Warriors MEGA Review! Finale
Image credit: Liu Ye. I apologize for how blurry the image looks. That was the best one I could find. If you read this far, you know why I chose it.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six
This is the finale section that I couldn’t fit into part five. This series causes me to yap way too much. Here I go over some stuff I forgot, final thoughts, and whatever else.
Quirks
There are a lot of small things that Warriors does that are pretty silly starting with: Kittens are always called “kits” even by the human characters in the graphic novels. No one ever says the word “kitten.” It feels off, especially when we meet cats outside the Clans. How come the cats don’t ever have litters larger than four? Cats can give birth to six-ten kittens irl, but Clan cats do not. I guess Clan cats are a different breed.
In The Prophecies Begin, we are introduced to the Cutter (aka the vet). When Rusty met Bluestar, one of the first things she tells him is that “he is still a tom” referencing how he still has his balls. The Cutter is mentioned sporadically across the series until A Starless Clan where one of our protagonists is spayed! Frostpaw was healed by a vet and they spayed her. Good job. Responsible but holy hell! It’s been 20 years and they’re just now mentioning spaying. Wild. Speaking of, it’s absurd how many house cats are not fixed. Kittypets have kittens constantly which doesn’t feel right. I guess that explains why there are so many damn cats in this universe. Spay/neuter your cats.
The Erins never describe spraying. Whenever we follow a border patrol and they’re marking borders, the Erins only say “they marked the borders.” Sometimes, we get descriptions of the cats rubbing against or clawing up trees, but never spraying. I guess they found the act too gross for a children’s series which I find odd because I’m sure every child who is slightly interested in animals knows that animals pee on things to mark their territory. I’ve known since I was five years old because I watched a lot of nature docs. Idk. It’s sus af to be scandalized by an animal doing animal things.
It’s a bit wild how no humans have found the Clans yet. There are so many cats congested in one area and sometimes they’re battling and making all kinds of noise. There should be no prey left with how many cats there are around the lake. You would think bird watchers would notice the lack of birds. There are campgrounds in ShadowClan’s territory, but I guess they do not hear the cacophony of meowing just a short distance away. There were walking paths and whatnot in the old forest territories. The old territory had more human activity in general. Imagine what would have happened if a human stumbled across a Gathering at Fourtrees in the middle of the night. The imagery is so funny to me.
The cats can count. Not a big deal imo but it’s so funny that they can count up to 20 (that’s the biggest number we’ve gotten so far). They can also draw out battle plans and grow herbs. CiNOs. Warriors has completely ignored cat genetics for years which I find both hilarious and disappointing. Sometimes we get aesthetically pleasing anomalies like Sol with his tortie fur and lion-like mane. And other times we get abominations like Star Flower with her highlighter yellow fur and star-shaped irises. We have many white cats with blue eyes who are not hard of hearing or deaf (except for Snowkit, who died immediately) and, of course, there are the many many cats with blue eyes who cannot have blue eyes in reality like dark gray Crowfeather and Cinderpelt. Cat genetics is very fascinating. I wish Warriors played with them more. I want to see cats with curled ears or rexed fur. I want a white cat with hetereochromia. We’re getting a “chimera” for arc nine so that’s cool! Play with it more Warriors! I beg!
Things I Forgot
Starting a bit heavy we have Crowpaw/feather’s relationship with Feathertail and Stormfur’s crush on Squirrelpaw/flight in The New Prophecy. For years, I always thought Crowpaw had a crush on Feathertail. However, the rest of the series confirms that Feathertail did love Crowpaw back which is so gross. Girl, he was like… 15 and you were 20. Gross. I don’t like that. The same is true for Stormfur. Super weird for a grown adult to crush on a teenager. Very sus. Since I despise The New Prophecy so much, I forgot about these things.
Okay so the ableism of the series. This is another major issue I forgot to talk about. I mention it throughout the parts here and there. It’s a huge problem, but the Erins have been getting better at depicting disabilities as of late. They’re not murdering deaf cats for drama anymore at the very least.
