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Post by Rainshadow on Dec 1, 2018 5:53:33 GMT -5
The thing about re-reading a book or series I like most is that there is always something new that catches my attention. An event, a character, you name it.
So, I re-read the OS /TPB / whatever I'm supposed to call it now this year and I just wanted to share a few thoughts/ideas I had this time around. My apologies if it's rambly; this was not planned and I probably forgot a lot since it did take me all year to read all 6 books.
- An overall thought first: I like the OS even more now than I remember. It has a lot of plot points and characters that I appreciate. Overall I like the fewer number of cats though I do wish we'd get a more complete overview of the other Clans. but it does have a lot of flaws as well, of course.
- Firestar is a nice protagonist. I enjoyed revisiting his POV. He's so very naive at times tho.
- I loved Frostfur, like, a lot? Especially that scene during the rogue attack on ThunderClan where she turns to Fireheart, her white coat covered in blood. That image is just really epic. But even besides that, she's a good cat. I like her.
- Somehow, I had completely forgotten about Gorsepaw. I like him, as well as Morningflower, and the dynamic between her and Fireheart. (so were these two shipped in the early days?) Her words "Is this what you saved my son for?" were really painful. Especially considering that during the crossing of the Thunderpath Morningflower refuses to give up her kit and says they will both or live or both die. (That moment was great).
- Considering Bramblepaw's personality in the OS it makes ZERO sense that he would ever have anything to do with Tigerstar. NONE. He told Tigerstar that he'd rather die than join him! I mean, him connecting to Hawkfrost makes sense as he'd relate to being judged harder by Clanmates but once their father was in the picture? Nope. Bramblepaw would never have fallen for it.
- I miss the old forest
- Bluestar's paranoia is even worse than I remember and it is amazing that Fireheart and Whitestorm were able to keep it hidden.
- Speaking of Whitestorm: knowing he is Bluestar's nephew, it is odd to read how Firestar refers to Whitestorm as the oldest of friends of Bluestar.
- How is it that none of the ThunderClan cats ever saw tail nor hair of the pack of dogs? Or even heard them bark?
- Scourge appears even less than I remember and has only a few lines. Wow. I wish even more now that Scourge had not come into play or at least introduced sooner or that he took over the invasion AFTER Firestar and Tigerstar had their final showdown so the Tiger-conflict could be put to rest.
- At the end of the dog chase, Tigerstar is suddenly there waiting for Fireheart to hold him back but why and how is he there? and why wouldn't the dogs go after him as well? Also, Bluestar saving Fireheart there and falling off the cliff didn't happen as I remembered it happening.
- Why are Mistyfoot's kits just kinda forgotten about in last book? Why aren't they captured together with her and why isn't she worried about them? So odd. Also, Reedwhisker is older than Stormfur and Feathertail so why is he still an apprentice at the start of TNP?
- Stormpaw and Featherpaw trained for while alongside Bramblepaw: I can't remember if this was mentioned in TNP? I don't think so which would be a pity. They knew each other already.
- I miss StarClan not meddling. Spottedleaf seems to have started this meddling trend by visiting Fireheart so much and what for? Her warnings were pointless really.
- Onewhisker and Mudclaw are more often together than I realized and appear to have been friends? Makes TNP more tragic really.
- The death count on the forest cats' side of the final battle is surprisingly low. Whitestorm and Tornear, that we know of, I believe? (and Darkstripe I suppose)
- The rather sudden 'conflict' between Sandstorm and Cinderpelt was weird if it's because Cinderpelt is in love with Fireheart and makes more sense if it is simply Cinderpelt missing her friend and being a bit annoyed at being brushed off when she wanted to talk about important things.
- The Graypool & Tigerstar scene on the bridge is still weird.
- What's up with Tigerstar's uncanny ability to be anywhere and everywhere when it is convenient for him??
Headcanon/AU stuff: - Blackfoot is a wonderfully opportunistic cat who goes to any length to get ahead (and actually gets what he wants). Somehow, he is kinda like Tigerclaw but actually successful. And unlike Tigger he is satisfied with his leadership once he has it and strives to improve his Clan. He feels like the cat that got away with it all.
- I wonder what if Fireheart had been the one to fall in love with a cat from another Clan? What would he have done? He seems pretty shocked by Graystripe and Bluestar's RiverClan affairs.
- What if Gorsepaw had lived and had taken Crowpaw's place as the WindClan cat for the journey in TNP? I want this AU now.
- Onewhisker totally had a crush on Fireheart.
- Tragically, I now ship Mud/One...
I'll stop here since it's gotten long and unstructurized. Feel free to share any thoughts. Would love to hear them!
