Melody Harp

Just another fan of all things literature

[melodyharp]

Initial Thoughts on Tigerheart’s Shadow

Non-spoiler summary: Shoot. What happened to character development?

Spoiler-ridden thoughts under the cut:

So this is going to be a little different from book reviews. Mostly because I literally just finished the book after reading it for 3 hours and need to let off some steam. These are just my thoughts right now, and may change my tune as I go through it a second time in preparation for my book review.

The Good:

I’m happy to see ShadowClan is in the forefront again. I've grown used to seeing them over the course of Violetpaw’s POV. 

So that’s where SkyClan went? Between ThunderClan and ShadowClan? Now the question is if they can stay there.

Blaze is adorable

I’m always curious about kits named after Clans. We’ve had a Windflight in ThunderClan, and now we’re getting Shadowkit in ShadowClan

Shadowkit is most likely going to be a medicine cat, thank goodness. Puddleshine needs help.

I’m glad they finally wrapped up the TigerDove arc so we can concentrate on more, non-Romeo and Juliet-related things

Outsiders with different names for things are always fun, especially when cats get to see more of Twoleg activities (even religion!)

I’m glad we got descriptions for the BlossomThorn kits because I had no idea how to tell them apart.

The Bad:

Character development. In The Last Hope, Dovewing lets Tigerheart go while remaining by Bumblestripe’s side. This was symbolic of her understanding that they could not be together, and that she would move on. She was also choosing ‘light’ rather than someone who was wandering the dark. Before Bramblestar’s Storm, we had no idea that she would be questioning this decision. Dovewing’s Silence had her completely over Tigerheart, and she and Bumblestripe actually worked together. I understood why she broke up with him in Bramblestar’s Storm, as she felt she no longer trusted him to keep secrets, but Tigerheart? Really? Does she really need a mate to be complete?

Tigerheart felt like every other Warriors Super Edition protagonist. He was whiny, bossy, and ended up rising in power in the end. Also he made assumptions about Puddleshine’s prophecy and stopped Puddleshine before the medicine cat could explain he was wrong. I honestly believe that Tigerheart leaving ShadowClan ruined the Clan.

“Leaders can step down.” Um????? No they can’t???? Do you remember what happened to Brokentail and Nightstar???

“It’s been done before.” WHEN???? ARE YOU REFERRING TO BROKENTAIL AND NIGHTSTAR BECAUSE THAT WENT SO WELL

They mixed up Twigpaw and Violetpaw too, when they were explaining who went to SkyClan. The Allegiances AND Ivypool both said that Twigpaw remained in ThunderClan while Violetpaw went to SkyClan, but instead someone mentioned Twigpaw being in SkyClan.

Also, when did that happen? When did SkyClan get lands? When did Mistystar close her borders? WHY DIDN’T WE GET INFORMED OF THESE?

By the way, if they mention all of that in the coming book that would be very poor planning on their part. They release Super Editions according to how well they fit into storylines, if at all.

Why did Rowanclaw die and why did he change his name? Who was leading ShadowClan in Tigerheart’s absence?

How did three ThunderClan medicine cats miss a pregnant queen? And why wasn’t Leafpool mentioned while naming ThunderClan medicine cats? She’s still listed as one in the Allegiances.

Fierce was an idiot, but Tigerheart literally bossed around cats that he knew for a total of I think three moons (one moon of Dovewing carrying kits, two moons before the kits could travel. I think.)

Spire (who has an odd name for a wild cat, by the way) is literally a mixture of Skywatcher and Goosefeather and I still can’t decide whether I love him because I love crazy cats or hate him because he’s a copy of two great characters

Tigerheart died but it’s okay because hours later they stuck him in a holy puddle and he got eight lives and an evil name

Additional Note:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA CROWFEATHER IS THE DEPUTY OF WINDCLAN I FREAKING CALLED IT WHY ERINS WHY DID YOU DO THAT HE’S NOT DEPUTY MATERIAL 

Yes, this is much different than how I usually do things. I try to be a lot more classy and less... pessimistic about what I write. That’s because this blog and YouTube channel are changing, and this is actually one of the last posts I’ll write as ‘Melody Harp.’ More updates soon!

Disclaimer: I mean no offense to the author or any fans of the series, ESPECIALLY TigerDove fans! These are just my opinions.

Until next time, happy reading!

[melodyharp]

Updates

Hello there, stranger. It’s been awhile.

So yeah, it has been a LONG while. I thought I would have more time to work on videos this past summer, but work kicked my butt.

