#firestar is part of bloodclan

[phantomskeep]

Okay, but real fast Scourge / Bloodclan AU.

Tiny still gets the absolute shit beat out of him by Tigerpaw, ends up running into the city. No change there. BUT what if while he's in the city the first cat he meets is Barley's and Violet's mom, who just had her kittens. Tiny, being the nice cat he is (and don't you even start, mans legit became angry BECAUSE of the city and BECAUSE he was treated like shit when he first got there) gives the weak mama cat his food.

Mama cat thanks him and takes him under her wing because she can see that Tiny's just a hurt lil barely-not-baby kittypet. Tiny helps her out by bringing her food, she helps him out by teaching him the ways of the city and being a second mom to him.

Then, one day, when Mom(tm) is just chilling with her now eye-open kittens a jack russell attacks her and her babies. Tiny had just gotten back from scavenging for food, sees the dog attacking her, and has an epic main character moment when he just takes all his Tigerpaw PTSD and throws it at the dog. Mans kills the dog in his rage-mode and gets pulled out of it by Mama Cat(tm).

Because of this the rumors that go around about a dog-killing cat are true, and the now-named Scourge becomes the leader of Bloodclan not through killing cats, but figuring out the best way to kill the packs of dogs roaming the city.

I have more about this and I want to make animatics about it, but have no idea on how to even start that. I have like 4 scripts written and all the songs picked out. So far it's going to be at least 54 minutes worth of animatic content, I just need to actually do it haha.

[thatbendyfan]

scourge to purge

[bonefall]

BB!TPB Titles

Having some fun just absentmindedly thinking of titles for the BB overhauls of main arc books. I think I'm gonna do it for all of them, because I actually really like renaming these and explaining my thought process

But here's TPB for now, because it's on my mind after that little scene bundle I wrote

Below the cut;

Arc Rename: The Prophecies Begin -> The Forest Four

Into the Wild -> Into the Clans

Fire and Ice -> Thermal and Undertow

Forest of Secrets -> Forest of Flowers

Rising Storm -> Rejected Rites

A Dangerous Path -> The Hunting Trail

The Darkest Hour -> Before the Dawn

The Forest Four

It's the intro to the original four, y'know? Plus, I use this term all the time in Clan Culture entries to specify when something is different about SkyClan from the "Forest Four." Makes sense it's the arc title.

Plus, there's a bit of a thing going on, especially in the later books, where the number of the Clans comes up a lot. Three Great Clans, but only four modern ones, River and Shadow combine to make TigerClan leaving three, BloodClan would make four, LionClan's alliance leaving two...

In BB, they know about SkyClan in history lessons, but Firestar doesn't think about it much until after this arc is done. More importantly, his choice to spare Scourge at the end of the arc suddenly means there's a Forest Four, and a Town One. I just think that's interesting.

(for some reason I also just love Scourge's insult where he calls Firestar a "forest fool" lmao. four forest fools.)

Into the Clans

The book with the expanded intro to the culture of the Clans. I feel like it's more fitting for BB to not call it "into the WILD" because... well, Clan cats DON'T see themselves as ""wild"" like animals. They're in Clans, with culture. They have ranks, politics, family, and even cooking and little kitty tools. It doesn't really make sense to me that they define themselves as "wild" just because their home has nature.

To them, loners are who's "wild," y'know? Rusty isn't totally coming to the Clans because it's wild, he's coming because of the community. Friendships and bonds with cats like Ravenpaw, Graystripe, Frostfur, Spottedleaf, Bluestar, and the sense that he could belong here. That he matters to these people.

This title's the one I'm actually waffling the most on, though. I don't like it very much yet. I don't feel like it captures the feeling I'm going for. It's also really close to a field guide title.

Thermal and Undertow

I've always interpreted "Fire and Ice" to be about how differently Graystripe and Fireheart are as people, and how that starts pulling them apart. The thing that people focus on is their "reconciliation" at the end of the book, but what stands out about it to me is that this is the book where Fireheart's TRULY integrated into the Clan.

His friendship with Graystripe is strained because of the HalfClan relationship Gray gets in, and he starts looking back to his roots for comfort because he doesn't feel like he's completely part of ThunderClan. I love this irony; they're BOTH struggling with loyalty in this broken system, experiencing types of xenophobia that prevent them from having happiness, but not yet wise enough to recognize they have a similar problem.

They're both breaking the law to talk to outsiders. Their forbidden love, both familial and romantic, makes Clan life harder. They're BOTH not doing anything wrong, but the STRUCTURE of their society is setting them against each other.

Graystripe responds, eventually, by leaving. Fireheart thinks he can make a home where he is. They're both wrong. The STRUCTURE needs to be challenged.

And meanwhile, they must go to fetch WindClan after it was driven out. They have to face RiverClan AND ShadowClan when Crookedstar and Nightstar show that power acts through them, as leaders. All the while, they experience the simple truth that love for cats in other Clans makes cruel, bloodthirsty battles like these too difficult to be sustainable.

And that's just canon!! I fucking love this book!!!

So in the rename, I'm putting emphasis on the natural flow, above and below. A wind is controlled by the temperature, rising up into a warm thermal. An undertow is a ferocious current that will pull you into the cold depths. They're not so different, in the end.

Forest of Flowers

And that leads right into canon's Forest of Secrets, where we learn that the older warriors also struggled with those pressures. Fireheart and Graystripe were never alone, cats have been suffering under this cruel system for GENERATIONS.

In BB, this is where I'm dropping the flower symbolism for the three major branches of politics in Forest Four society, which persist and are expanded on for the rest of BB;

Traditionalism, represented by the Honeysuckle, is used to justify the current system. "The Clans are branches of a honeysuckle bush. We fight and strangle each other for the light, and this prunes the weakest sprigs and rewards the fittest. When the winter comes, the strongest branches ensure the survival of the bush."

