Warriors Journals: Into the Wild

[Gosh]

Ah. Well, yeah ;(

[Ten]

Chapter 20
Alternative Title: Suddenly, Everything Remained The Same

"Where's Ravenpaw?" Firepaw asked as he sat down.

"Not back from his task yet," replied Graypaw. "Look at that!" He held out his paw for Firepaw to inspect. The pad was torn and bleeding. "Tigerclaw sent me fishing and I stepped on a sharp stone in the stream."

"That looks pretty deep. You should get Spottedleaf to take a look at it," Firepaw advised.

Why is it that Graypaw can't take care of his own medical problems without Firepaw's help? Ten would think that a Clanborn cat would know when to visit Spottedleaf. Maybe he has a grudge against her. Maybe they're exes and they had a bad breakup.

Firepaw realized he was very hungry.

Hunger is the sort of thing one forgets when preoccupied with a task that keeps the mind busy. Waiting for someone to show up, as Firepaw was doing, is not one of said tasks. Huger is not sudden; it is gradual. His thoughts would be on his hunger when it began. By the time he became "very" hungry, it would already be on his mind, rather than sneak up and hit him in the head like a random dodgeball (yes, that's how Ten was picturing this realization).

Firepaw gasped. "You hunted in ShadowClan territory?"

"That was my task," Ravenpaw explained.

"Tigerclaw sent you into enemy territory to hunt!" Firepaw could hardly believe it. "We must tell Bluestar. That was too dangerous!"

At the mention of Bluestar's name Ravenpaw shook his head. His eyes looked hunted and shadowed with fear. "Look, just keep quiet, okay?" he hissed. "I survived. I even caught some prey. That's all there is to it."

"You survived this time!" Firepaw spat.

While it's natural that Ravenpaw's safety be his main concern, no they make mention whatsoever of morals. Ravenpaw stole. He broke the warrior code. Neither of them cares. If Ravenpaw had been a formidable warrior who had stolen with the help of other formidable warriors, the theft wouldn't have bothered Firepaw at all because it put Ravenpaw in little peril.

Firepaw stayed outside, watching the rest of the camp prepare for the night. He was going to have to tell Ravenpaw what he'd overheard in the forest last night. He needed to know just how much danger he was in.

Why does he need to know? He's already frightful and jumpy; he already knows Tigerclaw wants him dead. So what good would these additional details do?

On page 222 Firepaw says "Ravenpaw" as a noun of direct address four times. Does he not want Ravenpaw to forget he's talking to him, or does Firepaw have short-term memory loss?

The rising sun made his pelt glow with warmth, and he stretched appreciatively, reveling in the suppleness of his spine and the strength in his legs.

"Stop showing off!" Graypaw called over his shoulder.

How is stretching "showing off"?

Before seeing Brindleface's new kits, Firepaw has a chat with Yellowfang.

"As you wish."

...but what he truly meant was, "I love you."

Four tiny kits huddled warmly in Brindleface's deeply lined nest. Their fur was pale gray with darker flecks, just like their mother, except for one tiny dark gray tom.

Anyone seen a gray cat "with darker flecks"?

Bluestar wants to have a meeting with Firepaw. During said meeting, she... rambles, compliments him, and rambles.

"There was a time, when Tigerlcaw was a young warrior, that I feared for the strength of his passion. Such energy can need careful channeling. But now I am proud to see how much respect the Clan has for him. I know he is ambitious, but his ambition makes him one of the bravest cats I have ever had the honor to fight alongside."

Firepaw knew at once that he could not tell Bluestar his suspicions about Tigerclaw. Not when Bluestar looked to her deputy to protect the whole Clan. Her would have to save Ravenpaw himself.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No.

Her trust in Tigerclaw is the very reason he should tell her. Ten can't tell if this is Firepaw thinking the world revolves around him or the Erins contriving a plot. Likely both.