The new videos ARE COMING, but they are taking me quite a while. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get Tigerheart’s Shadow and review that fairly soon.

Sorry for the inactivity; life can get pretty hectic sometimes! ^^”

Happy reading!

[c-rowteeth]

warrior cat crossovers: a bad idea

[c-rowteeth]

srsly there’s not one fandom i can think of that a wc crossover would be good

[c-rowteeth]

johnkit padded over to sit by his denmate, sherlockkit, tail sweeping back and forth slowly. “what’s happening,” he squeaked. “a warrior ceremony,” whispered sherlockkit. johnkit was about to reply to his friend when Lestradefur, a senior warrior, and his apprentice Mycroftpaw shushed him. johnkit watched as Thepaw listened eargerly to the leader, Superwholockstar. “Thepaw, do you swear to honor the warrior code?” Thepaw replied affirmatively. “Then from this day forward you will be called Thedoctor.” Yowls of Thedoctor echoed across the camp. johnkit looked around and realized that deanpaw, sampaw, and castielpaw were the only ones not cheering and instead looked at Thedoctor jealously…

[c-rowteeth]

this was a mistake

[jblatherings]

how much do I have to pay you to delete this

[c-rowteeth]

i… i’m so sorry

[dochudson]

Op, do you accept constructive criticism on your posts?

[displayheartcode]

@melodyharp

[melodyharp]

Thepaw is honestly the best name any fan has ever created.

[hashtagloveloses]

you were either a warrior cats kid, a guardians of ga’hoole owl kid, or a redwall kid, there’s no in between

[1-800-fuckyou]

this post is animorphs erasure

[hashtagloveloses]

no, animorphs is a whole different class.

you were either animorphs, goosebumps, or choose your own adventure

[hashtagloveloses]

everyone in the notes saying “i’ve never heard of/read any of these” y'all are too damn young

[saanphoenix-deactivated20260411]

Or too damn old

[kittrook]

Ty, voicing all of the bookworms’ thoughts

[melodyharp]

I honestly think that this was a subtle jab at the TV and movie adaptions of the series. Anyone else?

[melodyharp]

Current Schedule (Lit Theories)

This is just a tentative schedule, nothing too definite. Also doing this to collect my thoughts:

Re: Hawkwing’s Mysterious Daughter (Warriors): lines done, image done

Clary’s Dream (Shadowhunters): lines done, not sure what to do about image because I’m not good at drawing humans oops.

Who is Ash? (Shadowhunters): theory finished, script needs to be written

Why the Blackthorns have the Black Volume of the Dead (Shadowhunters): theory finished, script needs to be written

What are Jem and Tessa doing now? (Shadowhunters): still need to finalize theory. I don’t even know where to start, but I have a lot of ideas!

The latter three could come out whenever, I’m not sure of their order. See, I can do theories other than Warriors! :)

This will wrap up ‘season one’ of the video series. It’ll be a full year of Lit Theories/Talks/Reviews at the end of the summer, and I’m so happy I could share it with all of you!

‘Season two’ (I’m not sure I should arrange this all in seasons but it feels like a good term for it) will start soon after, with a new background image and new types of videos!

In terms of Lit Reviews: I still need to finish organizing my thoughts for Six of Crows and Lord of Shadows. I also finished the first Redwall book and started on Name of the Wind so there may be a few more reviews coming your way!

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. I know it’s been a while, but I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things!

Happy reading!

[melodyharp]

Lord of Shadows has me already dead by one hundred pages

Please send help.

[cassandraclare]

Will we ever get more stories of young James Herondale, Matthew and the rest of the gang pre TLH?

Very likely. I’ll be releasing ten short stories about the pasts/major incidents in the lives of the major TLH characters, like Matthew, Thomas, James, Lucie, Cordelia, Anna, etc, in the leadup to the publication of Chain of Gold. Each will be on the internet to read for free, one a month until publication (next fall.)

[melodyharp]

YESSSSSSSSS

[melodyharp]

Small Hiatus

You may have noticed a slight lack of new content, and I apologize for that. Finals have hit me pretty hard and I won’t be able to do any literature work for a week or two.

Just finished Six of Crows and I have to say, I loved it! It was a pretty complex novel with a lot of characters and subplots, which makes it pretty hard to review it all. I’ll be rereading it at some point and put up a review of it soon!

Also, the next Shadowhunters book is coming out soon! That’ll be a book I’ll need to reread several times before I come to any conclusions, haha!

As for videos, I have a theory or two regarding Warriors and I’m sure I’ll have some theories when Lord of Shadows comes out. I’ll keep you posted!

