#leafstar rules

Looking over Alderheart's whole arc, his gradual growth in confidence has been really nice to see. In The Apprentice's Quest, he does not even remotely believe in himself, first as a warrior, and then as a medicine cat. Thunder and Shadow shows Alderheart being more assertive, with Jayfeather giving him to suffix "heart" in honor of not just his kindness, but his strength in doing what he knows is right. After that he largely takes a backseat until River of Fire, where he has to work practically alone; it's his first real test as a medicine cat and he learns how much he cares for his job.

Treating Puddleshine is interesting because its something only Alderheart could do. Everything he's had to learn throughout the arc comes to play here and, despite Puddleshine being the sickest cat to ever grace the lake, Alderheart is comfortable handling him.

For context, Puddleshine gets caught in what is seemingly barbed wire. He gets a lot of surface level injuries in addition to a really bad infection across his entire body. Tetanus or something? I thought it was tetanus. Whatever it is, it's killing him pretty convincingly. Eventually, Alderheart gets a series of visions from StarClan that convinces him deathberries can be used to cure Puddleshine, so long as the seeds are left out (the seeds are apparently the only real poisonous part).

Leafpool and Jayfeather are extremely opposed. Neither of them have enough belief in their intuition to go through with what is, according to like a century of clan knowledge, a very stupid idea. Puddleshine wants Alderheart to try it.

Puddleshine really does trust Alderheart - they are pretty close friends - yet it should also be mentioned that Puddleshine is, importantly, a ShadowClan cat. A little quirk about ShadowClan's medicine tradition is that they actually use deathberries to put down cats who are super sick, like Puddleshine. So within the ShadowClan medical practice, Alderheart is making the right choice regardless. Leafpool is actually notably opposed to ShadowClan's use of deathberries, which is part of why she's so opposed to Alderheart even bringing them into the camp.

Alderheart gives Puddleshine the deathberries, and he survives eating them. False advertising. If it weren't for the trust other cats had in Alderheart because of who he is, Puddleshine would not have survived.

That's not the end of it though. Tigerstar, who was hit by the "become-an-asshole" laser between books, decides that he wants the still basically dying Puddleshine to return to ShadowClan. As a cherry on top, he said that he's also kidnapping Alderheart and will punish him if he fails to cure Puddleshine. Where did Tigerheart go? Coincidentally, he also asks Alderheart to become the temporary medicine cat right before he goes to war with SkyClan. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though.

Interestingly enough, Alderheart, the former literal scaredy-cat, does not back down when Tigerstar threatens him. He doubles down on his belief in using deathberries and is willing to put his safety at risk to save Puddleshine.

His time in ShadowClan is relatively peaceful, and I'll talk more about it later when I get to Shadowkit. Tigerstar softens towards him once he's in camp because he was just trying to look strong in front of Bramblestar. Even though Tigerstar's awful now, I don't think he actually would've hurt Alderheart. He's willing to say things he doesn't believe in for the sake of achieving his goals, which is why he brings up Jayfeather "killing" Flametail despite being the one who warned Dovewing about Dawnpelt going after him in Omen of the Stars. Tigerstar values nothing beyond his clan, which is probably why he wouldn't hurt the son of the leader of arguably the strongest clan. He wouldn't poke that bee's nest.

Something I particularly like about this plot line is how it subtly reflects on Puddleshine and Alderheart's relationship. Back in Thunder and Shadow, Alderheart is vocally upset about Puddleshine not being present for his naming ceremony (he was in the Kin at the time). I'd show you the quote but archive.org is down and that's where I get the pdfs from. Both of them kinda grew as medicine cats alongside each other and are close because of that. I'm sure Puddleshine was as sad about missing Alderheart's ceremony as he was. Earlier I mentioned why he earned the name "Alderheart." Jayfeather honored not just his skill but his confidence and humility. And even though Puddleshine never got to witness his naming, he got to see exactly why he earned his name. Alderheart got his opportunity to show off to his friend. If you ignore that Puddleshine was in extreme pain the entire time, it's adorable!

I love both of them so much. But overall: Puddleshine's treatment really shows just how Alderheart grew to be the cat he wanted to be. He shows that he's fully ready for whatever comes after AVoS. He's truly best boy.

