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hatsbattlecats · 8 hours
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Thanking about how much change or has the potential to change in the WC timeline happens just by moving around or entirely removing even one character
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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i've got yet another new au spinning around in my head.
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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my favorite thing about warrior cats designs is that everyone has their own little take on each character but graystripe is always this
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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leafstar was such a wasted opportunity man. why tf are you making a big deal about a new clan who does things their own way if thats not the whole point. leafstar lived in a loose community her whole life, she should stand opposite to clan traditions. welcoming, well-meaning, peaceful first but unafraid to defend herself. she should be the one keeping daylight warriors on and defending them with no shame, because even if theyre not there at night, theyre still extra paws to feed the clan during the day, and they bring useful knowledge too. she should be the one allowing loners to pass through the territory unharmed as long as they dont attack skyclan.
remember that part in skyclan and the stranger where a character gets eyedrops from a twoleg which heals her faster than herbs would? skyclan should be pulling stuff like that. taking left out kittypet food in leaf-bare, using twoleg coats and blankets for their dens.
leafstar had a completely different lifestyle from a cat raised in the clans why tf did she just Mighty Morphing Power Ranger into Xenophobic Clan Leader #15
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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Heyyyy since there's talk of the Breezepelt Attacking Poppyfrost scene going around, I just wanna remind people that he explicitly does that because he was groomed by the Dark Forest. Jayfeather points it out on the page that Breezepelt's stated motivation doesn't make sense, because it's not actually a rational idea Breezy-P came up with. It's then shown that actual factual evil demons are exploiting the anger he has from being a victim of child abuse, to indoctrinate and manipulate him into radical violence
I wrote a little essay about this with citations and stuff. It wasn't "for no reason," and anyone who tries to use the scene as "evidence" of Breezepelt being Secretly Evil to justify the abuse he underwent as a kid either didn't read it, has bad reading comprehension skills, or is cherrypicking on purpose.
Crowfeather emotionally and physically abused his child, Breezepelt was socially alienated by WindClan as a result, which leads to this moment. That is what is on the page.
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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boiling hot take but i literally dont give a fuck that mapleshade let the clan believe her kits were birchfaces. her clanmates can be mad but exiling a queen and her kits is fucking deranged i dont care what lie she told. “she deserved what she got” her kids deserved to die because their mom fibbed??😭 her kids deserved to die because their mom did crimes LATER???😭😭 “um but she chose to cross the river” if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around.
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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Mapleshade Discourse O'Clock
It's that time again!!! SO I just kinda want to jot down all of my various thoughts about it as a story and just generally weigh in about Mapleshade.
I like the idea of Mapleshade more than the actual Mapleshade that is used throughout the books.
She has a really good gimmick-- to haunt Applekin though the generations. I don't like how they turn her into a generic "cat satan" for Tigerclaw's Fury and keep making her appear as a vain lackey demon.
I like her characterization in Mapleshade's Vengeance the most, of all her appearances.
But, I don't think my reading of the character depicted in MV is what the author intended.
See, I like MV as a story with no hero. The only blameless characters are the kittens who drowned and Perchpaw, while everyone else is some flavor of selfish, cruel, or vengeful. Everyone thinks they're in the right, but no one truly wins in the end.
Nothing about it was noble. Every tragedy that happened was utterly avoidable. In the end, everyone bears some responsibility for the pain and suffering that happened the day those children drowned.
BUT I'm pretty certain that the intended reading was that Mapleshade would be the one clearly in the wrong the whole time, as she justifies her own actions like a villain does.
Especially knowing how poorly the writers thought of similar female characters like Squilf and Leafp lying about the three, or Nightcloud being jealous her crummy husband is acting strange around another woman.
I feel justified in assuming that when Mapleshade is not happy she's being cheated on, or when she refuses to correct Frecklewish's record knowing it's unsafe if her kits are revealed as half clan, the writer really does think you're not supposed to take her side.
Because women should just not have emotions about being cheated on or something, and lying is unspeakably bad even if the truth puts you and your children in danger.
