#mostly dovewing tbh

[willicebattlecatsblog]

I’d just like to say that you and your comics about Lionblaze have made me care for him and his character more than canon ever could dream to, thank you. I never actually gave him much thought before and saw him as annoying, but now I’ve seen the possible potential he could have as a character because the booms just screwed up his personality, and I love seeing your Lionblaze content. I especially love seeing him as a med cat and him getting closer with Leafpool

Your comment means so much to me,,, I am so happy I helped you appreciate the Lionblaze,,,,

Canon did him so dirty by wasting his potential making him ''standard warrior main character''

The canon will give pieces of his personality, but all these pieces are so incredibly under-exploited and incomplete

As an example, him having moral OCD in PoT is genuinely a really good idea knowing the extent of his power, but they just throw this plotline under the rug in the next book (knowing that it's very hard to get rid of OCD lol) Like we see him losing it in the mountains, we see him going ballistic on Crowfeather and Heathertail. Lionblaze knows how dangerous he can be if he isn't always holding back in battle, and it scares him so bad he has vivid nightmares about killing his loved ones. I think it's the first real time in Warriors we had a main character who had the full potential of becoming a villain the moment he stops holding back. Like that's genuinely really good storytelling, and they just??? throw it away in the next book like it never happened????

This dude kills Russetfur, which should have been his worst nightmare becoming reality. That's it, he finally killed someone. Because for just a few seconds, he got so worried about his leader being attacked and probably killed that he stopped holding back. And yet this is less of a plot point than the obviously accidental death of Flametail. Like Jayfeather tries to save a cat who is drowning and is called a murderer during a Gathering, but Lionblaze who kills Russetfur in front of at least 20 cats, that's fine he was just being silly. Like the writers were writing Lionblaze like crap on purpose at this point they had completely given up on him lmfao

We also see his compassionate and empathetic side shine a few times, mostly when he is the one who forgives Squilf and Leafpool the easiest and the fastest. Lionblaze idolizes Brambleclaw and shows a genuine affection for his dad several times and it's genuinely wholesome. Lionblaze has a few really sweet moments with Leafpool and Squilf in OotS :) i cherish these scenes so much.......

He isn't perfect of course, far from it, he can be a douche (mainly to Heathertail, Breezepelt and Dovewing), he is hot-headed and doesn't think before he speaks or acts, he struggles to communicate properly, he often has a weird tunnel-vision in OotS and doesn't listen to Dovepaw's problems with the care it deserves. For most of PoT, despite going through some tough training as an apprentice and later as a newly made warrior, he is almost completely oblivious to the fact that his own mentor Ashfur as a personal beef with him. As someone with the autism rizz, Lionblaze's communication skills are just so autistic to me. This dude has almost no friends, even his ex-apprentice Dovewing isn't on very friendly terms with him (understandable because he was a bad mentor tbh), he feels safe only around his close family, and messes up almost every friendship and relationship he has because he is incapable of communicating properly. Him trying to date Cinderheart was just Lionblaze being absolutely incapable of understanding her point of view, and then proceeding to literally self harm by letting a ShadowClan massacre him to show Cinderpelt he could be harmed on his own will ?? Like what goes on in the Lionblaze's head ?? is he ok ???

Also they could have made him a medicine cat.... I yearn for the Lionblaze medicine cat plotline so much...... Lionblaze being so incredibly scared of hurting anyone again after his nightmares, or after killing Russetfur, that he just drops all the warrior duties and hides in Leafpool's den all day...... also Jayfeather could have been a warrior 100%, we clearly see him fight very well when he is in tandem with one of his siblings, he is capable of running on ThunderClan territory with no issues once he learned the layout, like there's so excuse anymore StarClan just wanted to ruin his life for entertainment

anyway

They could have done do much more with the Lionblaze.......

[boilingrain]

I forced myself to draw a little bit because it's been a while since I've drawn anything (mainly because of lack of motivation), so here's concept designs for Dovewing and Brightheart

Their designs will almost definitely change noticeably whenever it is that I draw them again, these are more of just me getting the basic ideas out and seeing what about those ideas works and what doesn't

I love Dovewing designs where she's got funky looking eyes. Some people looked at the Dovewing Eye Color Debate and decided that her eye color was "yes" and I just love that for her

I definitely knew that I wanted her to have four ears (a mutation in real cats where they'll have extra skin flaps, though that extra set of "ears" doesn't lead to any organs so they technically aren't ears. Also the way I drew it isn't really accurate to how it actually appears irl but shhh creative liberties)

Four eared Dovewing is a fun design, I think :)

While it's not something I've shown or gone into detail about yet (mostly because it's in the Po3 design post I've been making but Jayfeather is really fighting me so that post isn't finished yet), with my designs for the Three, their appearances change a little after they lose their powers in a way meant to symbolize the loss of their powers (if that makes any sense)

I didn't draw it here, but my Post-OotS Dovewing design has her ears kinda torn (something mainly from the battle against the Dark Forest), with her second set of ears (the non functional skin flaps) being almost completely gone. The two sets of ears were meant to be symbolic of her super hearing, so without that second set of ears (without her power) she's just a normal cat, y'know?

