Warriors / Erin Hunter - Frustrating Characters

[Draaq]

@Draaq (reply is broke) The seventh is not the last, god has abandoned us. An 8th was confirmed for 2022 - The whole fandom's response was 'when will they stop writing them'- when you stop reading and consuming them, obviously. The 'let's make animations for other series' is being thrown around in the fandom due to the racism controversy- but WC gets slated for having characters be slightly morally grey or do something not PG because the fandom is so sensitive so i can't imagine anyone in the fandom picking up something like Redwall, Tailchaser, or Watership Down with 'deeper' themes and more violent/controversial moments (the fucking dictator rabbit and his implied harem would cause a massive tism storm). Example- A disabled character in warriors (paralysed) died after some kind of illness and the fandom kicked off with how her dying after a long life was ableism - and then a later mention of the character 'being able to run and live happy (in heaven)' was reprinted by the publisher because people thought the character's opinion was too offensive to be printed. The fandom can't handle anything that isn't super sanitised and the wiki seems to be just as autistic as the farms when it comes to documenting the fandom's shit flinging.
Agree on the 'forced' nature of novellas- the authors ran a poll last year on who people want to see a super edition (a longer single book) on and that led to the most recent release. Most of the modern novellas are just repeating the same events from diff POVs with nothing new. Looking at the wiki i had no idea how many fuckin books there were- the timeline is a complete mess jesus. And tribbleofdoom I haven't heard in years. Did she do Cow of the Wild? I haven't seen My Pride because I assume the voice acting is just as cringe as CotW and all the other youtube animated series

Not an 8th no, oh god no. Jesus. What they’re going to do now? Cats awakening from the dead because they have no other villain idea?

I loved Watership Down, it was beautiful, both the movie, book and Netflix series. Since Warriors fans probably like to read similar things, they came upon very likely, but ah well, too stupid for it I guess. Thanks for the new reading material though, gotta catch on Redwall and Tailchaser.
On other Erin Hunter books, I thought Seekers was ok, but still… eh it was a lot of filler material, like, a lot. I read five books of it because it was in my schools library. Then Survivors, the first series is quite a big OK, but the second, kill me, 80% of the books is pure filler, it’s sooo boring and terribly written. Couldn’t last longer than two books and I never wanted to touch it again.
Onto similar ”copycats” if you could call it:
Wings of fire is great, but only the first series, the rest is mediocre. I was a big Wings of Fire fan, but after third series started which is mmm, there was nothing for me to stay in the fandom for. I already thought the second series was meh. But the first is excellent, and I have great memories of it.
Wolves of the beyond - I like the metaphors used there and the way of words, but it’s much more for children, barely enjoyable for anyone beyond the age of twelve. Mediocre. I read five.
Legends of the guardians - I love the movie, but the books aren‘t as good and would pass as an Ok. I read three.
Ginga Series (Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, Ginga Densetsu Weed) - I love these, I loved these as a child more than Warriors or any others, and I still value it today. I watched both anime a dozen times, and read the first manga series. The second one is much much longer, and haven’t found the time yet to do so. My only problem with it is that it has so many long various manga series that I just don’t care to read all, because there’s a very limited creativity to what you can do with dogs in the wild, and I know the Densetsu manga explores them nearly all. I just don’t care to read beyond Densetsu.
Watership down - beautiful. Movie, Book, series. All have it’s good parts worth watching for, but the movie wins for me. The book is a very close though.
Felidae - movie is good, book is very good. It is 17+ though definitely, as the movie will traumatise else heavily or you won’t understand the book which requires a bit maturity to fully get it.
Bravelands - plan to read the first book, I expect it to be mediocre though.
I know there are more copycats with horses and so on, but haven’t read these and won’t.

I could mention all the animated series from my pride to whatever there is, but they all are terribly mediocre to bad. That’s what you get from reading warriors! Cow of the wild is just as terrible as Unknown Blood and whatever! I don’t care! And now there’s even a warriors animated series! Guys, a movie is in the making, don’t waste your time and talent on animating this garbage. Seriously, watch a few MAPs and you know all of warriors cats in a few short videos. I didn’t read the sixth arc or seventh but only watched a few animations and knew all I needed to know. It’s not worth your time animating a whole series.

I haven’t actually read these books bu the fandom drama is hilarious. Would these hold up for a hate read?
I have read Tailchaser’s Song though and I never got why that book wasn’t more popular, from what I remember it was actually a fun adventure with some really disturbing content. Plus it’s a one and done book, not 39 and a half fucking books.

There are so many. MANY damn characters as there are Pokémon. I would only recommend someone to read the first series and the fifth, as it is not related to the other series. The first because it introduces you to all of it, and fifth as it is the best. That’s the only ones you need to read, the rest of it is garbage. In the second series they just walk and search for a new home, so much filler, oh suddenly there’s a dog and it changes nothing, oh a new character that just has to bring something in because we have to fill 3 books with anything.
I remember even as a child the third series was soooo frustrating I wanted to burn it. The fourth one is on second place for me, but to think you have to get through the second and third to reach it, no. Just skip to five immediately and spare yourself all the pain and suffering. Why do all popular books are bad? Like, asides from Harry Potter all popular books are bad like Twilight etc. and if you want a good book you need to hunt for them. Wtf.

