#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]

LEAFPOOL REDESIGN

Basic Notes:

Green eyes because both her parents have them?!

Considered as 'daughter of Firestar' a lot more than Squirrelflight due to theur similar pelt patterns, body shape and strong connection with StarClan

Shares her connection with Squirrelflight, allowing them to sense what is happening to the other

Trained under her uncle and former BloodClan leader, Scourge, now Iceheart who had a supressed supernatural ability to contact spirits

Firestar falsely believed she was one of the 'Power of Three' prophcey he was given as a reward for sparing Scourge

PLOT CHANGES - TNP the SkyClan Patrol:

When sent on the quest to restore SkyClan, she is chosen to represent StarClan due to her healing skills and strong connection to spirits like her father. Squirrelpaw senses this and sneaks off to accompany her.

She is the healer and spiritual guide of the group, growing particularly close to Feathertail. She is quiet, kind and fades into the background when compared to louder characters like Brambleclaw, Feathertail and Crowpaw.

She helps to teach the future SkyClan members about StarClan. She is suprised to meet a cat shating the same name as her, a newly pregnant she-cat Leaf. Leafpaw is in charge of choosing which of the two possible medicine cat candiates will take the head position. Echo is both a natural healer and interpreter. The other, Sol has phrophcey capabilities far beyond Echo could ever dream of but is extremely lazy and has no desire to learn herbs. He eventually settles into the role of Echosong's assistant but is in charge of interpreting most of StarClan's messages.

Sol teaches her about interpreting messages beyond StarClan and gives her a warning:

"Your apprentice will destroy everything you love, then spirits you devote your to, then the code that lays broken around you"

Feathertail dies in the Battle of the Rats. Unknown to everyone, some spirits madr Feathertail carry out the act knowing that she will die. For the Three to be born she must die (she becomes a powerful spirit and guide for the 3 after her death)

On the way home to the forest, in their shared grief she and Crowpaw grow close and they have a rebound relationship of sorts. They meet most nights at Foretrees and she discovers her pregnancy shortly after earning her full name. Crowfeather ends their relationship, realising that she can never be Feathertail and cannot drag Leafpool into a grief she cannot resolve on her own. Leafpool chooses not disclose her pregnancy, wishes to carry on her medicine duties and ask StarClan for forgiveness. Crowfeather likes her as a friend, but never truly saw her in a romantic way.

Squirrelflight senses her pregnancy and offers to raise the kits. Just leaving a courtship with Ashfur and recently becoming mates with Brambleclaw, she is aware that cats will question their parentage but will use the Queen's Right. The Queen Right allows a cat to not disclose a kit's parentage, and Squirrelflight reasons both the mother and the father,and therfore would be able to protect them both.

Leafpool during Power of Three:

Loving Aunt to the Three

Solo med-cat when Iceheart retires due to mobility issues (possibly oestioperosis or similar condition?)

Mentors Hollypaw, then Jaypaw when the two switch

Has a loving, yet strained relationship with Jaypaw due to the warning she was given, as well as not being sure if the Power of Three phrophcey was really an omen

When Sol and the Sun Troop arrive into the forest she is not aware he slmost destroyed SkyClan. With Hollyleaf's help he blocks her contact to StarClan and threatens her into silence with the warning he gave her.

Hollyleaf takes over as leader and wants to punish Leafpool and Squirrelflight for breaking the code, but is unable to due to Squirrelflight's use of the Queen's Right. Distraught and furious, Hollyleaf works as an agent of Sol who annexes parts of ThunderClan, WindClan and ShadowClan into the Sun Troop.

She is accidently killed when delivering a secret message to rebels in RiverClan and WindClan (including Mothwing, Breezepelt and Crowfeather).

[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.

[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).

[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!

[troutfur]

For your request for prompts! I tried to think of a couple short scenes that I always wanted to see in canon. Also while I’m proposing these in a canon context, definitely frame them within one of your AUs if you want!

Goldenflower and Tigerstar have a tense conversation at some point after his treachery is revealed. The exact timing of this conversation is up to you, but for some suggestions to get the ideas flowing: it could be immediately after Tigerclaw is exiled from ThunderClan and Goldenflower’s emotional wounds are freshest. It could be after Tawnypaw runs away to join Tigerstar in ShadowClan. It could be just after Tigerstar is killed and Goldenflower is monologuing to his corpse/ghost, the BloodClan battle looming on the horizon. Or, even after Tigerstar’s death, either in a dream, them meeting on the border of StarClan and the Dark Forest, or even during the Dark Forest battle in The Last Hope. Whatever the timing, I’d just like for Goldenflower to finally get some catharsis by confronting him and grappling with her complicated feelings of loving/having loved a murderer and a traitor.

Hollyleaf and Squirrelflight tearfully reconciling after she returns from the tunnels. Bonus points for Hollyleaf calling Squirrelflight “mom” :) (Alternatively or additionally you could do Hollyleaf and Leafpool reconciling in which they finally address the deathberry incident.)

Some more goldie today! Tearful reunions like that are so my jam and usually I'd jump at a chance to do something with the Po3 cast. But this one in conjunction with the last one seemed to be a natural fit. Also fitting to mark our day when we reach the 2/3rds mark in this challenge.

