#meadowkit

Motherhood

(on a side note i love it when cats do that. just randomly showing up at your house and letting themselves in. who are you little guy???)

Because of Meadow's determination to become a housecat but lack of knowledge about how humans behave, I think he would be one of those cats that just kind of walks into your house and decides that he lives there now.

Also, if Meadow, Egret, Honey and Sky had become warriors, what would their warrior names have been?

If you don't have any that's fine too :)

I don't really tend to draw unnecessary reference sheets, i.e. for characters who only appear once and that I design on the fly. I kind of have too much other stuff to do to spend my time on that! Here's flat versions of the panels, though, so you can colorpick if you want.

I think there's a lot to be said about the intersection between the importance of traditions and culture to people, versus if those traditions are actively causing harm to its participants. And how much you can separate damaging ideas from comforting and significant ones. I don't know if I'm the exact right person to pontificate about that, but it's something interesting to think about. And anyways, it's not like the legacy of the Clans are all dead, right?

One thing I kept in mind when designing the grown-up kittens was to have them actually grow into their own body shapes, and that included how they can actually develop now that they're on a proper diet. For instance Meadow gaining weight in comparison of these pictures wasn't an accident, and neither was the panels comparing Egret when she was starving versus later when she lived in the barn.

And yep, Egret herself is just a fat lady, similar to her dad. Seven Silvers is too! Neither is unhealthy, just a perfectly fine way to be.

But Meadow being able to decide to pursue a life with less pain means a lot to me. I love how he loves his family and they love him but they can't really... Help him. Living in the wild is realistically possible, but it's not what Meadow needs. Obviously he misses his family and they miss him, but like the rest of the kits, his epilogue is about what he specifically needs. Being with humans is a life that lets him feel comfortable, safe, and happy, and it's so nice seeing a story where he's not seen as bad for wanting it.

"Maybe it's not all that bad to leave your past behind" Indeed.

Thank you so much! Warriors is very focused on that ideal of "punishing yourself out of nobility/loyalty/etc" and while it can be good to have those traits, that idea that it's automatically worth more than your own body and health is much, much worse. The books? Turns out? Kinda bad.