for my first real post on this blog, i'll go ahead and talk about dawn of the clans, and how it made me so disgusted and bored that i stopped reading halfway through.
dawn of the clans is the book series that actually introduced me to warrior cats. the blazing star was the first warrior cats book i ever picked up at the library because it had a cute cat on it, and now i'm here! back then i'm sure i loved dawn of the clans, as i loved every warrior cats book, but reading it back now it just made me... upset. specifically with how the books treated the female characters as something to be used and then tossed away because the male characters need it to fuel their stories.
first it was fluttering bird, who i don't know if she really counts because she was such a minor character, but it sets the tone for female characters down the line being treated like trash by the authors. then bright stream gets carried away by an eagle while carrying clear sky's kits, making clear sky more distant from the other cats. storm gets buried alive, bumble (who was getting abused by tom) gets murdered, and turtle tail gets killed while trying to rescue her kits from tom. rainswept flower is killed by clear sky, just to add to that Man Pain!
all of it is just so... distressing. like, i'm aware male characters die as well, but it felt like they didn't die on the same level the female characters did. and most of the female characters death only "benefited" the male characters, by giving them some sort of motive, which always boils down to "this pretty she-cat died, so i guess i have to be nice now :("
the blatant misogyny in dawn of the clans is the biggest reason for why i stopped reading halfway through. i enjoyed the characters like jagged peak and star flower, but everyone else either died or was just insufferable (looking at you, gray wing and clear sky, our "fun" protagonists we're supposed to root for). the books themselves were also just super boring, and it really made me sad that a series that i used to love was actually really bad. then again, that goes for the entirety of warrior cats, and i'm sure that i'll find more arcs to hate as i keep reading.
in short. all of the female characters in dawn of the clans were done dirty, and i will stuff them in my pocket and keep them safe. also, rainswept flower x turtle tail forever.
