#i just love po3 scenes.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

i fucking hated it when Gray Wing got that one badass line ("kill me and live with the memory") it should've been someone else

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE EYE IN A MOCKING TONE TO ALL THE AWFUL SETTLERS WHO TREATED THE NATIVE CATS LIKE FODDER

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRESTAR @ TIGERSTAR IN OOTS

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEAFPOOL @ HOLLYLEAF DURING PO3

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SOL AT LITERALLY ANY POINT TO TRY AN MANIPULATE SOMEONE INTO NOT KILLING HIM

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE

Gray Wing was never "badass" he was a culmination of everything WRONG with this series. The pro colonial themes, the extreme misogyny, the xenophobic and racist rhetoric, the blatent fatphobia, the ableism, even the inconsistencies between one book right after the other due to lack of communication, and right down the blatent Writer Projection and Bias. The writers see themselves in this awful character, and while he WAS supposed to die in The Sun Trail (which would honestly have made for a pretty interesting twist) the writers/this weird editing team that actually makes the real choices loved him too much, which you know wouldn't have happened if Gray Wing was female. Any character this team grows attached to can do no wrong. Bramblestar, Alderheart, Nightheart, Clear Sky, Jayfeather, Rootspring, and Gray Wing. Notice a pattern here? Squirrelflight, Tawnypelt, Sparkpelt, Finchlight, Sunbeam, Every Woman Clear Sky Slaughtered or had Die For His Arc, Leafpool, Violetshine, Twigbranch, Needleclaw, Bristlefrost, Turtle Tail, Storm, Tall Shadow, Wind Runner, BUMBLE, Star Flower, I can keep going.

All of these female characters suffer for them. Whether narratively through bad writing (Turtle Tail, Tall Shadow, Needleclaw, Finchlight, Sparkpelt) or through the story needlessly putting them through the wringer (Leafpool, Squirrelflight, BUMBLE) or just straight up killed, all for the express purpose of a Sad Boy Character Arc.

He will not even be TOUCHING that line, anon. He isn't even part of that SCENE. It's Jagged Peak leaping up to knock Clear Sky off the boulder like a little kitty headbutt missile, saving Rainswept Flower's life inadvertently and proving his pathetic sycophant brother wrong. The shock of the big bully falling on top of the pile of writhing cats is enough to make it stop, just for a moment long enough to realize the carnage that has just been committed.

Sorry for the vent, been feeling passionate about Battle Cats misogyny. 1000% agree with you anon!

[bonefall]

i cant remember correctly if this is true or not, but wasnt there a scene in po3 (?) where lionblaze used a dark forest move and brambleclaw literally recognized it as such and just. didnt address it? he literally just saw a move his own father taught him in cat hell and kinda. ignored it?

oh hey. You're right. I totally forgot about this.

It's worse than you remembered. It begins with Brambleclaw once again whining about how "everyone judged him :(" while then turning around and trying to bothsides Tigerstar. The guy who had his lackeys rehearse the public execution of mixed-blood cats.

"The trouble is that they only see my daddy for all the murder and public executions he did. Not how cool he was :( anyway yeah sure he betrayed his clan but WE ALL HAVE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES" ?????????????????????????????????

STRENGTH = BEING COOL AND SMART

WEAKNESS = EVIL??

What was the point of the end of TNP where he "rejects his father once and for all" if he's STILL waffling about him not being all that bad?? (i mean, the answer is, he didn't actually meaningfully reject him because killing hawkfrost was self-defense. but the book's takeaway was that it was supposed to be a rejection so :/)

"It must be So Sad to only be remembered for how much you loved killing teenagers to send a message to the local Fire Twink... it's so awful.... he had good sides too. he was muscles. im also muscles, lionpaw... really makes you think..." -ExcellentDadQuotes.com

Also note how this moment where Bramble was trying to comfort Lionpaw just ends up with the child comforting the parent. Recurring theme with Brambleclaw.

The book is Dark River-- the part where Lionpaw starts getting targeted by Hawkfrost and Tigerstar. Interesting that Brambleclaw fails to warn his kid about how dangerous the rest of his Kin is because he's personally insecure about it. They've Got Good Sides.

It's unclear if Brambleclaw recognizes the move, or if he's just reminded of it. He seems to buy it when Lionpaw says he made it himself. I'd argue he's either willfully ignorant or oblivious.

Anyway that's what you remember. All of this. Good catch, my brain had flushed it down the stem.

[skrs-cats]

something I've always wanted to explore and delve into was how the po3 prophecy defined the threes lives and I'm not good at prose but I'm glad some Feelings are getting across :] ty for enjoying the (unfortunately unfinished) art though

now excuse me as I use this post as a segway to ramble about that post more hehe

Dove's feelings on losing their powers are the most obvious in the books, mostly bc she's literally using them for every second of her life. her panel is that scene in bramblestars storm where bumble leads bramble to her shouting in the tunnels, trying to see how far she can hear her voice's echo

Lion's and Jay's panels focus less on how their powers being gone affects them, but you can interpret that as having to deal w the aftermath of the battle against the dark forest. Just, dealing w the grief first, y'know?

Jay has to rely on other cats to save themselves and each other, he reunited starclan in time for the battle so that firestar can unite the clans. He lets leafpool help him in the medicine den, his own way to say he forgives her, and leafpool goes back to being a medicine cat in the series afterwards. At the very least I do hope I get to continue the comic, bc jay.. doesn't really like. Actually react much to losing his powers. He doesn't allow himself to grieve over that part of himself. On the bright side, by letting leafpool in his life again, the series does delve into his grief in losing her. So there's that lol. Now. onto. The other one

Lionblaze brainrot actually sparked the idea for the comic lol (who could've thunk). Something along the lines of him overworking himself after the battle bc he feels a bit of guilt for being the only one leaving unscathed. Mostly, this one's just him struggling to adjust to being able to be wounded now, and maybe the niggling guilt for having the power to protect cats, and failing to do that w one of them that he loves the most. The four paws digging in the second panel are actually his, dove's, ivy's, and cinderhearts. Him and cinderheart don't actually bury hollyleaf in canon (damn fucking crime) so I just threw a bone for myself lol.

The original idea stretches all the way to tigerhearts shadow, but I'll avoid talking about it further than that for if I ever decide to continue it. Again, thank you for the support! Everyone's tags makes me smile in varying degrees of amusement. the po3 and oots party has been over for years but I'm still here.... and I'm dragging u guys w me

[the-owl-tree]

genuine question bc I haven’t read the books since. Idk a long time, why do ppl hate nightcloud so much?? I have literally only ever heard of her as an afterthought. Like she’s the third choice for crow feather bc he needed to take a mate to not be seen suspicious and just picked her, there’s no love between them, and afaik he basically forced her to raise her son by herself, not counting the moments of attention he DID give which seemed to be overwhelmingly negative and even abusive. Isn’t she allowed to be bitter and that when he’s very clear abt his apathy and even resentment toward her and her son?? Or am I missing some context

People took Crowfeather passing the blame onto Nightcloud for Breezepelt's behavior at face value, despite two arcs worth of books proving that wasn't true at all. I'd argue the writing team ALSO believed this, as with how they characterized her in the subsequent Field Guides. Immediately, Nightcloud's past actions were re-contextualized to be negative, to further push this idea that she was this old coddling bitch mom who didn't let poor Crowfeather be involved with his son (look at the language of the field guides, they genuinely wrote "she should be glad to be alive").

