Let's Read: Warrior Cats Series

[Rain_]

With all these mistakes and flaws, I would say The Penderwicks and Hatchet are better than this .-.
Warriors were nicely made with cats, I would admit, since cats fight fiercely and have sharp teeth and claws. And the idea of the four clans were great to think about too- I wouldn't think any author would think of that.

But the way it's written in the book- WITH FIVE PEOPLE WORKING ON IT- It still has mistakes .-. Did it have any editors? I suspect no. I also have no idea how it got published with those mistakes..*Sigh*
I just HATED the fact in Power of Three of how special cats had SUPER POWERS! >:O It seemed fun and all, but like you guys said, it was like a gary sue that Lionblaze couldn't get wounded in battle .-. I was fine with Jaywing being blind but could see in dreams, but Lionblaze being a gary sue? Now that ain't gonna work with me.
It would've been HORRIBLE if Tigerstar had Lionblaze's powers of never being wounded.
OH MY GAWD, WHY DID I JUST THINK OF DAT!?
If Erin put the idea of Tigerstar never being wounded, then he could've really killed Scourge.
And I like Scourge.
Cuz Scourge actually had a reason to have revenge..
I mean, why would Tigerstar be all mad for his father to leave him and become a kittypet?
Wouldn't Tigerstar want to make his father proud and-
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So thats why Tigerstar wanted to rule da forest..
To show that he was better than his father, but he did it a wrong way..
I get ya Erin..
I get ya.. *Crosses fingers*

[shortstop]

Marky mark c:

Arcaii, it is so amusing to see you just tear these books to shreds omg I had a go at re-reading the series last week

HOLY INCONSISTENT WRITING, BATMAN

I've read some pretty awful literary works in my time, but apart from the Twilight saga I think this series takes the cake when it comes to below par writing. And to think it was five people writing it. For shame, Hunters, for shame.

On a side note, does anyone else think that the whole 'Firestar's Quest' plot was a little odd? Like, they follow a series of dreams to find some cats they've never heard of, then are forced into rebuilding an entire Clan as reparation for a crime that they didn't even know occurred?!
Plus the thing with the kittypet Echo, where she just kind of showed up so that the Clan could have a medicine cat. Pretty lazy writing there.

[Rain_]

Er meh gawd.
I would have to agree with you, Shadow.
I read Firestar's Quest, and I kinda liked some ideas, but when Echo bursts in, I think the Erins wanted to finish the book since it was getting boring (Wow, even for them it was boring o-o Surprsing) I also was thinking about if Skyclan could come with Firestar and Sandstorm to the forest. But NAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW since the book was getting boring. The Erins could think of new dramatic ideas if Skyclan were added to the forest. I mean, haven't the cats ever heard of ''new?'' A forest is at least big as 3 football fields, but covered with trees, and the Skyclan cats could find some territory there but would be a little farther away from the clans. But no, of course, they were too lazy to do that.
*Sigh*

[Arcaii]

I love this thread, and I could not agree more!
I knew the series was poorly written, and increasingly so as the books went on, but there's a lot of stuff here that I wouldn't have noticed, and a lot of other stuff that has needed to be said for a while. It's also really inspiring, since it tells us what we should avoid when writing.

Just a rant of my own. I've read loyally until The Last Hope, but when I tried to start the new arc, 'Dawn of the Clans', I could not get through it! Every character was completely flat or villainous without reason, and the plot was extremely dull and predictable for me. It was impossible to sympathize with any of the characters. It made the original series a breath of fresh air.

A warm welcome, man! Toss your sleeping bag wherever, because we're up all night!

I stopped directly at the last book in the third series. Back then, I couldn't place what made me lose my love for the books, but as I got older I realized that the writing was just sheer garbage.

[Arcaii]

With all these mistakes and flaws, I would say The Penderwicks and Hatchet are better than this .-.
Warriors were nicely made with cats, I would admit, since cats fight fiercely and have sharp teeth and claws. And the idea of the four clans were great to think about too- I wouldn't think any author would think of that.

