#bc analyzes things

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StormClan's Folly Spoilers.

I. Have. A lot of thoughts about this book. This is about to get spicy.

I hated this book. It tried to have character arcs and genuinely good concepts, but the message of the book is revolting.

First off, Galestar is amazing. I love sinful, heretical women and I think more should find peace and happiness in their desires and abandonment of a religion that oppresses them.

The virgin Stripebark is being whipped like a dog and stripped (lol) of his title by his shitty ancestors while the chad Gale Rise is in paradise with an emotionally resonant big strong man and her children

What I take away out of sheer spite for how much I hated this book is that even though Galestar and her Clan suffered in pursuit of her defiance against the will of StarClan, she did not go back to them and beg for forgiveness. She did not give up on her dream, and in a way, she was rewarded for her determination. She is in every sense an apostate of her religion, and the so-called heretic has the happiest ending in the end. 

But what I think the real message is, is yet again another ham-fisted punch in the face of the ole’ reliable: mankind crumbles and falls without religion (particularly Christianity). StormClan is doomed to fail because it is without the blessing of StarClan. It can never succeed because fate itself has determined it is an impossibility. It’s not just Stripestar and Galestar’s own personal flaws that cause them to fail: it seems like the idea of fate and destiny itself is causing these coincidences after coincidences. Kestrelwing just happened to slip on an object in the road? This is Final Destination levels of manipulation. 

Oh, and let’s throw some unintended segregation into the mix too! StormClan can’t succeed because they’ll always be WindClan cats or ThunderClan cats. This idea that these two cultures could intertwine and create a new culture built on both (the cultural center that is Italians and Irish in Chicago) is seen as impossible and thwarted at every turn. They have to come crawling back like the prodigal son to beg God (StarClan) for forgiveness from straying from the path of StarClan’s will. I hate it. Hate!

Then there’s the fact the cats constantly believe they are suffering for the creation of StormClan. These horrific, overly-detailed deaths are seen as “punishment” for their ‘folly’. I can’t begin to express how utterly deranged it is to insinuate that the reason Galestar had a premature stillbirth was because she had strayed from StarClan. Or that Kestrelwing dying horribly, to the point it describes his bones were jutting out, to be divine consequences.

Fuck this book. Fuck StarClan, and fuck the Christian bullshit applied to this series.

Gale Rise, I hope you break the record set by Snowbird for most number of kits and never know suffering again. You did nooooooot deserve to be in this shitty book.

Oh: We've also got gay cats! Congrats to Thrushcall and Pebblenose, you GTFOed and got a better ending than most of the cast.

My new headcanon is that Mapleshade is Tinyclaw's daughter

[cat-in-a-basement]

Thinking about Ferncloud and Ashfur's father. I utterly disregard what the website says about Whitestorm being the father because it worsens the already incestuous relations and tells us Whitestorm was a womanizer with kits from two queens, which he never demonstrates to us as an audience. So that leaves the potential father of these two as Longtail, Runningwind, and Darkstripe. Longtail never shows an interest in kits, and Runningwind is much the same. But you know who does have kits? Tigerstar. You know who idolizes Tigerstar? Darkstripe.

I could see it being within Darkstripe's character to emulate his idol by trying to be like him (I will note Fern and Ash were born before Tiger and Tawny, but the “big strong alpha male [tom?]” is Tigerstar's shtick that Darkstripe would want to copy). But I don't see a relationship with Brindleface being romantic, probably akin to a one-night stand like Daisy and Spiderleg. Heck, with the way toms react to finding out they’re fathers in this universe, he may not even realize Ashfur and Ferncloud are his. Brindleface never names the father, so perhaps the father wanted nothing to do with his kits, or didn't realize he had kits. It gives some interest to the idea of Darkstripe ending up apprenticing his own daughter and treating her badly.

[acatinabasement]

A Particular Changing Skies Spoiler

Is it really a spoiler if the whole of Tumblr has access to the PDF now? My thoughts below as I ponder my orb.

Brambleclaw's final moments were very bittersweet. I think knowing that Cherith's cat, Bramble, whom Brambleclaw was named after, passed away, makes it so much more heartfelt from the writer and a final sendoff to her beloved cat. Old man Brambleclaw was quite lovely, and honestly I think retiring was the best choice for him, mentally and emotionally.

I personally cannot separate the Brambleclaw/Bramblestar I know from the majority of the series and how he was written, but I can appreciate Bramblepaw, one of my favorite characters from The Prophecies Begin, and cool off a little at Brambleold™, who was pretty chill after he no longer had authority over other cats. I think he's more well adjusted outside a leadership position, and perhaps happier.

