Hi. I read these books in middle school and decided to reread them and then I thought "hey I could post about it that would be a fun way to engage with the books and stuff :3" but now I just have cat book brainworms and have doomed myself to writing about every single main series book. Except Dawn of the Clans. I'll read those on my own time. Here's a list of links to all of those posts:
The Prophecies Begin:
Into the Wild - Fire and Ice - Forest of Secrets - Rising Storm/A Dangerous Path - The Darkest Hour
Yu-Gi-Oh is fun to watch but there's one major issue and it's that Seto Kaiba fucking sucks actually. I'm at the end of season two (start of his duel with Ishizu) and he's done literally nothing interesting since he lost to Pegasus. He shows up to say the same 3 lines and be a whiny bitch and I just really can't stand him.
I don't mind edgy characters when they do stuff. I really like Marik! But Kaiba doesn't do anything and is way more insufferable. Unfortunate cause I liked him as a kid (though still not as much as the average viewer)
In addition to playing Yu-Gi-Oh I've also been watching the show (dub) in the "background" (until I get distracted by it) and it's extremely funny. My favorite guy is Marik and I just got to the part where he fakes being nice to get near Joey and I started laughing when it transitioned from him using a normal voice to his thoughts which were in his really goofy evil voice. My other favorite bit is Joey just... overall. His deck is straight garbage and he wins through dice rolls and roulettes and I love that for him.
Hi, I wanted to address probably one of my least favorite takes I've seen in the fandom because it makes me extremely mad every time I see it.
In Crowfeather's Trial there is a kittypet named Pickle with Nightcloud when she's lost. I've seen a lot of people say that Pickle was a great partner for Nightcloud and that she should have stayed with him but, um, NO!?
So the first notable line of dialogue Pickle has is when he tries to tell Nightcloud to not bother leaving and stay with him instead. She tells him as kindly as possible that she wants to go home, and he growls.
So our immediate characterization of him is that he's extremely possessive. Like it's gross.
That's backed up by his actions during her escape attempt, where he tries to stop her from leaving by getting the twolegs to pick her up. I want to reiterate that: Nightcloud tells him "hey sorry but I want to go home" and he is extremely aggressive and then tries to force her into staying against her will.
So that's the first thing I want to say: if you think he's some kind and sweet ideal partner for Nightcloud, you are wrong. Like it's an opinion or whatever but one so contrary to the text as presented that it's not worth taking seriously imo.
But what is the purpose of this scene and why do people get the impression that he's good?
Nightcloud, in spite of everything, actually does like Pickle. They share a nest and she invites him to join her in WindClan. Even after he tries to functionally kidnap her, she still apologizes while running off. That's where the misconception comes from, I think.
But why does she like him? I think the purpose of his character and the whole scene is to demonstrate how starved for affection Nightcloud is. Her only relationship ever has been with Crowfeather, and the book is entirely about how poorly he treated her and Breezepelt. So Pickle shows how Nightcloud desperately wants a connection with someone even though it's another unhealthy one (girl is 0-2).
It colors our perception of Nightcloud and also helps explain why she's close with Breezepelt, as he's not just her only son but also the person in WindClan she's closest to. So later on when Breezepelt starts to grow closer with Heathertail, Nightcloud letting go of him and being less obsessive is kind of tragic. They're still close but she's alone now, or she would be if not for her newfound friendship with Crowfeather.
Nightcloud is a wonderful character and there's so much more but I wanted to outline what the point of Pickle is so I could provide something other than a fandom hate post. Because there's more than enough of those. Crowfeather's Trial is a wonderful book and is often the most misread, in my opinion. I could make like 8 of these about just bad Crowfeather takes alone, but I won't because that's dumb
Lastly, I want to address the elephant in the room: this dude's name is PICKLE! How the fuck am I supposed to be dead serious while arguing that "oh yeah that one cat was a really awful and possessive partner for Nightcloud" "what was his name" "PICKLE"
The covers for this arc, just looking ahead, are probably the weakest so far. Whoever is on the front of Wind has possibly the silliest expression on any cover.
