#firestar mention

[strelles-universe]

I like to imagine that all the Strelles!ThunderClan leaders have names to their eras, like Oakstar having the Era of Strife, due to his fighting with RiverClan, Bluestar having the Era of Peace after finally making peace with RiverClan, and Firestar's Era being the WHO THE FUCK FUCKED UP THIS HOUSE LIKE THIS GOOD GOD Era after having to fix every Clans mess :)

XD I've been thinking about giving them titles along that lines - purely based on @sparkwing's ideas and basically, the clan leaders get titles that suit their ruling. Maybe combining those two;

Oakstar | The Mad Star, Era of Strife

Pinestar | The Vanishing Star, Era of Strife

Bluestar | The Stone Queen, Era of Peace

Whitestar | The Progression, Era of Peace/Era of Uproar

Firestar | The Blazing Star, Era of Uproar

Things to consider lmao. There were probably many leaders during the Era of Uproar that took on the titles of The Mad Star (ala, Brokenstar, Tigerstar)

[birdsong-warriors]

Putting off uploading because I kind of hate this comic right now, lol.

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Part 1: Friend and Family

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[sleepyspots-wc-designs]

maybe a Firestar/sandstorm hypokit?

Glad to see you’re doing well!

Starting off strong for the hypokits!

MEET: Antbite

The last child of Firestar and Sandstorm, and their only son, Antbite was born just days before The Great Battle, and extremely prematurely (which led to a skinny, smaller-than-average stature) alongside two littermates who were stillborn.

Growing up in the great shadow cast by your father’s light wasn’t easy, especially when you, yourself, never got to experience the warmth of that light. Antbite’s mother did what she could to share stories of her beloved mate with their final kit, but Sandstorm’s grief also overshadowed him quite often, leading Antbite to feel as though he was raised in the shadow of one parents, and by the shadow of another.

Due to this (or perhaps in spite of it), Antkit grew into a rowdy troublemaker, desperate for attention, and desperate to break free of the expectations placed upon him. He wasn’t his father, he wasn’t his mother, he was more, he was stronger, he was better — he just had to make his Clanmates see that! He worked tirelessly to improve his skills, growing into a well-respected, well-rounded warrior who was honored and named especially for his sharp tongue and quick wit that often shone through when he tried to prove himself. While his ambitions tempered as he grew older, and as he found a comfortable, proper place for himself, Antbite never did quite grow out of his love for pulling pranks for surprising a friend with a snappy comment — and loved to fit himself against his mother’s side, where he always seemed to fit perfectly.

Please read the rules when requesting future hypokits!

This character may be up for grabs, for their design, storytelling, or any other personal use! Keep an eye on the status below if you’re interested! :)

Status: CLAIMED! By @bears-artlogyippee

[skyclan-funny-name-squad]

What's everyone's minor warrior cat plot point brought up like twice at MOST that lives in your head rent free with SO MANY QUESTIONS for me it's the warrior cat leader life fragments that get introduced to us and never like, come back up again outside of like, one scene of Jaypaw going "what the fuck"??? Like what do you mean for nearly the entire time of firestar's leadership theres just...also been a fragment of firestar just vibing in starclan???? as an incomplete fragment??? what the fuck????? I HAVE QUESTIONS

[boilingrain]

There’s something silly to me about Bluestar x Yellowfang

It’s just “yeah Firestar’s moms should date”

Old women with tragic backstories and the very orange boy they separately adopted

[theanoninyourinbox]

moth and micah divorce in starclan. instead of cloudstar sending visions to firestar in firestars quest, its micah. they fall in love. micah views leafpool as a daughter. when her and squilfs trial happens, he pops off at moth. discuss.

SO

Micah watches from Starclan, watches Moth Flight separate their kits, watches her keep other cats from a love like they once shared. He pleads for an explanation in her dreams, and she insists that they were a burden, a distraction from her true calling.

Their beautiful kits. A BURDEN!?!?

He disavows her on the spot, and when she joins Starclan, Micah refuses to even look at her. He greets his kits warmly, and watches the medicine cats, but only speaks to Moth Flight if forced.

SO

He watches Skyclan's descendants failing, and cannot abide by Moth Flight's call to leave them to their fate. He leaps into the dreams of the ginger Thunderclan leader, seeing how he supported the healer Yellowfang. Micah calls him to aid Skyclan, and follows Firestar and Sandstorm. He breaks the rules of Starclan as soon as their eyes are off of him, and joins both the mortal cat's dreams, often connecting them so he can talk to both of them at once.

They fall in love like a trickle of water breaking through a beaver dam and becoming a flood. As the pair travel back to Thunderclan, he shapes their kits with his own paws. Leafkit and Squirrelkit grow up knowing their Papa Mi and he watches them with care.

