Animation & Warrior cats

I generally don't get involved in warriors disk horse because I'm here for a good time and have other things to do than fight about cat books, but I've seen a couple takes (not going to hunt down screenshots or anything) recently that I feel like I need to say something about.

Thrushpelt is not a groomer just because he interacts with Bluepaw in a positive manner like one time while he's a warrior and she's not. (I checked Bluestar's Prophecy-- they have three interactions with each other before she becomes a warrior, all while she's an apprentice. The first is that he's impressed about her catching prey her first time out hunting. The second is him saying that she can't challenge the medicine cat. The third is him saying "may StarClan guide your paws" to her and Snowpaw when they go hunting together. They don't interact at all when she's a kit). If you think a mildly positive interaction between a child and an adult is equal to grooming, that's something you should probably do some thinking about.

In a similar vein, it's not "creepy" for Thrushpelt to not correct people when Bluefur lets the Clan think the kits are his because he's "in it to make people think they're mates". It's not some "doing the bare minimum" thing. It's helping out a friend of his for no benefit of his own because he's a nice guy. Again, if you think some guy doing a favor for someone he once had a crush on is somehow creepy and him trying to make a move, that's a reflection on you.

You're allowed to not like characters for "no reason", but you don't have to go out of your way to give yourself "a good reason" that's in no way supported by the narrative.

random warriors take and that I'm begging people to take in good humour

reasons people dislike Grey Wing: detailed list of bad behaviour that are unfortunately inherent to most male protagonists in warriors

reason I like Grey Wing: *points at grey wing* this cat made me realise I have asthma

also I want to make it abundantly clear that I respect people who look at the characters based on their full book canon and discuss it!

here is my one bit of wisdom as a 32 year old with no interest in being a "fandom elder" or "community mom" or whatever -

if someone a little older in your friend group takes care of things and has good advice to offer and whatever, and you all sometimes joke abt them being the mom friend, that's fine and normal

if someone self declares themselves as the mom friend, and begins to act like that is a role with actual authority, Fucking Run

nightheart: it’s just so hard to be related to firestar 😓 and can u believe my mom gave me the prefix flame, it’s so close 2 fire. i may look nothing like firestar and also he’s like my great great grandfather or something but this is about to define my entire life + kickstart my hatred for women

tigerheart, who looks exactly like tigerstar and also now shares his name literally letter for letter: .

What if having -Star added to a leader’s name was more like a title than a real renaming?

So when the clan is referring to the leader, they tend to phrase it as “The Firestar sent us,“ or “That used to happen under the Brokenstar,“ but they would use the leader’s real name in a personal or private setting.

So if you’re speaking to them as a clanmate, you might say, “Onewhisker, please listen…“ or “I went on a walk with Leafdapple earlier.“ Using the real name is ONLY for clanmates, however. It’s too casual if you’re from another clan, or implies disrespect. So Tigerstar used to speak to Leopardfur using her old name when he was playing power games.

When a leader is emphasizing their power, they might demand you use the honorific suffix. Bluestar eventually snaps and tells Whitestorm to know his place, and to never use Bluefur again because he isn’t a kit anymore. Tigerheartstar only lets his family call him Tigerheart, sparking ire from the rest of the clan.

every aspect of the warrior code is designed to incentivize total sacrifice of oneself to The Clan. elders eat first because they have dedicated their lives to it and that is why they now "deserve" to rest. queens, their kits, and the sick are also prioritized because they are expected to either create new or become healthy contributors to The Clan. warriors are not to be killed in battle to perpetuate the atmosphere of "us vs. them" and give warriors a reason to feel so fiercely protective of "what is theirs" without inuring them so much that they cannot contribute-- but kitty pets and rouges and loners are fair game because they are the ultimate other and will never contribute to The Clan.

any strawman villain that neglects the sick or elderly, that kills indiscriminately is not evil because they do these things but because they are either outside the Code (sourge, darktail) or because they threaten the status quo of clan division-- the very thing that sustains the system (tigerstar, brokenstar).

this is all very disjointed but what i'm saying is actually if you want to "rewrite warriors to be better" you have to actually throw away the whole thing. the warrior code cannot be salvaged in any way that would resemble any of its original rules/traditions. Retconning in less ableism or lgbt+ rep fixes nothing because the core of every interaction between a cat and their Clan is "how much can i sacrifice for this, i am nothing without this, this must be preserved and perpetuated at all costs and i must do this however i can even if i have to lie, even if i have to kill"

"have you given them names?" crookedstar's voice is soft, distant - graystripe wouldn't have heard him if it weren't for how cramped riverclan's nursery is.

mosspelt is fast asleep, the two kittens curled at her side; graystripe feels a deep stab in his chest when he realizes that he's still expecting to see silverstream there instead, with the life they should have had together.

