#sunnymoon rambles

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I saw people doing a warrior cats unpopular opinion thing, and I thought about mine and like

My (maybe?) unpopular opinion is that A Shadow in RiverClan would have been better suited as a Mistyfoot-centric book.

The story makes Feathertail wildly out of character with who she is in The New Prophecy, and I feel like all the story beats would work just as well with Mistyfoot struggling as deputy to connect with her clanmates. It's the struggle between knowing your clan would have left you for dead in that hole, but knowing just as well that your mother's clan was never happy with you in it. Where do you belong? How do you cope?

How do you cope knowing that your friend was the lover of the dictator that ordered the death of your brother? The man who hated you for the crime of being your mother's shadow. How can you listen to her say that she misses him? You don't cope. You look at Hawkpaw and Mothpaw in a new light. They're a shadow of their father and don't even know it.

You're now in the pawsteps of the others around you. You look at them, and you see their traitorous father. Your clanmates look at you and see your mother, who was once the enemy of RiverClan. Legacy is inescapable, but you try to look past it. You regret knowing everything you do. You wish that the secrets would have just stayed buried.

It means a lot more when Leopardstar dies for you. It's not just a leader dying for her clanmate - it's what any leader should do. It's a leader dying for her deputy. It's a leader who understands that she should have died nine times over for Stonefur, but she didn't, and now all she can do is lay her life down for you. Things are not always going to be good between you both. But for now the two of you understand one another. There will not be another Bonehill, execution, or death.

You are the deputy of RiverClan. You are a part of RiverClan, and this is your home.

No matter what it takes.

[loversys-x3]

I've checked my snail mail tracking and apparently Moon is moving faster thru the mailing system than Sun. Which makes sense from the order I got them I think, but it still makes me a lil impatient because Sun literally just left the shipping department while Moon is. Somewhere? By a beach I think. Idk which one. Agh. I just can't wait for them to come in. So I have two more plushies to cuddle and get face rashes with besides Strong Bad and Wally.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

The first passage is SO GOOD it made me actually get the book and start reading (something I do embarrassingly rarely) and man, it’s just interesting. Like, even going in knowing that the books have a lot of theme issues later on, it’s good for inspiration, I think. The salute is so creative and interesting and auuugh.

Thank u mister Bonefall for reading so I would end up reading too

A fire happens, the cute little stallion gets torched, and Clan territory is totally incinerated. They spent the night on the beach and Ratha wakes up to the proper introduction of Mr. Meoran, Our Antagonist For Today

[ID: Ratha bares her throat in a customary greeting and worried Meoran might abuse his ceremonial right and just bite her open]

I have SUCH a softness for big bads like this, man. I love this king caveman of a brute, and the idea he's such a primitive beast that there's a real chance he will enact the Law of the Jungle on her.

Aside from this custom being a really neat way to feline-ify a salute, it's just super cool how quickly we get across that Meoran is more animalistic than other Named cats.

With his hatred of the Unnamed, it would have been a really neat way to establish right off the bat for the series, "The real threat is an animal in our own midst, and he keeps us fighting against people who are not our enemies"

But ho hum. Anyway, Chad Meoran time

[ID: Thakur gently tries to suggest that maybe Meoran shouldn't bring the clan back to a barren, fire-ravaged wasteland. Meoran says Shut Up]

This is so funny djfhdjd brainless fucking dude. "I WANT TO GO HOME THE HORSECOWS WILL BE FINE."

"Sir this is a bad idea"

"1-800-DID-I-ASK?"

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I think there is something interesting about critiques of Warrior Cats versus like, more adult media. And that's the way that Warrior Cats is, ultimately, a series for children, and I believe the fandom can sometimes be a great way to point out the major, major morals this series imparts. I think that characters should be and are encouraged to be flawed, HOWEVER, I wish that Warriors would be a little more careful with the messages that get put on page, whether they intend for it or not. Things like, get back with your abuser (Squirrelflight and Bramblestar, Dovewing and Tigerheartstar will remain an example of this to me too, even though it worked out), or literally anything about adoption from Dawn of the Clans, or the ways outsiders are portrayed. Or Spottedleaf's Heart.

