his back.

THUNDER/STAR - bright orange boi with some brown. brighter orange than Firestar, but not quite "fire coloured" pelt. Ear notch has a lightning strike shape, like the Clan logo.

CLEAR SKY/STAR - cold gray with white points, contrasts brother. not visualized here, he has white on his chest. Round bite-like ear scar is supposed to be like the tree in the Clan logo, but I'm not a big fan of the execution

ALDERHEART - Squirrel's hair and dark colours with Bramble's tabby pattern and light colour

TWIGBRANCH - didn't want her to look too related to another protagonist. however, I did do the same kind of Leafpool cheek stripe to imply a twig on a branch haha

VIOLETSHINE - vaguely petal-shaped spot of black, also two different coloured eyebrows bc I think it's cute. Same chin shape as Twigbranch

SHADOWSIGHT - kinda forget the exact causes of his scars, but I think a bite mark barely missing his eye looks super cool. Has the Tigerstar-lineage ear-base tufts and tabby pattern, but Dovewing's lighter forehead spot rather than the lineage darker spot.

BRISTLEFROST - I like to imagine Bristlefrost with a thicker, bulkier build like her dad. Some similar nose/forehead pattern and hair as Ivy

ROOTSPRING - similar ears and eye shape to Violetshine. Wanted "yellow tabby" to be distinct from Lion's golden or Thunder's ginger. Want his tabby pattern to be kinda pretty and dappled and wavy. maybe ticked tabby while Tree isn't.

FROSTPAW - colour point, some diamond-shaped speckles/point pattern. Longer, curling cheek fur from her mom.

NIGHTHEART - looks more like Larksong than Sparkpelt, but fuzzy chin is from Sparkpelt's side. not pictured on his chest are some faintly lighter shapes that can be interpreted as small flames/sparks or as shining star shapes.

SUNBEAM - also wanted to differentiate her from others to look unrelated. round chin, big radiating cheek fur. different tabby pattern. White is slightly assymetrical. Added the creamy bits to the brown tabby part because I noticed it on my own pet tabby cat and thought it was pretty.

TAWNYPELT - Tigerstar lineage tabby pattern with ginger. eyebrows are both two-coloured.

LEAFDAPPLE/STAR - brown and cream tabby. tabby patterns are leafy and elegant. ears end in a point, like some leaves (the first example I can think of are lilac leaves). eyebrows are also leaf-shaped. Wanted her warrior name -dapple to be evident in the design

MOONPAW - wanted a new shade of ginger for her. both eyes have rings of the other colour because it's cool lol. played around with different fur lengths, eye shape, ears... chimera of a ginger tabby and a tuxedo so she still kinda looks like a tortoiseshell but still clearly distinct enough to be interpreted as a sign from StarClan.

[bonefall]

BB!Profile: Fernsong

(Oops I finished this art months ago and am just now making this profile)

[ID: The Better Bones version of Fernsong. He is a thick, pale golden tabby with thin stripes and a flat, round face.]

Clanmew Name: Nanyanaya (Nan, generic term for fanned-leaf groundplants + Yanaya, singing)

Old Name: Fiddles (Pronounced "Fibuls")

Alignment: ThunderClan, ex-Kittypet

Relationships: Mate - Ivypool Ex-Mate - Minty Children - Bristlefrost, Flipclaw, Thriftear Friends - Stormcloud, Jessy, Daisy, Briarlight Person who hates his guts - Blossomfall Mentor - Lionblaze

Sweet man! Den dad! Guy who gets washed in by a big flood and lands smack in the middle of a messy breakup before being getting his hardass nightmare dad-in-law assigned as a mentor!

In cleaning up the Kin of your Kin prophecy and reworking the plot of Po3 and OotS, I made it so Ivypool is now the daughter of Lionblaze and Cinderheart, and secretly the child of Jayfeather and Poppyfrost! I always found the sheer amount of kids Canon!Lionblaze has to be pretty ridiculous, since it does nothing with those relationships and makes half of ThunderClan descended from Firestar in the process.

So, instead, the tree has been overhauled and BB!Fernsong is an ex-kittypet. The Firekin family is traced exclusively through Dovewing, Ivypool, and Hollylark.

And BOY does he enter in a doozy! ThunderClan's Tempest replaces Bramblestar's Storm, now full of different perspectives as ThunderClan recovers from the Battle of the True Eclipse. Fiddles finds himself drawn to the Clan as a refugee, accidentally becoming the final straw that breaks the camel's back in Ivypool's toxic relationship with Blossomfall.

(Note: At the time, Blossomfall has a Dishonor Title, Shredbloom, for her involvement in the Dark Forest. Shredbloom = Blossomfall.)

When he finally has the chance to return home, he realizes that Clan life offers him something Kittypet life never quite did; Community. While he's not much of a hunter or a fighter, he comes to feel needed and fulfilled by the connections he makes to lots of cats within ThunderClan.

More under the cut!

In ThunderClan's Tempest, he came from the same home as Minty. The family couldn't evacuate them, because they ran and hid out of fear.

She was his mate a few times, but in the way that some kittypets of the same house are. Purebreds. They'd had litters that the humans made sure were well cared-for, brought to new homes at six months.

They had a sort of love more out of convenience and safety than passion.