But the way it's written in the book- WITH FIVE PEOPLE WORKING ON IT- It still has mistakes .-. Did it have any editors? I suspect no. I also have no idea how it got published with those mistakes..*Sigh*
I just HATED the fact in Power of Three of how special cats had SUPER POWERS! >:O It seemed fun and all, but like you guys said, it was like a gary sue that Lionblaze couldn't get wounded in battle .-. I was fine with Jaywing being blind but could see in dreams, but Lionblaze being a gary sue? Now that ain't gonna work with me.
It would've been HORRIBLE if Tigerstar had Lionblaze's powers of never being wounded.
OH MY GAWD, WHY DID I JUST THINK OF DAT!?
If Erin put the idea of Tigerstar never being wounded, then he could've really killed Scourge.
And I like Scourge.
Cuz Scourge actually had a reason to have revenge..
I mean, why would Tigerstar be all mad for his father to leave him and become a kittypet?
Wouldn't Tigerstar want to make his father proud and-
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So thats why Tigerstar wanted to rule da forest..
To show that he was better than his father, but he did it a wrong way..
I get ya Erin..
I get ya.. *Crosses fingers*

The worst thing? They do have an editor. Their editor is just a sacka crap.

The entire thing with Tigerstar and Scourge will be covered more thoroughly in the final book, but I will say that it's probably one of the worst things done in the series for a lot of reasons. Scourge could have been menacing if he had shown up earlier and wasn't just a fakeout boss.

[Arcaii]

Marky mark c:

Arcaii, it is so amusing to see you just tear these books to shreds omg I had a go at re-reading the series last week

HOLY INCONSISTENT WRITING, BATMAN

I've read some pretty awful literary works in my time, but apart from the Twilight saga I think this series takes the cake when it comes to below par writing. And to think it was five people writing it. For shame, Hunters, for shame.

On a side note, does anyone else think that the whole 'Firestar's Quest' plot was a little odd? Like, they follow a series of dreams to find some cats they've never heard of, then are forced into rebuilding an entire Clan as reparation for a crime that they didn't even know occurred?!
Plus the thing with the kittypet Echo, where she just kind of showed up so that the Clan could have a medicine cat. Pretty lazy writing there.

YEAAAAAH, WHAT'S UP BUDDY?! GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN.

Firestar's Quest was so unbelievably bad and stupid in its concept that I don't even want to talk about it.

[Toxi+Bbun]

I ended up reading Leafpool's Wish today, and it was pretty crummy writing apart from the kits (they were cute, obviously) and that One Scene Wonder fox vs. badger fight. Now that was great, brief as it was.

Leafpool's constant whining, as much as it made sense, felt grating after a while, and in general it just felt pretty boring.

[shortstop]

LONG TIME NO SEE!!

The one thing that this thread really surprised me with was the fact that so many of the cats who flirt/end up as mates/etc. are related, and so closely related at that. Like, if it was a somewhat distant cousin or something, then I could maybe understand, since Clans don't have all that many cats, and with the hatred for non-Clan cats I imagine there are few opportunities for fresh blood to be entered into the Clan. But come on. Really.

[Arcaii]

Chapter Nineteen

We start off with Firepaw doing the stupidest thing possible: not telling anyone about what he just heard. He doesn't tell Ravenpaw, who would definitely be in the most danger not knowing about what Tigerclaw's doing; he doesn't tell Spottedleaf, who's clearly fond of him but would believe him regardless; he doesn't tell Bluestar, who has the authority to make Tigerclaw leave Ravenpaw alone and can verify that Ravenpaw was with them the whole time; he doesn't even tell Graypaw, his best friend, who would definitely trust him and help come up with a plan on what to do next. It's like the last part of the chapter didn't even happen for Firepaw. Did the Hunters seriously forget that Firepaw just heard some incredibly dire information in favor of an awkward moment between him and Spottedleaf that I'm completely certain was meant to be romantic but only came out as stilted and unnecessary?