 

[Muttnik]

Bravelands is decent. I remember thinking that it was an exciting change of pace compared to Warriors's slow, plodding plot-dumping.

 

[Heinrich Maneuver]

Bravelands is decent. I remember thinking that it was an exciting change of pace compared to Warriors's slow, plodding plot-dumping.

Really? I found the plot predictable but the villain was okay, idk the suddenness of Fearless joining the 'good guys' was just,,, eh, then again I am too old for them (tryna encourage young relatives to read with the pretty covers).
@Draaq (replies are fucked) I recommend Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw as well, gives me campy kung fu movie vibes. The 8th series is continuing the 7th with this whole 'StarClan (god) dont talk to us', the fandom really don't like StarClan/the warrior code because fuck the status quo. 5th series DoTC was the last good one but it gets slated for having no female POVs, having female characters die, ableism with cats getting injured, etc- the character and plot was very grounded for the series- but it wasn't well receieved, hence the now playing it safe with Firestar's kin and boring plots. There is a new group animating the entire first series again but I doubt that will last- like all fandom things it will be blown apart by interpersonal drama soon.

I haven’t actually read these books bu the fandom drama is hilarious. Would these hold up for a hate read?
I have read Tailchaser’s Song though and I never got why that book wasn’t more popular, from what I remember it was actually a fun adventure with some really disturbing content. Plus it’s a one and done book, not 39 and a half fucking books.

The fandom drama is fun to watch alongside other furry drama. If furry drama is zoophile horrors, wc drama is harmless Manolo Corobo level fandom lowcow behaviour- cringy kids and adults with weird typing quirks, tags for #eyecontact on drawings, trans shit, 30 year olds getting into fights over ships, stealing adopts and designs, people getting really austistic over characters. The WC fandom are unique amongst furries (burned furs dont count) in having no tolerance for any kind of lewding of the cats; even artists who do furry/feral art alongside warriors stuff will be publicly blacklisted (Spottedfire23 comes to mind iirc was called out for furry porn). A lot of it is purity spiral obsession with making the books super safe- so no conflict between the Clans because that's xenophobic, but now the books are super boring wah we want interesting stories but nothing that upsets us!
A while ago there was a HUGE shitfit between Climbdraws and several other wc design blogs because one person designed a Bluestar (blue cat) as brown, and Climb made a vague comment of 'what's the point of character design if the character looks nothing like they are described'. The fandom took this mild comment to mean 'you have to draw characters as described!!!' and everyone and their mother pumped out the most unique most special designs they could for days, with artists who did 'realistic' designs getting anons about how they were wrong. If anyone would like a pdf set of all the books PM me.
And as well- one book introduced a group of all female cats who cast out their young males to 'wander' (irl wild cats live in female family groups) and this of course was very very terfy. Female only cats? Anyone who found this group to be interesting was a terf and had to be told tranz rightz in DMs for days. Any kind of interesting or risky plot point is immediately shunned because 'kids book' like Narnia didn't have jesus lions and witches luring kids into carriages with candy.

 

[Draaq]

Really? I found the plot predictable but the villain was okay, idk the suddenness of Fearless joining the 'good guys' was just,,, eh, then again I am too old for them (tryna encourage young relatives to read with the pretty covers).
@Draaq (replies are fucked) I recommend Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw as well, gives me campy kung fu movie vibes. The 8th series is continuing the 7th with this whole 'StarClan (god) dont talk to us', the fandom really don't like StarClan/the warrior code because fuck the status quo. 5th series DoTC was the last good one but it gets slated for having no female POVs, having female characters die, ableism with cats getting injured, etc- the character and plot was very grounded for the series- but it wasn't well receieved, hence the now playing it safe with Firestar's kin and boring plots. There is a new group animating the entire first series again but I doubt that will last- like all fandom things it will be blown apart by interpersonal drama soon.

The fandom drama is fun to watch alongside other furry drama. If furry drama is zoophile horrors, wc drama is harmless Manolo Corobo level fandom lowcow behaviour- cringy kids and adults with weird typing quirks, tags for #eyecontact on drawings, trans shit, 30 year olds getting into fights over ships, stealing adopts and designs, people getting really austistic over characters. The WC fandom are unique amongst furries (burned furs dont count) in having no tolerance for any kind of lewding of the cats; even artists who do furry/feral art alongside warriors stuff will be publicly blacklisted (Spottedfire23 comes to mind iirc was called out for furry porn). A lot of it is purity spiral obsession with making the books super safe- so no conflict between the Clans because that's xenophobic, but now the books are super boring wah we want interesting stories but nothing that upsets us!
A while ago there was a HUGE shitfit between Climbdraws and several other wc design blogs because one person designed a Bluestar (blue cat) as brown, and Climb made a vague comment of 'what's the point of character design if the character looks nothing like they are described'. The fandom took this mild comment to mean 'you have to draw characters as described!!!' and everyone and their mother pumped out the most unique most special designs they could for days, with artists who did 'realistic' designs getting anons about how they were wrong. If anyone would like a pdf set of all the books PM me.
And as well- one book introduced a group of all female cats who cast out their young males to 'wander' (irl wild cats live in female family groups) and this of course was very very terfy. Female only cats? Anyone who found this group to be interesting was a terf and had to be told tranz rightz in DMs for days. Any kind of interesting or risky plot point is immediately shunned because 'kids book' like Narnia didn't have jesus lions and witches luring kids into carriages with candy.