I think the ways in which people make criticisms to Warriors in particular is really meaningful because I remember reading these books as a child myself and being so immersed in it. I also remember the Warriors forums and how awful the opinions on there could be sometimes, solely because of influence from the books. I don't know. I just feel like it's important to really nitpick children's media.

Like, Wings of Fire is by no means perfect, but at the very least it tries to have every character grow by the end of the book in some meaningful way that children and adults are able to understand. Warriors, I think, should lean into that more. Every book seems to be trying to tell a story rather than to impart something meaningful, and I think that's a little sad, considering the potential there to talk about the difficulties of family dynamics, the closeness and problems of communities, and just.. so much more than it has been.

So shoutout to people who rewrite! It's a tough job, but y'all are nailing it.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Another thought I’ve been having relates back to The Scorching, the history behind it, and how much of a good twist it was to throw out. I don’t know if it was planned or a convenient retcon, but it works on so many levels thanks to the themes already present. It also leads to some interesting theories.

Burn could never have been queen. The first action we see her do in the books is destroy an egg due to hatch within the next few nights. It’s cruel, and most of all, it sealed her fate. The kingdoms were founded on the blood and tears of furious mothers, broken hearted from losing their eggs and determined to keep their broods safe. Burn couldn’t have been queen, because that is not what a queen should be. Thorn takes the throne because she took over a city, created an army, and fought tooth and claw to find and save her lost dragonet, despite the odds.

Glory takes the throne because she is the dragonet who should have been cared for. She should have been seen, noticed, and saved. She wants to be queen not to have the nicest things, but because someone should care when a dragonet disappears. The first dragon she rescues is a dragonet. She is worthy because Grandeur gave up on her dragonets and her tribe, but Glory refused to give up.

Coral isn’t a good dragon; her abuses and her absolute classist nature are abhorrent. However, she is marked by her craze as she watched as so many of her daughters were crushed in their eggs. The horror of losing a child is what marks a queen, in some shape or form. Orca was not worthy of the throne, because before she even challenged her mother, she devised a way to kill every dragonet that could challenge her before they so much as crawled out of their egg.

What one truly has to wonder is when the rules changed. When did it become a rule that to become queen, there had to be a fight to the death? When did mothers find themselves pitted against daughters, sisters, nieces, all for the power of the throne she has? Who came up with the deadly challenge?

One can only wonder.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I wanted to throw my hat in the ring to show off how Moonpaw’s family tree is a gnarled bush. It’s a bit hard to read but that’s because everyone is related to each other! I don’t even think I hit all the points they’re related to each other at.

Erin Hunter delete Whitestorm

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Sorry to bounce off! But I wanted to throw my ten cent in.

If you want a nasty, mean competitor for your New Zealand cats, consider THE FERRET. I love ferrets, they are amazing. They were introduced to New Zealand to help with the rabbits that were also introduced. And they are such a horrible little problem. They are feral, they are pests, it’s the only place that has feral ferrets, in fact! They compete for local fauna, and man, a ferret can MESS UP A CAT. My little Pippy would eat a cat if we let her (she’s a menace)

That’s a lot to say that in a continent that is very devoid of a lot of predator threats, the ferret exists.

Forward facing predator

.. I just like talking about ferrets. No good sources or anything, but FERRETS

i’m having issues with my clan, they’re supposed to be set in new zealand and i’m having issues finding good sources for research on the wildlife there.

I, shamefully, know very little about New Zealand to start with, so I began with the classic search;

"Intro to New Zealand Ecology"

I found the Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao, it seems to have a good intro to NZ's ecology and is funded by the government there. Bottom of this article seems to have more links to specific questions

Try to pick a specific region of NZ once you've narrowed it down, like a named forest or county, or the North or South, any interesting region. You can usually find better info once you've moved away from "overview of landmass" and have picked a specific biome

Good luck!

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

KICKS IN THE DOOR

Okay, so what if Bluestar’s prophecy was outright and blatantly wrong? What if it was a complete misreading of the sign?

Take Goosefeather’s Curse out of the equation. Bluepaw’s strange encounter with the fox and the fire could probably have been interpreted in many different ways.

She was separated by a predator’s jaws - she was SAVED - by a burning branch. What if her prophecy always meant that she would be saved from danger by fire, instead?