In other news, Ten diagnoses Bluestar as a praise junkie, since she won't stop telling Firepaw how good he is.

She paused and licked a healing wound on her side. "I think you ought to know that, in the battle with the rats, it was not my fifth life that I lost, but my seventh."

So she won't tell this to her Clan, but she tells it to the egocentric little ex-pet? ...Why? Because he's her apprentice, is that it? And why is that? Because he has the special fur color? Perhaps the Erins mean to set up an anti-racism message with Tigerclaw's hatred for outsiders, but it breaks the Aesop that Firepaw gets all this special treatment based on nothing but his pelt.

Ten glanced back over the conversation the monologue and is wondering if this is what she wanted to tell him.

And now Frostfur's kits have gone missing and Spottedleaf is dead. This is supposed to be a dramatic turn, but even without remembering what happens next, Ten is sure that the kits will soon return intact. Plus she never got to know enough about Spottedleaf to care about her one way or another. No, she takes that back. She's glad she'd dead and would like the Erins to kill off every other cat who likes Firepaw as well. True, this would mean major carnage, but imagine how much more fun that would be to read about. It would sure beat this.

Guess what word has returned and stolen a sandwich.

Suddenly Firepaw spotted Yellowfang in the distance. She was pushing her way thought an unguarded part of fern wall. She must have found a scent, he thought, and raced toward her as her tail disappeared into the greenery. By the time he arrived at the fern wall, she had gone. He sniffed the air. No kit scent, just the bitter smell of Yellowfang's fear. What was she afraid of? Firepaw wondered.

How does someone this stupid manage to stay alive?

Uses of "Suddenly" Thus Far: at least eight


Chapter 21
Alternative Title: It’s Raining; It’s Pouring. This Chapter Is Boring. Ravenpaw’s Disapproval Rating is Soaring.

With what is supposed to be a dramatic scene comes a thunderstorm.

“Yellowfang has killed Spottedleaf and taken my kits!” screeched Frostfur. The other queens rushed to Frostfur’s side and tried to calm her with licks and caresses, but Frostfur pushed them away and wailed her grief to the darkening sky. As if in reply, the sky rumbled ominously and a clod wind ruffled the cats’ fur.

Lightning and rain come later.

She lifted her head. “If Yellowfang has killed Spottedleaf and stolen Frostfur’s kits, she will be hunted down without mercy.” The crowd meowed approvingly. “But we must wait,” Bluestar went on. “There is a storm coming, and I am not prepared to risk more lives.”

A patrol will find Yellowfang and the kits only after the storm is over. Ten isn’t sure if Bluestar is lying or just thoughtless, because in a few moments she sends out Firepaw and Co. on said mission. Or perhaps she doesn’t consider this a risk of life because she knows the main character is immortal (or a zombie).

“We cannot waste time, or the scent will be lost in the rain!” Tigerclaw protested.

“Bluestar flicked her tail impatiently. “If we send out a hunting party now, our efforts will be wasted anyway. In this weather the scent will already be lost by the time we are ready. If we wait until after the storm, we stand a better chance of success.”

Ten doesn’t follow. How long would it take a few cats to get “ready”? They don’t have equipment to gather; they’d just go. So why are they waiting?

“But what if Yellowfang won’t come back?” Firepaw meowed.

“She will, if you ask her.”

Because he’s just that special? Sure, he didn’t believe Brokenstar’s warning, but the other characters didn’t have a reason to either, considering Brokenstar had just demanded use of their territory, and please don’t say that they’re stupider than Firepaw. If that were true, nature wouldn’t allow them to live.

Firepaw sees a queen chasing Ravenpaw away from the nursery and realizes that Tigerclaw’s rumors have spread.

“I have to get him away from ThunderClan. Right now, before anything happens to him.”

Graypaw looked puzzled. “Why? What about Yellowfang?”