When he was found by ThunderClan, they brought him back to their base in the caves, and Daisy was able to help break the language barrier.

Ivypool, still destroyed from seeing her Dark Forest mentor Hawkfrost make a stand against his father and "die," started helping Daisy out with them. At first, she just needed to feel useful.

She had been in a relationship with Blossomfall (Shredbloom at the time) for a long time, at this point, and had even begged her to stop during the final wave of the BOTTE.

In a way, Ivypool felt like she needed to "save" someone from the Dark Forest, and for a long time after, she felt like she needed to save Blossomfall from her own pain.

But it was incredibly toxic. Blossomfall was controlling, Ivypool was touchy. They were fighting constantly, and Blossomfall was about to repeat it again.

Ivypool spending time helping out with Daisy, acclimating the refugees to Clan life, learning to communicate with them... made Blossomfall jealous.

When Ivypool broke it off with Blossomfall, it wasn't because she loved Fiddles yet, thought Blossomfall DID accuse her of just wanting to move on "with the KITTYPET"

It was just because she was sick of living like this.

Fiddles happened to just... be there. They had become friends, but weren't anything more at that point.

For him, it felt good to pay her back for all the comfort she provided him, and she was grateful that she had someone without bias.

He didn't have a side yet, so when he told her that what she did was the right thing, it felt honest.

Ironically, Bossomfall accusing Ivypool of "just wanting to go googoo over the new kittypet" pushed Ivy and Fiddles closer together.

It wasn't JUST Ivypool he got close to, though! Briarlight was also starting to realize that she needed to start distancing herself from her family because of Millie's ableism... and Fiddles was there for her, too.

Emotional support king, quickly becoming friends with everyone.

The fact that he was close with Ivypool AND her sister, though?

To this DAY, even AFTER all she'd been through and having adult children of her own, Blossomfall still can't shake the negative feeling she gets when she looks at Fernsong. But she's wise enough now to know it's somewhat irrational.

The Impostor DID exploit this, however. But that is a story for another time.

What's most important is that in this moment, Ivypool, Fiddles, and Briarlight became good friends.

By the time the floods had receded and the humans were coming home, he found himself not wanting to go. Jessy was hard at work on improving Briarlight's mobility device, Frankie was taking to battle like a fish to water, and he was falling in love with Ivypool.

He walked Minty home, made her promise she'd prevent their twolegs from missing them, and headed back to ThunderClan...

Where Bramblestar made him the first apprentice of his father-in-law to be, the hardass hero of ThunderClan, Lionblaze! Gulp!

CLOSING TRIVIA

He is NOT named after Ferncloud! Ferncloud survived the BOTTE in Better Bones-- DUSTPELT died.

Birchfall and Whitewing's daughter, Duststripe (prev. sorrelstripe) is named after him.

Fernsong's name comes from how Fiddles was convinced his name referred to a type of fern. What type of fern? He didn't know!!

So when he eventually picked his prefix, he simply chose the generic term for ferns; Nan.

(Ferncloud's prefix, Marssi, is actually totally different in Clanmew. It's a specific species, Dryopteris filix-mas, known as Manfern in English. A species used in medicine for treating tapeworm.)

When I design ex-kittypets that aren't just common street cats, I intentionally avoid referencing one specific breed with the idea that this universe's history is slightly different. Fernsong is designed as a mix of an exotic shorthair and a british shorthair. An Exobrit, if you will.

I've decided to make him come from a home that bred cats, just because I think that's an interesting idea.

Not a mill or an abusive situation, but he's had a life before Ivypool, like she had a life before him.

He will be a den dad in BB. Ivypool comes in to nurse their kittens, but Fernsong is their Mi and she is their Ba.

[wormstar]

a few days ago i had the idea of a hypothetical rewrite of tbc where instead of rootspring existing at all tree was just part of the pov roster for at least half the arc if not all of it. the arc loses a bit of its ‘stupid kids trying to solve a ghost mystery’ charm but rootspring is made so painfully redundant by his own dad in terms of taking action in the plot and his romance with bristlefrost is very fucking nothing. like i think a tree pov would work nicely following avos’ very sudden introduction of him and you have a very easy arc set out for him like Yuuuup this guy who’s very passive and hardly doing his job becoming a bit more hardened in the face of a catastrophe that affects him ie the ghosts. and i think if instead of the somewhat abysmal pacing of tpons and alitm with 3 characters hopping in and out of the dark forest they just had shadowsight and bristlefrost exploring the area slowly while tree kind of just runs errands and operates as a camera in the living world that’s got a bit more meat on the bone. if he’s even really needed by the back half of the arc like even just cutting the perspectives down by one would be great. uhhh and i think focusing on bristlefrost and shadowsight as foils to one another with their people-pleasing and it getting them into trouble/high esteem simultaneously would be way stronger than ???? whatever rootspring talked about with either of them. you can even do a dovewing-ivypool parallel thing for that big nostalgia. and considering how the tbc trio has such a weak bond outside of certain pairs i think replacing rootspring’s nothingburger relationships with tree applying himself as like. a defensive authority figure to these way more vulnerable kids would both be a more interesting dynamic and also yet again accelerate his arc into a ‘oh i have to do things for others even if they don’t affect me’ type ordeal. it just idea