Speaking of, it's at this time that Spottedleaf tells Firepaw about the prophecy she received. I can't think of a single reason why she should tell him or why StarClan would want her to tell him, but what's even dumber is that Firepaw doesn't get it and immediately thinks the same thing that Bluestar did in the prologue: "Surely fire was an enemy to all who lived in the forest."

Firepaw. Dude. Look at me for a second. Listen closely. Listen carefully. I'm gunna spell this out for you nice and slow-like.

SPOTTEDLEAF JUST GAVE YOU A PROPHECY FORETELLING THAT FIRE WILL SAVE THE CLAN. YOUR NAME IS FIREPAW AND YOU ARE THE PROTAGONIST OF A CHILDREN'S STORY. YOU ARE THE FIRE. YOU WILL SAVE THE CLAN. YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO BE GENRE SAVVY FOR THIS - YOUR NAME IS LITERALLY MENTIONED IN THE PROPHECY.

And the next morning, this exchange occurs:

My God, I must have taken a longer break than I thought. I forgot how blatant these books are about foreshadowing.

Writer's Tip #163: Foreshadowing is basically telling your readers, "this is what happens in the story", which makes it hard to pull off well. If you absolutely must foreshadow, make it subtle - you want your readers to go back and be amazed that they didn't pick up the hints you gave. A skilled writer can make even the most savvy of readers miss something that's right there in plain sight.

Erin Hunter is not a skilled writer.

Even if this isn't supposed to be foreshadowing, there's absolutely no reason for them to regard each other as enemies for this instant. They didn't argue or insult each other - Firepaw just got a tone and Tigerclaw growled something (and he growls all the time).

And Tigerclaw has a point - Clan cats shouldn't be motionless with grief for more than a day. If every cat threw themselves down and wept every time someone died (and, as we've seen already, that's a pretty common thing), the Clan couldn't get a single thing done. They can grieve however long they want, but they have jobs to do.

Anyway, Bluestar comes out to train with Firepaw.

Oh, now you two are making practical and sensible decisions. Bluestar finally acknowledges that using two warriors as her guards is a waste of energy, and Firepaw decides to tell her about Ravenpaw. Why didn't he go in and tell her immediately last night, when Darkstripe and Longtail were out? And why were they out in the first place?! Did Tigerclaw seriously let them slack off the day Bluestar comes back after having died from rats? Isn't that incredibly suspect?

Are you- LOOK AT THIS MORONOUS MAXIMUS OVER HERE, EVERYONE. All it took was for an old woman to pretend to attack him and he forgets the very real danger that his friend is in. Why not just stop and go, "Hey, Bluestar, I need to tell you something really important, can this wait?" I'm sure that Bluestar is sane enough to at least pause for a second, see the urgency on her apprentice's face, and say, "Alright, but make it quick".

But the idiot that is our intrepid hero just forgets everything that's been weighing on his mind in favor of a fight.

Are you joshing me.

Well, speaking of the fight, Bluestar ain't dockin' around, here. I appreciate that she's a hard-nosed teacher who doesn't give him a single break, especially considering that he's a 8-month-old apprentice at this point. He gets exactly one good move on her before she whups his butt. This is pretty enjoyable to read, so I won't complain.

Of course, as they go home, Firepaw realizes that he forgot to mention Ravenpaw. So mention him now! You still have time to ask if you can talk privately-

Oh wait, what's that over there? Is that the script?

Oh well. Sorry, Ravenpaw. You're friend's an idiot.

Next up: Chapter Twenty.

Stupidity Count: Off the charts.

[Arcaii]

Oh, God, there's like 3 art errors... Oh well. Live and learn.

Anyway, enjoy the post!