Problems with Nine Lives by Whitepaw

Whitepaw explains some problems that occur when a leader gains 9 lives

There are a number of problems with having nine lives. In this article I will go over them.

Problem 1: Just the whole concept. You don’t start a new life, you just go back to your old life. In warriors, nine lives is more like being able to die nine times without actually dying until the last time. You don’t start over as a kitten, you just come back to where and how you were.

Problem 2: How long would you actually live? There are some leaders like Sunstar who seem to use up their nine lives in a lifetime. There are some leaders that seem to live forever. From the group of apprentices in Into the Wild, Firestar is the second one to die, Ravenpaw being the first, I think, because he gave Bramblestar one of his nine lives, like Firestar. Sandstorm and Dustpelt die soon after, but I still think that Firestar should have been the one to live the longest, because that’s how it should be. Also, if Whitestorm had survived there would be a problem if Firestar died as soon after becoming leader as Sunstar did. Whitestorm would probably have been thinking about retiring, but how would they get a strong leader without breaking the warrior code. Whitestorm would live much longer and he would have to retire later.

You know how earlier I was saying that Firestar was the second of that group of apprentices to die? I was thinking about that. Theoretically, Firestar should have lived nine times the rest of his generation’s age, but he didn’t. Why is that? I think that part of the reason StarClan gives leaders nine lives is that they will be targeted more than the other warriors. Deputies will also be targeted which is why a leader usually has more than one deputy. StarClan gives them those lives so that they won’t die for good the first time another leader decides to attack the camp. StarClan gives them those lives so that they will make it to the usual lifespan of a warrior cat. This is shown in Moth Flight’s Vision when Wind Runner is about to die from a battle against Clear Sky and Moth Flight takes her to receive nine lives. But for some leaders, they are fairly old when they become older, and nine lives just doubles their lifetime, or possibly triples it. Blackstar was pretty old, and Mistystar is the oldest living warrior cat. She is one of only two cats that I can think of that have been alive since the first book and are still alive at the time this article is being written. If a character is already old, then they shouldn’t become a leader. So, I kind of got off topic, but I just see a lot of problems with nine lives, and how it is displayed, and I had a lot of things to say, so yeah. Hope you enjoyed it and maybe you agree with me.