WC Blog

18 I talk about and draw Warrior Cats

[quietercat]

Hello!

I’m Quietercat, a blogger who just likes to draw and talk about Warrior cats.

Age: 18

I’ve been into Warrior cats for as long as I can remember. Although these crazy cat books have questionable writing quality, I still hold the series very near and dear to me.

This blog will likely have a lot of self indulgent content about Warrior Cats, and especially about the characters I specifically like in the series, so please be warned about that. My opinions are also very subjective, and catered towards my personal preferences.

I also tend to rant about the POTENTIAL of characters, arcs, scenes, themes, just about anything in the series I feel like deserved so much more.

Here’s some basic opinions through the wonderful use of tier lists I have of the series to give you some frame of reference. I’ll give some brief explanations on my overall rankings.

Here’s my ranking for the wonderful cats.

Yup! Blackstar is my favorite character.

The “greatest potential” category, is my way of saying i absolutely love the character, but i feel like they deserved so much more out of the story. These guys are in no particular order, so don’t think I prefer Brambleclaw over Squirrelstar. Blackstar is the only one that i genuinely ranked as first. You can expect that I will absolutely rant about these characters because I love them so much. Other cats I would include but couldn’t find are Hawkfrost, Darktail, Berryheart and Nightstar.

The “very fun” category is for cats that I think served their purpose well in the story and were overall fun to read about. I wouldn’t change much about these cats or rant about their potential.

The “mildly fun” category is like the category just above, but to a lesser degree. I may actually talk more about these cats than the cats from the “very fun” category though.

The “who invited these…” category is my way of saying I wasn’t particularly thrilled or fond of these characters or their role in the story. Before people start with the “but some are meant to be evil and disliked” I just want to say, yes, yes some are meant to be that way, but these villains in particular weren’t all that fun to read about, or compelling like I would expect from other villains in fiction I find interesting to read about.

The “shouldn’t have existed” category is my personal bias towards how the characters impacted the story. (Notice how most of the characters on that tier are from A Vision of Shadows). It doesn’t necessarily mean I want them to be omitted from the Warrior Cats world completely, it’s just a way for me to say I didn’t appreciate their contribution to the story. If they were written in a more meaningful way (at least to me! I’m not saying they aren’t meaningful at all) I think I would have appreciated them more.

Now for arcs.

I will always grieve the potential of Power of Three and Omen of The Stars.

I loved the Prophecies Begin, that’s the OG after all.

A Starless Clan was a premise I was finding myself liking a bit, but it wasn’t too special or anything.

I wished I enjoyed The New Prophecy and A Starless Clan. Those arcs held a lot of potential, but they weren’t all that compelling.

I disliked A Broken Code and feel like it failed at more things than it succeeded at.

A Vision of Shadows…. There’s a lot that I find wrong with that arc in particular, at one point this arc almost made me drop Warrior Cats all together. Let’s just say I have some major issues with its characters, premise, and narrative. It had some good moments, but the bad moments outweigh the good ones. I know that AVOS is vital to the rest of the Warrior Cats series from then on, but I cannot in any good conscience accept that arc for what it was.

Maybe one day I’ll get into Dawn of the Clans!

Now getting into my personal favorite books in Warriors! The super editions!

To me, Tallstar’s Revenge, Crowfeather’s Trial, and Yellowfang’s Secret were the most interesting and memorable to read. They are admittedly NOT the best, but the potential they held to be something amazing was what made me like them so much.

I enjoyed Bluestar’s Prophecy and Crookedstar’s promise, I wouldn’t change much about them either, they were pretty fun reads. Hawkstar’s Journey was surprisingly a fun read for me, despite the arc it was in (AVOS cough cough). I loved his story way more than I thought I would.

Firestar’s Journey was ok, so was Bramblestar’s Storm. Leopardstar’s Honor actually held a lot of potential, so I should have included her in the greatest potential category, but for what the book was, I think it actually did an ok job at her character. I might change her SE ranking later on though.

Squirrelflight’s Hope was not a good experience. I absolutely loved seeing Squirrelflight shine as a POV character, and some of the Starclan moments were nice, but other than that, she and Leafpool deserved a better narrative. Same with Mothflight’s Vision, poor girl deserved better.

