General Discussion

The Warriors series. Yes, the one about the cats.

When I first started reading, I was so intrigued. The world was entirely unique to me (given, I was a third grader), the characters were interesting, and the plot was advanced in an attention-capturing way. There was also a lot of good character development, and I loved the lore. And the names. Can't forget the names.

BUT.

The newer series are worse. Maybe because nothing ever compares to the original.

But also because the characters are more dislikable. The Clans are far from what they used to be (let's be honest and admit it: incest is rampant in the Clans since no one can breed with outsiders). I kinda miss when the Clans thought StarClan was all-powerful, as it helped maintain order in the Clans (and my sanity). I thought the new plot ideas were good, but the main characters I just... ugh. I could write an entire essay on characters I don't like, but I'm just going to cut it short and say that I could not stand suffering through an entire arc with Dovepaw as the main character. I don't care that she's a fan-favorite, the whole world can come at me if they want. She's better as Dovewing, but xsjkdhcvsdkblxnlsdjxcvnm,sjkn ms. I hated her with a passion, and I still do. Same goes for Tigerstar 2.0
plus the cats with terrible names, like TWIGBRANCH. Can't forget the names... Like yes, Bramblestar, I get that it's symbolic, but I could think of a hundred better names off the top of my head.

The worst part for me is the newest series, though. The idea is great, but every book is the same - the characters have the exact same conversation, and no one ever goes through any character development. To be frank, I forgot what half the plot was about, and I only read them (the whole lot) like a month ago. The only part I found really interesting was when Ashfur was in the scene, and that's saying something. When Shadowsight found what had happened to StarClan was fun too, but it was cut short and honestly? Bramblestar deserves what he got. He's abusive to Squirrelflight and a terrible leader. Man I hate Bramble.

I am excited to see where it goes, since there are only two books left and things should speed up, but I really hope it gets more interesting and ends in a satisfying way. And also that Root and Bristle can finally resolve their forced relationship.

[quote name="Greyjoy" date="2021-05-01 07:39:24" ] Eragon, obviously. 100% trash. Badly written, awful story, awful characters, horribly edited. Sure, it was written by a teen and you know what? IT SHOWS. And doesn't excuse poor editing. Pure nepotism got that garbage published. [/quote] Seconded. I first read parts of the series when I was younger. I enjoyed the first book well enough but the second? Oh my god. The author seems to take every opportunity to ignore the main plot involving Eragon and his quest or whatever to focus on his brother. It’s boring and I found myself practically skimming through it to get back to the main story before dropping it all together. I never made it through the rest, which kinda sucked since I liked some elements of the books, mostly Saphira’s character, the magic system which I personally think is kinda cool, and just the dragons themselves because I did and still do love dragons.

[quote name="Zikitty" date="2021-05-01 23:21:12" ] The Warriors series. Yes, the one about the cats. When I first started reading, I was so intrigued. The world was entirely unique to me (given, I was a third grader), the characters were interesting, and the plot was advanced in an attention-capturing way. There was also a lot of good character development, and I loved the lore. And the names. Can't forget the names. BUT. The newer series are worse. Maybe because nothing ever compares to the original. But also because the characters are more dislikable. The Clans are far from what they used to be (let's be honest and admit it: incest is rampant in the Clans since no one can breed with outsiders). I kinda miss when the Clans thought StarClan was all-powerful, as it helped maintain order in the Clans (and my sanity). I thought the new plot ideas were good, but the main characters I just... ugh. I could write an entire essay on characters I don't like, but I'm just going to cut it short and say that I could not stand suffering through an entire arc with Dovepaw as the main character. I don't care that she's a fan-favorite, the whole world can come at me if they want. She's better as Dovewing, but xsjkdhcvsdkblxnlsdjxcvnm,sjkn ms. I hated her with a passion, and I still do. Same goes for Tigerstar 2.0 plus the cats with terrible names, like TWIGBRANCH. Can't forget the names... Like yes, Bramblestar, I get that it's symbolic, but I could think of a hundred better names off the top of my head. The worst part for me is the newest series, though. The idea is great, but every book is the same - the characters have the exact same conversation, and no one ever goes through any character development. To be frank, I forgot what half the plot was about, and I only read them (the whole lot) like a month ago. The only part I found really interesting was when Ashfur was in the scene, and that's saying something. [spoiler]When Shadowsight found what had happened to StarClan was fun too, but it was cut short and honestly? Bramblestar deserves what he got. He's abusive to Squirrelflight and a terrible leader. Man I hate Bramble.[/spoiler] I am excited to see where it goes, since there are only two books left and things should speed up, but I really hope it gets more interesting and ends in a satisfying way. And also that Root and Bristle can finally resolve their forced relationship. [/quote] I didn't think I would find someone else who agreed with me! The first two series were excellent, but from The Power of Three on, it was...not so great. I didn't find the new focus characters at all compelling. In fact, the only one of them I could tolerate for more than three seconds was Lionheart, and he gets off scot-free for being a himbo. [spoiler]Death was also so cheap that they had to make up a second one.[/spoiler]

[quote name="Shian" date="2021-04-29 06:10:45" ] Then, years later, I had the same experience with the Homestuck comic. I just kept reading, hoping it would get better. So many people love this? It has to get interesting at some point?! I think I gave up after 400-something pages. [/quote] I tried Homestuck, thinking there had to be something to it. Something. Anything at all. But I never got out of the MC’s house. All I can remember is thinking my character need false arms in order to pick anything up. Does it have a plot? I guess it must, but I was never able to find it. Just hours of confusion and clicking aimlessly.