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Post by embertuft on Dec 1, 2018 6:20:07 GMT -5
Wow- this is great! My favourite book of the OS has to be Forest of Secrets. - I loved the scene where Bluestar admitted to Fireheart about her kits - I kinda just forgot part of the books, where Tigerstar killed Graypool, Bluetsra was stuck on the cliff surrounded by Misty and Stone - I loved Ravenpaw in the first series - WindClan was my favourite Clan, and I like OneWHISKER not OneSTAR - I used to think Spottedleaf was a ginger tabby - I hadn’t realized as many cats had died in the fire in ThunderClan, I thought it was only two elders and Yellowfang. - I didn’t really feel sorry for Swiftpaw when he died. It was his fault that he wanted to go and fight the dogs - Whitestorm is such a sweetheart in the series, his death was really sad - I hate Leopardstar with a passion. I wish Stonefur hadn’t died.
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Post by Rainshadow on Dec 1, 2018 6:29:04 GMT -5
Oh right, Leopardstar was quite the fool too. How she could ever think teaming up with Tigerstar was a good idea is beyond me. And it's odd too seeing how hungry for territory for Riverclan she was. Why suddenly "share" it?
Ravenpaw was great! I love how he went from the nervous apprentice to a confident cat and how he was almost giddy of going on another adventure with Fire and Gray in the Darkest Hour.
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Post by embertuft on Dec 1, 2018 7:32:56 GMT -5
Oh right, Leopardstar was quite the fool too. How she could ever think teaming up with Tigerstar was a good idea is beyond me. And it's odd too seeing how hungry for territory for Riverclan she was. Why suddenly "share" it? Ravenpaw was great! I love how he went from the nervous apprentice to a confident cat and how he was almost giddy of going on another adventure with Fire and Gray in the Darkest Hour. I know, I didn’t really like Leopardstar, I thought the plot was completely stupid, wouldn’t she have backed away when she SAW Blackfoot kill her deputy? And didn’t RiverClan have enough territory and food as it was? Small theory- Leopardstar didn’t want to leave the territory when Twolegs started destroying the others, because some of Tigerstar’s selfishness rubbed onto her when they teamed up.
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Post by Rainshadow on Dec 1, 2018 8:00:04 GMT -5
Not sure if the rubbing off part is even necessary as she was already quite greedy as a deputy. Huh maybe Hawkfrost didn't just learn from his father in his dreams... And really, at the end of the Darkest Hour she speaks of how noble Stonefur was. She could have stopped Blackfoot. She SHOULD have but no she let it all play out. Even if she truly believed Tigerstar would share his power, at that point she should have well realized how wrong she'd been and stepped up as leader but she never did.
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Post by embertuft on Dec 1, 2018 10:11:49 GMT -5
Not sure if the rubbing off part is even necessary as she was already quite greedy as a deputy. Huh maybe Hawkfrost didn't just learn from his father in his dreams... And really, at the end of the Darkest Hour she speaks of how noble Stonefur was. She could have stopped Blackfoot. She SHOULD have but no she let it all play out. Even if she truly believed Tigerstar would share his power, at that point she should have well realized how wrong she'd been and stepped up as leader but she never did. Did it really take her deputy being killed, her territory being taken over by Tigerstar, Did she not even THINK- “There’s a pile of prey bones in my camp, half of my warriors are being imprisoned in camp.”- that maybe SOMETHING was wrong. And maybe a tiny part of her that could’ve said- I’m the leader of RiverClan and not Tigerstar. It’s unacceptable to imprison my warriors.
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Post by Rainshadow on Dec 1, 2018 11:08:56 GMT -5
Man the more you look at it the worse Leopardstar seems to get...
Speaking of prey bones pile, there was also rotting prey and such (the smell was apparently horrible). They clearly had plenty of prey to go around. And why is that cats who want to "unite" every cat under their complete control tend to let prey rot around camp? How does that even make sense? (I guess, in this case, Tigerstar REALLY wanted that throne of bones...)
> something else, it was interesting how Whitestorm seems to have known he wasn't going to survive the battle against BloodClan. Sure, he was old but there was no other reason to think he wouldn't survive, at least not any more or less than any other warrior. I wonder if he'd received a warning or omen?
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Post by Pince on Dec 1, 2018 11:20:31 GMT -5
This isn't a good excuse for Leopardstar but I think the reason she didn't stop Stonefur from getting killed was because she was afraid that if she tried to stop it she would get killed herself and maybe some of her clanmates who would try to save her. Even if Riverclan fought against Shadowclan they would most likely of lost.
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Post by embertuft on Dec 1, 2018 11:38:48 GMT -5
Man the more you look at it the worse Leopardstar seems to get... Speaking of prey bones pile, there was also rotting prey and such (the smell was apparently horrible). They clearly had plenty of prey to go around. And why is that cats who want to "unite" every cat under their complete control tend to let prey rot around camp? How does that even make sense? (I guess, in this case, Tigerstar REALLY wanted that throne of bones...) > something else, it was interesting how Whitestorm seems to have known he wasn't going to survive the battle against BloodClan. Sure, he was old but there was no other reason to think he wouldn't survive, at least not any more or less than any other warrior. I wonder if he'd received a warning or omen? I think he did, (I think I remember Firestar thinking that Whitestorm knew he was going to die that time)
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