#not atd

[atdwarriorsau]

HUGE SPOILERS FOR STORMCLAN'S FOLLY. LIKE THE WHOLE BOOK.

So uhhhh...

I read the entirety of Stormclan's Folly at 2am last night and I have many, many thoughts..

CW: talk of abusive relationships

GENERAL STUFF

- Firstly, the overall themes are... bad. It's bad chief. It's very 'Christianity* will save you and heathens die!' type beat. Also the idea that two cultures cannot mix is uhhhh icky. Liste man just read @acatinabasement 's post about it they write it better than me

* atp Starclan is basically lite Christianity it's barely ever been hidden

- Oohhhh boy the timeline. The timeline is uhhhhh... I'll get into it...

- So yall know I'm the president of the Graystripe hate club right? Welllllll.... I might have a new most hated cat.. I hate Stripestar. Like so much you guys. He's a selfish idiot who has a (at the very least toxic, at worse abusive) relationship with Gale Rise, and he causes a lot of pain and gets the wobify male suffering treatment. The worst part is its more subtle than Brambleclaw or Clear Sky so I KNOW the fandom (or at least certain parts of it) will love and defend this guy. Sigh. More on this later I'm sure.

- Listen I know we gotta speedrun this plot but I feel we skipped some potentially interesting scenes. I'll point them out as we get to them.

Now let's get into that plot (I'll go in order)

- Skyclan.. Like I get what they were going for but it didn't really work. I never read IH but apparently it says there were five clans during Stormclan's stuff so ??? Like the idea of Skyclan leaving right before the Stormclan drama had great potential but I feel like they barely did anything with it idk.. A few times Gale Rise said 'well there isn't five clans cause Skyclan gotcha' and it felt a bit like a writing excuse

- We skipped over all the warrior and deputy time, which is fine i just feel we needed more time with Crowflight to make her leaving Gale Rise more impactful

- Fogdrift is (unfortunately) not a character. She is a fridge wife who is a plot device and male suffering object. Bad.

- Similarly, Turtlesnap (who has an awesome name) gets even less. She exists for Pebblenose to feel bad about killing, a plot point which lasts a total of two chapters then is forgotten about. Such a banger name and doesn't even get to be in the Riverclan allegiances.

- Gossiping about Gale Rise' relationship two seconds before a battle is kind of funny

- the Riverclan battle is another thing I wish we had seen. Could have been interesting and helped the plot but whatever

- Stripestar: we have so many kits! (two)

- we also completely skip over Gale Rise and Stripestar's night meetings. I feel I could have been good if we saw the first one at least

- I could have mentioned the lack of chemistry between Gale and Stripe but you can say the same of 90% of wc relationships so I wont

- 'we have to tell our clans' Why? Like if they already decided on the Stormclan plan, sure okay, but now? It makes no sense. What do they think will happen? It's both safer and smarter to not do this. 'What about the kits?' Hey remember in the first arc when queens didn't have to tell the father. Gale is there leader, what are they going to do, question her?

- All of Windclan and Thunderclan agreed? Was the Starclan-sanctioned pregnancy enough to convince them? Idk man

- Kestrelwing does not like the Stormclan plan. This will be important to a theory of mine later

- We've been waiting for evil-adjacent Starclan, but this is from Stripe's pov. The narrative will later support Starcla cause what were you expecting, be so fr

- small point but why are Riverstar and Shadowstar here? Okay

- sooooo is Starclan in control of the fire and low prey and storm and other stuff? Unclear

- Gale gets random pregnancy pains. Kestrelwing says 'erm don't worry about it' Keep this in mind

- we can already see the cracks in GaleStripe. Stripe only cares about the dream. Several times Gale has an opinion but shuts up instead. She thinks (rightly) Stripestar will take any opinion against him as a personal hurt, he'll be a baby about it and Gale wants to maintain the relationship so she won't bring up smarter plans. Stripe's ego is quite fragile this early. More on this later