But. Y'know. We can all use the braincell for a moment and see that this is fucking stupid
SO when the book goes on to have Mapleshade ignore all the warnings about the swollen river, show both ThunderClan and RiverClan being obscenely cruel to her, and then walk across that bridge while insisting in her head that the deaths weren't her fault, I think the implication is obvious AND SHITTY.
Ergo I reject it completely. I can see what the book wants to say, and I think it says something trashy.
In spite of how badly the writer wants it to be Mapleshade's fault the kittens died, I say it was the asshole who threw a bunch of kittens out into the rain for being mixed race, actually.
Oakstar had the power here. Ravenwing had some power as well, but he makes it clear it wasn't his suggestion to throw the babies out into the woods.
And when it comes to Bridge Discourse, it was at least the afternoon, raining heavily, and Mapleshade was trying to get to RiverClan Camp. A straight shot across the stepping stones.
I think it is ridiculous to imagine an extremely emotional parent managing three very scared children, attempting to get out of the rain and dangerous wilderness before nightfall, would be rational enough to realize a large detour would be safer.
MAYBE the distance from ThunderClan Camp to the Bridge is equal to the distance to the Stones. But the distance between the bridge and RIVERCLAN Camp is longer.
I hope this goes without saying; but Frecklewish didn't deserve the Dark Forest.
Even in Banana World logic where she was sitting on the bank watching those kids doggy-paddle. Do not fucking jump in to save drowning people if you are not trained to do that.
I'm dead serious, this is the first thing you learn in any kind of water safety course. They WILL panic, you WILL get dragged down, you WILL become another liability someone else has to save instead of helping your initial target.
And that isn't even mentioning this being a flooded river. That's POOL safety.
In spite of how I think Mapleshade was right to lie, I do think Frecklewish being that upset and angry was understandable.
You're entitled to your feelings, but not how you treat people. She still attacked Mapleshade and called the kittens a slur.
That's what makes her interesting, though.
I don't think she deserves the Dark Forest, but Frecklewish's anger is an interesting trait. I don't like how a lot of defensive interpretations of her character end up downplaying how she acted at the exile
why does a woman being rightfully angry suddenly strike people as "unsympathetic." Girls can also say things in fury they don't fully mean. OR girls can rationalize their unjustified, ballistic response post-hoc out of pride.
Idk let girls be mad. Admit they were wrong without deserving HELL. I don't like the woobification impulse.
It's not really a hot take anymore I think, but Frecklewish is definitely only in the DF because the writing team judges women characters more harshly. Oakstar threw babies out in the rain in fury, and Ravenwing didn't stop it. But somehow only Frecklewish, a normal warrior, gets DF'd.
But what really rattles around in my head about the whole story is the way that the in-universe culture is able to suddenly value ethics like peace, forgiveness, and tolerance when MAPLESHADE is ready to throw those things out, but BEFORE then, it's well established that Clan culture is violent, vengeful, and intolerant.
One of our earliest scenes is Rainfall snarling at Mapleshade that he loves the way Birchface and Flowerpaw drowned. He's threatening that he'll kill even more ThunderClan warriors.
Over in ThunderClan, everyone is itching for revenge against Appledusk for those deaths, even though it seems to have been an accident. Oakstar even hates RiverClan well into sequel books for this.
But then later on, everyone acts Shocked Pikachu that Mapleshade actually went and GOT revenge.
And like, let's be real. This is a battle culture. Yes, by OUR standards Revenge Is Bad.
But in these books, so full of war and clan conflict...?
What I'm saying is that I wish the books let Mapleshade be a little more "controversial" in-universe. Like some cats actually frame the story very differently, and you can learn a lot about a person by who they think the hero is.
And how RiverClan responds to the drowned kids bugs me a lot tbh
We just established over in ThunderClan that there are people who think the babies were born filthy for being HalfClan.
We know everyone there stood by and watched as Oakstar threw them out into the rain-- only Ravenwing even seemed uncomfortable.
AND we know very well that in a few generations, TigerClan will rise. Which openly executed a HalfClan cat and wanted to kill 2 apprentices.
We KNOW the bigotry in Clan culture is deadly and unfair.
