blog of the absolute worst taste of men

We only got to where we are today,

Because it is the five of us, all the way.

I just got done watching Moonkitti’s video debunking whether or not StarClan fired their laser and zapped the life out of Galestar’s kits, and I agree 100% that StarClan did not cause that. Did they knowingly let her kits die? That’s plausible. Very likely, actually. They didn’t warn about the fire or the branch. Did the stress of losing her lives impact Galestar’s pregnancy? Also very possible. StarClan is completely villainous in this book to the point of comedy so them not caring about the stress they would cause her checks out.

I think there’s something else to consider here, and it’s how these tragedies are presented within the story.

The idea of a Greek tragedy story is that the protagonists are undone by their own human failures. You see exactly how they got there and how their own flaws became their final nail in the coffin. You’re supposed to be conflicted because you want them to succeed, but you recognize they were always doomed to fail because they made the decisions that led to that path. It’s like the literary equivalent of the Dramatic Dmitry meme. 

And for some people, StormClan’s Folly achieves this. They can appreciate and enjoy the direction the story went, as well as having flawed characters and an interesting premise. 

However, I personally cannot see it that way. It doesn’t read to me like a Greek tragedy. It reads like an Old Testament fable, like the bratty children who made fun of Elisha’s bald head being eaten by bears. They were rude, but that’s their retribution?

StarClan is unequivocally the villain in this book, perhaps the worst they’ve ever been. Regarding Stripestar and Galestar’s “folly”, I think StormClan was built upon personal feelings, ill planned, and last minute. It didn’t have a steady start. But the misfortunes that befall the various cats read like the narrative itself is punishing them. It’s a string of coincidences and bad luck that all convey the same message: StormClan was arrogant and foolish to withdraw from the Clans.

Kestrelwing is brutally killed, and we’re supposed to see that it was Stripestar not being smart enough to send him first across the highway due to his age. But this is only foreshadowed at the last minute, when it gets so hot that Kestrelwing starts stumbling that Stripestar goes “oh shit” and realizes as soon as Kestrelwing crosses that he messed up. It doesn’t read like it was Stripestar’s mistake, despite the book telling us it is: it reads like the forces of nature are being invoked to create a tragedy and “punish” their arrogance (hence my Final Destination comparison). Or: it reads like Kestrelwing’s death does not meaningfully contribute towards the story beyond shock factor.

These deaths are happening at the expense of StormClan, not Stripestar or Galestar. I really think StarClan taking their lives away was a mistake, because it would add more credence to the main theme that their hubris and stubbornness was what caused their downfall if they also got caught in the crossfire and lost all but their last life on the journey. It’s like taking a kindergarten class and saying “I’m going to punish Suzie for hitting by making the entire class skip recess.” ????

This is why I state it reads to me like a Christian Aesop. “Be vigilant or bad things will happen!” “We must always trust God to provide for us.” “You cannot live without God, because you will always fall to your own arrogance.”

A story about the folly of man (cat) is absolutely compelling, but it gets cheapened when you realize even with all this cartoonish evil StarClan portrays, it’s still seen as a wise and benevolent power structure. Any time StarClan gets challenged, the challenger is morally in the wrong. Galestar has negative thoughts about StarClan as the book progresses, and does get the happiest ending of all the characters, but StarClan has doomed her to fade and be forgotten. If this book is gearing up to confront StarClan and its villainy by actually having meaningful change then I’m all for it, but as of now, it has remained stagnant. 

The thing I hate most about Warriors is the underlying determinism that threads through the series. Things will happen because they are destined to happen. You can’t fight fate. Everything is moving according to a grand design by the will of StarClan. StormClan are destined to fail because they cannot survive outside the will of StarClan. And in my opinion, this book is drenched in determinism. 

im with you, even beyond your dream

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