Anyways I thought it would be fun if she was a chimera and half of her face (& probably a few patches on her body) was black and the eye on that side of her face was green. To Lionblaze & Jayfeather, it would be a constant reminder of Hollyleaf and how they thought she was the third cat in the prophecy. It doesn't help that the black side of Dovewing's face is the same side that was ginger on Hollyleaf's

Here's a tiny doodle of Hollyleaf's (& Fallen Leaves but he's not important here) design that I've already shared, just so it's more clear what I'm talking about

Also her ears are super fluffy and sort of meant to look like wings and make her look a little angelic

Can you tell that I intend to go nuts with her design lol

Her final design will probably have more white spotting

I have less to say about my Brightheart design tbh

I'm proud of the torn ears, though!

Her eyes turned out a little wonky but that's not a big deal because this is a concept design

The shape of her markings will probably change a bit, but I've basically got her design down pretty clear unless I randomly decide to change something

Anyways I have a bit of a headcanon that Brightbeart used to try to hide the scarred part of her face (through various ways, such as wearing some sort of accessory that at least partially covered her face, hiding partially behind things, and not directly facing anyone) but as she grew more confident in herself, she would show more and more of her face until she eventually just stopped trying to hide her face at all

[troutfur]

I have hard copies of AVoS and if it's after Darktail's death, most of it is really...weird. Raggedstar is ass, Leafstar puts up with so much, Twany really should have gone and got her lives I swear to god. The way the Shadowclanners treated Skyclan and Leafstar is pretty horrible, and especially how one of them poisons Skyclan's preypile with death berries AND THEN Tigerheartstar STILL HONORS THE WARRIOR THAT DID IT BECAUSE THEY DIED SAVING SHADOWKIT, like.. side-eye.

It is after that point aye! I actually dropped pretty early into Tigerheart's Super Edition for the pettiest reason because at that point I had actually not been enjoying AVoS very much (in a way that I think I was being unfair to the text and carrying unfair expectarions tbh) and there was one line of dialogue so clunky I said fuck it and then retreated into mostly consuming Warriors stuff through fic because at least that has better prose. It was something about how Dovewing was describing her prophetic dreams that I really don't remember but it felt very like. This book already has very basic prose which is serviceable to its target audience but this just feels like not caring.

[rubylikesbears]

HI!! It always surprises me when a warrior cats blog follows me gfjdhgf (considering my blog is mostly RWBY)

tbh i saw the dovewing post and i didnt even have to look at anything else 😭😭 already knew i had to follow you 😈

[wander-wren]

more brightswiftcloud thoughts bc i was asked!

okay. so i imagine swift and bright both having a rough time with scars hurting in the winter, but swift moreso bc my mental design for him involves several large patches of scarring where there’s just no fur and thats Yikes. so in the winter they all sleep together in a big cuddle pile to try and help with that, and cuddle during the day when they can!

speaking of sleeping places, i waffled on that a lot but i decided they mostly stick to their respective dens, with occasional sleepovers between two of them or all three

not a ship thing but swiftscar has very mild hearing issues and more moderate balance issues thanks to his ears being shredded and losing half of his tail. i keep trying to implement that in the fics and then i dont rip.

they’re all very protective of one another, extremely close-knit, but tbh, swiftscar is the scariest (yes, it is partially bc hes my favorite, thanks) (after him is brightheart, then cloudtail, who’s more bark than bite). he’s got the Trauma but when his family is threatened he flips. he survived fighting a dog pack, he is not a bad warrior at all despite being a medicine cat now. also the scars and everything serve to make him extra intimidating.

as for whitewing, they’re just as protective of her. brightheart is probably the most strict of them but not by much; she just wants her to be a good warrior. cloudtail is the fun goofy parent, and swiftscar is the best at talking through problems. they’re all pretty good at that, though, from working with each other. i really would like to explore this more in d2d if i can, it’s just hard with the nature of canon being that bright & cloud are Gone for a big chunk of time

i haven’t thought about them much in the context of dovewing and ivypool—i want their story to play out in the same basic way, though, so i can’t let them affect too much. i think they’d make good grandparents, but even so that’s not always enough to keep someone away from the dark forest. which they’d probably feel very guilty about

i don’t think any of them really respect authority—or they do, but very conditionally. they like firestar, of course (well, most of the time), butttttt they’ve seen what bad leadership does. they’re not above speaking out against bad rules, bad leaders, etc. i mean, swift got the whole mates & kits medcat code dropped! main character syndrome honestly

i think swiftscar is the most deeply affected by their trauma (again, partially bc he’s my fave), but brightheart probably has the most anxiety about being a warrior? not in whether she’s good enough necessarily, but if she’s helping her apprentice in the best way, or about clan matters in general. cloudtail doesn’t strike me as an anxious guy.

i feel like i should have more cute and fluffy headcanons but i do not. sorry. i’m bad at fluff. also i haven’t read canon in ages so if anything feels ooc simply Ignore It, it’s headcanon

[lumenflowered]

hiiiii dovewing! name's ade, I'm a pokemon, I work with maria bc, as cool as she seems, she isnt as good with technology as she thinks haha. also shes fun to watch and i like winning battles

aaaaanyway. if you navigate to settings, then scroll down, there's an option for "filtered tags" and "filtered post content." what this does is hide posts and instead say "this post is hidden" and tells you the reason its hidden, you can click to read it if you want but if you dont want to, then dont!

i would personally recommend blocking the tags "warrior skitties", "warrior cats", and "whiscash warriors" (I think that covers all the varying names across the multiverse) as well as "skiterature" bc thats the tag i came up with right now for maria's blog. though if it would help i could also tag it with something along the lines of "dovewing don't look"?