[quote name="Birdarang" date="2021-05-02 12:43:02" ] [quote name="Shian" date="2021-04-29 06:10:45" ] Then, years later, I had the same experience with the Homestuck comic. I just kept reading, hoping it would get better. So many people love this? It has to get interesting at some point?! I think I gave up after 400-something pages. [/quote] I tried Homestuck, thinking there had to be something to it. Something. Anything at all. But I never got out of the MC’s house. All I can remember is thinking my character need false arms in order to pick anything up. Does it have a plot? I guess it must, but I was never able to find it. Just hours of confusion and clicking aimlessly. [/quote] You aren't the only two. I think I gave up almost immediately.

[quote name="Zikitty" date="2021-05-01 23:21:12" ] The Warriors series. Yes, the one about the cats. [/quote] I wanted to cut this short for space, but... yes. All of what you said. To be fair, I'm outside of the target demographic (which I believe is about 8-13 or something like that) so I'm bound to not feel the same way about it as I did when I was younger, but [i]goodness[/i] there are a lot of problems with Warriors now. Everything feels so stale and repetitive. I gave up on it for the most part, but I still skim through the newer books just so that I can have the satisfaction of feeling like I completed the series.

[quote name="Zikitty" date="2021-05-01 23:21:12" ] The Warriors series. Yes, the one about the cats. -- snipped for space-- [/quote] This. This is exactly it. I also have a lot of thoughts on the cat books, most of them revolving around how it's just...not as good as it used to be. Arc 1 was good, self contained story, a new concept and a new idea that didn't suffer from only having one focus clan (that being ThunderClan). Now that there's 5 arcs, the focus in ThunderClan really suffers and other clans are being forgotten. What happened to remembering RiverClan existed? Mistystar is so old because the series has mostly forgotten about her until they finally decided to use her now. And Bramblestar. Oh god, Bramblestar. There's a long YouTube video that discusses my feelings about him more than I ever could, but that cat's terrible and deserved what he got. He doesn't deserve Squirrel and I'm not even a big fan of her. And then there's the rampant author's favoritism in newer arcs...the authors love Bramble because to them "he's a great and loyal warrior" do they know what they're writing? [spoiler]Tigerheart. Tigerheart dies and they bring him back to life, OVER cats like Tawnypelt, even when he left the clan, just because I think the authors like him. StarClan can bring cats back even when they're not leaders? Why couldn't they do that before to, you know, fix so many problems in the series?[/spoiler] New characters are boring. Can't care less about Root or Shadow or Twig (and yeah that's a horrible name) or all the other new cats that just never captured interest in me. They're so basic? And of course the fandom is still fawning over cats like Hollyleaf and Ashfur [spoiler]Ashfur is actually getting interesting, not like Darktail (or whatever his name was) had been.[/spoiler] and where's my love for the first arc!! Oh and we can't forget the new covers that sometimes don't understand how cats work (some of the new covers have cats with what looks like dramatic eyeliner, and no- not like the real life eyeliner cats that are CUTIES.) and then for some reason Bluestar (RUSSIAN BLUE SHORTHAIR?) is becoming a big fluffy longhair? Look at the new images: [url=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605519644312207362/839116504444043274/latest.png]new one[/url] [url=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605519644312207362/839116449670234112/352.png]old Bluestar's Prophecy cover[/url] This shows such a disdain for the first arc. You didn't even CHECK TO SEE what YOUR OWN CATS LOOK LIKE?? And then they messed up Spottedleaf too, another Arc 1 cat, and...do they remember the original cats that we love so much? In my opinion Power of Three was weak, Omen of the Stars was the same, and it should have ended there. Sure, the plot of the new ones is getting better, but this is just fantasy fighting cats without the bit of grounded realism they used to have. Compare the first arc where the evil cat was Tigerstar, who had a gang of rogues and dogs and took over another clan versus the recent arc, where [spoiler]Ashfur is creating a mind controlled gang in Cat Hell[/spoiler] and they're very, very different things. It's no longer grounded. The cats are becoming magic. I'll try not to write TOO much but yeah, Warriors isn't what I remember it as. It's going downhill, and while the plot isn't bad in the newer ones, it's just not grounded like it used to be. It's just generally declining in what brought nostalgic fans like me to the series. The cats are magic.

@Bronzewing This, all of this. I'll stick to the first two arcs, DOTC, and prequel Super Editions, thank you very much.

@sunnySerina

The prequel super editions are great- told us about cats we needed to know more about. Recent ones tend to be either long versions of normal series books or about cats we don't really need a POV on!