Crowfeather was (and in some circles still is) a pretty popular character, and a lot of people were quick to latch onto the idea that he was blameless. I can't remember if CrowPool was or wasn't a popular ship, I lean towards yes, so take this line with the knowledge my memory is fuzzy, but I'd also argue that Nightcloud being the "replacement" mate was what made people even more hostile to her.

So, what is Nightcloud actually like? I'm only going to cover scenes where Nightcloud is either mentioned or actually appears, so no Outcast, click the first link for a better look at that. I'll only cover Po3 and OoTS for now.

Nightcloud's Appearances in the Power of Three

Our first meeting with her is in The Sight, where ThunderClan intervenes when they're being chased around by a dog. Her first piece of actual dialogue is her defending Breezepaw from Crowfeather, which is not coddling, especially when given the added context in Outcast that Crowfeather is verbally abusive towards his son. She also proceeds to lecture him about his manners towards a ThunderClan cat, so, she's not the one encouraging his rude streak.

She is then absent for most of the book until the end, when during one of the contests at the Daylight Gathering, Lionpaw and Breezepaw get hurt in a collapsed tunnel incident and she understandably is quite distressed. Then Leafpool drops the "i'd give every drop of my blood for you Crowfeather" line and Nightcloud just tries to divert attention from that, understandably uncomfortable with what's being said.

One of the scenes that's commonly used as "evidence" that Nightcloud stopped Crowfeather from bonding with Breezepelt is this one:

No hissing or swatting. She just doesn't let him help, and considering we now know Crowfeather has been absent from the beginning and isn't above hitting and screaming at his kid, I think it's understandable that she arguably isn't going to stop just so he can help. But that's my interpretation, I think this scene in itself proves nothing of the sort either way and people were reaching when trying to use it as evidence.

Nightcloud's remaining appearances in The Sight is her watching over Breezepaw and Lionpaw as they recover:

That is the entirety of her appearance in The Sight. Onto Dark River! Where her first mention is Leafpool identifying her and Jaypaw sensing some jealousy from Leafpool, as the patrol is going to check in on WindClan and get information because of uh scents. you know usual warriors border bullshit. We then get Jaypaw noticing her breath, and finally him sensing jealousy from Nightcloud (that she does not act on). This is the entirety of her appearance in Dark River:

Cue Leafpool being polite to Crowfeather, and Crowfeather waving as many red flags as he possible can.

And onto the infamous Outcast! Where Nightcloud has *drumroll* one fucking appearance.

She also has one appearance in Eclipse where she's part of the patrol that attacks Lionpaw, but I'm not even going to mention it it's quite literally just him going "Nightcloud!" before the scene shifts to his and Heatherpaw's conflict. She is entirely absent in Long Shadows, there is no appearance of her beyond allegiances.

And finally in Sunrise, she is entirely absent until near the ending. She's first mentioned by Crowfeather when Jayfeather asks him if he knew the truth, then noticed at a gathering by Hollyleaf:

When the secret is revealed, Nightcloud stands with Crowfeather. No hissing or hitting or turning on him, here is the entirery of her appearance when Hollyleaf reveals everything:

This is it. This is the entirety of Nightcloud involvement in the story, she is barely mentioned and she is barely a character. Her appearances are dwarfed by Crowfeather and Breezepelt, and she is literally just a normal mom character throughout.

Nightcloud's Appearances in Omen of the Stars

Nightcloud is absent throughout the entirety of the Fourth Apprentice. She is only mentioned in the allegiances. She has one appearance in Fading Echoes:

Then there's Night Whispers, where her first appearance is her arguing with Crowfeather while Flametail goes "yikes!":

Her other appearance is the infamous grabbing scene that people latched onto as proof that Nightcloud was an abusive monster who was hurting poor Crowfeather and was forcing him to not bond with his son. Breezepelt and Lionblaze get into a border dispute and it escalates into a fight:

Leafpool intervenes and asks Crowfeather why he's not doing shit, he then proceeds to throw up multiple red flags in front of her and does the red flag dance:

We finally get Nightcloud where she comes in and pulls Crowfeather away from Leafpool. Despite using her claws, presumably because she does not have fucking THUMBS to grab onto him, no blood is drawn. She just pulls him away in an already emotionally charged and over dramatic situation. This is not comparable to Crowfeather's abuse of his son and with everything else I've presented, her grabbing him is not indicative of their relationship, ESPECIALLY given the circumstances of the action:

Her last appearance is her talking about shredding RC cats, it's not relevant but uh it's there. That the entirety of her appearances within the book.

She has no appearances in Sign of the Moon. She then has a two appearances in The Forgotten Warrior where she is hostile to Hollyleaf (which feels understandable to me considering what Hollyleaf did):

She has one onscreen appearance in The Last Hope where she defends Jayfeather from the Dark Forest attack with some other WindClan cats:

Her only other mention is Crowfeather blaming her for Breezepelt's behavior:

In canon, this never happens. We never see Nightcloud encourage Breezepelt to hate Crowfeather, but we instead see Crowfeather spending an entire book abusing Breezepaw when Nightcloud is away. This is bullshit, but the fandom took this as truth and immediately turned on Nightcloud despite no actual evidence.

There are three takeaways from this:

Crowfeather blaming Nightcloud is....false. It's false. We see no canon evidence of this, and in fact the books tell us another narrative.

Nightcloud is barely a character. She has so few actual appearances that calling her "complex" is a lie, she is a narrative tool that moreso supports Crowfeather and Breezepelt's conflict than any story of her own.

Even if Nightcloud did do all that offscreen, Crowfeather STILL abused his child and that is directly tied to Breezepelt's motivations within Omen of the Stars. Nightcloud's behavior does NOT negate the harm that Crowfeather did to his own son.

[wc-confessions]

genuinely wc fans can come up with such gorgeous and transformative art of scenes from po3. there are so many i cant name them all, but like god. fuck. its all so good. and it boggles the mind did the erins plan to make hollyleaf black, like a shadow looming over her brothers/clan/leafpool? her compared to her golden and silver brothers, her breakdown and actions. like the art looks fantastic genuinely artists utilise hollyleaf in such creative ways. i think shadowsight is the only character who can stand up to her in terms of fanart and the amount of symbolism you can cram into one cat. its why i love black cats as protags because 1. black cats are cool and 2. especially in a book following a lineage. my favourite artist made 3 images of hollyleaf and one was her long shadow over thunderclan and i think of it every day. another was just her giant paws dwarfing the forest as she loomed over ashfur. wc does not deserve the artists it gets.