However. It does not escape me he died of sepsis. He died of poopy foot. That's terribly funny (haha poop) and also terribly realistic. Do not play around with sepsis folks, our ancestors often died of it.

I'm not entirely happy with how a lot of focus shifted to Squirrelstar's faults in their relationship, but I do see the characters themselves making those connections and inferences, and it's poor taste to piss on an old man's corpse (though watch out for Shinepaw). The reality is that the authorial intent was never to make Brambleclaw abusive, the characters don't think it's abusive, and it's good they didn't try to "course correct", but instead just made him stop doing the things that were abusive patterns of behavior. It was the best way they could have handled that, honestly.

However. I have experienced a tad bit of schadenfreude. There is a certain subset of Warriors fan that makes hating Squirrelstar their entire personality. And seeing these melodramatic reactions to a fictional cat's death is really. really. funny.

Farewell, Brambleclaw. May you not be assimilated into the StarClan Collective and retain some semblance of personality in any future books you're in.

[acatinabasement]

Something To Consider About StarClan in StormClan’s Folly

I just got done watching Moonkitti’s video debunking whether or not StarClan fired their laser and zapped the life out of Galestar’s kits, and I agree 100% that StarClan did not cause that. Did they knowingly let her kits die? That’s plausible. Very likely, actually. They didn’t warn about the fire or the branch. Did the stress of losing her lives impact Galestar’s pregnancy? Also very possible. StarClan is completely villainous in this book to the point of comedy so them not caring about the stress they would cause her checks out.

I think there’s something else to consider here, and it’s how these tragedies are presented within the story.

The idea of a Greek tragedy story is that the protagonists are undone by their own human failures. You see exactly how they got there and how their own flaws became their final nail in the coffin. You’re supposed to be conflicted because you want them to succeed, but you recognize they were always doomed to fail because they made the decisions that led to that path. It’s like the literary equivalent of the Dramatic Dmitry meme. 

And for some people, StormClan’s Folly achieves this. They can appreciate and enjoy the direction the story went, as well as having flawed characters and an interesting premise. 

However, I personally cannot see it that way. It doesn’t read to me like a Greek tragedy. It reads like an Old Testament fable, like the bratty children who made fun of Elisha’s bald head being eaten by bears. They were rude, but that’s their retribution?

StarClan is unequivocally the villain in this book, perhaps the worst they’ve ever been. Regarding Stripestar and Galestar’s “folly”, I think StormClan was built upon personal feelings, ill planned, and last minute. It didn’t have a steady start. But the misfortunes that befall the various cats read like the narrative itself is punishing them. It’s a string of coincidences and bad luck that all convey the same message: StormClan was arrogant and foolish to withdraw from the Clans.

Kestrelwing is brutally killed, and we’re supposed to see that it was Stripestar not being smart enough to send him first across the highway due to his age. But this is only foreshadowed at the last minute, when it gets so hot that Kestrelwing starts stumbling that Stripestar goes “oh shit” and realizes as soon as Kestrelwing crosses that he messed up. It doesn’t read like it was Stripestar’s mistake, despite the book telling us it is: it reads like the forces of nature are being invoked to create a tragedy and “punish” their arrogance (hence my Final Destination comparison). Or: it reads like Kestrelwing’s death does not meaningfully contribute towards the story beyond shock factor.

These deaths are happening at the expense of StormClan, not Stripestar or Galestar. I really think StarClan taking their lives away was a mistake, because it would add more credence to the main theme that their hubris and stubbornness was what caused their downfall if they also got caught in the crossfire and lost all but their last life on the journey. It’s like taking a kindergarten class and saying “I’m going to punish Suzie for hitting by making the entire class skip recess.” ????

This is why I state it reads to me like a Christian Aesop. “Be vigilant or bad things will happen!” “We must always trust God to provide for us.” “You cannot live without God, because you will always fall to your own arrogance.”

A story about the folly of man (cat) is absolutely compelling, but it gets cheapened when you realize even with all this cartoonish evil StarClan portrays, it’s still seen as a wise and benevolent power structure. Any time StarClan gets challenged, the challenger is morally in the wrong. Galestar has negative thoughts about StarClan as the book progresses, and does get the happiest ending of all the characters, but StarClan has doomed her to fade and be forgotten. If this book is gearing up to confront StarClan and its villainy by actually having meaningful change then I’m all for it, but as of now, it has remained stagnant. 