SO

Micah watches his earthly kits and grandkits. He cannot always help, but the times he can make all the difference. He watches over the Three as they are born, and convinces his daughters to tell Brambleclaw and their living parents about the kit's true parentage. He keeps Jaypaw on the warrior's path, and helps Hollypaw remember her herbs. Micah guides Lionpaw away from the Dark Forest, and in the Great Battle, slams Hawkfrost off of Hollyleaf as she defends Ivypool.

And when his daughters are brought to be judged, as their bodies lie near death, Micah nearly takes his ex-mate's head off. How dare she judge cats who loved, as they once loved!? How dare Moth Flight, mother of four BEAUTIFUL KITS, judge another, and one who chose to BALANCE her kits and her healing! HOW DARE YOU, MOTH FLIGHT!!

YOU

WILL

N O T

Moth Flight flees in shame and fear, and the mollies finally embrace their Papa Mi. He promises that he will keep watch over them always...and they wake together in the medicine den, with their family around them.

[bonefall]

Are you going to keep Goosefeather's curse? If so are you going to change anything about it? From my memory the book was... depressing.

It will probably get rolled into Pinestar's Crusade, building it up into an SE rather than just a novella. There's actually a lot going on in that specific moment, and it makes sense to go over it all at once.

So to answer your question, yes, most of Goosefeather's Curse is staying. Most of the Crusade Generation have depressing stories to tell. If the Thistle Period is defined by the fact that Thistle Law metastasized and went terminal, and if the Campaign Era was when it was newly born, then the Crusade Era was when it was first conceived.

I've been thinking about Pinestar's Crusade idly and mentioned it a few times, but here's my fragments so far;

PINESTAR'S CRUSADE (Fuses Pinestar's Choice and Goosefeather's Curse)

We start in the Crusade Era; there is now more focus on 3 major characters, though it's still built around Pinestar as the POV

Pinestar, Goosefeather, and eventually Pinepaw's apprentice Speckletail.

Pinepaw is born into the start of the Crusades, a bloody period where the Clans are invading Chelford and brutalizing cats in the hopes of appeasing StarClan. He only begins to learn the full story of what happened in Darkstar's Commandment once he begins going to Gatherings as a warrior

The truth being that Oakstar came up with this idea because he couldn't take an L

But even as an apprentice, it becomes quickly apparent to him that what they're doing is evil. They were brutalizing kittypets who aren't trained to fight back.

During his first raid as an apprentice, he allows a ginger-and-white mother and her kittens to escape

This came back years later, when that queen, Crystal, forms BloodClan in response to the Crusades.

Pineheart watches Oakstar die barely a year later to the queen he saved, using early claw extenders to cut right through him. Even if he hadn't been on his last life, it would have ended him.

But, Crystal lets Pineheart go, recognizing the Clan cat who had saved her life.

Watching his dad die along with several friends, and countless more innocent Chelford, plus being released by Crystal, is a Formative Moment.

Doestar continues the Crusades in the name of revenge for Oakstar, but now that BloodClan exists and is ARMED, the easy raids become bloodbaths.

They slowly peter out, not with a bang but with a whimper. She never announces an official end, eventually she just stops organizing them. No one gets closure, especially not Pineheart.

But the 'peace' doesn't last. Just before Heatherstar takes power from Smallstar and begins the Campaign to take the Mothermouth Moorland, ThunderClan deals with the Great Hunger

Pineheart and Goosefeather become very good friends, part of a little buddy group that also included Tawnyspots and Pheasantfeather (who will become One-eye later)

Pineheart was given his first apprentice, a rowdy little one and the niece of Doestar, Specklepaw. He's tasked with helping her fill the pawsteps of greatness she's destined to walk in.

Just like canon, Goose predicts the Great Hunger... though, he is an adult this time around because of some timeline changes.

And, like canon, it fails. They couldn't stockpile enough food to last an entire year of famine, a scorching summer and a frozen winter, they end up losing a huge stock of their food as if it was destiny.

Goosefeather was forced into a role he hates, given horrible visions of the future, and argues ferociously with Pineheart; if they hadn't tried to stockpile, they wouldn't have lost all that food to begin with.

It is in this moment, he comes to realize that every time he's fought back and used his visions like a warning, it's backfired.

So, perhaps, they are instruction.

But, meanwhile, Pineheart can't loose his apprentice or his friends. While others were hunting desperately, he was keeping cats alive through scouting for grubs, foraying into other territories, and...

Every bite of kittypet food he took for himself was a morsel in someone else's mouth. But this... this he kept quiet.

It started a "bad habit" he could never break.

Having lost the previous deputy to starvation and on her deathbed, Doestar nominates Pineheart to the position. He was shocked and upset by this, but he was the obvious choice.

