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bonefall · 3 months

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again looking over the reworked history what the hell happened with Ripwater, I wanna know. What *was* that? How did Riverclan kill it?

Oooooh, quite a request! Ripwater, Queen of the Lake, one of the episodes of BB!Po3!

Ripwater is a Wels Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in Europe. The biggest specimen EVER caught was just landed last year, in 2023, 9.4 feet long. It wasn't weighed, but smaller fish than this one have broken 300 pounds.

And it's not a good thing that we're catching so many big ones.

Wels catfish are extremely invasive across most of Europe, introduced for anglers who want to land record-setting catches. They're massive, intelligent carnivores, sometimes called the "freshwater orca" because they will lunge out of the water to catch land prey. They DESTROY the population of anything big enough to fit in its terrible mouth, including fish, amphibians, and even turtles.

They get that big from a mix of constant food and hot temperature. It's a sign that they're devastating their surroundings, and that nothing has been able to kill them for the decades it takes to get so large.

So of course, some dunderhead put them in British rivers, where they've been spreading upwards ever since. Thankfully they thrive better where it's warmer, so they're not too massive of a threat to BB's modeled regions in Northwestern England, but they're fucking coming.

Ripwater's name isn't an exaggeration. That's how they hunt. They gape their jaw and beat their fins like dragons, creating eddies and currents that suck their hapless prey in. When RiverClan names her, it's because they see her ripping the water in half. I was thinking about her recently, and came up with some new stuff. I'll take a brief break from my drafts to serve up some fragments for you.

[A gray cat with blue eyes, Lakepaw, later BB!Lakeheart, swims in bluegreen water surrounded by lilypads. Below her is the massive shadow of Ripwater, a gigantic Wels Catfish. Its eyes flash in the depths.]

SMALL RECAP OF BB!PO3: (to set the stage)

It is now a breather arc, just dedicated to some worldbuilding!

I feel pretty strongly that Po3's strength is how AWESOME of a slice-of-life arc it could have been. To this end, I removed the Kin of your Kin prophecy from it, until it's revealed only at the very end just before Cruel Season.

That's so I can focus on The Three and their adventures around the lake, without this big prophecy looming over them and making the lower-stakes conflicts look small.

Instead, the various episodes of Po3 are related to problems that their new home presents, with just a teeny bit of Sol's magical influence to spice things up.

While Lionpaw learns about the "meaning of strength" and ultimately learns a terrible lesson he will extend to his kits, and Jaypaw finds his limits and learns to prevent others from defining them for him, Hollypaw is grappling with Fire Alone and how to reconcile her grandfather's legacy with her strict dedication to the Warrior Code.

And SO we find ourselves in one of the earliest episodes of BB!Po3; Ripwater the River Demon. This is like... episode 3 or 4, it's a REALLY early one.

I'm just shuffling it around with ANOTHER RiverClan-centric episode; the Shinewater Plague. The oilspill from TNP is now going to be bumped up to Po3 so it's more about establishing Mothwing and her apprentice Willowpaw, to contrast Leafpool and her apprentice Hollypaw, before Holly swaps to being a warrior. Jaypaw completes warrior training before becoming a Cleric apprentice.

So I don't want them to be TOO close together. Maybe put Ripwater in Book 2 and have RiverClan comment that they don't really want to ask for help because of the last big event, Mistystar hates feeling indebted to ThunderClan.

After all, it could basically replace the "flood" episode from Canon Po3, which is often forgotten about anyway. I'm already having ShadowClan construct dams instead of RiverClan anyway...

ANYWAY RIPWATER

I want to start this episode off with Sol/Harry, who is unnamed, messing around near water. He has a bit of a fish motif going on that I want to establish, and I need to get him to start messing with the Clans good and early.

(Specifically his motif is going back and forth between the koi, also an invasive and notably domesticated species, and the atlantic salmon which is famous for its changing life cycle.)

The Wels Catfish is an invasive species to England, slowly making its way up the island from the South. The fish who will become Ripwater, at this point, is already HUGE but not cat-swallowing huge. She's an 80-pounder.

Sol hits her with some godly magic, which allows her to grow at a rapid rate.

The sort of thing where it wouldn't be COMPLETELY implausible. He just... helped it along.

When we get to her first true on-screen appearance interacting with RiverClan, she is nearly 300 pounds of monstrosity with a length of about 8 feet

I'm unsure how, exactly, ThunderClan comes to know of this. But I DO know that I want Hollypaw to be snooping, and heavily encouraged by her mentor Brackenfur to do so. So, somehow, SOMETHING starts going wrong across the lake and ThunderClan catches wind of it.

Thinking about it, this should probably be her first big action after swapping out of Cleric apprenticeship.

One of the few things she's missing about Clerichood is the way she could be close to Willowpaw without needing to sneak around so much. It's easier to just pass it off as "friendship" and "Clerics need to be close." Leafpool and Mothwing are a similar way.

Possibly work in that Hollypaw's also already seeing Heatherpaw in the tunnels, contrast the two things...

At this point, Hollypaw has a crush on Willowpaw, which is requited, but... it's kinda fading.

She still loves her like a friend, but she's liking Heatherpaw a lot more. It doesn't mean she doesn't CARE for Willowpaw, of course, but

Willowpaw is still IN love, and it's slowly becoming unrequited, when it didn't used to be.

And from RiverClan's POV...

The first disappearance is so sudden they have no idea what's happened. I'm planning for it to be Robinpaw.

(I go back and forth on if it's Robinpaw or Dapplepaw, but I'm leaning towards Robinpaw again, because I like Dapplenose too much to have her get killed off here.)

She went out clamming in the lake with her sisters, Lakepaw and Otterpaw, there was a swirl in the water, and that was it. She was gone.

Just like that.

She never came back up. RiverClan searched for her, following the currents, checking the shoreline, everything. It was like she vanished.

Mistystar is suspicious and doing everything in her power to figure out what happened, but... let's face it. It's the word of two apprentices, who were swimming alone, who swear Robinpaw just went under.

Misty JUST got done with the Shinewater Plague and isn't trying to make RiverClan look like it can't keep track of its own young. The most likely situation is that Robinpaw was sucked down by an undertow that the three of them were too inexperienced to recognize.

So... she's pretty adamant about not sharing this information until Robinpaw's body is found. Jaws Style. "We cannot let the other Clans be alarmed by this, else they might meddle in our affairs..."

(and she's still maybe a little paranoid that some snoop in another Clan is going to find out that Leopardstar wasn't killed by a rogue, y'know.)

I don't want it to be TOO much of a bloodbath, so I'm capping Ripwater's body count at three and just aiming for two deaths total.

I'm also going for a coincidence RiverClan is going to interpret as a pattern; this happens a lot, specifically, when they're hunting Freshwater Pearl Mussels.

Ripwater doesn't like the river as much as she likes the lake, but it has nothing to do with their clamming. They're just going to interpret it as such.

Anyway.

The next one she goes after was lucky. By some stroke, she opens her jaw, and the victim is able to grab onto something before they're sucked in. (Maybe toss in something here were it was Holly who was able to help save them.)

Since the WHOLE Po3 Apprentice Generation is going to be getting more focus, there needs to be more input from the RiverClan apprentices. Lakepaw and Otterpaw obviously need time here, but I also NEED to involve Ripplepaw, to establish how he's going to be seen as one of the strongest in RiverClan by OotS.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE AS I FIGURED STUFF OUT:

It was Ripplepaw, Otterpaw, and their two mentors on a raft who were attacked next. They were fishing for mussels in a shallower part of the lake.

Otterpaw was tethered to the raft with a flax lead, so it wouldn't float off. Or just tugging it in her mouth. Either way she had a line.