The thing I hate most about Warriors is the underlying determinism that threads through the series. Things will happen because they are destined to happen. You can’t fight fate. Everything is moving according to a grand design by the will of StarClan. StormClan are destined to fail because they cannot survive outside the will of StarClan. And in my opinion, this book is drenched in determinism. 

I say all this to say that StarClan doesn’t need a Fetus Death Ray™ to be reprehensible. They do just fine already. I just wish in the future that the books will shake things up and challenge the status quo of StarClan. I want more heretical apostate women with functional and loving relationships. 

[acatinabasement]

The Pot and OotS Main Characters and Trauma

(Also known as: Why They Need Therapy)

You ever think about how a lot of the Warriors cast are really not mentally okay? Yeah, I have. 

TW: Trauma, abuse, and neglect mentioned below.

Jayfeather is a disabled character in a system built for the abled, where he is seen as pitiful and helpless despite managing just fine, and frustrated to be seen as pitied. He internalizes the prophecy is important above all else, which can especially be seen after the “death” of Hollyleaf. It’s only speculation, but I think he threw himself into the prophecy as a coping mechanism, and to not address his feelings. He puts the blame on himself when he can’t save a cat, which I think he has subconsciously taught to Dovewing as well. His difficulty being emotionally open is a direct consequence of Power of Three, where he learned that being emotional openness leads to suffering. He can only see Dovepaw and Ivypaw as tools, like how StarClan viewed him and Lionblaze as tools, because to be emotionally open he would have to experience all the trauma he has repressed from Power of Three. 

Lionblaze’s trauma starts with the Dark Forest and Tigerstar verbally and emotionally abusing him since an apprentice, as well as terrorizing him in his dreams with deeply disturbing visions. Unlike Jayfeather, he deals with trauma with distraction, throwing himself into whatever thing, as if he does it hard enough he’ll forget what has happened. This leads to him dismissing other cats’ feelings in favor of his own, because to empathize is to feel, and to feel is to remember. He can make Ivypool go through hell because he has been desensitized to the violence and on some level, may view the Dark Forest’s violence as something normalized. He can let Dovewing shoulder the burden of the prophecy by herself because he's too wrapped up in his own emotions to try.

Hollypaw more than anything wanted to be important, to be known in history as a hero. In contrast to her brother’s being put on a pedestal, she experiences the alienation of being forgotten. She needs a code of conduct to follow that will tell her right from wrong. She experiences perhaps the worst thing someone like that can, and it is to have the very foundations of her sense of reality upheaved, and be told her very existence is taboo. She’s not only unimportant, but she shouldn’t even exist. And how she deals with this trauma is to make it go away. She needs the memories to disappear, even if it means killing to do so. Her response when completely overwhelmed is to run away, bury her head in the sand and remain stagnant in time. If she hides far enough away, maybe those memories will fade as well. She is a product of a system that rewards strict adherence to societal expectations and punishes those who fall outside its boundaries. I firmly think this way of thinking started in Dark River, when she was punished for doing what she thought was right in breaking the code to aid RiverClan. 

Dovewing is forced to grow up quickly because the entire fate of the Clans is being hoisted onto her shoulders by two mentally unwell men who do not take her feelings into account. She is disconnected from her sister, feels guilt and regret for being unable to stop events that no cat could control, and blames herself for these events because of her powers. This is because she is part of an unhealthy system where her autonomy is superseded for the greater good. She is forced to be a paragon of virtue and place her wants and needs as secondary to saving the world. This does not help her at all, and after the loss of her powers, she struggles to adjust to a society that essentially threw her away once she was no longer useful, so now she must learn to be an individual.

Ivypool is a victim of grooming and child abuse where her perfectly normal childish feelings about feeling left out and abandoned were manipulated into something far darker, and by the time she realizes how deep she is in, it’s too late to back out. She is subjected to verbal and physical abuse every night, and must somehow retain her sense of self while also being seen as a tool of espionage by Lionblaze and Jayfeather, who were also seen as tools. She has to hurt cats, torture cats, and kills a cat because the other option is that she dies instead. Ivypool ceases to exist and what she must become is a killing automaton that does not think or feel. And after the source of her trauma is gone, she must learn to be a real person again, while also carrying all that trauma with her. She is a suit of fur and flesh pretending to be the shape of a cat.

[acatinabasement]

I am going to say something brave (really really obvious) yet controversial.