"Children Books" yes, have everyone die, brutally die, cats run over, slashed open throats, yes "children books". A book is bad if it can only be enjoyed by one audience.
Fuck character design on description, I never care how exactly they are described, I usually hear the name of the character and immediately form a picture of him/her - for instance, in my mind fantasy Sorreltail is green with white paws, throat, muzzle, tail tip and yellow eyes and I don't care, I will draw her like that if I want to, it's my imagination during reading, I won't force it to perceive her gray brown or whatever.
I hate the whole fandom with passion, you can't say a bad word about Warriors or else everyone comes pursuing you, you have to get every character right, don't you dare do something wrong... So many animations on Bluestar's death, aren't you tired of it? Don't you want to I don't now... create something that's worth noting, like an original story that actually occupies your imagination plus lets you develop, and not the fith thousand animation of tigerstar's death? Everything gets to be a shadow in the background, youtube animation is overflowing with either Warriors or Warriors OC, everything else is basically non-existend if you don't search for it.
Now I'm just worried that Wings of Fire gets the same treatment, ends up with seven arcs - the animation community already starts overflowing with it. And you know what they animate? Not the good first series which was a masterpiece. No, the second series is most animated, a series that is shit. Why it is now shit?
The first series was both enjoyable by children and adults, and it was genius because when you read it as an adult, there are so many hidden things that you didn't notice when reading as a child, which make the story automatically more mature and enjoyable for the older audience. The characters were unique, interesting and I can't name one I dislike.
Now the second series is where it gets childish. Morals are thrown around like in my little pony, the books feel like they're written for ten year olds, now magic plays such a huge role and destroys the otherwise interesting plot, the characters are mostly lame except for like two or three, the villain is one of the worst I've read (and he got a seperate book which was 5/5 amazing. Guess what, he does not behave at all like in the seperate book. Thank you for ruining an interesting character). One of my most favourite characters die so they can be replaced by one of the flat-without-identity characters, we have a mary-sue which is loved by every male in a 500km radius and gets all the good things, never doing a mistake, always perfect.
Guess what the fandom loves most?
Yes, the second series. The first - completely forgotten. All animations are about the second series, or a few of the third (which is even shittier). Thank you, now I must hate you. Thank you for ruining Wings of Fire for me, memories being the only thing I guess will ever stay positive.

Same with Warriors. The shittiest arcs/series get the most attention along with the worst characters.
I love fandoms

 

[Fluffiesaur]

(I don't know why it won't let me reply to the first answer)
Good thing I wasn't the only one who thought so.
The world of this type of story is riddled with repeating the same trope over and over again, only the fucking animal and habitat changes (sometimes not even that).
I mean, the protagonists are either looking for a new home or out of convenience have to leave, oh yeah death, oh yeah violence. Haha look at that weird mythology and language, environmentalist messages, polemic or some shit, in the end everyone at peace, yeh.
And if none of that works, now your beasts have magic and are the chosen ones!
My pride at first I saw it meh, although to tell the truth the animation makes me very uncomfortable, then it started with its gay theme and a transgender lion and ehhh.... then you have the rest of similar series, which if they don't have some feline protagonist will have a wolf and still be exactly the same as I just said.
The most different ones I've seen have been Felidae, The animals of farthing wood, Leafy, Gahoole and maybe Padak. One is a movie and the others have hardly any recognition.
Although some of the ones mentioned here caught my attention and maybe I'll check them out someday.

 

[Draaq]

(I don't know why it won't let me reply to the first answer)
Good thing I wasn't the only one who thought so.
The world of this type of story is riddled with repeating the same trope over and over again, only the fucking animal and habitat changes (sometimes not even that).
I mean, the protagonists are either looking for a new home or out of convenience have to leave, oh yeah death, oh yeah violence. Haha look at that weird mythology and language, environmentalist messages, polemic or some shit, in the end everyone at peace, yeh.
And if none of that works, now your beasts have magic and are the chosen ones!
My pride at first I saw it meh, although to tell the truth the animation makes me very uncomfortable, then it started with its gay theme and a transgender lion and ehhh.... then you have the rest of similar series, which if they don't have some feline protagonist will have a wolf and still be exactly the same as I just said.
The most different ones I've seen have been Felidae, The animals of farthing wood, Leafy, Gahoole and maybe Padak. One is a movie and the others have hardly any recognition.
Although some of the ones mentioned here caught my attention and maybe I'll check them out someday.