When Ripwater attacks her, she is swallowed on the line like a worm on a hook

And it starts pulling the WHOLE RAFT down, just a crummy bundle of sticks

One of the mentors started shouting to cut the line, else it would drag all of them under, but Ripplepaw dives right down to beat its ass without telling them he's not gonna cut it

Hollypaw just rushed right in, didn't think about it, forgetting she was supposed to be trying to sneak around

Taking control as the natural leader she is, she ordered them to shut up and start pulling the opposite way

Underwater, Ripplepaw braced himself against the fish's lips, grabs Otter's tether, and YANKS

Abovewater, the adult warriors are pulling together, Holly grabs the raft and pulls too

Once their paws touch the bottom of the shallows it's over, one last HEAVE-HO and POP!

Otterpaw is FREE

And when it's finally known that the apprentices weren't mistaken, there's a monster in the water, THAT'S when the debate really starts up. Mistystar does NOT want ThunderClan meddling, and she'll already be pissed off that Hollypaw (and any OTHERS who tagged along with her, I wouldn't put it past Honeypaw to wriggle her little yellow butt into a later draft, or Lionpaw for his massive strength) witnessed something that's not her business.

There's a moment from canon I desperately want to keep; where Squirrelflight comes to fetch her daughter.

(more reason to just say this is replacing The Flood Episode from canon lmao)

It's such an interesting moment, and so forgotten. In a nutshell, Squilf is both furious and concerned that her kit went missing and meddled in another Clan's affairs, but... understands the impulse.

Because it's something she would have done.

So when she scolds Hollypaw, there's this aching feeling that she's scolding a younger version of herself. Calling her arrogant and disloyal, that an apprentice's opinions mean less, and that she needs to listen to "older and wiser" warriors within her own Clan.

In BB, I want to do something big with this. Firestar is the figurehead of Fire Alone, who encouraged Hollypaw's behavior through his deputy, Brackenfur, who he set as her mentor for a reason.

But Squirrelflight is being abused. By Brambleclaw.

This is one of the lowest points in Squirrelflight's life, and she is walking a line between self-worth, the warrior code, and her personal beliefs, just like her daughter is.

SO, since I'm already using Brambleclaw's enabling of Ashfur's physical abuse as one of the contributing factors to Hollyleaf's descent, I ALSO want to show how he acts on other characters.

Brambleclaw, Clan Culture, the pressures of their strength-obsessed social system. So it's gotta be Squirrelflight that reminds her, or even plants the seed in her head;

"What you did isn't consistent with the Warrior Code."

Maybe even have Mistystar herself state this earlier, to be echoed by Squirrelflight, offering an alternate perspective to Hollypaw. Make her realize that ThunderClan's political leanings are not universal or even popular.

But when Hollypaw comes back to ThunderClan, whoever set her to be a snoop wants her to spill the beans. This is also a big WIP part, as Hollypaw struggles with if she's going to obey or not, and I still need to set all the political "players" in this moment.

I know for sure, though, that Firestar's IMMEDIATE desire is to meddle like it's an episode of Scooby-Doo. Though he's savvy enough to be smart about how he phrases it and what actions he takes, his ultimate goal is to put his little cheeto-dust paws all over this. And Hollypaw is starting to question how appropriate that actually is.

This is where it starts to really be a rip in Holly's mind. Clans aren't JUST big, blanket groups with united opinions, they're collections of individuals. Mistystar doesn't want meddling, but Willowpaw is in danger. Otterpaw and Lakepaw went all that time without being believed, after they watched their sister die, because they're lowly apprentices like her. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are angry and disappointed, while Firestar and Brackenfur are secretly lathering her in praise.

Now imagine me standing in front of a big board where I'm writing ??? because there's a missing chunk here.

I need to connect THIS part to what comes next, which is where ThunderClan DOES come in and help out. Here's the thought process going on in RiverClan;

Willowpaw comes in to do something important. She adores Hollypaw, knows her value as a Cleric, and knows that StarClan can sway Mistystar.

I want her to have a couple of pieces of a vision... BUT. She decides to interpret it in a way that's convenient, and add a few details.

It's not a tooootal lie lmao. It's just 75% true.

This is the true power of Clerics, when they realize it. No one can actually challenge them without just ignoring them or stripping them of power. They are accountable to StarClan alone.

A mentor simply doesn't say this out loud to their apprentice. It's a quiet secret. And Willowpaw just realized it.

and thinking about it... this should be the thing that finally breaks the budding romance Holly and Willow had. Holly is sickened by this, when Willow confesses how she convinced RiverClan to work with ThunderClan.

But, without even being a full Warrior, the apprentice leverages her power as Cleric of RiverClan, and 200 skill points of Improv Acting, to tell them these things;

"StarClan is so angry with us that they've sent a hog to the water! It's why they've sent a ThunderClan apprentice, we must work with them to eliminate the beast that lurks in our waters. With spears and plans, we must hunt it honorably!"

(Mistystar is defensive, but it's not known why) "We haven't disobeyed StarClan in any way. We'd already accepted their help once before, when sickness drove us to weakness, and it's only let them think they can disrespect our borders as they please. This can't be the holy will of our ancestors."

"It's-- We've been disrespecting this bountiful new land that they've so generously given us. That's what the pile of shells in my dream was. Think about it! The last attack was on the shore where we collect mussels. The second attack was on a cat latched to a raft, and it was only the tether that saved them. And the first..."

IVE GOT AN IDEA, Robin, Lake, and Otter WEREN'T clamming when they were attacked. She gestures over to Lake, knowing that if she doesn't back her up, the theory crumbles.

(Otter is in the Cleric's den, unconscious.)

Lake hesitates, not wanting to lie. Willow jumps back in,

"It's why Otterpaw was attacked," does those little jazz-hands to be like 'come in bitch work with me,' "And it's why Lakepaw has to be involved in killing it, to end what she started, and appease StarClan."

Lakepaw more like I LIKE-what-you-just-saidpaw, "It's true, we were so ashamed to admit it, Mistystar, this is all MY fault, I wanted my siblings to dig up mussels, PLEASE let me atone by stabbing the fish to death"

AND AFTER THAT IT'S NOODLIN' TIME

Mistystar, begrudgingly, accepts Firestar's help, or perhaps reaches out to him. Ripwater is a "Hog in the Lake," a beast too big for them to kill honorably on their own.

ThunderClan is the ONLY Clan that uses spears, and only for boar hunts. To protect themselves and to give their quarry a quicker death.

No other Clan touches weapons for dishonor reasons, as they're heavily associated with the demon Shredtail.

I should have Willowpaw explain her half-truth to Hollypaw here, and it's where Hollypaw just... so very suddenly can't look at Willowpaw the same way.

Jaypaw would definitely face an ableist moment from someone, but it's going to have to be one of those times where he accepts that there IS a very real limit to his ability here. Spears are range-weapons and his whiskers don't reach that far. He can't tell where he's stabbing, and the water is going to make it too hard to smell where Ripwater's dangerous mouth is. He can't be chosen for this hunt.

Meanwhile Lionpaw learns from Willowpelt how to make a spear and it is one of the most satisfying things he's ever done in his life, he's like "this is so awesome oh my god i love weapons"

just gently setting up that he's going to eventually become ThunderClan's head of hunting, and also that he's a lil violent

I feel like him and Lakepaw should hit it off a little because they both think the idea of stabbing a fish in the face is super cool, only for someone to growl at them that they shouldn't be enjoying themselves so much

Maybe Blackclaw, fuck that guy

(absolute tangent but BB!Lionblaze is kind of evolving into a little dork and I love that for him. Local himbo only capable of making friends or enemies, all Clanwide opinions on him are polarized, more at 11)

THE PLAN

So how DO they kill that thing? First of all, it's all about strategy.

