Sol: The Most Underrated Villain Ever by Lakeshimmer

Lakeshimmer shares why Sol is their favourite villain.

Sol is by far my favorite villain. He is probably the most unique villain the Warriors series has ever offered, and the most mysterious. He is the reason Eclipse was one of my favorite warriors books. But I’ve noticed that not a lot of people really appreciate him. There isn’t even a lot of super good fan art of him despite Eclipse being published back in 2008. It’s been nine years! Let’s take a look at why he is a fantastic villain.

When he was introduced in Eclipse, you knew he wasn’t just some random side character. When Hollyleaf first saw him, she thought that he was a lion. Why, I’m not sure, but that kind of description would certainly pique a reader’s attention. Eventually, he barges into ThunderClan camp after Jayfeather receives a prophecy. He then proceeds to repeat the prophecy that Jayfeather had just received.

According to the Ultimate Guide, that was just luck but that’s still really cool. And honestly, I don’t think it was luck. He had to know somehow, but we don’t know how. If it was luck, dang, that’s one lucky cat. I’m getting off topic. Anyway, he repeats that prophecy, and stays in ThunderClan for a little bit. However, StarClan didn’t tell the other clans of the eclipse, because they probably assumed ThunderClan would tell the other clans or something. Of course, they didn’t. So when the Eclipse happens, Sol claims to have known this, and that StarClan didn’t. With this claim, he gets ShadowClan to abandon their normal way of life. He pretty much takes over an entire clan, not with an army of rogues, not with brute force, but with words. That’s kind of awesome. Evil, but awesome. That’s why I love Sol. His reign lasts for like, a book but it’s still very fascinating how he just did that. He barely even tried!

Then Sunrise comes around. Ashfur is murdered, and ThunderClan thinks that Sol did it for some reason. They find him, and then he’s like “I didn’t do that silly,” but they need evidence, so they take him back to the forest. He then proves that he didn’t kill Ashfur. After that, I didn’t expect him to ever come back. Nobody trusted him anymore, so there’s no way any of his plans could work ever again, right?

WRONG. Skipping to The Lost Warrior, he makes a return. Hollyleaf saves some apprentices from a fox, and then Sol swoops in and is like “lol yeah that was me.” Nobody has a reason to really disprove this, so they just roll with it. No other suspicious cats are lurking on ThunderClan territory right? Anyway, he gains the trust of some of the younger warriors in ThunderClan… And WindClan. And then proceeds to cause one of my favorite scenes in warriors: the tunnel battle. Of course ThunderClan won because Hollyleaf taught them how to fight in the tunnels, and at the end, Hollyleaf had the chance to kill Sol, but didn’t. She said she didn’t because of the Warrior Code I believe, but ironically, she actually could’ve killed him without breaking the code, because the code states that you can kill cats “outside of the warrior code.” Clearly, Sol is outside of the warrior code. But I’m glad he didn’t die, because he has a chance to return in the VoS arc. Given his backstory on how SkyClan refused to make him a warrior, it would make sense for him to somehow be involved at some point in the VoS arc. If he doesn’t return, I’ll be sad, but at least I’ll know that he’s still out there somewhere, plotting something.