The Warriors retirement age keeps going up, it’s time for a “harsh leaf-bare” by Amberheart

Amberheart takes a look at retirement, elders, and how things have changed.

Firstly, warning in advance that this is long. I read River then re-read Tallstar’s Revenge, it got me thinking about how much retconning has affected the series, the lack of willpower of killing cats off recently, and even the lack of desire to shove fan favourites to the elder’s den.

In short: warriors are serving longer than ever before and it’s time to kill for a culling.

*The estimates in this post are based on the info in the wiki, plus some extrapolation/conversions.

Firstly: what did old age used to be, in ThunderClan?

Bluestar and Whitestorm were both labelled old when they were introduced. When Whitestorm was made deputy, it was specifically highlighted how most cats his age would be in the elder’s den. At the time, Whitestorm was a mere 6.5 years old – a spring chicken, compared to warriors these days.

While One-Eye is labelled the oldest cat in ThunderClan in TPB, BP retcons this and makes both Smallear and Dappletail older than her by quite a margin (warriors to her apprentice). One-Eye was at least eight years old when she died, after Firestar became leader. Meaning when she was being labelled old and creaky, mostly deaf due to old age, she was less than seven years old.

Mousefur was 12 years old when she died and had been described as “elderly” for more than two entire arcs before this.

[Not ThunderClan] Tallstar was so old he basically dropped dead on the spot after the Great Journey. He was only 11 years old when this happened.

Based on this, we can presume warriors generally retire (in the original series) between 5 and 6 years old.

On the other side of the scale, Spottedleaf was repeatedly described as “young” in TPB. She was around 4.5 years old at her death, which doesn’t leave much leeway between “young” and “old”.

When are cats retiring now?

Graystripe was around 10 years old when he retired, Cloudtail and Brightheart were around 9 years old when they retired to the elder’s den. So it seems that 9-10 years old is the current benchmark.

Cats are staying as warriors for nearly twice as long as in the original series before being labelled “old”.

What are warrior ages now?

Lionblaze is still trucking along with no-one calling him old, just over 8 years old – the same point One-Eye not only retired, but was frequently labelled as elderly. There are still a few generations to go before it’s his time in the elder’s den, so he could well stay a warrior into his teens.

Meanwhile Whitewing and Birchfall, the last of ThunderClan born in the old forest, are a whopping 10 years old each with no sign of slowing down!

These poor cats are being worked to the bone, it’s time to give them a break.

Let’s have a “harsh leaf-bare” coming up, like the good old days where sometimes the apprentices would have to share a mouse between three of them and the leader wouldn’t eat all day because there was simply no food.

Or let greencough ravage the camps once more, it’s been reduced to a mild irritant instead of the deadly plague it once was.

Anyway if you read this far… what do you think is a fair retirement age for warriors? Who would you shove off to the den and who would you just shove off the edge of the stone hollow?