...i mostly do the tagging for maria tbh. she forgets that tags are a thing that exist. a Lot lol. still she uses the internet way better than I thought someone from a world WITHOUT modern technology would so like, props for that?

so do you mind people reading the books that involve your clans? the first, like, twelve have nothing to do with you if that helps.

..I don’t… know? This situation’s too confusing for me still, even if I’m calmer now. You can do whatever you want.. maybe just… refrain from mentioning it? Agh

[cicadagaze]

y'know I'm actually kinda looking forward to doing a reread. partly because I'd like to actually read the newer arcs, but mostly because the last time I read them, I was still a minor (at least I'm pretty sure I was), and I never got to rereading the whole series. I'm an adult now and I've grown and changed, and I'm really curious to see how/if my opinions on some characters will change

[amethyst-halo]

rewrite doodles bc its on my mind again

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Tbh as someone who "had my childhood stolen" due to abuse, I can relate to both Dovewing and Ivypool, albeit Dove much more but Ivy still has some aspects. It hits close to home with me how Ivypaw was essentially forced to keep putting herself into dangerous and traumatic situations just for the benefit of a few adults (mostly Lionblaze) who should have known better and could have done it themselves instead of traumatizing a child. She was forced to put herself in physical danger night after night, forced to not be able to warn anybody else about it (even her own father at one point!!!) and forced to literally murder someone lest she be found out as a spy and murdered herself. I definitely acknowledge she was unnecessarily nasty to Dovepaw/wing (especially post-OOTS) but her childhood wasn't exactly stellar either. And the thing that made her angry with Dove in the first place (Dove getting tons of extra attention and not being able to tell Ivy why) was Lionblaze's fault as well - was there really any actual reason to keep it a secret? Not really. He essentially traumatized both sisters as apprentices out of his own selfishness and incompetence and that's really fucked up.

Conclusion: Lionblaze is the true villain of OOTS. /hj

This is a good analysis, Lionblaze should definitely have done better to try and protect Ivypool. I know Jayfeather is also to blame here but given how Lionblaze was a mentor to Dovewing and did a lot of training with Ivypool, he should have stood up for them both more.

I really hope you’re in a better place now also

[violetparakeetdraweroffurries]

tbh the major plot points of the SE work very, very well w/ Dovewing's character, especially since my desired outcome is Dovewing leaving the Clans all the way back in OOTS, Dollhouse-style

Dove learns that she's pregnant, and since the Clans in general are both very conservative and embroiled in a crisis, she runs away to avoid ostracisation

She meets the Guardian cats, who are depicted as more peaceful, flexible, and tolerant than the Clans, as well as having an easier life, and don't know about her past as a prophecy cat. This is ideal for her, and she considers raising her kits here.

She meets Spire, who has strange dreams about the Clans telling him that Dove belongs in the Clans because they need her, much to her concern, and Blaze, an orphan who decides he wants to join the Clans based on Dove's description, also to her concern

Ivypool follows Dovewing, fulfilling Tigerheart's role, and she has a harder time fitting in with the Guardians, resulting in more conflict between the sisters. There's some deeper psychology stuff behind Dove and Ivy's motivations, but that's for another post.

Dove struggles as a mother, even with the Guardians & Ivy's help, mostly bc they're very young adults and have a lot of trauma-related baggage that they haven't resolved. Dove starts questioning if she really wants to be a mother, or that's just what Clan culture expected of her. She concludes the latter, and confides this to Ivy.

She reexamines her love triangle and slowly comes to the realization that she latched on to both Tiger and Bumble as much as she did because of her prophecy-induced isolation making her desperate for someone to be close to. She also discusses this w/ Ivy, which has its own revelations for Ivy but that's another story.

Ivy also gets some character development as she has to confront the reality staring her in the face: Dove is not happy with Clan life and will never be, and if Ivy cares about her, she should let her go.

Shadowkit has epilepsy and special visions, which is extra hard on Dovewing on account of the whole Clan-life-induced trauma.

Fog and her rogue gang are still there, but mostly so that Ivy can show off her Epic Dark Forest Skillz(tm). Between the rogues and the other dangers of city life, Dove starts to wonder if the city really is safe enough for her kits, especially since the Clans live further from Twolegs, are larger, and have better fighters to protect the kits.

She has some internal conflict regarding whether or not she should go back and fulfill the prophecy, let Blaze join the Clans, Shadowkit's visions, the validity of Spire's visions, etc. and settles on a compromise: she'll only return to the Clans to help them one last time, drop off Blaze and her kits, and then leave, only returning once a season. Ant and Cinnamon go with them for extra protection.

On the way back, they meet Berryheart (who's still pregnant) & Sparrowtail, who fled the Clans bc they found out about the Dark Forest. They question whether the Clans are worth fighting for, which prompts Dove & Ivy to give two different answers.