Onestar’s Confession did not need to exist, it absolutely did not. I genuinely wanted to understand his motives for why he did what he did, but that book killed all interest immediately. As for Tigerheart’s Shadow, it was an AVOS Super Edition, and I did not appreciate Tigerheart’s character all that much. To me, he was not meaningful in any way whatsoever throughout the entirety of that book.

And lastly, the Novellas.

Blackstar, Blackstar, Blackstar…. You deserved so much better than what you got from that Novella. I considered putting his book in the “shouldn’t have existed” category, but I couldn’t bring myself to do such a thing to my favorite character. My thankful we got some solo content of him…. But his content was admittedly the worst of any character if I’m going to be honest. Mothwing’s book had so much potential, and it actually had some good moments! I wish they expanded on her more. Goosefeather’s curse was a very intriguing read. Hollyleaf’s Story added some more MUCH needed depth to her character that I appreciated. Tawnypelt’s Novella deserved more, but I enjoyed it. Pinestar interested me a whole lot because of how much his character directly clashes with clan society, his story genuinely felt refreshing to read (admittedly there were some issues though). Redtail, heh, Deadtail. Not funny, I know, I just had to say it.

Ravenpaw has always been a great character to hear from, his novella made me emotional. I had so much fun reading Daisy’s Novella, I love her character. Shadowstar was actually fun to hear from.

I won’t dive too much into the “mildly fun section” since I don’t have a whole lot of opinions on those characters if I’m being honest.

Cloudstar’s Journey and Mistystar’s Omen felt so off putting to me, I might explore those more later on. Leafpool’s Wish was an alright read, but I’m kinda bordering on if that book was even necessary at all, or if I just didn’t like it.

Spotfur’s book was unnecessary because it was 90% recap, 10% actual meaningful content of her. Sorry. Spottedleaf’s heart, what’s that? Never head of it? How did an imaginary title get on here? That’s so silly. I don’t particularly like Tree, his story was kinda interesting, but more so meaningless.

There’s my intro, I am pleased to meet you all.

[bowiestarzzz]

squirrelflight's hope is a very bad book but "she deserved to be loved." "she was loved. i loved her." is genuinely one of the greatest most emotionally raw lines in all of the books ever. there is so much in there. she was loved. i loved her. i can't explain to you guys what happens to me when i think about she was loved i loved her

[bowiestarzzz]

it sits on the table with "what did it matter if he had? she'd lived and died without him."

[quietercat]

As much as I disliked The New Prophecy, I actually enjoyed how impactful and creative they made the deaths in that arc be.

Feathertail breaking off a stalactite and falling to her death.

Mudclaw being crushed to death by the very tree used for the present day gatherings.

And of course, Hawkfrost being impaled by the stick on a fox trap.

All of those deaths were well thought out and pretty creative. I am not a death or gore fanatic though, I simply enjoy when Warrior Cats uses its environment to their advantage in the fullest.

[skinwretch]

"what do you mean you don't think shadowsight would feel much for his thunderclan relatives besides awkwardness and discomfort and subconscious resentment" do you think he was old enough here to remember things like the way ivypool suddenly pulled her children away from him and his sibling as though they had some infectious disease

[quietercat]

Not my usual post, but I want to express how visibly upset this TikTok comment made me.

I will not stand for my favorite character, Blackstar being misrepresented like this, it’s hurtful.

The commenter is saying that Blackstar “earned” his lives by killing Stonefur.

That is absolutely not the case… Starclan may be morally arbitrary and often times make bad calls and decisions, but I don’t think they would grant a character lives by killing another cat.

As for the “earning” part, Blackstar was simply following orders, acting as a cog for Tigerclan, I’m not even certain by this point he held any morals or ethics capable to earn leadership, he was only a follower by this point.

That’s what made the scene with Blackfoot and Stonefur so interesting. It was a tangle between two deputies: Blackstar, who was incapable of disobeying orders and forming his own morality, verses Stonefur, one who could defy orders with clear moral judgment and integrity.

