Post by halogen on Sept 18, 2021 23:02:04 GMT -5
A common theme I've noticed in debates about certain cats is how much they actually accomplished for the good of other cats/their Clan/the forest. For example, critics of Ivypool will point out that she never really accomplished anything as a spy, or critics of Bluestar will point out that she never actually did anything to earn her position as deputy and didn't do as much good as leader as the narrative portrays. This is in contrast to most notably Firestar, who accomplishes a lot in his life and is objectively a hero - unlike the later arc's protagonists, he doesn't just end up having no influence on how the arc actually turns out. And this, I think is a big part of why a lot of people love Firestar, and he's more popular here than either Bluestar or Ivypool - he is what the narrative tells you he is, and there's a payoff to watching his journey as a character in how he's able to not just grow for themselves but change the lives of many others for the better, and "save the day".
And that is exactly why I don't like Firestar.
You see, the payoff of seeing a character become a hero and have their actions mean something in the world depends entirely in my mind on who the character is. You don't cheer just because a character saves the day, you cheer because a particular, unique character, who you know intimately the flaws and strengths and dreams of, who you have followed a winding character arc of and become invested in their journey, who is most of all human, does something truly heroic and meaningful, proving their strength of character completely in a way that matters. And Firestar just doesn't fulfill that. He steers far too close to the generic, archetypical hero in terms of his personality and his character arc for it to really get that feeling of a unique character; he feels instead like he saves the day because he was transparently created as the placeholder in the story to fulfill that role. Compare his typical "kind-hearted outsider rises to the top" story with even a minor character like Littlecloud going from child soldier to refugee during a plague and finding his calling as a medicine cat after his life is saved in the midst of another tyrant's rule, or the story of someone like Yellowfang in the first arc. He's the best fighter, the chosen one of an obvious prophecy, and just set up to succeed in a stereotypical way.
Meanwhile, the characters I mentioned above were intended to have this role, where the good the character has done grants their particular, unique character's story meaning; the only problem is that the story doesn't properly show that good the character has done. Ivypool is clearly intended to be written so that the payoff to her being a flawed, jealous and bitter apprentice who's envy and naïveté has trapped her in the horrible world of the Dark Forest is her owning up to her mistakes and willingly entering this terrifying literal nightmare every day and saving the Clans with her courage and cleverness. That's what her fans like about her, and her critics don't like her in large part because the payoff is botched, her actions never mattered for the Clans, so all she accomplished was a bunch of negative things like being a jerk to Dovewing and getting ThunderClan and ShadowClan into an unnecessary battle. This is why I liked this AU aminoapps.com/c/warriors/page/blog/her-purpose-hollyleaf-au/oJN6_WEFdu7QJKBoMEM48JNPNLgozG55Mw (where Hollyleaf takes Ivypool's role) so much - it starts with a character who I personally think is a lot more compelling than Ivypool and creates a complex character arc where the payoff is that her actions and sacrifices truly matter in saving the Clans because she actually is a successful spy. Bluestar, meanwhile, is supposed to be a tragic hero whose nobility and all the good she has done for her Clan are cast in contrast with the brutal choice she had to make and her eventual downfall and make her ending truly meaningful and tragic rather than just a tale of a cat messing things up. Again, it falls flat for many because of the good she accomplished not being established enough - and while for some it worked well enough anyway in the first arc due to her being introduced as an old cat with a lifetime of glory and leadership implied to be behind her, her super edition actually showed her backstory and didn't show her doing anything positive for her Clan the whole time. This is why my rewrite of Bluestar's Prophecy has both her and Thistleclaw growing up in a difficult time for their Clan and becoming shortlisted for the deputy position due to both of their feats of heroism.
Now, of course, not every character has to be a hero. There's plenty of room for compelling characters whose stories are negative, with their flawed nature only making the world a worse place, or for characters who are nice and good but never accomplish anything dramatic. But it's disappointing, for all its many arcs, how few actual heroes the series has, and that our best example of a hero is someone who feels less like a character whose unique nature is tested and proven as a hero than he is the archetypical idea of heroism made into a character who is always destined to succeed. Jayfeather was clearly created to fulfill this role, as a character with a more unique background and flaws who still found his way into the hero's journey, but his arcs were such a mess with the Dark Forest not really having the potential to threaten the Clans that it's questionable whether anything he did really mattered in the long run. Feathertail fits the role but only years after the fact with her complexity and character arc introduced in a manga made way after she saved the Tribe and contributed to uniting the Clans against the twoleg threat, too. I haven't read Dawn of the Clans or the SkyClan Super Editions so I don't know if anyone like Leafstar or Gray Wing qualify as "heroes with payoff', in any case from what I know of DOTC from this forum Gray Wing doesn't seem to have Firestar's aura of destiny and favoritism by the narrative. But I do hope the eighth arc gives us a character like this!