Leafstar Deserves a Break

The main story of The Raging Storm follows SkyClan getting bullied (poisoned) so hard by ShadowClan that Leafstar gives up and returns to the gorge. Twigbranch and Tree are sad and go collect the only people they care about. They all live happily ever after (for like a week) and SkyClan is given more territory. Yippee!

The first thing I want to dive into is the firstest thing in the book: the prologue. It's possibly the goofiest prologue in the whole series from a writing standpoint. Here's the issue: Tigerheart is a pretty good guy, all things considered. He's always been interested in finding peace, which is actually why he was the one to propose SkyClan take the bit of ShadowClan they reside in. Great news for SkyClan, but TERRIBLE news for Erin Hunter. So the prologue is basically Firestar looking in the camera and saying "Tigerstar is going to be evil btw."

When I read that, my first thought was "would Tigerstar want that above all else?" He's not that aggressive as a warrior or deputy and seems interested, "above all," in stabilizing ShadowClan and raising his kids. The prologue exists so that Firestar can tell the readers "we hit Tigerstar with StarClan's evil beam just fyi."

That's the main issue with Tigerstar as a character. He doesn't feel like a logical progression of Tigerheart. Maybe his super edition provides more answers, I don't know, but I can't rationalize his character. Take Onestar: his friendship with Firestar was controversial within his clan, so he overcompensated by becoming aggressive when he was given leadership. Tigerstar doesn't really have that pressure because ShadowClan doesn't even exist when he gets leadership. Most of the cats are just going to be happy to be in ShadowClan again, and Tigerstar is competent enough that they won't drag him through the mud like they did Rowanclaw. I don't just dislike the direction they took Tigerstar's character, I think it's at odds with everything that's been established about him up until now.

And honestly? If the super edition justifies it? That's even worse! I don't like the idea of a non-main book being necessary to understand a pivotal character in the main arc. But that's more of an issue with the nature of Warrior Cats as a product.

What I do like about Tigerstar is how he is a polar opposite to Leafstar. Tigerstar, as of the most recent patch, is holistically interested in making ShadowClan look strong and respected. A very normal goal for a Tigerstar to have. He wants the clans to see that he and his clan are mighty and cool and awesome and won't explode for a third time. So much so that he starts invading SkyClan despite being the one who offered them the territory, which Bramblestar actually points out. A lifetime of Blackstar trying to fix ShadowClan's reputation thrown to the wayside.

Leafstar throws in the towel. Really it's not like she had a choice. She's absolutely correct that SkyClan's time at the lake has been pretty detrimental to her clan. Leafstar's been forced to be a savior, caretaker, and leader for all the clans while being treated so poorly by other leaders that they don't even want SkyClan to have slivers of their territories. Even though Bramblestar and Harestar speak in favor of SkyClan staying, they don't do it for Leafstar's sake. The only thing those two cared about is the judgement of StarClan; neither of them will actually act to make staying beneficial for StarClan because, as Leafstar says "The lake Clans are only loyal to their bellies, and their hunger for territory means more to them than any warrior code."

Leafstar leaves so that her clan can be at peace. She never cared about preserving the territory of SkyClan or being one of the five clans because of birthright or whatever. She's the opposite of Tigerstar: she'll let SkyClan look like the weakest clan in the world as long as they are able to live happily. It makes her a fantastic leader. She's arguably the only leader that is able to look beyond her own personal needs and ambitions and actually acts as a representative of SkyClan's interests. Tigerstar is willing to send ShadowClan into a thousand losing battles against the, frankly, much stronger and healthier SkyClan as long as he looks like he's a strong leader. Leafstar is not willing to let her clan get hurt and harassed just to try and come out as the winner in an ego battle with the new worst leader at the lake.

When Leafstar returns, it's because her clan wants to return and because she believes it will be safe for them to do so because, finally, the other leaders (minus Tigerstar of course) actually promised to help her. They're even willing to give up slivers of oh-so-precious territory!

At the "SkyClan is back" gathering, Tigerstar tries to skirt any responsibility he had in kicking out SkyClan. He wants to look strong in front of the other leaders, even though literally none of them actually like him anymore. Tigerstar, in a way, lost. The other clans see him as a leader to be cautious towards, especially his now permanent neighbors in SkyClan.

