#warriors analysis

warrior cats as what d&d classes they'd be is up! thank you for supporting my super new channel by watching!

Every time I watch or even just see anything related to Mapleshade, it reminds me how much of a fucking tragedy Mapleshade’s Vengeance is. There is no good guy. There’s no hero. There’s nothing good in Mapleshade’s Vengeance.

Mapleshade isn’t a good person. Oakstar isn’t a good person. Appledusk isn’t a good person. Reedshine isn’t a good person.

The only characters fully painted in an innocent light are Mapleshade’s kits.

I’m not gonna defend Mapleshade, but you have to remember she was basically driven insane by the loss of her kits; a loss she blamed on other cats. She ended up going into a psychosis of sorts, and that’s what drove her to kill Appledusk, Ravenwing, and Frecklewish.

That doesn’t make the killing okay, but she was a mother driven insane by grief. Nobody’s a villain in Mapleshade’s Vengeance in my opinion. But there is no good guy either.

Because when we really think about it, Dovewing really set a precedent for forbidden romances that has never really been done, per se? Sure, Oakheart suggested doing something similar in Bluestar’s prophecy, but since then, most forbidden romances have just pined aimlessly for each other, or straight up just decided that this relationship they were risking everything for wasn’t worth it in the end. But Dovewing ultimately deciding that she’d just straight up join ShadowClan? That was iconic.

Honestly what I think I respect the most is that she doesn’t agonize over it when she makes the decision to return to the Clans but keep her family together. I mean she wasn’t really receiving the best treatment in ThunderClan anyway, I mean we’re really gonna sit here and act like Ivypool wasn’t being icy and vindictive towards her just because Tigerheart had come into the picture? She was already under suspicion from her Clanmates for that relationship, and honestly, the treatment her children would have received in ThunderClan was super apparent by how frosty the Clan was towards the kits when she returned, and this was even before they knew she was there to say goodbye.

She has no ambitions for leadership to keep her in ThunderClan, and her strongest tie (Ivypool) has already been severed, and ShadowClan’s population is practically 10 cats max, while ThunderClan is sitting pretty at 50+; ShadowClan needs her and her kits more than ThunderClan does. So she leaves with Tigerheartstar. Totally fair, and it makes perfect sense. And on top of that? She DEVOTES herself to her new Clan and Clanmates, and becomes a respected cat in ShadowClan which puts her in a way better position than she was in prior, as ThunderClan liked to conveniently forget that she legitimately helped save all the Clans in the Great Battle just a few seasons before.

And can we talk about how sweet they are with each other? Look after seeing the disrespect that the Erins did to Bramblesquirrel in Bramblestar’s Storm and Squirrelflight’s Hope, it is so nice to see just a loving, functional relationship. Tigerheartstar takes her thoughts and feelings into consideration in most everything he does, and she advises him on clan matters arguably more that Cloverfoot, his deputy, does. She genuinely cares for and loves her new Clanmates and doesn’t feel conflicted or divided by her old allegiance in ThunderClan, like she legitimately is a ShadowClan cat now, and I LOVE that. I mean honestly? We could have had that with Graystripe, and we got a taste of it with Finleap, although he did significantly more complaining about it. But Dovewing straight up switching Clans and just truly settling in and supporting her new Clan? Iconic.

And don’t even get me started on how they parent. They are so active and involved, they with how much they care about their children and what loving, supportive parents they are. They would move StarClan and earth for their kits, and it shows. Their kits come to them for advice, they comfort their children when they are sick or hurt, they were distraught when Shadowsight went missing, and would not accept that he had died, and even when their faith wavered and it was suggested he was murdered, they still supported each other through a really traumatic time. What other set of parents had been shown to do that on screen?? Firestar and Sandstorm? Maybe? But really no one else. Contrast that with Ivypool and Fernsong who’ve really just left their kits to fend for themselves. Bristlefrost is hated by her Clan on the basis they think she’s doing the wrong thing? Not a peep from her parents. Not even from Ivypool. IVYPOOL, who was manipulated by Hawkfrost, who knows what it’s like to act as a spy, not even a peep, she couldn’t care less. It’s obviously a product of bad writing, but still. And then Flipclaw is decreed medicin cat against his wishes, and they kind of stand by. Even Lionblaze meant to protect Spotfur when she got in trouble, and yet, Ivypool and Fernsong do nothing. At all. But I digress.

While I've known this for a while because I looked up some of the street names on the maps, the Warriors books take place somewhere in the UK. One of the other hints at this is the fact that "Heather" is a potential prefix for cats' names, and Heatherstar specifically is described as having a pinkish tint to her pelt. There's only one variety of plant of this pink coloration that has the common name of heather, and it's native to Europe, including Ireland, Scotland, and England.

One of the other things that's important to note is that both Heatherstar and Heathertail, the only two cats in a series of thousands of characters with the "Heather" prefix, are WindClan cats, and WindClan cats, in both the forest and lake territories, live on moorlands, the same habitat you find the plant heather in. Additionally, Heatherstar's pelt color having a pinkish tint could be where she got her name, because heather flowers are pink.

Canonically, Warriors is supposed to take place somewhere around Hampshire, a county in the south of England; specifically, the forest territories are based on the New Forest in southern England. However, looking at the maps in the books is interesting because some of the location names are similar to names of actual places in the UK (at least for the forest territories, I can't speak on the lake territories because I only have books from the first arc).

One of the street names is North Allerton Road, which leads to Carrionplace, which the humans call North Allerton Amenity Tip. Northallerton is an actual place in the UK. It's a town in North Yorkshire in England. Chelford is also a real place outside Manchester; it's specifically a village. The primary difference between Chelford in real life and Chelford in Warriors is Chelford in real life doesn't have a mill like the one in Warriors does. While there aren't any locations called Windover that I can see in the UK, there is a road called Wendover Road in Manchester. There's also an old mine in Wales called Devil's Gorge, much closer to Manchester than Hampshire, and potentially the inspiration behind Devil's Fingers (or the Highstones as the Clan cats call it).

Compiling all this information, if you were to ask me where I think the Warriors series takes place, I'd say somewhere in the central part of the UK, probably close to Manchester (possibly between Manchester and the Welsh and English border?), with some artistic/creative liberties taken.