Good works somehow always vanish inside of those popular ones or those who stir up drama. You can also never trust the ratings as I barely ever stumbled upon a rating that really reflected the book/etc. Warriors has a much higher rating than it deserves. with around 3.8-4.47 on goodreads. I watched Padak, Leafy, Gahoole, not animals of the farthing wood but I heard lots about it, and they're all centuries better than Warriors.
Felidae, which is a magnificent book with a nice style of writing (I read it in the original language - If I can speak the language I read the original as it is mostly at its best), has a 3.91 rating, which is much lower than most of the Warriors books and else Survivors or so. I don't know, but it speaks about really disgusting, real themes and even disturbed me at some points, so maybe people can't endure it or wave it away by saying he overdramatises everything and give it two stars. I read a few of the negative reviews, and that seems to be the point. They say it is "too graphic, too violent", yes okay, pretend you don't see reality and read to the end of your days Twilight and get even dumber.
Watership Down - 4.07 which is good enough, but it deserves better at 454k reviews. "It takes itself too seriously" yes man, sorry someone meant it serious with writing this book. If the book doesn't take itself seriously, how am I supposed to take it seriously? If the writer didn't care, why should I? And the review is by an author who wrote terrible books that didn't get more than 3.5 at best... Dude you can't even write yourself , what do you want you jealous little bitch. "The book is boring", ahhh a pure action-without-detail type I see. Sorry you couldn't emerse yourself into the wonderful style of writing and heart-detail. Books aren't then for you, go watch movies.

Okay, now onto a Warriors book, Midnight, the first one in the second series where literally half of it nothing happens. 4.28, too high, no. One review says this was a letdown and gave it five stars. Ok. Many say it is the worst series of the Warriors, giving two to three stars. One gives it five because it has two main characters. Really, that's the reason. Then a review from a five year old who can't even spell the names right. One says it was slow, and gave it four stars. I think the problem is that people love the series and can't endure giving it a low rating, and partly because they're too young to understand how it really functions I guess.

And I will take any chance at hating My Pride for having the worst, most offending lesbian representation I can think of and the most annoying main character in history. If it would have been female and male I would just call the series badly written, but this way it is badly written and offending. I'll keep away from youtube series generally, because 98% of them are bad and somehow everyone still loves them. Webtoon and this is the pure proof that you can do anything no matter how shit and people will love it.

 

[Activelo]

Now I'm just worried that Wings of Fire gets the same treatment, ends up with seven arcs - the animation community already starts overflowing with it. And you know what they animate? Not the good first series which was a masterpiece. No, the second series is most animated, a series that is shit. Why it is now shit?
The first series was both enjoyable by children and adults, and it was genius because when you read it as an adult, there are so many hidden things that you didn't notice when reading as a child, which make the story automatically more mature and enjoyable for the older audience. The characters were unique, interesting and I can't name one I dislike.
Now the second series is where it gets childish. Morals are thrown around like in my little pony, the books feel like they're written for ten year olds, now magic plays such a huge role and destroys the otherwise interesting plot, the characters are mostly lame except for like two or three, the villain is one of the worst I've read (and he got a seperate book which was 5/5 amazing. Guess what, he does not behave at all like in the seperate book. Thank you for ruining an interesting character). One of my most favourite characters die so they can be replaced by one of the flat-without-identity characters, we have a mary-sue which is loved by every male in a 500km radius and gets all the good things, never doing a mistake, always perfect.
Guess what the fandom loves most?
Yes, the second series. The first - completely forgotten. All animations are about the second series, or a few of the third (which is even shittier). Thank you, now I must hate you. Thank you for ruining Wings of Fire for me, memories being the only thing I guess will ever stay positive.

Speaking of the third arc, guess what?

Spoiler: Book 15 spoilers

A non-binary human in a book series with dragons! Yeah, because in a world where humans are stated to be endangered to the point where the majority of them are hiding underground to avoid being eaten (until recently, but still), there's definitely someone that decided "meh, I'm not a woman or a man."

 

[Draaq]

Speaking of the third arc, guess what?

Spoiler: Book 15 spoilers

View attachment 2564638
A non-binary human in a book series with dragons! Yeah, because in a world where humans are stated to be endangered to the point where the majority of them are hiding underground to avoid being eaten (until recently, but still), there's definitely someone that decided "meh, I'm not a woman or a man."

Wtf. I swear there will be focus on the human just because they’re non binary, and not because that’s an interesting character.