- I wat to know who the unnamed Riverclan cats in chapter eight are

- Birchstar is the funniest cat in the forest I love her

- 'why didn't we think about [leaving] before?' Gale Rise DID. She didn't feel like she could say that

- what do you MEAN they still remember the blazing star prophecy?? Timeline is FUCKED

- 'oh if you want to stay that would be.. fine' he said awkwardly uwu guilttripping Gale into leaving (her sister). Wow good relationship

- the deaths (specifically Kestrelwing and Mudsplash) are so brutal man.. haven't seen this since Swiftpaw gdamn

- Tribe is uhh yep still bad. Also the names are a little different? Gust Whistles Through the Mountain instead of Gust that Whistles Through the Mountain and Lightning Scratches the Sky instead of Lightning that Scratches the Sky. I like Lightning's name tho

- Gray Wing and Clear Sky mentioned by name because the new books love doing that

- listen.. canon gay cats are nice but... controversial statement time. This was a coward move. The way its done is specifically written so it can be easily written out by homophobic publishing companies. Pebblenose is Gale's close friend, ex-mate and deputy but Galestar does not mention when the two became mates (we know earlier in the book the weren’t) and what she feels about their relationship. Whatever a win is a minor win ig but I'm still mad

- Gale and Stripe's convo right after Pebblenose says their staying in the Tribe should be in a textbook on manipulation (from Stripe not Gale). Discrediting Pebblenose (he's not as strong as us), subtly threatning her with the fact there's no prey in the forest, mentioning kits to get at her emotions, subtly isolating/separating her from the other cats. And Gale following it with 'But she held her tongue.' Oh its s bad

- Stripestar not telling Gale Rise about the dream is so stupid. He does it to control her, it's blatant on the page

- 'She doesn't sound convinced. All the same, he ignored his misgivings.' I'll let this sentence speak for itself

- I like Flash. Flash the goat

- also hey why do cats know about human genders. 'The twoleg tomkit' I feel they shouldn't know this but this is such a minor nitpick

- Stripestar lies about being sad about his dead children instead of telling Gale Rise why he's sad. He might have been sad about the kits but the fact he uses them to lie is... Sick behaviour. I hate this man

- Gale having to emotionally regulate her husband and having to lead because he's a wittle sad is.. Holy shut I hate this guy

- 'What was so bad about the mountains? Or was it just she had suggested it?' They ain't even being subtle at this point

- Then immediately using Rosebush's death as guilt fodder. Cool

- Gale tells Stripe the marsh is bad. He ignores, makes excuses and uses distractions. This is a totally healthy relationship

- Stripestar does not care about two sick cats. 'I suppose he's still mad' MFER PEOPLE ARE DYING GET OVER YOURSELF

- I do like that the exThunderclan and exWindclan cats didn't mix at first it feels realistic. I also like how Galestar started trusting exThundercats and Stripestar started trusting exWindclan cats

- Stripestar putting words in Gale's mouth. At this point I should just make a list

- I'ma be real, I got no clue what the stoat-beast is. I'm choosing to imagine it as a crocodile/alligator for fun and whimsy

- Gale giving orders without looking to Stripestar for approval LETS FKING GOOOOO

- Stripestar: how dare she not be an obedient wife even though I told her nothing and gave her no reason why I don't like this plan. this is all her fault and has nothing to do with me

- wow i love Rainkit. I sure hope the reason she is given attention here isnt because she is going to die and we need to feel sad

- Man what's up with white babies and haws huh

- I have a lot of thoughts on the SunDown Place dream but I'm saving that for later

- Stoneteller: hey don't go to the lake that never ends. Goldenleaf: hey we should go to the lake that never ends. Gale and Stripe, who have heard Stonetellers prophecy: omg she's right we should go to the lake that never ends!

- 'Would Kestrelwing really lead us into danger again?'