Immediately they started making a couple of specialized spears. Most spears they make are exclusively for boar-hunting, so they have a distinctive "lug" that prevents a boar from impaling itself down the shaft to get you.

Someone in RiverClan explains that you don't want a fish having the chance to get off a claw. If Ripwater escapes, they might not find her again until she kills someone else

The solution is that these need to be custom-made, with special claw-shaped prongs, so they're chevron ^ shapes instead of tear-drop points. They stab in, and don't pull out.

So they need to make spears from scratch, which is an intensive process, and they don't have time to waste. RiverClan doesn't want to hunt by water that has a chance of having a freshwater orca spawn and drag you in; they'll starve

And there's only so many artisans in TC that can MAKE spears. Glue, twine, shafts, blades... these are all things that take hours of labor to create.

And MORE IMPORTANTLY, they realized from the Raft Rescue that a tether, attached to a floating object, can be very useful. Each weapon has rope tied through it and is tethered to a raft-- which is even MORE intensive, RiverClan had to repurpose several nets to create so many lines, and they only own three rafts, so the rest have driftwood.

So they only have time to create 3 special water-spears, and bring in 2 modified boar-spears.

Lionpaw is like visibly disappointed he can't have one lmao

The only apprentice given a spear is... Lakepaw. And it's a boar-spear

Because she's gonna be bait. They believe the litter is cursed for their "sin" and she'll be the next target.

But still, they chum up the water near the last sighting with blood and crowfood, like hog slop, and wait.

(Heavy WIP stuff here as we get to a play-by-play I haven't fully figured out yet)

Their plan is to get it on the shore as quickly as possible.

Four cats could pull Otterpaw from its mouth, so 5 spearcats and a dozen strong warriors could pull it onto the shore. Surely.

shorely.

It comes as expected, lunging at Lakepaw. She leaps back and tries to use her spear on it, but she is NOT properly trained with it, she stabs its face, but can't break the skull

RiverClan manages to toss a net at the beast, but it's NOT heavy enough

And they managed to get LAKEPAW with it, pressing her to the beast, her spear is dropped into the water

Someone shouts that it swims like an eel, able to just reverse course unlike a REAL fish which must turn

In the panic, warriors start mobbing it.

she thrashes, and splashes and the net is barely holding her back at all

She smashes a warrior with her tail, buffs another with her powerful head

She's stabbed in her side by a ThunderClan warrior (probably Sandstorm), and she turns on the raft they're standing on, breeching and SMASHING it to bits. Lionpaw and the rest of the cats on this raft get dunked

In the water, ThunderClan cats are useless, and RiverClan cats can't properly handle spears.

Someone from RiverClan, probably Blackclaw, tries to free Lakepaw but is scooped up in Ripwater's mouth.

He's screeching and yowling and trying to hold onto its upper jaw, regularly cut off as she dives under

When Willowpelt gets her spear in, she holds onto that damn stick with her LIFE, getting swung around and dunked in the water and then going back up into the air

Thornclaw, holding the other boar-spear, aims for its tail

But it's not enough; Even with several warriors of RiverClan, five spears, a net, and the weight of the two remaining rafts, Ripwater's managing to pull them towards the depths

She's too big to bite, too large to claw, and too strong to hold down

LIONPAW TIME

He grabs the spear that Lakepaw dropped

Ripplepaw seems to zoom right passed him, running away from the fish. He thinks he must be some kind of coward, the fight's NOT OVER YET!! WE NEED TO HELP LAKEPAW

(In a later draft I might have Lionpaw be on the smashed raft, and Ripplepaw brings the spear to him before turning and bolting back to shore. Either way he doesn't explain himself)

He paddles near one of the rafts, and is pulled up onto it

Firestar calls him a WONDERFUL BOY for bringing the spear

Lionpaw mumbles something enthusiastic around the stick in his mouth, wriggles his butt, and jumps back into the water

Grabbing the net sticking to Ripwater and using it like tree bark, he pulls himself on

Bites the spear by the lug like a handle

And stabs it in like a knife

But it's already starting to pull out, too shallow

Filled with anger and resolve, he bites the shaft, and PUSHES

Harder and harder and harder until there's a crackle, the twine breaks loose, and the lug snaps

The rest of the spear slips in as if Ripwater's made of butter

Figuring that's probably deep enough, he lets go of the net, breaching the surface, sputtering and hacking

He's about to dive again to go get Lakepaw, but to his surprise, she breaks the water next to him

and then he feels the fish bump his paws

His name is called from the shore, and there's Hollypaw and Ripplepaw waving. Ripplepaw TOOK HIS SPEAR'S ROPE. Like a GUY WHO THINKS.

Now there was a team of cats on the shore, all the spent warriors who got thrown off, pulling Ripwater to the shore.

And from the feeling of slimy fish under his paws, it seemed like her fight had been all but spent.

And more cats were swimming to shore now, with the ropes attached to the other spears.

Once on the shore, they're able to discover that, tragically, Blackclaw has died. Mistystar in particular looks deeply torn by this, as their relationship was notoriously toxic. But still, he had been the father of her children, and drowned trying to save a Clanmate. She jumps up onto the massive fish, giving a speech about sacrifice, how Blackclaw and Robinpaw would be honored, and that RiverClan has learned its valuable lesson.

Ripwater was symbolic; it's the greed they had unleashed upon the lake by over-exploiting one resource. From now on, they would be respectful of StarClan's bounty. She thanks ThunderClan for helping to fulfill a prophecy, and offers that their debt be repaid by splitting the meat of the hunt.

Hollypaw, internally: "Oh she's doing that on purpose. She knows ThunderClan hates fish and it would be rude to refuse."

Firestar: "well. how could we refuse."

Sandstorm, quietly, in the distance: "easily actually ew"

CLOSING STUFF

I kinda want some kind of "epilogue festival" where the two Clans legitimately celebrate with a somewhat somber meal sharing. Some of these episodes in Po3 will result in lasting traditions and holidays that are celebrated annually.

At that little "fish festival," it works for Holly to officially break it off with poor Willow, to leave this episode off on a bit of a sad note.

This was one of the first times Lionpaw's power becomes obvious, and it's the sort of thing that wasn't really noticed. I figure it would be good for Lakepaw to ask how that lug snapped, she could barely even get the spearhead in. Lionpaw just brags and says it must be because he's SUPER STRONG.

For some reason he's just making a ton of friends whenever I write these out, I think I'm going to lean into it. Lionpaw's got friends when he's a kid lmao, starts losing them over time as he gets more violent.

It's probably because I really need a comic relief in The Three's dynamic. Hollypaw is very dramatic, Jaypaw is dealing with legitimately stressful social issues, and Lionpaw is violent. Someone has to lighten the mood up a little and it's probably because he's The California Girl himself lmao

At this fish festival he also discovers fish isn't actually that bad. Everyone's being weird about this. It's not really that slimy. It's got a strong taste but that's kinda nice, actually?

Could use some berries but like... "damn why don't we do this more often. this would go great with blackberries."

Ripplepaw: "You think so? I can taste sweetness, can I try to make it at home and tell you how it works out at the next Gathering?"

Lionpaw: "It's not hard, you just mash the berries and stew them in a little water before pouring it over your meat. I learned it from Willowpelt, she's got a mad sweet tooth."

Lakepaw: "No offense Lionpaw, but I always thought you were a total lunkhead. I never thought you'd like, cook?"

Lionpaw: "I mean not really, I'm an awful cook, I can just make simple stuff. Willowpelt's just nice enough to be patient with me, my mentor Ashfur says if I can learn something anyone can, haha."

Just a nice little moment for him.

Blackclaw is being mourned in the mortal plane, but secretly, getting a SCATHING trial up in StarClan. His death was heroic, but his ENTIRE LIFE was treacherous.