Spire still dies saving Pouncekit, but this time a DF spirit kills him, and Dove is fatally wounded by an gang of DF spirits while protecting the kits; Ivypool has the really fucking stupid idea of throwing Dove into the Moonpool thinking that since StarClan can grant extra lives and it needs Dove for her powers, they have to save her or else they'll lose the war against the DF

This somehow works, which causes a crisis in faith for both sisters

In the end, Dove and Ivy part ways. Ant & Cinnamon both stay in the Clans, partially out of pity since so many cats died, partially for Blaze's sake. Dove says goodbye to her family and her kits, has a heartfelt discussion w/ cats like Ivy, Briar, etc., and promises to visit them next season. Briar offers to raise Dove's kits for her.

Dove has a huge argument w/ Jay and Lion, who want her to stay, which ends with her calling them out for causing so much of her suffering, cutting ties with them, and leaving the Clans

Dovewing's Shadow >>>>> Tigerheart's Shadow

[squirrelcrow-po3]

some cats i want to know (more) about! i dunno if they've been talked about already i have a bad memory BUT: hollyleaf, cinderheart, willowshine, heathertail, hazeltail, icecloud, ferncloud, foxleap. feel free to take a pick or none or all i dont mind! anyway have a good day :]

tysm!! firstly, the canon three dont really exist in my rewrite. they have counterparts since their parents are squirrelflight and crowfeather! they follow similar story beats as the canon three but have different personalities and slightly different motives. they are cherryflight (hollyleaf) who is upbeat but strict and has gifted kid syndrome, sunchaser (lionblaze) who is bitter and self centered, and feathermist (jayfeather) who is overly empathetic and complaisant.

for the others

cinderheart: im not entirely sure what to do with her in my rewrite tbh. since she really isn't sunchaser’s love interest. i’d love to give her an entirely different character arc independent of him! i would just have to think it through.

willowshine: ough shes a good one. since in my rewrite, hawkfrost and mothwing switch ranks, hawkfrost is her mentor as riverclan’s med cat. so she is heavily traumatized by having a cruel mentor. and later in the fanmade arc, she is riverclan’s only high rank left after most of the clan cats are killed. and when shadowclan annexes them, she trains juniperpaw since shadowclan has no medicine cat. and she is very much disturbed by his ambition and cruelty because it reminds her of hawkfrost. in the rewrite,, she’s more withdrawn.

heathertail: another character i changed a lot! firstly, they are a they/them nonbinary cat! secondly, they are the kit of mudclaw instead, who is exiled from windclan rather than dying. they are sunchaser’s main love interest but they are both not good cats! they are on and off mates throughout po3 and oots. and after they have kits, they break up permanently and mostly use the kits to hurt one another.

hazeltail: i don’t have much for her, but i kinda wanted her to want to know more about her father! it would be interesting if she felt out of place in thunderclan for a bit, especially in her apprenticeship.

icecloud: also haven’t thought much about her either :[

ferncloud: now she’s a side character i have thought of! she is not mates with dustpelt. i changed it so that thornclaw is a rogue kit brought into thunderclan, so they are mates! ferncloud became a mother early into her life because she admired her mother, but also somewhat out of a feeling of obligation. she does love thornclaw! but sometimes she wishes she stayed a warrior longer. she also dies in po3 during the fire scene,, mostly for more emotional impact. but she is actually reborn as ivypool!! since in my rewrite, the three + dovewing and ivypool are reincarnations of cats introduced in the series rather than random tribe cats we don't care about lmao

foxleap: i have a little bit about him! he actually gets a mate! he’s in a poly triad with poppyfrost and berrynose! he does die in oots but he’s lived on by cherrykit and molekit

[need1etail]

au where olivenose, scorchfur and owlclaw are the three

OOOO I like that idea :00

- The prophecy would be completely different. They'd probably be related to Blackstar in some way, keeping the "Kin of your kin" going?

- Tbh I like the idea of them all keeping the Three's power, besides Jayfeather because it just doesn't fit any of them lmao. Olivenose has Dovewing's (making her able to see StarClan sort of, being able to see and hear so far), Owlclaw has Lionblaze's, and meanwhile Scorchfur has the ability to manupilate shadows, making it easy to spy on the Dark Forest trainees and battle, especially in ShadowClan territory.

- Olivenose is probably the most powerful of the three. She has a strong connection to StarClan because of her powers.

- Tbh? I thought Owlclaw was a she-cat for some reason so she's trans now ifjwjdiisc idk why??? I can't remember them in the books whatsoever. So that might be a bit of an important part in her growth, but she's mostly just worried that she'll accidentally kill someone like Lionblaze is.

- Scorchfur trains in the Dark Forest for a while before realizing it's terrible. He becomes a spy like Ivypool and brings it back to the other two.

