Analyzing A Starless Clan: River by Eaglestrike

Eaglestrike takes a closer look at what happened in River. Spoilers for River!

*Spoilers ahead for the newest Warriors book, A Starless Clan: River! RAYOR-Read at your own risk*

This is my (Eaglestrike’s) first article! I’ll be analyzing River, the newest boom and the first in the new arc, ASC.

The first thought of River I had was that it was similar to TBC, the previous series. I say this because we see some similar components. But, considering the events of TBC, that makes sense.

River has three main characters. Frostpaw, a new riverclan medecine cat apprentice. A riverclan perspective was new and refreshing, though I would have loved more info on their dens, their food, what sets riverclan apart from, say, sky clan or wind clan. Frostpaw has a more intense connection to starclan than others without it being debilitating like Goosefur’s, which I loved. Sunbeam, a shadow clan warrior, and Flamepaw, a thunder clan warrior. I loved Flamepaw’s perspective, it was completely new and unexpected. His thoughts were interesting and his personality is awesome. Personally, I felt Sunbeam to be a bit of a generic cat. She’s great, but it feels like her rejection from Blazefire was just to set her up as a potential love interest for Flamepaw.

The first ‘plot twist’ was Mistystar’s death. I expected it, but I didn’t expect her to suddenly drop dead in a clan meeting. I expected illness, a dog, badger, or fox attack, something more generic. It was both exciting, as it was new, but disconcerting how everyone glosses over it. No one tried to figure out why she died that way, they just said ‘welp, time to get our deputy’ and move on. When Reedwhisker, the deputy’s body was found, Frostpaw notices what looks like badger wounds on him, but it’s quickly dismissed and forgotten. Everyone seems to move on quickly. Same with Curlfeather-when she dies in a dog attack, no one thinks ‘gee, isn’t it strange all our leaders keep dying?’ I personally thought that after Shadowsights situation, everyone would be more cautious with their communication with Starclan-Frostpaw experiences haven’t exactly been normal according to the other books. I can’t wait to see how this develops in Sky.

Sunbeam was an interesting character. As I said previously, I did feel that she was a little generic, but I feel she has a lot of room for improvement and I hope she begins to develop as a character independently from the other main characters. I’d like to see her relationship with Lightleap and Blazefire either get better or worse, as we don’t see a lot of friendships in Warriors that are maintained. They seem to be setting up for Sunbeam or Flamepaw / Nightheart to switch clans, and I’d love to see that situation, as well as what happens if they don’t complete the ‘assesment’ to join the clan.

In River, a major component is that the warrior code has been changed after TBC. Now, warriors can change clans to be with their mate, among other things. I loved the way this was weaved in, with almost a separate groups of cats against this inside Shadowclan. I loved the creepy tone the book takes on when Berryheart invites Sunbeam to ‘join the conversation’ about it, and I’d love to see this develop further.

My favourite moment, by far, was Flamepaw’s ceremony. He’s tired of constantly being compared to Firestar-in Warriors, a cat’s name is their personality, their fur color, it’s stuff about them. His prefix is Firestar inspired. His suffix is also loosely Firestar inspired. He puts his food (or paw?) down, he says no. He decides he won’t be Flameheart. He becomes Nightheart. I loved the tension in that scene, and it was phenomenal.

All 3 characters have. A lot of room for growth, and I’m excited to see it. I want to see Nightheart in a position of power, as he has a lot of good experiences, ideas, and thoughts that I think Warriors needs more of. I can’t wait for all 3 main characters to begin to meet eachother/speak with eachother more, and I, excited for Frostpaw future communications with ‘Starclan’ and what Sunbeam does in her situation.

I can’t wait to see the next book, Sky. I think we can safely say they’re clan names, so we’ll be having Thunder, Shadow, and Wind. Considering that in River, Mistystar collapsed and died, I’m curious as to what will happen in the other books to the other clans leaders, what with Bramblestar acting so strange, the new warrior code (they could ‘dethrone’ Bramblestar, according to the new code, with reason), and when the ‘Starless Clan’ aspect will begin to make more sense-has Riverclan been abandoned by Starclan, and that’s why they can’t have a leader? It’s a Starless Clan, not Starless Clan’s, plural.

Anyways, thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts, opinions, or ways you agree/disagree in the comments/replies 🙂