From teaching Hawkfrost to follow in his father's pawsteps, to joining him in WindClan's Civil War, and his constant arguing and undermining of Mistyfoot back when she was just a deputy trying to do the right thing.

He goes on trial for a bunch of things he did in TigerClan, too, facing his victims who took his misdeeds to their graves. He's not the only cat in RiverClan who is getting a review like this.

Leopardstar is already in the Dark Forest, and soon, Blackclaw's sent there too.

I decided to kill off Blackclaw here so he could have a VERY cool Land Mar;

(context: all Dark Forest demons now get a cool little evil playset area just for them, where they spawn into after they're thrown out of StarClan. These are called Land Mars)

It's still unnamed, but it's basically an even BIGGER Ripwater. It goes above and below the river and lakes of the Dark Forest, popping up in any body of water big enough to hold her.

#better bones au #Land Mar #Ripwater #BB!Po3 #Better Bones AU #BB!Lakeheart #BB!Willowshine #BB!Hollyleaf #Fallenleaf #Wels Catfish #I NEED to make an art tag for my partner #Gamer-the-kittypet art #THEIR SUGGESTION NOT MINE

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lemonstars-cat-blog · 6 months

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ok fuck Starclan we need a bad bitch who thinks she is above the rules and she is RIGHT fuck the rules girlie if you love her you love her go get your fuckin riverclan girlfriend.

Is it weird that I miss Silverstream? I feel like no matter what she doesnt regret a thing and would do it all over again even if it meant she'd die again and again. Shes stubborn as hell and the rules mean nothing to her, the only thing that upsets her is that she wasn't there to raise her kits.

Au shit

ANYWAY i feel like Graystripe should have been more involved in the lives of his TWO VERY CLOSE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS? CHILDREN?? like i get he was gone for a while that's fine he cpuldnt help that but 😭😭😭 idk? before he was lost to the clans, after he got back, hello?? where is he. come on man do something.

(btw this is a mothxleaf au because ummm leaf deserves better than crow and also oooh parallels of riverclan x thunderclan relationship oooooh wow i’m so creative)

SOOO in this AU Gray is much more involved and immediately sees the telltale signs of "ohh ok yeah lol she's sneaking out to meet someone" in Leafpool because HE DID THAT TOO!! He only really stresses to her that she has to be careful, think about what she's doing, dont get in over her head and don't forget her duties to her clan. If he could go back, he'd do so much differently, and he doesn't want Leafpool to go through the same pain he did.

Well after that whole big talk, Silver, who’s still watching over him, overhears some of this (namely where she was mentioned bc she wants all the gossip and backtalk even if it’s about her) and decides like. “oh my god. i have to get involved in this.” so she plays matchmaker a bit, becomes a cool aunt to leafpool

anyway i LOOOOVVEEE LOVE LOVE the idea of Mothwing being wrapped up in starclan’s prophecies with the three because holy SHITTT URGHHRHR LIKE. SHES AN ATHEIST AND STARCLAN CANT EVEN COMMUNICATE W HER BUT SHES STILL A PART OF THE GGRAND PLAN BUT BC SHE DOESNT BELIEVE SHE CANT SEE IT AND ITS SO,. IDK??? ITS COOL IDK

i don’t think starclan as a whole is evil bc i don’t think silver is doing this out of any ill intent if anything it’s breaking down the stupid rules starclan is so keen on enforcing. i feel like gray would big time support leaf and moth once the truth comes out, and silver would support leaf during her starclan trial like “you fuckers wanted those kits born, this literally had to happen bc y’all wanted it to and you’re mad about it???”

OH OH ALSO CINDERPELT!! WOULD BE SO INVOLVED BC EVEN AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS SHE HOLDS GUILT OVER SILVER’S DEATH AND IS TERRIFIED THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY STARCLAN PUNISHING HER THAT CAUSED HER DEATH AND IS SO AFRAID OF LOSING LEAFPOOL TOO

#leafpool #silverstream #warrior cats #digital art #my art #warrior cats au #graystripe #mothpool

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laneelliot12 · 3 months

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KittypetFirefam Au!

A lil au thats been bouncing around in my brain for a bit! Instead of joining ThunderClan, rusty stays a kittypet who roams the ThunderClan border for many moons- often getting into spats with ThunderClan apprentices SandPaw and DustPaw. As they grow older, SandStorm and Rusty find that they actually have a good time together when they aren't tussling around in the dirt. Enough time passes that they get together in secret- just as TigerClaw puts his plan into action, dethroning BlueStar in the night away from watchful eyes. SandStorm falls pregnant with Rusty's kits, quickly growing afraid of what TigerStar will do if he finds out the litter is a kittypets; though, luckily, the unspoken law that all monarchs (queens) are entitled to privacy regarding their litters sire holds up strong enough to protect little SquirrelKit and DandelionKit (Leaf!). [Since Sand and rusty never meet leafstar, who I hc Leafpool is named after, I figured sand would pick a dif name!] TigerStar is VERY suspicious of them but since the other Monarchs seem protective of the two tiny kits, he backs off for a while. SquirrelKit is eventually named SquirrelPaw and is apprenticed to DustPelt, and DandelionKit is named DandelionPaw, and is made a healers apprentice, something that has been needed by ThunderClan for some time, after SpottedLeafs near death expereince (no yellowfang since there is no firepaw to find her, no cinderpelt because she remains a warrior, as TigerStar doesn't try to lure BlueStar to the road, killing her in a different way further in the timeline than he had tried when FireHeart was there). SpottedLeaf, near constantly on deaths door, trains DandelionPaw as best she can in her condition, badly injured from a ShadowClan attack. I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS on this au but am too tired to put them together rn, will probs post about them later!

#my art!#warrior cats #art #warriors #cat #wc #warrior cats designs #warrior cats art #warrior cats fanart #sandstorm #rusty #firestar #squirrelflight #leafpool #thunderclan #warrior cats au #warriors designs #warriors au #erin hunter warriors

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willicebattlecatsblog · 11 months

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Weird idea but hear me out :

Something that always kind of "scratched" my brain was that the three have animal names, while Hollyleaf has a plant name, so I guess her name was foreshadowing the fact that she wasn't part of the Three.

However Hollyleaf is seen having connexions with ghosts (such as Fallen Leaves)

We know that the Dark Forest and the Starclan cats can interact with living cats (like literally fighting, talking to them, and in certain conditions, gift them powers). We also know that there is a place where non-believing cats go to (as Ravenpaw declined his place to Starclan to go wherever Barley goes to after his death), which I will call the Nowhere for simplicity

So what if Hollyleaf was gifted powers by the cats from the Nowhere ? Not random kittypets, but Clan cats / loners who literally stopped believing in Starclan because they perceived Starclan as a destructive and dangerous entity. Clan cats who rejected Starclan because it was manipulating living cats and making their life a living hell for seemingly no purpose (Squirrelflight, Leafpool for example, or Jayfeather, Goosefeather). Starclan refused to accept these cats after their deaths because, while they were good cats, they refused to follow Starclan's instructions, and therefore ended up in the Nowhere. In this AU, Fallen Leaves is part of the Nowhere and even when he espaces the tunnels, he refuses to join Starclan as he feels furious that Starclan left him for 100 years lost alone in the tunnels.

After the Three drowned Ashfur together (a great teamwork right there), Hollyleaf feels incredibly guilty. She was always obsessed with following the Warrior Code, and breaking it by killing a cat - Her own clanmate - made her feel horrible. She ends up telling everyone the Truth at the gathering just like in canon, but takes all the responsability of Ashfur's murder, making her brothers seem innocent. She doesn't try to kill Leafpool as she has grown way too attached to her aunt - now mother - and instead she asks for the full story. Leafpool explains everything, including how Starclan manipulated her and Squirrelflight. Hollyleaf is horrified at everything she learns and feels she doesn't belong. She immediately rushes to the tunnels, where she gets trapped.

