Anyway, This Post Was About Dovewing And Birchfeather. But, Like, It's Also For Everyone Else Who Feels

Miku square

You don't have to ship Raven x Barley but it is canon.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with John or Arthur being canon straight guys in a bromance. I'm totally cool with that.

But, as a fan of the series since like— season two I have always shipped them, lol.

Writing is so. hard.

Conveying my thoughts is so. hard.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

I'm actually very excited about Swiftpaw and Longtail being brothers! They always had a sort of 'brotherly bond' dynamic in my eyes, so it's nice to see that being added in for the graphic novel adaptation. It just feels right.

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.

Just saw a post on a confession blog that made me feel so validated about that post I made a day or so ago. Suddenly, my insecurities about how bad I am at writing are gone completely.

I feel totally vindicated. Like my post was worth it. What I wrote last night fucking sucked, so I deleted it (because I couldn't make it sound right), but I'm glad that at least something I wrote resonated with people and conveyed what I had to say.

I read through that confession, and I'm just like, 'This is a problem and I didn't blow it out of proportion.'

It's a good feeling.

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.

What if Warrior Cats had executions? Like, guillotine, hangings, etc. How absolutely sick would that be? Let's behead Splashtail.

Hi! (Just wanted to say hi)

Hello! :D