Overrated or Underrated: The Prophecies Begin Warrior Cats by Ospreysplash and Mountainstorm

Ospreysplash and Mountainstorm share their opinions on iconic characters from The Prophecies Begin.

Osprey: Hi guys! Welcome back to another article! The Prophecies Begin is the most well-known Warrior cats arc, and also, within it, are the characters most people have very strong opinions on. Today, Mounty and I will share some of our opinions on these beloved characters that formed the universe we know and love today. We are looking at 5 cats: Firestar, Bluestar, Greystipe, Yellowfang and Swiftpaw. 4 of them are the most iconic Warriors Characters, and the other one is one of the most popular apprentice characters. Mounty and I will be determining whether they are underrated or overrated, so let’s get going!

Starting with Firestar:

Osprey: Firestar is up there with one of my favourite leaders, and in my opinion, is severely underrated and underappreciated. He is the cat that dragged all of us into the series, and despite accusations that he’s ‘boring’ or ‘perfect’, I stand by my opinion that he is neither of these things. He has a wonderfully complex character that is seemingly simple. You can easily dive into his morals and feelings, even when he is leader, and he does have his flaws, like being nosy and judgemental, and he jumps to conclusions. A wonderful main character, Firestar is an underrated cat, and while he may not have the most unique personality, he has a special one, one that you want to keep reading about.

Mounty: Firestar is probably one of the best leaders ever to get his nine lives in the Warriors books. He’s a lovable red furball, and one of my favorite characters.
Having a whole arc dedicated to his development from a soft kittypet to a ThunderClan leader, it’s easy to fall in love with his determination, courage, and golden heart.

Yes, I agree with you, Firestar has flaws throughout his whole life. Anyways, you can hardly expect him to be the same as when he was a warrior. He grew older and wiser, not to mention he had to deal with the responsibility of a Clan on his shoulders. With more experience, he grew to make less mistakes; he couldn’t afford them, because mistakes may be at the cost of his Clan’s safety and well being. Not to mention the rest of the books hardly focus on him so we can’t really get the scoop on his personality; the only other point of view he gets other than his arc, is his Super Edition, Firestar’s Quest.

Alongside with being nosy and judgmental, Firestar can be a little thick sometimes, finding it hard to take a hint or tell when he crossed the line, especially with Sandstorm, but sometimes with his daughter, Squirrelflight, or with his former apprentice, Cinderpelt; even with his friend Greystripe, his leader, Bluestar, and most other Clan leaders once he becomes Firestar.
Firestar is definitely a pretty underrated character, considering all the hate he gets, and considering he had a whole arc all to himself, about his journey from a twoleg den, to Mothermouth, receiving his nine lives.

Osprey: Yes! I wholeheartedly agree with the statement, and Firestar is indeed a very underrated cat. Do you want to kick us off with Bluestar, because I have some very strong opinions, and I want to see what you say first!

Mounty: Sure! >:D I have some strong opinions on her too

Mounty: When I first read about Bluestar, I must say, I did admire her, and it was clear her Clanmates did too, the way Greypaw bowed when he met her after his special secret mission to attack Rusty, later Firestar.
Ultimately, I don’t think Bluestar is a bad leader. She keeps her Clan in check and makes sure they are healthy and happy. She’s a strong female role-model, which is still something I admire about her. However, when we face the question if she’s a good cat; well, that gets much harder to answer.
I don’t think Bluestar is a really good sibling. For example, when her sister Snowfur takes Thistleclaw as a mate, Bluefur just gets all angry and mad at her and turns away from her without even explaining why Thistleclaw is a bad mate, like she’s expecting her sister to break up with him just because she gets mad at her for taking a tom she doesn’t approve of as a mate.

I don’t think Bluestar was the best mate either. She was quite cold to Oakheart at first, and wasn’t all that kind. She growls and hisses at him like she hopes that will turn him away. “Why don’t you shut up and get off my territory?” – Bluestar to Oakheart

She’s pretty rude to him when Oakheart is nothing but nice to her; she’s even mean to him when he suggests joining ThunderClan to support her when she becomes a queen, and even when Oakheart agrees to adopt their kits into RiverClan. Mosskit dies, and Bluefur just mumbles what happens before running away from it all, without a single word of thanks.