Basically the same ending as OOTS but the Three are WAY more important lmao. I like this AU tho it was a little hard to churn five of these out fjejdjxj

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

today in a discord server me and someone else tried to tell someone that by warriors standards, ivyfern is fine and they wouldn't listen because "The age gap is gross" (it's only a year at most), "Because there was a time skip lol she definitely wpuld spend time with her mentors child" (ivy's mentor wasn't even lion but i see what they mean now). (1/?? probably 3-ish)

"Dove is literally ivys sister its not a stretch to say they wouls have a similar degree kd closeness especially sicne they were all closely involved in the main plot of the 4th arc" (i don't even know what this means), "The relationship would be fine if it wasnt incest ans age gap period" (their age gap isn't that bad), "Then dont blame people for hating it because prefer ivypool to be sapphic when its literally not the reason" (that's just most peoples' reasoning)... i'm done. 

~~~

well it’s definitely more than a year, probably more like a year and a half age gap, still not terrible though

but also fernsong has two parents

cinderheart is his mom

cinderheart was ivypool’s mentor lol

but anyway, ivypool being cinderheart’s apprentice isn’t the problem, the age gap isn’t really the problem (it FEELS like the age gap is bigger because we didn’t even see fernsong until like 3 years after oots was over in the REAL WORLD but in the books only like a year-ish had passed since the last hope/dovewing’s silence)

the actual related-ness isn’t even a big problem, they’re second cousins through cinderheart and 3rd cousins through lionblaze, which isn’t bad with warriors standards, and it’s not even entirely that people just see ivypool as sapphic, it’s MOSTLY

a. personality reasons, ivypool didn’t seem to be the type to want kits

b. it’s very obviously forced just to make ivypool have kits and we saw no build up to it, fernsong was like “ivypool pretty and cool” and ivypool was like “okay i don’t wanna have kits tho” “i’ll take care of them!” “oh alright then”

c. the prophecy that was the center of the books for two whole series is specifically about lionblaze and dovewing being related, so to have ivypool marry lionblaze’s son, who she BLATANTLY KNOWS SHE’S RELATED TO, and that the readers ABSOLUTELY KNOW THEY’RE RELATED makes it feel weird, like it’s not like the other times where like it’s very easy to forget that brackenfur and brightheart are siblings and that snowbush is bright’s son and lilyheart is bracken’s daughter

i don’t really care about ivyfern either way tbh, i understand people who dislike/hate it, i understand people who like it, but it’s also definitely not something to fight/argue about it’s not a “i will die on this hill” kind of thing

[fencesandfrogs]

cloudtail’s daughter: hollyleaf

alright, continuing my long running deluge of words, we move on to hollyleaf.

ah, hollyleaf. canon did you dirty. luckily, given your lifespan, i can do whatever i want with you. as long as you end up in starclan. also i haven't read squirrelflight's hope so i don't know the deal with that.

right. but as far as i'm concerned, i get to do whatever i want to do with her, and that means i'm...less making tweaks to her character and more giving us more of her, and smoothing out her character arc, because it's all a mess, you don't need me to tell you that.

alright, as per usual, warnings/disclaimers/we: this is for my cloudtail's daughter au. this goes pretty off the rails from canon, so i suspect it'll be coherent, but i still think either the main au explanation or the dovewing post is a better place to start.

2.5k words, 10min read. the least organized of all of these (no section headers).

right so i'm not really sure where to begin with hollyleaf, but i think the best place is the earliest one yet: roughly the fire scene. because hollyleaf is breaking one of my cardinal rules: don't mess with what came before, and so it's best we start there, i think.

right, so hollyleaf, as we know, takes the news about her parentage badly. and i'm not taking that away, mostly, but she doesn't devolve quite so quickly. because i just. don't like it.

hollyleaf is smart, she's loyal, it's a reasonable decision for her to fall of the rails as such, but i just really don't like it. i want hollyleaf to fall apart and come back together. i want her to have to deal with the consequences of her actions. and in this essay i will.. no but i'm getting ahead of myself, we'll do all that. first things first, though, hollyleaf keeps herself together, until she realizes ashfur isn't going to let this stay secret.

so she kills him.

and the truth comes out pretty fast. like no one is 100% sure but everybody knows.

and that? that is what really cracks hollyleaf.

right so remember in my worldbuilding post when i said something-something-i-don't-care-about-hollyleaf's-story? yeah turns out that was a fucking lie.

because i realized that i couldn't really make this work unless i knew why hollyleaf came back because well it's kind of a big deal. so i had to figure it out, and i was hyper proud of myself for realizing she could save dovepaw from the tunnels, and then i was like "well people have a lot of questions for her," to the point where one of the chapters in fading echoes is titled "questions" and it's just straight up people questioning what happened to her.

so. she still goes into the tunnels. and she meets fallen leaves. and they hit it off, probably a little faster. (tbh i'm still not interested in writing this, just what happens).

and she chills walright, continuing my long running deluge of words, we move on to hollyleaf.

ah, hollyleaf. canon did you dirty. luckily, given your lifespan, i can do whatever i want with you. as long as you end up in starclan. also i haven't read squirrelflight's hope so i don't know the deal with that.

right. but as far as i'm concerned, i get to do whatever i want to do with her, and that means i'm...less making tweaks to her character and more giving us more of her, and smoothing out her character arc, because it's all a mess, you don't need me to tell you that.

alright, as per usual, warnings/disclaimers/we: this is for my cloudtail's daughter au. this goes pretty off the rails from canon, so i suspect it'll be coherent, but i still think either the main au explanation or the dovewing post is a better place to start.

