breezepelt is so scrungle i love him and sun kinda bonding over their shit parents

absolutely love how shadowsight basically adopts frostpaw like he saw the trauma she went through and was like her. she's my bestie now. and puddleshine very begrudgingly accepts her and is like 'fine i'll help you' like he doesn't want to but actually does

sunbeam ily but please realize karenheart is a piece of shit who doesn't actually care about you

i absolutely adore bayshine. homie is ride or die. sunbeam was like 'i want to bring herbs to my mom' and my man immediately came up with a plan to get her out unnoticed i love him

if karenheart isn't dead by the end of the next book i'm gonna scream

also sunbeam being relieved that it would be jay and alder looking after karenheart in thunderclan??? girlie have you met jayfeather??? your mom wouldn't die from her infection bc they would kill each other

also it's been awhile since we had a 'cat gets held prisoner in another clan overnight' FAFO situation, welcome back old friend

also they really glossed over "jayf and alder spoke to leafpool" huh. like i get why but 🥺

re waffle and wasp eavesdropping, i love how jayf probably sensed them immediately but decided to wait for the best moment. the mans has impeccable comedic timing

wafflepaw!!! i'm glad night is his mentor, maybe he'll learn a few things lmao (but erins if you make him lose all of his angst i will be salty. let him stay a scrunkle like jayf)

and squirrelstar calling the haters out and saying that nightheart is building a legacy of his own had me 🥺🥺🥺 let him be free from the burden of being firefam hell yeah

nightheart is arcing i'm so proud of him. he's still scrungly and emo af and that better not ever change but my boy's growing up 🥲

also i love that he actually has a relationship with finchlight now

i love graypaw (thunderclan. god thats not confusing at all) sm already. little mans really wants to call the other clans stinky

not nightheart pranking the apprentices on day one this is why i adore him 'where do we start?' nightheart, with a shit-eating grin 'let's prank em' and then finch and bay said Yes to that idea

i just want to give frost a hug my god

lmao at sun: "your eyes are glowing like amber flames" my aroace girlie read that in a romance novel and thought it would work. at least she didn't say orbs

and our protags are all together now hell yeah. frosty and her adoptive parents ftw

frostwhistle ftw

if anything happens to mothwing i will kill everyone in this room and then myself

karenheart of course you're there

I wanted to lay out all the evidence for why I believe that Frostpaw will end up the leader of RiverClan by the end of ASC. I’ve formatted my arguments into their own points below! But, for the sake of a fair discussion, first I think I want to start with the reasons against Frostpaw.

Reasons Against:

1. She’s too young/inexperienced.

Honestly, I think this is the strongest point against Frostpaw ending up as leader. The books have told us that Frostpaw and her siblings are now considered to be warrior aged (despite timeline inconsistencies,) but Frostpaw is still a young cat. In TBC, Bristlefrost was also considered “too young” to be deputy by many characters in the story. 

However, what I will say in Frostpaw’s defense here, is though she is young, she is not inexperienced. Her journey to the Park and back and time in exile from RiverClan has given her a lot of experience that many of her Clanmates lack. And, although she is young, she has also gained the respect of many other Clans/their leaders due to her bravery with spying on Splashtail and helping WindClan during the storm. It is also not unprecedented for a young cat to become deputy/leader. (Look no farther than Firestar— a cat who ASC brings up frequently… almost as if the writers are trying to make a point about something? See my point 2 in reasons in favor below.)

2. Frostpaw wants to be a medicine cat.

I’m honestly not sure if this is even true (I elaborate in my reasons in favor of Frostpaw below.) In fact, I’d argue that if we compare Frostpaw’s desire to be a medicine cat to Mothwing’s (another contender for leadership,) I think Mothwing likes being a medicine cat WAY more than Frostpaw. We know that Mothwing chose to be one after first training to be a warrior and has never faltered on that decision in the years since. Even after the difficulties Mothwing faced as a medicine cat who doesn’t believe in StarClan, she has always persisted because she loves it so much.