- 'imagine your a leaf drifting gently down the river' girl stfu

- yeah, Gale is a bit at blame for not leaving before the storm, but you CANNOT blame her for not trusting Stripestar, hell, I would KILL him right there

- like I said I never read IH but I like the wildcats. They neat

- I LOVE Bound Hunt, might be a new fav character, and I love his relationship with Gale Rise. FINALLY she has a good partner (no offense to Pebblenose, all offense to Stripestar)

- 'I have to save them from myself ' He's finally self aware omg. 'This clan is bigger than you, Stripestar' GET HIS ASS

- I'm not surprised most of them ended back up in the forest territories

- why is everyone being nice to Stripe.. they should slap him methinks

- Gale Rise deserves the world I'm so glad she got away from her shitty (ex)husband and her shitty religion. *looks at fandom* got forbid women do anything

- Birchstar once again being the funniest cat

- Tinyclaw hiring loners and kittypets for Thunderclan is so funny.. have I mentioned I love her yet? I love her

- 'As punishment Stormclan must be forgotten..' yeah Windstar I don't think that's how memory works

- Okay.. Whitestar.. yeah I guess that makes sense, she can be Whitestar cotc, though I guess Crowstar didn't live long enough to be in cotc? I'm glad they expanded on a cotc leader

- ...

- wait..

- OMFG IM A FKING IDIOT THIS TAKES PLACE AFTER SKYCLAN WTH

- We have 3 Birchstars, 2 Darkstars, 2 Dovestars and 2 Owlstars NOW 2 WHITESTARS?

- Give us Tinystar! I mean I like she didn't want to be leader maybe bc she saw how much Stripestar failed.. if not her idk Tumblestar? Tumbletail was somewhat relevant.. make Whitestep deputy or some idc just WHY

- I'll admit Stripebark is a good name. A bit sad we don't know Gale's warrior name.. I like Galebreeze for her personally

-

- so that sucked

Stripestar is awful

I was going to add my theory about Kestrelwing here but this post is already huge so that will be its own thing later

[atdwarriorsau]

@artaintfartwarriors ‘ Prefix Challenge! This was very fun. I did change the format (as my art program is shit at translating images) and changed some of the cats, as wanted to draw cats I had more connections to/was more familiar with. Also made my own one for the Hollys.

Note: This is NOT AtD compliant, some designs (like the Nightcloud one) are inspired by their AtD designs.

[atdwarriorsau]

SPOILERS FOR HIDDEN MOON (or whatever the most recent book is idc)

Sooooo Crowfeather death cliffhanger huh? Please commit to something for once in your life erins (please pleaseplease)

So wcTumblr, who do you think the new Windclan deputy is gonna be. I'm hoping for Heather or Breeze.

But to be fair.

Those to are kinda the only two... characters? Like in one recent book they spent time in Windclan so maybe this changed but.. those are the only memorable Windclan characters. Windclan rn really is a nothing burger of one (two if you stretch it) families (which is easy to tell since all the new Windclan kits are directly related..)

Please let me know who you think will be next Windclan deputy, I'm curious

Anyway vote Heathertail

[atdwarriorsau]

Hi! If you’re open to more pride icon requests, may I request an aromantic + queerplatonic Tangleburr? I love projecting onto my favorite character <2

Aromantic and Queerplatonic Tangleburr for @livereater002

This is very much me stretching the boundaries of what can be considered a dilute tortie btw

(Sorry this took so long, was busy with life things!)

REMINDER:

Requests are open!

- Canon cats only

- four flags at most (the more flags the more likely they'll be covered)

- for more obscure flags, please send an image or link

- if an identity has multiple flags and you want a less common one, let me know

- you can request multiple characters at once

That's it! Please send some, I wanna make a lot! Thanks!

[atdwarriorsau]

I don't really post on here but I do wanna know if you or anyone else thinks Stoneteller from this book is Half Moon? She's pure white and her pelt is described to be silvery like the moon, idk if it's crazy to think sorry,,, with all the time stuff going on it's what came to mind

Like.......... the timeline is fucked... you know what? Sure. Sure who cares

Semi-serious answer: no.

It's been a while since I've read Half Moon stuff, but unless she lived way longer than a car should, no. Half moon was alive before Thunderclan, Shadowclan, Windclan, Riverclan and Skyclan existed. uim, she was the Stoneteller in dotc.