[quietercat]

Flametail was an odd character in retrospect. He was a point-of-view character in the middle of an arc for one book, and died in such book. He was a medicine cat, yet he didn’t behave like a typical medicine cat. He was also worn down by his huge responsibilities. The way the Erin’s went about his character was relatively unique and interesting, especially considering he was a point of view character in an arc where you would expect the authors to be strictly focused only on key characters.

His character intrigued me, and I found myself even finding parallels between him and Hollyleaf, which I enjoyed.

That being said, I don’t think the execution of his arc was done well, especially with the whole “destiny” aspect of his arc.

In the end, his contribution was simply for the purpose of pushing the narrative that ‘clans must stick together’, and to be some sort of “destiny child”. Not only that, but his death was almost entirely a plot device for Jayfeather’s ‘destiny’. I assumed Flametail’s death would be more significant than just a “stepping-stone” for Jayfeather’s ‘destiny’ growth, but when the cats (Dawnpelt and others) started accusing Jayfeather of “drowning” Flametail and Jayfeather had to temporarily step down from being a medicine cat, I knew it would be a painful read from then on.

Then, later in the arc, in The Last Hope, chapter 16, this scene happens and makes everything worse:

Jayfeather is so hell bent on the idea that Flametail is the fourth cat, so he goes to find him, and when he eventually finds him, Flametail is quite angered.

—“It wasn’t my time to die. I had to survive!” —

—“And I didn’t?” —

—“It was such a stupid way to die!”—

—But you still have a destiny to fulfill!”—

These two lines strike me in particular because it’s a direct clash of ideologies. Jayfeather, is a character who is obsessive with “destiny” (I would even argue he’s deluded by it), and Flametail is a character who suffered from “destiny”, and wants to opposes it (at least at first). These kinds of interactions are very important because they challenge the narrative and ideas present…. Yet, as the chapter continues it’s all abruptly “resolved” and Flametail “fulfills his destiny”:

—“You have fulfilled your destiny.”—

—“How strange that I had to wait until I died to fulfill my destiny”—

Flametail’s destiny was to die and then say a couple of sentences to other medicine cats to “unite the clans”? ‘How strange’ is definitely a phrase for that, a rather tamed phrase on Flametail’s part. He deserved to be way more angry at his situation.

Warrior Cats has an almost dangerous relationship with “destiny”, Flametail is proof of that.

I don’t honestly like to think that Flametail had this sort of “divine destiny”, he was a character broken and used as a pawn for destiny. Flametail was aware of this, when he called his death ‘stupid’ and ‘not fair’, it was showing he absolutely understood his role, and he hated it. Jayfeather probably also understood that Flametail was mistreated for the sake of destiny, but throughout his entire life, Starclan and ancient cats around Jayfeather had been conditioning him to believe that everything that happens and that he does is for destiny. That is an incredibly toxic mindset that was instilled into him, and because of that toxicity Jayfeather started to develop what I like to call the “It’s ok because it was all for destiny” coping mechanism. That coping mechanism in turn lead Jayfeather to believe that Flametail’s death was all for destiny so it was “ok” (which, again, is an extremely unhealthy and dangerous mindset to have when he just experienced a traumatic event).

This is starting to turn into a Jayfeather analysis segment, but Flametail is such an important character in showing Jayfeather’s tragic ideology, that I feel like I must discuss him more in relation with Flametail. Jayfeather was obviously traumatized by Flametail’s death, he felt guilty, rotten, wrong, and to top it off, cats blamed him for Flametail’s death. But Rock had told him to let Flametail go, to let him die for destiny, so Jayfeather obviously did the right thing, right? Jayfeather’s only way to cope with his horrible situation was to believe it was all for “destiny”. When Jayfeather heard there would be a 4th cat in the prophecy, obviously he assumed it had to be Flametail, the cat he let die for the sake of ‘destiny’. The reason Jayfeather in the chapter above kept going on and on with his ‘destiny’ mantra to Flametail was because any other reality would have suffocated him, which is tragic.

Obviously, Flametail died to fufill his ‘destiny’, obviously it was his time to die, and obviously he had to be a pawn for ‘destiny’, because if it was anything other than that, Jayfeather would have had to grapple with the fact that perhaps he watched a cat die for nothing.