He also learns, much earlier, of Tigerstar's mentor. He hears the Parable of the Thistle, a story about how a young apprentice was forced to attempt to uproot a bull thistle, only managing to spread its seeds across a clearing, and won a trip to the Cleric's den for the trouble. How Tigerstar, and others, believe the honeysuckle must be challenged.

And meanwhile, he uncovers the story of the Forget-me-nots. A friend group even stronger than his collection of allies, with cats of every Clan, and how ambition drove it apart. How Bluestar looks back at it with both silly shame and deep appreciation.

The kindling ember in Fireheart's chest as he realizes he is the heir of a Forget-me-not, and that surrounding the obvious slash across Tigerclaw's nose, are the subtle pockmarks of thistle thorns.

Rejected Rites

I feel like Rising Storm is the "weakest" book of TPB, because it's where canon's cracks begin to show.

There's still a lot I love about this book. I love the way that Bluestar's cruelty arc begins with her grace and altruism towards other Clans not being returned without a catch. I adore the rescue of Bramblekit and Yellowfang’s guilty, harrowing death insisting she deserves judgement as Fireheart insists she is a good person. Its harsh ending revealing Tigerstar as leader of ShadowClan is a gut punch in an already brutal book, making an excellent mid-arc climax

But I feel its sudden turn towards suggesting the status quo was actually good drags it down.

For example, Cloudpaw is constantly arguing with Fireheart, in ridiculous fights Fire started. He's abducted by humans and returns in the same book, suggesting his uncle was totally right all along and he Totally Promises he won't mess with humans any more. The fact Fire was projecting on his young nephew and denying him answers when he questions their way of life, in a way very similar to the shame Firepaw himself went through, is not addressed.

A lot more of this book than you remember is also dedicated to Fireheart and Sandstorm arguing because the writers think a good romance is when you hate each other but stay together anyway.

So instead, this book in BB focuses more on what I DO like; Fireheart learning to be a LEADER. He's young, inexperienced, and has acted mostly alone up to this point. The Clan is in a moment of SERIOUS tumult as it reckons with how no one saw ANY signs about Tigerclaw.

As he loses his mentor Bluestar to paranoia, he has to learn which warriors are truly trustworthy, and try to win back those whose loyalties might stray.

In this way, Rejected Rites is about the WHOLE Clan. It's Whitestorm throwing his reputation and experience behind Fireheart. It's Goldenflower and how her disgust with her ex-mate blows her mind open and she shifts into Fire's most ferocious champion. It's Mousefur deciding that Tigerclaw was a uniquely bad person and refusing to admit fault with a Clan that supported him.

And of course it's about Cloudpaw, grappling with how Fireheart insists he's his mentor, not his father, not his friend, going back to how he botches the Queen’s Rights on bringing him to the Clan. Fireheart, too, is a flawed person capable of being complicit in damaging systems.

The Hunting Trail

The dog plot barely needs a recap, it's this fandom's bread and butter. But there's a small, VERY popular misconception about; in canon, Tigerstar only uses the dogs at the END of this book with a rabbit trick. Before that, the dogs are practically a natural disaster he has nothing to do with.

There's a reason why it's misremembered. It works better if he's more involved with them the whole time, showing how DANGEROUS he is, how Bluestar's fixation on her war with StarClan is blinding her to reality, and adding to the tragedy and madness by having Swiftpaw getting wrapped up in his father's/stepfather's quest for revenge.

So in BB, Tigerstar's involved MUCH sooner. He freed the dogs.

The title change reflects that. There's a hunting trail and the cats of ThunderClan are its prey, but it doesn't specify who the predator is. In the end, it was Tigerstar's scheme all along and Bluestar sacrifices herself to save her apprentice.

(I also want to take the moment to highlight how short-sighted and impulsive Tigerstar's plans actually are, something I find fascinating about him as a character. He's malicious and intelligent enough to make some incredible schemes, taking advantage of every opportunity. But he never accounts for details like... "what if my dogs don't go right to where I want them to go?" or "what if I'm not picked as deputy after I kill Redtail?" or even "what will i do after my demons kill all the living cats?")

TigerClan is also forming earlier. It begins in THIS book. Stonefur and Mistyfoot are "detained" after leaping into the ravine to rescue Fireheart and Bluestar, it's all the "evidence" Tigerstar needed to accuse them of divided loyalty. To finally start his persecution of HalfClan cats.

Before the Dawn

...In spite of its iconic moments, I'll be honest; Darkest Hour is actually the book that makes me the angriest about the original series.

All arc long, we are shown that the Clans are flawed. They have been, long before Rusty set foot in the woods that day. It NEEDS bigotry to exist the way it does, fostering xenophobia between Clan cats so that love and friendship won't get in the way of violence, encouraging and even rewarding extreme Jingoism, and even setting clanmates against each other for these senseless problems instead of the STRUCTURE of Clan society.

Darkest Hour SLAMS the breaks on that theme, and brings the message to a screeching halt.

FIRST of all, this is the book where it's explicitly stated that StarClan "doesn't interfere," even giving them a moment where they yell at protagonist about free will or whatever while simultaneously barking a vague, ultimately useless prophecy at him. The first of many scenes like it in later arcs. It feels completely and utterly out of left field, instantly turning StarClan from a mysterious, possibly not even fully benevolent force, into THE most annoying plot device ever.

Secondly... BloodClan.

BloodClan is introduced as a TRULY EVIL group of horrible atheists who hate love and friendship, to the point of banning families, and are now here to destroy our glorious society and steal our home. They're depicted as being ruled by fear and brutality, unbound by concepts like "honor" or "loyalty." You cannot reason with them or spare their lives, the barbarians must be killed and kept out, lest they replace us.