So… Yellowfang’s Secret. I skipped this book and pretended it didn’t exist as a joke. I feel differently about that now. I feel like I should talk about it since I am covering the whole series. I feel incomplete. I tried reading it a bit ago but gave up half way through because it was so damn boring. I really hate it. I hate what the Erins have done to Yellowfang. I will talk about it in a separate addendum post later on… if I can ever get through it. I may do the same with Graystripe’s Vow, but honestly… who gives a damn about Graystripe’s Vow? It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme. I don’t know. We’ll see. I don’t want to bother with them right now. I’m tired of Warriors.
The graphic novels and field guides. The only field guide I plan on talking about is Secrets of the Clans, which is my favorite Warriors book. I may talk about Battles of the Clans and Code of the Clans since we get new stories in those, but I dunno. I tried reading Battles of the Clans and it’s boring as shit. Code of the Clans is at least interesting. We’ll see. I straight up am not going to read Cats of the Clans or The Ultimate Field Guides because I don’t care. Now the graphic novels, there are a few that I do want to talk about and others I do not. I plan on talking about The Rise of Scourge, A Shadow in RiverClan, Exile from ShadowClan, A Thief in ThunderClan, Winds of Change and Ravenpaw’s Path. I am not going to discuss Graystripe’s Adventure, Tigerstar and Sasha, or SkyClan and the Stranger. I don’t want to because they’re either boring or just plain bad. I am not wasting my time or money on these.
A Starless Clan and the upcoming arc Changing Skies. When A Starless Clan finishes, I will review the whole thing. Changing Skies is not out yet, but when it’s complete, I’ll do the same with it. Despite my bitching, I am going to keep reading Warriors because I love the absurdity. And since TBC and ASC are pretty damn good, I’m excited for the future. I hope they stay good.
Yapping about Warriors’ Protagonists
Now that I’m on the last part of this review series, I feel like I should elaborate on how I feel about each protagonist we’ve been given so far (in the main series only). Some characters I’ve talked about in-depth. Some I have not. Plus, after all these months, my opinions have changed. In timeline order, we have:
Gray Wing: I really like Gray Wing. I love his warmth and care toward those he loves. I like how he’s smart but humble. I like how he always turns to other cats for their advice and skills, showing that he values them. By book four, he’s not given much to do and I despise his relationship with Blank Slate because it ruins the bond he had with Turtle Tail and her kittens. Oh well. At least his death was meaningful. 7/10
Thunder: Same verse as the first. I love his fearlessness, his conviction and his family troubles… in the first three books. After that, he becomes very inconsistent and boring to follow. I still like him overall but man, his own arc butchers him in the back half! 6/10
Clear Sky: Started off as one of the best antagonists to one of the worst characters this series has ever produced. Rot in hell. -1/10
Fireheart/star: I’ve lightened up on my feelings toward the Erins’ golden child. The deity of Warriors is friendly, brave, and determined. He’s extremely active in his arc which is a rarity in this series. I prefer characters with a bit more to them but perfect son Fireheart/star is alright! 7/10
Brambleclaw/star: I hate him. He was interesting in TPB, but once he became a warrior, he dropped all the way down to trash tier. In TNP, he’s supposed to be the leader of the traveling group, but he hardly consults nor cares that much about the cats around him. He’s dumb as a box of rocks. He’s constantly fighting with Squirrelflight even when she’s 100% right about Hawkfrost. As a POV, he’s just unpleasant and boring. When we’re not following him, he’s being a dick to Squilf, especially in Squirrelflight’s Hope. I hate this character and I’ll never understand what the Erins see in him. 3/10
Squirrelflight: Female Firestar with romantic troubles. Squilf, for whatever reason, is treated so horribly by the authors and I don’t get why! She’s exactly like her father, but even more headstrong and confident. She always does what she believes is right regardless of the consequences. She’s loyal to her family and Clan. She works very hard and she’s smart. I’m so glad A Starless Clan finally gave her her flowers (no spoilers 🤫). The poor girl deserves it. 8/10
Leafpool: I like her more in every other storyline except her debut arc, TNP. She doesn’t do much there except be a good friend to Mothwing. Yall already know how much I hate her “romance” with Crowf, but I do like the drama their coupling caused. Leafpool is a kind and devout medicine cat who is also treated like shit by the franchise. She’s alright. 6.5/10
Jayfeather: I’ll never understand people who don’t like Jayfeather. Jayfeather is one of the most flavorful characters we have! We know who Jayfeather is. He is rude, grumpy, no-nonsense, gifted, and determined. I love Jayfeather. Even though he’s slowly getting more and more flanderized, he’s still himself. Plus his grumpy quips are hilarious. Too bad his arcs do nothing with him. 9/10