Luckily, the cover and the words in the book are unrelated cause I'm overall still really liking the arc. The pacing is slower than prior arcs but more consistent, which makes me optimistic that there won't be books later on that feel entirely unnecessary.
If you want a fun and super easy challenge try to guess who my favorite protagonist is. Ignore that I say it outright but yeah I went WAY more in depth for one cat than the other two.
Anyways, Sky time.
Owlnose is very bad at his job
When Frostpaw visits the moonpool to ask for guidance on who to appoint, Curlfeather tells her "You have to look beyond the obvious choices." So Mothwing, right?
It's the thought the book is seemingly trying to get me to think. Frostpaw's whole thing right now is being the sole connection to StarClan because Mothwing cannot connect, which seems to indicate that Frostpaw would be able to be the sole medicine cat if needed. Additionally, Mothwing has been the de-facto leader basically since Mistystar died, even speaking for RiverClan at a gathering. She's also received warrior training and has had two apprentices (counting Frostpaw), though neither were warrior apprentices. The phrasing Curlfeather uses "look beyond the obvious choices" also indicates, to me, that the new leader will be someone who typically would not receive that role, as "beyond" implies that she's directing Frostpaw to see far away from the typical candidates. So the clear answer is Mothwing!
There are unfortunately like 300 problems with that answer. From a logistical stance, Mothwing probably couldn't even get into StarClan to receive nine lives and, even if she could, she likely wouldn't want to. Her whole thing is not contacting StarClan, which is an important part of becoming leader. Which leads to the next point: Mothwing is a terrible pick for character reasons. She's chosen on her own to be a medicine cat in spite of it all, recognizing what she lacks but showing that her qualifications far exceed that. Becoming a leader would really devalue that character, and Mothwing is one of the most unique concepts for any character at the lake. For her to become the leader of RiverClan, while interesting, would be a little weird. Then there's the meta issue: Mothwing is old. She was born sometime during arc 1 or, at latest, slightly after. She's less than a year younger than Cloudtail, who became an elder last arc. That's a whole Bristlefrost ago! If she got nine lives she'd be around forever (though tbh I feel like the authors have forgotten how old she is, anyways. Cats like Jayfeather have been called old repeatedly but Mothwing has never been mentioned to have age. Vampire cat? Maybe).
Mothwing aside, Frostpaw picks Owlnose to be the new leader of RiverClan and, I will admit, she did have to ignore plenty of "obvious choices" for him to get through.
Owlnose is really bad at his job. He's indecisive and scared on top of being completely unable to organize literally anything. His leadership is entirely held up by Mothwing telling everyone to be nice to him, but even Mothwing thinks he won't work long term. That all works until the gathering, where it becomes obvious that Owlstar isn't working, the other clans (minus Bramblestar) are completely running over this guy, and nobody buys the story that Mistystar and Reed"star" both died of greencough, with Reed"star" dying nine times over... somehow.
What's important, however, is that Owlnose is extremely funny. The second time he's mentioned in the book is him being appointed as leader (first is a patrol). Literally like one minute later he's told to organize patrols and is like "uhh idk how to do that." He's extremely pathetic and it's funny to watch. At the moonpool, right before re-attempting to contact StarClan, he finally throws in the towel and tells Frostpaw that he doesn't want to be leader. It's actually the first time he appears confident, as he never stutters and is described as having a "thick" mew. In the battle at the end, we see Owlnose being a normal warrior and learn that he's actually pretty strong. He beats up Berryheart. Like really beats her up. Like treats her leg like it's prey. And I like that Owlnose was depicted as capable after giving up leadership, showing that strength and leadership ability aren't one and the same.
Overall: Owlnose... kinda sucks! But like he's goofy and silly and I love him.
Nightheart
My symbolism radar activated and, guess what, Nightheart repeatedly gets injured by/fails to hunt squirrels early on. And do you know who he has issues with for the rest of the book? Squirrelflight. Crazy.
Okay but I do like Nightheart. He's pathetic but he's spitting! I want to talk about his rant when he leaves ThunderClan because it's encapsulates his whole character.