I hated Book 14 already so much because the plot got nearly completely thrown away just so the focus could be on Willows and Sundews relationship. Which was absolutely uninteresting by the way - Willow is such a shallow character with no personality. Nothing happens in Book 14, nothing except at the nearly very end.
If Tui wanted so much to write about a two-girl-relationship then she could have done a novel or so of “Runaway” with Snowfox and Snowflake. I know that the winglet had to be kept short so the relationship was extremely rushed, but they seem to me as one of the most interesting couples in WoF and my favourite (next to non canon Qibli and Winter, but since Moon hasn’t chosen any of them - maybe?).
Man, I even wish for a super edition of these two and their revenge and relationship etc. as Icewings seem to be rather strict on heterosexual normality. Icewings were always so interesting.
But no. Here, have Willow, the most forgettable character in existence. Tui said she’d like to do a super edition on Albatross, but nah he doesn’t seem to have enough to tell to have a whole book about him.

(Off-topic, but I read another two Warriors copycats “Quest of the Ice Cubs” and “Horses of the dawn”. Quest was okay, but Horses of dawn… ayayayay. Horrible writing and story. And for ten year olds extremely disturbing at many points. Horse gets head cut off. One gets a leg bitten off by a shark and then drowned. Corpses somewhere lying around. Man, Kathryn Lasky really loves to put disturbing stuff in her books, like in the fourth wolves of beyond book, there is a - no joke - suicide ritual where starved wolves dance intentionally so long until they fall dead on the ground. Jesus)

 

[KelpieSelkie]

I had no idea we had a Warrior cats thread until now, which sucks because this bullshit archive just came onto my twitter feed. It's already been talked about, so I won't go into the whole native American SJW thing I guess.
The Warrior Cats fandom is full of people bitching about every little goddamn thing from the series under the sun. Every character is problematic, every relationship is toxic (except for the two faggot cats Tallstar and Jake since everybody praises them), and even the system under which the main cats in the books live is apparently colonialist and bad because whitey is bad. They're cats, you uppity motherfuckers. Fictional, non-realistic cats.

I just want to enjoy my stupid cat books in peace. I read all of A Vision of Shadows recently and it was really fun. I don't care that the books are bad, I like them as they are. Sometimes you just want to immersed in another world for a short period of time, and that's what Warriors has always done for me since I was a kid.

 

[Eurasian Lynx]

I used to love these books, though I gradually stopped reading them as I grew older. Since I used to like the some much I still have some residual affection for them. Bramblestar is my favourite character, as cheesy as it might seem. The fanbase is a haven of retarded autism though.

Ps: My favourite arc was the second one.

 

[Autism Field]

I only read the first book and even as a kid I could tell it was boring and bad, but I keep seeing the animations on YouTube, and all the bullshit waaaacism stuff, so had to search if there was a Kiwi thread. I’m glad.

The Feather Issue Doc

docs.google.com

Nooooo you can’t put feathers in an aesthetic place on your cartoon cat noooo! Haha educational thread laced with passive aggression and hostility haha gentle reminder haha

 

[Ma_Hooty]

God, Warriors was my jam when I was little; middle school me loved reading about politicking tribal cats who worship the stars violently rip each others throats out. Still dabble in it I guess, though I enjoy the universe more than the actual books - maybe make an AU for funsies...

Just like everyone else, the first series was the best, along with some of the super editions (large, one-shot novels where the plot focuses heavily on one character, mainly a major character from the main series- Yellowfang's SE really gave a better perspective on not only her, but Brokenstar too), but I lost interest midway through the 3rd series. Felt really repetitive, plus I was getting bored of having the POV always being ThunderClan.

And while there are some really good artists and animators, goddamn is the fandom a bunch of whiny babies and LGBT activists. I wince everytime I see someone draw a fucking cat with a pride flag ("uwu Redtail is trans, just accept facts uwu") or crying about how the relationships are tawk-sick and pedophilic (thankfully, I saw a lot of people call out the Erins regarding Thistleclaw because for a YA series, he was actually a pretty well-done, morally grey character before he got retconned. Though I've seen people call Feathertail a pedo because she fell in love with Ravenpaw lmao). Like dudes, it's a fantasy series about warring feral cats, stop trying to humanize it.

 

[Draaq]

A thrilling new adventure begins in Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series!They have always lived by the code—but only change can keep the peace.A new age is dawning on the warrior Clans. Now a new generation of warriors rises—one wrestling with the legacy of his great ancestor Firestar, one seeking to protect her troubled Clan, and one yearning to prove herself as a medicine cat—as leaders from all five Clans agree that the Warrior Code must be reformed.But when tragedy strikes RiverClan, old fears will threaten the new peace...unless these three young cats can calm the coming storm.This seventh epic Warriors series is full of action, intrigue, and adventure. This first book is the perfect introduction for new readers, while long-time fans will discover what unfolds after the events of The Broken Code. (Release date: 5 April 2022)

River (book)

River is the first book in the A Starless Clan arc. On the cover, Mistystar is in the middle, Frostpaw is on the far left, Flamepaw is next to her, and Sunbeam is on the far right. Coming Soon A dark age has given way to an era of peace in the five warrior Clans, and with it comes a promise of...

warriors.fandom.com

This does absolutely not sound like any other series in Warriors and they definitely have not run out of ideas.
Warriors Checklist:
-Descendant of Firestar, check
-Struggling Apprentice/warrior, check
-Medicine cat with self-worth issues, check
-RiverClan or WindClan suffer a tragedy, check
-Chosen cats fulfill a prophecy, check