ㅤ

[troutfur]

OK, here goes a call for prompts which I'll hopefully follow through with.

So, hi there! Seeing as I wanted to do #CalmWriMo 2023, but I'm still nowhere near done with prepwork for the project I most anticipate working on (mostly because it involves reading Warriors material I have been putting off reading), I am going to be trying something different which will hopefully help me build discipline and confidence in my ability to finish stuff.

I'm opening up writing prompt submissions for Warriors ficlets! These are going to be ~500 words long, roughly a single scene, and I'm aiming to post one daily.

Here are some guidelines to begin with:

Canon characters only

Keep in mind I have only read certain parts of the canon: DotC, TPB, the first half of TNP, Po3, OotS, the first half of AVoS, the books released so far for ASC, and assorted novellas and SEs like Tree's Roots, Crookedstar's Promise, Dovewing's Silence, and Moth Flight's Vision. I will not be writing about characters or events I do not have a good handle on.

If requesting an AU fic, make sure it is something that can be conveyed in a single scene. I love the challenge of writing scenes that convey an AU premise as succinctly as possible but it's still gotta be achievable ya know?

Recursive AUs based on my work are absolutely welcome and encouraged even!

If it is a ship prompt I'd prefer some guidance on the type of dynamic envisioned and of course the kind of scene I am to be writing about.

Preference will be given to prompts involving/centering female characters

Submit as many as you want! I'm going to be needing 30 anyway. I just ask to please vary your multiple submissions.

[weakestwarrior]

because I always have been and always will be a squirrelcrow truther. (explanation under the cut. warning, it’s kinda long).

first of all, a lot of this is inspired by bonefall’s better bones au. please go check that out first. it contains things I’ll talking about like honor-siring and Queen’s Rights that you may not understand if you don’t.

so. this is a lot, but I’ll generation by generation to explain what’s going on, changes, and things that are the same.

Firestar: Dies at an undecided time. I like pre-Omen of the Stars/The Last Hope but I’m not fully sure WHEN I should kill him off. There’s also the choice of keeping his dead in The Last Hope but that’s boring. He’s mostly the same as canon. He’s also one of Squilf’s biggest supporters (along with Sandstorm and Leafpool),

Sandstar: Firestar’s deputy after Graystripe’s kitty kidnapping. She received Tawnypaw way back when, making her eligible for deputy. As a leader I imagine her similar to Bluestar; always involved in Clan life, going on patrol, watching kittens for queens, and generally not sitting on her ass all day like the Erins love to make leaders do. She’s not shy about speaking her mind, either, but know there’s times it’s best to stay quiet. (Also, Brambleclaw does not get Berrypaw in Po3, he goes to Sandstorm instead. Honeypaw goes to Whitewing.).

Leafpool: No long the mother of the three, she’s still important in supporting her sister when she comes back pregnant from her romp in the beyond. She stand by her sister’s choice to claim Queen’s Rights and not tell anyone the father of her kittens. Squilf does tell her once the three are born, but she’s just as clueless as the rest of the Clan until then.

Squirrelflight: My favorite girl, mother of giants, squilf. She and Crowpaw build a strong bond on the sun-down-place journey, and the two of them remain friends long after it’s over. Brambleclaw abhors their friendship, saying it’s dangerous, and why a stinky WindClan cat, but she’s not listening.

Quick rundown:

Squilf is not interested in either Ashfur or Brambleclaw.

She was close with Ashfur, but only as friends. He refused to see it that way, and was very in love with her. His possessive, controlling nature made her run.

Squilf leaves for her romp with Crowfeather around the same time Leafpool did in-canon.

She tells Crowfeather she thinks she’s pregnant at a Gathering shortly before she finds out for real. After she’s absent from them for moons he guesses (correctly) she’s nursing his kittens.

Squilf clams Queen Right’s, preventing her from having to reveal the Three’s father

Crowfeather: Fell first and extremely hard. Local man was in LOVE. He’s the one who came up with the idea to leave, seeing as they’d never be truly accepted by their Clans. He was terrified of returning home, but WindClan was just happy to have him back. He really wishes he went to ThunderClan to raise his kits, and feel like there’s so much lost time he can never possibly make up. Breezepelt was an honor-sire with Nightcloud.

Before we get into the Three: They all do have powers. Lion has his strenght, Jay has his dreamwalking, and Holly can make cats tell the truth. They all “unlock” these powers at different times. Jay dreamwalked into Firestar’s dream to hear the “kin of your kin”, unlocking his power first. Lionblaze unlocked his power after being made a warrior because of Brightheart’s teaching and guidance. Hollyleaf’s power manafested after Ashfur spilled Squilf’s secret at the Gathering. She demanded, “Why did you do it?” and out came the truth.

The Fire Scene: Doesn’t happen the way it does in canon. Ashfur is between Squilf and her kits, his claws to Jaywing’s throat, saying that if anyone moves he’ll kill him. Ashfur was always of the belief that the kits were Brambleclaw’s, and says he’s clearing the forest of traitorous Tigerkin. Squilf, in a last-ditch effort to save her children, screams out that they are Crowfeather’s. They ran away together, but she knew it was wrong and returned, only to find herself pregnant (which is partly a lie!). This sates Ashfur, and he lets everyone go with the promise that all the Clans will know. The Three are mostly unaffected by the news of their father—Lionblaze always said they were likely to be half-Clan anyways because of Holly and Jay’s wiry builds. They’re more affected by the attempt on Jaywing’s life.

Lionblaze: His mentor is NOT Ashfur, it’s Brightheart. After Ashfur’s horrible treatment of Squilf while she was pregnant, Firestar wasn’t keen on giving his grandson to him. Brightheart tempers him, bring out the courage and strength within while keeping him humble, allowing him to unlock his powers.

Hollyleaf: Her mentor remains Brackenfur, and she never trained as a healer. He instills the ways of the Code in her, even the parts she doesn’t always understand. She unlocks her powers last. She cornered Ashfur on the Gathering island after everyone has left and demanded he tell her why, and he does, the words tumbling out of his mouth like water down a fall. She lives with this for a few days, but cannot shake the rage she feels every time she sees him. He’s found dead on the Thunderpath, but it was clearly not a monster that killed him. After Ashfur’s death and vigil, Holly flees to the tunnels, unable to live in ThunderClan any longer.

Jaywing: Still blind, and never trained as warrior. He was not forced into the Healers’ den, but chose it on his own after talking with Leafpool about the starry cats he often saw in his dreams. Leanded a little too hard on Poppyfrost after Holly ran to the tunnels post-breakdown and got her pregnant.

