Portraying Morally Gray Characters - Sunny's Spiel | Warriors Analysis
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- Опубликовано: 17 сен 2021
- Leopardstar’s Honor Spoilers! Along with Winds of Change and Blackfoot’s Reckoning.
Hooo boy this book was a mess. From the wacky pacing to abandonment of every relationship the book starts to develop to Mudfur’s strange and disturbing parenting to the litany of random flat-out mistakes that make it seem like it wasn't edited and the fact that nothing in this book did or could have a plot, since all it tells is what we already knew from the first arc, with a splash of Crookedstar’s Promise. All of these matters could make for interesting discussions on their own, and I probably will talk about them in other videos one day, but today I wanted to talk about a trend with three different books that came out this year, all centered around getting in the head of morally gray characters as they did the horrible deeds they are famous for, and exploring how they came to think they were doing what was right…with vastly different levels of success.
I finished this video before BrightGuardianAkira's came out on Wednesday, but she also makes some great points and I encourage you to check out her video too! • Warrior Cats Redemptio...
Neither Leopardstar nor Blackstar really should have ended their books as heroic figures, let alone been framed as good cats during their atrocious crimes, considering that both leaders went on to still be fairly hostile and sometimes irrational leaders past the first series.
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End Card Song: Ponte de Abril - Steve Adams • Video
I was really disappointed with Blackfoots reckoning, Blackstar was one of my favorite characters and I had so much hope that this would be a great book possibly about Blackfoot coming to terms with everything he's done(Only then realizing he's done bad things) and learned to forgive himself but no... it sucked
Tbh I HATE the name morally gray. Everyone is morally grey. And that can alsp be good or evil. The correct word for truly uncertain morality in characters would be morally ambigious
Blackstar should've had a super edition. There's a lot to his character that would've been interesting to explored. Heck, Blackfoot's reckoning could've been so much better if they took the approach of him taking the code "The leader's word is law" to heart. Maybe he grew up being told it was the most important code or could've been gullible cat or something. It would've fit with the other two novellas as well and I'm sure we all know that, more than likely, the "Leader's word is law" one will more than likely be removed from the warrior code
I am starting wonder if the books are even good? There are endless videos pin pointing all the bad writing and I get the feeling the writing team could care less about the cat books there pumping out….
I've always really liked Mudclaw. He was a jerk whose brain was clouded with bias and bitterness, but he really was just doing what he thought was best, and I always sympathized with him for being kicked out last minute when he was doing what he believed would be best for WindClan. Plus, I can't help but feel like Tallstar's idea was a detriment in the long run, considering the Eclipse battle. Mudclaw wouldn't have had to prove he wasn't friends with Firestar, and wouldn't have gone as far as he did.
The only thing I liked about all three books is that it gave some background characters some personality, for example, Frogleap, Skyheart, Sunfish, Whitefang, and Whiteclaw in LH, Tornear, Ashfoot, Cedarheart, Nightcloud (in the books sake) Rowanclaw (the same reason as Nightcloud), and even Mudclaw in WoC, Blizzardwing, Hollyflower, Fernshade, Wolfstep, and others in Blackfoots Reckoning.
I love Blackstar- he's my favorite character, I know he did really feel bad for his actions. However, it was VERY poorly written. Leopardstar's Honor is even worse. She learned nothing and is a horrible character. In some ways, you could even consider her evil. I have always hated Leopardstar and now I hate her even more. Overall, Leopardstar's Honor was much worse than Blackstar's novella. I still love Blackstar, I'm just a bit disappointed
Blackfoot had every right to oppose his leaders, but there was also the code about the leader’s word is law. The novella had me teetering between liking and not because of how I was able to see myself in him but it wasn’t written well. I really liked Winds of Change because I saw myself in him but the story was written better.
I think Blackstar's redemption would have been better if his novella was stretched into a SUPER EDITION. The only reason I didn't like Blackfoot's Reckoning is because his redemption was rushed. If they stretched it out a bit and gave him time to realize "Oh wait I was wrong" and maybe even spending a few chapters of him throwing a mini pity party before deciding to make things right and rebuild ShadowClan to be better. I PROBABLY speak for most if not everyone in the fandom when I say, that would have been WAY better than the "Blackfoot's super sowwy..." attitude he had throughout the ENTIRE novella.
