#im not sure anyone cares abt my opinion on new wc books but i will continue giving them regardless

[luxrayz64]

star thoughts after reading btw

i think something can be defined as good by virtue of quality (ie being well written) but still be really fucking awful. warrior cats is that to me

obviously they fumbled the end of this arc bad. splashtail is ultimately poorly characterised, flies completely off the handle into a complete fucking caricature.

like, we do know why; curlfeather was fucking with him Bad through the whole book. we see in the prologue that this is why he killed harelight. but cmon dude, the immediate jump to threatening kits? feels like there should've been more of an arc to get to this point.

also evil atheist as per usual. people who reject god for whatever reason will murder your children

the way riverclan immediately folds too... I stand by my bitching abt tigerbabygirlstars attempted annexing of riverclan. but holy fuck the way they were written to just fall apart is insane. he had maybe three hardcore supporters? it felt like a lot of riverclan became suddenly insanely crueller than they were - am i meant to believe gorseclaw was living in fear, when he was blocking the shadowclan patrol on the island and jeering at them?

like this happened overnight too. this was insane

anyway

i do love nighthearts growth through this arc. I love how intensely he is Best Friends with frostpaw throughout. her number 1 cheerleader. I do still kind of wish he and sunbeam had broken up but not as bad as i wish moonpaw of next arc was their kid instead

the conclusion of sunbeam and berryhearts arc..... I don't know really

berryheart is, i think, a very real villain, in that she is a horror story that has happened to a lot of people

she's been radicalised into a hateful husk of herself. the people around her are either encouraging this in her or dont know how to help her. she was, more than anything, probably just scared. she wasn't like this before.

it's the kind of thing that happens all the time in real life, watching your mother or another beloved family member get radicalised and not knowing how to reach them as they become hateful, knowing that this is not the person they used to be

i do kind of like that they treated berryheart with so much kindness. with her family choosing to remember the person she was, rather than the person she died as. sunbeams reckoning with just how far gone she was and struggling to remember the kind mother she'd known vs the cruel cat she knows.

she still went to hell. she cannot make up for what she's done. but she did still love sunbeam. the love was there. even if it was dulled and twisted and hard to see or feel. whether or not that matters is different person to person. and it was important to sunbeam

god i wish curlfeather got that much though

i do actually like that curlfeather was too stubborn to apologise. that she feels frostdawn should have been grateful. I love that characterisation for her. I love that frostdawn doesn't forgive her. I think that sunbeam and berryheart are a great mirror to frostdawn and curlfeather, being two radicalised mothers who hurt their children to fix a perceived wrong, fucked it all up bad and then died to save their children but never apologised for it.

the love was there. sometimes that doesn't matter. it didn't to frostdawn.

god i still want to know more about her so badddd. I wouldn't mind seeing her return somehow like how tigerstar haunted the series up til oots

as for frostdawn herself, holy shit i cheered when she got to take down splashtail. i fucking love that she had to choose to come back to riverclan. that being part of this clan is hard and difficult and that they ask too much of her and always have.

even after everything, she still just wanted her mum. cries.

getting to see jayclaw too!! oh i want to know his thoughts so bad. he just wants things to be easy for her. I love that both her parents are a little bit selfish in their own ways. wanting to be with his daughter instead of encouraging her to live......

was also just very happy with how fucking climactic this book was, with a full on war finally FINALLY breaking out. this arc has been ridiculous promising war and then not fucking following through.

idk im tired of typing i probably have more to say. I think i liked this arc overall even though it stretched a little thin and fumbled in quite a few ways. it was good for wc standards though. was never 'bristlefrost stands next to the moonpool for several chapters hoping her boyfriend who she fell in love with off screen' bad.