But then they go over to RiverClan and Darkstar is sad these three kids are dead? And RC is furious with Mapleshade for that?
Again, YES, you and me with OUR morals know that this bigotry is insane and spiteful. What I'm getting at is that IN-UNIVERSE half clan kittens and their parents face extreme discrimination. Even within this book.
It's odd to me that Darkstar refuses to let Mapleshade bury their bodies, sends her away for the death of the kids while saying it's "not the season for losing warriors" to Appledusk, and it's meant to come across as delusional that Maple thinks her babies were buried dishonorably
I wish more women in WC got so pissed off at the absolute injustice of it all that they went on a girl rampage. Perhaps it's my own taste, but I like it a lot more when the villain isn't entirely wrong and there's several angles you can read the story from. If she didn't do what she did, she would have been the only one who saw any consequences for anything that happened.
Anyway in conclusion uhhh idk murder is wrong. But Mapleshade's allowed to do it because she's a silly billy. Her greatest crime was not killing Oakstar also
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hatsbattlecats · 3 days
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I've never understood why people wholly blame Maple for making the clan think her kits were Birchface's. I mean, I'll admit it's been AGES since I read MV (or any actual WC book lmao) but I swear she did nothing to start it? Frecklewish just Assumed they were Birchface's for whatever reason and Mapleshade just didn't confirm or deny. A lie by omission, if still a big one. But people act like its some vile, actively manupulative lie from Maple alone??? like yeah its manipulative but A. who cares let her girlboss and B. it entirely started with Frecklewish assuming??? it wasn't even Mapleshade's idea in the first place???????
You're correct; it was a lie of omission, completely suggested by Frecklewish. Mapleshade didn't fabricate this lie.
In fact, something often left out of discussions about Mapleshade's Vengeance is that it decided she was VERY pious. In the early half of MV, she believes that it's StarClan that's providing all these opportunities for her.
She thinks she's special, that her kittens are destined to bring peace to their two halves, and that the code applies more loosely to her because she so strongly believes she's right and that her love is beautiful. I think it's meant to come across as Mapleshade being "delusional" and disconnected with reality, but I can't help but feel like a fair amount of it is naivety.
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Mapleshade is quiet, and Frecklewish rolls into a long, earnest monologue, thanking her for giving her hope with her brother's kittens. It reads to me like Frecki was in a depression after Birchface's death, and being able to help raise her nespring is like being given a new purpose in life.
It's gutwrenching on both ends, for me. Mapleshade is actually super uncomfortable several times around her "in-laws" during these lies, like she knows that she's in a dangerous position, and never really wanted them around to begin with. She clearly doesn't like Frecklewish very much and is actively intimidated by Oakstar. She doesn't WANT to have to lie forever, she eventually wants it to be known they're halfclan.
(and... why shouldn't she want that? This law SUCKS and it SHOULD be challenged. I'll go to bat for Silverstream and I'll go to bat for Mapleshade too.)
But meanwhile, Frecklewish in particular is being mislead. This means everything to her, it gave her a purpose when her brother had been taken from her, she thinks Birchface is living on and that Mapleshade shares in her grief. But it's a lie, Mapleshade doesn't want her anywhere near her children, and at the end of the day her love of these kittens is being exploited for their safety.
So... yes. It is manipulative, but the alternative was to actively tell Frecklewish NO and open up more questions about who the possible father was. Mapleshade is in a dangerous situation and she interpreted the opportunity as StarClan providing a way for her kittens to become accepted by their Clanmates.
I just find this situation is compelling. And they're both neat
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hatsbattlecats · 9 days
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Mapleshade Discourse O'Clock
It's that time again!!! SO I just kinda want to jot down all of my various thoughts about it as a story and just generally weigh in about Mapleshade.
I like the idea of Mapleshade more than the actual Mapleshade that is used throughout the books.
She has a really good gimmick-- to haunt Applekin though the generations. I don't like how they turn her into a generic "cat satan" for Tigerclaw's Fury and keep making her appear as a vain lackey demon.
I like her characterization in Mapleshade's Vengeance the most, of all her appearances.