right so i'm not really sure where to begin with hollyleaf, but i think the best place is the earliest one yet: roughly the fire scene. because hollyleaf is breaking one of my cardinal rules: don't mess with what came before, and so it's best we start there, i think.

right, so hollyleaf, as we know, takes the news about her parentage badly. and i'm not taking that away, mostly, but she doesn't devolve quite so quickly. because i just. don't like it.

hollyleaf is smart, she's loyal, it's a reasonable decision for her to fall of the rails as such, but i just really don't like it. i want hollyleaf to fall apart and come back together. i want her to have to deal with the consequences of her actions. and in this essay i will... no but i'm getting ahead of myself, we'll do all that. first things first, though, hollyleaf keeps herself together, until she realizes ashfur isn't going to let this stay secret.

so she kills him.

and the truth comes out pretty fast. like no one is 100% sure but everybody knows.

and that? that is what really cracks hollyleaf.

right so remember in my worldbuilding post when i said something-something-i-don't-care-about-hollyleaf's-story? yeah turns out that was a fucking lie.

because i realized that i couldn't really make this work unless i knew why hollyleaf came back because well it's kind of a big deal. so i had to figure it out, and i was hyper proud of myself for realizing she could save dovepaw from the tunnels, and then i was like "well people have a lot of questions for her," to the point where one of the chapters in fading echoes is titled "questions" and it's just straight up people questioning what happened to her.

so you know everything is fine until a thunderclan apprentice stumbles into the tunnels, hurt and scared, unable to protect herself.

hollyleaf and fallen leaves protect dovepaw, a flood happens, i haven't worked out the details and i'm fairly tired ATM, so please forgive my handwaving.

so yeah, dovepaw is with them for three days.

hollyleaf basically gets caught by cinderheart when they're going back, so she's like "well guess now i gotta see my family" and cinderheart is like "yeah u idiot we all miss u n i love u but i am dating ur brother now" and hollyleaf is like "fair enough i have a ghost boyfriend" and they're all good

everyone has a hell of a lot of questions for hollyleaf. i have a whole chapter dedicated to it. here are some of them, and some of the answers.

brambleclaw: why didn't you tell me? (no, he hasn't learned from squirrelflight how unhelpful this question is) hollyleaf: because you're the deputy and there's no guarantee you wouldn't out me, considering you were still disowning me

dovepaw: yo so there was another cat with you wasn't there? hollyleaf: ohhh yeah i have a ghost boyfriend sorry forgot to tell you that

squirrelflight: do you still hate me? hollyleaf: mom i'm so sorry i love you so much

and then hollyleaf is home. i mean jayfeather won't talk to her but that's a few books from now, when they have ghost partners, okay?

but before that, she has to go do beavers, and she never gets a real proper chance to make up with everyone

(don't worry, she'll get the chance before she dies.)

right so dovepaw has her beaver stuff and hollyleaf tags along because Nine Is A Holy Number

really, i just need a narrator on the beaver quest, and for reasons i've mentioned but will explain in a moment, it can't be cinderheart.

so i have this symbolism going where dove/ivy start and end the series (what, i'm big on structural symbolism. i put thought into everything. especially since i'm limited in these books with what/how i accomplish, so the things that are entirely mine, like who narrates what, is carefully thought out). anyway that's because they have turning points in their relationship in the first and last book. they fall apart at the midpoint of growing shadows, and they aren't fully repaired ever, but they get closest at about the midpoint of the last hope. that's a symbolic thing, that they've come back to where they've started, but not quite. can't go back, even if you regret.

regret is a big theme in this series. ivy and dove are a pair in part because they're bound by all of these regrets that keeps stacking up.

now, the natural choice for a narrator of the beavers would be cinderheart. she's a substitude lionblaze as far as this book is concerned. however, cinderheart needs to be the main narrator when she takes dovepaw to the tribe. she just does. so we could do two cinderheart books in a row, but then where do we put lionblaze? he's not really a major character in the second arc, he basically does nothing. i guess we could have him deal with sol, but cinderheart's arc is supposed to be she learns how to solve problems in different ways, and that's why she's able to tackle sol. so, like, fine, what if we make cinderheart and lionblaze arc one narrators, and have sol be a background thing? i mean, if i did it for the dark forest, i could definitely do it for this.

so that does create one problem: regret doesn't bind cinderheart to lionblaze. regret is a theme through cinderpelt and cinderheart. lionblaze is a sexy lamp. he doesn't mean anything, he's just a love interest to challenge cinderheart. so. it feels bad to me to artifiically pair them together and imply they have a dynamic like that.

and the larger problem is what it does to hollyleaf and jayfeather.

see, hollyleaf and jayfeather have this aborted forgiveness arc, that plagues jayfeather. i'm going to write a jayfeather super edition so help me god, but that's for another time. anyway, hollyleaf is trying to make up with everyone, but jayfeather won't let her.

and he's never going to get the chance to make amends, because she dies in the last book.

but anyway, if we make hollyleaf and jayfeather the exclusive narrators of books 4 and 5, we imply their character arc happens. there. and that's...not what happens.

it's aborted. they're decoupled, desynched. they have a moment of synchrony, where they have this shared experience, but it's not enough. hollyleaf is in jayfeather's past, and he's tryign so hard to move forward. it's all ~very symbolic.~