Bluestar was never meant to be fire. She was the ferocious mother of ThunderClan, its leader and queen. But ever since she was but an apprentice, StarClan had always known that fire would save her - and her beloved clan - from a danger that lurked in their very forest. Fire would save her. Fire would save everyone.

Perhaps, maybe, Goosefeather just couldn’t interpret it correctly because he hadn’t had the pieces to.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Some inch-resting things I clocked while reading the new Wings of Fire guidebook. No super mind blowing analysis but here are some spoilers for things I found fun

The tribes that moved to Pantala years ago are BeetleWings, RainWings, SeaWings and LeafWings. Makes sense!

HiveWings have the ability to shoot some form of RainWing venom from their tails

SkyWings barely had nuclear families but had really cute wedding ceremonies :)

The real villain of the MudWing succession crisis were the abusive sisters we picked up along the way.

NightWings created the first written language!

The SkyWings have their own method of weeding out animus dragons.

There’s very particular wording in the book that states that “there haven’t been any male rulers since before the Scorching” which suggests that there HAVE been men on the throne in some far off distant past, but that the Scorching (aka The Fury of the Mothers) changed the succession rules.

Speaking of succession rules, it looks like the Pantalan tribes specifically pick their successors! Whenever the Pyrrhian tribes started doing mother daughter combat for throne started after the splitting off of those tribes, I bet. Somewhere 4,000-3,000 years ago at most.

Several mentions of the three moons. In the Tales of the NightWings, there was a NightWings who didn’t receive his power until he had a vision of a hurricane and two full moons. Additionally, Cricket specifies that Clearsight had the tribes move inland to seek shelter during a night of three full moons because of “bad vibes” - I wonder if that was to ensure that her descendants didn’t accidentally pick up old NightWings powers? Or it’s a coincidence.

IceWings have a pretty unique religion! It’s mentioned, but never delved into much - but enough fodder to play with, I think.

The Hives were organized into specific areas of study and research, such as Botany Hive, Animal Husbandry Hive, Arts and Humanities Hive, Medicine Hive, and more!

The RainWings became peaceful probably two generations after Darkstalker, or at least one generation. Mostly due to bad things happening. They became a primarily oral storytelling tribe!

There’s a branch of around 30 NightWings settled in the Old Night Kingdom! And it sounds like they’re finally getting to heal from the island.

Missing pieces from the animus IceWing collection, the intrigue!

Cliff has a dad and probably had no idea that his dad is a nursery daycare man who has been taking care of him this whole time in secret so Ruby could keep his dad safe but now Ruby feels safe enough to get married QQ

RainWings had a whole assassin program way back in the Darkstalker days. No wonder he found them so uninspiring (even though I adore those funky guys).

There was specifically a mention in Tales of the NightWings that there was an empath, much like Fatespeaker is. I wonder if they had any other empaths during the volcano era.

The horror of your brother including the letter you sent him about being with eggs getting included in his encyclopedia. Girl has a free pass for one throttling.

The SeaWings might be moving back to the Island Palace >:)

There’s more in there but that’s all I could think of thank u for reading <3

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I’ve been thinking lately about Darkstalker, and the two thousand year gap between his childhood and his awakening. I don’t think it can be stated enough how long a time that is.

Dragons grow quickly in Wings of Fire, with typically dragons being able to reach to 100 years old, if not hampered by violence or disease. This doesn’t make 2,000 years any less a huge gap. The Romans founded Londinium in 47 AD, and occupied it until 410 AD. 2,021 years ago, Caesar was Ides of March’d. 2,000 years ago, Augustus was Roman emperor. Much of western Europe is scattered Germanic and Celtic tribes. The world is so vastly different. China has the highest population of some 60 million people. The first written mention of Japan was recorded in the first century AD. English wasn’t even a language, at least not in any form but a proto one.

And I find it fascinating because I know it’s on purpose! Tui is a history major (you can tell from her grasp on science and linguistics) and you can see the Roman influence especially, the mentions of trade routes, the way technology clearly has high points and low points and lost arts. We’ve only recently realized that Roman statues were painted and not just white. The RainWing/NightWing tribe is going to have such a time studying the language. The loss and discovery of language and culture is something that I think will be beneficial for them, but man they are so many steps removed from their ancestors. They’ve been living on that volcanic island since before Britain had a royal family (by some 800 years).