Happy reading!

[cassandraclare]

tlh snippet

Cordelia was alone in the hallway. Squaring her shoulders, she pushed open the door to James’ room.

She had never been in a boy’s bedroom before, and it was quite a scandalous action to enter now, but the significance of it seemed small, swallowed up by her worry. James was half under the covers of the bed, moving restlessly from side to side, his face flushed with fever. His nightclothes clung to him, wet with sweat. It was a bright day outside and sunlight speared through the room, illuminating the bowls of burning herbs that Enoch had left behind. 

James rolled toward her. His eyes, the color of sunlight, blinked open slowly. “Matthew?” he said. “Matthew, is that you?”

[melodyharp]

I’m not crying you are

[cassandraclare]

So let's say Clary and Jace's plan did not work, and Sebastian won the war. What do you think would've happened?

I think you’ll find out.

[melodyharp]

Uh oh.

[melodyharp]

Lit Talks: Spottedpaw and Thistleclaw's Relationship Breakdown (Warrior Cats)

[tmisource]

Watch: 'Lord of Shadows' book trailer

Watch: @cassieclare’s ‘Lord of Shadows’ book trailer

Cassandra Clare’s Lord of Shadows is going to be published next month – only 23 days until we can bury our noses in a new The Shadowhunter Chronicles book – so it’s time for the official book trailer, which Riveted released on their YouTube channel. Watch it below: We love it, the colours, the music and London, although the tag line…

View On WordPress

[melodyharp]

The tag line scares me. Watch at the risk of FEELS.

[melodyharp]

I just recorded the lines for the Lit Talks of Spottedleaf’s Heart (Don’t tell me you didn’t expect one after the outrage the novella caused). Apparently I can’t speak today, since I recorded about ten minutes of a possibly 5-minute video.

Can’t wait to comb through that one.

It is coming soon, just not as soon as I’d like. In the meantime, enjoy some SpottedThistle fanart I drew that will appear in the Talk.

(Note: I totally don’t support the ship, I just thought it was interesting. They made quite the foil of each other) (Also I heard this song and it just fits them so well)

[melodyharp]

Lit Talks: Darktail and Sol: The Same Character? (Warrior Cats)

There was something about Darktail’s backstory that seemed eerily familiar...

I may have come off as strong in this video (I’ve been a little sleep-deprived as of late) and I apologize if I cause offense. I just want to state my opinion!

If you are interested in the art in this video, you can find Darktail here and Sol here. I’m testing out a new style and would love to know what you think!

[melodyharp]

Lit Reviews: Thunderstar’s Echo

Book Title: Warriors: Legends of the Clans: Thunderstar’s Echo

Author: Erin Hunter (Clarissa Hutton)

Spoiler-Free Verdict: Wait, what’s the echo? There was no echo.

My rating: 1.25/5

Complete, spoiler-ridden review under the cut:

Who’s Clarissa Hutton?! She isn’t an Erin Hunter I’m aware of. In fact, I looked her up and she has never written a Warriors book. No matter why the verb ‘said’ was used in this book instead of ‘meowed.’

Don’t get me wrong: I loved the beginning of the Dawn of the Clans arc. But the characters never seem to grow up. Especially Thunderstar.

Thunderstar is a leader, for StarClan’s sake! And yet his characterization remains that of a child. Sure, he leads. But he does not try to solve his cat’s problems, and he blindly leaps into danger. When the dogs entered the ravine, he barely did anything to help his Clanmates and, when they left, offered no word of comfort to his Clan. Instead, Violet Dawn comforts him.

His characterization during Violet Dawn’s pregnancy is as follows: “What if my kits don’t like me?” I’m sure every father has that fear, but it’s all he thinks about. He keeps saying that he’ll end up like Skystar, but Skystar is actually a good father to his new kits.

Thunderstar’s decision to take only himself and Lightining Tail to fight the dogs was stupid. Of course they both died; did anyone expect any different? ThunderClan even mentioned that the dogs were huge and vicious. Why wouldn’t they bring anyone else? Thunderstar hasn’t learned that he needs to trust his fellow warriors?

I remembered when Firestar took his nine lives. He said he wasn’t ready to be leader, but went and became the greatest leader and did what he had to as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thunderstar, on the other hand, said he wasn’t ready to name a deputy and proceeded to wait for a few days before naming a new deputy. I know the warrior code did not mention naming the deputy at moonhigh yet, but my goodness what a long time to leave your Clan without full power!

