Let's Read: Warrior Cats Series

[abxy]

screeches FIREHEART IS SO IDIOTIC!!!
You tell Graystripe not to keep meeting up with Silverstream,
but you meet up with Princess?!
IDIOT ALERT

[Mr. Cloudwhisker]

I feel like the Erins are no longer thinking about their younger fans.
A kid buys Mapeshade's Vengeance.
The kid reads the new book.
They wonder what a midge is.
They ask their friends.
They ask their parents.
Neither of them know.
The kid is left wondering what a midge is until they look it up.
Fireheart is a big hypocrite.

[Arcaii]

I would argue the opposite, honestly. Buckle up, kids, it's time for a rambling speech.

Erin Hunter has proven that they don't think anything of their of their story, given how much of it is petty drama and nonsensical villains. Cats do completely impossible things with no explanation, diabolical plots have holes big enough for a semi-truck to drive through, the family trees are too messed up to even begin dissecting, the country somehow changes mid-series to America, the only way they can add any excitement to the story is to ramp up the odds to mindblowingly stupid degrees (dead cats against other dead cats, and that will somehow make everything terrible)... The books are not intelligent by any standard, and what's worse is that it's very clear there was no attempt to make them so. They literally just ride on the premise of "cats with magic". That's the only thing keeping their story up - that, and the fact that the main demographic is kids.

But that's the thing. Erin Hunter is perfectly aware that their audience is full of kids, and that's the only reason they get away with the crap they do. Because kids don't know any better, they'll pick up these books and think it's the greatest thing on earth. You think an adult is going to enjoy a story as contrived and drama-scented as this*, especially when no one really talks above a child's intellect? Kids aren't going to stop and say, "wait, this doesn't make sense". They won't push for better writing or more developed characterization or the full drop of characters who add nothing to the plot.

They're children. They're - Removed - stupid. A dog will eat antifreeze if you give it to them. A kid will love a terrible book if you let them read it.

If you're a preteen or something reading this thread and that hurt your feelings, I do apologize, but that's facts. And don't think I'm acting all haughty for it - I was 12 years old at one point. I was like that too.


*Don't answer that. We've seen terrible adult books be successful before.

[agathokakologic]

@Arcaii- Now that I think about it...

1st Arc stuck closer to realism. Starclan and a prophecy.
2nd Arc was alright, but it introduced Dark Forest and another prophecy. (And would six cats be able to travel from a forest across the suburbs over a mountain with a cougar to some slippery cliffs around the beach and back again before taking kits and elders with them? Might I remind you that the only casualties were Smokepaw and Featherail?)
3rd Arc was filled with cats with powers.
4th Arc was filled with more cats with powers and a battle between good dead cats versus dead evil cats.

You can see the difference.

[Wolvine]

even by the end of the first series it was going downhill tho. into the wild had an interesting premise, there are hints at what could have been, but wasnt. then it descended into whats essentially a telenovela w cats, complete with your stock melodrama villains and heroes.

[Nitro Indigo]

Even when I was a kid, I found Seekers by the same author incredibly boring, so the "it's for kids" excuse doesn't cut it here. But that's just me.

[. étoile]

Even when I was a kid, I found Seekers by the same author incredibly boring, so the "it's for kids" excuse doesn't cut it here. But that's just me.

You're not the only one.

[Rain_]

I couldn't pass Chapter 2 in Seekers.
You can guess why.

[Mr. Cloudwhisker]

Seekers
I couldn't get past the first page o3o

[Nitro Indigo]

That mythology story at the start of Seekers had nothing to do with anything...

Now that I think about it, Seekers is a saturation of everything I don't like about FMA: slow plot progression, hammering in a certain theme to uncomfortable-levels, and a boring trek through hypothermia land. /ramble