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I think where people flounder is when they misread Curlfeather's last scene to be a kind of disownment from Frostpaw ala the Patchkit AU MAP, and not as an indictment from Frostpaw of Curlfeather's actions up to that point.
Frostpaw is not saying— "You're a bad mom, and I don't love you,"
She's saying— "How could you do all this, that goes against the core values and morality of our society, turning Splashtail into a murderer, faking my dreams from StarClan, taking the life of your deputy, tearing RiverClan apart— How can you do that, and not acknowledge your wrongdoing?"
I mean, literally, look,
She doesn't want Curlfeather to leave. She loves Curlfeather, but also is filled with the weight of the betrayal and of her future burden— Rebuilding the home that Splashtail and Curlfeather had destroyed through their actions.
She still loves her Mom, guys.
Bara furry UTAUloids are so iconic. Why does every single one have such a banger VB. It's literally crazy. I have never seen a bara furry UTAUloid with a bad voicebank. They are all so high quality.
I often see the fandom conflate plot points / set-up with whether a character is 'defendable' or not.
For instance, Ivypool lashing out at Dovewing in one of the newer books.
"I can't believe Ivypool said that!"
"She was so mean to Dovewing!"
Well, while I personally feel like Ivypool was acting out in a very understandable, and sympathizable way, I also think fans are ignoring the obvious elephant in the room.
—This conflict only happens in the book to set up the book's story arc about 'alternative' afterlives. Bristlefrost, who we assume has faded from the world entirely, is revealed to still live on, even if only symbolically, through a stag that appears before Ivypool.
In other words, Dovewing's grief over Rowankit is being juxtaposed to Ivypool's loss of Bristlefrost, so that the book can reveal that she's not really gone.
In other book series, a Series of Unfortunate Events, for instance, the choices a character makes say something about who they are as a person,
As an example, from a Series of Unfortunate Events, the character Violet Baudelaire purposefully writes with her non-dominant hand when signing a marriage contract to Count Olaf thereby nullifing her marriage to him.
This shows that she is both clever, and knowledgeable of marital law. She is an inventor, and sees all the possibilites before her, even ones that would require her to think outside the box, in situations where a solution might not seem apparent.
Contrast this to Warriors, and you'll find that most characters are mouthpieces for the plot with characterization on the side.
Cinderpaw getting hurt, leading to Jaypaw developing hydrotherapy, allows us to learn about Cinderpaw being Cinderpelt, furthers the relationship between Jaypaw and his connection to the stick, and allows for bonding time between he and Leafpool.
But, we don't get much overt characterization out of this. We learn that Jaypaw is smart. But, it doesn't really say anything about him as a character. This follows for every other Warriors character, too.
We are dripfed characterization through little moments, Whitestorm spending long hours with Bluestar as her health declines, Firepaw's crush on Spottedleaf, Ravenpaw being happy at the barn with Barley.
But, ultimately, the characters are written in service of the plot, and not the other way around, like in a Series of Unfortunate Events.
This is a book series about a plot with characters, and not a book series about characters in a plot.
Follower count doesn't matter on tumblr. If I have five followers, or if I have a hundred— S'all good, either way.
Thanks for being here with me. It's a blog, not a competition.
I will say this.
Personally, I don't think Dustpelt x Ferncloud is a problematic canon ship, or a bad canon ship.
I think they're cute together, and I see no reason to make excuses for or about the Erin's sensibilities back then vs now.
You should be able to ship whatever you want without fear of saying so— and I think if people are afraid to do that, in the fandom, then it says more about the fandom itself then it does about the morality of the ship.
Ok, about Leopardfoot. Jake suggests that Pinestar has a friend in Leopardpaw whom he regularly mentions.
This is not, and I repeat, not specifying or implying that he, Pinestar, has a crush on her. Yes, as Leopardfoot, she and Pinestar have Tigerkit together.
But, I don't think, truly, that the intention is to imply they have anything going on with eachother, at that point.
I think if someone keeps their porn account seperate from their public account then you shouldn't go around posting call-outs about it and harassing them for it.
That's not fair.
I love Ivypool!! Just because her character arc is different doesn't mean she's bad, or wrong, or evil for it.
Negative traits can be neutral traits, guys. You can't say, "I love complex characters!" But then shit on Ivypool fans because you think Dovewing is the victim automatically.
The point is that neither character is more of a victim than the other, because both characters have their own perspectives, their own arcs, and their own understanding of the situation.
You can see yourself in either character, because both characters are well-established, personality-wise, and fairly rounded characters for Warrior Cats.
But, if you want Ivypool to go, "You're right, Dovewing, I'm such a bitch, you had a harder childhood, and are living in ShadowClan because of how I treated you, specifically, which is my fault. Let's make up,"
That will never happen!!!
It's okay to say, "That's a retcon," or "That's a mistake," or "That's OOC," guys. You don't have to accept everything that's canon as canon just because it got printed.
Even if the cat's a background character with zero prior characterization, it hurts no one to be like, "No way would 'xyz' character do or say that".
Who cares honestly, what is canon or isn't canon. It's not like Erin Hunter is going to knock on your door if you don't care about the continuity of a 20 year old book series.
Has anyone played any of the Warrior Cats fangames out there?
I saw on Google that there's Untold Tales and Road to Immortality, amd apparently a few adaptations of the books into RPGmaker format.
