unauthorized-author

[unauthorized-author]

i love essentially talking to myself on this blog. i could say the most outlandish thing and nobody would know bc I didn't tag it. Talking to the void... unless the Tumblr algorithm decided to screw me over luckily getting famous on Tumblr and disappearing when you've decided you don't want to do this anymore is easier to do so than, say, YouTube

[unauthorized-author]

hella late but decided to do that warriors favorite picker thing listed in no particular order. tried to keep my favorites confined to mostly characters people know bc i love a lot of nobodies. if i had to include anyone that wasn't included: Birdsong, Pink Eyes, Sol, Cinders, Susan, Jacques, Stonefur, Runningwind, Adderfang, Swiftbreeze, Little Daisy, Coriander, Leopardstar, Bright Stream, Flipclaw, Tommy, Filou, Luna, Hollytuft, Sparrowfeather, Duskfur, Dawncloud, Fernshade, Wolfstep, Leafshade, Fern Leaf, Leopardstar, Slate, Beach, Raincloud probably more but these are characters off of the top of my head that i really like. don't know what this says about me lol. tried to keep my headcanons out of it and stuck to canon, and once again I tried to leave out nobodies (I LOVE OLIVER) because I love those type of characters deathly and then I wonder why my favorites have no fanart of them. Wildfur is a more popular nobody but does anyone know who Leafshine is? Not a favorite, but I like her, and her wiki design is pretty, if not a bit uncanny. those eyes...

[unauthorized-author]

Duskfur anon is so real for this.

Possibly Unpopular Opinion; I don't care if leaders are old or not. It's funny that Mistystar dropped dead because she was old. We need more stuff like that in these books. Imagine if Squilf and, say, Leafstar both died at the same time from old age factors? (I know this would never happen). I'm sure Hawkwing is pretty old as well, so toss him in there.

Succession crisis like RiverClan, but cranked up to the extreme. Two Clans without leaders? A disaster to manage. Ivypool would obviously become Ivystar, but a lot of cats in ThunderClan are old (old as in who the Erins would choose for deputy) and a lot of them never had apprentices. Say Ivypool chooses Thornclaw and he dies from old age within a short time period. Oh no.

Tree could hypothetically lead SkyClan, but he doesn't seem to like to take on leadership roles, with his work ethic as a warrior and whatnot.

There are easy solutions to both of these problems and it's just… choose a younger leader/deputy, but imagine after Splashtail? Imagine if Clan Cats saw younger cats as more prone to corruption. It would just be a cycle of old cats dying in leadership positions until someone calls the bs or decides to take a chance.

Ivypool: "Flipclaw will be the deputy."

ThunderClan background cat: "He can't even be a medicine cat!"

It's Owlnose unable to be a leader but managing as the deputy. Someone just has to tell them what to do (or guide them if Icestar is nice). But Ivypool, as much as the narrative wants to insist otherwise, is a massive bratty pain. You could argue her grief and such but before that…

Sure, she was an apprentice with the entire situation with Dovewing, but even into adulthood she held petty grudges against Dove. Imagine that as a leader. But she's older and has more experience, so everyone turns a blind eye.

And back to Tree, he was made a mediator because of his problem-solving skills. Imagine SkyClan cats make Tree the temporary leader until he uses those skills to find them a new one. Imagine the burden? What if Tree just disappears often to take a breather, thus leaving SkyClan in a far longer succession crisis. Some cats in the Clans are canonically resistant to change (e.g. Berryheart, Duskfur, Brackenpelt, etc.).

And imagine Rootspring, who already doesn't have the best relationship with Tree? Since his father is thrust onto centerstage and Rootspring occasionally wishes he had a different cat for a father (unless the Erins completely dropped this between books, dealing w/ Bristlefrost grief in IH does not fix his daddy issues), imagine if Rootspring distanced himself from Tree and SkyClan as much as possible, thus leading to yet another burden on Tree.

Should he prioritize his son's distance, or should he handle to responsibility the Clan placed on him?

And Violetshine's grief at Hawkwing dying since he was one of the reasons she joined SkyClan. For Tree, it's like a life for a life for multiple lives. Violetshine is already pretty insecure and reclusive (again unless the Erins dropped this in favor of her recent "mother" personality), so Tree would obviously have to set some time aside for her.

What if Rootspring struggled between helping his mother deal with the grief of his grandfather dying and avoiding his own father?