(there is even a moment where it's implied that if the soldiers lose the war, BloodClan will come and murder the elders and children too.)

It is SO bad and SO egregious, and it's played completely unironically. It bothers me so badly I've talked about it before. Multiple times, actually

After Tigerstar gets his well-deserved grallocking like a 10-point buck, the endgame villain of TPB is a foreigner and his army. Scourge is a foil of Firestar himself, but THIS one hates the clans and doesn't worship the right god, which makes him dangerous. Firestar is textually stronger than him because of his faith in StarClan.

At the end of the day, TPB, and the rest of the series that follows, doesn't refute Tigerstar's ideology. It even agrees. Weakness IS abhorrent. Outsiders ARE to be distrusted. Split loyalties ARE detestable. It just didn't like that he challenged the status quo.

Foreigners and their leaders ARE less trustworthy and more villainous than Clan cats. Wariness and even violence towards them is necessary, "justifying" the isolationist structure of the Clans. Scourge is only the first in a very long chain; then comes Sol, One Eye, Slash, and Darktail. Even Hawkfrost and Willow Tail can fit into this pattern.

With the death of these evil, troublemaking cats, the Clans return to the status quo. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Darkest Hour frames this like a wonderful, triumphant thing, with Firestar noting how the now-leaderless BloodClan fighters look so inferior to Clan warriors, Scourge's evil will never haunt them again (Tigerstar gets to be grieved though), and that with LionClan disbanding, they will all return to their petty bullshit squabbles.

So, BB's renaming.

I had a lot of ideas. I really liked the name "Moment of Truth" because it's the book that really brings together the theme of the arc, ending with Firestar realizing Scourge is right to distrust the Clans and that change is DESPERATELY needed, but the more I thought about it... the more I liked Before the Dawn

Reference to the phrase "The darkest hour comes before the dawn" BB is a much more optimistic story than canon, by tweaking the themes and details while following the major beats. Something is just... idk poetic? About picking the more uplifting part of the idiom. It feels right, like it's almost too perfect to go with any other title

It's a new era for the culture going foward It IS right before a "new dawn." It's the start of major changes to Clan culture, setting the events of the rest of BB into motion. The years and generations that follow are going to see major changes to the code, territory, culture, and philosophy in the universe. The choice that Firestar makes here is going to bring the Clans into a new epoch. Plus the cats are crepuscular now so I can literally have the final battle take place just before dawn because subtext is for CHUMPS

I like the idea of opening up the next arc with Dawn Just because that's really funny to me lmaoo. Something is cute about titles that reference each other. Maybe the first book of TNP could be "Dawn of the End" since the destruction of the forest starts early. Maybe add in some apocalyptic prophecies and such...

[sidglorious]

TIGERTOK AU MASTERPOST

ok so I was tired of Reblog the same post again and again so since this is something I really enjoy to do : a master post for Tigertok AU and then everything will be posted with the tags #TigerTok or #TigerStar TikTok AU

SO, to resume

As he was going to recrute bloodclan cats, TigerStar is spotted in the street by a cat lady from tiktok. She saw this beautiful maine coon covered in scars and decided to capture him and give him a lot of love in order to gain his trust and heal his injuries. She named him Cookie & has other rescued cats. Tigerstar spend entire days attacking her with all his inner rage but you can't beat tiktok cat ladies this easy you know ?? like she is a professional cat behaviorist or something this kind so she has all the world resilience in her blood and the more he hisses at her the more she loves him and wanna take care of him.

she puts him ridiculous outfits with things like "mister angry furball" written on it and he's becoming a trend on tiktok as she's narrating her journey to gain the trust of her old rescued maine coon

firestar once find out about his worst ennemy fate and it's just became his therapy to come with graystripe & cloudtail in the bushes in front of Tigerstar / cookie home just to make fun of him

Tigerstar is the same vile, violent, bloodthirsty cat we all know but now behind everyone of his criminal acts there is a lady filming him to put him on tiktok.

After eventually getting neutered he gave up his forest life because he couldn't imagine going back to his clan without his balls I guess. he now spend his days grumbling alone in the border of his catio (because, of course, the cat lady has a catio).

I wanted to state that y'all here are so funny, it fuels my shitpost machine so thank you and please take part of the au y'all have so funnies ideas lmao

some doodle - cw scars, blood and suicide joke

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

ok so like. hear me out. warrior cats rewrite but it takes place in the blast and winter of a nuclear blast

many cats die, but rusty helps gather the clans into a group and helps them believe again. they survive, but barely, and they HAVE to get over their hatred of outsiders if they want to survive

Warrior Cats Fallout au...

Mutant cats and other creatures...

Rusty/Firestar being named not for the sunlight on his coat but instead having been named for managing to escape a bomb.

Tigerstar recruiting a group of mutant cats with massive teeth and claws (that were promised a safe home away from other mutant creatures)

Firestar guiding the cats together into a ruined town to claim it as part of their home because the forest is partially ruined.

Regular patrols to try and deal with the damage, hunting patrols with some very real risk.

Tigerclaw trying to kill Bluestar through radiation exposure, only for Cinderpaw to go and need her leg amputated from the injury.

Cloudpaw running off with a band of raiders for a while before coming back (also she is still trans in this au, though Princess is part of Thunderclan now and is Firestar's ONLY sibling)

Scourge is either a mutant that started out as a normal cat, or the only ordinary cat in Bloodclan, decked out with the teeth and claws of other creatures.

Barley's farm being a tiny settlement where he and his sister (with Fuzz) protect people from large rats. Ravenpaw joins, obviously.

The Clans uniting as Fireclan.

(Also Skyclan's new gorge home being a crater come onnnn)

[powerofthesunau]

ICEHEART (Scourge)

Scourge plays a large part not only in the events of TPB but of later arcs as well.