(Yes, I know he’s blind, I used “watched” in a metaphorical sense).

I’ll eventually dive more into the relationship between Warrior Cats and destiny, because there are some sour and delusional elements to it that I want to discuss.

[bonefall]

The growing radicalization in ShadowClan

As directly as you can possibly state this without dropping a term the cats wouldn't know, Berryheart is canonically xenophobic.

It's very likely that she picked up this fear from her experiences with the Kin, and she's now using this belief to justify every reactionary response she has to the code changing, her discomfort with outsiders, and her general fear of uncertainty.

Berryheart and her clique have invented a political term to frame the idea of changing clans in a bad light. This is comparable to the way you might hear a conservative using the word "Illegal Alien" instead of migrant or expat

And, much like how the conservative applies this to migrants they don't like such as brown ones, Berryheart does not apply the derogatory label "clan-swapper" to people she does like, such as Dovewing.

Not yet, at least. We all know how these things tend to go.

So next, Sunbeam finds herself at what can be compared to a political rally. We saw in River that their toxic rhetoric has already made more level-headed people such as Tawnypelt drop out of the clique entirely, and now Sunbeam is the only voice of reason in what is otherwise an echo chamber.

She thinks that she can reach them by being diplomatic, the way that in an argument you can calm someone down a bit by showing them that you're listening. She does not realize that these cats have been radicalized. They jump on her concession like it's a weakness.

This is a frighteningly real scenario. Sunbeam has been so focused on the drama of her personal life that her friends and family have suddenly become people she doesn't recognize.

What was once some people getting together to gripe about how change is scary has been mobilized into an irrational, motivated hate group.

Sunbeam can't reason with them, she can't fight them, and at this point in the book, she also can't bring herself to abandon them.

[quietercat]

Squirrelflight throughout the series.

[quietercat]

Long post, be warned. I will be going over topics of abuse as well, so be warned about that too.

I’ve been speaking more about why I dislike The Broken Code as an arc, so I thought I would share my biggest problem with the arc:

The treatment of Squirrelflight.

She’s abused, mistreated by her clanmates, and she endures suffering I don’t think any cat in the series has been through (psychologically and physically). She’s used as a stepping stone and a punching bag all throughout The Broken Code for the narrative. Yet, when the arc ends, they completely gloss over the atrocities that happened to her and just “forgive and forget” her situation, so I have no choice to believe what the did to her was for the sake of drama, and to be “interesting”. That was disappointing and saddening to read.

I would like to preface that I am in no way trying to police the writers about what they write. Writing about abuse does not make a writer a bad person. Writing about suffering does not make a writer a bad person. Writing on the topic of uncomfortable topics does not make a writer a bad person.

But what I will say is that there is a certain degree of responsibility a writer must take when writing about topics like what Squirrelflight is experiencing. In my honest opinion, I do not think the Erins had any grace when it came to the topic of her abuse, and I’ll be looking at a specific chapter to justify my thoughts on how the writers quite horribly portrayed a victim of abuse.

This chapter 20, in The Silent Thaw for reference

“She padded wearily to Bramblestar’s den,” speaks a lot of volumes about her mental and physical state. She’s exhausted, exhausted by Bramblestar to be more specific.

Squirrelflight has just returned from her self-exile and is now talking to “Bramblestar” (Ashfur is in his body).

“Guessed she was only acting to put Bramblestar at ease”, this isn’t the first time Squirrelflight has acted and spoke for the sake of Bramblestar’s emotions. That isn’t an indicator of a healthy relationship.

“Bramblestar” then goes on to talk about Squirrelflight’s sister, Leafpool, in a horrible way. Which isn’t a surprise, the Erins love to talk about Leafpool and Squirrelflight’s past mistakes more than they love to talk about what good they’ve done.

“But she was scared and I was weak.” And I was weak. And I was weak. The fact that Squirrelflight was SO willing to degrade herself in front of her “mate” to make him complacent was awful. It also shows just how awful Squirrelflight feels about her past. The cats around her have shunned her for so long that she’s developed a kind of self-hatred.

“Bramblestar” then goes on to physically and mentally abuse her on the spot, I don’t need to sugarcoat or explain further on that matter.

