Why A Vision of Shadows is vital to the survival of the Warriors series [Possible Spoilers for AVoS] by Sage Whisper

Sage Whisper discusses the importance of the newest arc.

Greetings everyone! This is my first article so don’t have high expectations. In this article, I will be discussing why A Vision of Shadows is vital to the survival of the Warriors series as a whole. Let’s start at the beginning.
The first three series were very well planned and had a strong storyline to support any weaker points in the books. The first series was a classic ‘underdog’-type series, a nobody (Rusty) eventually rises to the top (Firestar). It had definite villains, Tigerstar and BloodClan, and had well thought-out characters. Many of the characters were very relatable and realistic, such as Bluestar or Ravenpaw. Overall, the first series was made up of mostly realism (ignore the fact that they are talking cats.)
The second series introduced something completely new: a new territory (obviously) but also something else – a focus on other clans, not just ThunderClan. StarClan brought together the unlikely quartet of Brambleclaw, Feathertail, Crowpaw, and Tawnypelt (eventually more cats join them). This gave the Warriors series as a whole a fresh, interesting new twist, and set up the rest of the series with the new territory by the lake, which would lead to some major plot points. Overall, the second series was a good addition and helped strengthen Warriors’ complexities.
The third series had a focus on ThunderClan again, but this time around, characters were more complex and seemed like they could almost be real. They had realistic feelings, realistic problems, and complex relationships with other cats. Take Hollyleaf as an example, (okay, fine, this is technically from the fourth series), she had a strict following of the warrior code, and was very loyal to her Clan. But as soon as she found out about the scandal involving her ‘parents’ and her real parents, she kind of went crazy. She had somewhat respectable motives, but these motives led her to kill Ashfur and try to make Leafpool commit suicide. If she’s not considered a complex character, I don’t know who is.
However, by the fourth series, the Warriors series started to crumble. Lots of characters just stayed in the series seemingly having no role or purpose whatsoever (seriously, kill off a few ThunderClan cats, please) and the sense of realism in the books started to fade away quickly.
Suddenly cats were training to be cold-blooded killers in their dreams, and soon a bunch of dead cats were walking the earth again, including ancient cats. Then all of them had a huge battle, which was very confusing and ended up displeasing a lot of Warriors fans. I can understand this was supposed to be the epic battle climax of the entire Warriors series, with Firestar and Tigerstar finally having their big fight, and it did serve that role (to be honest, the battle was pretty epic), but the realism that I loved was gone. I can understand having StarClan in the books, but the Dark Forest and the Great Battle just took things too far.
The fifth series is an exception but believe it or not, it might have been the thing Warriors needed. Just a bit more explanation behind some certain issues and it also gave structural support. It gave the series a more temporal feel, which made it more interesting in my opinion.
But we’re here to talk about A Vision of Shadows, the sixth series. Warriors was losing ground (with the exception of Dawn of the Clans) and it felt like the whole series might just go downhill from there. But A Vision of Shadows saved it. How? Well, I’ll explain it to you. A Vision of Shadows brought new many new concepts to Warriors, including a special, destined apprentice actually failing his quest. What? I know, crazy, right? Special characters always do everything right. But not in this series. In A Vision of Shadows, the cats are even more complex. Cats actually fail sometimes, and their feelings are more complicated. Take Needletail as an example, an ‘angsty teen’ cat. [SPOILERS] When Needletail joins the rogues, she doesn’t do it out of evilness, she does it out of curiosity. We see her personality change when she meets Rain, as she becomes more rude to Violetpaw. But she is more complex than that. She dies (is she really dead?) saving Violetpaw from Darktail, the leader of the rogues. Her character went from the sassy apprentice to the angsty apprentice to the mature cat we see near the end of Shattered Sky. Oh yeah, speaking of Darktail, the villains of this series (the rogues) were more realistic than ever. They seemed like they could pose an actual threat to the Clans and maybe even destroy Clan life as we know it. For once I was scared the villains would actually win (that’s how realistic they were.) There was also no Firestar around to save the day, and no magical Power of Three cats to use their starry powers to zap the rogues into oblivion. The rogues were a real force to be reckoned with. And here’s the best part: the rogues actually started to recruit cats from the Clans, mainly ShadowClan. Now, we know that ShadowClan is easily influenced (Tigerstar, Brokenstar, Sol), but still, I was impressed that the villains seemed so well thought-out. The Warriors series brought back the realism I loved from the first two series. Twigpaw finding SkyClan and bringing them back was pretty unrealistic, but it also added a new and exciting plot point to build off of. There will be many new possibilities for Warriors stories now!
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you understand now the importance of A Vision of Shadows. Again, don’t expect my articles to be great (I will write more). Bye everyone!