And of course; what she does with her kits. While it’s understandable what she did, and she was pretty devastated about it herself, I still find it kinda cruel. Yeah, she did have to give away her kits. But couldn’t it have waited another night till it was a bit warmer? I think it was a bit irrational. Of course, it could have been because a “fox” wouldn’t have broken into the nursery on a warmer night.

And then we have Thrushpelt. I really don’t think it would have hurt if she told him what happened with her kits. He was completely depressed over the “death” of the kits, and I don’t think he would have told anyone about it.
All in all, I disliked her greatly in Bluestar’s Prophecy. She was arrogant and rude. However, in the first arc, I do like her, because she’s a good leader with good sense when it comes to training and making tough decisions. 🙂
Take it away, Osprey!

Osprey: I haven’t read Bluestar’s Prophecy, and while that book will probably make me hate her more than already, I must say that she is already pretty low on my list already.

The main issue I have with her is how utterly frustrating it is for me to read about her. From Bluestar’s Prophecy, she is very selfish, and she has a real ‘I know better than you’ nature to her, and when she’s painted as a good kind leader, then it seems wrong how she is actually a bad leader when you look at her.

She is too proud and narcissistic for her own good. She doesn’t listen to Firestar, even though it seems like she trusts him. She gives up on cats that she doesn’t like or who she thinks are wrong, like Snowfur and Firestar. As a StarClan cat, she is a massive hypocrite, and is a cat that uses her StarClan status to exert her power in a negative way, doing things such as being disrespectful and unsupportive to Firestar in his Super Edition, and he had to listen because she’s from StarClan. I have no problem with these traits on their own, and it’d make a very interesting character. But how she is written as good, honourable and kind? That is annoying, and this very misleading personality and extremely judging nature is what throws me off her.

As I said before, she is a pain to read about, like when Fireheart was listing all this evidence on why Tigerheart was evil, or trying to make her see sense in attacking WindClan. When it’s shown that Bluestar should’ve listened to him, she just pulls the ‘leader’s word is law’ card. I almost think she passed on her misleading nature to Mistystar in books 4-5 of TBC.

The Warriors Fandom LOVES Bluestar, because she was an Arc 1 character, and of course Arc 1 characters are loved. In my opinion, Bluestar doesn’t deserve this love, especially since people love her for being noble and kind, 2 things she really isn’t. So yes, Bluestar is overrated.

Mounty: You have me convinced!

Now, onto Greystripe

Osprey: Ok Greystripe. Where to begin?
Contrary to the opinions of most, Greystripe was at his best whilst he was an elder. Beforehand, I didn’t like him as much, because whilst he was an apprentice, he had all these tactless jokes for comic relief, and as a warrior, I didn’t really get where he was coming from.

I’ll start on TBC Greystripe, the one most people love. Goofy, loveable and immature, Greystripe steals the spotlight from his friend Firestar, due to this. After Fire and Ice, I didn’t really like Greystripe, not because of his forbidden romance, but because all this building up of Greystripe and Firestar’s friendship, he just breaks it all because Firestar is a goody-two-shoes. Greystripe beforehand seems like the sort of cat that would tolerate stuff like that, maybe complain a bit, and him snapping at Firestar is very out of character. His moving to RiverClan is very sudden, and then he suddenly just becomes Firestar’s friend again, out of the blue, because he feels like it. At this point, ‘indecisive, I do stuff when I feel like it’ becomes a part of his personality, something that certainly wasn’t there before, and that seemed to appear overnight.

Now, onto elder Greystripe, my favourite Greystripe

SPOILERS FOR LIGHT IN THE MIST UP AHEAD

Greystripe returned to his wonderful, blissful, apprentice personality in old age, especially when in ALitM, when he was complaining that everyone was saying that he put on weight. His love for Millie and his kits is very heartwarming, and his valour in TBC is very sweet, since he obviously still had the loyalty to ThunderClan that defined him from TNP onwards.

So the final verdict? This is complex, so I’ll divide it up into different parts of Greystripe’s life

Greypaw – Neither Over or Underrated

TPB Greystripe – Overrated

Old Greystripe – Underrated

Take it away Mounty!