First of all it begins like Nightheart's covering up like alcoholism. Like "where were you all night?" "I was out." Okay bud. Me when my asshole grandma won't let me spend all of the ThunderClan treasury on bud light.
Being real I want to show the premise to establish one thing: Nightheart is clearly in the wrong here. Bramblestar's "mission" was extremely dangerous and impractical, which is why Squirrelflight (the actual leader by this point) called it off. After she points out that he could have started a war, Nightheart assumes that she doesn't care about him, ignoring that he would be put at risk more than anyone else by being on that territory.
The main issue, however, is with how Squirrelflight's tone in the conversation kind of slightly works to prove Nightheart right a lot of the time.
Squirrelflight generally takes a very practical approach to Nightheart's complaint that she treats him like an apprentice, but that doesn't last for long. Nightheart is extremely angry because he was held back for so long and then treated afterwards like he was incapable. The key part of this section that I find interesting is when Squirrelflight implies that Nightheart "wasn't ready." It definitely shows that she did in fact intentionally treat him like an apprentice to make him "grow up." A lot of the reasons why Squirrelflight is so bad at actually getting to Nightheart to improve is because her only real solution to help him is punishment. It is implied by this information that he was given apprentice tasks because of his attitude. But that attitude exists because he hated being treated like he was incapable and he is repeatedly shown to be correct.
There's a journey in the front half of the book to get catnip, and a lot happens. Most importantly of all, we see Nightheart getting to be a normal cat and working with a group that treats him as an equal. And he's capable. He's not an awful hunter like the first few chapters imply - Sunbeam actually says he's rather good - which means that the issue with Nightheart isn't tied to him as a person but rather to his environment.
And yeah ThunderClan is awful for him. Sparkpelt and Finchlight, his closest family, both are angry at him for changing his name despite the fact that his name change has made him feel more comfortable as himself. A key detail about Nightheart's pov is that he rarely ever thinks about his name change unless it's in the context of other people's reactions; for him it's a done deal. Even in conversations with other cats, they always turn to talking about his name despite it being irrelevant to them.
So again when Squirrelflight says he wasn't ready for his assessment yet I don't think she's being fair to him. She's putting needless pressure on him to perform in hostile environments when she could simply not do that and everyone benefits. Nightheart says that Squirrelflight "won't give him a chance" and it's hard to say he's wrong. Nightheart's environment is hostile to him and he's absolutely correct in identifying that. It's incredibly sad that he runs from his home because he doesn't feel comfortable there and the only cats who care that Nightheart, the cat, is gone are Finleap and Bayshine. Sparkpelt, Finchlight, and Squirrelflight still haven't gotten over Flamepaw.
Again it's weird to say because he comes across as so egotistical and also is undeniably in the wrong in the event that served as a catalyst for the scene but like... he's right!
The ThunderClan camp has only ever brought him misery, the cats in the Clan have only ever been judgemental with maybe 3 exceptions, and the only cats who have ever offered anything resembling support to him are Bramblestar, Alderheart, and Jayfeather. Do you know how bad it has to be for Jayfeather to be comparatively respectful?
(The "her" is Squirrelflight). That one line of dialogue way earlier in the book is the other key point that shows how poorly Nightheart is treated. His emotions are repeatedly invalidated by pretty much every cat around him. ThunderClan is sincerely detrimental. So why shouldn't he leave to go to the single cat who's ever treated him normally?
ANYWAYS...
Sunbeam
I said it before and it's still true here: I adore Sunbeam. She's a character I connect with more than most other characters in the series so far. She's more relatable than Mr. relatable himself (Alderheart)! And I think the reason why is because she's still an overall good cat though heavily flawed, especially in her thoughts.
Chapter 7 is pretty much the "Sunbeam hates Lightleap" chapter.
Sunbeam's last thought, that Lightleap "had always enjoyed the sound of her own mew" was probably the most revealing one. Previously, a lot of Sunbeam's resentment was targeted specifically at Lightleap's behavior towards Blazefire, but now she's targeting a perceived trait of Lightleap's that has always been there, even when they were best friends. Looking at the conversation objectively, Lightleap is trying to talk to the other members of her patrol, which Sunbeam specifically wants her to do according to her prior thoughts in the same chapter. But when she gets involved in a conversation that already involves the majority of the patrol, Sunbeam is mad. The word "always" is also interesting. Sunbeam has been friends with Lightleap since they were very young and knows that she's talkative, but never before has she hated that. The resentment is new even if the behavior isn't.