Here’s where things get worse: her Clanmates see Squirrelflight getting physically abused, and yet as we read further into the chapter, all of her clanmates just accept it, and don’t even care that much for her abuse.

So, let’s look further into how her family, clanmates, and “friends” react to the situation.

“Alderheart and Jayfeather padded from the medicine den, their ears twitching.” Jayfeather can’t see the situation, I’m letting him get a pass on this (for now). But Alderheart, he just witnessed his mother get physically abused by his father, and the only thing they write him as doing is “ears twitching”. An odd and almost indifference thing to write. I’m hoping the Erins actually tried to imply shock, but based on what they actually wrote, it’s incredibly unclear.

“She’s Firestar’s daughter, you can’t exile her.” This line is one of my least favorite lines ever written in the history of Warriors. She can’t be exiled because she’s Firestar’s daughter? Is that the only reason? Graystripe saying this implies he only views her an extension of Firestar, it’s an implication that is sickening. She’s her own cat, the literal deputy of Thunderclan, not just a famous leader’s daughter.

Again, I want to strongly reiterate that her Clanmates just saw her be physically abused and yet they hardly react, they just start jumping to accuse her.

“They stared at her in disbelief.” Ok, so they don’t express shock when she is basically thrown off of a cliff by her mate, but they express shock when she is accused of being disloyal? That in itself is immoral.

“Her Clanmates seemed to hear Squirrelflight’s words as no more than spite in a cat whose mate had just rejected her.” …I don’t need words to express how strongly disappointed I am by this sentence.

Berrynose and Bumblestripe after watching their leader abuse Squirrelflight start jumping at the opportunity to replace her as deputy. It’s reminiscent of Darkstripe’s behavior towards Tigerstar, but I’m sure the Erin’s don’t want to entertain that idea, because while Berrynose dies later, Bumblestripe lives and has no consequences for his actions.

I am glad to see that Bristlefrost and this chapter frames this entire thing as being an injustice.

Despite it being framed as a wrong done to Squirrelflight, after the events of The Broken Code things return to normal. Squirrelflight is perfectly fine and happy to be back with her “perfect mate”. The clan stops being complete jerks and are now not immoral extremist cats. Her Clanmates received little to no consequences for their behavior against her.

Why make Squirrelstar leader over a clan that was so willing to disrespect and throw her out in seconds? Why make Squirrelstar suffer so much only to pretend she never went through so much in the end? Why show her getting physically abused and then gloss over it like it was normal? Why portray Brambleclaw as the “most” traumatized, abused, and cat deserving the most sympathy after the events of the arc were over?

Oh, wait, it’s because Squirrelstar is a she-cat, a woman. Did I forget that misogyny exists? How silly of me.

[quietercat]

Warrior cats most definitely struggles with inconsistent characterization and character assassination.

It’s a tactic the writers use to dramatize events, and use characters as obstacles to further the “growth” of other characters. But using characters as plot devices for drama, isn’t a good tactic, and it actually takes away from original characters and makes them look like hollow devices for a narrative. That is upsetting to read in a story.

I am in no way saying the characterization of characters in Warriors can’t change. But the execution of how a character changes is key to making their change feel convincing and not forced for the sake of the plot. Dovewing and Tigerstar’s changed behavior when Birchfall left Shadowclan also was semi-executed well. (Even if it also felt a bit unconvincing)

In The Broken Code, the writers changed Mothwing, but not in a believable or understandable way, no, Mothwing’s characterization was just there for the sake of developing and dramatizing Shadowsight’s arc, which was absolutely insulting to read.

I’ve been talking about my grievances with The Broken Code, and yes, I do believe The Broken Code had the most character inconsistency’s and assassinations of any Warrior Cats arc, but I want to talk about one character assassination that I believe was the worst out of any character in Warriors Cats:

Russetfur.