What if Tree stepped down? He's good at staying collected under pressure, but everyone starts to crack eventually, and his aforementioned flaws at being a typical SkyClan warrior, and just fitting in generally, would not help at all.

He could turn to ShadowClan for help, but SkyClan and ShadowClan had their grievances in the past, and while Tree might not hold a grudge against Tigerstar II, imagine if other SkyClan cats did? He was shown getting frustrated when a compromise couldn't be found between Sky and Shadow the first or second time.

The succession crisis' could be SO INTERESTING. For SkyClan, it could be a personal vs public life problem for our hypothetical protagonist in this situation (Tree), and what one does when they're seen as a symbol of intelligence and calmness but, at the end of the day, having emotions which means they're not.

ThunderClan wouldn't necessarily have a succession crisis in the traditional sense, but it would be a matter of breaking the newfound tradition of only appointing older cats to leadership positions and trusting younger cats for a change. For Ivypool, or in this case Ivystar, it'd be a matter of letting go of old habits and actually maturing as a character, not the narrative just saying she did.

Sure, as a deputy, she's important, but she can get away with being still bratty and such since Squirrelstar would be able to cover her, but as Ivystar, the only one who can cover her is herself. We've seen deputies in the past who tried to cover for their leaders, but ultimately failed because, well, they're not the leader. They're the second-in-command. Second.

same Duskfur anon but now i want to talk about other cool things Duskfur did that proves she should've been a complete asshole: - Was willing to attack Jayfeather (a blind medicine cat) - Attacked Cloverfoot (Shadowclan deputy) - Mocked Scorchfur - Met with Berryheart - Mocked Tigerheartstar - Supported Frostpaw's exile to a degree (for mocking Tigerheartstar when he took her in) - Argued about Frostdawn training as a warrior - Argued about Icestar being temporary leader - Once again literally argued Mistystar to death and shown little to no remorse afterward - Argued about Harelight being Frostpaw's mentor - "I'm not convinced the living world needed saving." Just wanted to include that quote from her Also Duskfur is just interesting to me as a character. Her kits have no listed father, so I like to interpret it as the father being a rogue. ik a lot of fan interpretation is Reedwhisker being the father, sorry lol. but a rogue is just more interesting to me. It also makes more sense to me. Podlight has white on him, and is shown to be at least partially a point. Neither Duskfur nor Reedwhisker have a hint of white or is a point (Reedwhisker is described as a black tom). ik warriors doesn't follow irl cat genetics, but Duskfur has unknown parents, so my headcanon is that recessive point runs in the bloodline, and that Duskfur is just a tabby masking point (having the colorpoint gene but not expressing it, thus being a tabby instead) from her parents, and the recessive gene passed to Podlight who expressed it bc the rogue was a colorpoint. how Frostdawn is a colorpoint despite neither Curlfeather nor Jayclaw being described as colorpoints is beyond me. Mistpaw being a tortoiseshell could be explained if the Curlfeather's father was a point w/ white (which is rare but possible), and Jayclaw's side of the family--cutting myself off here before i get completely off topic I would say a kittypet could've been the father, but Duskfur seems to like Leopardstar, who was aligned with Tigerstar I. Obviously that's not saying much in these books, but if Erin Hunter authors were better writers, she'd most likely have some sort of prejudice. Also, despite Tigerheartstar fighting with her, he appointed her as temporary leader. I think it was Finchlight or Sunbeam who said that he liked her for some reason. Literally how?? Did they have a conversation off-screen? This also leads into Duskfur being robbed of deputyship in Star, since she, along with Icestar, were chosen as temporary leaders at one point. hell, I'm pretty sure Jayfeather mentioned at some point that Duskfur was doing Mistystar's job for her, which makes sense imo. she never seemed inclined for leadership, but she also seemed to never turn down the chance when it was offered. I know she's old and everyone and their mother wants a young leader, but I just want someone in power who's an asshole, young or not. I don't think we had a decent one since Leopardstar and debatably Blackstar. Everyone else since then has been "nice" (broad spectrum; Tigerheartstar can be considered nice despite being a bit of a problem) if they weren't antagonists. i want someone who will cause issues because they were mildly inconvenienced, and mean Duskfur would've 100% did that considering she mocked Scorchfur for choking on a mouse (or something similar). Frostpaw also seemed to value Duskfur's opinion to a degree. iirc Duskfur was one of the cats Frostpaw wondered about in regards to Owlnose being accepted as temporary leader. I cannot say the same for Star bc I haven't read it yet (I only read spoilers), but it seems even nice Duskfur in the prologue on the website STILL argues with Frostpaw, even if she's more subdued about it. i could talk more about Duskfur in general (and Riverclan cats actually) but i feel like this ask is getting too long but if i could pretty please send more Duskfur/Riverclan asks that'd be lovely :D also sorry for the tangents lol

This is great stuff, some really good analysis about her!