She spends a long time reflecting, and feels betrayed by Starclan. She expected to have powers like her brothers, and for no reason at all, she gets none. Why wasn't she gifted anything ? Why would Starclan even gift kits born from a forbidden love ? Why did Starclan lie to Squirrelflight so that she would for sure adopt Leafpool's kits ?Did Starclan trap Leafpool and Squirrelflight on purpose, for their own entertainment ?

In the tunnels, she meets Fallen Leaves, and through him, is able to enter in contact with the Nowhere, and all the Clan cats who felt betrayed and used by Starclan.

This is just a small idea for now but I really like this concept :) and also I hate Starclan grrr

I call this AU Hollyleaf from the Nowhere for now !

This AU is connected with the Lionblaze is Scourge AU for now too !

IMPORTANT THING : The cats on the top of the picture are ghosts, not Starclan cats ! Starclan cats have stars on their pelt, while ghosts and wandering spirits just have a white outline in my depictions !

#wc au #wc art #hollyleaf wc #hollyleaf #hollyleaf warrior cats #lionblaze is scourge au #hollyleaf from the nowhere

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kudossi · 2 months

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Hear me out: Lionblaze is born brown and is named after sea lions, actually.

I'm not taking into account the commonality of sea lions in whichever place one might imagine the clans are as it's a magical place no matter what and sea lions might as well be there. Really it would have made more sense for Midnight to be a sea lion instead of a dry land-ass badger hoping that high tide doesn't drown her this time.

Anyway, the journey group rolls up to the sun-drown-place and goes what the fuck is that a sea lion? I'd only heard RiverClan stories about those things!

And of course Midnight the sea lion is like BARK BARK BARK BARK [delivers prophecy in pinniped]

So naturally when Leafpool hands over her kits to Squirrelflight, Squirrelflight is like your names suck ass this one is Lionkit

And Leafpool's like ...why are you fucking reminding me about that fucking sea lion who broke up my illicit affair?

And Squirrelflight's like of all the cats you had crushes on over the years you just HAD to run off with the grumpy WindClan idiot whose original also-sapphic-leaning girlfriend kicked it in the mountains.

So of course Leafpool has no choice but to be like yeah fine Lionkit it is.

Lionpaw doesn't like this very much, mostly because his siblings like to make sea lion impressions every time he enters into literally anywhere. Hollypaw's gotten really good at it.

I also like to imagine one of the ubiquitous quests that everyone and their second cousins seem to have to go on leads them to a zoo and Lionblaze is like SEE! LOOK! I WAS NAMED AFTER THIS MAJESTIC CREATURE THE AFRICAN LION!

And he turns around, triumphant, to see that his siblings are just standing by the sea lion exhibit barking at him.

The quest is of course leading them to the sea lions. Lionblaze considers feeding himself to the land lions.

Also imagine a bunch of sea lions attacking the camp in Twilight. Like I mean they're probably still badgers I don't think that has to change but hear me out: it would be funny.

#lionblaze #hollyleaf #jayfeather #leafpool #squirrelflight #crowfeather #warrior cats #warrior cats au #waca #wc #wc au #midnight the badger turned sea lion #sea lions #tnp au #the new prophecy #the new prophecy au #power of three #power of three au

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spotty-is-slumberous · 5 months

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Thinking about one of my older WC aus again… I’ve finally got a name for it: the Kinless Leaders au

In which I realized that it makes way more sense for the leaders in Warriors to be put under the “cannot have mates or kits” rule rather than healers…

Leaders are far more ingrained in politics and diplomacy than healers are. They’re the only non-healer, as well, who are known to have steady contact with StarClan, and have recieved a grand gift (nine lives) from their ancestors. Literally touched by the stars. They’d need to be “pure”, and completely unhindered by emotional or physical attachments (that being: immediate family, romantic attachments, and kits) that could cloud their judgement when it comes to the good of the whole Clan.

They’re allowed friends — to a degree. Deputies, and successors, would be chosen only if they have no immediate family to speak of, and can prove throughout their assisting reign to have the fortitude to not become a mate or parent. If a leader does have kits, they are to be immediately deposed, for they have lost their Clan’s trust, their connection to StarClan + their ancestor’s trust, and broken their vows. They are more likely now to jump to defend their kin in the face of political unrest, as well.

It would just make more sense, thematically, if this were the case… And provide way more drama. Like, so much more.

Thistleclaw could still have courted Snowfur and sired Whitestorm, but would have broken her heart and requested she invoke Queen’s Rights and not name a father — which could have led to Bluefur’s distaste for him, because of course her sister would have confided in her.

Bluefur could have been pregnant at the time Goosefeather told her of the prophecy, and warned her of Thistleclaw’s bloodthirsty intentions. By that time, Snowfur would have been dead, and we could just kill off Stormtail a bit earlier. Hence why she had to give up her kits, albeit far earlier, to secure her place as leader.

Tigerclaw wouldn’t have sired Goldenflower or Sasha’s kits. But kittens raised without an obvious father, especially when Sasha was a kittypet and Goldenflower’s first mate for her first litter was rumored to be a loner, would be far more easy to manipulate and guide under one’s wing. He could have offered Tawnypelt a place in ShadowClan under him for the same reasons as canon, and could have coaxed both Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost into the Dark Forest after his death regardless.

Crookedstar’s life now becomes ever-sadder, as he fell in love with Willowbreeze, who reciprocated, but could only be with her in secret. Then she and most of their kits die, leading him to believe it is a sign, and offer his only surviving kit to his estranged brother to take into his own mysteriously-born litter.

No more “Half of ThunderClan being direct Firestar descendants”, because Firestar now cannot have kits. Perhaps Squirrelflight and Leafpool were still his, however… Perhaps ThunderClan’s bright brand of fire isn’t as perfect as many believe.

Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were mates and raised a family, however the argument of “they’re not really yours, so is it alright to step into leadership?” could be made in a society that values their leader’s purity…

Idk. Much angst. Many intrigue. It’s a personal favorite au of mine ^^

#warrior cats #warriors au #warrior cats au #the kinless leaders au #thistleclaw #bluestar #tigerstar i #tigerstar #crookedstar #firestar #brambleclaw #squirrelflight

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whatsaudreythinkingabout · 7 months

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yellowfang thoughts

the more i think about it, the more i realize how much of a deeply, deeply tragic character yellowfang is. everyone talks about how much she fucking sucks after she becomes a starclan cat, and they’re absolutely correct; she goes from the cool grouchy grandma to a complete fucking hypocrite. and for the longest time i thought this was completely OOC for her, but it recently hit me over the head that it might not be. to say that this change in character was intentional would be giving the erins WAY too much credit knowing who they are, but the more you think about her life and what she went through, the more it makes sense in a twisted sort of way.

starclan forced her into a life she never wanted. she wants to train as a warrior, but she is cursed with the power to feel other cats’ physical pain and badgered into becoming a medicine cat by sagewhisker until she gives in. she falls in love with raggedstar, but as as soon as things go south for her he offers no support. when she dares to go against the destiny that was laid out for her, when she continues to meet with him and becomes pregnant by him, starclan punishes her; not just by having two of her kits die, but by condemning the surviving kit to become a tyrant and a child murderer. he turns against his parents; he kills his father and frames his mother for his own crimes not knowing who she truly is, and yellowfang is forced to watch this all unfold from a distance, unable to tell her son the truth and wondering how things could be different if he knew. and finally, for the good of the clans, she has no other choice but to rip out his eyes and then poison him. her own son, the kit she herself bore, dead at her own claws. a cruel twist of fate for a cat who never wanted any of this, who just wanted her own life.