Alderheart & Sparkpelt: The second squirrelcrow litter! These guys are born at the same time they are in-canon. How did they come about, you ask? Well, before the Great Storm, Crowfeather was actually relaying news to Sandstar about some Twolegs’ dogs that were wondering along the Wind-Thunder border. It was only a light rain when Crowfeather left camp, but was pouring when he made it to ThunderClan. Sandstar offered him to stay, and the rest of Bramblestar’s Storm (now Squirrelflight’s Storm) plays out as normal (not the same due this being an au, but you get the jist).

Poppyfrost: She and Jay had been close since he brought her back from the edge when they were apprentices. Although they remained close their whole lives, Hollyleaf’s fleeing caused them to grow even closer. Poppyfrost was delighted to find out she was pregnant, but terrified considering the situation. Due to the circumstances, she temporarily claims Queen’s Rights...and then never un-claims it.

Dovewing & Ivypool: The poppy/jay kits! Taken in by Lion and Cinder, but “nursed” by Poppyfrost. Poppy's litter “died” right before Lion and Cinder “had” Dove and Ivy. They are completely unaware of their heritage until much later. (I should note that this is bonefall’s idea, and I’m in love with it)

[wildshadowtamer]

Ok i gotta share this. So, im rewriting the warriors books, right? Like every writer in this fandom has at least thought of doing. And i got to the end of the new prophecy, where hawkfrost didnt get killed but instead dragged into living in thunderclan.

But i'm making book 7's for each of them, for extra content and to explore what happened inbetween the arcs. So, Hawkfrost joins Thunderclan after the firestar assassination attempt, and obviously hes being held prisoner, but Ashfur's still around and was the one to help orchestrate that plan, but no one knows it. Unfortunately, Ashfur is the least subtle man in existence, so hes being really bad at acting like he doesnt know Hawkfrost. And Squirrelflight, who is aware of her sister's whole thing, looks at the two of them and goes "Ah, that must be his mate" bc why else would Ashfur be acting so weird around Hawkfrost

So she asks Leafpool about it, who, without missing a beat, responds "Yeah i saw them at Riverclan's border a few nights ago, i think their together" and it takes Squirrel a good 30 seconds before she says "wait, why were you near riverclan border at night?" And leafpool is just like "😬 no reason hahah"

So then Squirrel is like "ohhh ok so both of them have riverclan mates, boy am i glad Ashfur isnt into me"

This belief continues until the po3 fire scene and only then does it click that ashfur was, in fact, in love with her. Hawkfrost never clarifies if they were mates.

Many moons later, Leafpool has a laughing fit when she finds out Jayfeather also has a riverclan mate.

[solargoose]

I was thinking, and it would make a pretty neat warrior cats rewrite/au if some of the events of various arcs were switched around. I’d leave the cats mostly the same, though. The outline is under the cut because it got pretty long.

Arc 1 - The Prophecies Begin. Just leave this one pretty much the same.

Arc 2 - Darktail and the Kin - So in this version Darktail can’t be Onestar’s son, he’d be too young. Instead, he’s the son of Blackstar and a Bloodclan she-cat. Darktail’s Kin is assembled from some Bloodclan cats and some rogues. Blackstar allows him into the clan because Darktail’s his son, but also because a lot of Shadowclan cats did bad things and want to be forgiven, so they want to offer that same chance to the former Bloodclan cats. - Darktail takes more and more control, some cats leaves Shadowclan, but Blackstar doesn’t want to admit that things are bad because he wants to prove he’s different from the last couple Shadowclan leaders. Eventually there’s a face off, Blackstar may or may not die. - Darktail has still been to Skyclan (or what remains of it), and has left Skywatcher as the only Skyclan cat left. This prompts Cloudstar to seek out Firestar, leading into Firestar’s Quest.

Arc 3 - The New Prophecies. -  The only thing that’s really different plot-wise here is that since Squirrelflight and Crowfeather are apprentices during Arc 2 they’d already be warriors. I’d replace Crowfeather’s warrior ceremony with a scene where he requests to change his warrior name to Crowfeather, in honor of Feathertail to keep things on track.

Arc 4 - The Broken Code (plus po3, minus the imposter) - This was the change that inspired this whole thing. One of the big problems with po3 in my opinion is that they do a lot to set up how important the destiny cats are with very little payoff. Plus, since the threat isn’t revealed until later, they spend a lot of time looking for problems to solve. So, let’s set them up with a problem from the get go. - The clans have arrived at the lake territories, but they can’t contact Starclan. - Onestar can’t get his 9 lives, which Sol uses to manipulate him and take over Windclan. - Jayfeather’s dream walking ability lets them gather all the info he would have gotten from Starclan, which he uses to drive the plot. This includes faking signs from Starclan. I think this would also add importance to his choice to become a medcat. Instead of “the blind cat is bad at fighting and good at smelling herbs” it becomes “I have outside info and the best way to present this info is to pretend it came from Starclan.” - Lionblaze still has his physical powers, but I’d change them just a bit. Canonically, his powers are strength-based and are portrayed as being good at fighting and difficult to hurt. I’d keep him being good at fighting and difficult to hurt, but make it stealth-based instead. He’s just kind of hard to look directly at, cats’ eyes slip off of him, which makes it hard to aim attacks at him. This would also let him be a little more involved, since he can go where other cats can’t and can do the physical parts of faking the signs. I also think it would be funny for big, bright gold Lionblaze to be the sneaky one. - Hollyleaf is still powerless, but I’d add to her character arc. Firstly, cats are worried that Starclan’s silence is because they’re breaking the code, giving her love of the warrior code a purpose. For a bit, she thinks her power might be that she can sense when someone is breaking the code. When she reveals her bio parents, she’s not just making a dramatic speech, she’s pointing to them as code breakers before putting herself into exile. - Her lack of powers is explained by Starclan’s silence. They gathered enough power to break through and give the 3 their powers when they were born, with Hollyleaf being the last to be born. But the birth was difficult, she was delayed, and Starclan lost it’s connection before they could give her the power. - The arc would end with Jayfeather and Lionblaze breaking through the barrier to Starclan briefly. They can give the third cat her power, but Hollyleaf is missing and they have a short time limit before the connection is lost again. - Unbeknownst to them, Dovekit and Ivykit snuck out of camp to follow them and tumble down into the hollow with the Moonpool. - Out of options, they give the powers to Dovekit.

Arc 5 - Oots + the end of the Broken Code - A lot of Oots progresses as normal. Dovewing is used for her powers, exacerbated by the fact that she was forced into them and they weren’t supposed to be hers in the first place. Ivypool saw her get the powers and doesn’t understand why she didn’t also get powers, which builds into her resentment. - The Dark Forest is blocking Starclan’s connection, but they can still reach cats.  Ivypool trains with them like normal. - At the end, several cats go into the Dark Forest to fight Tigerstar and his cats. Firestar kills Tigerstar’s ghost and dies in the process. Hollyleaf also dies. - The arc ends with Starclan delivering the first prophecy in a couple arcs, leading into AVOS.