Erin Hunter please read this and respond and give us mean Duskfur again from now on thank you

Also about an asshole leader I can 100% see Crowfeather being an asshole if he ever makes it that far

[unauthorized-author]

guys guys hear me out: Havenpelt and Sneezecloud were absent parents. This would've allowed Curlfeather to groom Splashtail to be her protege. Neither of them seems to have much personality in the books, but imagine if even after everything, Havenpelt sympathized with Splashtail because he was her son. She birthed and nursed him, watched him be apprenticed alongside Fognose. And he's dead because she didn't protect him from stray influences. Imagine when Frostdawn killed Splashtail, she groomed his fur one last time because he's her kit and it's all her fault and he was still so young- Imagine as everyone looks at her strangely, even with open disdain, she admits "I loved him. I still do love him. He was my son and he did wrong, but he didn't deserve to die. We could've helped him. Why did he have to die? I'm so sorry." But she doesn't know why she's apologizing. (it's all her fault it's all her fault it's all her fault it's all her fault) "He was misguided," Havenpelt says, even as other clanmates threaten to unsheathe their claws. Even after Splashtail took and threatened her kits—Splashtail of all cats! How could you love someone like him? "We didn't save him." Softpelt was killed in battle. Havenpelt did nothing to help Splashkitpaw adjust to Minnowtail and come to terms with his mentor's death. She did nothing. Nothing. Splashtail might have been the monster in the eyes of the Clan, he might've been hellworthy but— Was she always so cruel? So dismissive toward her own son. How could she push one litter aside and put her heart into another? Fognose, Splashtail; Floatkit, Troutkit, Rapidkit, they've all grown up during rough times—are still growing. Not Splashtail. Not anymore. She wants to scream when someone suggests leaving his body to rot. She wants to murder Frostpaw for murdering her son. It was too m Sneezecloud was always the more "absent," of the two, considering the books hardly let fathers be parents. While Havenpelt was in the nursery, he was out on patrol. He loves patrol, loves protecting, and he hoped his daughter and son would do the same. He should've been there more. Sneezecloud would never get close to Splashtail's body. Absolutely not. He was basically gutted. But—that body is his kin, his son. How good and moral is he really? Splashtail told him that he would've had new kits to protect, did he really protect them? Splashtail still got to them, still threatened to kill his younger siblings. Sneezecloud didn't even save them himself, he basically handed them over. Isn't that so spineless? The opposite of protecting? Isn't that sacrifice, holy but unneeded? Isn't that his children that he should protect? If that's the case, is his first litter even his first? Are they Havenpelt's? How can he love doing something he's so bad at? How could he love someone who was so bad? Their first litter, Fognose and Splashtail. They've turned against RiverClan, against his morals, against how they were—raised? Who raised them? How did everything go so wrong? Sneezecloud knows the answer, but it tastes bitter on his tongue. He watches as Splashtail is sliced open by Frostpaw, watches as he falls to the ground convulsing and choking, watching as he insists (pleads) that he will go to StarClan. But StarClan doesn't allow sinners, tyrants, demons. Nonetheless, when he retires to his den that night, he goes to the nursery instead. He watches as Floatkit, Troutkit, and Rapidkit nurse, seeing the small claw marks on Floatkit's fur. He watches as Havenpelt stares into nothing, carefully keeping her claws sheathed. "I miss him, but nobody understands me." "I know." He sits next to her and licks the top of her head. He wishes Fognose hadn't run off, so he could have one from that to call his own. He wishes Splashtail an easy rest because it's the least he could do at this point. He wishes Splashtail wouldn't be too angry when they meet again, because Sneezecloud isn't sure if he could ever describe himself as loving him.

[unauthorized-author]

(pfp credit is here!) i ramble a lot. mostly about AUs, OCs, etc. dni: the obvious i suppose autistic current reconstruction/rewrite/au i'm focused on: none/multiple tw for whatever i post: suicide jokes (about myself). i don't know how to explain this, go look at Class of '09 for my humor i forgot what else i was going to put. whoopsies!