He tries to join ThunderClan but is driven out by Tigerpaw. He wanders the clan borders for a while before making his home in twolegplace. After the stories Quince told him about the clans, Tiny still wishes to live in a group like them. He forms BloodClan as inspured by his mother's tales of fearless warriors living a somewhat-noble life.

BloodClan remain a threat during Firepaw's apprenticeship. ThunderClan frequently encounter them in patrols near twolegplace.

BloodClan are more morally forgivable than in canon. They see clan cats as an oppressive threat to kittypets and loners. Skirmishes that take place in twolegplace are over border markings, the clans see BloodClan as a grouo of rogues, so they are to be treated as outsiders according to the warrior code.

BloodClan try to mimic the lifestyle of a clan through meetings and similar names, (Brickshard, Bonesnap, etc) however do not have a healer or an apprentice system. Although they do not have a warrior code, Scourge encourages his cats to be somewhat merciful. Seeing clan cats as a self-righteous evil group he wants his cats not to be as arrogant as they are.

Scourge is only mentioned in passing until Tigerstar persuades him to join his TigerClan allegiance. Scourge accepts out of the promise of a portion of territory for his cats and better relations with the clans. However upon witnessing Tigerstar's cruelty and arrogance he is reminded of when he was attacked as a kit. He kills Tigerstar and declares war on the other clans, hoping to drive them out the forest for good.

Within the battle he takes Firestar's first life but just before Firestar kills him StarClan orders him to spare Scourge's life. He had always been destined to be a clan cat, a medicine cat, however the incident with Tigerpaw threw him off that path. After the battle Firestar hesitantly accepts him into ThunderClan, giving him the name Iceheart. StarClan trains Iceheart to be a medicine cat through dreams. Although ThunderClan do not fully trust him, they understand that this was StarClan's will. BloodClan is handed over to new leadership.

After a power struggle in BloodClan, Iceheart finally earns ThunderClan's respect through aiding BloodClan to remove their corrupt leader Furyclaws who seized power. BloodClan ceases to interact with the clans with Iceheart's persuasion, moving deeper into twolegplace. Some cats join SkyClan when it forms in the gorge when the TNP travellers journey through twoleplace. Over time BloodClan eventually transitions to WarriorClan.

Iceheart believes in StarClan, however does not believe that they are always a force of good. He is willing to let acts against the warrior or medicine cat code if he thinks they are pointless. His closest friends outside the clans is Brokenheart, medicine cat of ShadowClan, despite Brokenheart's somber and soft personality he respects him. As well as Mothwing as the two hold similar beliefs.

He mentors Firestar's daughter Leafpool. However he develops joint problems and needs to retire from being a medicine cat. He helps her hide her pregnancy from ThunderClan, he views the rule of medicine cats not having kits as pointless. He dies of old age when the Three are kits. When Jaypaw walks in StarClan, Iceheart does not hesitate to speak to him unlike the other StarClan cats who fear his power.

Jaypaw only has a few memories of Iceheart's health deteroriating in the elder's den but heard and was fascinated by stories of the tiny cat who lead the cats of twolegplace and killed Tigerstar with one swipe. Rather than Spottedleaf attempting to guide him, it is Iceheart, with Yelowfang contributing occasssionally.

In his StarClan form, Iceheart wears his BloodClan collar for 2 reasons. The first is that when a spirit reaches StarClan their form is the one that is considered the peak of their success, the elders' tales of Iceheart as the legendery leader of BloodClan is responsible for this. The second representing Iceheart's own rejection of traditional StarClan beliefs. He believes in Silverpelt but does not follow them blindly.

Additional Note: Firestar and Sandstorm have a second litter, Foxleap and Icecloud. Their daughter Icecloud is naned after Iceheart

[violetshine-appreciation]

morningflower especially is probably my fav background character overall tbh. tpb was (for the most part) rly good at giving bg characters their own little arcs/stories and morningflower always stuck out to me as the prime example of that.

she starts out as a queen with a new kit and befriends fireheart on the journey back to reclaim windclans territory after he offers to help carry gorsekit for her. from then on whenever they see each other we are reminded that they are on rly good terms with each other bc of this. when thunderclan has to fight windclan, fireheart and morningflower see each other during the battle and both deliberately choose not to fight each other. that always stuck out to me as a small yet impactful moment of friendship/connection between a protag and a minor background character bc it showed that the erins REMEMBERED their little interaction in a previous book which doesnt happen too often anymore in modern wc books.

then at a gathering morningflower tells fireheart that gorsekit is now gorsepaw and that he admires fireheart greatly and wants to be just like him. and again we are reminded of the connection these characters share all bc of a small act of kindness on fires part that meant the world to morning and gorse. its little things like these that made the world and community in tpb really feel more alive and realistic in terms of the interactions between characters (again, for the most part lol).

and then when tigerstar murders gorsepaw, firestar is grief stricken too. this was a cat who he knew as a baby, who he helped CARRY, who looked up to him and wanted to be like him when he grew up. and tigerstar, his greatest enemy, just murdered him in front of his entire clan, including his own mother.

and morningflower, of course, is DEVASTATED. her grief feels so raw and real. she wants nothing more than to avenge her beloved kit. when she fights alongside lionclan in the battle with bloodclan, firestar hears her calling gorsepaws name. she is fighting for him. we, the readers, have seen her story play out from firestars perspective, and i personally always felt very strongly for her as a result of their interactions and how we see their connection develop.

idk. its a small thing but its hard to imagine modern warrior cats books doing this nowadays. very few background characters stand out now, and when something tragic does happen to them its usually only given a brief description and nothing more. the protagonist has no connection with them and we never see them interact beyond basic clan stuff so we dont feel as emotionally invested whenever the narrative expects us to feel bad for them. but morningflower is a reminder that warrior cats CAN be good at this when they actually do try to remember the little interactions between characters and how those moments impact their relationship and our relationship as readers to these characters.

idk. its like the bare minimum for good storytelling but i always rly rly liked it

[violentshine]

Wait what if Darkstripe joins Bloodclan.