Second summary from the Warriors website:
A dark age has given way to an era of peace in the five warrior Clans, and with it comes a promise of hope. As their leaders deliberate on unprecedented changes to the warrior code, three young warriors set their paws on the paths that will decide their futures.In ThunderClan, warrior apprentice Flamepaw, a descendant of the legendary leader Firestar, struggles under the weight of his famous kin's legacy, while young ShadowClan warrior Sunbeam has doubts of her own. But in RiverClan, medicine cat apprentice Frostpaw looks eagerly toward the horizon, awaiting the day she will be called upon to help her Clan—a day that may dawn sooner than she ever dreamed.

You know what I think is extremely funny, Firestar is dead since years and in all honesty these cats have suffered way more and done way more with dark forest and etc. than Firestar ever did in his lifetime. The bitches should forget about him already because wtf as if he was the only great leader, the other clans had much more impressive and better ones like Mistystar, Tallstar, Crookedstar, and ThunderClan Warriors who were even better than him like Ivypool, Squirrelflight, Jayfeather or even Dovewing. Also everyone forgot Bluestar tho she was a much better leader than Firestar?! Even if she had her breakdown she sacrificed so much for her clan, including her own kids to stop Thistleclaw. I hate Firestar because he's so arrogant and takes all the credit plus butts into every clans business, truly he puts all the other clans first before his own. So many times he got his clan into trouble because he helped other clans, damn great leader I say. Every time I read Warriors and Firestar was like "we got to help them" there was a moan of frustration - you got your own clan to care about you dickhead.
Firestar did like a few things, but the rest of the arcs until his dead guess what all the other cats did the work, he did barely anything and gets all the credit the fuck. Who found their new home? Who exposed and defeated Sol? Who risked their life most against the dark forest also who spied in there? And after his dead, the fight against Darktail was much more intense than his Tigerstar war or Scourge whatever. Plus he chose a terrible cat for deputy (Brambleclaw).

In my opinion (opinion), Brambleclaw should have died at some point (most likely after dark forest battle to still have time to name a deputy), and Ivypool should have been made deputy. She did so much for her clan, risked her life multiple times and suffered a lot because of Dovewing and half of ThunderClan but still kept loyal to them, even though she could have turned to vengeance and grudge. She had barely any support during all of it unlike Fireheart/star, much more pushed away by everyone including her own sister. All of it are much more impressive doings and qualities than Firestar or Brambleclaw could ever reach.
One once said that Warriors fanfictions have much more quality and care put into them than any of the books, and I agree.

 

[Fluffiesaur]

View attachment 2674943A thrilling new adventure begins in Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series!They have always lived by the code—but only change can keep the peace.A new age is dawning on the warrior Clans. Now a new generation of warriors rises—one wrestling with the legacy of his great ancestor Firestar, one seeking to protect her troubled Clan, and one yearning to prove herself as a medicine cat—as leaders from all five Clans agree that the Warrior Code must be reformed.But when tragedy strikes RiverClan, old fears will threaten the new peace...unless these three young cats can calm the coming storm.This seventh epic Warriors series is full of action, intrigue, and adventure. This first book is the perfect introduction for new readers, while long-time fans will discover what unfolds after the events of The Broken Code. (Release date: 5 April 2022)

River (book)

River is the first book in the A Starless Clan arc. On the cover, Mistystar is in the middle, Frostpaw is on the far left, Flamepaw is next to her, and Sunbeam is on the far right. Coming Soon A dark age has given way to an era of peace in the five warrior Clans, and with it comes a promise of...

warriors.fandom.com

This does absolutely not sound like any other series in Warriors and they definitely have not run out of ideas.
Warriors Checklist:
-Descendant of Firestar, check
-Struggling Apprentice/warrior, check
-Medicine cat with self-worth issues, check
-RiverClan or WindClan suffer a tragedy, check
-Chosen cats fulfill a prophecy, check

Second summary from the Warriors website:
A dark age has given way to an era of peace in the five warrior Clans, and with it comes a promise of hope. As their leaders deliberate on unprecedented changes to the warrior code, three young warriors set their paws on the paths that will decide their futures.In ThunderClan, warrior apprentice Flamepaw, a descendant of the legendary leader Firestar, struggles under the weight of his famous kin's legacy, while young ShadowClan warrior Sunbeam has doubts of her own. But in RiverClan, medicine cat apprentice Frostpaw looks eagerly toward the horizon, awaiting the day she will be called upon to help her Clan—a day that may dawn sooner than she ever dreamed.