Mounty: Greystripe has pretty much been one of my favorite characters since I first cracked open a Warriors book, with the small exception of the time he attacked Firestar for trying to give him advice, and neglected his apprentice because of a RiverClan she-cat. I felt bad for Brackenpaw at the time, because I’m sure it was really awkward for him to just stand around and wait for his mentor when he never came. But yeah, I mostly loved the goofy bean from the moment he made his first tasteless joke about kittypet food looking like rabbit droppings.

He was immature, yes, but that was kinda the reason I loved him so much! He was and probably always will be the funniest cat to tramp around the forest, and I treasure his relationship with Fireheart, especially the blame Greystripe took for him multiple times, like eating the mice Firepaw brought, or just cheering up his friend when he had a rough time with his training.

However, I feel the time he was most popular was when he was with Silverstream, which the ship Silver x Grey probably plays a big role in. However this is the time when Greystripe deserves some hate; he was narrow minded and self-centered to a point where he would attack his own best friend with unsheathed claws just because he tried to give him some sensible advice.

Sure, he was young and in love, but does that change the fact much that he attacked his best buddy just because he tried to help?

And you’re right; Greystripe jumping to RiverClan seemed extremely sudden and blunt. I was pretty shocked and shook by the ending when I first read it.
Greystripe became disloyal to RiverClan afterwards by refusing to attack Greystripe, and Leopardstar kicked him out after he didn’t kill Fireheart like she ordered him to. Aaand he was back in ThunderClan, as suddenly as he had joined RiverClan, which was another big shock.
After I finally got over it, I began to ease back into the goofy furball’s lovable ego, and once again he had a place in my heart. I loved him in Greystripe’s Vow; he was smart, fair, and kind, making wise choices and allowing refuge for a former BloodClan queen; and his good deeds didn’t stop there.

And yes, we have thus arrived at The Broken Code era of our fluffy grey friend, where he becomes the kit-like immature apprentice he once was, despite being a ThunderClan elder. And I must admit, that sealed my love for him forever. 😛

All in all, Greystripe is a pretty underrated character in some parts, like your said. But I think while he had his relationship with Silverstream going on, he was rather overrated, because he wasn’t all-that-great then. However, I think the old and really young version of him deserve a little more love.

Mostly, my opinion is similar to yours when it comes to breaking apart his eras and ranking them underrated and overrated.
Yellowfang next? 🙂

Osprey: Ok, sure!
Take it away Mounty!

Mounty: Short answer: I hate Yellowfang
Long answer: I enjoyed reading about Yellowfang in her Super Edition. She was genuinely kind, especially to Brokenstar. She was also quick on her paws and talented. She truly wanted to help and heal cats, and she’d do anything to do so.

I also liked her fine in The Prophecies Began. She wasn’t the best, and there were some moments when I disliked her, like when she lashed out at innocent kits just because she got accused of killing kits. Yeah, she had a right to be mad and annoyed. But why hurt
ThunderClan kits because of that?

But I loved how she helped Cinderpaw; she gave her hope again and she was the one who gave her enough motivation to keep on living and playing at her strengths, like healing. She was the one who gave her the option to be a medicine cat apprentice, and gave her hope again. Hope that everything would be alright.
Her dying moments were pretty well written, too.
But StarClan Yellowfang? There are so many things to hate about her.

1.) Yellowfang lied to Squirrelflight in a terrible way
When Squirrelflight was hesitant to raise Leafpool’s kits as her own, Yellowfang came to aid Leafpool, telling Squirrelflight that she would never have kits of her own. Poor Squirreflight was pretty shaken at the news herself, and it really didn’t help that Yellowfang did it in the rudest way possible, trampling down her feelings like they weren’t even there, not caring a whisker for Squirrelflight’s emotions.

2.) Yellowfang was rude to Squirrelflight (again)

When Leafpool was giving birth and had difficulties with Lionblaze, Yellowfang showed up to aid her once again. Squirrelflight was panicking; she could see Leafpool was in pain and agony, and she didn’t know what to do to help her sister. What’s the first thing Yellowfang does when she shows up? She yells at Squirrelflight to stop being useless and do something.

