#I did like the Broken Code for the most part but besides Shadowsight and a few good moments with Bristlefrost...

[moonybadger]

On the other hand, I’m not really understanding a lot of the aggressive reactions to the new Warriors book preview I’ve been seeing on twitter? Like people are getting angry that characters are acting xenophobic and being jerks about Nightheart’s choices. Like guys... yeah you’re not supposed to like it, the narrative is explicitly framing these opinions as bad lol

Honestly I’m really enjoying the much more grounded conflicts this new arc is setting up. It makes a lot of sense that some characters would react like this after the changes made to the Code and the still new arrival of Skyclan shifting everything around.

Will the writers fuck it up? Maybe, but they haven’t yet. I’ll take actual character conflicts and relationships over supernatural problems that end up flattening the characters’ personalities entirely any day.

EDIT: Okay also seeing people say that the Thunderclan cats are out of character in this book, which I also disagree with. Most of them are characters that have not had any personality up until this point; we never saw Finchlight or Myrtlebloom do or say anything before this, they were just background characters. I honestly don’t even think Sparkpelt is really out of character, she’s always been pretty brash and would unintentionally hurt Alderheart’s feelings in the first VOS book. She WAS compared favorably to Firestar growing up (Graystripe talks about how much she looks like him and is surprised that she isn’t named Sparkfire or Sparkstorm). I can easily see that she saw being compared to Firestar as a point of pride, a point she tries to instill in her children. She’s also very traditionalist; she’s one of the cats who initially was against Skyclan living around the lake and was a pretty harsh mentor to Twigbranch when she returned from living in Skyclan.

Parents also can feel very entitled to their children; a LOT of parents would react angrily when their kid changes their name for any reason. We haven’t seen much of Sparkpelt being a good, understanding person, she’s always been really hotheaded and kind of self centered. I absolutely think that it’s in character that she’s responding to Nightheart this way! I like that she’s a complicated person who doesn’t always react how we want her to, I like morally gray characters in my cat books.

#like xenophobia was a big part of the first arc it's not like this is new #maybe people are still upset about how mediocre Onestar's book was #warrior cats #bored badgering #warriors #I did like the Broken Code for the most part but besides Shadowsight and a few good moments with Bristlefrost... #it didn't utilize its character's personalities and arcs as well as it could have #it handled it better then say... Omen of the Stars #where Jayfeather was the only one who really had any personality at all #YES I really like Nightheart's arc so far and I will defend that position if necessary #my only problem is that the writers forgot that Myrtleblossom is also related to Firestar when she was scolding Nightheart for how he was ac #I also wonder how much people's reactions are coming from a point of headcanons being invalidated

[poisonedwell]

something i kind of wish the broken code did more is acknowledging that characters besides the protagonists/major characters exist. it’s a problem that’s been getting steadily worse as the arcs progress and tbc is the worst yet in terms of this. in the first arc, you’d get things like “runningwind, frostfur, and longtail went on the dawn patrol to check the shadowclan border” or whatever and even if they weren’t doing anything directly relevant to the plot, you knew they existed and were involved in the clan. by the time po3, oots, and avos roll around, none of the cats have any relationships outside of their immediate family and their mates. if you look at the thunderclan allegiances in veil of shadows, maybe half of them are mentioned by name in the book itself, and only two characters who aren’t bramblefake, jayfeather, alderheart, bristlefrost, stemleaf, spotfur, or flipclaw get any lines of dialogue. with respect to the patrols, it’s always “[deputy] sorted out the day’s patrols” with no list of who went on those patrols or where they went. when they’re at a clan meeting or gathering and something shocking happens, it’s always either a protagonist/major character speaking up or a collective reaction from the rest of the clan- that, or vague arguing with no clear indicator of where any individual cat stands. it kind of makes sense for shadowsight and rootspring’s chapters because theyre more on the fringes of things in terms of their position within the clan (shadowsight moreso), but there’s really no excuse for it to happen in bristlefrost’s chapters, especially since thunderclan is where most of the plot is occuring. also, this is a very tiny nitpick, but there’s next to no description of any hunting occurring. it was such a huge part of clan life in the first four arcs, but both avos and tbc have had very little in the way of hunting (again, tbc is a much bigger offender).

also, with regards to thunderclan’s overpopulation, the erins dug their grave on that one between the end of oots and the beginning of avos. i get that plot shit is happening with respect to mates, but that’s not why thunderclan is so crowded. it’s crowded because the erins keep giving each queen either three or four kits and then not killing off any of those kits. it’s been ages since we saw two kits to a litter, or even an only child like whitewing. between that and the monolithic treatment of the background characters, it feels like they’re getting overly focused on the plot. kind of the opposite problem they had with avos, where they clearly needed to stretch some stuff out to hit the six-book quota. tbc desperately needs more character interactions between the other clan members. if you ask me, lost stars was a missed opportunity in terms of cleaning house. one of the worst winters in their history, and no deaths? bullshit. idk, i love tbc and i think it has the most interesting plot since the fire scene/ashfur’s death/leafpool and crowfeather being exposed as the three’s parents, but i feel like it simultaneously has some of the best and worst writing in the entirety of the warriors canon.

#i think avos is my least favorite arc followed by oots then the prophecies begin then tbc then tnp and po3 are tied for first #warrior cats #wc #the broken code #veil of shadows #yelling at a wall tag