Leafstar doesn't give him the time of day. She knows, deep down, that ShadowClan isn't strong. Both battles between the clans ended in clear SkyClan victories, unless you count Juniperclaw using poison (which got him functionally exiled). Once again, Leafstar puts her clan before her pride because that's what her job is. Her getting worked up over Tigerstar's... Tigerstaring would probably result in SkyClan being given less territory.

Basically, Leafstar's the best leader in the territories right now. She's really good towards SkyClan and clearly cares about watching after everyone in her camp. And unlike Bramblestar, she doesn't give cats names like "Twigbranch." Honestly, as a leader, I think she ranks in only behind Firestar and Tallstar (if you don't count the last few minutes of his life). She obviously still has time to mess that up, being alive and all, but she's been one of my favorite characters to see. Coming out of the SkyClan super editions, my honest reaction to them showing up wasn't "yay SkyClan" it was "yay Leafstar." So once again,

yay Leafstar!

Twigbranch

There's two parts to Twigbranch in The Raging Storm: her relationship with Flypaw and her relationship with Finleap. I'm going to start with Flypaw.

Flypaw is Twigbranch's apprentice, which kind of surprised me. Given how hesitant Bramblestar was to let her in the clan not too long ago, I didn't think she'd get an apprentice so young especially given how many capable mentors there are in ThunderClan. It shows his trust in her (and Finleap, who gets an apprentice as well).

Flypaw ends up being a very nervous apprentice, which irritates Twigbranch. Though she's been through three apprenticeships, she's always been a pretty good student, so much so that it was a plot point in the last book. She never experienced needing help with basics and expects that Flypaw will be the same way. Twigbranch wasn't ready to have a struggling apprentice, which puts her in a really interesting situation. She's consistently very critical towards Flypaw, and, more importantly, has no issues vocalizing those criticisms.

Twigbranch is really interested in proving herself through Flypaw. It's why she justifies a lot of mistakes in her apprenticeship as Flypaw's issues, not an issue of her being unprepared to teach Flypaw. In education, identifying deficiencies in students and working to help them work to improve either around or through those deficiencies is very important. A good example of improving around something would be like Brightheart learning to do things with one eye, while improving through something is normally more minor, like not understanding, in a non-warriors context, an essay prompt's language or a specific math problem. There, the student is capable of doing things through normal methods but needs slight assistance on whatever particular thing they are struggling with.

I'd put Flypaw mostly in the "improving through" category. She seems to struggle with the fundamentals not because she can't do them (like how Brightheart wouldn't be able to see things from one side as easily). Instead, most of Flypaw's issues stem from her not understanding what Twigbranch wants her to do. There's a time in the first chapter where Twigbranch is trying to teach Flypaw how to have a firmer stance, and Flypaw doesn't succeed the first couple of times. It makes her feel like a failure, which, fun education fact, is not a good thing. Eventually Twigbranch gives more detailed instructions and Flypaw finds more success. Clearly, Twigbranch was the issue here, at least kind of. To be fair, she's trying to learn to adapt to Flypaw, which eventually leads to their relationship being much healthier and Flypaw being much more successful.

Seeing Flypaw have to run to Cinderheart is kind of a turning point for Twigbranch, as a teacher. Before that paragraph, she was finally realizing that she was too harsh on Flypaw, but I think seeing the reality of their relationship really made things click. When Twigbranch was training with Ivypool, they were very close. Later in this chapter, Twigbranch even helps Ivypool look after her kits because they still have the healthy relationship that Ivypool helped establish when Twigbranch was younger. In Shattered Sky, Ivypool is so committed to supporting her apprentice she helps sneak around Kin territory just so Twigbranch can check on her sister. When Twigbranch had a bad day, Ivypool was there to support her and make her feel better. Flypaw, on the other hand, feels the need to avoid her mentor. Twigbranch probably took for granted the relationship she had with Ivypool and assumed it was the default when, in reality, it's something Ivypool had to work to gain. For the first time, Twigbranch sees right in front of her the consequence of her mistreatment, and it does make her change things.

After that, Twigbranch really works to adapt her teaching to suit Flypaw and, shocker, it's successful. On the journey to find SkyClan, Flypaw is consistently an asset to the group because she's been given the tools she needs to learn to be a warrior. Additionally, she's able to function healthily despite being around Twigbranch constantly, which indicates that she has worked to repair that relationship. I like that The Raging Storm shows an instance where Twigbranch was in the wrong for not adapting. It helps round out her overall character by showing her flaws and how stubborn she can be about working through them. Flypaw also serves as a contrast to the other cat I want to talk about today: Finleap.