right. back to the present day, hollyleaf has to go to do the beavers mostly because i said so, but also because i'm cautious about drawing false parallels. i think it was cinderheart's essay where i said this is the only part of it i have control over (was it earlier in this essay i've worked on this for like 3 days) and so i want to do it right. but also, she's going to be a good narrator, becuase she's covering a lot of ground, and i think hollyleaf is pretty interesting.

so hollyleaf, my dear, terrified of breaking the code, hollyleaf, watches dovepaw and tigerheart get...close.

and this is. well, hollyleaf has seen what happened when people date illegal options. and it's not good.

so she spends most of the book just kinda panicking, waiting for the moment this goes south.

beavers happen, it's the same as the books, i'm super uninterested in that plotline to the point of memery. hollyleaf is fine, everything is fine, dovepaw is sad now because cats died, everything is fine.

so i mentioned at some point or the other that dovepaw begins sleeping on top of tigerheart. dovepaw, at this point, is fully grown, but she's on the smaller side. she's a standard to small cat. tigerheart is a tigerstar clone, and tigerstar has some maine coon genes or something because he's massive. so uhh you know she probably could literally sleep on top of him but it's not quite that, it's more she's curled up and he's kind of curled up around her, but not as a concious thing. it's similar to when u accidentally wake up cuddling someone bc u shared a bed and that's that. but less awkward.

anyway hollyleaf is like "cinderheart cinderheart we should do something this is a problem," but if u remember from cinderheart, cinderheart is also being nagged by cinderpelt about this.

so cinderheart doesn't want to hear it and hollyleaf is pretty much "whelp guess i'll just die" and by die i mean quietly glare at tigerheart and shower dovepaw in love and affection.

anyway yeah after that hollyleaf does nothing for like two books.

or one book? i guess beavers is book two anyway look she misses her gf but cinderheart is in the mountains and then she's like "oh wait i have a ghost bf i should talk to"

so hollyleaf spends more and more time in the tunnels. this book actually takes place at about the same time as distant whispers. there's not 100% overlap, but it's close.

right so jayfeather (i swear i wrote dovefeather this is the problem with having 3 linked aus god) follows hollyleaf into the tunnels and he has his whole time travel sequence/half of it i still haven't decided what i'm doing with it.

and hollyleaf and fallen leaves have good ole interpersonal drama, where they're trying to be a thing but hollyleaf belongs in thunderclan and yes, this means that hollyleaf is the character who gets the singular book, because jayfeather is extremely isolated from the main plot. in fact, the only reason i keep the time travel plot is because canon. not that i don't like that it exists but for it to have been executed well it needs to be less disjoint. which is why i think i'm breaking A Rule so i can put it all in oots so it's more logical. but that's a different rant.

anyway, there's a quasi-religious conflict where hollyleaf is like "just go to starclan" and fallen leaves is like "my whole problem is how i can't do that"

uh yeah idrk exactly what happens it is once again 3am so uhhh yeah ghost cats she considers leaving thunderclan bc jayfeather won't talk to her lionblaze is away she's still mad at leafpool and squilf is in an abusive relationship and hollyleaf is still pretty young, y'know? that's a lot.

firestar is like "grand daughter i love you dearly but can u maybe uh can u maybe make up your god damn mind"

anyway so hollyleaf and fallen leaves have a bit of a fight, he's like, "i'm keeping u back," she's like "ur not" but she knows he is, etc etc it's very sad and dramatic

so they kind of break up? it's a lil complicated but basically they're not talking to each other for a while, they're on the cat equivalent of "taking a break" ig

alright, so then book 5 happens, and it's jayfeather and cinderheart prepping for the great battle. idk. hollyleaf chills w lionblaze in BGCH and makes friends with ivypool. it's chill. i mean, it's not, but it is.

book six, hollyleaf is the only one to stay in thunderclan. she's kinda j chilling til the battle. and then. and then. oh this is the good part.

she sacrifices her self for ivypool.

yeah. okay, this is super disjoint, so i'm going with it. hollyleaf? done.

[kestrelblaze]

2, 5 and 18?

2) top 5 The Prophecy Begins characters?

Tallstar, Whitestorm, Longtail, Frostfur, and Lionheart.

5) Favorite Forbidden Romance?

Honestly I'm not a very big fan of "Forbidden Romances" XD mostly because I think they are overdone to hell and back at this point XD

That said I liked Lionpaw and Heatherpaw for awhile. I think the idea behind Dovewing and Tigerstar is also very interesting but very not well done.

18) Favorite Medicine Cat? (Cut off point is OotS)

Cries as my favorites are introduced in the next two arcs

This is hard to pick tbh... I love Cinderpelt and Mothwing a lot XD and Kestrelflight and Littlecloud!

[goatpaste]

i love your art and all and maybe this sound silly but,,, what is exactly warriorcats? i want know more of the fandom

ty!

and its a book series! its called warriors but yknow for easier searching and it sounds better everyone just says ‘warrior cats’ lol

but its a book series that got super popular! and its being going on, and it still on going for nearly 20 years

and its just about 4 groups of cats living out in the woods and they got cat laws and stuff. and fun names where their name usually start off as like (blank)kit. Usually their prefix name is colors, flowers, nature, animals and ect. then they become apprentices and are renamed (blank)paw and they train to be warriors to fight for their clan and whatever and get the suffix in their name from paw to something else and whatever. like theres bluefur, jayfeather, flipclaw and swiftbreeze and stuff like that. and their leaders get nine lives and their suffix changes to star.

and the first six set of books is about this one pet named rusty renamed firepaw is prophecies to help the clans and whatever. and he becomes a super swaggy warrior and kicks ass or whatever. 

and after the first series where firepaw becomes fireheart and ofc firestar, (because you shouldn’t be surprised that the main character prophecies to be super swaggy in a young teen novel becomes the leader) its about his daughter squirrelflight and her friends but mostly her and brambleclaw (son of the least series main villian) and their stupid not that interesting or good relationship despite what you would hope would come from it.