Son of Oakstar, Hero of the Hunger, the cat who had kept Specklepaw alive when all the other kits and apprentices starved.

But, Pinestar took the helm to extreme controversy.

Everything Pinestar's ever done that worked was nonviolent. He's never seen battle do anything but bring harm, and the thought of leading people into war... it makes him feel sick.

But the rest of the Clan can't see what he sees. They yearn for the glory days (even though they were not glorious at all), itch to die for a cause, and leave this old, disgusting subsistence survival behind them. ThunderClan wants blood and Pinestar just wants peace.

Taking back Sunningrocks is an example of this. To avoid losing Clanmates, he proposed to Hailstar that they would have a Joust, instead.

ThunderClan's strongest against RiverClan's strongest. Adderfang vs Mudfur.

It didn't go well.

The problem with those sorts of situations is you have to abide by the deal. RiverClan took Sunningrocks for 6 months. It was humiliating for ThunderClan.

Even the cats he'd saved from the famine were furious with him

The only things that DID seem to please the Clan was when he would throw them fully into battle. Such as Goosefeather's prophecy that WindClan's herbs needed to be destroyed...

Every time a situation like that happened, where Goosefeather would phrase things as a Holy Struggle, Pinestar was thrown right back to the Crusades

Terrified eyes, screeching, cats begging for mercy, his father dead at his paws and feeling horror and relief swirling

Sitting vigil for old friends killed in these horrible fights, like Moonflower, it made him feel like how he felt the day he buried Oakstar.

And the bile rose in his throat, remembering that Oakstar was not there at his Leadership Ceremony, damned to the Dark Forest.

A thought was born, here. What does StarClan truly want? What do they expect of him? If they will send the architect of the Crusades there...

What of a cat who stayed fed on human food and fed grubs to his Clanmates? Or a leader who never knows the right thing to do?

When Mumblefoot retired and Sunfall became deputy, the Clan seemed to love him more than Pinestar. He found himself just... sitting back, and allowing Sunfall to call the shots.

It was towards the end, when Leopardfoot proposed an Honor Siring. He was from a glorious legacy, she wanted kits... and on his end, he wanted the peace that raising kittens could bring.

The warmth of human dens was calling him, but perhaps the warmth of love for children could keep him home.

UNLIKE CANON; Nothing about Tigerkit was born evil.

There was no StarClan vision of Tigerstar; Goosefeather knew full well that Thistlestar was the Leader of Prophecy.

But Pinestar would never give Thistleclaw an apprentice in time. Nor would he ever give his own little son to a cat as vicious as him.

Goosefeather never hurt anyone... but Pinestar just needed a push.

Pinestar was already anxious, unhappy, clinging to the goodness that was his little kits. Even as two of them were lost to minor illnesses, shortly after receiving their names.

It wasn't a lie. It was just half of the truth.

"Pinestar... you have a choice to make. StarClan has given me a vision of blood and war, and Tigerkit will have a role to play in it."

He DID have a vision... of Thistlestar. Not Tigerkit. But that was enough for Pinestar, his fear and trauma took the helm from there.

He'd seen his friends, his apprentice, the kits who had been born and died in his rule, all of them turn into the monsters Clan Culture demanded

Nothing he did ever seemed to work, why would THIS moment be different?

How could he prevent Tigerkit from becoming like that too?! Was StarClan telling him to KILL his son??

Pinestar's never had a vision from StarClan. He doesn't have the aptitude like a Cleric... what he has is a nightmare, of Tigerkit growing so large he crushes the whole camp under his claws

After a week of agony, Pinestar unknowingly creates a prophecy of his own,

"Can only the death of a child break fate?"

Sensing he was close to victory, Goosefeather dipped his head, not denying his question.

And it's the last straw.

And that is the climax of Pinestar's Crusade. Broken from his experiences, every turn taken for peace causing him more pain, the idea that he might have to hurt his own son plaguing his mind, he makes the choice to leave.

It wasn't hard, he'd still had that old bad habit of taking bites of kittypet food, a couple friends on the other side. But what he doesn't know is that by leaving with his life... he prevents Sunstar from acquiring his own.

Sunstar had ONE single life, StarClan was not able to give him more with the previous leader still alive. For leaving his Clan, for unknowingly preventing the transfer of power, and for dismissing the Warrior Code, Pinestar is sent to the Dark Forest after his death.

He can choose to walk there, or spend time in the mortal plane as just a spirit, but StarClan offers him no place in the cosmos.

[wc-confessions]

No fucking way people are being serious blaming Firestar for “making Bluestar commit suicide”. Are you kidding me. And of course the person raging about their “glorious king tigerstar” says theyre serious when they say “Firestar is a horrible person for making an old woman with dementia commit suicide”. Bro. Bro. What the actual fuck. Is media literacy this dead. Fuck man.

