Warrior Cats: the series that ruined my life forever

Into the Wild: My Introduction to the Series

i think i was in elementary school when i first heard about warrior cats. my best friend at the time (who is still my best friend to this day!) had recently gotten into this new book series about cats living in a forest. my friend group, and especially me, we had always been the weird animal girls. i was originally a wolf girl, i always watched wild kratts when i got home from school, and at around fourth grade i had already made a fursona (it was an owl girl, if i ever find the original art of her i'll probably post it somewhere on my website lol). so when my friend told me about these books, i was really curious to learn more. they explained the basic characteristics of a warrior cats character, and i made my own oc, long before i ever even read the first book, and later on they let me borrow their copy of into the wild, the first book, (which i accidentally stole for like, a year... for some reason i thought it was supposed to be a gift??? i was a dumb kid) and i was immediately obsessed. (yo wtf is there someone in my fucking neighborhood selling avocados rn??? the fuck??? sorry for getting off topic but they are using a megaphone lmaooooo?? its so loud). anyway i went through that book so fast, and i begged my mom to get me more of them. to this day i have the majority of the books, only missing the more recent ones because they don't seem as interesting to me and i'd rather pirate them anyway.

if you're curious, my first oc was called moonfur, and she was a black, grey, and white cat with teal eyes, she had fur covering one of her eyes, and she had the typical tragic backstory of a little warrior cat kid's first oc. she was a loner (cat not in a clan), her dad was in the dark forest (meaning he was evil), and he killed her mom in front of her when she was very young, leaving her and her sister orphaned in like, a sewage drain or something??? he also scratched her eye out, and starclan (basically cat heaven) blessed her with the hair over her eye so that other cats wouldnt think she was ugly. then she joined thunderclan and became mates with graystripe (...an actual character from the books. he was the protagonists best friend.)

So, What is Warrior Cats Anyway?

Warrior Cats, or simply just Warriors, is a book series written by Erin Hunter (actually a group of people under one name) that's been going on since 2003 (wow, that's longer than i've been alive! i'm actually really young compared to most fans of the books, who were already in middle school when the first book came out, but i'm also older than a lot of fans, especially the ones on tiktok and the ones on... roblox. don't worry, we'll get to the roblox game later). The first arc, or first six books, follow Rusty, a young housecat (called kittypets by clan cats) with fur that resembles fire, as he joins one of the four clans in the forest, Thunderclan, and saves the clans from an ambitious cat called Tigerclaw, and becomes the leader of Thunderclan in the process. Basically, there's four clans, each with their own territory. Thunderclan, brave cats living in a generic forest, Riverclan, agile cats living beside a river, Windclan, fast cats living on an open field, and Shadowclan, proud cats living in a swampier/marshier forest. There is also technically two/three other clans, two of these are afterlives and one is a forgotten clan that was kicked out of the forest due to habitat loss. Starclan is basically heaven and they send omens and prophecies of the future to the living, and the hell equivalent is the Dark Forest, a never ending forest where all the worst cats go, such as Mapleshade, a cat who murdered three other cats after the death of her kittens (called kits in the books) and the betrayal of her mate, who she was in a cross-clan relationship with (considered illegal in the warrior code, or clan law). The forgotten clan is Skyclan, cats who used to jump very high, and their clan, which had died out or turned to living as kittypets, was reconstructed by Firestar/Rusty in a gorge far away from the forest territory.

There are a few different ranks in the clans, which are important to understanding the series. Kits are newborn cats who stay in the nursery, and have a prefix given to them by their parents, while their suffix is kit. At six moons/months, a kit becomes an apprentice, usually training to become a warrior, but one special kit every once in a while becomes a medicine cat apprentice, and their suffix becomes paw. Upon reaching 12 moons, a cat will usually recieve their full name and become a full warrior or medicine cat, getting a suffix based on their looks/personality/etc. Medicine cats have a special role in the clan, and there are usually only two at a time, one of them being an apprentice. Medicine cats heal the warriors after battle, and also recieve the prophecies from starclan. Leaders are exactly what they sound like, cats who are in charge of their clans. Upon becoming a leader, a cat's suffix becomes 'star', showing their connection to Starclan through the nine lives they recieve. A leader will also pick one deputy, which is like an advisor to the leader, and who will become the leader once the current leader dies.
For example, Rusty, a kittypet, would've been called Firekit if he had been born into the clans. Once he joined the clans, he was already around 6 moons, so he was named Firepaw for his fire-colored fur. Once he became a warrior, his name was Fireheart, for his compassion and bravery. He became Bluestar's deputy, and became Firestar once she died.

A Summary of The Prophecies Begin, My Favorite Arc (wip)

For me, no arc has ever been as good as the first. While later arcs had incredibly iconic moments, such as the 'Ashfur fire scene', which has been recreated by countless artists and animators, they just don't give me the same feeling that the first did.
The first book starts with a scene of a battle between Thunderclan and Riverclan, in which Tigerclaw, a Thunderclan warrior, gets into an argument with Redtail, deputy of his clan, because Redtail decided to retreat because they were badly losing. Tigerclaw is an incredibly proud warrior, who saw retreating as shameful. It cuts to a scene of Bluestar and Spottedleaf, the Thunderclan leader and medicine cat respectively, discussing the battle and Starclan's recent silence. Suddenly, a star shoots across the sky, and Spottedleaf seems to tune out the world around her, then revealing that she has just recieved a prophecy from Starclan: "Fire alone will save our clan." Now that the prologue is over, we see Rusty, a young kittypet unhappy with his life, dreaming about living in the forest and hunting, until he is woken up by the sound of his dry food being poured into his bowl. He ignores the food and goes outside, speaking with his best friend, Smudge, another kittypet, and saying he wants to live in the forest, while Smudge warns him about the clan cats, who 'eat bones'. Rusty pays no mind to these rumors, and goes to the forest, attempting to catch a mouse, when suddenly he is attacked by a grey cat. He runs at first, and then decides to fight back, which shocks his attacker, a Thunderclan apprentice named Graypaw, who encourages him to join his clan. Rusty meets Bluestar and later joins Thunderclan, being named Firepaw, although many cats dislike him for being a kittypet, including Tigerclaw and his 'henchmen', and some of the other apprentices. One of Tigerclaw's friends, Longtail, goes so far as to challenge Firepaw, getting into a physical fight with him, where Firepaw's collar snaps off, which is taken as a sign from Starclan that he is no longer a kittypet and belongs in the clan, although a lot of the cats still dislike him. He befriends Graypaw and Ravenpaw, Ravenpaw being an anxious cat being mentored by Tigerclaw who is terrified of him. I should also mention that Tigerclaw did in fact murder Redtail and Ravenpaw witnessed this, Tigerclaw knowing he is a witness and constantly finding ways to terrify him into silence and threaten his life, like sending him on a hunting session alone to a place in the forest that is full of snakes.

My favorite: (wip)