3. If Frostpaw becomes leader, RiverClan will be left without a medicine cat with a connection to StarClan.

I think the books hint that this is not the case (see point 4 below for more thoughts.)

Reasons in favor:

1. Frostpaw was “never meant to be a medicine cat.”

Although Frostpaw has a strong StarClan connection now, she is confirmed by the books to have “never meant to be a medicine cat.” The exact scene where this happens in the prologue of Thunder is quoted here:

“This wasn’t her destiny!” Thunderstar mewed imploringly. “She was never meant to be a medicine cat.”

“No.” Riverstar’s tail twitched. “But things have changed. If RiverClan is to survive, it needs a messenger. A powerful messenger.”

This wording here around Frostpaw being a “messenger” is ambiguous enough that it could mean that she still isn’t supposed to be a medicine cat despite her (now real) connection to StarClan. Or it could mean that her fate was changed by necessity so that she is supposed to be a medicine cat now.

I would argue that the former case is more likely than the latter because Warriors books as a whole are extremely deterministic— we have never had a confirmed case where cats have been able to escape or change their fate. All prophecy works that way in the books. For example, characters like Brokenstar and Tigerstar were declared to be murderous tyrants from their births, and there was no escaping that fate for them.

Therefore, for the internal logic of the Warriors world to remain consistent, then I think Frostpaw’s destiny still is not to be a medicine cat. (Also if they just wanted Frostpaw to be a medicine cat, why did Riverstar respond by calling her a “messenger” rather than just plainly calling her a “medicine cat?” Or “a medicine cat with a StarClan connection?”)

2. There are strong parallels between Firestar’s and Frostpaw’s stories.

The plot of ASC contains very obvious parallels to the first arc. They are both stories about a young protagonist learning the “true” ways of their Clan, uncovering treachery within their Clan, in which an evil cat wants to become leader of their Clan, (treachery which their Clanmates initially do not believe,) and then working to defeat this traitor. These two protagonists both also have strong connections to StarClan, with a StarClan guide who sends them omens and prophecies to assist them on their journey. The only difference is that Frostpaw is currently training to be a medicine cat and Firestar was a warrior. But, their paths look very much the same, and so I feel like their destinations will ultimately be the same too. 

3. Additional Foreshadowing.

If the parallels to the first arc aren’t convincing enough foreshadowing, the books contain a lot of other hints that Frostpaw’s ultimate role is as the leader. Besides what I already mentioned about Frostpaw’s fate not being that of a medicine cat, many of Frostpaw’s interactions with Riverstar point to her being his chosen for leader. 

Riverstar sends Frostpaw on a journey of self-discovery to the park in order for her to heal and learn what makes a good leader. The good leadership traits that Frostpaw learns about, she possesses herself. While at the park, Frostpaw also realizes that RiverClan needs a leader who can guide them in the old/true ways of their Clan (through meditation and the like,) but she is the only RiverClan cat who knows these “old ways.” So who else would teach RiverClan them but her?

Frostpaw is devoted to StarClan and wants to do what she perceives that they want, but she personally is not that attached to being a medicine cat, as seen by her enjoying her time training as a warrior. It’s not until Frostpaw starts to get real visions that she starts to believe that she needs to be a medicine cat (not because Riverstar told her— just because she assumes that having a connection to StarClan automatically means she needs to be medicine cat, although Firestar’s story shows that’s not the case.)

Riverstar appears to Frostpaw during Splashtail’s “leadership ceremony.” If the purpose of this scene was just for Frostpaw to prove to Puddleshine that Splashtail was evil, then Splashtail telling Podlight about all his evil plans and mocking StarClan aloud would have done that. But instead, the writers went a step further and had Riverstar appear and bow his head to Frostpaw during the “leadership ceremony," as if implying “this wasn’t meant for him, it’s meant for you.”

4. Bee is going to come back into the story.