I don’t know, I just think it’s something I have a hard time wrapping my head around until I put it in real world terms. NightWings haven’t had powers for so long - the Great Fire of Rome happened roughly 2,000 years ago. Nero was (not) playing his little instrument while NightWings purposefully chose to give up their cool powers. That’s crazy.

Not to mention The Scorching. That’s around 5,000 years ago - so about the time humanity was leaving the Stone Age. Webs mentions all the myths about that time because THATS PROBABLY ALL THEY HAD. Writing systems were only just beginning to emerge. Egypt entered Old Kingdom period. Dragon historians yanking on their horns in frustration because written accounts of the Scorching are few and far between and they don’t trust oral history because OF COURSE the scavengers couldn’t be that smart. And all those best friends and all that.

I bet each tribe has their own account of their history and how they came to be and each one has a different period of time that they can research up to. I bet there’s so many tales and religions that have come and gone. I bet someone has a King Arthur-esque tale of a hero returning in their time of need.

I bet IceWings have the most carefully recorded history. They seem to be the ones that have the most need to, considering ancient tales of doom and animus dragons.

Anyway this has been a whole history ramble, but suffice to say that man, as much as I’d like NightWings to rediscover aspects of their culture seen in Darkstalker, they’re so far divorced from it that it would be.. really difficult. Makes me want to know what life was like After Darkstalker, but before the volcano really ramped up to try and kill them all. Imagine not knowing where a whole tribe is for like, as long as Caesar has been stabbed. That’s crazy.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Man though, I’ve been thinking lately about it and I never want there to be any sort of canon material for Orca. Everyone has their own cool or hilarious takes for her. Tragic Orca? Ghost Orca? Super cunning Orca? Dumb as fuck Orca? Honestly the last one is my favorite but just, man.

You can make her making the statue as like a tragic way in which she desperately tries to stop any more animus dragons from hatching, or she’s so dumb she doesn’t realize she eventually needs an heir.

Love her, don’t you DARE write a thing about her Tui

been thinkin abt Orca lately. About how shortsighted she must have been, what might’ve caused her to challenge her mother. About the fact she could’ve easily defeated her mother with her animus magic, simply enchanting her to die or pulling a darkstalker and making her into a little wooden object and forming an illusion of her death or something. About why she didn’t. About if she even considered she could, or if she was just so brash it had never even occurred to her to cheat the odds. Been thinkin about Orca lately.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Well, I had some free time, so I tried to make Luna’s honey drops!

First step: read and reread the directions. I messed up because there’s a typo in my book: be sure to add honey AFTER you’ve heated the mixture.

The goal is to create a bit of a syrupy-like consistency. I ignored the book - I couldn’t get it to make the thin honey stick texture. My drops ended up being more of a jolly rancher type consistency, but a bit sticky in the middle.

I also used an ice cube tray to get them shaped! That was pretty fun.

I’m not sure if it’s the humidity in my region, but after a few minutes in your mouth, it got super sticky and fun to play with. They’re really good! Mine were a bit burnt (I’m not good at finding that just right moment to stop the heat) but I can give little tips and help for making them :) the instructions were a wee bit unhelpful.

Also be sure not to get it on the stove. My partner will NOT love the smell.

Recipe from book under the read more!

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I also think it’s notable to point out, when talking about Orca and her egg smasher 9000 statue, that it wasn’t just devised to smash her own eggs. It was designed to smash ANY female dragonet eggs that hatch in the Royal Hatchery. That would include dragons like cousins, nieces and granddaughters. She could have just chosen not to have eggs, but our girl Orca wanted to ensure that no one could challenge her.

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I did a funny little experiment today where I was like, man, Nightheart is a brat and I can’t wait to see him get domesticated. And then I was like, I wonder how many cats in ThunderClan are direct descendants of Firestar.

Turns out, that number is 18/45 of cats in ThunderClan as of Sky are direct descendants of Firestar, through Leafpool and Squirrelflight. That is 40% of the clan. You’re way more likely to be descended from Firestar in ThunderClan than you are to be left handed.

Ok Nightheart

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

I noticed this too!

Like, my best guess would be that the chapters were written out originally in chronological order of what happened, the editing team called for a change in chapter order (maybe to make things seem slightly more consistent with a timeline they’ve created) (potentially could have been an author decision, too!), and SOMEHOW no editing went into the ACTUAL CHAPTERS THEMSELVES?