‎

[pale-opal]

Hear Me Out 2:

So. I know that this image, like the ones in the last post I made, is incredibly niche. I also suspect that, the MMX and Warrior Cats fandoms, much like the Mega Man and Homestuck fanbases, probably don't have that much overlap. However. I am not going to let that stop me from drawing this conclusion: if the books existed in the MMX universe, Axl totally would've read Warrior Cats. And he would've loved it. To prove this, I am going to write an entire multipoint essay about this strange little reploid, and this somehow stranger series of books. Buckle up, folks. This one is going to get wild. Now, first things first: I need to explain what Warrior Cats is. For those of you not in the know, Warrior Cats (also known simply as Warriors) is a book series that follows several different groups of cats known as "clans" through their time in a forest. Every writer who has worked on the Warrior Cats series has done so under the pen name "Erin Hunter". However, some of the authors identities are known. For example, the first few arcs were primarily written by a woman named Victoria Holmes. - The cats are not anthropomorphic (for the most part). They are feral. Humans exist, but they can't understand them. Pet cats are referred to as "kittypets." - A clan cat receives several names during their lifetime. If they are born into the clan, they are born as [noun/adjective]kit. As an apprentice (a warrior cat in training), they would be called [noun/adjective]paw. Once they become a warrior, usually at 12 months (or "moons", as months are referred to in the books as such) of age, they will become [noun/adjective][noun 2]. Cats who are the appointed leader of their clan are known as [noun/adjective]star. Cats that join a clan from elsewhere have a chance to go through this naming system as well, but they do not have to if they don't want to. Cat names will be used interchangeably, depending on when that specific cat had that name. - Leader cats have nine lives, of which are given to them by Starclan (cat heaven). There can only be one leader at a time. Also, there is a hell-equivalent known as the "Dark Forest". Dead clan cats get sent to one of these two places after death. Their ghosts can also die - either through fading (being forgotten by the living), or through severe injuries and other similar causes of death. - The clan cats follow a set of rules known as the "Warrior Code". It is mostly composed of basic rules, such as not being allowed to kill cats for no reason, not being allowed to quit being a clan cat to go live with people, etc. However, some more complex rules were added. An example includes a rule that allows a leader to be disposed by their subordinates. - I will be discussing spoilers for the entirety Warrior Cats series. If at any point during this essay you want to put on a life jacket and jump ship so you can experience these books blind, feel free to do so (however, I do recommend skipping to the final few bullets of the "Additional Notes" section before leaving the cruise, as I do mention topics that I think would be a disservice to not warn new readers of beforehand). I also have to provide a content warning for violence because these books can be dark sometimes.

Part 1: Character Arc Cousins Something that makes a book or story likeable is relatability. And how do characters become relatable? By having experiences that readers are likely to have gone through themselves. And if we go through the Warrior Cats series, we find that there are quite a few characters that Axl would relate to. For instance, there's Firestar:

Let's go through a list of the things he and Axl have in common: 1. Born as a kittypet named Rusty, Firepaw leaves his home to join Thunderclan because he feels he's meant to be doing something else with his life. Axl leaves Red Alert when they become evil, and joins the Maverick Hunters because he doesn't feel that it's right for him to be using his copy ability to harm innocents. Shared experience: leaving home to pursue their destiny. 2. Firepaw spends the majority of The Prophecies Begin (the first set of Warrior Cats books) trying to prove himself worthy of being in Thunderclan, even when he becomes Firestar. Axl spends all of X7 trying to prove himself to the Hunters, and continues to work toward doing so when he fails to win X's approval, even after all he's been through. Shared experience: proving themselves to people who are older and more experience than they are. 3. At the end of The Last Hope (the final book in the Omen of the Stars collection), Firestar dies from his injuries in a fight against the ghost of Tigerstar I (long story), his final life being spent protecting his clan. Guess what happens to Axl in X8? If you guessed "gets a mysterious black crystal shoved into his head by Lunime's corpse after working together with his homies to kill him, leaving him in a near-comatose state," congratulations! You're right! Your prize is... um... the satisfaction of being correct! Huzzah! Shared experience: dying/becoming severely injured after working to secure the greater good for their loved ones.