Lionblaze: I actually don’t mind Lionblaze. I know the fandom joke is that he’s boring and no one likes him and like… I agree but he’s not that boring. We’ve gotten protags who are way worse than him (cough cough Violetshine). Sure he’s a bit bland in PoT and OotS. Those arcs suck and waste the characters within them. Lionblaze suffered the most from that. He had an interesting arc about dealing with his angry and power. He thought his best friend/love interest betrayed him. He almost killed his own father because of it. He did kill a deputy and had to face the blowback of that. He has interesting stories, but they’re not written well. I will always have a soft spot for Lionblaze because of the iconic fox 1v1. To me, that scene is peak Warrior Cats! Foxes behaving like rabid coyotes, the extremely serious tone, the melodrama, the angst, and the sheer absurdity of the whole thing are why Warriors is so fun to read. It’s absolutely hilarious and I will always love Lionblaze for giving me that scene. In that scene, 10/10. Overall, 5/10 Mid.
Hollyleaf: Oh Hollyleaf. Like her siblings she is wasted in the arcs where she is important. I like the idea of Hollyleaf. She’s very self-righteous, but doesn’t reap what she sows. She preaches the warrior code, but when her reputation was being threatened, she murdered the guy who was threatening her. And then she realizes that she is the daughter of a medicine cat and a WindClan warrior. Her very existence is the against the warrior code. This makes her crack. She can’t be an arbiter of the code when she violates it. She tries to murder her mother after she announced her parentage to the world. After everything, she flees down a hole to hide away until she finally rises again to assist the Clan and family she cares about. She’s a good character in concept. Too bad her story wasn’t properly built up or explored. She’s a very wishy washy character because Holmes was writing her with a different destiny in mind. If she wrote her with the murderer arc in mind instead of a power Hollyleaf would feel more rounded but… oh well. At least we have fanfiction. 6/10
Dovewing: She’s alright. I like Dovewing’s struggles with fitting in and her struggles with her destiny and power. I like how she doesn’t want to be a special cat, but has no choice in the matter. As much as I hate Tigerheart/star, I do like their friendship and eventual romance since it at least makes more sense than Leaf and Crowf. She’s gotten more dull over the arcs which is typical for this series. Mollies tend to be watered down once they become mothers. She doesn’t do a damn thing in her dedicated arc, but that’s a given at this point. I really hate OotS. 6/10
Ivypool: The only main doing anything in OotS. I don’t care for Ivypool. I find her clinginess toward her sister creepy and I have a hard time giving a shit about her jealousy problems. If I was still a teenager, then maybe I would care, but as a jaded adult who could care less about teenage angst… yeah no. Ivypool annoyed me a bit. At least she’s not boring to follow. Like her sister, she’s been watered down over the course of the series and hasn’t done much until recently (no spoilers). 5.5/10
Alderheart: Started good and then got shafted by his own arc. He went from a little ball of anxiety to the most boring medicine cat protags we’ve ever gotten. I weep for his lost personality. 4/10
Twigbranch: I like Twigbranch. She’s not too different from Dovewing tbh. They both love helping and feeling useful, they are willing to break the rules to help other cats, and they have a hard time connecting with their sisters. I like Twig a bit more though. I like how she struggles to find her place. I adore how she fucks off to fetch SkyClan on her own when the others chose not to help! That’s badass! Unfortunately, her arc doesn’t give her shit to do after book three. She gets saddled with manbaby Finleap and we don’t get to see her learn how to be a good mentor. After her arc, she’s in the background most of the time. 6/10
Violetshine: I wrote a whole rant about her here. At least Clear Sky incites rage within me. Violetshine only incites boredom and disappointment. 2/10
Bristlefrost: What a roller coaster of a character Bristlefrost is! Starts great, gets real bad, and then ends in the most epic fashion imaginable. If Bristlefrost and Rootspring never got together and her personality wasn’t assassinated half way through the arc she would have gone down as one of the best protags we have. 6.8/10
Rootspring: I have no notes on Rootspring. He has the best arc out of TBC three, I love his relationship with his dad, and I like how his grief is written in the last book. Good character 7.5/10
Shadowsight: A sadder Alderheart painted black. Shadowsight really doesn’t have much going on outside of Ashfur. I can’t tell you his personality because he doesn’t have one. He is “tortured sad boi” who has a pretty badass speech at the end. I feel weird about Shadowsight. I want to like him, but when you remove him from his plot you get nothing. This is not how you write a compelling character. You gotta give them a personality. Oh well. At least he is nowhere near as flat as Violetshine. 4/10
Yapping about Warriors’ Villains
Same verse as the first. Some of these guys I talked about in-depth and others I have not. Some SE villains are included because I said so.