then the next series is about squirrelflights kids jayfeather, lionblaze and hollyleaf and they have super powers maybe. tbh i dont remember a lot about that series, it had iconic scenes and stuff and cringe idiots. some of those cats sure had super powers and was a lot of build up to the next series.

and then the next series is aLSO about squirrelflights babies but now their not her babies because “surprise” they were her sister leafpool’s kids and for some reason even tho leafpool has been nothing but kind to the said kids and squirrelflight raised them with love, the kids treat them both like their dirty and terrible liars and not their moms. also dovewing is there and shes like the great niece of firestar and she’s hanging out with the cats from the last series

then the fifth series i didnt read but i think its about squirrelflight actual kid alderheart but i dont really know if thats true, again i didn’t read the books after some point in the fourth series

and if its not about alderheart then i think its about his adopted daughter uuuuh twigbranch or something and her sister violetshine, but more about violetshine i think. she seems important. and i think both of them change clans once or twice maybe, violetshine hangs out with an anime villian and i think her and twigbranch have THE most convoluted backstory from what i understood from their wiki.

then violetshine marries a stoner named tree and the next series about their kid stoner baby jr AKA rootpaw who is full of rage. also supporting main characters are dovewings son shadowsight and dovewings sister’s boring incest baby bristlefrost.

and i say incest baby because at this point in the series if you cant tell everyone is related to firestar or firestars nephew and the gene pool is entirely them, i think at least 80% of the group their apart of is their family. and remember how i said their was stupid forest cat rules? one of those rules was no having babies from outside the clan idiot! which is a dumb rule and has lead to stupid forbidden romances and so many incest babies. hardly anyone can have babies without being related anymore. the writers of the books series have accidentally made siblings mate, made uncles and nieces mates without realizing it.

look at this 

its a mess! and bristlefrost parents had parents/siblings who were apart of a prophecy about being related to firestar

also i havent even mentioned ghost cats because theres a variety to chose from! theres starclan which is cat heaven and the cats seek guidance from starclan through dreams, omens and prophecies despite all of starclan being made of dead cats they once knew. like their drinking pool water and holding a sayonce to ask their friend ted who died last year how much sugar goes in the recipe but fuck dude, ted is just a dead he doesn’t know. he shrugs and him and your other dead buddies get together and make a rough estimation of maybe a cup or two 

and then theres the dark forest where cats that starclan deemed bad and wrong go. its hell! its hell for cats! but starclan and the clans in general are kinda dick heads and I believe has sent some cats there unfairly while letting other shit heads into cat heaven. but thats me

and then theres just straight up ghost cats, i think its purgatory for cats? i havent read the part were ghost showed up. by the way didn’t mention this earlier, but the cat named Tree i mentioned earlier can see ghost and summon them i think. its just a thing that the group he was from can do, and his son rootpaw can also do it. its a big part of the series as a ghost is pillowing around a deadmans rotting corpse.

also tree was from a group that wasn’t apart of the clans named the sisters, they were an all female group who could see ghost or something. they seem neat. again, showed up in book i didnt read

and the starclan thing is only for clan cats, if you dont believe and dedicate yourself to starclans magic ways and rules you dont go here. where do you go? iuhknow somewhere dummy, you dont need to know.

theres two cats who dont believe in starclan which is funny to two extents which, one is a healer who are meant to talk to starclan and receive prophecies and stuff. Two, both were in a big war were starclan manifested in the real world with the dark forest and they killed each other. yes! the ghost manifested and made each other double super forever dead. and these cats still dont believe in starclan. but yknow what their fair, starclan is dumbass

this isn’t important but im on a roll now, and i just need to mention there was a group of cats who did yoga.

also! theres four clans!

the main one we only see for three-four series is thunderclan. their known for being the main character! their just very good and perfect and heroic and again, have main character syndrome. you will only see what thunderclan is up to for 4 series AT LEAST without reading the side books.

theres shadowclan, which when introduce at the series start is introduced as villians, their said to be evil and very very bad. they eat rats and stalk around at night like weirdos. however through reading the side books and the progression of the series you realize shadowclan had two evil rulers and MANY idiots. i love them, their very good at hiring clearly evil cats with bad ideology as their leaders and just blindly following them.

riverclan, they can swim! thats their gimmick! their lazy, pretty and arrogant. i love them their dumbasses and this one line of their wiki pages is enough said on them and is the funniest thing

then theres windclan, they sleep on the moor and run really fast. the first book series their fucking missing because shadowclan bullied them into leaving. we really dont see a lot of windclan until the second series, despite how often the cats have to walk through their lands to get places. tallstar is the first leader you meet in the series and i love him, he fucked firestars dad shitlips. 

all in all i think you probably wanted a short simple explanation but i got into it

the book series is bad, but very fun and very stupid. its so funny and bad.

its got its issues! i have a lot of complaints about it and its writing. but if you want an easy read to get into! i recommend it! if you have better things to do however, do that. theres better things out there than warriors I promise