A Sunny Space

Oh! And if you didn't see it over on Youtube or Twitter, it is the 20th Anniversary of Warriors! In honor of the celebration, a large collection of fans put together all sorts of art and story projects, and I joined forces with artists Pita and Lupa to make an illustrated short story called Tempest Rift about Windclan in the 6-month period between Power of Three and Omen of the Stars. It has Owlwhisker and Sunstrike as protagonists and covers grief, clan politics, friendships, challenges in mentoring, and most of all, navigating relationships with family members who don't see eye-to-eye with you.

Check it out if you're interested!

Story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44435254/chapters/111765103 Video About It: https://youtu.be/l952nPcxfVo

I think a big problem I have with several characters, especially but not exclusively disabled ones, being forced into the medicine den isn't that I wish they could be warriors but that they are actively warping clan and fandom perception of the medicine cat position as being more of a punishment.

Going through the main Thunderclan timeline, Goosefeather, Yellowfang, Cinderpelt, Jayfeather, and Alderheart were all forced to be medicine cats because of their circumstances, and Spottedleaf and Leafpool both ended up resigned to the duty even though they initially preferred different lives (both with love interests, by the way). Spottedleaf, who was originally portrayed to love her job unequivocally in the first arc, was retconned in her novella to have wanted to be a warrior but becoming a medicine cat to run away from an abusive relationship and the same was done to Yellowfang in her super edition. She originally seemed to deeply prefer the job and role of a medicine cat but was retconned to have a magic power and bad relationship that forced her into the job. At this point the only Thunderclan medicine cats who wanted the job and always wanted the job are ones from several generations ago that get little to no focus during their time as medicine cats, with Featherwhisker being the most prominent one.

Even outside Thunderclan, our POV medicine cats, Shadowsight in Shadowclan, Frostpaw in Riverclan, and Moth Flight in Windclan all have reservations about the roles they're in or stories focused around the way that being a medicine cat has negatively impacted their lives. All three got the job because they had connections to ancestors rather than because they said they wanted the job, and all three faced backlash and adversity because of it. The only true exception in this case is Mothwing, whose adversity mostly came at the paws of her brother because she always wanted to be a medicine cat, but her journey through her own book and Mistystar's, along with every other medicine cat's comments on her besides Leafpool's, is showing that she's not like a real medicine cat and can only ever do half of the job. The part about being a spiritual advisor that makes medicine cats authorities in their clans is absent with Mothwing.

My basic problem with all of this is that it makes the role of a medicine cat, supposedly secondary leadership figures in their clans and an extremely honored, important role, seem undesirable. It feels like a thing that some cats have to do rather than what a few cats get the chance to do. If medicine cats were as respected in practice as they are on paper, I don't think it would be a problem for some, though not all, disabled cats to become medicine cats, particularly those who explicitly chose to follow that path. Cinderpelt took on the position because she was having fun learning from Yellowfang and wanted to help. Brightheart learned some herb skills to pass the time while in the medicine den, and never forgot that even though she chose to be a warrior. Briarlight chose to be the caretaker of the medicine den because she wanted something that she could do safely while still helping the clan in some way like they had always helped her. (Obviously in several cases there are still issues with wording or the framing of these cats as requiring service to the clan to be fulfilled but on a conceptual level-) Jayfeather is the cat I most wish I could change in this regard, but not by making him a warrior. He is the most passionate and creative medicine cat we've ever been shown, inventing several brand new medicine and gardening techniques that saved cats and herbs Leafpool was ready to give up on. He was never that passionate about his warrior training except in that it was the position that, in his eyes, would avoid him being a failure. But being a medicine cat was never the losing spot. It was never supposed to be where we throw the useless cats to give up on them. It's supposed to be an honor, and for far more than the dreams or powers Starclan gave him. If cats actually saw it that way, I don't think Jayfeather would mind eventually choosing to be a medicine cat when he realizes what it's like, and I don't think we as a fandom would mind as much when, again some of the disabled characters pursue that path. It would still be important for there to be lots more non-disabled medicine cats though and lots of non-medicine-cat disabled characters to show that these roles aren't synonymous.

And, just as a final reminder, this is just my thoughts on one aspect of the problem and I do not think this would solve all ableism in the series. It would just be nice to not frame the career path chosen for several of them as a punishment necessitated by their inability to perform warrior tasks (which honestly would fit for Alderheart or Yellowfang as much as for Jayfeather or Cinderpelt).