so by the time she gets to starclan, her experiences have changed her. so many innocent lives were lost and the clans were nearly destroyed because she disobeyed, because she went against their will. she even forgives sagewhisker for being so shitty to her because now she’s convinced that she was the one in the wrong and her mentor, a messenger for starclan, was acting in her best interests all along. she’s become so thoroughly traumatized by everything she went through that she decides she cannot let another cat experience what she experienced. now that she’s a part of starclan, she has the power to prevent something like this from ever happening again. but that’s just the thing. she’s a part of starclan. she’s a part of the system now; the very same system that screwed her over. and the system chews people up and spits them out until they become just another cog in the machine. so instead of going to the root of the problem and questioning the level of influence starclan has over living cats, she not only perpetuates the cycle but becomes an active participant in it.

and because firestar is the son she should have had, she sets her sights on his descendants.

she cannot prevent leafpool from bearing kits, as these kits have their own destiny they must fulfill. so she tells leafpool she must give up her kits, just as she had to. she lies to squirrelflight that she will never have kits of her own and that the three are her only chance to be a mother so that she will take them in. when they arrive in starclan moons later, she and others have the audacity to judge whether they are worthy to join their ranks or should be damned to the dark forest for their actions when they not only did exactly what they were told to do, but did the same things that she did and still went to starclan for (though to give her some credit, she is at least more sympathetic than the other judges and even defends them; perhaps out of guilt?). she allows ashfur into starclan on the basis that he “loved too much,” because her relationship with raggedstar warped her view of what healthy love should look like. she forces the kin of firestar’s kin—namely, jayfeather and dovewing—into destinies they want no part of; they’ll learn to love it, just like she did.

and she thinks she’s doing the right thing. she’s learned the hard way that going against starclan will only lead to more suffering. she’s convinced that she’s helping them, that by acting this way she will be able to prevent them from making the same mistakes that she made. but she cannot see that she is only inflicting on other cats the exact same suffering that starclan inflicted on her.

and if that isn’t tragic, i don’t know what is

#warriors #warrior cats #yellowfang #erin hunter #brokenstar #raggedstar #squirrelflight #leafpool #ashfur #jayfeather #dovewing #sagewhisker #starclan #audrey thoughts #headcanon

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fishbaitslime · 7 months

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FireRaven hypokits?

i havent rlly thot abt fire/raven much but this DEFOOO made me realize that this ship is very cute lol

in my heart raven and fire had crushes on each other as apprentices and so when ravenpaw ran away from thunderclan, firepaw struggled a lot with staying with thunderclan and he kinda fell into more of a background character while sandstorm filled in his role of savior of the clans, becoming leader and killing tigerstar. once all that happened i think raven n fire reconnected and ravenpaw came back to live within the clan, eventually becoming ravensong :0)

ROBINPOOL is our Leafpool stand-in for this au, and their personalities are fairly similar. The only difference I'd say is she's a lot less outspoken, takes after Ravensong almost entirely and is just very awkward and nervous. She is also named after Ravensong's mother, Robinwing!

FINCHKIT is from the pairs second litter and was raised when Fireheart and Ravensong were both well into senior warrior-hood, now both very confident and experienced parents. He is very chipper and loud, always speaking his mind and doing frankly whatever he wants. He's a bit of a terror lol

SCORCHSTORM is essentially just squirrelflight lol. Her name change because Sandstorm named her "squirrel-" in my heart, and her prefix is taken from Sandstorm! :0) Sandstorm, Fireheart, and Ravensong are all very close friends + helped raise each others kits so I think they recognize she takes after Sandstorm a lot and wanted 2 honor that

requests for warrior hypokits are open! :D

#wc #warrior cats #firestar #ravenpaw #squirrelflight #leafpool #wc art #warrior cats hypokits #hypokits #wc next gen #next gen #jo scribbles #THIS WAS FUNN #fireraven au

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wc-confessions · 7 months

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I don't want to hear people call Squilf a bad mother for not being in the nursery very often when the three were kits for /eight chapters/ when you people defend Fernsong and call him a great dad when the amount of times he 'raises' his kits would amount to a single paragraph, if that. It's worth noting she slept in the warriors den more frequently because (and I quote: 'where she wouldn't disturb the kits and nursing queens when she left on early patrols' - The Sight) Which you know, implies she did it to be considerate to her children and the other cats in the nursery. The idea she 'never cared about them at all' is patently untrue- one such example while I was skimming the pdf by searching her name is her complimenting Jaypaw's idea to put heather nectar in the herbs Leafpool instructed him to give her. She literally helps search for Hollypaw in Dark River alongside Brambleclaw on one of the patrols- speaking of, considering the text didn't make any effort to imply he was raising the kits from the nursery at all at any point, at least be consistent and call them both bad parents. I don't even think it's necessarily a bad thing Ferncloud and Daisy raised the three in the nursery, especially when you take into consideration that Squirrelflight couldnt've nursed them anyways, and she (unlike Crowfeather and Breezepelt) does interact with them positively in their youth. Which is more than Fern 'barely relevant to his daughter's life' song can say. Why is it that mothers are ran over with a fine toothed comb by the fandom, but the fathers raising the same kits rarely, if ever get that treatment? Because nobody seems to take issue with Brambleclaw telling Hollypaw not to worry about Lionpaw getting beaten by Ashfur to the point of bleeding or him choosing not to question Lionpaw further after seeing him use a move he'd never learn without Dark Forest training (which is undeniably worse than simply moving out from the nursery when you know your children are in good hands and don't want to disturb them or the others living inside of it), that's for sure.

#text #anonymous #warrior cats #confession

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mousetoe-wc · 8 months

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The Medics of the Clans

I’m planning a rewrite of warrior cats so I’m messing around with how they work, nothing too out there but I like what I got going on.

Ok so somethings I’ve changed is the hole thing of you are an apprentice until your mentor dies, that’s silly and I’ll get to that in a minute.

The second thing I changed is the name, medicine cat as it’s an appropriation of North American indigenous cultures.

A lot of people have changed the name to Healer but personally I don’t like it, nothing against I just don’t care for it. So I’ve changed it to Medic because so much of warrior cats is fighting and battles, it makes sense to me it wound keep with that theme.

Different titles

I’ve gone and made little “titles” for different types of medics. These are the most common titles.

First is Medic Apprentice could also be known as the Medic’s apprentice or Medic in training, it’s exactly what it sounds like, a cat that is learning how to be a Medic.

The Second Medic is a fully trained medic who, most of the time is the youngest fully trained medic, it’s custom for there to be at least two Medics in the clan, the second is to listen and help the head medic

The Head Medic is the one who is in charge of the medicine den and everything that is going on, in and around it. The Head Medic takes on the role when the previous Head Medic retires or dies.

Senior Medic the oldest, most senior medic in the clan. Is normally retired but not always.

A chart of Leafpool’s history as a Medic, going from bottom to top, just to give you an idea of how this kinda works.

A Disgraced medic is a cat that broken the code severely and has been stripped of the medic title (even when that code is severely unfair).

Field Medic are warriors that have basic training in medicine and healing, they are normally sent on battle patrols or patrols that have the possibility to turn violent.

Hollyleaf and Brightheart are examples of Field Medics!

Also important to remember that Senior medic does not always mean their the head medic!

Example of this is while Goosefeather was the senior medic of Thunderclan, he was retired and Featherwhisker was the Head Medic who was in full control of the Thunderclan medic den.

History of Medics

Ok this is very much a work in progress/ has ver little done and I’ll definitely be revisiting this later with a more in detail post, BUT, until then this is what I got so far-

I dont like a lot of stuff in moth flight’s vision, so much of it dose not make sense like, why would you split up your young kids when you didn’t have to? Why did any of the other medicine cats agree to such a dumb rule proposed by a very young, new to this job cat?? Wtf is going on here??

