General Canon- Leaders can retire and have their successor get a full 9 lives, but they have to go to the moonstone/moonpool with the new leader and the medicine cat to formally relinquish their leadership. Elders help new mentors train their first apprentice. Elders also help collect moss, herbs, and prey in Greenleaf, usually with their grandkits, and it’s usually a special treat for the apprentices, who get to hear all of the stories that the clan deemed too likely to encourage rambunctious or dangerous behavior in kits.
Bluestar's Prophecy, Yellowfang's Secret, Crookedstar's Promise, ect- Better continuity (Not having a shitton of super-editions that occur at the same time be written years apart).
BP- Thistleclaw is more adamantly an antagonist without being made into a child predator, he's more openly vengeful and bitter towards the cats he deems responsible for Snowfur's death (Shadowclan and Bluefur) and he intentionally starts a Lot of shit with Shadowclan, setting the stage for the explicitly bad blood between Shadowclan and Thunderclan in Into the Wild, and possibly costing Shadowclan the lives of senior warriors/high-ranking warriors. He also might "encourage" Tawnyspots' retirement with schemes/poison(?) in order to take power, which Bluefur witnesses but can't explicitly Proove, giving her reason to want to keep him away from deputyship other than her own opinion on him and her ambition. Bluefur gives up her kits because another Thunderclan cat comes close to exposing her and Oakheart's affair. She does this with his actual help, and she helps him get into her territory in order to smuggle the kits out. Mosskit doesn't die, since multiple adult cats are present to keep the kits warm. She lives to be a warrior (named Mosspath maybe?) and is the only one of her siblings to really miss the Thunderclan forest (she has her mother's build and coat, and is therefore more than a little unsuited for aquatic activity). Spottedleaf's Heart doesn't exist, actually.
YS- Yellowfang is aware of her power from the moment she's old enough to put two and two together. She talks to the leader about being made a medicine cat, but she's told to train as a warrior because the clan needs more paws on deck right now. She does and is made a warrior, and takes Raggedpelt as a mate. The clan medicine cat complains about not having a successor much later on (after Yellowfang has spent moons basically acting as an unpaid intern in the medicine den), and the leader finally lets her train as a medicine cat. She's already pregnant at this point, and the medicine cat encourages her to give up her kits to save clan reputation. She does, Lizzardshit is still a Bad Mom, and Brokenstar still happens as usual. Brokenkit isn't named like that because of his funky tail, Yellowfang was just edgy. (Actually the same applies to Deadfoot of Windclan. They both just had Unfortunate names that wound up reflecting some of the common injuries that they'd receive as warriors.)
Crookedstar’s Promise still happens as it does in canon, but more accurate to the established timeline. A bigger deal is made by Riverclan about Rainflower renaming her son after the accident, to show that first arc/prequel Thunerclan’s practice of naming cats after their disabilities or disfigurements is Not a Thing in other clans, and that the other clans know it to be an actively harmful practice. Rainflower is shown postmortem in the Dark Forest for abusing and neglecting her son.
I haven’t read Tallstar’s Revenge yet (it’s a priority tho) but Jake is explicitly bisexual, in a relationship with Tallstar, and Nutmeg and Quincy have Jake’s kits bc there’s some surrogacy going on.
The Prophecies Begin- Shadowclan isn’t the permanent antagonist. Nightstar gets several lives because he is the cat that Shadowclan chose to replace the Crime Lads after Brokenstar corrupted 80% of the ranking warriors, but since Brokenstar didn’t properly surrender his lives and title, Nightstar doesn’t get the full 9 lives, similar to the Sunstar situation. Thunderclan brings Windclan home as in canon, but this and the gorge incident worsen relationships between Thunderclan and Riverclan (making Riverclan the antagonist clan of Fire and Ice, and making Greystripe’s and Silverstream’s forbidden romance more immediately risky). Thunderclan has to actually formally apologize for their bad political choices with Riverclan in the past, and peace talks are headed by Whitestorm and Mistyfoot (prior to the Bluestar’s kits reveal) as two of the most levelheaded warriors in their clans. Cinderpaw’s accident still happens, but she resumes warrior training once she’s healed (Missing the lower part of her bad leg entirely because the Erins are cowards and I’m here to spite them). She complees her warrior training, but receives a sign from Starclan predicting the fire and Yellowfang’s death, so she volunteers to at least become an interim medicine cat, learning what an apprentice would so that she can pass on the knowledge to the next medicine cat. She actively comes to battles with Thunderclan, as she can fight to protect herself and injured cats that need immediate treatment on the battlefield, leading to her saving a number of lives during the battle with Bloodclan. Greystripe and Silverstream still happen. Tigerclaw’s bullshit still happens, and the fire still happens. Sometime mid-series, Thunderclan and Riverclan agree to a mutual use policy in regards to Sunningrocks, so that elders can warm their fur there, any herbs grown there can be shared, and Riverclan can fish from the banks while Thunderclan hunts in the boulders. Snowkit isn’t taken after the fire, one of his larger clanmates saves him. He, Cloudtail, and Brightheart end up very close, and his warrior name is Snowstorm. The dog stuff still happens, and Bluestar naming Brightpaw to Lostface still happens, and when any cat from outside the clan hears about that, they react with absolute horror. Deputy Fireheart, still our PoV character, takes note of this. Bluestar’s death and the kits reveal still goes down, as does Greystripe’s return to Thunderclan, as he fears Leopardstar’s increasingly strange choices. He tries to bring his kits back to Thunderclan with him, but Leopardstar refuses to let him. Firestar’s first act as leader is to rename Brightheart and his second is to outright ban those kind of names and issue a formal apology to the elders with similarly bad names, who all decided to keep those names bc they’re old af and don’t have the energy to re-adjust to a new name again. The Tigerstar and Bloodclan drama unfolds as usual, Stonefur dies as usual. Whitestorm doesn’t die in the battle with Bloodclan, but the group of apprentices think he does, so they kick the shit out of Bone while Cinderpelt gets Whitestorm’s bleeding to slow. Cindepelt also gets a moment that is given HELLA SPOTLIGHT where she beats the fuck outta Brick from the Scourge manga. Firestar is immensely proud of her as he sees this happen, and when he loses his first life, Yellowfang is also notably proud of her. There is a “Look at our talented apprentice go! She’s doing so good, Cinderpelt ,you’re doing so well, your 300 parents are all so proud, you saved lives and took fuckin’ names!" Brightheart, Cloudtail, and Snowstorm turn out to be a hella dangerous trio in battle. Post-fight, Russetfur is chosen to be the new leader of Shadowclan (Blackfoot committed war crimes y’all), Leopardstar sees how shitty her choices were and she formally relinquishes her lives and title to Mistyfoot, making Mistystar canon leader much earlier. Mosspath and Stormpaw decide to leave Riverclan to join Thunderclan, because Riverclan was so willing to be complicit in their abuse under Tigerstar, but Featherpaw has such a strong bond with her mentor Mistystar that she remains in Riverclan. Firestar and Mistystar arrange for regular meetings between the surviving members of the half-clan families, and agree to coordinate when those cats come to gatherings. Tawnypaw stays in Shadowclan, and Firestar works out a similar deal for her, Goldenflower, and Bramblepaw with Russetstar.
I’ll reblog with more later but like. I have. Strong feelings about battle cats.