This was Hutton’s debut in the Warriors universe, and she blew it. The only reason why I gave this novella a 1.25/5 is because the pacing, while not the best, is fine and the scene in which Lightning Tail and Thunderstar are in StarClan together is interesting.

That’s all.

Who is Hutton, and why is she writing a book in a series she has no part of? Honestly the language and style she uses is so alien to the Warriors universe that this feels nothing like a Warriors book. Because of the poor characterization and the use of ‘said,’ this seems much more like a fanfiction from a beginning writer.

These are, of course, my opinions and reflect my years of reading Warriors and growing tired of the same plots over and over again. I mean no disrespect to the authors or the fans, and only wish to express what I thought of the books.

That’s all I have to say for Thunderstar’s Echo. Happy reading!

[melodyharp]

Lit Reviews: Pinestar’s Choice

Book Title: Warriors: Legends of the Clans: Pinestar’s Choice

Author: Erin Hunter (Vicky Holmes)

Spoiler-Free Verdict: A pretty impressive choice, when you realize the reason behind it.

My rating: 3.25/5

Complete, spoiler-ridden review under the cut:

There were so many fanfictions of Pinestar’s decision to become a kittypet that I felt exasperated that the Erins were trying to make a canon version of it. Regardless, I was interested in this novella mostly because I like to see what the Clans looked like in terms of Allegiances.

I have to say: as far as Legend of the Clans go, this was my favorite. There was no Dark Forest intercepting Pinestar’s own decisions, and no supernatural powers that made his character weaker than it already was.

What is interesting is how Pinestar’s father is Oakstar, the father of Birchface, who played a prominent role in Mapleshade’s Vengance. We got to see this ThunderClan as the villains during Mapleshade’s story, but now we can see them as the friendly cats we’ve expected from ThunderClan. It’s also fun that we get to see what happened to Mapleshade’s story- elders are now telling it to the kits and apprentices the tale.

I’m wondering why good cats were telling the younger cats about the Place of No Stars and yet it seemed like a new realization that it existed in the main series. Of course the Dark Forest was a new invention as of the second series so I can’t really find fault with it. Regardless, it would have made more sense if the Dark Forest was kept secret by the living cats who visited, and all other cats had no idea it existed.

The time leap between Pinepaw saving the mother kittypet and him being deputy was a little sudden and confusing, but because this is only a novella I will forgive it.

There is a glaring mistake during Pinestar’s nine lives ceremony: Pearnose is called a male.

The interaction between Pinestar and Jake is adorable, and we get to know more about Jake’s history. We also get some characterization of Quince, who was just a minor character in everything we’ve seen. I still don’t understand why Jake, who was chasing Quince through a lot of the novella, gave up and went with Nutmeg (Firestar’s mother), but at the rate the Erins are going I’m sure there will be a novella about her soon enough.

The fact that everyone had a warning about Tigerkit was insane. Why would you tell someone to kill their own son? I honestly don’t blame Pinestar for leaving; clearly he is a more peace-driven cat, and both his medicine cat and StarClan were telling him to murder his child. That alone would be reason enough to make me leave.

Yes, I believe Pinestar should have stuck around and guided Tigerkit into becoming a less-bloodthirsty warrior. But it would not have fit his characterization.

When Pinestar decided to live with Shanty’s Twolegs after she died, I almost felt admiration for him. He could have stayed with his best buddy, Jake. He even could have been a loner. But he decided to suck it up and let the Twolegs he was scared of pet him.

Not all of the novella was perfect, of course. As I mentioned before, the pacing is terrible. I would have loved to know why Pinestar was so against fighting; maybe showing his warrior life and his deputyship could have helped with that. The fact that both Pinestar and Goosefeather knew about Tigerkit’s future and neither of them did anything about it made no sense. Shanty’s death was sudden- too sudden for me to feel any grief for her poorly-characterized character. The Erins also introduced a cat, Tyr, and never did anything about him. Is he supposed to be Sasha’s father or something? I don’t understand why he’s there.

I also don’t understand why Thunderstar was at Pinestar’s ceremony. Why would he give a life to a cat who would leave his Clan, and not to Firestar who would save all the Clans many times?

This was one of the better books of the newer Warriors books. It’s refreshing to read Holmes’ writing, which is much more mature than the other two Erins.

These are, of course, my opinions and definitely do not reflect the opinions of the entire fandom. I’m always interested in hearing a disagreeing opinion! I mean no disrespect to the authors or the fans, and only wish to express what I thought of the books.

That’s all I have to say for Pinestar’s Choice. Happy reading!