I really like the direction bonefall’s going with their rewrite of moth flight, it makes sooo much more sense to have the kits be older and have training in medicine and that’s why they were split up. I still don’t know how I’m going to tackle moth flight’s vision tho, but moth flight will definitely have a lot of Importance in the clan’s history.

Such as below! After a cat finishes their Medic training they receive a Luna moth wing.

I will be doing a post on Starclan so hopefully she’ll show up there.

The Medic role will be invented in dotc.

The no mate no children role may not be invented until later in the timeline?? Maybe??

At the end of oots/avos the clans are going to get a bit of a soft reboot and the no mate no children rule is going to fuck off, much to the dismay of a handful cats who think the code is a vital part of clan life

Which brings us to the broken code where shit is hitting the fan but that’s for another post

Like I said it’s really a work in progress but I’ll put a link down here when I post more stuff about it!

#warrior cats #wc #leafpool #hollyleaf #brightheart #spottedleaf #featherwhisker #goosefeather #moth flight #medicine cat

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willicewc · 1 year

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First post on this account ! Today I share my favorite concept : Shrewpaw is alive and is Squirrelflight's mate. He is a sweet, loving partner and is now named Shrewtail. Squirrelflight and Shrewtail are the Three adoptive parents, but Shrewtail knows the truth. They keep hiding the true parents of the Three (Still Leafpool and Crowfeather) to the clan just like in the original series.

I will now introduce my weirdest idea yet : Lionblaze is Scourge's reincarnation. Because I love Scourge and as a kid, I genuinely liked Lionblaze, but he had nothing going on in his chapters. I enjoy the idea of Lionblaze being gifted with his "impossible to defeat in battle" power and at the same time, being the reincarnation of one of the most deadly cats in the series.

About Scourge's faith, I think Scourge realised Starclan was indeed a thing when Tigerstar lost his 9 lives one by one. Scourge would definitely have been SURE Starclan was real when Firestar literally came back to life after being killed. I like to think that when dying, Scourge prayed he would not go into "nowhere" and that this strange faith the clan cats had would save him from becoming nothing.

I also have a few ideas in store for Hollyleaf to actually give her powers, I might talk about this in another post ! :)

For now, I call this AU the Lionblaze Is Scourge AU because that's my main story line ! (Also, just like Cinderpelt, Scourge is not "active" within Lionblaze)

#warrior cats #wc art #wc designs #wc au #squirrelflight #jayfeather #lionblaze #hollyleaf #shrewpaw #lionblaze is scourge au

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bonefall · 6 months

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what is the crow/night/breeze family dynamic like in this au? you've mentioned crowfeather being the one still emotional over leafpool so that would definitely affect breezepelt, but im curious of the wider scale of it. love this au btw!

I'm trying to infuse more nuance into all three of them like they're a cold brew tea.

HOLD UP THOUGH; let me be CLEAR!! I don't think Nightcloud has done anything wrong in canon (besides the rebellion which they forgor about anyway). I do not like how the narrative put a lot of blame on her in Po3/OotS/field guides when her greatest sin was... loving her child.

So in BB she is going to do bad things because we support women's wrongs <3

NIGHTCLOUD

I keep going back and forth on when she was born, if she was nabbed as a kit after the WindClan Massacre or if she was a young warrior during the BloodClan battle.

In either case, she is the sister of a cat named Tawnyfur, and their Mi is Hillrunner. They were born to Hillrunner's identical twin Downwind, but she was killed during TPB.

Hillrunner was incredibly traumatized by the horrors. She was obsessed with strength and phobic of ShadowClan for her entire life.

If you met Hillrunner, you'd think Nightcloud was a sweetheart in comparison (and she will be)

Tawnyfur was killed in the BloodClan battle.

Nightcloud hated Tallstar agreeing to trade with them, and she was easily recruited by Mudclaw based on her fury at Leo, Snapper, and Spagbol joining WindClan.

When they got to the Lake, Nightcloud joined Mudclaw's Rebellion. She spoke out against involving cats of other Clans in the cause, but fell in line quick.

The rebellion sabotauged a muirburn. The controlled burn became uncontrolled FAST.

I think she wanted to blame the cats like Hawkfrost for how far it went, but after the rain doused the flames and WindClan had to keep putting out smouldering peat fires, she realized it didn't look good to keep blaming others.

Plus how Mudclaw got smote. THAT put fear of StarClan into her

So it wasn't neccesarily out of regret that she apologized for her role and begged forgiveness, but a mix of guilt, fear, and genuine desire to fix the collateral damage.

I think she did take Crowfeather as a mate for reputation purposes, but she did also like him and want a mate. It wasn't an Honor Siring, for her it was more of an "arrangement" which she hoped would strengthen

She wanted to prove her loyalty, but also that she is a good and loving cat.

When Breezekit came around, she tried her hardest to be a good mom. She really didn't want to be like Hillrunner.

But she hadn't worked through anything else. Still had a distaste for Brushblaze, Snapstorm, and Cranberrysplash. Strongly valued strength and aggression. Only approved of Onestar when he pushed for violence and rejected the notion that you can trust cats of other Clans.

Breezepelt struggles with it for most of Po3, because he gets very close to the Three and considers them friends. But when the reveal drops, he believes she was right all along

I don't know how to preserve it yet but I do want Nightcloud to keep the housecat friend she makes in CT. Eventually.

Basically... she's dealing with a lot of anger of her own, not really knowing how to sort it, following along with what she was taught.

And Breeze inherits many of those problems.

CROWFEATHER

Significantly different from canon. Not aloof; dramatic

He's also a REALLY good cook. He was Mudclaw's apprentice and it shows.

I'm actually going to wrap him up in the rebellion. He endorsed Mudclaw's claim over Onestar-- and over the word of Brambleclaw.

But he snitched and fetched help on the night of the sabotauge.

After that and then Leafpool, he was also looking for a way to boost his reputation. Having kits was a way to do that, and he's a cat who was chosen by StarClan to go on a great journey, son of an old deputy and a new deputy, with an honor title, who ran to fetch help and thwart the assassination attempt.

He knows he is a bit controversial but also that he is undeniably a big shot. And he's not going to pretend like he's not proud of that. He's not even 5 and hasn't even had an apprentice but he's the most significant cat in WindClan

So when Breezekit comes along? He should be grateful. But he's not, he's a snot nosed little brat (child) who backtalks (child) to his own father (adult)

And he sure doesn't appreciate Nightcloud always trying to fight him. How dare she tell him how to be a Ba?

She won't let him BE involved in the way he wants, turning his kit against him, this is all her fault.

"If it wasn't for her, Breezepaw would know discipline!"

The whole world is out to get Crowfeather and anything bad that happens around him is someone else's fault.

So obviously the mateship falls apart fast.

He doesn't respect anything about Breezepelt, and blames all of his kid's problems on Nightcloud.

In a furious fight, he likes to compare Nightcloud to his other lovers. He says Feathertail, even if he IS talking secretly about Leafpool, because she is dead and can't confirm it, and it always hurts Nightcloud to be compared to an outsider.

This is an exhausting person to be around, and the boost in status and resulting ego makes him insufferable in contrast to the young warrior he was on the Sundrown Patrol.

After the Secret Reveal though, when Leafpool is stripped of her Cleric status and Crowfeather starts talking openly about his love, it is the LAST straw with Onestar. He rips his warrior name off and exiles him for a month-- begone CROW, NO SUFFIX. No you're not going back to CrowFOOT either. Not even an entire Dishonor Title. Just Crow.

