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Fan ArticlesMoonshade points out some flaws in both the warrior and medicine cat codes.
The warriors code is as follows:
-Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle.
-Do not hunt or trespass on another Clan’s territory.
-Elders, queens, and kits must be fed before apprentices and warriors. Unless they have permission, apprentices may not eat until they have hunted to feed the elders. If any warrior or apprentice is sick or injured, they may eat while the elders, queens, and kits are eating.
-Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for its life.
-A kit must be at least six moons old to become an apprentice.
-Newly appointed warriors will keep a silent vigil for one night after receiving their warrior name.
-A cat cannot be made deputy without having mentored at least one apprentice.
-The deputy will become Clan leader when the leader dies, retires or is exiled.
-After the death or retirement of the deputy, the new deputy must be chosen before moonhigh.
-A Gathering of all four Clans is held at the full moon during a truce that lasts for the night. There shall be no fighting among Clans at this time.
-Boundaries must be checked and marked daily. Challenge all trespassing cats.
-No warrior can neglect a kit in pain or danger, even if the kit is from a different Clan.
-The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code.
-An honorable warrior does not need to kill other cats to win their battles, unless they are outside the warrior code or if it is necessary for self-defense.
-A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet.
-Each Clan has the right to be proud and independent, but in times of trouble they must forget their boundaries and fight side by side to protect the four. Each Clan must help the others so that no Clan will fall.
Now LZRD WZRD made an excellent point about “the word of the clan leader is the warrior code” we have seen many tyrannical leaders and he proposed an amendment of it in his video. I believe the gist of it was “in the case of a tyrannical or incompetent leader, a 2/3rds majority vote must be held at a gathering if impeachment is decided by the clan” I don’t remember word for word what he said but i think it went something like that. and I agree. the code is indeed flawed and must have an alteration as to halt cats like Brokenstar from taking over.
The medicine cat code goes as follows
1. A medicine cat cannot take on a mate.
2. A medicine cat cannot have kits.
3. A medicine cat will never let personal feelings in the way of his or her duties.
4. Medicine cats are outside Clan and Clan rivalry.
5. A medicine cat may be trained in as a warrior before a medicine cat, but a medicine cat cannot become a normal warrior.
6. Medicine cats are outside Clan rivalries, but they still must learn basic fighting moves.
7. A medicine cat must be able to interpret signs from StarClan.
8. Medicine cats cannot reject an injured cat.
9. A medicine cat must do everything in his or her power to save a sick or injured cat.
10. A medicine cat will give his or her life to save a cat.
The first two rules obviously have stigma to them but many a youtuber have argued these rules are terrible and do absolutely nothing. For starters, a cat will always fall in love with something and after that kits are just a matter of time. I believe an amendment to this should be made. others have stated this and I will echo them. the code should be changed to;
“A medicine cat may have a mate and kits, ONLY if they have a trained apprentice to take their place, or will not neglect their duties.”
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Good article!
I agree with the 2/3 majority vote for impeachment improvement.
However, for the medicine cat code, I think the cat must have a fully trained apprentice in order to have kits. The “will not neglect their duties” idea wouldn’t work very well. A medicine cat could promise not to neglect their duties, but there would be no guarantee they would actually follow that promise, as kits would require a lot of attention. For example, Moth Flight found it very difficult to balance her time between her kits and duties. I also think the medicine cats should be able to have kits if they had a mate who was willing and able to look after them. That would involve risk, though, as the mate might die before the kits were old enough to leave the nursery.
But I find it very weird that a leader can do this just fine, but a medicine cat can’t?
I never thought about that with a leader, but I agree.
This is because a medicine cat has to treat every cat,so if they had a mate and/or kits,they would probably treat them first before the cats that really need to be treated. As a Clan leader,you don’t really have the choice to do that,since mostly the only way they can protect their mate and kits is by fighting and hunting until every cat is safe and well fed,but when they do this,they fight for the whole Clan and hunt for a fresh-kill pile that every cat can eat from. A medicine cat can treat one cat at a time,so they would more likely choose to hea!l their mate and kits first.
Maybe it should be that a male medicine cat can have a mate no matter what, but if his mate has kits, he must have a cat in the clan who is willing to help out around the medicine den. For females it should be they can take a mate no matter what, but if the want to have kits, they must have either a fellow medicine cat to hold down the medicine den (mentor or past apprentice) or have an apprentice that has been trained for at least five moons, because by then an apprentice would probably know most of the herbs, and they could always visit their mentor to ask a question. The only thing they might have trouble with is doing things like splinting broken bones or patching up really bad injuries, but their mentor could always leave the nursery just for a little while, or they could have a fellow queen, a warrior apprentice or a warrior watch their kits while they’re gone.