Arc 6 - A Vision of Shadows + The Imposter Arc - The arc picks up with Alderkit and Sparkkit having been born, Bramblestar has been leader for a bit, and no progress as been made on the prophecy. - Shortly after the kits are apprenticed, Bramblestar begins acting strange. - Alderpaw and Needlepaw go find Twigkit and Violetkit. Sparkpaw is also a pov character so we have eyes on imposter Bramblestar while they’re gone. I combined these because I think seeing imposter Bramblestar through the pov of his kits would just be better. - Imposter Bramblestar uses the prophecy to justify his actions, convincing Twigpaw to go along with it. - While searching for the Sky from the prophecy, they find Tree, who shows Bramblestar’s spirit. Bramblestar tells them about Skyclan and tells them that there’s something coming. He doesn’t know what it is, but all 5 clans needs to be together to survive it. - They bring back Skyclan, but imposter Bramblestar is hostile and keeps arguing. They reveal what Tree told them, and there is a fight. - During the fight, Bramblestar is killed and Tree shows them the transfer of spirits. - Ashfur and Bramblestar fight as ghosts, with Bramblestar taking back his body. Ashfur reveals his motives, that he’d been fine in Starclan, except then Hollyleaf joined Starclan, and Bramblestar became leader, and he and Squirrelflight had kits in pretty quick succession, which is what caused him to snap. Ashfur’s ghost is killed. - Skyclan settles into their new territory, but the mystery of what threat was coming lingers.

Arc 7 - The Great Battle - The arc picks up after a time skip, with Bristlefrost, Rootspring, and Shadowsight as the pov characters. There is an increase in general ghost activity, which freaks Rootspring out and he begins investigating. - Instead of Ashfur, Hawkfrost is the one manipulating Shadowsight, giving him false visions. These visions encourage the clans to be separate and hostile with each other. - Bristlefrost, having been rejected by Stemleaf, is visited by Mapleshade. Mapleshade commiserates with her, then begins training her, using Bristlefrost’s ambition to lure her into the Dark Forest. - Rootspring sees Hawkfrost’s ghost around Shadowsight, and begins asking around to find out who he is. Bristlefrost recognizes Hawkfrost from the Dark Forest, making her suspicious. - Stemleaf turns up dead, and the trio begin investigating. Spotfur moves to the nursery having Stemleaf’s kits, and Mapleshade encourages Bristlefrost to kill her and the kits, which causes Bristlefrost to fully break away from the Dark Forest. - The trio works together to uncover the Dark Forest’s plot, and discover that the threat coming is the Great Battle, which plays out pretty similarly to how it is in the books.

[ninewhiskers]

which arc is your fav and which cat is ur fav? :3 (sorry if this is answered somewhere already </3)

my fav arc is prolly po3 i think it was done excellently and the characters povs i didnt hate and the characters and scenes from po3 are soooo iconic everything interesting happened in po3 and the rest of the series just tries to keep the hype going LOL

my fav cat definitely 100% leafpool. shes my baby napkin princess who deserved love but not what crowfeather was tellnig her it was. in fact i love her for all the same reasons as squirrelflight but shes my favorite because her story is over and im tired of watching squirrelflight fight a battle she cant win unless the authors decide she deserves it. ferncloud is up there too but just my idea of her

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

I think my most controversial Warrior Cats opinion is that I actually really like the Cinderpelt-heart reincarnation plot. Or at least I would really love a version of it without all teh ableist implications. StarClan realizing that teh “no kits for medicine cats” rule is hurtful, and also that disabled cats are often pushed into roles they don’t want and aren’t suited for, and they reincarnate Cinderpelt for those reasons, not because a disabled life isn’t a full one. Cinderheart feeling pressure from teh clan, maybe even her family or even Lionblaze, to be a medicine cat when she finds out. It has potential idk.

I liked it at first, because... Admittedly, I read Po3 before I read TNP and before I finished TPB.

So Cinderpelt was this mysterious, not quite known character to me. I went and read TNP and thought "hmm. I wish it had been more 'this is happening because your life is going to be cut short now due to the move to the lake and that isn't fair because you were supposed to live a long time so go become your niece, really sorry about the badgers, xoxo PS sorry about your mom slowly starving to death in the forest'"

Instead it hinges on her having had "not a full life", which.... When I went EVEN FURTHER back and finished TPB.... She did. She loved Medicine. It was HER choice. The Erin's forgot, made a weird retcon that has become her entire character: "I loved my teacher and didn't tell him", and had Lionblaze be the... Reward for that?

I liked it, it was just done for a stupid reason. Another one of those "we wrote this plot point to make sure a character does xyz" instead of just... Writing it. Snowkit's death is the most egregious example of these writers pretending they have no control over these fictional cats.

I have some controversial opinions of my own.

The Lake territory is cool but also sucks. We need to either leave the Lake or start redoing things about it. It has no landmarks to hang out at or have what I call 'set pieces' whatsoever, and more importantly no threats (thunderpaths, snake rocks, gorge, the tree with a huge Owl, Carrionplace) and I'm pretty sure the writers feel this way too since we leave the Lake once an arc. I wouldn't mind moving territories again, to a more dangerous but still natural place.

Breezepelt should be a permanent Queen. I know it would mean seeing less of him (which I dislike) but him being a gentle parent and helping others raise their kits would be a PERFECT wrap up to his arc. As much as I desperately want Breezestar I think he would fit more as a perma-queen.

A trip to the distant future or past would be both good and bad. A whole new cast would be kinda cool but let's be honest, these writers suck. What is needed is a whole new writing team of people who actually LIKE the books.

I never really liked canon!Riverstar that much, we really didn't know anything about him because DOTC is less Dawn of The Clans and more "pwease like our power trip fantasy oc who knocks up a girl his son's age 🥺". I genuinely cannot remember anything River Ripple even does. He just... Isn't there. Maybe more prevalent in the last 2 books but I never got past the first 3 chapters of book 5 and never opened book 6 aside from looking at its last scene and rolling my eyes. Petal's death was where I drew the line, the narrative bending over backwards to make Clear Sky a poor sad baby crossed it.

• I've come around thanks to Bonefall but I genuinely hated Star Flower as a kid. The way she was described was uncomfortable, annoying and made it feel like the writers were trying to force you to think she's this gorgeous, perfect cat, it made her boring, bland, and anything with her in it a slog to get through because of the way Thunder spoke about her, going on and on about her beautiful she was, getting worse when Moth Flight's Vision described her with purple eyes to go with her star-shaped pupils... Also, I was really attached to Petal, who died suddenly when Star Flower entered the picture, and I was on the assumption Clear Sky and Petal were going to get together, while I didn't like Clear Sky, I just wanted my favorite to stay alive unlike every other female character. Starf also suddenly becoming a helples damsel in distress added to the annoyance so badly that I actually never finished DOTC, and it made me take a break from the series altogether. I really wanted her to be playing the long game. A sincere thank you to Bonefall for helping me reread who this character is, and while the way our 'Camera' describes hee is still annoying, I can at least look past that and see the roots of this character.