It would have been fairly easy to read over, catch the massive inconsistency in the timeline of events, and rewrite accordingly. We know they have editors - why are they so insistent on small changes without actually doing their job?

There were several small things, too. Graypool retired way later than anyone else, Spottedleaf and Runningwind are mentioned after they should have died. But the chapter orders are the worst and most blatant mistake I’ve ever seen and it’s just like... who greenlit that? Does anyone actually... read these books before they go out?

And why are they so insistent on re-writing Oakheart’s death? At this point, it isn’t a mistake, it’s an intentional attempt at redoing the narrative. Why?

Just read Leopardstar's Honor.... Did the editors like..? Even bother to read this??? The last third is a fucking hot mess in a way that's extreme EVEN for warriors. Like it's just too far. It has to be a joke. Examples include:

1. Leopardstar saying that Featherkit and Stormkit will be ready to become apprentices in a couple moons, and then the next paragraph starts with "the next morning...." and it's their apprentice ceremony

2. ShadowClan cats are present at their apprentice ceremony before TigerClan is formed and without mentioning that ShadowClan cats are starting to stay in RiverClan. Like legit one day Leopardstar says "no I don't want to join Clans let's just be besties" and Tigerstar throws a fit and then the next day Boulder and Jaggedtooth are in RiverClan with no explanation nor any discussion of their arrival.

3. THE WORST ONE: Leopardstar finds out that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are half-clan and is like "omg I can't believe they're mentoring Featherpaw and Stormpaw who are also half-clan" then like two chapters later she and Tigerstar are talking and Tigerstar goes "Are you really going to make Mistyfoot and Stonefur Featherkit and Stormkit's mentors even though they're half-clan too?" EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE APPRENTICED IN THE SAME BOOK BEFORE TIGERCLAN AND BEFORE LEOPARDSTAR NEW ABOUT STONEFUR AND MISTYFOOT

4. After Stonefur gets killed a paragraph starts with "Scourge finally left" but they never??? Mentioned he was there in the first place?????

Like they have to be intentionally fucking with us

[sunnymoon-sunshine]

Onto my soap box time,

I absolutely 100% believe that Qibli's behavior towards Peril in Escaping Peril is 100% out of character, or at the very least, shouldn't make sense in relation to Qibli's character.

I understand why it works on a narrative level. Escaping Peril is, at its heart, about how ostracizing an abuse victim will lead them to seek out comfort where they can - often times leading them back to their abuser. It's about how kindness breeds kindness. There are a lot of good themes in Escaping Peril (even though I sometimes think it misses a few marks). So ultimately, it makes sense that Qibli is suspicious of her in his analytical way. HOWEVER, I argue that it doesn't make sense.

Mostly because of the fact that, in every situation that the two have been remotely close to each other, Peril has been in some way a savior and hero to him. You could argue that he's very aware of her past and that - even when doing those heroic moments - she was still doing them for selfish gain. Except for one.

When Qibli first meets Peril, it's after she stops the battle between the Outclaws and the SandWing army in The Brightest Night. Sunny has to plead with Peril to interrupt the fight, and it comes at the cost of Peril releasing Scarlet - but at the same time, Thorn makes a point to thank Peril, to refer to her as a saving grace, an angel.

The second time the two are around each other, it's when Peril saves Clay's life during the False Brightest Night. This was of her own accord, and is a stark example of Peril's defining trait: she will do anything for Clay.

The third time, she attempts to save Carnelian and Bigtail. It's tragic, but she tries - unprompted, too.

So it always struck me as a little weird that he was so harsh on her in Escaping Peril. I mean, you could very well argue that her reputation is far more defining than anything else, but Qibli trusts Thorn more than anyone, and Thorn showed nothing but gratitude. I don't know, maybe I more wish that these moments where Peril actually helped were brought up, because almost all of her moments of saving dragons and helping were events that Qibli was around. He could have acted as someone who could have dug deeper into Peril's thoughts, and tried to play the Devil's Advocate.

I mean, it's not major. It may not even really be out of character. I just think some acknowledgement would have been nice from a character who has seen some of the moments where Peril tried to do the right thing.