"i....did," graystripe knows that by now, crookedstar has decided to not be outright hostile to him anymore - his grief over silverstream is too overwhelming. but graystripe can't help but be cautious, afraid of one misstep ending in him being exiled from riverclan and away from his son and daughter.

crookedstar turns to look at him, his green eyes questioning; he stares for a few moments, before gesturing for graystripe to speak.

"i named the molly featherkit," he murmurs, twitching his whiskers. "her....she has this fluffy little tail, and we....silverstream and i, she liked the sound of it. it just kind of fit."

"featherkit," crookedstar repeats, turning the name over in his mind. graystripe waits for the hiss, the annoyance that he didn't ask crookedstar for his thoughts on any names - but the tom doesn't seem angry at all. mostly just sad. "featherkit. that's a good name."

"and the boy...," graystripe looks at his son, tilting his head. "silverstream....she told me that if we had a son, she wanted to name him stormkit. that was the only name she kept saying - he has to be named stormkit. and....i really like it; it fits him, with his coat and all..." graystripe blinks. "so his name is stormkit. she wanted him to have that."

crookedstar is silent for a long time; graystripe frowns, turning to look at the old tomcat, to see crookedstar's face tight with emotion, staring down at little stormkit.

"crookedstar?" graystripe whispers, frowning. "did i..."

"she wanted to name him that?" crookedstar asks, his voice soft and broken. he turns to look at graystripe, and graystripe can see the mixture of emotions - grief and heartbreak, but a little bit of what seems like joy as well. surprise, even.

"yeah," graystripe says, confused. "do you..." graystripe blinks. "do you like it?"

"that's a good name for him," crookedstar says, nodding. "it's perfect."

tbh i think the reason i’ve come to resent the wc fandom’s “fan content is always objectively better and more competent than canon” attitude is because it’s made a lot of people act like the fandom itself is above criticism, that you can just hide behind every accusation with “well that’s my opinion and you have to respect it.” like i’m sorry but this fandom has proved more than capable of churning out the exact same racist, sexist garbage that the erins themselves do. maps where imagery clearly meant to invoke indigenous culture is boiled down to some sort of exotic “aesthetic” you can use to make the atmosphere more “whimsical,” animators being commissioned to animate someone’s fursona killing a female character they don’t like… these things don’t exist in a vacuum are just as deserving of criticism as the racism and misogyny present in the books themselves. and also it makes me get the impression that this in part is due to a lot of people who criticize the books not actually realizing what truly makes these books bad, like all they’re looking at is the spelling mistakes and the continuity errors and whatnot, but they don’t want to talk about how the tribe is a racist caricature of an indigenous nation that the heroic clans can impose their own ways of life upon because they’re too underdeveloped to know what’s best, or the way women are almost always only given depth through proximation to their male protagonists or portrayed as selfish and unruly for the same actions male characters are painted sympathetically for. like my mind just keeps going back to that time when people were pissing their pants over whitestorm being mentioned in the allegiances of leopardstar’s honor twice or something but the moment someone was like “kind of wish this fandom talked about the racism more” suddenly it’s all oh this community is always so negative oh it’s just a silly little book series about cats oh people are so sensitive for being upset that terms like “medicine man” are re-appropriated for some dipshit’s fantasy cat book series. like… if this fandom truly wants to believe it puts out better content than the source material, then that will have to come with understanding that our content isn’t infallible or above criticism either. listen, learn, and put effort into changing the way you curate things instead of just shrugging off everything and doubling down with “you’re too sensitive, and it’s not like the books are any better!”

Uni's cute voice!

thoughts that won't leave my brain: DotC but make it karelian

to elaborate, rewrite of DotC and the founding of the clans from my karelian perspective