I struggle to wrap my head around why Russetfur out of all the cats would say this. Russetfur was a former Kittypet called Red. Either the writers completely forget about Russetfur’s story, or they just wanted to write about Russetfur having internalized feelings against her origins. I do understand that she and the other Shadowclan cats were upset that Kittypet’s had killed one of their apprentices not too long ago, but this scene still felt incredibly out of character for Russetfur. Russetfur’s willingness to break the Warrior code and watch a kit suffer was incredibly malicious behavior from her. Which, if the writers wanted to go down that route, and make her an ironic character that hates the very cats that she used to be, I would have accepted her saying those things.

And yet, the writers simply decided to characterize her as being this way in this one instance for the sake of drama and plot. The chose to not expand on her character from this point, so now I consider Russetfur as being the strongest example of Warrior Cats character assassination.

[quietercat]

I just watched Project Hail Mary, and It was a fantastic movie.

But what really hit me about the movie was the strong emphasis on platonic and complex relationships.

In my honest opinion, all of the platonic relationships in Warrior Cats have always hit harder than the romantic ones, and that’s why I absolutely loved Arc 1. The relationships that Firestar had with others was so incredibly special and made the narrative so much more emotionally engaging. His relationships with Bluestar, Tallstar, Mistystar, Graystripe, Morningflower, Bramblekit/paw, Yellowfang, and more made for excellent emotional payoff for the audience, and a strong connection to the story.

Lately, I feel like Warrior Cats has been lacking making compelling platonic and complex relationships. Occasionally, I do see the exceptional relationships pop up such as Brambleclaw and Moonpaw, but it’s too few to evoke any strong emotional connection with how the narrative plays out and how the characters interact with each other.

I’ve expressed before that I didn’t like The Broken Code. To add on to why I didn’t like TBC, in my humblest opinion, that arc lacked the most platonic relationships. Instead, the arc relied on a premise between Bristlefrost and Rootspring to try and build a ‘strong’ emotional connection to the story, which wasn’t all that pleasant to read.

[quietercat]

There are very few scenes in Warrior Cats that have evoked such strong anger from me, but this is one of them.

Using Squirrelflight as a punching bag for their frustrations was sickening to read. The way her authority was undermined, challenged, and mocked by lots of cats around her in The Broken Code made me feel like I wasn’t even reading Warrior Cats anymore, it felt more like some kind of disconnected, savage drama that was using anything and everything to add shock value for the reader.

The amount of pointless arguments in this arc were egregious. The cats spent more time arguing about their lives than doing anything in this arc. It was all drama, drama, tension, arguments, mischaracterizing characters, and more drama. It was cheap.

Having Breezepelt spew this nonsense only solidified to me that he still harbors some of his characterization from POW and OOTS. I will also stand my ground when I say Breezepelt is not a character I can respect within the series, even despite his ‘redemption’. He is a very unique character, which I like, but the way they went about trying to redeem his character was completely dissatisfying.

The Broken Code was a trying so hard to be a “shocking” arc, and that’s why it failed. (Again, I it mean failed me, not failed from a narrative standpoint. This is just my opinion.)

[quietercat]

A person on Twitter articulated this perfectly, and I would like to thank them.

This is exactly what I mean when I say The Broken Code failed. It had very good moments, but those moments were very little, and outweighed by everything else bad in the arc.

[quietercat]

Sunbeam, the spirit of Needletail compels you.

These snappy bits by Sunbeam reminded me of Needletail.

Sunbeam’s entire family is a fascinating bunch, which I do appreciate. I often wonder if Berryheart saw a bit of Needletail in Sunbeam.

Having a Sunbeam Needletail pipeline would have made for a very compelling narrative.

The Erin’s decision to make Nightheart the asshole-y jerk of this arc was a bizarre decision, and I think Sunbeam should have resumed that role, she had much better reasons than him to not be such a friendly cat. (Not to put Nightheart down, but his arc is strange).

That’s not to say I think Sunbeam should have been written to be this snobby jerk always complaining about her situations, but having her be less agreeable and more rebellious could have been an interesting read. She could have had started out the arc as being agreeable and loyal to her clan, then slowly develop and want go against her clan and authority, and by the end of the arc the Sunbeam Needletail parallelism prophecy could have been fulfilled.

Sunbeam and Needletail parallels for the win.

Again, these are my personal preferences, I think Sunbeam is fine and dandy just how she is, I just like to push parallelism at every opportunity.