“There’s no time to explain,” Firepaw mewed urgently. “You’ll just have to trust me. There must be a way we can get Ravenpaw away. Bluestar’s going to keep the warriors in camp till the storm is over, but that doesn’t leave us much time.”

He could have explained by now. “Tigerclaw has a bunch of cats believing Ravenpaw’s a traitor and they might attack him.” That’s all it would take. But instead he told him a bunch of useless stuff that wasted the aforementioned time in which they are lacking.

Firepaw lies to Tigerclaw on page 240 about where they’re going. Even though they’re supposed to be in a hurry, they do a lot of delaying and lingering. At last, they’re off.

They reached the stream, but the stepping-stones they usually leaped across had completely disappeared. The cats stopped on the bank and looked down in dismay at the wide, brown, swirling river.

“This way,” Firepaw meowed. “There’s a fallen tree up here. We can use it to cross.”

He also warns them to be careful; it’s slippery. Even though Firepaw has integrated himself into Clan life, Ten would think the Clanborn cats would know at least as much about the forest as he does.

During a dawdling conversation on page 243, Ravenpaw “suddenly” frowns.

Uses of “Suddenly” Thus Far: at least nine

Chapter 22
Alternative Title: Babbling About the Big Bad

Firepaw is glad Graypaw can’t tell how scared he is as they follow Yellowfang’s trail into ShadowClan territory. They find Yellowfang, who has been tracking the kits and fears Brokenstar will hurt them.

“He has been training kits as young as three moons since he became leader. At five moons he sends them out as warriors.”

“Surely they’d be too small to fight!” Firepaw protested. But in his mind’s eye he pictured the undersize ShadowClan apprentices he had seen at the Gathering. They weren’t just small; they were kits!

Yellowfang hissed scornfully. “Brokenstar doesn’t’ care about that. He has plenty more kits to spare, and if they run out, he can steal them from other Clans!” Her voice was filled with rage. “After all, we’re talking about a cat who killed kits from his own Clan!”

…because he fought them during training. Why does Brokenstar do this sort of thing? Ten would imagine kits don’t make good warriors, so he can’t be getting much quality out of this program, and he’s likely to have fewer warriors than he would otherwise in the end, since the fierce early training claims some lives. So is there something she’s not seeing, or is Brokenstar stupid too?

They talk about Brokenstar and all the the horrible (pointless?) things he has done for most of the chapter, then go hide from a ThunderClan patrol.


Chapter 23
Alternative Title: Everything Goes According To Plan

Yellowfang will recruit some ostracized ShadowClan elders. Firepaw will talk the ThunderClanners into helping them. Graypaw will… sit by a tree.

Graypaw looked worried. “But do you really trust Yellowfang to bring back help?” he murmured to Firepaw.

Why wouldn’t he? She’s been nothing but trustworthy and helpful this whole time, though she might’ve been more helpful if she had taught Firepaw a lesson on the day they met. Again, revisit the fact that Brokenstar the kit-killer is the one who told everyone she’s untrustworthy. Graypaw should turn to other sources.

Anyway, a better question to ask would be “Why d’y’all getta do all the fun stuff while I hasta sit by this dumb tree?” Not that Graypaw talks like that, but it would be far more interesting if he did. Maybe then he might even have a personality.

Yellowfang isn’t as upset as she should be that Graypants doesn’t trust her. She musters a brief growl and springs past them, and disappears.

“Have we done the right thing?” asked Graypaw.

“I don’t know,” Firepaw admitted. “If we have, we are heroes and the kits are safe. If we are wrong, then we are as good as dead.”

Notice his priorities. “We are heroes” comes before the kits’ safety. Also note that real heroes don’t think of themselves as such.

Of course Firepaw and Yellowfang accomplish their missions with ease. Raggedstar’s death comes up as a subject of conversation.

Yellowfang’s eyes clouded with sorrow. “He was ambushed by a warrior patrol from another Clan.”

