Name: Forest of Secrets – Trip Through Time | Warriors Analysis Speedpaint
Uploaded: 2024-02-18T11:35:49.000Z
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And here we've arrived, at the first significant status-quo changing book of the series.

Adverbs of manner

Not only does Tigerclaw's plot come to fruition,

but Graystripe leaves and on the meta-level, we have a new author!

Forest of Secrets released on the 14th of October, 2003:

4 ½ months after the second book and 9 months after the first.

It is also, more importantly, the first book written by Cherith Baldry.

This is another fresh start on the writing department, and like Into the Wild it comes with a lot of plot advances to get through.

Unlike Into the Wild, though, the various character dramas going on are perhaps equally as important,

which lets Cherith start off with her own unique set of strengths and faults.

As for what those are...uh, well let's start with the story.

We begin with a short prologue between Oakheart and Graypool,

two Riverclan cats speaking about a couple mystery kits with unknown pasts that Graypool agrees to care for.

We then move back to Fireheart, three days after the ending of the last book.

He is now set in his knowledge that Graystripe is his friend that he will be loyal to despite all shortcomings

and that Tigerclaw is a problem he really needs to deal with.

For this reason, Fireheart and Graystripe take a secret impromptu journey back to Barley's farm

to speak with Ravenpaw and get the full story about Redtail's death.

As it turns out, Oakheart was killed by a rockfall, not by Redtail,

so the most unbelievable part of the original story is gone.

It is also here that they find out about a connection between Stonefur and Thunderclan,

which starts off the second mission of the book: solve this mystery.

When they come back, Fireheart and Graystripe are punished for being well fed

and Fireheart has a dream with Spottedleaf, saying that water can quench fire.

They go together into the heart of Riverclan territory to speak with Silverstream and confirm the story.

She doesn't know about it though, so she brings Mistyfoot,

who we learn knows about the relationship between Graystripe and Silverstream and disapproves:

effectively making her Riverclan's Fireheart equivalent.

but wants to bring in her mother Graypool to find out what Stonefur's connection to Thunderclan was,

and that requires coming back to Riverclan again on another day.

Brightpaw and Thornpaw become apprentices, to Whitestorm and Mousefur respectively,

and then Fireheart finally learns that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are from Thunderclan.

With this information Fireheart goes for take two of telling Bluestar about Tigerclaw killing Redtail,

which she nearly believes until Fireheart adds in the Thunderclan-kits bit for which she gets defensive and kicks him out.

At this point, Fireheart defaults back to casual clan interactions:

going herb-gathering with Cinderpelt where she decides to be a full medicine cat,

teaching Cloudkit about his kittypet heritage, and patrolling with Graystripe and Sandstorm.

After yet another Spottedleaf dream, silent this time,

a flood happens and Graystripe and Fireheart save some Riverclan kits and start giving them prey, which they quickly get in trouble for.

Shadowclan and Windclan get very angry with Thunderclan for sheltering Brokentail.

They decide to attack, and Brackenpaw proves himself enough to become Brackenfur.

Graystripe however wasn't at the battle, and gets an earful from Tigerclaw for it.

Also, Silverstream has Graystripe's kits and dies in the process, much to Cinderpaw's dismay,

making Graystripe's secret Riverclan romance not-so secret anymore.

Speaking of not-secrets, it is revealed that Mistyfoot and Stonefur are Bluestar's kits.

Cloudpaw is apprenticed to Fireheart, and he finally gets to meet his mother.

Riverclan tries to take Graystripe and Silverstream's kits multiple times,

but before we can conclude that plot Tigerclaw finally makes his move and attacks Thunderclan's mostly unguarded camp,

using his position as deputy to get almost every cat away.

While the rogues busy everyone else in camp, he attacks Bluestar himself and is cut off by Fireheart,

who neutralizes him and, once the battle is finished, tells every cat about his treachery.

Tigerclaw immediately reveals himself, saying he hates not only Fireheart but Bluestar as well,

thinking of them both as weak and useless.

He then goes to Darkstripe, Longtail, and Dustpelt and asks them to come with him,

which they all refuse for different reasons.

Tigerclaw leaves with a promise of revenge and soon after Graystripe does too,

bringing his kits to Riverclan like they wanted.

Fireheart is made deputy late since Bluestar isn't...feeling that great, and the book ends.

It is, at this point, difficult to tell the exact differences in this book that are due to a different author's style,

rather than to the different type of outline the book follows.

The through-lines in this book are about equally balanced between character drama and plot developments,

where Into the Wind focused almost entirely on the overarching plot

and Fire and Ice stepped back to deal with smaller conflicts and developing the characters.

However, we can take note of this book's strengths and flaws for later.

As usual, we will start with basic clan changes.

Cinderpaw is officially listed as a medicine cat apprentice. Yay!

We have 10 warriors now, since Sandstorm and Dustpelt have joined the roster, but amazingly still 5 apprentices.

Sandpaw Dustpaw and Cinderpaw have been replaced with newcomers Cloudpaw, Brightpaw, and Thornpaw.

The leadership roles, queens, and elders are also identical,

save for Brokentail now being listed with the elders as he is held prisoner in the camp.

The top 10 characters this time around get 81% of the lines,

again, a drop in the right direction, though not as large a jump as Fire and Ice's.

The issue though comes in the gender distribution.

Only 38% of the characters for this book are she-cats, and they only get 35% of the lines

despite the many many Riverclan she-cats taking up a large part of this book.

(Seriously this book could make you believe Crookedstar is the only tom left in the clan.)

The cast size is smaller than Fire & Ice's overall,

which makes sense as it would likely be difficult to take on such a large group for your first book into this world.

I'll reserve any judgement until Cherith has had more time to get acquainted with writing for the series.

In addition to the different balance of plot and character time, this is also the first book with a mystery,

or at least the characters seeking out the answer to a mystery the readers may have already understood.

The prologue and much of the book's time is dedicated to finding out who Mistyfoot and Stonefur are or were: Bluestar's kits.

It is pretty easy to figure out, especially given the sheer number of clues pointing to the answer,

but it's interesting to have a new style that may be brought back at other points in the series.

On a less happy note, welcome! To the first Warriors retcon!

es it only took 3 books for a rewriting of canon to be necessary.

In Into the Wild, at a gathering, Ravenpaw described Redtail running away with blood dripping from his mouth and his fur torn,

immediately after Oakheart's death, implying Redtail killed Oakheart.

He later clarified to Firepaw explicitly that Redtail killed Oakheart

and, just as Redtail was watching Riverclan run away, Tigerclaw killed him.

However, in Forest of Secrets, Ravenpaw says they were both hit by a rockfall.

Oakheart died, but Redtail came out completely unharmed, and he ran *into* Tigerclaw instead of Tigerclaw creeping up on him.

Graystripe calls him on messing up at book 1's gathering,

but Fireheart doesn't mention his clear statement to the contrary and that part is never explained.

Because the rest of this book and the arc's story hinges on Redtail not, in fact, murdering Oakheart,

it is generally accepted that this version of the events is what truly happened.

But the fact that we have to retroactively make a choice about which canon to take as fact is already a slight problem.

There is one other thing that isn't a retcon, at least not yet since it's the first time we've ever seen it,

but will become important to check on much later.

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Forest of Secrets – Trip Through Time | Warriors Analysis Speedpaint

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