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meet cute: it's raining and I see your battered bleeding body lying in the mud and I kick it slightly to see if you're dead
warrior cats is a book series fundamentally dedicated to the moral βconstant war and prejudice is ultimately good and better for everyoneβ and to me it is best to preserve that while changing the coating of the narrative to that of an ironic one, treating all the bullshit clan cats do and their stagnant society a circus of errors that ultimately gestures to the audience βyou see? a society built on the idea that war and prejudice is good fucking sucks, war and prejudice is badβ however most people who do rewrites and aus seem convinced they can curtail the idea of warrior cats society being bad by like, deciding it is a moral imperative to draft disabled people into War That Is Good or to bring back a child that was unjustly killed for failing to integrate into the War Is Good society and having them go to Good War or whatever, which is very uninteresting
Yah, that was about night, sorry about how esoteric I decided to be, but I saw your posts about her and I just got to thinking about the... logistical problems with trying to fight a bunch of dead people, let alone the fact it's a religion.
HI. HIII. THANK YOU. I TOOK THIS AND I RAN. I warned about me spewing a really lengthy response and I did oops
(so StarClan isn't really a religious aspect of the colonies at all.Β in-universe this is because when Alpine was founded, it was made out of cats who either already had established religious beliefs (gods, basically, itβs not very fleshed out because itβs not important), or weren't religious at all (for example, Night). Personally, I just don't find interest in exploring religion lmao. A lot of wc oc stories have already done it, and probably done it better than I ever could.)
So, StarClan's very much a more government-ish figure for the colonies BUT YEAH obviously thereβs gonna be weird stuff going on with it even if itβs not a religion, theyβre dead cats in an afterlife lol.
Silverpelt refers to the afterlife here basically, and StarClan/dark forest are only one part of silverpelt. Itβs only specific to the colonies. Also present everywhere in the Clansβ territories is silverstone - a green coloured mineral that is believed to give the Clans a greater connection to silverpelt, and subsequently StarClan
I love the eldritch takes on StarClan, but in my story that stuffβs more rooted in silverstone. StarClan is just a bunch of normal dudes lmao
StarClan might have power in influence, but in terms of physical, real, tangible power they canβt do much. They have no control over silverpelt, no control even over the dark forest, and the only control they have, really, is of the colonies through the codes and stuff
In terms of experience, Night's as old as the oldest StarClan cat, as established above, so she's at the very least equal in combat and strategic experience to Ashcloud, who I would say is in charge of the cat equivalent of '''''military''''' activities in StarClan (not much, they don't have a need to fight).
I can make the argument that she has more experience, considering she was the second-highest-ranking authoritative figure in Alpine's early civil war, and the clans haven't had anything close to that extent of fighting since. Their modern training probably isn't cutting it anymore.
(Like, if most of StarClan is a) made of cats who haven't ever experienced active conflict, and b) commanded by cats who think the dark forest will never be a problem, how would they really fare against a dark forest army that Night's essentially been training for war for literally over 400 years, when the barrier between them and the dark forest inevitably fails? Spoilerβ’: they don't fare well lol)
The key is that StarClan's arrogant. They don't think the dark forest will ever be a real problem for them, so they don't prepare for it or try to prevent it. Of course Night's going to win (initially)
Night later 'loses everything' as Silver implies, itβs not because StarClan had all the time in the world and had more experience than her. It is technically because of StarClan returning, but it's tied much closer with Rainpaw's involvement (not relevant rn) and a rooting in Night's internal struggles at this point (becoming what you hate).Β
a lot of Night's character after she destroys starclan (into part 3 of SL)Β is very much involved with like. a character caught between what's defined her existence for a long time to the point she cant remember who she was before, and the certainty that she canβt get back to that person even though she needs to, and she needs to because becoming something equal to or worse than her enemy is an unbearable thought..? if that makes sense
It's complicated, but this essentially culminates in a fall out between her and Finch. Then enter: the destructive cycle metaphors that this whole story is built on.
StarClan βworking so great as an enemy because fighting them is something that is only ever going to hurt you more than them' is SO TRUE AND YOU WORDED IT BEAUTIFULLY.
exactly what happens with Night. After everything, they didn't really change, while she lost a lot. But itβs one of those situations where it canβt have gone any other way. She can't get what she had back until starclan's defeated, but defeating starclan renders it impossible for her to get. Either way she loses.Β
Your point about StarClan being eternal and therefore the colonies being eternal also is also very true and very fun.
I might even say, in this instance, that StarClan and the colonies are eternal through silverstone, and by extension so is their destruction.. :]
Sorry for word vomiting so many words in a tumblr post. I doubt anyone will read this all but. I had fun.
itβs not happy holidays for ME because my parcel is delayed
okk
aww look bonding with children. nothing bad can come of that right
this is my stupid drawing to cope with what i have done to her
#5 and/or #26 for the wip ask game? :3
woah i ended up rambling
5. What are the main themes?
I would say the main big one would be good+evil/moral ambiguity? I really like looking at morality in stories.. because of this reason I could name very few genuinely 'bad' cats in this story lol
plus whatever theme goes with some sort of corrupt system :] I love those (fictionally) :]
smaller themes like power, death, war, hate/love etc and these are all looked at specifically in context/influence of their little corrupt cat society
26. What do you still need to plan?
a whole bunch of stuff! there's many little plot issues that annoy me that I'd love to fix, the main two big things however are Rainpaw's character arc and the entirety of Part 3. um lots of text under the cut
Rainpaw's my main protagonist, he gets pov throughout all 3 parts but. idk what he's really doing. its hard to get him to the end point of his story because I'm not really sure what would change his mindset to get there? His ultimate job is to restore StarClan after like a year of anarchy (a plot problem in itself because I don't want to portray the downfall of a corrupt government-ish figure as bad lol that's a good thing) but he starts SL totally anti-StarClan in comparison to his Clan. Right now I'm kind of passing it off as the inter-faction conflicts he faces after StarClan's fall make him want to restore the Clans as they were supposed to be when they were formed, but I also don't want anarchy (? for lack of a better word I guess) = chaos because that's boring and kinda shallow in my opinion
WHICH LEADS INTO part 3 because I have the end of it etched into my soul but the rest of it is just everyone. existing. totally unplanned I have no idea what will drive the plot of part 3 yet. I want to explore the conflicts between the different factions that are created after the Clans fall apart so that may drive the plot for Petalclaw and Rainpaw/storm but as for Night? I need to plan what she's doing because her one goal is to destroy StarClan. Once she's done that (end of part 2), idk what will lead her to everything I have planned out for her at the end of part 3, which is again her vs starclan :/ it's like when Night is there but StarClan is not there is nothing driving her actions so I need to figure that out...
WOAH SORRY FOR ALL THAT BUT IT WAS FUN. sorry if it makes no sense... it distracted me from the worst history assignment of all time from hell itself so thank you for the ask! :D