Finleap was unfortunately hit by the "suddenly a jerk" laser between books. StarClan needs to aim that thing better. Alternative theory: every time Jayfeather is nice to Alderheart, someone else gets 20x meaner to compensate. And Jayfeather is actually rather nice to Alderheart in this book, all things considered.

I don't want to cover in depth Finleap's actions. He's very disgusting and constantly tries to manipulate Twigbranch into having his kids. He implies that she's responsible for him feeling sad to try and abuse her basic level of care for him to make her compromise on her wants. He's extremely toxic when Twigbranch has a friendly conversation with Tree because he, intentionally or not, is trying to make Twigbranch feel as isolated as he is. Eventually, he does apologize. And that's what I found interesting.

After seeing so many characters crumble to being told "I'm sorry" I really expected Twigbranch to roll over and spawn in 3 Finleap clones on the spot. Honestly after seeing Squirrelflight in Sunset I just kind of abandoned all my expectations for characters to have a backbone. Though to be fair, Brambleclaw's not like Finleap: Finleap at least actually apologized. If you wanna see my thoughts on Sunset though there's a place for that and it isn't here.

The start of Finleap's apology goes like I expected. He tells Twigbranch that he would rather be with her than in SkyClan and says that he cares more about her than the concept of their children. He even throws in the bonus directly acknowledging that he was taking out his insecurities on Twigbranch and was the sole cause of their relationship falling apart.

Twigbranch... actually confronts Finleap on his behavior. Spoilers but she's now my favorite character in the series and it's partially because of this right here. I mentioned how Flypaw showed an example of Twigbranch needing to adapt to compensate another cat. Finleap is the exact opposite: she had absolutely no reason to adapt to him because that would compromise her autonomy as a person. She loses nothing by being nice to Flypaw, but loses a lot if she conforms to what Finleap wants and has 20000 mini-Finleaps. Twigbranch wants to be a warrior; her whole character has been about how dedicated she is to finding her way of life. She doesn't have an interest in children, at least not at that moment, and Finleap isn't worth losing her dreams over.

I love that Twigbranch's relationship with Finleap isn't something she conforms to. Finleap even shows it in the second paragraph: he wants to be with Twigbranch as a person, even though that person doesn't want to have his children.

I really appreciate Finleap's last line here. He completely backs off and puts the ball fully in her court. He doesn't want her to feel pressured into having kids because he knows that, deep down, she probably wouldn't really want them any time soon (if at all).

And therefore, Finleap accomplishes the impossible: he's a male character in Warriors who actually takes accountability for his actions and works to be a better person. One more kick for the road: Bramblestar would never.

But really I love how Twigbranch was handled in this book. Her story in AVoS has really been about finding the life she wants to live. She's driven solely by her own desires, even if it may cause discomfort for others. She found her home and she found her family. It just so happens that neither of those were the homes or families that she thought they would be.

Shadowkit

So one of Dovewing's kits is named Shadowkit. A unusual name for an unusual guy. He's interested in becoming a medicine cat, so Alderheart lets him be a little helper while he's in ShadowClan. Shadowkit has a sincere interest in being a medicine cat, making him the first cat in all of Warriors history to actual volunteer to get shoved in the medicine den forever.

What's interesting about Shadowkit are his visions. Unlike anyone else, when Shadowkit gets a vision, it's very dark and sometimes gives him a seizure. The vision he gets in The Raging Storm shows him drowning in some type of raging storm in RiverClan territory. Tigerstar is very protective of Shadowkit because of his vision. Tigerstar's concern for his son does indicate the the authors really wanted him to still be the same cat deep down, but I still think he got hit with the same laser as Finleap. His worries do make him more sympathetic until you realize that he presumably causes the storm Shadowkit almost dies in by pressuring out SkyClan. He also consults Alderheart about the vision, which is sweet because it shows his trust in Alderheart and his care for his son, but he still literally kidnapped and threatened to kill him like a few chapters earlier. Really living up to the Tigerstar name.