You know what I think is extremely funny, Firestar is dead since years and in all honesty these cats have suffered way more and done way more with dark forest and etc. than Firestar ever did in his lifetime. The bitches should forget about him already because wtf as if he was the only great leader, the other clans had much more impressive and better ones like Mistystar, Tallstar, Crookedstar, and ThunderClan Warriors who were even better than him like Ivypool, Squirrelflight, Jayfeather or even Dovewing. Also everyone forgot Bluestar tho she was a much better leader than Firestar?! Even if she had her breakdown she sacrificed so much for her clan, including her own kids to stop Thistleclaw. I hate Firestar because he's so arrogant and takes all the credit plus butts into every clans business, truly he puts all the other clans first before his own. So many times he got his clan into trouble because he helped other clans, damn great leader I say. Every time I read Warriors and Firestar was like "we got to help them" there was a moan of frustration - you got your own clan to care about you dickhead.
Firestar did like a few things, but the rest of the arcs until his dead guess what all the other cats did the work, he did barely anything and gets all the credit the fuck. Who found their new home? Who exposed and defeated Sol? Who risked their life most against the dark forest also who spied in there? And after his dead, the fight against Darktail was much more intense than his Tigerstar war or Scourge whatever. Plus he chose a terrible cat for deputy (Brambleclaw).

In my opinion (opinion), Brambleclaw should have died at some point (most likely after dark forest battle to still have time to name a deputy), and Ivypool should have been made deputy. She did so much for her clan, risked her life multiple times and suffered a lot because of Dovewing and half of ThunderClan but still kept loyal to them, even though she could have turned to vengeance and grudge. She had barely any support during all of it unlike Fireheart/star, much more pushed away by everyone including her own sister. All of it are much more impressive doings and qualities than Firestar or Brambleclaw could ever reach.
One once said that Warriors fanfictions have much more quality and care put into them than any of the books, and I agree.

No need to wait, here is a summary:
Descendant of important figure of the past must follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, but has family problems and can not or does not want to be like him, in the end he ends up doing things right and everyone celebrates.
Then you have the other guy who follows a dream but is not sure he can achieve it, in the end he achieves his courage and becomes the best at his job.
I don't even know what these books are about and yet I know how predictable they will be. I thought those "new generation" ideas were long gone, or well, at least this style.
(I would say the recent Mlp movie did better with that concept because it didn't feel so cliche).

And going a bit off topic, has anyone read or heard of Children of the Wild Cats? I recently discovered it and noticed that despite being years old and having several books, no one really talks about them, not even a little bit. From the description I feel it would be like a Warriors clone/fanfic attempt, but it caught my attention when I saw the summary and I was curious because it felt like a different story, but as I haven't found it available I can't give a better point of view. Maybe there are some hidden gems here.

 

[Draaq]

Wow, they really don't have any ideas anymore.
This plot has been used in "Yellowfang's Secret" ten years ago and what happened afterwards was already in the very first book. This is a goddamned literall cash grab like most of the graphic novels and novellas. The super editions are mostly decent thanks god.
The few Warriors Graphic Novels I've read were mostly boring and unsignificant, added nothing to the character or story (except for SkyClan and the Stranger, The Rise of Scourge and A shadow in RiverClan.)

I started a rant yesterday but the draft got deleted (so now I know that "Save Draft" isn't for when you shut down you computer), about the additional books, and I don't want to write all of it again so I'm just gonna do a quick list (Iaven't read all of them, but I looked at the summaries.)

---

Filler Books/Cash Grab (criteria: Things that happen never get mentoined again in any other book, you could remove it and it wouldn't matter, doesn't enhance character or explores a minor plot deeper)
Graphic Novels: Exile from ShadowClan, Graystripe's Adventure, Sasha & Tigerstar, Ravenpaw's Path
Field Guides: -
Novellas: Hollyleaf's Story, Mistystar's Omen, Leafpool's Wish, Dovewing's Silence, Thunderstar's Echo, Redtail's Debt, Shadowstar's Life, Pebbleshine's Kits, Tree's Roots
Super Editions: Moth Flight's Vision, Yellowfang's Secret, SkyClan's Destiny, Bramblestar's Storm, Hawkwing's Journey, Squirrelflight's Hope, Graystripe's Vow

Error Books/Cash Grab2 (criteria: books have absolute errors like gettng character personalities wrong, names, plots or worldbuilding most of the time written horribly as well or in case of graphic novels drawn atrociously)
Graphic Novels: -
Field Guides: Secrets of The Clans, Cats of the Clans,
Novellas: Spottedleaf's Heart, Pinestar's Choice, Tawnypelt's Clan

Mediocre (criteria: meets both bad and good)
Graphic Novels: The Rise of Scourge, A shadow in RiverClan, Winds of Change
Field Guides: Code of the Clans, Battles of the Clans
Novellas: Cloudstar's Journey, Tigerclaw's Fury, Mapleshade's Vengeance, Goosefeather's Curse, Mothwing's Secret
Super Editions: Crookedstar's Promise, Firestar's Quest, Crowfeather's Trial, Tigerheart's Shadow,

Good Additions (opposite of "filler books/cash grab")
Graphic Novels: SkyClan and the Stranger
Field Guides: The Ultimate Guide
Novellas: Ravenpaw's Farewell
Super Editions: Tallstar's Revenge, Bluestar's Prophecy,

 

[Sealbaby]

I don't think it's ever really been about the Warriors books or the paper-thin characters therein. It's mostly just that the 'Warriors' IP serves as a convenient rallying point/base material for teenage girls to engage in cat roleplay and worldbuilding.