There's a whole thing with Scourge being taken back to Thunderclan after his "death" to heal, Firestar comes to an agreement with the Shadowclan leader (who I am thinking is Russetfur. I loveee Russetstar <3) to switch around the borders and to give Bloodclan some forest territory. Or at least give a time for Bloodclan to hunt on some territory- haven't figured out which route to go yet but that happens.

Initially Scourge doesn't accept it and says he changed his mind about hunting in the forest since that was his goal (besides also killing Tigerstar) but he comes around.

So I think when Scourge leaves Thunderclan, some time after that Darkstripe finds him, attacks the guy, loses and is like. Taken back to Bloodclan. Darkstripe still is going to be nasty but he's more like, Neutralized when he joins ("joins" as he calls it. "I'm not one of you 🙄).

Heartshine is my favorite <3. No girl don't attach yourself to the cat that didn't raise a finger when you were going to be publicly executed . "She didn't mean to :(" Her lack of response would have sent you to the grave, your dying breaths would have been spent looking up at her as she sat like a stone with eyes some much as widening. She was going to write your death off as a necessary evil that had to be committed. She'll grieve for you yes, she isn't heartless but she wasn't going to realize the flaws in her ways, or the hypocrisy in the path she laid out for herself.

When and if I go the route that Leopardstar comes back after being tossed in the river, Heartshine is going to welcome her back with open arms. Not at first, but she will eventually relapse. she's going to be Leopardstar loud voice of support (and possibly only). Though I don't know how much Leopardstar's presence will shake things up, besides the thing with Heartshine.

[atdwarriorsau]

if you had to change anything like. big big abt plot in canon what would you change

Dawn of the Clans next question.

Man like... so much. I think most warrior cats fans can agree the writing isn't that... good.

I could say so much. The fact that racism, xenophobia, colonialism, sexism, ableism, fatphobia, abuse apologia, are not only all present, but normalized and are explicitly shown as the moral and righteous viewpoint/status quo/thing to do. Now portraying these topics, even in children's book (which wc is), is fine, as long as it's clear these things are wrong. It's important for this information to be accessible to kids, if they read about abuse they can understand that their own situation is bad; hence why Kosa bill and book banning are real bad. I want to say the writing in this regard isn't deliberate, but not to get controversial but I don't exactly trust white middle aged British women (sowwy)

A post about my dotc feelings, see @bonefall for more or the moonkitti Bumble video

ANYWAYS

I think it's fine to have these kinds of elements in warrior cats, but you HAVE to show that they are bad things. Which is a believe you should have anyway but...

For overarching stufff, I would really love to do something about that ableism. Part of the reason it's so weird that wc society treats disabled cats like... that... is because if you look at real cats that are blind, or have a missing leg or whatever, they are almost always perfectly mobile, and most of them could hunt. Cats rely on their other senses far more than humans do. You could find plenty of videos of 'disabled' cats doing just as much as 'abled' cats.

You could argue that the cats in wc are basically human, which is true (moonkitti's 'the cats are just people' video). HOWEVER, you know who else can still be mobile and do things with disabilities? That's right, humans!

It doesn't make sense from either the 'wc cats are cats' OR the 'wc cats are humans' angles.

And the thing is, Jayfeather was the perfect opertunity to tackle this! Everycat and their mothers have made a Jay as a warrior au, and even without that we could have had a great discussion through the books about the society's ableism. Don't even get me started on Briarlight's death. Absolutely insulting.

As for smaller plot things, ima do stuff for all the arcs!

The Prophecies Begin

(I have not read every book but have absorbed the plot through Tumblr osmosis)

- This is the best arc writing wise so I don't have much but...

- the last book. not great

- It's such a weird sudden heelturn from the previous books. Like Firestar adopting the xenophobia when it doesn't make that much sense from a character standpoint? If anything, he should at least have to struggle with his duty to the clans vs his feelings about Scourge. It would make sense for Firestar to sympathize with him

- Speaking of....

- Listen ima say it. While I love the aesthetic and potential, as it is, Scourge is overrated. Send the fire and pitchforks and stuff, ima say it like it is. Be honest without the Scourge Manga would he be as popular. Be so fr

- It's so so so weird for Scourge and Bloodclan to have similar if at least conflated ideologies with Tigerstar. Why would they be weird about half clan kits and such.

- Also.... sigh... the evil atheist thing gets me. I'm a certified Starclan hater and it is so boring for every villain to be the evil atheist (unless you're going to actually explore that) Implying someone is evil or doomed or whatever because they lack (your) religion is bad and dumb

- and this is the arc I have the least to say about

The New Prophecy

- We do NOT need to know every step of the journey

- Biggest problems here are pacing and POV

- This arc is about clan solidarity. That's had to pull of with only Thunderclan POV. We NEEDED at least Wind and River POV and thos arc would be perfect

- Tribe racism is bad.

Power Of Three

- If you thought TNP pacing was bad...

- huh I wonder if that has anything to do with the arc being created for the fire scene. I don't know though

- Listen I love the idea of slice of life but you have to stick to that. PO3 can not decide on high stakes magic stuff or slice of life. Pick a lane.

- Dark Forest plan makes no sense. At all. I ain't gonna explain it here but yeah it's bad

- Also the prophecy. What's up with that. How did their powers affect the battle except maybe Lion? What's up with them not knowing where it came from?

- This arc has just... so may dangling plot threads. You just keeping throwing them at the wall and giving no answers.