Are any of them worth playing? Or does anyone have any recommendations for good Warrior Cats fangames? (Are there any official ones?)
The second I even so much as glanced at the sonas on WC JPN twitter, I realized I could get as "out there" with my designs as I wanted to and that I wasn't limited to "natural designs".
Don't know why it happened that way, but here's my new sona. I guess. Pyramidhead JK. Sandwind.
So, anyway, lesson learned, your WC sona can be whatever you want it to be design-wise. Go nuts guys.
What if one of the cats was a magical girl and went through the sparkly transformation and had a cat costume and everything— and that would change nothing about warriors, but it would be so fun.
Here's a really unpopular opinion for you.
I think making The Manager, Nyarlathotep, was taking the easy way out for what was essentially a 17 minute exposition dump.
I think the Dark World will be great but we could've done without another Yellow (Discount Nyarlathotep = Discount John).
I don't know what the fandom consensus is on popular Jayfeather and Lionblaze ships, but I really do like Jay x Cinder, and Lion x Pebble. (I don't really ship Hollyleaf with anyone.)
I still can't believe that Warrior Cats get so old, so fast. You're telling me you're already at retiring age at 8 years old? That's absurd.
Out of everything in Warrior Cats that I suspend my disbelief for, this particular choice always makes me laugh. Like, look guys, it's an old man.
Unpopular Warriors opinion, but I think Tigerheartstar in ASC was fine, actually. I think he was just doing what he felt was right.
And while I would've preferred if the whole arc had been about the interclan conflicts—Rather than have Frostpaw travelling on a StarClan quest for two books, that's just me and my preferences.
They're just book characters, guys.
It's okay to say you hate Dovewing and Tigerheartstar as a couple or that they're your favorite Warrior Cats couple. Any really vocal opinions you see on Tigerheartstar with a hundred plus notes, are just that, opinions.
Take everything you read online with a grain of salt.
What if Warrior Cats had executions? Like, guillotine, hangings, etc. How absolutely sick would that be? Let's behead Splashtail.
Sandgorse is probably one of my favorite antagonist's in Warrior Cats. An antagonist doesn't always have to be like world-ending evil or whatever. Just an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome.
But, I really like how he has that, "no underachievers in our family," type of vibe.
Like, he's some sort of coach trying to get Tallpaw to live up to the family legacy of tunnelling (sports), but it's just not for him.
He's, much like Shellheart, a really great depiction of what Warriors could be if the Erin's had these types of character-focused plots more often.
I feel that Warriors characters tend to be paper-thin, and flat. More plot-device, than character. Which is why I love Sandgorse and Palebird, for example, so much.
They both have a personality.
Palebird is a Queen, but that's just her job. She has an entire rounded character arc outside of it. She isn't watered down to fit neatly into a personality archetype, she's a fully fleshed out and realized character within the confines of Warrior Cats, which I really enjoyed.
Whitethroat is the worst name in Arc 1.
Don't believe me?
Guess how many times -throat shows up again as a suffix in Warrior Cats after Whitethroat.
Guess.
I don't like Fireheart x Sandstorm because Fireheart is always juxtaposed to Sandstorm in a way that makes me feel that she should be the protagonist instead.
Especially, as I'm rereading Rising Storm I can't help but think, "Sandstorm deserves better!" when something doesn't turn out for her.
I feel like the main difference in the tone of the books is how the source of conflict has veered away from
"An individual's struggles with the natural world and interpersonal issues with those around them"
to
"The individual's struggles against the supernatural, destiny, fate, and appeasing StarClan (God) within the confines of a structural society + a bit of interpersonal / self struggles on the side "
I know why Harlan gave Parker a Brooklyn accent— But, it was also very jarring to me as someone who always pictured Parker as a first-generation Asian American.
Welp. Egg on my face, I guess.
You don't have to ship Raven x Barley but it is canon.
There's something so special about Mapleshade's Vengeance that I don't see in the other books, namely, the attention to detail in the names of the characters.
Mapleshade's name, of course, is meant to be conceptually similar to Reedshine, and Appledusk. But, the names of Mapleshade's three kits also have similarities to the cats around her.
Petalkit shares a similar name scheme to Mapleshade's mentor, Bloomheart, and more importantly, Flowerpaw.
And ironically, Mapleshade foreshadows her own future here when she and Frecklewish reflect on Birchface, and Flowerpaw's deaths— Symbolizing the cyclical nature of vegeance.
Larchkit, obviously, is named after a tree, as is Birchface and Oakstar. Of note, however, is that a birch tree, and an oak tree are both hardwood trees, while a larch is a softwood tree, bearing needles rather than leaves.
Symbolizing, of course, that he is not a "true" ThunderClan cat.
Patchkit might seem to initially bear similarities to Frecklewish, namely that he has a 'patched' coat, and hers is 'freckled'—
But, you'd be mistaken, because Patchkit is both the last kit Mapleshade rescues, by killing their father, Appledusk.
Is the least resemblant of his father, Appledusk.
—And is the kit that most closely resembles Mapleshade.
Patchkit, unlike the other two kits, symbolizes Mapleshade, herself.
What if Tigerstar got tnr'd but the vet noticed he had a weird lump in his stomach so he ordered an mri but it turns out that lump was just a big hunk of metal or whatever and Tigerstar exploded on the spot and lost all nine of his lives at once.