It’s odd that she wouldn’t specify which Clan. The only plausible reason for this is that she doesn’t know what Clan – but why wouldn’t she know? Why would another Clan ambush him? Brokenstar later reveals that this is all a lie, but does that mean he’s uncreative when it comes to details? In that case, why didn’t Yellowfang press him for more information?

Chapter 24
Alternative Title: Lights and Camera, but More Dialogue Than Action

Yellowfang comes up with a plan: she’ll pretend to be the elder’s prisoner so that all the warriors will come out of their dens to look. That’s when they attack.

Suddenly yowling erupted from the ShadowClan camp.

Erin Hunter, will you ever give it up?

Firepaw fights three (3) cats. One is an apprentice, which he just bats away with one paw. The other two are full warriors. He encounters no difficulty and defeats both, each taking less than half a dozen sentences.

Blinded by fury, he prepared to sink his teeth into Clawface’s neck.

Ten’s stopping in the midst of this quote to wonder about this preparation. While she knows it’s a common method of phrasing, it’s not the best. How does one prepare to sink teeth into something/someone? Did Firepaw press the pause button and take a pencil sharpener to his tooth, or did he take instructional classes and purchase dental insurance? Ten keeps trying to picture this sentence and gets an image of Firepaw stopping to scowl down at Clawface and rubs his paws together. Perhaps, rather, he froze with his fangs hovering over the neck and went through a mental checklist. Or maybe he just asked himself, “Y’all ready for this?”

But before he could deal his death blow, Whitestorm knocked him aside and grasped the ShadowClan warrior.

“ThunderClan warriors do not kill unless they have to,” he growled in Firepaw’s ear.

So the main character was just about to murder someone. Can someone remind Ten why this is supposed to be the good guy?

They grab the kits and go. Yellowfang comes too.

“Suddenly” Total: at least ten. She’s cringing.

[Brain]

"Alternative Title: It’s Raining; It’s Pouring. This Chapter Is Boring. Ravenpaw’s Disapproval Rating is Soaring."
---
This is hilarious.

“Suddenly” Total: at least ten. She’s cringing.
---
I get it!

[Ten]

Chapter 25
Alternative Title: A Knot of Loose Ends

“Well done, Whitestorm. ThunderClan honors you.”

Whitestorm bent his head to accept her praise, and added, “But it was thanks to this apprentice that we found them.”

Doesn’t anyone else get any credit?

Before Firepaw can bask in the praise, Tigerclaw whips the Clan back into the anti-Yellowfang mood. You know, Ten has to wonder why they hate Yellowfang more that Firepaw.

“Look between Spottedleaf’s claws,” Graypaw suggested. “You will find the brown fur of Clawface, not Yellowfang’s gray fur!”

Bluestar nodded at Mousefur, who darted away from the crowd, toward the spot where Spottedleaf’s body lay, waiting for its dawn burial. The Clan waited in tense silence till she returned.

Why didn’t they check that earlier?

Of course, Yellowfang is in the clear and becomes ThunderClan’s medicine cat.

Firepaw felt a surge of satisfaction that the old she-cat he cad come to love would be his Clan’s medicine cat from now on.

Ten isn’t convinced. Firepaw doesn’t love anyone. Perhaps not calling her a mangy furball is supposed to show that he loves her. Some love, that.

Then his tail dropped as he realized that he would never again find Spottedleaf in her clearing, the sunlight gleaming on her soft fur, her amber eyes shining in welcome.

He misses his eye candy.

Firepaw also lies again by telling the Clan Ravenpaw is dead.

Bluestar broke the silence. “We will miss Ravenpaw, but we shall mourn him tomorrow. First there is another ritual that must be performed – one, I know, that Ravenapw would have taken pleasure in.”

She’s talking about Firepaw and Graypaw’s warrior ceremonies. Why is it that promotions are more important than respecting the dead? Did no one care about Ravenpaw any more than Rosetail?

“Firepaw, Graypaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your lives?”

