i read the alliance saga's first book, clouded moon, back when it came out last year. i am part of the crowd that was extremely excited for this release, since i'd been a huge fan of the team's work for the longest time. the rich lore of the new, non-warriors'd story was something i was very intrigued by, as an avid fan of worldbuilding.
but i was sorely disappointed by the book, the story and the characters. other people have worded their disappointment better than i could, but there's something i haven't seen discussed yet: the ableism represented in some of its characters.
a few years back, the Warriors community had an active discussion about the ableism in the books, extending it to the real life views that abled people have on disabled people. i'm disabled, so i was particularly interested in the discussion - i even tweeted something containing one swear word, and got a patronising response about "being polite to the Erins". thanks, random person on the internet, but disabled people are allowed to say fuck if something that directly affects them upsets them. if i remember correctly, Tennelle was part of this discussion - and even if i'm misremembering, it was still pretty hard to miss.
i'm going to draw one or two comparisons to Warriors here to talk about the main two characters that i have issues with in Clouded Moon. there are two physically disabled characters in Clouded Moon that are particularly visible because of their names: Tornleg of Oak Colony, and Missingfoot of Field Colony.
Tornleg lost his leg and was severely injured in an accident, and chose this name as a reminder of it, implicitly a reminder of his failure (it isn't mentioned within the book itself, however, which is why i linked the source).
Missingfoot, meanwhile, also lost his leg, but it was in a fox attack that killed his mate, Whitebelly, daughter of Hazelfur and Forestleaf. he was already scorned by Whitebelly's parents, but this accident added more to the pile, and he was renamed Missingfoot almost as payback for the death of their daughter.
in Missingfoot's case, it's explicitly a derogatory name. it's meant to remind him of his failure as an abled cat as well as his mate's death, and of how he was stripped his Mentor role. while he is still active in this world, while he would've been forced to retire in the Warriors universe, he's not really shown to be an official Keeper, and remains quite the outcast in that group. he's happy to have his daughter Spottedshadow, and is well-respected by his former apprentice Goldenpelt, but other than that, Missingfoot gives off a miserable aura in every one of his appearances that's only reinforced by this derogatory name.
his situation is comparable to that of Brightheart in the first arc of Warriors. Brightheart, then known as Brightpaw, was mauled by dogs that tore half her face off. on her supposed deathbed, she was renamed by the slowly declining Bluestar as Lostface, which was seen by every surrounding character as an act of cruelty. she kept that name until she was renamed by Bluestar's successor: it was Firestar's first order of business to change her name to Brightheart, as an act of acknowledgement of her personhood rather than her former leader's disdain for her.
Missingfoot's daughter Spottedshadow eventually ascends to the role of Captain, becoming the leader of the colony. the two have been told to be really close during the book: Spottedshadow even gets her leadership dream while sleeping beside her father. she values him and his presence immensely, and is comforted by him many times. ...why was it not her first order of business to change his name? why does she never comment on the cruelty of her father's name? why does she never think of standing up to her leaders to repair this injustice? why does she not repair that injustice herself once she gains that power? that supposed closeness is essentially moot when a beloved daughter overlooks the derogatory, ableist name that was forced upon her father after an accident that he was traumatised by. why does Spottedshadow, a character who's supposed to be virtuous and just, not care?
Tornleg is the (technically) only other physically disabled character we see in the book. we don't see much of him at all compared to Missingfoot, since he's just a background character. one of his few appearances is what struck me as odd: why is the only description of how he moves "flopped inelegantly on the floor"?
one could say that anyone could've done that, and it would've been a fun character trait, one of a cat who doesn't really care about appearances. but in Tornleg's case, this sentence was apposed directly to his name: the link between the way he moves and his disability is obvious. this phrasing rubs me the wrong way because i can think of other ways of putting it: "clumsily" or "stiffly" could've been more neutral options, since they're not obviously derogatory. the word could've been done away with entirely! "flopped on the floor" would've been fine, albeit a little odd despite the fun alliteration there.
we're never told the story of his name in the book, which is a whole other issue in itself, but is a rant for another day. the gist of it is, he was in a terrible accident, and his healer wife was giving birth to their child so his injuries were more severe than they could've been. as a result, he took on the name Tornleg to "remind himself of his mistake" (paraphrased). which, once again, puts him down as a character because of his disability. he's paying penance for his "mistakes" through his disability - we're using disability as a punishment here. definitely haven't seen that before!
it's said that he now thinks it's a cool name, that he's reclaimed it, which leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. it's a name that's a bit too deeply rooted in ableism and the miserabilism of it all to be reclaimed, in my opinion. reminds me a bit too much of Nothing from the animated series My Pride, whose name was given to her as a result of ableist bullying from her family. she "reclaims" it at the end of the show, before she promptly gets beaten up by her brother and has a moment of suicidal ideation. sure made for a seemingly empowering moment, but it certainly isn't reclamation.
a little clarification. i said "technically" when mentioning Tornleg as the only other physically disabled character in the book: and that is because I consider Frozenpool, Hawkshell and Yellowflower to also be disabled. Frozenpool has a chronic cough, and Hawkshell and Yellowflower are both missing an eye. for the two monocular ladies, that disability is never touched upon. I don't think Hawkshell having a blind spot was mentioned much, despite all the fighting she does. Yellowflower is a background character, so I can sort of excuse the lack of attention brought to her disability, but it would've been perfectly fitting to have this old lady struggle with her depth perception, and laugh off every time it causes her a bit of trouble. wouldn't it have been fun to see an old, disabled character who's used to her disability but is still affected by it, and isn't miserable about it?
Frozenpool, meanwhile, is where I frown again. he's the main villain, he's what makes the cogs turn in the conflict between River Colony and the other groups, as well as within itself. he's very clearly an unpleasant cat, who also seems to be abusive to all three of his kids. ...why is he disabled? He's mentioned to have needed to step down from his position as Second because of his condition.
why is a disability being used as a punishment again? there are stories to be told about ambitions being cut short because of a surprise disabling event, but this isn't it. as someone who had to scale back their expectations of life because of their condition, i don't really want to see my experiences in the big bad villain of the series.
i have also been reminded that Bramblefur has some sort of chronic condition, but this is a character who has never shown up in the book, and was talked about only in the "meet x colony" videos. i don't have much to say about him because as far as the book is concerned, he does not exist, and therefore isn't relevant to this rant
all in all, i'm disappointed by the representation of disabled characters in this book. it's about as much rep as the LGBT+ community gets: anecdotal presence. can you imagine a character that's both? a disabled lesbian? can you imagine. we've never seen that before.