Shadowkit interprets his vision in an interesting way. Instead of trying to prevent his death, he assumes that the vision is showing him what he needs to do to help the clans. Because of that, Shadowkit voluntarily jumps into the water and starts drowning assuming that it will in some way help the clans. Some would say its very unnecessary and didn't actually have much effect. And they'd be completely right, by the way. Shadowkit's scheme didn't actually do anything to make the clans come together more. He did give Juniperclaw the opportunity to have the fastest redemption arc of all time, so that's cool.

I know Shadowkit is a future protagonist, so I'm going to save actually talking about him more in depth for then. I'm very excited though: Shadowkit is a rash cat who gets extremely strange visions; seemingly ones that are distinct from any other prior medicine cat's. I can see a lot of routes he could go down, but I don't see any route where he's boring, so that's exciting. Hopefully he doesn't inherit Dovewing's filler chapters.

How Was A Vision of Shadows?

This is the part where I gush about how good the arc was.

First I want to show a little love to Violetshine. She's the character I was least invested in and it shows (I don't think I've talked about her specifically since Shattered Sky). That being said, she's still very fun and her relationship with Tree is nice. Her getting hit with a ghost pregnancy test is a top five funniest scenes so far (up there with Lionpaw's honey angst and Ashfoot calling Crowfeather annoying in Crowfeather's Trial). She was never a boring character to follow, even if I found the other two more interesting.

And I don't need to talk about them, I've done it plenty, but really the cast of characters was at its peak. Even returning characters like Jayfeather (not counting the first book cause... yikes) and Ivypool still shined just as brightly as they did before. Dovewing even had a really interesting character arc happen in the background which just made the world feel so much more alive.

The arc really felt like a return to what made the first arc so special. It even shows in how much Darktail parallels Tigerstar (1). There was no supernatural conflict, StarClan wasn't overbearing, no superpowers. It was a story about societies of cats fighting in the woods. And that's exactly what I wanted.

But really, I was super concerned coming into the arc. I know it's the first arc that was done under a slightly different team in charge (though the two writers were still the same, as far as I'm aware). It was also the arc I stopped at as a kid, not counting Dawn of the Clans, which I just wasn't interested in and skipped. Like I'm doing now (I'll read it on my own time but not post about it probably). I think I can comfortably say I only stopped because of burnout, though. I really liked A Vision of Shadows from beginning to end. Even its weakest books were a complete joy. I mean, I'd call River of Fire the "low point of the arc" but it's on par with Eclipse for me, which is in the better half of Power of Three books.

So yeah. I don't have any real big criticisms for the arc. The story is fun, the characters are a blast, and I don't think it ever got as unbearably slow as the prior arcs did. Like really the fact that Darktail died and things were still happening up until the last moment is shocking. ALSO SKYCLAN!!! YAY SKYCLAN!!! YAY LEAFSTAR!!!

Ranking Time!

Top 5 New Cats:

Twigbranch

Alderheart

Needletail

Puddleshine

Sleekwhisker

Top ten cats:

Twigbranch

Squirrelflight

Alderheart

Leafpool

Jayfeather

Bluestar

Dovewing

Needletail

Leafstar

Tallstar

Honorable Mentions: Puddleshine, Sleekwhisker, Violetshine, Tree, Nightcloud

Ranking the books of AVoS (Note- for the first time I actually like all 6 books):

Shattered Sky

Thunder and Shadow

The Apprentice's Quest

Darkest Night

The Raging Storm

River of Fire

Arc Ranking:

A Vision of Shadows

Omen of the Stars

The Prophecies Begin

Power of Three

The New Prophecy

Conclusion

Thanks for bearing my opinions. I would die for Twigbranch.

Next up (after I read a couple super editions) is The Broken Code. I wish I could say I'm going in blind, but I'm not. Part of what compelled me to reread the series was hearing about Ashfur's ghostly return. That being said: I know almost nothing else, so it's still going to be a fun journey.

I would like to ask again just in case if there's any super editions that are particularly important to understanding the books. I'm going to read the Squirrelflight, Hawkwing, and Tigerheart ones, but if there's another that is important to understanding The Broken Code, please let me know. Same for novellas, because I plan on reading approximately none of the novellas as of now.

I also was able to finish my AVoS posts before New Year's, making 2026 officially the year of modern warrior cats (or something). Happy New Year's!