And that is exactly why I don't like Firestar.
You see, the payoff of seeing a character become a hero and have their actions mean something in the world depends entirely in my mind on who the character is. You don't cheer just because a character saves the day, you cheer because a particular, unique character, who you know intimately the flaws and strengths and dreams of, who you have followed a winding character arc of and become invested in their journey, who is most of all human, does something truly heroic and meaningful, proving their strength of character completely in a way that matters. And Firestar just doesn't fulfill that. He steers far too close to the generic, archetypical hero in terms of his personality and his character arc for it to really get that feeling of a unique character; he feels instead like he saves the day because he was transparently created as the placeholder in the story to fulfill that role. Compare his typical "kind-hearted outsider rises to the top" story with even a minor character like Littlecloud going from child soldier to refugee during a plague and finding his calling as a medicine cat after his life is saved in the midst of another tyrant's rule, or the story of someone like Yellowfang in the first arc. He's the best fighter, the chosen one of an obvious prophecy, and just set up to succeed in a stereotypical way.
Meanwhile, the characters I mentioned above were intended to have this role, where the good the character has done grants their particular, unique character's story meaning; the only problem is that the story doesn't properly show that good the character has done. Ivypool is clearly intended to be written so that the payoff to her being a flawed, jealous and bitter apprentice who's envy and naïveté has trapped her in the horrible world of the Dark Forest is her owning up to her mistakes and willingly entering this terrifying literal nightmare every day and saving the Clans with her courage and cleverness. That's what her fans like about her, and her critics don't like her in large part because the payoff is botched, her actions never mattered for the Clans, so all she accomplished was a bunch of negative things like being a jerk to Dovewing and getting ThunderClan and ShadowClan into an unnecessary battle. This is why I liked this AU aminoapps.com/c/warriors/page/blog/her-purpose-hollyleaf-au/oJN6_WEFdu7QJKBoMEM48JNPNLgozG55Mw (where Hollyleaf takes Ivypool's role) so much - it starts with a character who I personally think is a lot more compelling than Ivypool and creates a complex character arc where the payoff is that her actions and sacrifices truly matter in saving the Clans because she actually is a successful spy. Bluestar, meanwhile, is supposed to be a tragic hero whose nobility and all the good she has done for her Clan are cast in contrast with the brutal choice she had to make and her eventual downfall and make her ending truly meaningful and tragic rather than just a tale of a cat messing things up. Again, it falls flat for many because of the good she accomplished not being established enough - and while for some it worked well enough anyway in the first arc due to her being introduced as an old cat with a lifetime of glory and leadership implied to be behind her, her super edition actually showed her backstory and didn't show her doing anything positive for her Clan the whole time. This is why my rewrite of Bluestar's Prophecy has both her and Thistleclaw growing up in a difficult time for their Clan and becoming shortlisted for the deputy position due to both of their feats of heroism.
Now, of course, not every character has to be a hero. There's plenty of room for compelling characters whose stories are negative, with their flawed nature only making the world a worse place, or for characters who are nice and good but never accomplish anything dramatic. But it's disappointing, for all its many arcs, how few actual heroes the series has, and that our best example of a hero is someone who feels less like a character whose unique nature is tested and proven as a hero than he is the archetypical idea of heroism made into a character who is always destined to succeed. Jayfeather was clearly created to fulfill this role, as a character with a more unique background and flaws who still found his way into the hero's journey, but his arcs were such a mess with the Dark Forest not really having the potential to threaten the Clans that it's questionable whether anything he did really mattered in the long run. Feathertail fits the role but only years after the fact with her complexity and character arc introduced in a manga made way after she saved the Tribe and contributed to uniting the Clans against the twoleg threat, too. I haven't read Dawn of the Clans or the SkyClan Super Editions so I don't know if anyone like Leafstar or Gray Wing qualify as "heroes with payoff', in any case from what I know of DOTC from this forum Gray Wing doesn't seem to have Firestar's aura of destiny and favoritism by the narrative. But I do hope the eighth arc gives us a character like this!