Clear Sky: As a villain he’s pretty good. Everything after that, -1/10.
Star Flower: A wasted character who honestly should not exist with how little they do with her. She’s here to be Clear Sky’s kitten maker and that’s it. -1/10
One Eye and Slash: Boring generic rogue villains who make a bad arc even worse. 1/10
Tom: A very real and scary depiction of an abusive boyfriend. And then he is unceremoniously killed by a worse villain. Oh well. 8/10
Mapleshade: I have a lot of opinions about Mapleshade and her bad novella. I already wrote an addendum post so click here to read my ramblings. As a character, I don’t like her much. She’s bland and I dislike how she is retroactively shoved into the lives of other villains like Tigerclaw, Thistleclaw, etc. Her being there ruins their agency in my eyes. She was fine in Crookedstar’s Promise, but even then, you could remove her from the story and not much would change. I wish she was more interesting. 4/10
Thistleclaw: Remember, Spottedleaf’s Heart is not canon. I refuse. Therefore, that Thistleclaw is not real. Bluestar’s Prophecy Thistleclaw is the only true Thistleclaw. He is the father of Whitestorm and the mentor of Tigerclaw/star. He is a rude, bloodthirsty warrior who trained his apprentice to be just like him… and that’s it. He really isn’t as bad as Bluefur/star makes him out to be. He’s gruff and rude and solves everything with fighting. Sunstar would have never made him deputy. Bluefur was just paranoid because her uncle Goosefeather kept screaming about how he was going to destroy them all. It doesn’t make sense for Thistleclaw to be in the Dark Forest. He never killed anyone and he never showed interest in destroying the Clans. As a character, he’s fine. Bluefur’s paranoia about him makes him interesting by proxy. 6/10
Rainflower: Crookedstar’s terrible mom. Now this is a good character. She doesn’t do much throughout Crookedstar’s Promise but her existence weighs on Crookedjaw’s mind. After Stormkit broke his jaw, she hated him and gave him a cruel name. This made her mate Shellheart break up with her on the spot. Good for him. For the rest of the book, she’s a looming shadow in Crookedjaw’s life. He thinks he can regain her love by proving to her that he’s a great warrior, but he never achieves that. I find that sadly realistic. Rainflower is vain and cruel. She stopped loving him after he stopped being perfect in her eyes. She’s not a cat Crookedjaw needs in his life, even though he doesn’t see that. I love how complex his relationship with Rainflower is. She is a subtle villain and we do not have many of those in this series. 9/10.
Brokenstar: His drama with Yellowfang is interesting, but that’s it. Evil McEvilson sure is evil. Lame. 2/10.
