Curate, connect, and discover
so I've been thinking about it
and I think
DotC would've been more interesting if it explored more on the family aspect of things
Clear Sky, Jagged Peak, and Gray Wing are brothers who fall apart
Thunder is rejected by his biological father
it would be so cool to see DotC being about found family and what cats defined as family, for cats to choose who they belonged with and the Clans not forming from petty grudges and teaming up against Clear Sky
but by realizing that these were the cats that made them happy to be around
we get so many little tidbits of this, but that's not the overarching theme of the story and I think it'd be so much more fun if it was
Wind Runner, famously abandoned, learning that she's allowed to trust cats again and make her own family with Gorse Fur by her side. That she's allowed to have a family that won't hurt her.
Tall Shadow losing loved ones - namely her brother Moon Shadow - and making her family something safe that she could protect and that could, in turn, learn to protect each other
River Ripple having once known a proper family, but losing and and turning his group into a loving home, one where cats are welcome no matter how their paws brought them there and turning it into a community like that he grew up with
and then getting to the biggest missed opportunities;
Thunder, being torn so many ways, learning that family isn't always blood. Family is who you want to be around, those you want to protect, but also laugh with, learn from, and teach in turn. That just because Clear Sky sired him doesn't mean that he has to be loyal to his father.
And a Clear Sky redemption arc where Clear Sky learns that family isn't something you control. That family doesn't mean you can hurt those you care about, even if you believe it's for the 'greater good'. That all cats are their own person and trying to strip them of that doesn't make you good family and that you can lose the ones you love.
/
or at least
those are my feelings