3.) Yellowfang’s rudeness to Mothwing

When the cats in ThunderClan fall ill, Mothwing wants to help Jayfeather by giving him catmint and other herbs he might need. But Yellowfang told Jayfeather that he can’t accept herbs from other Clans because it will lead to the “destruction of ThunderClan” or something. Mothwing, not believing in StarClan, refuses to back down, saying that many cats will die, and surely that isn’t what StarClan wanted. At this, Yellowfang tells Jayfeather, “Mothwing was born an idiot. She’ll die an idiot.”
So now Mothwing’s an idiot because StarClan never helped her and she’s trying to help a Clan in need and save lives? That’s just….wrong and disturbing in my opinion.
Curious what your thoughts are on her! 😀 Take it away!

Osprey: I agree and I disagree. I loved Yellowfang when she was alive! She was snappy, angry, and gave every single cat in the Clan tough love. Starting at Yellowfang’s secret, instantly, I loved her off the bat. She was so sweet to her grandmother, Silverflame, and it was refreshing looking at a character who got done dirty by the world, and felt it. Most characters will pick themselves back up, and I like those characters, but Yellowfang was so fragile, and every loss of hers was my loss, and just feeling her crumble was so heartbreaking. But when a flame coloured Tom met her, took pity on her and took her into his Clan, her life changed.

ThunderClan Yellowfang was iconic! Her grumpy nature, and her wonderful relationship with Fireheart and Cinderpelt was super sweet! When Cinderpelt was feeling upset after Silverstream’s death, Yellowfang told her to pick her head up and keep going, which was just perfect. Her death in the fire had a massive impact on Warrior Cats, as one of the first deaths that Fireheart felt really close to his heart, after Spottedleaf. A well rated character for me, and popular for good reason.

StarClan Yellowfang is another story. Bossy, rude, insensitive, idiotic and losing all morals she had in life, most people hate StarClan Yellowfang, making her perfectly rated once more, for all the wrong reasons. As you said Yellowfang calling Mothwing an idiot, being horrible to Squirrelflight and Leafpool multiple times just was frustrating.
All in all, I agree with you. Swiftpaw next? Oh Swiftpaw, can’t wait to complain about how he sucks so bad 😛

Osprey: Swiftpaw. Is. An. Idiot.
There, I said what I think.
I’m super sorry if you like Swiftpaw, and I would suggest that you don’t take what I’m saying too seriously, but I have hated Swiftpaw ever since I read A Dangerous Path.
So the scene that made me hate him? This one, after Snowkit is taken away by the hawk and Swiftpaw and Brackenfur run after him in search for him, and come back, with nothing to report except that Snowkit is gone:
“You did your best,” Fireheart replied, pressing his head against the younger warrior’s shoulder. “There was never much hope.”
“A waste of time and effort right from the start,” Swiftpaw growled, though his eyes betrayed their frustration at his failure to save the kit.”

I don’t mind cats who are idiots or insensitive, it’s just that Swiftpaw’s painted as this good, kind, cooperative cat, then he says this? Even though he’s frustrated, why on Earth would you tell a Speckletail, a grieving mother, Fireheart, a worried deputy, and a Clan who has already been scared by Bluestar’s outburst that StarClan is at war against them? You wouldn’t say that it wasn’t worth it running after a kit. Brackenfur wanted to find him because there was a chance, even if it was the smallest slither of chance to Swiftpaw, that they could find Snowkit. Brackenfur had made a very strong connection with Snowkit, and to say this must hurt his feelings entirely and shattered him.
With my newfound hatred of Swiftpaw, I realised that he actually is a pretty horrible cat.
Swiftpaw was the only cat who did not congratulate Cloudtail on becoming a warrior.

You may say ‘he felt jealous,’ and yes, he probably did feel very jealous, but jealous enough just to sulk in his den rather than joining the celebrations of Cloudtail becoming a warrior? If he wanted to be a warrior, he better have been less childish than that, and even just attended Cloudtail’s ceremony, or apologise later. No wonder he wasn’t mature enough to be a warrior? Brightpaw, an apprentice probably more jealous at not being a warrior since she didn’t attend the battle, congratulated Cloudtail, and was mature enough to acknowledge that this was a special day. But to Swiftpaw, yes, he should’ve been a warrior, no, it doesn’t mean he could avoid Cloudtail because of something that isn’t in his control, and bully and isolate his peer.