Firestar's not the only character Axl would relate to, either. There's also: - Squirrelfight (both characters do reckless things to keep others safe, and have an early habit of rushing into things. They also have trouble getting older people to take them seriously.) - Hollyleaf (both she and Axl betray people they care about - and they both do it with murder, too. (Axl has to kill the members of Red Alert, while Hollyleaf betrays Thunderclan by killing Ashfur (note: to clarify, Hollyleaf did not betray Ashfur specifically. She betrayed the clan by breaking the Warrior Code (although one could make the case that she didn't actually break it, but that's a whole issue of its own))) - Dovewing (similar to Firestar somewhat: both Dovewing and Axl work with older characters, and struggle to fit in with them)

Usually, the more relatable the characters are, the more a viewer or reader will enjoy the story. And with four whole cats that he can feel free to project himself onto, Axl's all set to have a great time reading Warrior Cats on the basis of the characters alone. But that's not the only reason he'd have a heck of a time. There's also:

Part 2 - The Drama of it All

Let's make another list. This time, we'll take note of what Axl likes, what kind of person he is, stuff like that. Axl: - Is trigger happy. Literally. One of his lines in X8 directly states that the thought of fighting mavericks "makes [his] trigger finger itch". The boy lives to fight. - Is a child. Based on his behavior (not taking certain things seriously, wanting to be treated as an equal to those older than him, being easy to amuse), as well as the way he is voice acted (he had a female VA for X7, and a common practice in voice acting is to give male characters who haven't gone through puberty a voice actress or a male VA who is younger or around the same age as the character being portrayed. Additionally, the voices given to him in X8 and Command Mission are at a somewhat higher pitch than X and Zero's - while he does sound older, it's clear that he's younger than X and Zero) tell us that he is not meant to be the same age as the other members of the Hunter trio. Warrior Cats is aimed at middle-school aged children. Keep this in mind. - Despises injustice. He ditches Red Alert when they go maverick, and spends an entire game trying to become a Hunter. And after he becomes one in between X7 and X8, he gets darn good at it. By Command Mission, he's an S-Class Hunter alongside X and Zero. Oh, and in X8 he shoots Lunime in the middle of an evil laugh and tells X and Zero to disregard his evil monologue that he just finished giving.

Based on all this, I think it's safe to say that Axl would enjoy how Warrior Cats includes the following: - The first antagonist, Tigerstar I, attempts to kill Bluestar (the leader of Thunderclan prior to Firestar), kills several innocent cats in his quest for power, and manipulates a dying clan to become its leader after getting exiled from Thunderclan. And how does he get his dues? By getting killed by the second antagonist, Scourge, with all of his lives being taken by one wound, (yes, this is considered a children's book series). And Scourge gets killed by Firestar, who takes him out after coming back to life from Scourge killing him first. You know. Like a boss.

- The majority of Warrior Cats start off as kits or apprentices, meaning that they begin their journey as children and/or pre-teens/teenagers. Recall the target demographic for the books. Now recall how old Axl is. I think you see where I'm going with this. - All of the major villains in the Warriors series meet a terrible fate, one that matches their horrible actions. We already talked about Tigerstar I (and Scourge, to a lesser extent). Now here are some other examples: Brokenstar: He forced kits (aka BABIES) into becoming apprentices before they were of age (6 moons old) (which is not only against the warrior code, but also dangerous because... well, I think we all know why it's a bad idea to send an actual baby out to do certain things like hunt or fight against entire adults in any context). He meets his end by getting blinded and poisoned by his own mother. And then when he dies, he goes to the Dark Forest. Ashfur: After becoming bitter over how Squirrelflight chose another man over him, he decides to go and kill her and her children. But guess what? Not only does that loser fail miserably in doing that, but Hollyleaf also takes him out. Unfortunately, Ashur somehow gets let into cat-heaven. However, this lapse in Starclan's judgement leads to Ashfur being able to magically force all the dead cats in both the Dark Forest and Starclan to do his bidding. He also possesses Bramblestar. But you know what happens to him afterwards? HIS GHOST GETS DROWNED IN A POOL OF WATER THAT SAPS THE LIFE FORCE OUT OF THE CATS THAT GO IN IT. YOU KNOW. LIKE A FREAKING LITWICK (shout out to Bristlefrost for being the one to take out this poser).

Part 3 - It's Not All Perfect Now, anyone who's read Warrior Cats knows that the series has some... interesting flaws in its writing. From forbidden romance being the Special of the Day every series to established lore being retconned at the drop of a hat, the Warriors books have gone through their fair share of bad writing decisions. Here's how I think Axl would respond to some of those issues:

1. Continuity Errors: - "Redtail's Debt" has dubious canonicity. It was established in the second book of the first arc that Redtail, the first deputy of Thunderclan talked about in the series, did NOT kill Oakheart (a former deputy of Riverclan) in a battle that took place in the first book's prologue. Whether or not he did was a huge part of the intrigue of the first two books, and finding out he didn't was an important part of uncovering Tigerstar I's treachery. The writers who took over after Holmes retired from the series retconning this has horrible implications for the series timeline. (And it makes Ravenpaw (one of the most iconic characters, and the one who revealed that Redtail wasn't a murderer) look like a liar for no reason. And we can't have that.) As a result, I think Axl would be pretty upset about this one. I feel he'd take the lore for these angry kitty-cats super seriously. He probably has a mock timeline in his room on the wall. He takes notes whenever new bits of worldbuilding is introduced. He represses the urge to bang his head against a wall whenever the writers confuse a cat's lore with another (looking at you, Graystripe). He knows everything about these cats, and he knows that Redtail didn't kill Oakheart. - On that note, the Heavystep situation would drive him up a wall. For those of you don't know, Heavystep is a character who has died a grand total of three times in the Warriors series. But he was never leader or anything like that: no, the authors just kept losing track of him. But you know who didn't lose track? The readers. I like to think Axl has an original copy of the book Dark River. In the original print of that book, Heavystep was brought back to life for a fourth time. This was later fixed in a reprint, but Axl doesn't know that. 2. Forbidden Romance: Until recently, cats who belonged to different clans were not allowed to become mates. But due to some changes in the Warrior Code, that is less of a problem. However, that doesn't change the fact that we got a lot of forbidden relationships in the series before that point. But even with that in mind, I think Axl would actually eat this sort of plotline up. He'd love it. We've already established that he would enjoy the more violent aspects of the drama. So why not the drama that takes place between characters in non-violent ways? - I figure that Axl would enjoy it until the last book of Omen of the Stars (AKA The Last Hope). That's when he starts punching the air out of frustration. I can totally see him venting about it out loud to anybody who will listen:

Axl: "And then Dovewing chooses freaking BUMBLESTRIPE over Tigerheart, even though Bumblestripe tried to ask her out DURING A FUNERAL." Zero: "And then what happ--" Axl: "Dude, I haven't even told you the worst of it. Before all that, Jayfeather was catching feelings for someone from the freaking PAST because TIME TRAVEL. And - oh. OH. Let me tell you about Firestar and Spottedleaf. Guess what they do. While everyone around them is dying and fighting for their lives. Guess." Zero: "Firestar.... moves on from her?" Axl: "HA! I WISH. No. Instead, they have an entire MOMENT. IN FRONT OF SANDSTORM. I HATE IT HERE." - As you can tell, Axl wouldn't exactly be supportive of the whole "Spottedleaf x Firestar" debacle (Spottedleaf dies in the first arc after Firepaw develops a one-sided crush on her. Spottedleaf starts to reciprocate as a ghost (after Firepaw becomes an adult and is named Fireheart), only for this to continue... until the day Spottedleaf's ghost dies). I imagine Axl would be fine with it at first, but once Firestar becomes mates with Sandstorm? All bets are off. I just can't see Axl supporting Firestar emotionally cheating on his wife. Axl would appreciate a lot of things - adultery most likely wouldn't be one of them. - Omen of the Stars would probably leave a bitter taste in Axl's mouth as far as forbidden romance goes (even after Dovewing ends up getting together with Tigerstar II) until The Broken Code, which would end up redeeming the concept in his mind in the most dramatic way possible:

Axl: *Is crying* X: "Aw, Axl! What's wrong?" Axl: *Is holding book 5 of The Broken Code, weeping miserably* "Bristlefrost and Rootspring just w-wanted to be h-happy, but now they can't, because -- because Bristlefrost is dead!" X: *Has no idea what he's talking about, is trying his best* "Oh, no! That's... that's awful." Axl: "And now all Rootspring has left of her is a vision of her and him with - with the kids that they'll n-never get to have-!" *Sobs* X: "Okay... how about... how about you read something a little happier-" Axl: "No, that - that's okay. I wanna finish it." X: "Are... are you sure?" Axl: *More serious than he has ever been in his life* "Yes." X: *Puts hands up* "Well - okay, then!"

Part 4 - Conclusion So. To sum this up, Warriors is a book series that contains copious amounts of violence, underdog characters to root for and relate to, killable villains, romance, and things that people can complain about. And Axl is someone who would enjoy all of that. In other words:

Rest in peace, Axl. You would've loved Warrior Cats. ...

(Yes, I know he's technically not dead. But he may as well be since we never got X9. The writers of the ZX series didn't even know what his final fate was supposed to be. That's why we got Albert and not Axl. Seriously. Look it up.)