- The cave. The time travelling. Random tribe visit. Rock. Midnight. The spirit world. SOL. THE ECLIPSE

- Most of the things I mentioned have... wait for it... NO EFFECT ON THE MAIN PLOT WHATSOEVER. OR ANY PLOT

- The ending feels like a middle. Like I love the Holly stuff but that's for the middle idk

- Also I would love for Lionblaze to have a paw in killing Ashfur

- I don't like the weird 'adoption bad' thing they have going on

- Oh and Tribe racism is bad again

Omen Of The Stars

- OK I need to talk about the prophecy.

- First literally any other candidate would be better than Firestar. Raise you hand if you cared. Oh alright.

- Hollyleaf, Ivypool, Breezepelt, Flametail, idk Whitewing?

- Speaking of give Flametail something to do or cut him. Why is this like our only main series Shadowclan POV? (this arc in general has too many POVs, pleaseeee we do not need Lionblaze POV)

- 'Hollyleaf didn't have a power because we couldn't think of one.' Gives Dovewing a power

- Just throwing in a quick 'Dovewing deserved better' in here...

- For spending thirteen books setting up the Dark Forest battle, man was that disappointing and a lil boring. Good for them for killing Firestar tho. Shoulda killed more guys off.

- Starclan acting like complete idiots for no reason. Cool I'm sure this will never happen again.

- One tiny thing to make the plot better. Make it so Starclan can't come to the living world (or won't hehe) while DF spirits can. Makes the battle actually plausible (for DF) and adds more stakes and tension. (Maybe the prophecy came from the DF... hm...)

- Oh and Tribe racism bad again

A Vision Of Shadows

- Okay if this is the Skyclan return arc why do they have such small a role?

- Darktail's backstory sucks I'll say it. Cowards

- The Tigerheartstar book and the Hawkwing book should've been inside the main arc. Whyd you give me required reading. At least the Hawkwing book anyways. Skyclan's journey to the lake 100% needed to be IN this arc

- Here begins the reoccurring theme of the ending destroying the arc. This is probably the least bad of those. But still not great chief. If you can't fill the six books with enough plot maybe you need more plot... (or yanno replace b6 with Hawkwing's Journey and shuffle it around? Who said that?)

- Alderheart's character growth being offscreen and him just not having anxiety anymore irks me

- First time the sister would have been a more interesting protag. This will happen again..

- Also the mediator stuff flopped. Skyclan should have invented it earlier. Skyclan NEEDED to be so much more weirder. Now we have copy-paste clan number five, old people edition

The Broken Code

- Sisters being more interesting part two

- First time two of the protags have a relationship while the other protag has the entire plot. This will happen again.

- What did you do to Mothwing.

- The ghosts thing, while interesting, yet again requires required reading from a super edition. Okay. Leafpool's death not being in a main arc book is insulting

- Alright this arc was pretty alright I'll admit it

- If Bristlefrost somehow returns I'm deducting points I stg

A Starless Clan

- (the Southpark kid voice) KILL NIGHTHEART!

- Ugghhh can I get a misogyny number two combo?

- Everything else with Sunbeam except Nightheart is SO interesting and the arc needed more of that.

- Oh we have evil atheists again. Okay.

- At least Curlfeather had a bit of interest. Splashtail flopped hard in, you guessed it, the last book! Yet again they ran out of plot for the last book, sad!

- Starclan should stay away more often tbh

Changing Skies

- I could just say Moonpaw's parentage but that would be lazy

- ughhhhhh I bet we're getting loads of ablesim against Leafstar. Sounds fun. Also Leafstar is one million years old but I doubt they'd have the balls to kill her off. Modern Skyclan will never have another leader.

- Also ableism against Moonpaw cause I'd bet a dollar they'd imply DID with her and they will NOT do any research and it will ableist as hell. If the voice is evil istg

- The absorbed twin thing isn't great either. Don't get me started on the chimeraism thing. None of it works that way

- Also we might be leaving the territories again. I bet the next place will have even less to do in it than the lake

- They will find a way to get Stormclan stuff in here and it will be bad and I will be mad about it

- The arc ain't even come out yet and I'm mad lol

Ughhhhh yeahh that went long... ugh picture of my cat fo your troubles..

[bigender-cowboy]

Quick, top three warrior cats you’d like to see die dramatically in a musical

Oooo this doesn’t mean I hate them btw but 1. Is Hollyleaf (Philip from Hamilton kind of? Idk I was making an animation to stay alive reprise and her once) 2. Is Tigerstar (he’d probably have a banger song I like. I imagine a lot of repeated words for his song so think We Both Reached For The Gun ending part) 3. Is probably Bristlefrost (I want it to be like The Ballad of Jane Doe if this makes sense)

Special callouts: Firestar but I felt he was suited to be near the end in a slightly more peaceful tune. Ashfur but then I went nah. Bluestar but her death would be intense for first half the song and slow peace the rest and I went mmmmm nah though she WAS close to getting up here (if she did her song would be like The World Was Wide Enough from Hamilton I think). Also the whole Clans vs Bloodclan conflict would have hella intense music (or something like Guns and Ships + Right Hand Man and they’re also both from Hamilton)

[mud-castle]

I have a pretty blunt ask regarding DM:

So, why are all the cats "more evil" exactly? Is it simply just a darker world with more serious tones for the fun of it, or like, some alternate reality, Mandela catalogue-esque thing where the Dark Forest is a lot more powerful and took over a while ago?

Also, you did a quick sketch of canon Firestar meeting DM!Firestar a while ago, and I've always wondered who else you think would be the most jarred seeing their alternate selves lol

To put it simply, it's an au I came up with in my tween and early teens years that started with what if firestar was evil, then went into what if the clans were evil. I was at that sort of age where things that are darker are "cooler" and "more mature."