But, I don't think my reading of the character depicted in MV is what the author intended.
See, I like MV as a story with no hero. The only blameless characters are the kittens who drowned and Perchpaw, while everyone else is some flavor of selfish, cruel, or vengeful. Everyone thinks they're in the right, but no one truly wins in the end.
Nothing about it was noble. Every tragedy that happened was utterly avoidable. In the end, everyone bears some responsibility for the pain and suffering that happened the day those children drowned.
BUT I'm pretty certain that the intended reading was that Mapleshade would be the one clearly in the wrong the whole time, as she justifies her own actions like a villain does.
Especially knowing how poorly the writers thought of similar female characters like Squilf and Leafp lying about the three, or Nightcloud being jealous her crummy husband is acting strange around another woman.
I feel justified in assuming that when Mapleshade is not happy she's being cheated on, or when she refuses to correct Frecklewish's record knowing it's unsafe if her kits are revealed as half clan, the writer really does think you're not supposed to take her side.
Because women should just not have emotions about being cheated on or something, and lying is unspeakably bad even if the truth puts you and your children in danger.
But. Y'know. We can all use the braincell for a moment and see that this is fucking stupid
SO when the book goes on to have Mapleshade ignore all the warnings about the swollen river, show both ThunderClan and RiverClan being obscenely cruel to her, and then walk across that bridge while insisting in her head that the deaths weren't her fault, I think the implication is obvious AND SHITTY.
Ergo I reject it completely. I can see what the book wants to say, and I think it says something trashy.
In spite of how badly the writer wants it to be Mapleshade's fault the kittens died, I say it was the asshole who threw a bunch of kittens out into the rain for being mixed race, actually.
Oakstar had the power here. Ravenwing had some power as well, but he makes it clear it wasn't his suggestion to throw the babies out into the woods.
And when it comes to Bridge Discourse, it was at least the afternoon, raining heavily, and Mapleshade was trying to get to RiverClan Camp. A straight shot across the stepping stones.
I think it is ridiculous to imagine an extremely emotional parent managing three very scared children, attempting to get out of the rain and dangerous wilderness before nightfall, would be rational enough to realize a large detour would be safer.
MAYBE the distance from ThunderClan Camp to the Bridge is equal to the distance to the Stones. But the distance between the bridge and RIVERCLAN Camp is longer.
I hope this goes without saying; but Frecklewish didn't deserve the Dark Forest.
Even in Banana World logic where she was sitting on the bank watching those kids doggy-paddle. Do not fucking jump in to save drowning people if you are not trained to do that.
I'm dead serious, this is the first thing you learn in any kind of water safety course. They WILL panic, you WILL get dragged down, you WILL become another liability someone else has to save instead of helping your initial target.
And that isn't even mentioning this being a flooded river. That's POOL safety.
In spite of how I think Mapleshade was right to lie, I do think Frecklewish being that upset and angry was understandable.
You're entitled to your feelings, but not how you treat people. She still attacked Mapleshade and called the kittens a slur.
That's what makes her interesting, though.
I don't think she deserves the Dark Forest, but Frecklewish's anger is an interesting trait. I don't like how a lot of defensive interpretations of her character end up downplaying how she acted at the exile
why does a woman being rightfully angry suddenly strike people as "unsympathetic." Girls can also say things in fury they don't fully mean. OR girls can rationalize their unjustified, ballistic response post-hoc out of pride.
Idk let girls be mad. Admit they were wrong without deserving HELL. I don't like the woobification impulse.
It's not really a hot take anymore I think, but Frecklewish is definitely only in the DF because the writing team judges women characters more harshly. Oakstar threw babies out in the rain in fury, and Ravenwing didn't stop it. But somehow only Frecklewish, a normal warrior, gets DF'd.
But what really rattles around in my head about the whole story is the way that the in-universe culture is able to suddenly value ethics like peace, forgiveness, and tolerance when MAPLESHADE is ready to throw those things out, but BEFORE then, it's well established that Clan culture is violent, vengeful, and intolerant.
One of our earliest scenes is Rainfall snarling at Mapleshade that he loves the way Birchface and Flowerpaw drowned. He's threatening that he'll kill even more ThunderClan warriors.