The overall issue for me is that all the books (even Dawn of the Clans in some instances) all have this ora of blandness to them. Like the bare minimum was done to weave a coherent narrative, and it feels more like we're just watching stuff happen in these books instead of getting sucked into a fun world/story. It's really disappointing to say the least, and infuriating whenever I hear that a new Warriors book came out and has an interesting concept/ involves a character I want to get to know better, but then falls short in every aspect. The best example of this is with Daisy's Kin, where the main character has no real personality to speak of, and the choices she makes have no real impact/ reason behind them. Like there's this one part in the book where she has a nightmare, in which everyone in TC acts as if she isn't even there, and the walls of the camp begin to slowly close in around her in this threatening fashion. Now with this imagery in mind, you'd think this dream is telling Daisy that she no longer feels like she has a place in the clan, feels that she isn't valued as her own cat, and that clan customs are oppressive, right? But no. Apparently this dream meant that she needed to go back to the clans because that's what she ends up doing in the end! And for what reason? Because Spotfur is having kits and TC needs another den mom. THAT'S IT. The start of this book seemed to be setting up Daisy trying to find her own purpose and way of redefining who she is outside of this role/ clanlife, but NOPE! Her character's just relegated to the "nice she-cat who cares for her clan/kits" trope that's tacked onto most of the female characters in this book series. Yet another instance of great potential being thrown in the garbage! And this is a problem that has persisted in the series, making the books less like the exciting and thrilling adventures with lovable characters that the authors want them to be, and more like blobs of nothingness. (ok that was actually pretty harsh, so I apologize for that!) I mean if other people love the books and disagree with this, that's great! This is just my opinion and it wasn't made with the intention of invalidating yours :)! Though regardless, I think I'm gonna drop these books for good and just focus my attention on the fandom.
Leopardstar abt Graystripe: evil Thunderclan cat. Can never be trusted. Kill on sight
A clan leaders word is law
Based on the preview that released for LH, I honestly thought that Mudfur's 'prophecy' for Leopardkit was completely made up -- it was something he told her to boost her confidence in a dark moment and to let her think her deceased mother was proud of her. And I'd hoped that it would be revealed as a lie -- that every reckless, dangerous action Leopardstar had taken was not in fact something supported by StarClan, but borne of her own arrogance and pride, and that breakthrough would result in a breakdown of 'oh god what have I done' towards the end, y'know? Like maybe Mudfur was just biting his tongue because he and the Clan had spent so much time mollycoddling her and she so firmly believed in it that it became awkward to admit until he knew Leopardstar had gone too far and was taking everyone down with her. But naw, I guess not.
Gosh I'm disappointed hearing that Leopardstar's Honor turned out the way it did.
i feel like blackstar and leopardstar should of had swapped book formats, blackstar would of done better and we could POSSIBLY see why blackstar didnt go agianst them or was manipulated them like the noverlla mentions.
I think one thing people seem to forget about a lot in warriors, especially with Blackfoot's reckoning, is the role of authority. Even in the real world, we follow authority because it's how we're brought up, and it's also how warriors are brought up, which is why they struggle so much to stand up against leaders. Blackfoot wants to be loyal. From his perspective, Tigerstar saved Shadowclan in their time of need, so Blackfoot feels he should pay him back. He sees Shadowclan becoming stronger than ever and striking fear in others; and so, despite knowing it's wrong, he goes along with it. In fear of betraying his leader. In fear of being cast out by his clan; especially considering Tigerstar was killing those he felt were unfit or unloyal, he feared being killed. So really, what else could he have done in that situation?
Remember the often disregarded rule of the warriorcode.
If I remember correctly, Blackstar was the one against Leopardstar in that vote, and it shows heavily that in comparison, the team had better ideas for a Blackstar super edition over a Leopardstar Super Edition, I think if we got a full super edition it would have given him that depth since there would have been a story to tell. Mudclaw is a good Windclan antagonist meanwhile who would have fit better than Onestar in the Windclan leader that would attempt to stand against almost everyone else, acting more like Shadowclan in the first two arcs. The Leopardstar Super Edition is one that is kind of hard to see working because they wanted to do a similar story to the Blackstar Novella, it works but is too long of a story to see things were done well. I feel if Blackstar would have gotten his super eddition I feel he would have turned into something better with him being able to grow alongside Brokenstar in the beginning being lulled into his ideas, later using some inspiration from Tigerclaw's Fury to be that after Brokenstar was presumed dead he saw his old friend in Tigerstar, not wanting to let his new leader down in case he were to loose another friend and have it be a sort of act of someone in an abusive relationship. Then we would get the 9 lives ceremony near the start of the end to which we see him going into early New Prophecy still being jaded but trying to go off what he saw in his talk with Tall Shadow to do better and it would end off on the beginning of The New Prophecy after jumping around between Darkest Hour and New Prophecy a bit, to which he notices Tawnypelt acting different as she seems more distant, and we get a bit of inner monologue which would foreshadow the fate of the clans which had already happen in a few book series back.
In my opinion, Mudclaw should have been Mudstar, and Onewhisker as deputy. It would likely prevent Onestar's weirdly sudden shift in character, and if the Tallstar-Mudclaw dynamic worked one way, I could possibly see it with Mudstar-Onewhisker too. Plus, I'd think that when Mudclaw became leader, his life from Tallstar (it's a constant pattern and it probably isn't going to change, but then again cat hell isn't consistent either) would most likely be about not immediately jumping into battle, so he'd somewhat mellow out of respect for his previous leader.
Misread the title as gray mortality and thought this was gonna be an essay about the wc crew killing gray cats,