Then I stumbled on it again, and everything on the blog is more for the fun of it. A solid amount of it is taking elements occasionally in Warriors, dramatizing them, then making them an encompassing part of all the clans. So it's kind of an alternate reality but most just a darker world for the fun of it.

Ex. Brokenstar steals kits -> stealing kits is a common practice...also it keeps the clans genetic pool diverse.

or Nepotism in the fire and crooked/oak fam -> semi-distinct families that make up each clan and have varying levels of power, which often leads to intraclan competition

And, my personal favorite, clans other than Thunderclan being overly aggressive for honestly no reason than plot -> all the clans being overall more violent and antagonistic to the point where marriage between families is the only solid way to ally two clans, if temporarily.

Then you take some characters, raise them in an overall more aggressive environment, up their paranoia depending on their clan and family standing, and you got cats that go from willing to do tragic things (Bluestar giving up her kits) to protect their clan as a whole, to cats doing outright fucked up things to protect themselves and their immediate family...and the clan if the threat is from outside. Imagine crabs in a bucket.

And finally you take a thing like Bloodclan, that exists to be an outside force bent on destroying the clans and flip it to the Hope colony, an outside force bent on protecting itself against the evils the clans perpetuates against nonclan cats (mostly kit stealing). And bada bing bada boom you got the Dark Mirror Au

I honestly think everyone would be jarred meeting their alternate selves. The worst would probably be Mistystar (as canon Mistystar becomes deputy to prevent Leopard from doing a Tigerclan again whereas Dark!Misty outright kills her) and Squilf & Leaf (since their relationship is so so much worse).

[angsttronaut]

rotating the warrior cats rewrite that exists solely in my head again. specifically tpb

one major change I'd make to the arc is the clans not having the minimum age limit for apprenticeship; 6 moons is still common because that's about when kittens are usually mature enough and large enough to commit their time to warrior training, but younger apprentices are common. something feels extremely wrong when brokenstar takes 2 and 3 month old kittens to the gathering, but everyone's reluctant to challenge him because it isn't against the law (and there's plenty of cats in the other clans that were apprenticed super young because the leader wanted more paws to hunt or they were considered mature for their age)

cinderpaw being five moons would be significant; fireheart's uncomfortable with the early apprenticeship after what brokenstar did, but everyone around him thinks it's fine. he'd see first hand how much she and her brother aren't quite ready- and how that leads to cinderpaw getting run over. cloudpaw I'd also make an apprentice early, when he's being a hellion in the nursery. once again, he struggles a lot because he should really be doing kitten things still.

at the end of the arc, after the battle with bloodclan, warrior code changes are made to prevent tigerclan-esque situations happening again. there's another change or two (the one I have in mind is that the leader's word is law code is weakened; a leader's word is now only law if it doesn't break another part of the warrior code), but at the end when everyone's about to wrap up firestar insists that they add this law too. kittens shouldn't be forced to lose their kittenhoods to be put on the frontlines of a battle or because the hunting's hard.

of course, it's been a long time since the code has changed; some cats believe it should remain unmoving forever, and to change it is disrespect to starclan. some cats have no intention of honouring the new codes, which is going to be a problem going into tnp and beyond.

[silent0utspace]

Rant about warriors for @jestersdlc

Long under cut

1/idk how many

So, I'm going to start with the first bunch of books for this one.

In Warriors, there are four clans: Shadowclan, Thunderclan, Windclan, and Riverclan.

There are also Loners, Rouges, and Kittypets. Loners are peaceful cats that aren't a part of a clan and don't have any anger toward the clans. Rouges are similar but are very hostile toward clan cats. Kittypets, however, are simple housecats.

Kittypets, examples being Firestar(his Kittypet name was Rusty) and Cloudtail(Firestar's nephew, didn't have a kittypet name), can be accepted into clans, although a rare occurrence. Firestar is the main character, and Coudtail is an atheist, so yeah.

Speaking of religion, there are two places the cats will go when they die. Starclan, the equivalent to heaven, or the Dark Forest, which is equal to hell. Only medicine cats and special main characters can have dreams of one of these two places, where they can communicate with cats there on any regular night. However, at the Moonstone or Moonpool (big stone/pond that reflects the moons light almost fully), any cat can communicate with starclan(typically).

Some notable cats from the first bunch of groups include Scourge, a Rouge leader of 'bloodclan', which isn't an official clan and is just a rogue(I just noticed my typos, and I'm not fixing them all) group. Then there's Tigerstar, but I'm going to make an entire different post highlighting everything that tom has done since it's a lot, and I hate him for it. Lastly, there's Yellowfang, an elderly she-cat who originally was Shadowclan's medicine cats until she came to Thunderclan and was eventually accepted, and she was super badass and fed poisonous deathberries to her own son while he was in the camp because he(I genuinely don't remember his name:/) was conspiring with TigerClaw to kill Bluestar(TC leader at the time).

Onto cat breeds, most of them in the forest seem to be less of the fluffy, round, conventionally cute kind, but also no sphinx cats oddly enough. (I'm only on the 4th or 5th group of books, so this is all a big YET from me) Most of the more fine-tuned breeds used to be Kittypets, hence Cloudtail's prominent fluffiness amongst the rest of TC(I'm abbreviating clans now, btw).

[bonefall]

elder bones, what made you want to turn the politics of warriors into a story of anti-fascism? or, at least a part of the story is.

A mix of family and friends I've lost to radicalization + personal experience with the alt-right pipeline after a painful religious deconversion + frustration with how I feel parts of canon's messaging fall into authoritarian talking points

WC as a series is pro-xenophobia and even, sometimes, dips into outright eugenics. I don't know if the books contributed to where I ended up, but I do know that they were in my head a lot in a time I was vulnerable. The way that it treats foreigners and outsiders was particularly painful, especially the Tribe.