I love Leafpool, and Hollyleaf. Met a lot of Leafpool fans who seem to think Hollyleaf is this monster when she very much reads as someone who cannot handle their religious and emotional abuse based trauma and lashed out at the wrong person. What she did to Leafpool was awful but she was basically an irrational teenager. Just like apprentice does not always equal child, warrior does not always equal "grown ass adult who should get over it". Her own existence went against every single thing she believed in and was told by her own mentor to never ever question.

As sweet as the scene with Dandelionkit and Juniperkit in Starclan was... There was really 0 point in giving Squilf 2 dead kids, other than "the writers hate her". The only thing I can see a point for it is for a long-shot setup to Squirrelstar for some lives seeing as you just know they absolutely forgot about Squish's friends.

• I think Ivypool has somewhat of a right to be upset with Dovewing. HEAR ME OUT. She is allowed to be upset, NOT take it out on Dovewing. She also needs to learn that she helped drive her sister out, but the writers are allergic to that kind of thing in favour of "make character a background conservative. If female = mom. If mom = soft until politcal debate scenario." She is allowed to be sad and upset that her only sister is gone, she just needs to acknowledge she messed up, as well as lots of Thunderclan cats messed up.

It's time to kill Brightheart, Brackenfur, Thornclaw and Cloudtail. Enough is enough, start retiring cats who were full warriors when TNP started. Tawnypelt should be in the Elders den and Oakfur should be rotting in hell for what he let happen to Berrynose. On that same note, I hope Russetfur went on trial for that and her attempt on Firestar's life. I like her but good GOD, that was egregious, and looks even more pathetic when Yellowfang's Secret reveals she herself wasn't Clanborn.

Tigerheart's Shadow is a good book (aside from that one 'territory' bit, you know the one) and this series could go FAR if they embraced the mysterious mystical elements they set up, people are far too harsh on the experimental things.

Moonkitti makes good points sometimes but I need younger fans to stop taking everything she says as gospel and start thinking for themselves; case in point the recent Mapleshade drama that REEKS of "if I was Orpheus I wouldn't have turned around". The writers call the Moonstone the Moonpool every time we revisit the forest, do you really think they remembered The Bridge? Did YOU remember the bridge or did Moonkitti point it out? Also, with how cosmically doomed from the start the story was, the water probably would have overtaken the bridge and STILL swept them away. For every one good take Moonkitti has they seem to have more than a few bad ones.

My silly one. FERNSONG SHOULD HAVE BEEN NAMED AFTER HONEYFERN AND BEEN A HONEYFERN CLONE APPEARANCE WISE. No problem with him being named for Ferncloud but could they PLEASE acknowledge that Cinderheart is Honeyfern's sister too? Poppyfrost named her baby boy after Molekit and Lilyheart named her daughter Honeykit despite never having met Honeyfern, and those don't feel like coincidences.

I dislike the Tribe as its concept, but I like some of the characters that came from it, know what I mean? I like OG Stoneteller (though I always pictured him very differently. I saw him as gray tabby with white paws!) I think he is an interesting character, and Outcast was a huge letdown with having him be wrong. It would be a nice change in story if the Clan cats had tried to push their way, only for it to NOT work, for there to be a different way to do things, or a trick the Tribe used in the past that they "could give another crack at", and for the Clan cats to learn that their way of life is not a golden standard. Could you imagine Hollypaw learning this? I also really like Brook. I dismantled her and I know she is a play on the stupid "Indian princess" trope. I love how sweet she is, though I hate how it was painted against the Tribe. I plan to keep that wisdom and kindness, while also making The Tribes just as good a place to live.

I don't think Tawnystar would've been a good idea, as good as a name like that sounds. She, like Bramble, is too old, and the writers can't stand killing off Arc 2 characters in favour of killing off Arc 3 and 4, we would have been stuck with her and the writing for leaders atm SUCKS. Tawnypelt also just... Isn't that great. While I like her, I don't think she would be a good leader. Same goes for Mothstar, though I feel like they could have it done better if they do have it happen by making her not want the 9 lives. After the absolute Christian slog ASC has been about "non believers" it would be cool to see her prove that wrong and put this shitty arc's hinge point in the ground once and for all.

I'm tired of Med Cat protags. We've had one since TNP barring Dawn of The Clans when arguably it would have been the most beneficial from Pebble Heart or Dappled Pelt. Leafpool was cool because she was the first, Jayfeather was kinda cool still because of blindness and being part of the Prophecy, and while his POV in OOTS was a necessary evil, we did not need Alderheart. There is no reason to have Alderheart be the POV when Sparkpelt has the objectively more interesting setup and Alderheart's "anxiety" works better when we can't see through his eyes, as the authors don't know what actual anxiety is. Shadowsight and Frostpaw are alright, through Frostpaw's pov suffers around Nightheart and she does suffer from Camera POV Syndrome at times... Not helped by her being a Female Warriors Character with all the lovely things that come with it. Shadowsight was cool until the writers completely fumbled the bag and made him rude, argumentative, and dropped his epilepsy for no reason. All this is NOT helped by the new retcon that you're just "born different" with some kind of inherit special connection to Starclan, like it wasn't some kind of learned thing, hence Cinderpelt struggling with it as a lot of the time she was on her own!

Let Daisy retire and let Sorrelstripe take over the nursery. These new characters are in desperate need of personality, let Sorrelstripe be a feisty, confident midwife who won't let Queens be bullied into things.

[bonefall]

I just wanna say that I LOVE all the detail you’re giving side/background characters. My favorite part of wc is getting to read about generations passing by, watching the young scrappy main character turn into the next main character’s funny grandparent or something. Canon is really bad about acknowledging this but god, you’ve done such a good job with BB. Reading about Jaypaw and Owlpaw’s rivalry knowing the life Owlpaw is going to go on to live in the background later is so cool. Imagine an alternate universe where BB was the real warrior cats and 14 year old you reads a scene where some background character is casually mentioned and realizing it’s that guy Jaypaw beat the shit out of. Shit like that doesn’t happen in canon, they would forget who Owlpaw is and he would never do anything else in his life.

The one thing that WC has over any other xenofiction brand, and most other book series period, is the fact that you are able to watch several GENERATIONS of characters pass by in basically in real-time. So it's a shame that they kinda neglect it in the main series!

I LOVE when WC does do neat things with its cast, like how Harepaw gets trounced by Brambleclaw in Po3 and becomes Leader later. Or how Firestar's recurring background buddy, Onewhisker, became a major character in TNP and beyond. It's honestly a major reason I still follow the books, and why I've never found something that quite scratches the itch like WC does.