[quietercat]

Bringing back my thoughts on Warrior Cat’s relationship with clan loyalty and systemic ideology, I want to talk about Shadowclan in particular.

Shadowclan is one of the most nationalistic and loyalist filled clan.

You would expect Shadowclan to be the most progressive out of all the clans, they have a leader that has a mate formerly from another clan, and they have been put through tyrants upon tyrants for leaders. But no, Shadowclan is not the most progressive, and I don’t think they will ever be.

In ASC, the first book shows Sunbeam expressing this:

This sentence implies that she didn’t harbor that ideology in her kithood, and rather learned it when she became an apprentice.

I am curious about her relationship with her mentor, Snaketooth now as well, because she was the most influential cat during her apprenticeship, and Snaketooth is an intensely loyal Shadowclan cat.

I also, wholeheartedly think believe Sunbeam leaving Shadowclan was less Nightheart based, and more her wanting to get out of the toxic environment Shadowclan created for her. Nightheart was just an excuse for her to get out. Her friends, family, and everyone else in her clan didn’t make for a very strong nor healthy connection for her.

We also see Gullswoop say this in that same book:

An odd sentiment to say the least when a third of Shadowclan is made of previously outsider cats. Shadowclan, historically has been known for taking in cats from outside the clans. Darktail most certainly did a number on Shadowclan in this regard, and likely furthered their xenophobia, Berryheart is solid proof that the trauma Darktail impacted on them did indeed cause a lot more xenophobic rhetoric to spike.

Overall, Shadowclan is quite a clear representation of how trauma and bad experiences can sometimes cause the radicalization of a group.

Sometime in the future I’ll dive into the older Shadowclan (Yellowfang’s Secret era), and go through their relationship with loyalty, as well as their overall clan ideology.

[quietercat]

There are very few scenes in Warrior Cats that have evoked such strong anger from me, but this is one of them.

Using Squirrelflight as a punching bag for their frustrations was sickening to read. The way her authority was undermined, challenged, and mocked by lots of cats around her in The Broken Code made me feel like I wasn’t even reading Warrior Cats anymore, it felt more like some kind of disconnected, savage drama that was using anything and everything to add shock value for the reader.

The amount of pointless arguments in this arc were egregious. The cats spent more time arguing about their lives than doing anything in this arc. It was all drama, drama, tension, arguments, mischaracterizing characters, and more drama. It was cheap.

Having Breezepelt spew this nonsense only solidified to me that he still harbors some of his characterization from POW and OOTS. I will also stand my ground when I say Breezepelt is not a character I can respect within the series, even despite his ‘redemption’. He is a very unique character, which I like, but the way they went about trying to redeem his character was completely dissatisfying.

The Broken Code was a trying so hard to be a “shocking” arc, and that’s why it failed. (Again, I it mean failed me, not failed from a narrative standpoint. This is just my opinion.)

[quietercat]

I want to strongly preface that I am in no way trying to sound pretentious with what I post. These posts are my own, self-indulgent thoughts. I am aware Warrior Cats is a silly and badly written series where mostly eveything isn’t intended. I just like to dig more complex ideas out of the series and then expand on from there because I think it’s fun.

Please don’t think my posts are super serious, and that I’m genuinely typing these posts like a 17th century professor about to enlighten the next generation of learners.

[quietercat]

This is the nth time you’ve fallen victim to seemingly grand and authoritative cats, but I forgive you, Blackstar.

It was a brillant decision to make Blackstar fall victim to Sol’s manipulation, even if the execution wasn’t all that great. It was completely in character for him, and a great way to bring up his past and his flaws.

Blackstar was always a cat easily manipulated and radically changed by his authority each time a new leader was selected. That’s what he had been experiencing ever since he was born, that was his (and likely most of the rest of his peers) norm.

He’s a product of blind loyalty, and that’s a fascinating subject.

I’m quite glad The Broken Code at least tried to tackle the societal issues these cats dealt with due to the ideology around figures of authority. Radical loyalty has always brought ugly consequences to the world of Warriors.

I would like to talk more about the relationship between clan cats and the subject of loyalty, because there are good, bad, and ugly elements to it.