Warrior Cats and death
Nov 22, 2024 9:09:41 GMT -5
Twilight Sparkle, *Ravenpaw*, and 16 more like this
Post by Mintystem on Nov 22, 2024 9:09:41 GMT -5
Warning for spoilers from the main series - including Changing Skies
I have a big problem when it comes to death in Warrior Cats: the series doesn't have enough of it, and the consequences of this are causing deep problems. This is relevant to bring into discussion now with the conclusion of an arc that saw a surprising lack of death. To put it simply: More characters have to die
The effects from the lack of deaths are showing, mainly with the background characters. Warriors has relied on background characters for the whole time it has existed, they've helped bring the world to life and give us deeper connection to the story... and these character were perfect for obligatory deaths. Background characters have contributed greatly to the series, but we can't say the same about the characters today.
There are more characters now, but since the books are as long as they were 10 or 15 years ago the time spent on background characters have to be divided up more - which means they all recieve less spotlight. And since no one can keep track of over 100 characters, some will inevitably be left out. We're at the point where people are celebrating Eaglewing for existing (she's been here for 7 years), and people's opinions on many background characters rely solely on headcanon.
There have been opportunities to kill more characters in these last two arcs. The Battle in Veil of Shadows was hinted to be absolutely devastating, but only about 2 cats per Clan were lost - that's not devastating, it's barely more than the average battle! No one was timeskipped between The Broken Code and A Starless Clan; and all of A Starless Clan was filled with opportunities to kill off characters - most were not taken. This trend of killing as few characters as possible resulted in one of Star's big flaws: The only ones who died were the villains, not even a background character or something.
The problem is doubled down in Changing Skies. Despite a relatively large timeskip, only one character died - but it was in WindClan, where overpopulation isn't an issue. ThunderClan brings their population to an absurd 53 cats! Despite already having characters that go unused; in April it will be 4 years since Leafshade was last mentioned, if characters go unused for that long, there's no need to add more.
It's clear more characters have to go, but here comes a hard truth: Warriors can't only get rid of the blank slates, they're almost exclusively in the younger generation. Older characters also have to go - like Cloudtail, Brightheart and Brackenfur. The older characters have played their part, it's time for the newer characters to get some spotlight.
In conclusion: The story has been given more background characters than it can handle. I don't believe population is the only cause of the blank slates, nor do I believe all characters have to be complex, but all need to have a place in the story. We see that multiple characters do have a place, but they lack screentime; but others have no place, their appearances are few and add nothing. Death used to be a big part of warriors, it could come anywhere at any time (Shrewpaw, Sootfur, Cinderpelt, Honeyfern, Longtail, etc...), this isn't the case today. This has led to overpopulation, which itself has had damaging effects to the books. If death was more present it would overall improve the story and help the characters.
/Mintystem
I have a big problem when it comes to death in Warrior Cats: the series doesn't have enough of it, and the consequences of this are causing deep problems. This is relevant to bring into discussion now with the conclusion of an arc that saw a surprising lack of death. To put it simply: More characters have to die
The effects from the lack of deaths are showing, mainly with the background characters. Warriors has relied on background characters for the whole time it has existed, they've helped bring the world to life and give us deeper connection to the story... and these character were perfect for obligatory deaths. Background characters have contributed greatly to the series, but we can't say the same about the characters today.
There are more characters now, but since the books are as long as they were 10 or 15 years ago the time spent on background characters have to be divided up more - which means they all recieve less spotlight. And since no one can keep track of over 100 characters, some will inevitably be left out. We're at the point where people are celebrating Eaglewing for existing (she's been here for 7 years), and people's opinions on many background characters rely solely on headcanon.
There have been opportunities to kill more characters in these last two arcs. The Battle in Veil of Shadows was hinted to be absolutely devastating, but only about 2 cats per Clan were lost - that's not devastating, it's barely more than the average battle! No one was timeskipped between The Broken Code and A Starless Clan; and all of A Starless Clan was filled with opportunities to kill off characters - most were not taken. This trend of killing as few characters as possible resulted in one of Star's big flaws: The only ones who died were the villains, not even a background character or something.
The problem is doubled down in Changing Skies. Despite a relatively large timeskip, only one character died - but it was in WindClan, where overpopulation isn't an issue. ThunderClan brings their population to an absurd 53 cats! Despite already having characters that go unused; in April it will be 4 years since Leafshade was last mentioned, if characters go unused for that long, there's no need to add more.
It's clear more characters have to go, but here comes a hard truth: Warriors can't only get rid of the blank slates, they're almost exclusively in the younger generation. Older characters also have to go - like Cloudtail, Brightheart and Brackenfur. The older characters have played their part, it's time for the newer characters to get some spotlight.
In conclusion: The story has been given more background characters than it can handle. I don't believe population is the only cause of the blank slates, nor do I believe all characters have to be complex, but all need to have a place in the story. We see that multiple characters do have a place, but they lack screentime; but others have no place, their appearances are few and add nothing. Death used to be a big part of warriors, it could come anywhere at any time (Shrewpaw, Sootfur, Cinderpelt, Honeyfern, Longtail, etc...), this isn't the case today. This has led to overpopulation, which itself has had damaging effects to the books. If death was more present it would overall improve the story and help the characters.
/Mintystem