You see the same thing with other mediocre properties that attract huge fandoms. The IP is just being used as a means of free exposure for somebody's barely-disguised original fiction.

People don't generally write fanfic about literature and films with complex, detailed characters and tight, well-resolved story arcs. They instead gravitate to things with loose plots, lots of unanswered questions to be filled in, and archetypal stock characters.

Realising this kind of 'ruined the magic' of fanfic for me, and I lost interest in reading or writing it.

 

[Bluestar]

Sorry for necroposting the thread but they’re still going? I stopped reading in my late teenage years around the time DotS finished. I do still check up on the drama though. This series must make a hell of a lot of money for them to be still printing books at such a breakneck pace. Anyone hear of the time one of the Erins got kicked off after a troon animator (Tenelleflowers) complained on twitter that she was transphobic? Or the whole Su Susann debacle?

Also, does anyone here remember the official forums? Pretty sure they died right around the time I stopped reading. It was a drama pit but I remember them rather fondly.

The series is a honeypot for drama. I don’t read it anymore but I love to watch the absolute shitshows the fans get themselves involved in year after year.

 

[Draaq]

Sorry for necroposting the thread but they’re still going? I stopped reading in my late teenage years around the time DotS finished. I do still check up on the drama though. This series must make a hell of a lot of money for them to be still printing books at such a breakneck pace. Anyone hear of the time one of the Erins got kicked off after a troon animator (Tenelleflowers) complained on twitter that she was transphobic? Or the whole Su Susann debacle?

Also, does anyone here remember the official forums? Pretty sure they died right around the time I stopped reading. It was a drama pit but I remember them rather fondly.

The series is a honeypot for drama. I don’t read it anymore but I love to watch the absolute shitshows the fans get themselves involved in year after year.

I remember all of it, good sweet times.
Literally nearly 20 years since Into the Wild was released and it hasn’t lost a bit of its popularity.
Good old deviantart days and YouTube’s cringe Ashfur x Scourge videos.

Book after book the fans complain of the same things and issues yet still read WC. Series after series it’s the same plot copypasted and yet they still read WC. I don’t even know why, I got bored of it after DotC series too. In my opinion, omen of the stars was a very good ending to the series and DotC a really good epilogue series that timed itself well, giving the last four series more depth and an ‚epicness‘ let’s say by being put at the very end. For me, WC ended there. The continuing series are just bonus stories to me.
If they really have to keep WC going, they at least could’ve set the books finally somewhere else, with different clans or tribes or whatever. But no, it’s still THUNDERCLAN and it’s still FIRESTARS DESCENDANTS.

 

[Muttnik]

It should have ended after DotC. It would have gone out on a high note as DotC was a genuinely good series and likely the best written of the lot.

 

[Bluestar]

Yeah, I agree with both of you. Maybe I’m biased because that’s where I left off, but they should have ended it after DotC. Judging by the synopses I’ve read of arcs 6-8, they’re just completely out of anything new. I personally think the second arc was dreadfully boring and I was not attached to any of the characters, but the idea of the clans moving territories was a way to shake things up. Arcs 3 and 4 (especially 4) were worse off to me, since it felt like they didn’t manage to properly end 3 so they just stretched it out to 6 more books and added Dovewing, but at least it brought new things to the table. The addition of more mystical elements beyond just Starclan interested me as a kid - I liked the whole arc about how the original ancestors were from the lake so they’d really just gone full circle, and then this was continued it DotC which is the only arc I think was actually well written and emotional to any degree. The only status quo alteration I’ve seen in the recent books is apparently Skyclan moved back with the other clans, but from what I’ve seen they executed this poorly.

It doesn’t even seem that the problem is with the idea itself. There’s a lot more they could have done with the concept of “battle cats with magical warriors ancestors” for a children’s book series. It’s just from what I’ve seen they’ve put themselves down to having a set formula (prophecy, firestar ancestor, etc) and since they have guaranteed money from the bizarrely large fandom they have no incentive to change anything. The series is also not headed by a single person with any creative vision, and the only person who ever kind of did (Vicky) is long gone, though I do respect her choice. It’s just split between a bunch of co-authors who couldn’t give less of a fuck.

All in all, it’s a children’s book series. I don’t really care that much, but it’s sad on some level that a series that so many kids love obviously has no heart and soul in it at all anymore. It was never a masterpiece, but in the first 5 arcs had at least something to them for kids. Now all the books seem like they’re rehashing the Warriors formula and not deviating at all. I’ve checked and all of the fan content is still about the first 4, maybe 5 series.

Also, why does the fandom attract so much drama? Is it that it serves as a gateway to the furry fandom? Is it just the natural result of adults being fans of properties that are made for 12 year olds? Why are so many SJWs into a series that is basically about furry ethnostates?