To put it simply: Sunbeam's thoughts are messy. But that messiness is extremely believable. Personally, there have been times where I've, internally, been weirdly spiteful towards friends despite not hating them. I understand Sunbeam's thoughts when she's looking for reasons to hate Lightleap, even if they contradict previous reasons. I also understand when Sunbeam identifies how ugly her own thoughts are but still is powerless to stop them. She never tells Lightleap anything - that would be a step too far - but she's berated by explicitly hateful thoughts towards a character she saw as a friend until very recently.
It's explicitly because Sunbeam is lonely, which is ironic. She hates Lightleap for not talking to her but still pushes Lightleap away. It's again, contradictory, but that contradiction feels pretty real. From the way her character is presented, Sunbeam's problems would be pretty quickly solved by talking to Lightleap a character who has, frankly, done VERY little to harm Sunbeam, especially recently. But her own mind refuses to let her take that route. There is, however, another route: the Nightheart route.
Sunbeam starts to like Nightheart because he's available and not in ShadowClan. He isn't tied to the home she feels discomfort in and is open to talk to her, making her feel less lonely. That is the reason they start talking.
Nightheart's also good to her because he's willing to listen. It's what draws both of them together: Sunbeam validates the problems Nightheart is going through, and he does the same for her. He doesn't judge her for resenting Lightleap and lets her talk through it.
The scene here is crucial for both of their characters as it shows what they envy in each other. Both of them want to feel at home and share a desire for close bonds within their clan. But at the same time, both of them see how difficult that is. To be fully honest: Nightheart and Sunbeam probably have the one relationship in the series that I have genuinely zero issues with. I think they work great together.
After that single conversation, she stops being as bothered by Lightleap. When Nightheart goes to talk to her in ShadowClan, Blazefire's the one who brings her to him and she's still mad but seems more bothered by Berryheart than anything else. After another validation session, Nightheart goes home and next Sunbeam chapter she witnesses the extremely believable: Lightleap and Blazefire... are mates!!
I love that she "didn't care." She's been over Blazefire for a while now and specifically is mad at Lightleap for lying (which I think is unreasonable) but she's no longer dependent on the two of them. The way she thinks of Nightheart is perfectly in line with how she acts in their conversations; he's the only cat (besides maybe her brother/Fringewhisker) that she feels open towards and he clearly quite likes her as well. Why would she care about Blazefire when the more preferable option is also the more accessible one? Nightheart also wants to leave ThunderClan so the only real issue is Berryheart.
And I love that for her. I love that Sunbeam finds someone who she's compatible with and who can help her work through her problems. It's great that Nightheart gets the same thing from her. I also love how real her continued hatred for Lightleap still feels, though it's clearly progressed. The only thing she's mad about Lightleap for now is lying to her which, while I think Lightleap and Blazefire shouldn't need Sunbeam's approval to do anything, is at least a substantiated reason.
The last line "For the first time in a moon, her heart felt as light as thistledown" seems to indicate that she's moved past her obsession with Lightleap and Blazefire's """"secretive"""" relationship. She, just like she says, has more important things to do. And Nighthearts to date or whatever.
Surely Nightheart won't completely throw this by running into camp and announcing that he's going to marry Sunbeam without ever previously discussing it with her? Right? SURELY!!
I'm going to hold my Berryheart thoughts because of what Nightheart did, mostly. She's going to love both of her kids being in relationships with clan-swappers, surely! Crash-out loading. BUT I do want to say I love Sunbeam for not joining the Republican Party of ShadowClan which I also find relatable because I too am not conservative.
Can Frostpaw contact StarClan?
So a major issue Frostpaw runs into at the end of the arc is her inability to contact StarClan after Owlnose runs off. She decides that she was actually never able to communicate with StarClan at all which I mean...