It's understandable to not know where in the timeline SF takes place, but we know when Gale and Stripe are apprentices, its very shortly after Skyclan leaves. Meaning the entirety of Code of the Clans takes place between DotC and SF. We don't know how long this time period is, but we know there are a good number of leaders in between, so we can assume it's been a long time.

So unless it's a spiritual thing, no. We've seen one Stoneteller die at a seemingly normal way, so I would say no to that idea.

HOWEVER I do understand thinking this, as she is described simular to Half Moon.

-

Now, outside of canon, I would love to see this story take place early in the CotC era (around Cloudberry n Ryewhisker). This placement would make so much more sense in a variety of ways. This way I could see Half Moon being the Stoneteller in this story.

But alas

In other news, anyone still mad that Birdflight, Gorseclaw and Spottedpelt are not mentioned or brought up AT ALL

[atdwarriorsau]

Is your theory that Kestrelwing poisoned Galestar to make the kits die ? Starclan, or a starclan cat could have told him to do it.

CW: talk of miscarriage, spoilers

I suggest reading this post for info on the full theory.

Short answer: no, only in an indirect way, and I have a lot more to say about him

I go back and forth on Kestrelwing. I do not think he poisoned her. I think it was more like medical neglect. The fact that Gale brought up stomach pains and he brushed her off so.. carelessly? Didn't sit right with me.

I mentioned that Kestrelwing clearly did not like the Stormclan plan. Maybe he thought if he didn't help Gale, if she lost the kits, that would be the 'sign' that would break up Stormclan for good.

(As for Starclan, I don't think they killed the kits. I do not like the idea that they have to power to do.. that. Take away lives, sure, cause those came from Starclan. I think the kits were always going to die. Gale had those strange pains before the tree branch incident. The tree branch most likely just triggered early birth)

This is its own theory, but it ties in nicely with my BIG theory.

So, the storm. The thing that breaks Stormclan for good. Whether or not Starclan caused the storm is not important. It's why they were there in the first place.

Ignoring that fact both Stripe and Gale ignored Stonetellers 'do not go to the endless lake' speech (for reasons I still don't get)...

Goldenleaf has a dream about, which is enough to convince the entire clan. Now I don't think she's malicious. Slightly incompetent, maybe, but not evil.

No.

You know who told her to go to the sundrown place?

Yup. Kestrelwing.

Why? Well, he hates Stormclan, we know that, and now, he died in a horrific way because of Stormclan. He's seen Skyclan leave, he's seen the number of clans change, he most likely dies not wat to see it again. And if Starclan really is this malicious, maybe the good doctor is just following them. But because of the first half of this post, I feel it is a bit personal for Kestrelwing.

There is NO explanation as to why Kestrelwing sent them to the beach. Galestar and Stripestar give zero thoughts to this fact, which is crazy. They don't think, 'hey why did this guy sent us to this violent storm that destroyed us?' Not at all?

It's just weird.

Okay. But would they (Kestrelwing/Starclan/the writer) really do this?

Well, I was unsure too. Then I remembered this line, straight from the book, which i pointed out in my original post. It's a brief thought Galestar has at the beach.

"Would Kestrelwing really lead us into danger again?"

This line cemented the idea of this theory to me. Why place this line here, if the book never questions Kestrelwing's beach dream/vision again?

TLDR: Why did Kestrelwing tell them to go to the beach, knowing that a storm was coming? (as we know from IH afterlives are attached so Starclan has the same info as Tribe of Endless Hunting, or Starclan just send the storm themselves)

[atdwarriorsau]

Soooo uhhh

I haven’t drawn in 2 months, my artblock has finally abated..

I need practice so have a canon Dovewing sketch

She has bisexuality in her eyes… she/her gay man to mee (also autistic but we know that)

(Also based on bleeding heart dove

[atdwarriorsau]

wait what do you mean Leopardstar didn't get a life from Crookedstar ??