Interesting point! I kinda thought those two rules should be amended too, since so many want to or break them.
This is great! 🙂
I agree with the warrior code part!
I believe the medicine cat code is there for a reason. Medicine cats have trouble balancing kits with their duties. Look at Moth Flight. I think the medicine cat code is good, it’s the cats who should change and stop breaking it!
But if Moth Flight has someone to help with her medicine cat duties, would she really have had a problem? I was never really satisfied with that book’s explanation of why she had to give up her kits – they never pushed it far enough that it felt justified saying that she /had/ to give up her own children.
Hmm, I suppose if she’d had an apprentice she would have had an easier time… But would she have had time to train an apprentice if she eats worrying about her kits? She could never focus because of them. She’d have a hard time teaching an apprentice well…
But if a medicine cat has a fully-trained apprentice who has already earned their full name and can handle full med cat responsibilities, or if the Clan has multiple medicine cats like the current series, they could handle things fine while one medicine cat takes some time off to raise their kits.
But there could be multiple injuries at once, and if other med cats are tending to other injuries, and if the med cat’s kit was injured pretty badly, but not bad enough to kill, and a warrior was gravely injured, wouldn’t it be cruel to make a medicine cat choose between watching their kit suffer, or watching a warrior die? This is VERY rare, (and badly phrased) but it could happen, which is why medicine cats can’t have kits. Moth Flight had to give up her kits because they were distracting her, and she was neglecting them because of her medicine cat duties. Also, Moth Flight didn’t have a fully trained apprentice, and we know you can’t pick apprentices out of the blue without a good reason or Starclans blessing. While her kits might be properly cared for and not distracting if she did have an apprentice, at that time she was never destined to have an apprentice.
That’s why I said in a situation with multiple medicine cats. If it’s considered okay for a Clan to only have one medicine cat, when a situation like that could arise with multiple injured cats, what difference would it make if one medicine cat was compromised in that kind of situation but there were other medicine cats who weren’t?
Not to mention, children aren’t the only loved ones in a medicine cat’s life. What if a beloved sibling or parent was the one who needed tended to compared to the other dying warrior? It just seems harsh to ban kits with the idea of keeping medicine cats from being biased, when it’s only natural to form connections with others that bring you to prefer them to others. I doubt there has ever been a medicine cat who was ever completely unbiased in regards to their Clanmates.
And I don’t buy that she was so distracted that she wasn’t being a good mother to her kits. The book never went far enough to support that assertion, or to properly support the idea that this is something that should be forbidden to all medicine cats.
And Moth Flight’s mate died, so she didn’t have any help from him in raising her kits, and Reed Tail had to hunt for so many cats because Slate had her kits to raise, and Holly and Jagged Peak had their kits to raise, so in the end, it was six cats hunting for twenty.
Well, lovely spoilers, (My fault 😛 ) But Jayie does have a point. You can’t prevent yourself from falling in love. Even if you know it is wrong.
But what if one medicine cat goes to raise their kits, then the other medicine cat is expecting kits. How would that work out? Plus, when the medicine cat comes back from the jersey, their mind will be full of thoughts and favoritism might show. Or what if a med cat dies during kitting, leaving a scared and inexperienced apprentice to take over?
Please don’t take this to heart, I’m just trying to state an opninion…
That’s why the rule should maybe be that only one medicine cat can have kits at a time, and only if there’s more than one full trained medicine cat or apprentice in the Clan. And again, no cat can fully escape favoritism, and every cat had friends and family, so what’s the point in banning this one type of family?
Agreed
Good Article, but I will have to disagree with the medicine cat part. There is a chance that the fully trained apprentice could die (Like Flametail).
I agree with the whole medicine cats being able to have a mate and kits after an apprentice is trained, but like others, its hard when a cat has kits, to not neglect their duties in some ways. Kits eat up a lot of time.
Nice article and I totally agree with the medicine cat apprentice thing, I just think the apprentice would have to have earned their full name. I don’t think the neglect the duties thing is going to help much…
I think that I agree with your points here 🙂
I agree! Especially with the warrior code part. I also liked the change made in Bramblestar’s Storm.
I also agree with the medicine cat one. Medicine cats should be able to have a mate, but only take on a kit after their apprentice has gotten their name.