She spoke to Leopardstar one book ago.
The point of it is that she's doubting herself and her abilities but again she's made clear contact with both Leopardstar and Curlfeather and ignores that. Apparently her issue is that she saw only them and not all of StarClan, but when Curlfeather approaches her, she does see a large group of StarClan cats. They literally use the phrase "sea of pelts" to describe them.
She's also made contact with some spirit or spirits while awake, though they may not be Willowshine & Mistystar like she claimed them to be.
This is less analysis and more guessing but I don't think this is a Frostpaw issue. I think it's a StarClan problem.
First: Owlnose was unable to receive 9 lives. While the leadership ceremony may be the least consistent thing in the series, StarClan has never had control over who gets appointed leader, as Tigerstar I and Brokenstar... existed! There are even some leaders after that that, despite being capable, did have notable faults: Harestar trained in the Dark Forest, as did Tigerstar II; Onestar had a whole hidden vengeful child that StarClan would have known about; Blackstar was deeply involved with both Brokenstar and Tigerstar I; and Mistystar was cringe! Compared to that Owlnose doesn't have anything that would prevent him from receiving his lives, so combined with Frostpaw's sudden inability to contact them, the problem seems to stem from elsewhere.
My other evidence is that the arc is called "A Starless Clan." While that could be a way of referring to RiverClan's lack of a cat with the "star" suffix, it seems more likely that either the clans or just RiverClan are unable to contact StarClan.
That or, the much more likely theory, Frostpaw has "bad vibes."
That's Not Rootspring
Okay brief note but we see Rootspring on the patrol to get catmint and he's just not Rootspring. Like he turns into generic strong warrior with the quirk of being sad. But there's never a moment where I'm like "oh it's Rootspring!" And that sucks cause I really like him!
I get that he's changed by Bristlefrost's death and all, the book says that clearly, but any trace of personality and youth he has just... vanished. I think it kind of muddies the end of A Light in the Mist. But he's kind of solely "sad war hero." And that's not Rootspring.
Like you cannot tell me that Rootspring would have reservations about eating chicken(?). Honestly same for Alderheart THAT guy literally almost left the clans to be a kittypet he would 100% munch. Fidgetflake's a blank slate and literally RIGHT THERE give him the moral reservations.
Conclusion
I think the Erins have made a targeted book for the purpose of making Sunbeam my favorite character because not only is she great, but Squirrelflight is also needlessly terrible to Nightheart. And I know I came off as very one-sided when talking about Nightheart (he's for certain not flawless, which is why I like him) but wow Squirrelflight genuinely hates him. Like it's not even subtle she's just really mean to him and has been for two books now.
That's Sky. I forgot I was writing this post and had to reread all the non-Frostpaw chapters to get material for Nightheart/Sunbeam and I'm glad I did cause I think the Sunbeam section turned out nice. I am super happy to be done though.
Misc. thoughts:
poor Rowankit
I like that they shoe-in a Nightheart-Finleap friendship at the end despite them having, I think, 0 conversations
Where is Twigbranch? I was thinking about this the other day but arc 1-4 protagonists remained important (Bramblestar and Squirrelflight were major in this book specifically) but the last two arcs have had zero characters with staying power. I love Twigbranch! Give me more Twigbranch! Dovewing's first lady of ShadowClan and what does the cat who found SkyClan get? 2 more hunting patrols.
Also Berryheart hates outsiders but makes a loophole to make sure Dovewing's included meaning that she is, in canon, "one of the good ones."
Bramblestar's a great character (finally) but I want to wait until a major plot development for him happens to talk about it. But yeah he's executed so well.
Same for Berryheart. I'm glad they put an anti-immigrant conservative mom in Warrior Cats. I always said that's exactly what was missing.
I'm finally done. This post was first put in drafts on May 19th. Yikes. Hopefully next one will be sooner and not as clearly rushed. Sorry if you read this!
I made an actual useable deck in Master Duel! The game's WAY more fun once I finally struggled through getting the material and got a deck that doesn't blow.
Welcome to feedback or whatever but mostly wanted to share. It's a fun deck!