Firepaw felt something stir within him, a fire that burned in his belly

Need some tums? Right, back to the quote.

…and rang in his ears. He suddenly felt that everything he had done for the Clan so far – all the prey he had stalked, all the enemy warriors he had fought – had been for the sake of this single moment. “I do,” he replied steadily.

“I do,” echoed Graypaw, his fur bristling with excitement.

“Then by the powers of StarClan I

…now pronounce you tom and husband.” Firepaw, why must you break Ravenpaw’s heart?

As Tigerclaw headed back to the warriors’ den, Fireheart left Graystripe sitting alone in the clearing and bounded after Bluestar. He caught up with her outside her den. “Bluestar, I know I’m breaking the vow of silence, but I must speak with you before I begin my vigil.”

It hasn’t even been five minutes since he promised to obey the rules and now he wants to break them again. Bluestar tells him to shove it that it can wait.

Fireheart looked at the moon above his head. His orange coat glowed silver in the cold light.

This has happened so much that Ten has run out of things to say about it.

And now for the final paragraph of the chapter, and thus, the book, where Tigerclaw and Firepaw have a staring contest. Later, they play Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Fireheart stared back without blinking. He was a warrior now. He had made an enemy of the Clan’s deputy, but Tigerclaw had made an enemy of him. Fireheart was not the same naïve young cat who had joined the Clan all those moons ago. He was bigger, stronger, faster, and wiser. If he was destined to oppose Tigerclaw, then so be it. Fireheart was ready for the challenge.

Most of that list she can swallow, as they’re physical attributes likely to have improved with training. But “wiser”? Fireheart isn’t wiser at all. If anything, he seems stupider, now that readers have gotten to know him better.

This chapter reeks of resolution as Erin Hunter wraps up everything within reach except for the things which should occur, such as a mourning ritual for Ravenpaw and Firepaw exposing Tigerclaw’s crimes. The latter is a blatant plot contrivance. Ten would much rather Fireheart had remained an apprentice and taken a spotlight to the truth.

Messages in This Chapter
Death is Unimportant {aversion of this}
{x} Moonlight can change an object's color.


Conclusion

First, a quick review of the book’s contents.

Messages and Teachings:
{x} Moonlight can change an object's color.
{x} Females need males to rescue them.
{x} Readers need dialogue to explain everything for them in unnatural speech patterns.
{x} Beauty Equals Goodness
{x} It's Okay to Insult Yellowfang
{x} The Eldery Are Not Important
Death is Not Important {some complete aversions of this trope}

Warriors Canon Morals:
#1 (a) cat food is bad (b) any water that isn't rain or river water is bad
#2 gentle greetings are bad
#3 neutering is bad
#4 humans owning cats is bad

Did Not Do the Research
- cat fights (no, not those)
- feline genetics (Redtail and Blackfoot)
- biology (rat poison and cat eyeballs)

Moral Dissonance
Fireheart suggested that the Clans work together and be caring and sharing, and yet he’s eager for violence and even wanted to hurt ShadowClan before they did anything to him.

Notable Similarities to Twilight
- a relationship that is based on physical attractiveness
(and has no more depth than staring, touching, and breathing)
- something sparkling that "dazzles" the main character.

Final Verdict:

The action was light. The romance was shallow. The characters were flat. The villains had no apparent motive behind their "ambition". Nothing ever seemed to be a struggle for Firepaw, who – contrary to what may or may not be popular belief – is not perfect. He’s unintelligent, disrespectful, and displayed no qualms at lying or stealing. And yet the Erins act like he’s perfect. This is the reason he’s a gary stu, not any lack of flaws.

So then, why do people like the series? Why did they even proceed to the next book? Ten's answer is that Warriors fans are to Warriors as Star Wars fans are to Star Wars: an adoration of the concept. The feral cats, the Clan lifestyle, the naming method, the traditions and lore, the nobility of the wilderness, the entire Warriors atmosphere – this is what there is to care about.