Over in ThunderClan, everyone is itching for revenge against Appledusk for those deaths, even though it seems to have been an accident. Oakstar even hates RiverClan well into sequel books for this.
But then later on, everyone acts Shocked Pikachu that Mapleshade actually went and GOT revenge.
And like, let's be real. This is a battle culture. Yes, by OUR standards Revenge Is Bad.
But in these books, so full of war and clan conflict...?
What I'm saying is that I wish the books let Mapleshade be a little more "controversial" in-universe. Like some cats actually frame the story very differently, and you can learn a lot about a person by who they think the hero is.
And how RiverClan responds to the drowned kids bugs me a lot tbh
We just established over in ThunderClan that there are people who think the babies were born filthy for being HalfClan.
We know everyone there stood by and watched as Oakstar threw them out into the rain-- only Ravenwing even seemed uncomfortable.
AND we know very well that in a few generations, TigerClan will rise. Which openly executed a HalfClan cat and wanted to kill 2 apprentices.
We KNOW the bigotry in Clan culture is deadly and unfair.
But then they go over to RiverClan and Darkstar is sad these three kids are dead? And RC is furious with Mapleshade for that?
Again, YES, you and me with OUR morals know that this bigotry is insane and spiteful. What I'm getting at is that IN-UNIVERSE half clan kittens and their parents face extreme discrimination. Even within this book.
It's odd to me that Darkstar refuses to let Mapleshade bury their bodies, sends her away for the death of the kids while saying it's "not the season for losing warriors" to Appledusk, and it's meant to come across as delusional that Maple thinks her babies were buried dishonorably
I wish more women in WC got so pissed off at the absolute injustice of it all that they went on a girl rampage. Perhaps it's my own taste, but I like it a lot more when the villain isn't entirely wrong and there's several angles you can read the story from. If she didn't do what she did, she would have been the only one who saw any consequences for anything that happened.
Anyway in conclusion uhhh idk murder is wrong. But Mapleshade's allowed to do it because she's a silly billy. Her greatest crime was not killing Oakstar also
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hatsbattlecats · 9 days
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I've never understood why people wholly blame Maple for making the clan think her kits were Birchface's. I mean, I'll admit it's been AGES since I read MV (or any actual WC book lmao) but I swear she did nothing to start it? Frecklewish just Assumed they were Birchface's for whatever reason and Mapleshade just didn't confirm or deny. A lie by omission, if still a big one. But people act like its some vile, actively manupulative lie from Maple alone??? like yeah its manipulative but A. who cares let her girlboss and B. it entirely started with Frecklewish assuming??? it wasn't even Mapleshade's idea in the first place???????
You're correct; it was a lie of omission, completely suggested by Frecklewish. Mapleshade didn't fabricate this lie.
In fact, something often left out of discussions about Mapleshade's Vengeance is that it decided she was VERY pious. In the early half of MV, she believes that it's StarClan that's providing all these opportunities for her.
She thinks she's special, that her kittens are destined to bring peace to their two halves, and that the code applies more loosely to her because she so strongly believes she's right and that her love is beautiful. I think it's meant to come across as Mapleshade being "delusional" and disconnected with reality, but I can't help but feel like a fair amount of it is naivety.
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Mapleshade is quiet, and Frecklewish rolls into a long, earnest monologue, thanking her for giving her hope with her brother's kittens. It reads to me like Frecki was in a depression after Birchface's death, and being able to help raise her nespring is like being given a new purpose in life.
It's gutwrenching on both ends, for me. Mapleshade is actually super uncomfortable several times around her "in-laws" during these lies, like she knows that she's in a dangerous position, and never really wanted them around to begin with. She clearly doesn't like Frecklewish very much and is actively intimidated by Oakstar. She doesn't WANT to have to lie forever, she eventually wants it to be known they're halfclan.
(and... why shouldn't she want that? This law SUCKS and it SHOULD be challenged. I'll go to bat for Silverstream and I'll go to bat for Mapleshade too.)