Part 5 - Additional Notes Here are some other things that I would like to say that wouldn't fit into the whole of the essay:

- This took way longer than expected: it was in my drafts since August 10th! I actually had to edit a certain part of the essay because the arc A Starless Clan concluded while I was writing this. But now it's free. And I am now able to start work on another essay meant to boggle hearts and minds. Get ready. - Axl's favorite villain would be Tigerstar, even though he reminds him of Sigma. Reading about him getting killed twice gave him deja vu. - Zero would read Warriors to get a feel for it, so that he could understand whenever Axl started ranting about it. He ends up losing the plot and has to resort to watching YouTube videos. - X, on the other hand, would get super invested - but only after Axl started reading A Starless Clan. Which means that he's got a long way to go before he can relate to Axl's cat-related tangents. - Signas tried to read Warriors because Axl brought it up during a meeting once. He confused it for Tailchaser's Song (1985) and ended up introducing Axl to a new book to get excited over instead of figuring out what's "hip with the kids." - Axl cried at the end of The Last Hope. He bawled his eyes out. Just completely inconsolable. And then he read Dovewing's Silence, and cried some more. - When Grey Wing said "Kill me. Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.", it formed an entire core memory in Axl's brain. He would totally say this at some point in the fight against Red. And Red would just laugh and recall when Axl lived with Red Alert and spent a bunch of his free time reading silly cat books. The tension is eased. And then Zero runs over with his sword while screaming a battle cry and then they remember that they're at war. - Now for the serious parts. To begin with, there is a certain novella in the series known as Spottedleaf's Heart. Long story short, I don't like the idea of Axl reading this book. I don't like the idea of an actual child reading this book (at least, not without guidance). So Axl will not be reading it. I do not feel like it would be appropriate for me to explain why here, since it involves topics that would be hard to discuss in what's supposed to be a lighthearted essay. However, Moonkitti has a video that explains the issues with this book in case you want to know what it is I'm referring to (however, please heed the warning that she provides at the beginning). - For the second point, I'll cut straight to the chase: Warriors has quite a few examples of ableism and sexism. I didn't discuss either of them in-depth because I felt that it would be out of place tone-wise in the grand scheme of the essay, but again: I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't at least warn new readers about these aspects. To be specific, these problems are issues because it sometimes feels like the writers resent having disabled and female characters existing in their narrative at all. However, something that is worth mentioning is that there seems to have been efforts made over time to fix these problems. - In case you're wondering how Axl would feel about all this, here's how I see it: he'd hate it. While there aren't any disabled characters in the MMX series that he could've interacted with, Axl does know what it's like to be underestimated and mistreated for reasons outside of one's control. So he would most likely be personally upset by how the narrative takes the chance to sideline or get rid of characters in a similar position, regardless of whether or not the reason why was because of a disability (I imagine he would have some very strong words to say about what happened to Snowkit). As for the sexism: as far as I'm aware, most of the female influences in Axl's life are positive, with him knowing all of them personally. Why wouldn't he get mad about how the series treats women? Especially when all of the ones that he's friends with have been directly involved in what he does as a Hunter, or in saving the world in the case of MMX Command Mission?

Additionally, the books sometimes have legitimate trouble properly writing abusers. Some are written in genuine, believable ways, while others are written that way by accident or aren't fully treated the way they should be by the narrative. This leads to some... odd implications as to what is considered abuse in Warrior Cats and by the authors. In light of that last sentiment: do not come after any of the authors. While you don't have to respect all of their writing decisions, that doesn't mean you can just run around attacking people. Be respectful.

Furthermore, Warriors also includes relationships between characters with lengthy (and sometimes problematic (which is a topic that warrants it's own discussion, although I am not sure if I should be the one to discuss it)) age gaps. Keep that in mind before you start reading. - TL;DR: read the books at your own risk. And be mindful of what you're getting into.

[lionblaze03-2]

mousefur and longtail are both asexual aromantic in some sort of qpr relationship with one another. Do you get it do you see my vision

[brightblueflare]

Cats with white fur and/or blue eyes are very likely to be at least partially deaf.

To be precise, white blue-eyed cats have an 80% chance of being deaf or hard of hearing. They also have a higher chance of losing their hearing later on.

As usual with disabilities, there are only like, two or three deaf cats in canon (and one of them was Strikestone I think, deaf only in one ear), and all of them are awful representation one way or another. Snowkit dies, Strikestone dies (but his death is something I can't comment on, since I haven't read anything past OotS in the main series and I don't plan to) and Fallowfern retires early because of hearing loss.

Cats rely on their senses of smell and hearing to hunt and fight, so deafness should, realistically, be a big trouble in the Clans. In particular, for ThunderClan cats, who live in a forest full of noises they need to watch out for.

But I have standards for how I treat disabled characters, unlike the Erins. I refuse to say "oh, X cat is deaf, I'll shove them into the elders' den", just no. And since cat genetics (catnetics?) say 'half the cast should be deaf!' (this is even mentioned in canon, during TPB, when Cinderpelt straight up says blue-eyed white cats are usually deaf), I'm definitely using it.

For my AU, Snowkit survives. This is because his canon's dead is stupid. He didn't hear the hawk that killed him coming, but no cat should have. Birds of prey don't exactly go shouting "sneak attack" whenever they're hunting. Snowkit should have been able to run for cover because his eyes are fine, he should have seen the hawk. He didn't hear the warning about the hawk, but... everyone knew he was deaf, they should have known he couldn't hear them, and done a tail signal to gesture for him to come. Because tail signals do exist. They're used constantly, in fact. But for the one time they were actually needed, no cat used them.