(Want to get in something for the last 10 days? Check out my guidelines and get submitting!)

“How could you?” Goldenflower shrieked as she heard the revelations tumble out of Fireheart’s mouth one by one. Her blood had begun to boil from the first one but it hadn’t burst out quite so indignantly until the ginger tom revealed his part in ShadowClan’s raid and the death of her brother. “We welcomed you into our nest, we gave you companionship when we could very well have left you by your lonesome your whole life, I even let you sire children with me!”

She paused to catch her breath. She had sunk her claws deep into the ground and her muscles still attempted to extend them further without her even realizing. The blaze in her chest that animated her to continue ranting was only fanned with every moment of reflection she gave and she let it build up as she anticipated.

She wanted to see him squirm from under Firestar’s grasp at that moment. She wanted him to at least attempt to rise to his paws and... Beg forgiveness? Attack her so she would have a justification to shred him? Yell in return? Monologue to her about how he’d had to take a hard choice for the sake of his Clan? Something! Anything! React in some way! But all throughout Tigerstar wore a detached, neutral expression.

Eventually the kindling ran out. Pulling back her claws she looked solemnly down at the captive warrior. “...He really did like you, you know?” she said. “It wasn’t just for me that he let you in. He wanted your company. He admired your best qualities. He thought you’d be a good pipfurr to the kits he’d sire. If you’d let him he would’ve loved you the same way I did. The same way Frostfur did.”

She paused, seeking among the crowd the pelts of their children. Brightpaw, Thornpaw, Brackenpaw, and Cinderpaw were scattered among the multitude. But their faces of shock and horror were clear for all to see. “And yet you didn’t stop to consider those same kits. You didn’t stop to consider how you’d leave them with one less pipfurr then, and now that you’ve been revealed they’re down two!”

“He was not even a sire to my kits!” Frostfur shouted, indignant! “Much less pipfurr! These four are Lionheart and I’s alone!”

That got a response, but Goldenflower was too focused turning her head around in surprise to really notice how much her and Tigerclaw’s expressions were the same.

“You can go rot in the undergrowth for all I care!” Frostfur continued. “My children would have lost nothing of value. I only regret the fact I ever thought of you as anything more than a vile cuckoo.”

It took a while for Goldenflower to really process the harshness of those words. With a sire confirmed rather than only denied that was not only a public rejection of him as pipfurr but of her as well. A harsh measure, but certainly more than necessary. The thought immediately swirled why Frostfur was rejecting her as well. Did she blame her for encouraging the cat that was more her love? Did she see in her a nature similar to what Tigerclaw had demonstrated? She paused to think about what she’d just said. Was it retaliation for how she had confirmed siring, and of him of all cats?

As the questions swept up Goldenflower’s mind the proceedings went on. Accusations proceeded from Fireheart’s mouth, to shame TigerClaw for everyh single despicable act, to lay bare everything. And in the midst of this she barely had time to notice when the time came to have him be exiled.

[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.

[w1ldfeatherxx]

The thing that confuses me about how Scourge is portrayed is that him not caring for the sick/elderly in Bloodclan is portrayed as irredeemably evil but it's also shown in the books several times that Bloodclan doesn't have enough food for everyone and they have to fight over the little bits of food for survival. Take these quotes for example:

" In the town where we come from, there are many, many cats, and live prey is scarce. Here in the forest we won't need to depend on twoleg rubbish for our food. " - Scourge talking to Firestar in the Darkest Hour.

" These cats are bathed in blood. It soaks their fur and laps at their paws. This is why we survive! We are Bloodclan! " - Scourge talking to his littermates in the Rise Of Scourge manga.

" On either side, skinny cats were slinking behind piles of rubbish, eyes gleaming as they followed the progress of the two intruders. Tigerstar’s muscles tensed. If this meeting went wrong, he might have to fight his way out. " - The Darkest Hour, page 16.

Like, how he's supposed to take care of the weaker part of Bloodclan/ city cats when even the higher ranking cats have barely enough food for themselves? I get it's noble to give food to others when you have barely enough to sustain yourself but not doing so cannot be considered evil. In extreme situations everyone cares primarily about themselves, and it's a natural survival instinct, not evil or something you should be punished for.

[zenfulmockingbird]

Warriors cats: paths untouched

This is part of my au where Spottedleaf scheme with Scourge to take down Thistleclaw and Tigerclaw. Scourge was originally going proposed to her, but she died and that led down to rage and death. These are the what if and the outcomes

cyna- Waiting for Spring- Namely Spottedleaf say to no to scourge proposal, due to her attachment to the clan. She promise to visit him. Even though though sad, he's respect her choices.

Magenta- Heaven in hell- Spottedleaf accept to become mate and become a co-leader of bloodclan. She leaves after Tigerstar's death and place her faith in Firestar to do the right thing.

Yellow- Running Wild- Scourge chooses to become rogue with spottedleaf seeing the option as safer than staying with bloodclan and giving living in nature a second chance.

which concept is your favorite? Please tell me in the comment section