Tigerclaw/star: The one and only. Tigerclaw is the most standard YR villain you can have. He’s mean, gruff, strong, and hungry for power. He keeps getting away with all of his crimes because the people around him either don’t report his crimes or they brush it off with “he’s a good warrior.” He works well in The Prophecies Begin for the most part. I like his rivalry with Fireheart/star. However, it’s lame how he kept showing up for three more arcs after that. He lost all of his edge once he died. I also dislike how he died to Scourge and not Firestar. While his actual death scene is iconic, it sucks how a random newcomer is the one who kills him. The Erin rectified this mistake in The Last Hope, but it isn’t good there either. That fight felt rushed. Tigerclaw could’ve been better but he’s not. 6/10
Darkstripe: I like Darkstripe in concept. He’s Tigerclaw/star’s dedicated simp. He brings Tawnypaw and Bramblepaw to Tigerclaw, he tries to poison Sorrelkit for spying on him, he attacks and gets beaten up by Stonefur, and he died twice: first to Graystripe and then Firestar. He’s fine albeit a bit bland. His loyalty to Tigerclaw/star is interesting. He fought for this guy multiple times but he seems to always fail. He’s not very smart and seems desperate to stand beside someone stronger than himself. The fandom ships him and Tigerclaw/star which is funny. Tigerclaw/star has high standards. He wouldn’t get with this pathetic man. Darkstripe is interesting. I wish he had a stronger personality though. 5.5/10
Scourge: The edgiest edgelord. Scourge used to be a favorite of mine when I was very little. I too was an edgelord so I liked the black cat who wore a collar studded with dog teeth and had teeth grafted onto his claws somehow. How the hell did cats attach teeth to their claws? Who knows. How are the teeth stronger and sharper than claws? Who knows. The idea was cool to 10-year-old me so I loved him. Now, as an adult, I find all of this cringe in a wholesome way. Scourge is a relic of the early to mid 2000s. He’s nostalgic to me and I can’t help but smile whenever I see him. However… he’s a trash character. I hate how he comes out of nowhere, kills the main bad guy, and is then killed by our hero. If he was built up to, his appearance wouldn’t feel so jarring and anti-climatic. I said in my original review for The Prophecies Begin that Scourge feels like a solution to a plot hole Victoria Holmes wrote herself into. She gave Tigerclaw/star nine lives so Firestar would have had to kill him nine times to win. To avoid this, at the last second, she created an overpowered edgelord who one-shot-kills him and now the Clans need to band together to defeat BloodClan. I hate it. The story was building up to a final showdown between Firestar and Tigerclaw/star. It would’ve been incredible to see Firestar destroy the cat who has been haunting him since day one but no. Fix your plot if you have a hole, don’t build around it. Also Scourge is flat. He has no personality other than evil. I don’t know if you caught this, but I don’t like flat villains. You gotta give me personality! His manga The Rise of Scourge does give him some much-needed personality and it reveals that Scourge is Firestar’s half-brother through Jake, but that doesn’t make his initial appearance better. As he is in the main series, he is flat. Like most of the characters in this section, he could’ve been great but he’s not. 3/10.
Hawkfrost: I’ve spoken about Hawkfrost’s wasted potential in-depth. All of Tigerclaw/star’s children are wasted really. Except for Mothwing. She’s great. Hawkfrost had the makings of a great character, but he was written by unaware writers who didn’t understand what they had. So instead of getting an excellent manipulator, we got a worse Tigerclaw/star. I weep for my boy. 3/10
Sol: Sol is a mysterious tomcat who shows up to generate chaos for the Clans and then fucks off into oblivion, never to be heard from again. He uses the eclipse to infiltrate the Clans and gain their trust. He uses his words to sway Blackstar away from StarClan. He tricks WindClan into attacking ThunderClan for him. He’s a character we hadn’t seen before in this series… and he’s wasted like the rest of them. Like Hawkfrost, there are so many juicy stories you can get out of a character like this and the Erins do nothing. He could’ve given Power of Three an actual plot! It seems like he is going to manipulate the Three, but as soon as ShadowClan shows up, he fucks off to destroy them for some reason. He’s given this godawful backstory about being wronged by SkyClan which makes him look petty and dumb. Him simply being a harbinger of chaos because he’s bored is way more fun. Not every villain needs to have a motivation especially an aloof character like Sol. “Here’s this cool character we do nothing with. Enjoy!” 4/10