Over and over again, we see a pattern in the series where the Clan cats are superior to other cultures, and all their internal problems are caused by Born Evil cats or Barbarous Foreigners. Groups that are peaceful (Tribe) are borderline incompetent, needing to be saved over and over. Culturally, Clan cats are framed as superior by the narrative, with a way of life that is fragile and must be protected against outside threats. Their God is infallible, even when we see it fuck up and act maliciously over and over, but you're meant to ignore that.

Scourge shows up in the last book of TPB, one-shots Tigerstar, and presents BloodClan as love-and-friendship-hating foreigners that pose an existential threat to the Clans. A common enemy to unite against, who will destroy your culture, your people, if not stopped. In a final effort, Firestar rejects his kittypet roots once and for all and embraces his destiny. The Clans win in the end because of their superior religion and Clan bonds, and then... the alliance falls apart immediately, returning to petty squabbles because they don't have a supreme force to fight against.

The enemy is both strong and weak. Fear of difference. Action for action's sake.

The 'lazy' and disabled are treated like burdens who need to find something 'useful' to give their society, with bigotry towards them not challenged, but 'corrected.' "Actually they're NOT useless, they help do X thing sometimes!" You could argue that Jaypaw is displaying internalized ableism when he's insulting Longtail and Brightheart, and that's a fun reading, but that's not called out in the text or even really addressed.

Certainly wasn't my takeaway, when I was young and stupid and in a bad environment. So in my own head, I'm not putting themes in it that weren't there before; I'm subverting what I feel is written on the page.

(intentional or not, mind you. I don't think the writers are pro-authoritarian, I think writing xenofiction brings out subconscious biases. You write the world the way you think it "naturally" is, and that can be revealing.)

WC says that its villains were born with a 'darkness' inside of them, and with their deaths, "peace" (a normal amount of killing each other over rocks) can be restored. And I'm saying, instead, the darkness is in Clan culture itself.

So, that culture needs to change. Just like it has in the past, just like it will in the future, as is the nature of a living culture. Until then, the set of ideas they call "Thistle Law" is a sickness, a weed, and it needs to be cleared away with radical ideas.

[notwarriorswiki]

Is Ravenpaw’s Skyclan replacing canon Skyclan or is there two of them now?

Replacing SkyClan. The Gorge is never a thing essentially. Ravenpaw doesn’t stay in SkyClan though, as him and Barley part ways with clan life entirely after Scourge is killed. They just wanna be by themselves after all of that, and move to the barn.

Their friend and ally Leaf takes over though, and she becomes Leafstar. She was a food begging stray with all the gossip and intel going on in the neighborhood, but also assists in finding Violet a twoleg to care for her. She is fascinated by clan culture and finds StarClan incredibly mystifying. She and Echo are childhood best friends turned enemies. During BloodClan’s reign. She’s also the one who finds Firestar care after Tigerstar beats the shit out him initially.

[burning-thistles-bt]

Y’know, I noticed something about Lightningfur.

Did you notice that her Bloodclan collar looks exactly like Scourge’s?

Take a look

First off they’re both purple (duh) and have the same kind of teeth and claws. And though it looks like Lightning has more teeth/claws than Scourge, it can mean that she might’ve collected some more and added them to her collar.

Second, Lightningfur’s collar looks torn and bloodied… it’s almost as if the collar was previously owned by someone who was murdered by Lightning and that collar ended up getting torn up and sullied in blood in the process.

This has led me to believe that Lighting killed Scourge in cold blood and took over leadership of Bloodclan.

Need more proof?

https://youtu.be/gZgLzxATMsA

Boom.

This PMV gives out the biggest evidence of my claim. To start off, during the ‘each of these, with shaking knees has knelt before me’ line it shows Thistlecuck, Scourge, and Tigerstar.

However… if we focus on Scourge here… on the 0:32 mark, we see that its stomach has been sliced open and one of its paws ripped off. Which indicates that Lightning managed to overpower it and kill it which earned her leadership.

The part with Fury and the other Bloodclan cats also shows that Lightning might’ve gained power. And seeing how fearful most of the cats are, it suggests that they are terrified of Lightning after she murdered their leader.

But why would Lightning take over Bloodclan? She has a deputy position in Riverclan so what happened with that? Well there are three possibilities…

A. Riverclan was starting to grow tired of Thistle and Lightning’s bullshit and when Thistlecuck is killed (either poisoned by Firestar or killed by Lightningfur in some way) the clan finds out about Thistlestar’s past and what he did to Primosepaw and Featherpaw and refuses to have Lightning as a leader (probably because they would think that Lightning was in on it) and chases her out.

B. Thistlecuck is killed and Lightning is defeated by Leopardpelt and exiled.

C. Thistlecuck dies and Leopard IS killed but Lightning is defeated and exiled.

But you may ask, “But how would Lightning kill Scourge?”. When looking at the injuries, it can be plausible that Lightning killed him in the same way Scourge killed Tigerstar in canon. While not as gory or huge, it still looks like an injury that would kill a cat especially since it went over the ‘squishy spot’ which holds all the vital organs in a cat.

But why the missing paw? Isn’t that unusual? Well there can be two explanations for that.

Either A. Lightning managed to brutally injure Scourge’s paw so bad that it started coming off its body.

Or B. Scourge was already dead and Lightning severed it paw as a trophy and to further piss on it grave.

Or maybe Lightning fought dirty and managed to release a dog or something that managed to kill Scourge and stopped said dog to frame herself as the hero and earned her leadership position that way.

But hey, I could just be reaching. It’s best if we let time tell 😈

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE MOST CORRECT PERSON EVER

Part 1 C was the closest to how Lightningfur became exiled and in a position to join BloodClan!