For me, it's clear: ThunderClan's (and by extension the authors', since we're supposed to take this at face value) ableism killed Snowkit as much as the hawk did. The only reason for killing Snowkit was to make his mother retire, and they chose the most cruel, ableist way possible. I will NOT do this. So the Blazing Sky AU has a deaf character. I still don't know what to do with him, but he's, at the very least, living long enough to become a warrior.

Oliver, Princess' mate and Cloudtail's father, is white with blue eyes. I latched onto this and thought: Cloudtail isn't deaf, but his father could be. So for the Blazing Sky AU, he joins SkyClan. Complex kitty sign language doesn't exist in the Clans or in town. Princess and Oliver want to communicate, and they're trying, but it's hard. Then, Oliver has the idea of giving meanings to movements, something he can see and understand. That way, Princess can talk to him.

*adds basic kitty sign language to my long list of ongoing projects*

Princess and Oliver live rent free in my head, they're by far one of my favorite couples for the AU.

Cloudtail's hearing is fine at first, but he gradually becomes deaf in one ear. He tends to avoid Gatherings because ugh, hearing in crowds. On the bright side (for him, not so much for others), he becomes bolder and cheekier with his retorts, because now he can say whatever he wants and not hear the responses. Act, if you care so much. He does struggle with hunting at first, but he has a very blasé attitude towards his difficulties. Fake it 'till you make it and all that.

I love this guy. One of the few characters I like the way they are in canon.

Fallowfern is up in the air. I want to do something with her, but I'm not sure what. If she shows up, I'm definitely keeping her hearing loss, but I really have no idea how to write her. *light bulb turns on* Oh!

I love writing characters that aren't angsting over their disabilities because being disabled isn't a tragedy. Disabled people can still live happy, fulfilling lives. However, I understand that disability is, well, disabling. There are things you won't be able to do, and it can be hard to come to terms with your disability(ies) if you were fully abled before.

That's the story I want to tell with Fallowfern: a woman (molly, but you get what I mean) becoming disabled and adapting to her new capabilities.

As an apprentice, Fallowpaw was eager to learn everything there was to Clan life. I don't know who mentored her, but whoever this mysterious figure is, they taught her the importance of determination and discipline. Fallowpaw was taught to listen before speaking, to pay attention to her surroundings, to hear what others weren't explicitly saying. She was a hunter, and a prodigy. She could hear the move of bird wings, the squeals of mice and the steps of rabbits. She brought more prey than her peers combined, and she was made a warrior a full season ahead of her littermates.

As Fallowfern, she kept the Clan fed through very harsh and cold winters and flooded springs. She was her former mentor's pride, a disciplined, clever and bold hunter who wasn't afraid of going after big rabbits and hares and even birds of prey. I imagine her choice to hunt big and dangerous animals left her covered in scars, which is a big deal in my Clan Culture.

They are warriors, of course scars should be important.

But as she started losing her hearing, everything fell apart. She couldn't hear a mouse's squealing or a human's footsteps, she couldn't hear the way the leaves rustled when she stepped on them.

Fallowfern went from being a prodigy warrior and hunter to … something less.

SkyClan is my favorite Clan and I want to fix the mess canon made with them, but I don't want to make them perfect. They shouldn't be perfect, they mustn't be perfect. Nothing and nobody needs to be perfect in order to exist (says the perfectionist *cough cough*). So, unfortunately, SkyClan struggles with ableism.

Fallowfern's Clanmates try to be accomodating and give everyone a place in the Clan regardless of disability or lack thereof. But sometimes they don't trust Fallowfern, Oliver or even Cloudtail to know their limits. It's…overprotectiveness, if you will.

It frustrates Fallowfern to no end. The ableism, coming from both her Clanmates and herself. She wants to keep being the great warrior she was before, but she can't. She can't be the prodigy she was, not the way she wants to be.

Everything else is… kinda up in the air.

[lizzemea]

BEHOLD CANDY SIMON 🍬

This is an au by @mushroomnoodles where my Boi is made of candy, special thanks to mush for letting me draw this simon! He is adorable 💖

(I was unsure what he should do, so I drew him reading a comic about other simons in the multiverse, I hope it is alright)

[yuridovewing]

alderpaw your granddad is firestar, why do you hate housecats THAT much

[cyber-streak-2]

Nautica: *In the middle of venting about Firestar*

Skids, patting her on the back: There, there. It’s okay.

Nautica, still crying: Thanks, but how did you get into my habsuite?

Skids: Great question. See, one of the panels in your ceiling-

[zoroarksz]

longtail and firestar