Breezepelt: I’ve talked about this edgy boy in-depth. He is one of the strongest emotional antagonists we have. We see his disjointed family, his rocky relationship with his father, his attitude building into hatred, etc. Breezepelt is sympathetic in a way that makes sense. Unfortunately, he turns into a completely different cat in Crowfeather’s Trial, but at least he’s still interesting to discuss. If he had a real redemption arc, Breezepelt would have gone down as Warriors’ best antagonist (imo). Oh well… 8.5/10
Darktail: You get the deal by this point, right? A fine character with a lot of potential who is shafted by the authors. Darktail is even worse than the others because he was good in Hawkwing’s Journey, but once AVoS starts, he becomes yet another generic, cruel rogue leader. I do like his relationship with Onestar, but he could’ve been so much more. Lame as fuck. 4.5/10
Sleekwhisker: The former ShadowClan cat turned vicious rogue and one of three prominent female villains we have. She’s one of the better ones in my eyes. She was a rebellious apprentice who sided with Darktail. With him, she nearly drowned her former friend Needletail. Afterward, once Darktail was defeated, she tricked SkyClan into letting her and Yarrowleaf join and then she stole Yarrowleaf’s kittens to give them back to Nettle, their father and one of Darktail’s loyalists. She hates Rowanstar for being a “weak leader” and for allowing Darktail to rise in power which like… you helped in that Sleekwhisker but whatever go off. Sleekwhisker is ruthless, cruel, and chaotic. After killing Rowanclaw/star, she fled, so her story is incomplete. I hope she comes back sometime soon and causes more chaos. Make her a main villain! Please Warriors! I’m not a fan of rogue villains, but Sleekwhisker is the only female one we got and she is Tigerstar II’s former apprentice and his niece! She’s Dawnpelt’s daughter. She manipulated her mother into joining the Kin which led to her death. Sleekwhisker killed her own grandfather! There’s so much juicy drama here. Please Erins. As she is now, she’s a 7/10 but she could be a 10/10 if they dig into that family drama. I’m begging, Erins. Please!
Ashfur: Okay so Ashfur is another scarily real villain. He is Squilf’s boogeyman and a real one at that. He was so creepy as the imposter and when we’re in his head in book five, we see just how far gone he is. Great shit. I don’t like how stupidly powerful he is though. Why is he destroying the afterlives when he, a spirit cat, would’ve been destroyed too? Ashfur’s not rational but like… my dude, where did you get so much power from? I also don’t like how weirdly sudden this shift is. While we do get some foreshadowing of his downfall in TNP, it’s not strong enough for me. I could care less about Squilf’s romantic troubles. Regardless, Ashfur is a great villain. Really creepy and real. 8.5/10
Now A Starless Clan has given us three new bad guys, Berryheart, Curlfeather, and Splashtail. I am not going to talk about them until the arc is finished. I will say for now that I’m so glad we have two more female antagonists (Berryheart and Curlfeather) who are multilayered, gray, and fascinating. Way to go Warriors! It took you 20 years, but you did it!
The Good Stuff
I feel I should talk about the things I love about Warriors to offset all the negativity, because believe it or not I do like this series. I would not have written this much if I didn’t find it interesting and fun. I wouldn’t be writing at all if I hadn’t read Warriors as a child. So, let me list off the things that keep me coming back.
Cats: I love cats. Felines in general are wonderful by default. Big and small, I love them all so seeing them in anything just makes me happy. Warriors completely disregards cat behavior and genetics, but eh, fuck it. They’re still cats.
The Clan structure: Even though the books hardly utilize the structure to its fullest extent, I do like the concept. I like the simple yet effective hierarchy/naming system. I adore the mentoring system. I like the concept of a group of families living together and sharing a community and culture. It’s good… too bad the series hardly does much with it.
The battle scenes: Some of the battle scenes are great. The Battle of BloodClan, the Eclipse Battle, and The First Battle are all great scenes! I like it when the battle cats fight.
The melodrama: Warrior Cats is a soap opera for kids. It takes itself so seriously even though the shenanigans the characters go through are ridiculous and funny. Good popcorn books.
Good characters: Jayfeather, Mothwing, Tree, and many more are great and I love them. The potential of these guys scratches that creative part of my brain. If I didn’t hate writing fanfiction so much, I would be writing a fuck ton of it with these characters.