But meanwhile, Frecklewish in particular is being mislead. This means everything to her, it gave her a purpose when her brother had been taken from her, she thinks Birchface is living on and that Mapleshade shares in her grief. But it's a lie, Mapleshade doesn't want her anywhere near her children, and at the end of the day her love of these kittens is being exploited for their safety.
So... yes. It is manipulative, but the alternative was to actively tell Frecklewish NO and open up more questions about who the possible father was. Mapleshade is in a dangerous situation and she interpreted the opportunity as StarClan providing a way for her kittens to become accepted by their Clanmates.
I just find this situation is compelling. And they're both neat
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hatsbattlecats · 9 days
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boiling hot take but i literally dont give a fuck that mapleshade let the clan believe her kits were birchfaces. her clanmates can be mad but exiling a queen and her kits is fucking deranged i dont care what lie she told. “she deserved what she got” her kids deserved to die because their mom fibbed??😭 her kids deserved to die because their mom did crimes LATER???😭😭 “um but she chose to cross the river” if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around.
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hatsbattlecats · 17 days
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So I was looking through the Minor Characters of River, and....
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This is the spirit that promises Mistystar is safe. Presumably the spirit that came to pick her up.
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I started wondering who this was, since it seems like we will never know. I looked through cats close to Mistystar to see if anyone had green eyes. I looked through all her relatives, even her mentor and 2 dead apprentices, no one had bright green eyes.
Perchkit has either blue or green eyes, but they aren't described as bright. Crookedstar has green eyes as well, but again, not bright.
You know whose are bright green?
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hatsbattlecats · 17 days
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Some writers: *meticulously plan out every plot point and the tone and meanings before they start writing*
Me:
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hatsbattlecats · 17 days
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Can you draw Elderly SandFireGray 🤔
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The pen pressure is wack but I'm too lazy to fix it
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hatsbattlecats · 22 days
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Exactly!! He’s a bit less likely to murder in my version than yours, but i do still have him train in the dark forest. I like the idea that he’s spiteful of starclan trying to prevent him from using his gift to change things for the better. He’s also spitefull on behalf of some of the darkforest cats as well. some of them really didnt deserve to be there, or that there were cats from their stories who were equally bad if not worse who still got to starclan. So he works with the dark forest, a handful of starclan cats who agree with him, and the ghosts of loners and rogues who are forever wandering some unknown place, denied entry to starclan because they didnt believe, or didnt even know it existed.
Having recently re-read goosefeather’s curse, i also thought it was weird that he received prophecies for so far in the future (at least one or two for the lake territories) and never told anyone. So i added into mine that any prophecy that didnt come to pass in his time as medicine cat, he passed on to Featherwhisker with instructions to KEEP passing them on till they happen, and keep striving to prevent those tragedies. The fun thing with that is how differently each medicine cat after him handles them.
Story aside, i also have some fun character design ideas that im working on for the au rn!
so i run "HatsBattleCats", your goosefeather au was honestly a big inspiration for me wanting to make my own "goosefeather takes things into his own paws" au
REALLY?? OH I AM SO HONORED!!! I absolutely love looking through all your au ideas!! I'm so glad I can be an inspiration 🤗
(Also, yeah, if Goosefeather knew about what could happen in the future, why didn't he do anything to change them? Because of what his mentor said? BS!! Cats are dying, futures are ending, and the tragedies could be prevented!!!)
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hatsbattlecats · 23 days
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There's no way the cats actually know what a germ is right? Like, germ theory is still basically new in the timeline of human history, so these cats definitely would have zero idea germs exist right? like they can obviously tell about disease spreading and the like, but it's much more likely they've developed mythology about spirits or do miasma theory right? I think that would be interesting, medicine cats wrapping lavender around their noses to help prevent disease, putting nice smelling things in the nursery to help bade off disease to the kits, I just think there's a lot of world building that can be done here because theres no way in hell the average clan cat fully 100% knows that things can even be microscopic
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hatsbattlecats · 23 days
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warrior cats but TNP is set in 1960s america and the trip to the sundrown place is just storm tawny and feather helping bramble dodge the vietnam draft. plus one stowaway and one hitchhiker.
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