Unfortunately, it's ridiculously rare outside of WindClan LMAO. Owlpaw DID get forgotten. He was one of Jaypaw's bullies in his canon training, but then the writers lost track of his age and made him an apprentice on a patrol Tigerheart was giving a lesson to in a field guide; problem is, Tigerheart is younger than him!

Which is not too big a deal, dgmw, but my point is that they forgot. ShadowClan in particular is really lacking in-canon, especially considering they're the neighbor of ProtagonistClan. Ivytail and Owlclaw were part of the Po3 apprentice generation and should have been at least a little relevant going foward, y'know?

I desperately crave the Clans feeling like communities. With petty drama, watching characters gain skill and shuffle around the ranks, every family struggling with how they define their legacy under the emblem of the Clan, that sort of stuff. So that's how I approach it.

[skrs-cats]

Loved mudclaws manga his interactions with clanmates and family members were so nice to see vs him in the main arc books we never got any of that just him being antagonistic oh man good luck it took me months to get through all the earlier books, i started at tpb and then went chronologically according to the events timeline on the wiki, it was fun but so time consuming, seeing snippets of the new books makes me feel like im missing out i wanna KNOW but i dont want to spoil myself too much se or novella set during pot3 when please erins i am BEGGING the only thing other than the arc books to happen during pot3 was a graystripe manga YEA i had to look on the wiki to find that i havent read all the bonus scenes i dont have the versions of the books with them and i forget to look them up most of the time lol, glad they stopped making them theyre a pain to find, i know it makes sense for jay and lion to not be as close anymore especially with lion having a family of his own but it bothered me that all these med cats who didnt even seem to like jay that much were the ones to help him, we didnt even get to see him tell lion about it </4 lion would have wanted to know about holly sometimes it feels like the authors dont like the characters 😭

i remember SPEEDING thru the books once i got my grubby lil hands on the pdfs, idk how long they all took to read but i think reading them so fast just made it all the more easy for me to muddle up details hkjhdskjfha if i ever get around to a reread i might just take my time on it. ALSO I FEEL YOU LOL. sometimes i go thru the wc tag and seeing people talk abt the new books gives me the same feelings HAJHAHA i just power thru it by drawing my po3 bastards (surprisingly effective) and go on w my day

as someone who's freshest memory of the recent arcs were snippets of the sibs Bonding and Caring for one another I REFUSEEE TO BELIEVE THAT JAY AND LION ARE NOT CLOSE ANYMORE IM DYING ON HIS HILL. the erins constantly play w my feelings like sometimes theyd drop these awfully sweet scenes of the two being affectionate w one another but then the bonus scene drops and im like... did u forget about lionblaze. wheres my MAN ToT i will also confess that my somewhat recent rediscovery of the bonus scene actually pushed me to make a comic where lion talks to leaf in starclan out of SPITE. but im working on it lol. IF THE ERINS WONT DO IT THEN I WILL

[the-owl-tree]

its SO obvious that they wanted nightcloud to be some evil harpy so we’d feel bad for crowfeather and want him to be with leafpool (who he also mistreats because she had the audacity to choose her friends and family over him. crowfeather would have emotionally abused leafpool truther). crowfeathers trial feels like it wants nightcloud to also fess up to being bad. its so obvious when you read any author statements like from the field guides or websites

I'd say CT is pretty good towards Nightcloud (with my only non-issue criticism being that it does unintentionally and obviously not endorsed by the narrative sort of reaffirm the idea that it was her presence that was stopping them from bonding. obviously this is not the takeaway from the text, but eh, past decisions will always haunt the writing team). Breezepelt loving his mom sooooo so much makes me happy.

Po3 is really kind to her....because she's barely in it LMAO, she doesn't have much character outside of "Breezepelt's mom". She also doesn't really appear in OotS besides background appearances and that One Scene which people will unquestioningly cling onto, remove any context of, and not do any reflection on why they do that in the first place. Because when Nightcloud grabs Crowfeather (yes, she just grabs him), everyone is acting like a drama queen. Lionblaze and Breezepelt are FIGHTING and LEAFPOOL JUST PROFESSED HER LOVE TO CROWFEATHER AGAIN.

No mention of blood, she just fuckijng. grabbed him. if there was blood, we would have known it because breezepelt and lionblaze are beating the shit out of each other on the side lol

So even at her worst, she's still nowhere Crowfeather's level (seriously, if you can't think of the difference between hitting your kid for mouthing off vs. grabbing you partner during a brawl while his ex is going on about he loves her.....come the fuck on. this in no way puts these two on equal levels not at anon just a nebulous 'you'). Even then, this can be explained by everything that happened! That her aggression and unhappiness is from the whole reveal and the crumbling marriage. But this isn't a Nightcloud analysis, my point is that any and all of Nightcloud's actual behavior isn't nearly as focused on as Crowfeather's by the narrative and I don't think Po3 or OotS was trying to convince you otherwise, however, I do think Nightcloud being written more aggressive and "clingy" should be taken into account that the finale of this trio's arc is Crowfeather putting the blame on his wife and then subsequent field guides painting him as correct. The main arc books are fine, you can glean why Nightcloud behaves the way she does but the field guides paint her as a whole other character that we DID NOT SEE!!!! Po3 had plenty of opportunities to show this but they didnt, and instead the field guides invested themselves on a narrative that DID NOT HAPPEN.

The books have a trend of abuse apologia for their father characters, and I think that should be remembered when discussing how the authors and the books chose to handle these three. I know the field guides aren't considered heavy canon, but they're well worth considering to better understand how the writing team understands these characters and "the blame".

Also god yeah, the way Crowfeather treats Leafpool whenever she stopped playing into his fantasy...gross. Very glad more people know he said that shit about "mixed blood" JUST to hurt her, definitely not any red flags here!

[wc-confessions]

Longtail is my favorite character. I love his character arc, how he acts as a narrative foil to Firestar, and how he starts out as a jerkass but grows to have a backbone, shows himself to be a loyal warrior with a heart of gold where it counts, rejects Tigerstar when lines in the sand have been crossed despite how much he once looked up to him, and eventually grows to be very loyal to Firestar. I wish people talked more about the scene where he saves Fire when Tiger tries to drown him even though they’re not at all on friendly terms yet. Also his mentor-apprentice relationship with Swiftpaw tears me apart but I live for all the fan content that shows their bond and how much regret he has to live with after Swiftpaw’s death.

To this day I have so many gripes with what happened to my boy post-TPB.

If there is a non-death equivalent of TV Tropes’ “Too Cool To Live,” Longtail is basically that. He had to be written out because if he weren’t forcibly removed from the action, then he would be the obvious choice to become deputy during Greystripe’s absence in TNP (and arguably should have been chosen over Greystripe in the first place; I do like Grey but he was not particularly loyal nor responsible in his youth). Longtail was still relatively young, healthy and fit, loyal, experienced, passionate. You cannot convince me that he wasn’t dealt a career-ending injury solely because the plot demanded Brambeclaw become deputy by the end of TNP.

