STAR SPOILER THREAD (Summaries for Each Chapter!)

Honestly not too bad. Since these are just summarized points I'm guessing it reads better instead. Also I rather they take out the villains half way through instead of last second and leave a bunch of stuff untied. The second half chapters obviously have to do more with character conclusions and seems to be very important for Frostdawn. On the other hand, happy for NightSun. I'm guessing they'll do another round of novella books, like after OotS to fill in any holes, so the usual. Hoping for an Icestar or Owlnose one to help give more insight. Thank you for the spoilers, looking forward to reading it myself!

At the end of the Wind spoiler thread, I had pointed out the following questions regarding plot points that had yet to be resolved:

-What did Lightleap see in River that spooked her?
-What exactly happened to Jayclaw?
-How did Frostpaw see Curlfeather after her death if (1) her visions at that point weren't real, and/or (2) Curlfeather was in the Dark Forest?
-Will Bee's vision amount to anything?
-Why was Frostpaw spayed - is that going to have any effect on her story? (Doesn't seem to make any difference so far...)

And it seems like none of them ended up being resolved after all. I guess we could chalk up Frostpaw's vision of Curlfeather as a regular dream, but even now that scene at the end of Star suggests it was more real than that.

i think a curlfeather sc would work wayyyyy better

The other things I am thinking about:

- My impression from the last book is that most RiverClan cats were following Splashtail because they thought he was anointed by StarClan and had nine lives. That reasoning seems kind of forgotten about this book. Pixie, was anyone calling him Splashstar?

- I would still like to know Splashtail's motivation and descent into madness at the end. Fleshing that out a bit more would have made him a much cooler villain. Like, imagine if he had been "seeing" visions since he was young, feeding him grandiose ideas of power that inflated his ego, and he was good at hiding it in his youth, but they slowly got darker and encouraged him to do worse things; then maybe as his power struggle started going wrong, those "visions" turned ugly and slowly drove him to paranoia and insanity. That would have been really cool.

- A little weird they waited until the last book to start developing some of these characters.

- I actually like the conclusion of Nightheart's arc. Him being okay with Firestar's legacy because he's sufficiently carved out his own niche feels like a realistic reflection of maturation. I'm pretty sure the thing about his family suggesting the kits be named Ember, Scorch, and Blaze is supposed to be a joke referencing how uncreative his family is with legacy names.

- I like all the med/warrior names given in this book! They all roll off the tongue nicely and conjur lovely mental images.

Anyways, to get straight into it, all of the protagonists were utilized well in this book! Usually, in these protagonist trios, one of the characters end up not doing a bunch, but I think all of them carried their weight. Nightheart spent a decent portion of time being a prisoner in the RiverClan camp; Sunbeam was a glimpse into ShadowClan; Frostpaw stays carrying the plot forward. She’s the one to kill Splashtail, is RiverClan’s connection to StarClan, and puts a new leader into place.

Honestly, I can’t choose between Sunbeam’s and Frostpaw’s chapters. Sunbeam offers a unique perspective (thinking that one can find peace in the Dark Forest by coming to terms with what they are) and holds heavy value to love. When she was grieving for Berryheart, you could really feel it and even though Berryheart was clearly in the wrong, she was willing to fight for her. Her relationship with Nightheart and his family is really sweet and you can really tell she has a heart for helping others.

Frostpaw, of course, is always the one stepping up to the plate. She swims from the gathering island to WindClan’s shore. She’s the one who has the final showdown with Splashtail and ends up almost dying because of it. A heavy burden lay on her shoulders, and even though she started to entertain the idea of staying dead, she came back because her Clan needed her. She had the world on her shoulders and even though she messed up a bit when she was younger, she matured, and is going to stay true to RiverClan.

My biggest issue with the book is that the characters most likely to die are the only ones who die. The death count is two: Splashtail and Berryheart. I guess they wanted to tone down this arc’s ending because The Broken Code’s ending did not hold back. This is definitely a more grounded arc, though I still wonder how Frostdawn managed to beat Splashtail when she’s quite a bit more inexperienced than him when it comes to fighting.

The best thing about the book in my opinion besides Sunbeam and Frostdawn is the side cast. I said in an earlier post that this story has nuance to it and that comes from the characters. We have many standouts in this book: Lightleap, Owlnose, Gorseclaw, and those are just a select few. SO MANY of the characters get fleshed out. Splashtail was absolutely terrifying in this book and it’s sad that he didn't cause any real damage when he was such an intimidating villain. 

It was also cool seeing old RiverClan favorites: Crookedstar and Stonefur particularly.

Anyways, I suggest that you all read the book for yourself so that you can form your own opinions! I’m sure some information probably got missed in my summaries. 

I also think that Splashtail was also so frightened by Curlfeather that he wasn’t at his fullest capabilities when fighting. Add that to Frostdawn’s furry he definitely was far from impossible to defeat.

Pixie, can you delve a little deeper intio the chapter with Curl and frost? does curl admit remorse or guilt how did they decide to frame her? did she give a monologue?