Then, of course, Swiftpaw’s Plan.

This puts his immaturity on full display. He takes matters into his own paws to find what was stealing prey, rather than, say, convincing Fireheart to take out a patrol. Even worse, he sucks another apprentice, Brightpaw, into helping him, all because Swiftpaw was having a little hissy fit that he couldn’t be a warrior.

Then he gets killed.
Then he’s treated as a hero.
What is heroic about Swiftpaw? Nothing at all, he’s just a whiny, jealous, annoying little apprentice, yet he gets showered with praise for trying to fight these big scary dogs. he knew that he would get his warrior name at some stage, but no, he had to get it at the same time as Cloudtail, when he showed on multiple occasions that he didn’t deserve one.

Do you want to go, Mounty?
Mounty:
I didn’t pay much attention to Swiftpaw at first. I was sad at his death. I was disappointed in how quickly he was forgotten.
But now that I’ve re-read the books I got some pretty neutral opinions on him.
Probably his most infamous action is going after the dogs, so I’ll talk about that mostly.
Was Swiftpaw right to do so? I don’t know. At his death, he was 19 moons old. Theoretically, he could have been given his name and trained an apprentice to warrior hood in that time. He was an adult stuck in the apprentice den, stuck with apprentice duties when he should have been made a warrior eons ago.

Which makes it understandable that he was annoyed and frustrated about his misfortune.
But being that old also means his decision to go find what was causing trouble for ThunderClan was even more idiotic. If he was an adult already, why would he make the immature, crazy choice of walking into the lion’s den and dragging another apprentice into it?

If he would have been 6 moons old, or even 10, his actions might have been more excusable, since he probably didn’t know better. But as an adult?!? It makes me ponder what would have happened if he had been made a warrior.

Though honestly, his plan wasn’t attacking whatever was troubling ThunderClan. It was just going there and picking up a trail so they could figure out the mystery and tell the warriors so they could deal with it. But still; that’s just…really stupid, walking into an unknown area when you know something dangerous is close by. It’s simple to guess that nothing good would come out of that.
Most people also admire Swiftpaw for “saving” Brightpaw from further harm. But…I’ve re-read Secrets of the Clans and The Prophecies Begin….and it honestly doesn’t sound like Swiftpaw was protecting her, more like trying to save his own skin. She saw him fighting with the strength of LionClan, but nothing more; she doesn’t say he’s protecting her, or fending off the hounds, away from her, or trying to pull her to safety. No.
It’s just him fighting with great strength and bravery. Does that mean he’s defending Brightpaw? Does it mean he’s trying to get away and protect his own skin? Possibly not. Probably not. But then why not mention the brave actions of Swiftpaw being the knight in shining armor to Brightpaw?

And yes, we have that Snowkit issue that’s extremely disturbing. It’s just….weird? And just proves that hedgehogs will fly before Swiftpaw becomes more considerate and empathetic of others.
Honestly, Swiftpaw isn’t my most hated character. He’s overrated in my opinion. There isn’t much to love about him…fighting off the dogs, I guess, but that’s not that creditable since it was because of him it happened in the first place.

I don’t think Swiftpaw really deserves the love he gets since he didn’t do anything kind or sweet or cute, really. He was just in the background, full of bottled up anger and frustration.
Though the way ThunderClan acted about him…compared to that, he was really quickly forgotten. And I wish the dogs could have gotten a few scars or cuts to at least show Swiftpaw’s last sacrifice if he was defending Brightpaw. If he fought with the strength of LionClan, why were the dogs uninjured?
Yeah. Basically still neutral, though I dislike him more than I like him. I think it’s fine if you like him and fine if you hate him…both are pretty justified and on that note I’ll end this section. C:

Osprey: On that note, Part 1 of this series is done! Would you guys like to see part 2? What do you think? Who do you agree with? Thank you Mounto for putting up with my tardiness while writing this article, and it was a blast working with you!

See you next article!