Final Rankings and Scores
Most of the rankings have changed after some reflection.
The Main Arcs
The Prophecies Begin: 6.5/10 Perfectly fine.
The Broken Code: 6.5/10 Would’ve been great if Bristlefrost wasn’t lobotomized and book four didn’t exist.
Power of Three: 4/10 Nothing happens until Hollyleaf kills a man.
Omen of the Stars: 4/10 A terribly paced plot with decent characters who don’t do anything.
A Vision of Shadows: 3/10 Started good but got bad half way through.
Dawn of the Clans: 2/10 Has some of the worst character writing this series has ever seen.
The New Prophecy: 2/10 Unreadable.
The Super Editions
Crookedstar’s Promise: 9/10 Slice of life done right.
Crowfeather’s Trial: 8.5/10 Crowfeather is one of the more complex characters in the series and that makes him great. I will die on this hill.
Tallstar’s Revenge: 8/10 The book that cemented WindClan as my favorite Clan.
Hawkwing’s Journey: 7.5/10 Hawkwing is boring, but his book is not.
Bluestar’s Prophecy: 6/10 Goosefeather’s existence and Bluestar’s character exploration are the only reasons why this is so high. It’s pretty mid in every other regard.
SkyClan’s Destiny: 5/10 If Stick and his issues were removed, this would be a mostly boring but sometimes nice slice of life story.
Firestar’s Quest: 5/10 Mid.
Leopardstar’s Honor: 5/10 Leopardstar was done dirty by her own book.
Bramblestar’s Storm: 4/10 Boring and awful.
Onestar’s Confession: 3/10 A waste of time.
Tigerheart’s Shadow: 2/10 A waste of time with a worse main lead.
Riverstar’s Home: 2/10 A massive disappointment.
Yellowfang’s Secret: 2/10 This is not my Yellowfang. Who is this?
Moth Flight’s Vision: 2/10 Character assassination the novel.
Squirrelflight’s Hope: 1/10 No.
The Novellas
Pinestar’s Choice: 7.5/10 A disillusioned leader finding happiness away from the Clans. How wonderful.
Dovewing’s Silence: 7.5/10 A genuinely good epilogue to a horrible arc.
Shadowstar’s Life: 7/10 A nice exploration of Shadowstar’s struggle with her legacy and mortality.
Tree’s Roots: 7/10 A good origin story for one of my favorite characters.
Ravenpaw’s Farewell: 7/10 A bittersweet send off to one of my favorite characters.
Leafpool’s Wish: 5.5/10 Would’ve been better if StarClan didn’t suck so much.
Daisy’s Kin: 5/10 Mid.
Tigerclaw’s Fury: 5/10 Mid.
Hollyleaf’s Story: 5/10 Mid.
Mothwing’s Secret: 4/10 Boring.
Redtail’s Debt: 4/10 Boring and incorrect.
Spotfur’s Rebellion: 4/10 Worthless.
Mapleshade’s Vengeance: 4/10 Poorly constructed.
Cloudstar’s Journey: 4/10 Why does this one even exist?
Tawnypelt’s Clan: 3/10 Tawnypelt deserves to be in a better franchise.
Thunderstar’s Echo: 3/10 The most boring book in the series.
Mistystar’s Omen: 3/10 Why?
Blackfoot’s Reckoning: 2/10 You want consequences for Blackfoot’s actions? Fuck you.
Goosefeather’s Curse: 2/10 Ambiguity and intrigue? Never heard of them.
Spottedleaf’s Heart: -1/10 Legitimately harmful.
Tier Lists
Because why not? Tier lists are fun. Link to template
Click the images to view a clearer picture.
Final Thoughts
I’m exhausted. Warrior Cats is a beast of a series to discuss. I’m glad to be done for now. As I mentioned before, despite all my grumblings, I do love this series. It means a lot to me and I wouldn’t be where I am creatively it wasn’t for WC kick-starting my love for reading all those years ago. It has it highs and its many many lows, but it’s my trashy soap opera for kids. So, after all of this, do I recommend you read Warriors? No. God no! Don’t waste your life like me. Stay away. This book series sucks ass. Read Wings of Fire instead.