He does start improving after that, but he needed a drastic punishment

BREEZEPELT

The kid was only born as a status symbol. Do you blame him for being a special kind of messed up?

He really cannot remember a time where his parents weren't fighting. Never liked it when Crowfeather did parental duties either. Kids are really sensitive to bad vibes.

Was, and still is, really close to his mom. But he always spent a lot of time with his buddies.

Harepaw, Kestrelpaw, Breezepaw, and Heatherpaw were the oldest apprentices in WindClan, the first ones born in the new territory. They all hung out together, except Kestrelpaw who was in Cleric training as soon as possible. Not even 6 moons.

When he's in a good environment, Breezepelt really shines. He isn't like Crowfeather says he is, he's actually fine at making friends and getting along.

When Crow or Night are around, he will often noticeably get more rude and xenophobic, eyes darting back at them like he's looking for approval. Night is always approving of this and giving light chuckles, Crow will engage in it too, but snap if he feels like Breeze embarassed him somehow.

When they go away it's like it drains out of him.

His worst choices in BB always go back to him being pretty desperate for approval, snapping between idealizing people or thinking they're the absolute worst.

So yeah. It's a screwey little dynamic. They hate Crowf, Crowf hates them, the arrangement was massively based on status, Breezekit was always in an unstable environment from the get-go, Nightcloud did contribute to Breezepelt's mindset especially post-reveal.

#better bones au #BB!Crowfeather #BB!Breezepelt #BB!Nightcloud #Tw abuse #Cw Child abuse #Cw toxic family #Cw xenophobia

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tearwolfe · 12 days

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I'll borrow a warrior cats book from the library and see how it is before buying a book.. shivers in fear, i did not know that..

yeah for sure do not buy them. there's also a bunch of free PDFs online you can read!! or check them out through libby or whatever online library service your local library uses if you don't mind reading from your phone.

gonna use this chance to highlight issues with warriors under the cut!! because i've spent so much time being with this series i have a lot of thoughts. i want to let you know i am not trying to cancel warriors or anything, there's just a lot of issues and i like talking about it.

CW: misogyny, pedophilia, ablism, racism

Okay, we're going to start with the more annoying aspects. First of all, Warriors is written by a ton of different people. They have the main writers outline the plot, and there's a bunch of other people that fill in all the empty space. Kind of an interesting way to do it, but that's why Warriors is able to publish several books a year. Erin Hunter is just a penname for a group.

INCONSISTENCIES

Why do I bring this up, what's the issue? The inconsistencies, dude. There's so many. Character appearances change between books. Dovewing's eye color changes frequently, for example, to the point where there was an internet war about how she would be represented on the Warriors Wiki. Another example is Mapleshade, a cat that's been prevalent as a villain since Crookedstar's Promise. In that book, she's referred to as a ginger-and-white she-cat, but after that she's been described as a calico (er, tortishelle-and-white, because Erin Hunter is somehow allergic to the word calico). Appearances aren't the only inconsistency. Character personalities are a big issue. After the first arc especially, characters will lose what charm they had in their personalities. Suddenly Spottedleaf is in love with Fireheart/star after she dies, suddenly Yellowfang is unwelcoming towards cats who find themselves breaking the Warrior Code (despite being a codebreaker herself and having compassion toward other cats while she was alive). The authors also seem to have trouble keeping track of characters. On one page Sandstorm leaves camp to go on patrol, and a paragraph later she is seen STILL in camp, talking to someone, despite having been written to leave camp. It's a very bizarre series to read. (Other inconsistencies include miswriting names [Ravepaw incident], using the wrong pronouns, and entirely confusing cats between each other). Heavystep also died a few times because the Erins forgot that he died.

MISOGYNY

Outside of poor writing, we're hit with misogyny. Main female characters, in POV, are written at least a little bit better than any of the other she-cats. However, as soon as the next arc starts and she's put out of the limelight, the authors have to give her a mate, give her kits, and make her a mother. There is only ONE POV she-cat I can think of that didn't die and never had kits. Twigbranch is literally the only one. This isn't a dig at being a mother at all, however whenever the Erins DO make a former main character a mother, that's the only trait they give them. Rarely do these she-cats continue to carry the personalities they were given initially.

It's not even a secret that the fandom dislikes when every she-cat is boiled down to being just a babymaker. The Erins literally killed off a she-cat because the fans didn't like the fact that her only personality trait was mom. Yes, this actually did happen.

There's lots of victim-blaming misogyny with whatever is going on between Squirrelflight and Bramblestar and between Leafpool and StarClan. Bramblestar will literally say the worst things to Squirrelflight and the narrative makes it seem like he's in the right. It's not wrong to display unhealthy relationships in media, but if you're writing a KID'S SERIES, it's extremely irresponsible to constantly write the victim as being wrong. This applies to how StarClan blames Leafpool for everything that's happened to her, despite the fact that Crowfeather was also a part of the equation.

Don't even get me started about Spottedleaf's Heart. In summary, Spottedleaf was groomed by Thisteclaw from when she was a kit (and he was a Warrior), and the narrative only makes Thistleclaw a bad guy because he was training in the Dark Forest, not because he is a predator.

ABLEISM

It's absolutely crazy how ableist this series is. In arc one, we have Brightpaw, an apprentice who gets mauled by dogs, and as Bluestar watched, as what she thought was going to be her death bed, she decided to give her her warrior name- a name that she would be stuck with in StarClan. She chose "Lostface." Brightpaw would eventually recover, loosing one of her eyes in the attack, and would live with being called Lostface until Firestar was able to rename her (to Brightheart). The whole renaming thing feels gross enough, but Brightheart is probably the best case scenario of ableism in Warriors, as she was allowed to function as a regular Warrior in the clan. Cinderpelt wasn't so lucky. She was a Warrior apprentice who got hit by a car, mangling her leg. She was then forced to become a Medicine Cat because she "couldn't hunt or fight" (despite the fact that real world cats are able to function completely normally while missing a limb). Longtail lost his vision in a fight with rabbits and he was retired early to the elder's den, despite wanting to be a Warrior. Jayfeather was blind, so he was made a Medicine Cat despite wanting to be a Warrior. Briarlight was paralyzed, so she was put in the Medicine Cat den most of the time despite wanting to be a Warrior. This is a very common theme in the series. Any cat who isn't fully able-bodied is often made to be a Medicine Cat or an Elder, even if that's not what they want. Literally every single Medicine Cat in ThunderClan since Spottedleaf through to Alderheart never wanted to be a Medicine Cat.

Being a Medicine Cat isn't supposed to be a bad role, but the way Warriors uses it as a cop-out to make disabled cats have a more "plot interesting" role without allowing them to be a Warrior is really weird.

ANTI-INDIGENOUS WRITING

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, however, many Indigenous readers have brought up a lot of issues the series has in terms of being culturally insensitive to native tribes. There's a well-written document that explains this in full detail.

IT'S KIND OF JUST BAD?

The writing isn't good. This goes back to the multi-writer issue. These people can't keep track of their characters or plot, so a lot of things just sort of fall flat. The best plotlines can be found in some of the novellas and graphic novels, and then I think it's because they're mostly written by one person.

How come StarClan can be so vague to living cats, but when we get POV in StarClan, they just act like normal cats? How come Ashfur randomly was super powerful in the Dark Forest/StarClan, while every other cat wasn't? There's just a lot of unexplained stuff, it's very weird.

Warriors is a very interesting series because it's pretty bad yet the fandom is huge. I definitely recommend watching Warriors Multi-Animator-Projects, reading fancomics, and fix-it fanfics instead of actually reading the books. The fans are so, so talented, it's crazy how a never-ending series of children's cat books has created such an insane fanbase.

#ask #no you did not ask for this i just like rambling about warriors sometimes #warriors #warrior cats

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