I do not like when people dislike Squirrelflight's Hope and Squirrelstar because she somehow "challenged" or undermined Brambleclaw's authority in that book. It reads very uncomfortably to me like "she should have just been a good wife and kept her mouth shut and supported her husband, right or wrong." That's not who Squirrelstar is. She's headstrong, stubborn, questions authority, and will go against the popular opinion if she feels what she is doing is right. You can't have Squirrelstar exist as Squirrelstar and her not undermine and question authority.

And it just. The complaint is riddled with misogynistic subtext, whether that is realized or not.

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I ask the Warrior Cats fandom to have nuance.

Yes, the Warriors series has a litany of issues and handles topics badly or rashly and I think there are legitimate things to criticize it for. People are not dismissing or trivializing the issues in the series by celebrating RavenxBarley being explicitly stated as canon.

This is a huge deal, for fans of the series that love the characters and story, and for queer kids who finally have actual representation that is directly stated. This is incredibly affirming and important for queer kids to have. Yes, it is a single line, and yes, it's a mediocre series, but for these people, it means a lot. You are allowed to be critical and say this is the bare minimum, but that does not negate or change the feelings of people who love this series that feel seen by this one line being said.

And I don't think people should be shamed or told they're ignoring the problems in Warriors because they're celebrating two cats in the series being gay. And furthermore, it means that the fandom has influence over the series, that their thoughts and feelings are being at least considered. This opens the door to include more representation in the future which is a cultural positive for diversity and inclusion.

It's incredibly important for media to have representation, even a mediocre book series about xenophobic religious cats.

You can be happy for the representation and be critical of the work.

[acatinabasement]

"Her only fault was that she loved too much"

Not the Ashfur quote! But yes, I'm serious. Curlfeather's fault is literally that she loved too much.

But you can also love deeply without understanding, and this is Curlfeather's fatal flaw.

When does love become a vice?

I get a bit annoyed at the fandom as Curlfeather's nuances are often not spoken about in favor of a more clear-cut story. She receives the Draco in Leather Pants treatment, which isn't common with female villains in media and literature. There are countless fanarts drawing Curlfeather as an edgy wronged woman out for revenge that remind me of the Hawkfrost and Scourge fanarts of the 2000s. She's got the anime cat hair and everything.

And you know what? A friend of mine has helped me see that honestly, that's fine. Women in Warriors deserve their moment to be seen as an Ashfur or Scourge, especially a woman who is also a mother in a position of power. Let her be 2026's Warriors tumblr sexyman. I'm rooting for her.

But also, I want to give my thoughts about the nuance of her character, and how her love ultimately destroys her.

She loved RiverClan, and wanted to stop the stagnation that Mistystar had allowed RiverClan to experience. She wanted change, to make RiverClan better. And the reality is that she would have done it. She has the qualities of a good leader.

But her plan entailed removing the obstacles in that path to RiverClan's rebirth. She did not feel regret for her role in assassinating Reedwhisker. This is because she treated Reedwhisker as an object to remove.

She did not feel regret for pulling in Splashpaw to her plans, grooming a teenager to become her right-hand. Splashtail was set up from the beginning to be a tool to "repair" RiverClan.

She did not feel regret for using Frostdawn as a tool to legitimize her position as leader. She groomed her for this position since she was a kit.

She loves her Clan, loves her vision of a better future, and loves her daughter. But what does she love most?

It's her daughter. When she is there, on the path of victory, she is given a choice. Her vision, or her daughter. And she chooses Frostpaw. She gives her the tools she needs to solve her murder and Reedwhisker's murder, but in order to do so, she is treating her daughter like she herself is an object to use.

And therein lies the tragedy of Curlfeather. She loves so deeply and purely, and yet she cannot comprehend or realize how she has hurt the cats around her.

She does not understand Frostdawn's feelings about being used as a pawn, nor does she understand Splashtail's feelings about being seen as a weapon. Her objectification of others is what kills her, and is the obstacle to her place in StarClan. She cannot leave the Dark Forest, because she has no regrets. She cannot see other cats as people outside herself. She loves and loves without understanding that the love she feels is built around possessing things.

She regrets she was killed. She regrets Frostdawn got almost killed. She regrets trusting Splashtail and wants to see him humbled. But she does not regret the emotional trauma she has inflicted by the cause of her actions.

Frostdawn loves her mother and will never understand her, and Curlfeather loves Frostdawn but will never understand Frostdawn. They will never reach an understanding or find closure, because to Curlfeather, there is nothing to find closure for.