I don’t think Longstar would have ever been realistic to expect because he’s not a central enough character and not related to Fire/Tiger, and because he would have been fairly old for a clan cat by the time of Firestar’s death, but maybe he could have held out as deputy till the end of TNP or even early PO3 and been given a cooler and more memorable death than what he got. But more on that later.

We all know how badly this series shafts its disabled characters. Maybe this is trivial to some, but I really hate the retcon about his blindness. When his vision started failing of natural causes, it was still frustrating for the reasons above but it at least seemed like he made a voluntary choice to retire early. He maintained a degree of agency, and he made his own decision under the circumstances rather than having it taken from him by the narrative. Having him get blinded by a rabbit of all things just feels like a cheap shot to move the plot along. If he were going to have a freak accident, at least make it less stupid than an experienced warrior getting his eyes scratched out by a prey animal.

Not that any of them are handled *well* by any means, but we have roughly this same character arc with so many other characters who are given more depth in coming to terms with a permanent disability or disfigurement and having it alter the course of their lives (Cinderpelt, Brightheart, later on Briarlight…) that we didn’t need this one to happen to prove any kind of point or to say something too much different than any of those other instances.

The silver lining of Longtail’s injury is that it allows us to see more of his friendship with Mousefur than we would have gotten if either of them had died younger, and/or if they had faded to being background characters in the ever-growing ThunderClan roster. I really adore their dynamic. I headcanon them as aroace besties (iirc though this is basically canon for at least Mousefur). I find it so lovely and refreshing that a m/f pair of characters, and ones who are mostly very likable at that, can have a platonic relationship with so much care for each other without it eventually going down the marriage-and-children path that most m/f relationships eventually do in this series.

However.

Longtail’s death, and Mousefur’s role in it, are possibly even more frustrating and narratively awful than even the accident that caused his blindness.

Having him go out in such a cheap and easily preventable way felt like such a fucking slap in the face to these beloved characters who have been around from the very beginning of the series. Longtail had his whole life redefined and turned upside down by one random, frustrating freak accident involving prey and he ultimately lost his life to another one. Mousefur’s character was mishandled so grossly here, and a cat who is usually pretty sensible and grounded lost her best friend because she couldn’t let one (1) mouse go in a moment of what I have to assume is senility.

I am at least glad the two got a proper send-off in the Great Battle, with them getting to reunite on-screen and his spirit guiding her to Starclan after she fell in battle. It doesn’t quite make up for everything else given that Longtail had so much unused potential while alive, but it all would have been so, so much more upsetting if they weren’t given at least that much to close their chapters.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk about Longtail. He is so dear to my heart and deserved so much better than most of what he got.

.

[troutfur]

@gophergal @doritopaw101 Great minds think alike I see!

5. Yellowfang

Favorite character in TPB bar none. She made for excellent contrast to Fireheart and bounced off Cinderpelt perfectly. Definitely fits a similar niche to Jayf in the department of having an entertaining character with a sharp tongue. I live in bliss not having read Yellowfang's Secret. I hear she's totally butchered there but I refuse to see it. 🤗

4. Flametail

Half the reason I prefer the Po3 parentage reveal to have pushed Jay and Lion closer to Bramble. One of these days I need to revisit his PoV in OotS and his attitude towards his cousins shown there, if only to reacquaint myself with the ways in which canon disappointed me.

Of the relationships between the Po3 meddie apprentice generation, Jayfeather and Flametail had the only one I genuinely weep canon forgetting. They had legitimate buildup and I would have loved to see it develop.

The way Flamepaw idolizes his older cousin and shows this genuine enthusiasm for the job Jayfeather only has ever resented, the scene in which Jaypaw reacts to an insensitive comment by giving Flamepaw a scare but then gently explains his disability and why he doesn't bother focusing his eyes, the potential for Jay to seek refuge in their familial connection while still mad at Leaf and Squilf...

*clenches fist* I can't get over what we were robbed of.

3. Mothwing

I first became attached to her because one of the first things I learned through fandom osmosis, even before knwing her very well beyond my spoilers binge, was the constant attitude that her and Cloudtail were willfuly blind idiots. I'm not going to go on my tirade on how atheism can be rational even in a world in which deities of some kind are completely real. But it really got to me.

But besides that, I find her, her relationship with Hawkfrost, and the hardships she's had to navigate as an atheistic religious figurehead not only extremely compelling but also extremely resonant as a religious atheist since about age 15.

I honestly really hate how ASC has been treating her, especially with the latest books emphasizing her as the good kind of nonbeliever vis a vis Splashtail. I swear the only reason they are showing her as much sympathy as they are right now is that it's kind of hard not to when she's being contrasted to someone right out of a PureFlix Entertainment movie.

2. Leafpool

We love to see the world's most Catholic schoolgirl core kitty cat.

Leafpool hits a couple notes on the themes my history with the religion I was raised with got me obsessed with and I greatly appreciate her on her own. But to be perfectly honest where I think she shines best is in relationship with my blorbo Jayfeather. Their tenous, mutually frustrating, and abrassive relationship is one of those dynamics that just gets me to spill out words on the page whenever I'm writing them interacting.

I'm honestly really disappointed that so much of the fanon seems to focus on giving them a more smooth relationship that's almost pseudoparental and kind of Leafpool wish fulfillment. Which is really at odds with how I see them in canon, where at best they are cordial co-workers, and even then only after the mess in OotS is sorted out.

I get the urge of wanting to dote on Leafie, I also get it from time to time, but I feel that it really leaves on the table a very interesting canonical facet of both these characters. (Also let's be real, it honestly stinks of people sanding off all the flaws off their faves given one of the main ways Leafpool let out her frustrations was in making ableist remarks. It is perfectly reasonable that given the society of WC she'd have those attitudes, people. It's fine to let her have that as flaw.)

Jayfeather

The blorbo of all time! ❤

I don't know if I've told the story in this blog before but I actually came into the series primed to like him, if only for familiarity bias. For the longest time I knew Warriors as those books that every furry my age seemed to have read and which I saw discourse about ocassionally in my dashboard. His name came up a lot and was seared into my mind so of course when I really got into the thick of reading it I was curious to see what the fuzz was about.

But I do love him for his own characteristics. For one, I'm a sucker for the asshole with a chip on their shoulder character type. I also really like his and his siblings' megalomania and overall bratiness over Po3 (and I really wish they had gotten worse tbh). He also resonates with quite a few themes of my raised Catholic brand of religious trauma. And the way his character arc was fumbled by the writing is a stimulating challenge to go "I can do better!" and then try to do better with.

But overall, it's really just that I have a great time whenever I'm reading/writing about, analyzing, reinterpreting, or doing research to write him. At the end of the day he's just fun to engage with.