My Problems With The Clans by Flamekit

Flamekit critiques some of the Clans.

Hiyo, all! Today I’m going to be discussing my problems with the clans and Warriors. (Spoilers for pretty much every book)
The RiverClan problem
Many of you probably know that Mistystar is older than Graystripe, and she’s still not an elder, but that’s not the RiverClan problem I mean. My problem with RiverClan is that it’s so underused! Over the course of the main series (so far) RiverClan has had three leaders. None of them had a very big role in the books. Crookedstar is… well, the cat who broke his jaw, Leopardstar is the cat who sided with Tigerclawstar, and Mistystar is the cat that’s lived way too long. Counting all the current Super Editions, manga and novellas, there are exactly four about a RiverClan cat. We have Crookedstar’s Promise, the only SE, Mothwing’s Secret and Mistystar’s Omen, the two novellas, and Feathertail’s new manga, A Shadow in RiverClan. The only RiverClan cat with a POV in the main series is Stormfur, and his POVs are all in Moonrise. In DotC, they were the smallest group, and they weren’t really a main focal point of the story. In TPB, we have them siding with Tigerclawstar, them having a flood, the whole Mistyfoot-Stonefur-Bluestar thing, some deaths and a forbidden romance. Meanwhile, WindClan is kicked out of their territory, ShadowClan is home of the villains, and ThunderClan is….well…. ThunderClan. It seems like the only reason they were in that arc is to have some forbidden love, and to have a group that represented water. In TNP, we have a bit of a better RiverClan story, but not by much. Feathertail and Stormfur get to go on a quest. Feathertail falls in love with Crowfeather (another forbidden romance), and then she dies saving some random cats they barely know. Surprise, surprise! One the way to lake territories, Stormfur decides to stay in the mountains with Brook Where Small Fish Swim/ Brook (they are so cute though). We also have the whole Hawkfrost and Mothwing thing, but Hawkfrost is killed and Mothwing just isn’t used enough. In PoT, we have…..pretty much nothing. Mothwing is figuring out her thing, Mistystar becomes leader. They’re in the battle with the eclipse….. but so is every other clan. In OotS, they’re on the water quest, but so are two cats from every other clan, and one of the RiverClan cats dies. They are seen defending the water for the fish, and they fight in the Great Battle, but once again, so did every other clan. We also have Hawkfrost’s gig going, but he’s not really RiverClan anymore. In AVoS, we have, once again, pretty much nothing. In TBC, we have some cats exiled, and that’s pretty much it. I could go on and on, but I’m going to stop now. (Wow, that was a lot longer than I meant it to be.

The ShadowClan Problem
Yes, as you can see, I have a lot of clan problems. With ShadowClan though, I have an almost even bigger rant. First of all, it’s one thing to be the clan everyone else is sorta scared of. It’s another to be the homeland of all the villains. Seriously, pretty much every villain in Warriors has something to do with ShadowClan. Brokenstar: he was born and raised there. Tigerclawstar: he took it over. Sol: he convinced them to change their ways. Dark Forest: do I really have to point it out? Darktail: he took it over and nearly destroyed it. We don’t have a big ShadowClan thing in TBC yet (oh wait, wasn’t it Shadowsight that had the “vision” that got a whole lot of cats exiled and nearly ripped the clans apart?), but we most likely will. Second of all, what is up with all the male leaders? ThunderClan has Bluestar, SkyClan has Leafstar, and RiverClan has Leopardstar and Mistystar. Now, some of you are probably going to say “Oh, but Flamey, WindClan hasn’t had a female leader in the main arcs* either.” and I know that. But WindClan has had Tallstar, Onestar, and Harestar. ShadowClan has had *deep breath* Raggedstar, Brokenstar, Tigerclawstar, Blackstar, Rowenstar, and Tigerheartstar. Oh, and also Cederstar, the leader before Raggedstar. And BTW, the leader before Tallstar was Heatherstar, a small, pale, pinkish-gray she-cat with blue eyes and a sleek, thick pelt. (Taken straight from the Warriors Wiki.) Besides, I feel like ShadowClan sorta lost its rep when they moved to the lake territories. In the forest, they were all “oh, everyone is scared of us and no one can beat us in battle and yada yada yada”, but then in the lake territories they were just a bunch of cats living in a pine forest. Sure, they were deadly warriors, but that wasn’t what they were known for. They just sorta lost their stride. And more with the unfair stuff, ShadowClan doesn’t really have good stories for a lot of awesome characters. Yellowfang’s Secret was amazing, and I fell in love with Tigerheart’s Shadow, even if I’m not a huge Tigerheartstar fan. Shadowstar’s Life was purely outstanding, and it was nice to see some TPB stuff from Tigerclawstar’s POV. But then we arrive at Tawnypelt’s Clan. Seriously, a whole novella dedicated to Tawnypelt about how much she misses Rowanstar?!? And she and Dovewing take a kit to the mountains? The story was intriguing, but after you finish it, you realize it wasn’t the best plotline. Same thing with Dovewing’s Silence. I’m not a Dovewing hater, but she is on the opposite end of the scale then her sister Ivypool when it comes to my favorites. Dovewing’s Silence only made me dislike her more! Lionblaze and Jayfeather were disappointed about losing their powers, but Dovewing was full out “OMG, I’m exactly like every other cat!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. Not cool, girl, not cool. ShadowClan is my favorite clan, but it needs so many improvements!

The ThunderClan problem
I mean really? What kind of clan has that many cats? There are so many more ways to make ThunderClan great! That’s another one of my pet peeves about ThunderClan. How come they get at least one main character POV in each arc? In TPB, we have Firestar. In TNP, we have Bramblestar/claw, Leafpool, and Squirrelflight. In PoT, we have Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf. In OotS, we have Jayfeather, Lionblaze, Dovewing and Ivypool. In AVoS, we have Alderheart and Twigbranch. In TBC, we have Bristlefrost. (I would like to make it clear that I am not complaining about the characters.) And how many SEs, mangas, and novellas do ThunderClan cats get? (Once again, I would like to make it clear that I am not complaining about the characters or the books.) For SEs, we have Firestar’s Quest, Bluestar’s Prophecy, Bramblestar’s Storm, Squirrelflight’s Hope and Graystripe’s Vow. For mangas, we have Graystripe’s adventure, and for novellas we have Hollyleaf’s Story, Goosefeather’s Curse, Redtail’s Debt, Tigerclaw’s Fury, Leafpool’s Wish, Dovewing’s Silence, Spottedleaf’s Heart, Pinestar’s Choice, and Thunderstar’s Echo, plus Mapleshade’s Vengeance and Ravenpaw’s Farewell if you count them as ThunderClan cats (I personally count Ravenpaw as a loner and Mapleshade as a Dark Forest cat). I kinda wish we had an arc circling around the other clans and how they feel ThunderClan thinks they’re the best and how they stick their noses in everything. The POVs could be from Heathertail from WindClan, Icewing from RiverClan, Cloverfoot from ShadowClan and Frecklewish from SkyClan. But I’m getting off topic.

Well, I could come up with a few more problems with Warriors, but this article is already past 1,300 words, and I dont think y’all need to be here all day or night. Thank you all for reading!

*When I say this, I am not referring to the Dawn of the Clans arc. With me, always assume that when I say main arcs, I am not referring to DotC, unless stated or implied otherwise. It’s just a bad habit.