I HAVE ASC#4 THUNDER! THUNDER SPOILER THREAD

Just a quick question does Fernstripe show up at all in the rest of the book? I was hoping she and Sunbeam would talk.

Also. Podlight! My favorite guy with my favorite name! I wouldn't mind if he end up being a villain because he has done absolutely nothing prior to this.

And that's a wrap!

Unpopular opinion, but I like what they did with Berryheart here. I was actually worried they were going to dumb her down and have her attack someone or take over ShadowClan violently, which would never have worked. 
It's been clear that Berryheart is a rule-follower at heart, she sticks to order, not chaos. She's a loyal ShadowClan warrior and would never dream of breaking the code so blatently. This gives her time to have a downward spiral during her exile, leading up to her big breaking point where something drastic occurs. 
And of course Tigerstar would exile her. He's too proud, too convinced that what he's doing is right. This is completely in character for him. As for the writers favoring him? I honestly don't have a clear idea where they're going with this. They make a point to call Tigerstar out at every turn, but to also establish that he's clearly deluded himself into believing he's completely right. I think he'll be out of his position by the end of the arc, and this is the buildup to it, but I may be wrong. I think they're doing a good job of making this outcome unpredictable.

Interesting that Duskfur just stepped down. Medicine cat Podlight makes me wonder if something happened or will happen to Mothwing.

This book seems a lot like the last bit of calm before the (very large) storm. Excited for Wind already!

Given that Frostpaw senses Splashtail's hatred and determination, it would seem that he truly has a reason for wanting to take power.  Is it because of Softpelt's death?  Theory: Splashtail was neglected by Havenpelt when he was a kit and Softpelt was an adoptive mother to him, therefore, her death would have ripped out his heart and he would have become like Obito Uchiha in Naruto.  Splashtail holds a grudge against Shadowsight, Squirrelstar, and Brambleclaw, for being responsible for Ashfur's return to the world of the living, for StarClan, for accepting Ashfur among its ranks despite his crimes, for Sneezecloud, for fighting with RiverClan while  he knew that Bramblestar was an impostor as he had attended the secret meeting in TST, to the codebreakers, whose goal of Ashfur to exile them is what caused the battle against ShadowClan, in Harestar, for collaborating with Ashfur,  to his RiverClan Clanmates for letting their leader collaborate with Ashfur, to Tigerstar and Leafstar, who fought against RiverClan, to Harelight and Icewing, who betrayed RiverClan, all of which caused Softpelt's death even though the warrior code was banned  to kill.  There are three antagonists in ASC: Tigerstar, Berryheart and Splashtail, and two of them are linked to two of the three great enemies of the Clans: Tigerstar, Darktail and Ashfur.  Tigerstar is the grandson of the 1st Tigerstar and annexed RiverClan, which has caused him to be compared to his grandfather given the similarity to the 1st Tigerstar who took over RiverClan, forming TigerClan;  Berryheart does this because of Darktail's actions, his guilt over betraying ShadowClan to join him, and Needletail's death.  So, it would be logical that Splashtail acts as he does because of Ashfur's actions which caused Softpelt's death.  Tigerstar(Tigerclaw), Darktail and Ashfur = Tigerstar(Tigerheart), Berryheart and Splashtail.  Once in power, Splashtail could imprison, exile, or kill Mothwing, Icewing, Harelight, and Sneezecloud.  Berryheart and Splashtail could be plotting to attack ShadowClan and assassinate Tigerstar.  Berryheart wants to put Sunbeam and Fringewhisker to the test by having them find themselves fighting against ShadowClan and SkyClan respectively.  She said in River that the Clans needed to remember why the code forbade inter-clan relations, it's about time that happened.

puddleshine is right, the rule can be exploited easily because if there is one group in a clanthat is mutinous and that doesnt like their leader or wants them out of power for a non valid reason, as long as they have med cat aproval they can rise to power without breaking the code. imagine its tbp and yellowfang is with tigerstar, he could have taken over thunderclan 3 times as fast if this was the code back then.

i do agree that tigerstar is a bad leader however i would rather he died or steppen down instead of beingdemoted by effing berryheart

Ah, so it's Wasp that goes to the Clans alongside Waffle. I thought it would be Rook or Bee considering the focus that those two got, but oh well. I will miss them, though. Aw, that's sweet. I know we'll probably never meet those kits, but still.

The vigil for Frostpaw was just held and now she's back. Can't wait to see RC's reaction on that one. Go, Sunbeam, go! So... that's how Berryheart got exiled? That's not what I though would happen. And Sparrowtail and Hollowspring go with her, which makes sense. Her mate and son. Naturally, Spireclaw and Sunbeam did not go thanks to all the headache Berryheart caused for them.

Podlight is the new medicine cat of RC? Yeah... not buying it. He literally made Splashtail leader. You know, he was on Reedwhisker's final patrol. Just saying.

I remember when Firestar was looking at his newborn daughters, he was thinking about how they might become the leader of their Clan one day. Looks like that finally came true for Squirrelstar.

People keep mentioning that Berryheart wasn’t even allowed to put it to vote, but the problem was that the code requires medicine cat support, and it turns out she did not have it. So it could not be put to vote via the code, not because Tigerstar just said “no” to it.

Woo-wee what a ride. I can already tell I am going to love this book.

-Frostpaw. That poor, poor baby. I truly didn't want to believe it, but holy mother of pearl! What a plot twist! Too bad they had to foreshadow it. This should have been a rip the bandaid moment for all of us, not just Frostpaw. So she still hasn't decided on the new leader yet? I figured Riverstar would eventually tell her. Guess she still needs to grow a bit before accepting the truth.

-Sunbeam. What an absolute BAMF! Not only did she find her forever home and crush those trials, but she finally cut Berryheart down to size! It's about dang time. Despite being the most mature of the three, she certainly had a lot more room to grow. Blazefire doesn't know what he missed out on.

-Nightheart. I am so proud of my boy. What an incredible journey he has undergone in just two books. He truly has become a little Firestar, but in the best way possible. I can't wait to see what else they do with him.

-Park cats. So they're still in the same camp almost a century later? I thought for sure we would be seeing WarriorClan again, but now it makes sense. It took two days for Riverstar to ride down the river to the forest. That could be dozens of miles depending on how fast the current is. Waffle sounds adorable! I guess he'll be keeping his prefix since he's been referred to as Wafflepaw, but I really wish they changed it. I didn't mind them keeping old names in SkyClan as a sort of cultural difference they developed, but I'd prefer it didn't carry over to every outsider that joined the Clans.

-Berryheart. I was expecting more than that. A fight or caught doing something bad. Instead it was a self imposed exile. Alright then. The storm must still be coming. And has everyone else forgotten that the current deputy is Cloverfoot? You know, Berryheart's sister? That makes Berryheart's motives look even more suspect from the cats' perspective. Now I highly doubt Cloverfoot is involved, but that was an interesting detail.

True. This could likely mean that Splashtail put fresh prey there to lure the dogs to Curlfeather so he'd get rid of her (kinda like Tigerstar did with the rabbit corpses and Brindleface in TPB to destroy ThunderClan with the dog pack and Ashfur with storing prey at the abandoned twoleg nest and then sending Sparkpelt there to fetch catmint while he knew dogs were in the area during TBC).

Imagine if we get Splashstar lol.
Also Berryheart had it coming