series, much to my chagrin.

I'd like to first make a very brief address to a common comment from the first entry,

which is that Sasha and Tigerstar's extremely shallow and glossed over relationship makes

more sense if you read it as a one-off night on Tigerstar's part that he never really

cared about.

Aside from this variety of lust not really being an aspect of Tigerstar's character

in any other situation–he didn't even express any affection for, or frankly even

interact with, Goldenflower on-screen–there is a reason this seems implausible in the

text, and it is because of how much the comic stresses the passing of time in a montage.

Several nights, assumed to be at least several weeks, pass, and Sasha only expresses that

she is falling in love in the mid-section of this montage.

Tigerstar not only listens to Sasha but tells her about all the intimate details of his

experiences in the clans, one detail per night, seemingly, which was framed as both a time

consuming and intimate process.

The issue, which is one that exists across every character and relationship in the story,

not just used as an intentional choice for this relationship, is that they use description

to summarize the most basic events of relationships and characters without giving them much or

any dialogue in which to express themselves, their feelings, their goals, or their intimacy,

and it makes the entire manga come off as a wiki article rather than a story.

I just hope that is a trend that doesn't continue, or at least that lessens, going

into this second entry.

Also, before I get in too far, the comic page I'll be redrawing today is this one.

My patrons actually picked out this page among a couple I was mulling over, and I agree it

is a great moment.

But it also means I will be drawing a human later in this video so…oh boy.

Uh prepare for this to not be my best video on a purely artistic basis.

Escape From The Forest was released on December 23rd of 2008, a little less than 3 months

after Into the Woods and Eclipse, which as I similarly mentioned in the last episode,

is not remotely enough time to make a quality comic, that is unless all three entries of

this arc were finished or mostly finished ahead of time and only released months apart

to fit in with how the first manga series on Graystripe was released.

It also released almost exactly a month after Long Shadows, but mercifully did not release

on the same day as any other books, so we can expect at least some amount of extra time

was put into this one…hopefully.

The comic is still written by Dan Jolley and, as with the first Tigerstar & Sasha manga,

illustrated by Don Hudson, and it includes an anonymous Erin note as the previous mangas

have had.

This one refreshes us on what a horrible guy Tigerstar is for betraying the clans and his

mates along with sharing that this Erin's favorite thing about Sasha is her strength

of spirit, being willing to see the good in anyone and remain optimistic despite awful

circumstances.

I…think that's at least a nice inference that could be made given her actions, but

seeing as my biggest issue with the book was never showing the deeper feelings characters

had or the motivations for any actions, this impression isn't one that has come across

yet in the manga alone.

That said, who's to say it won't change?

I guess we can see, as soon as we check in with the statistics.

Escape From The Forest has a speaking cast of 29 cats-well, characters, only 4 of which

are named.

That said, twolegs that make up a large number of the support lines in this book don't

get official names since we can't speak their language so take that with the grain

of salt.

The top 5 characters here get 88% of the lines, pretty low for a manga especially compared

to the 94% the first manga in this series had.

We could, therefore, see a larger amount of interpersonal communication or development

of characters aside from Sasha, which would be a very welcome addition.

Let's then see if that happens as we delve into the story.

We open up with a copy-pasted panel from the last entry to pick us back up at the moment

where we ended: with Tigerstar asking if Sasha will join Shadowclan.

Here, she says no, she will not join Shadowclan, Tigerstar.

Just to make sure we remember the situation and characters, you know.

Sasha doesn't want to be feared and thought Tigerstar loved her, which he insists he does,

but he also has a destiny and simply must rule the forest.

Sasha points out that he's doing much worse, plotting several murders including against

cats who just have connections outside the clans…cats like her.

Tigerstar realizes she was the one spying on them and Sasha accuses him of just being

power hungry, refusing to be a part of it.

Tigerstar says she's making a mistake and that she will always be nothing before he

struts away, leaving her completely unharmed despite her knowing all of his secrets.

Nice job smart guy.

Anyway Sasha is heartbroken over this guy somehow but still resolved to her decision.

Now she just has to figure out who she is without her housefolk or Tigerstar or the

willingness to live all alone.

She dreams about Ken, her twoleg, and wakes up sad, leading her to leave.

Before she goes, though, she runs into Pine, who smells Shadowclan scent on her but doesn't

recognize it.

Sasha lies to him about where she's been and tries to run away, but Pine cuts her off

and desperately asks to hunt with her or help her to find prey and shelter, even avoiding

the clans with her.

He definitely wants her to stay with him as a friend, precisely the thing Sasha was missing

that was her only reason for not being a loner, but Sasha instead wants to leave and track

down Ken.

Lazer-focused on her old man, Sasha avoids every other cat and person as she traverses

her old home, though she is once spotted by a mom twoleg who screams at her, telling her

to scram for just showing up in the vicinity.

You know, like all twolegs besides a cat's housefolk do when they see a cat 30 feet away.

Lost, hungry, on her own, and with absolutely no possible options, she goes into a pet store

to hunt down a mouse and gets thrown out when a family tries to adopt her.

She finds some of Ken's clothes but not him, gets chased by more mean twolegs, gets

chased out of town by Bloodclan, and is left to wander alone until she reaches a boatyard.

It's quiet, safe, and smells of fish, so she goes to sleep.

When she wakes up, the boat is moving and she meets the boatman who shoves her into

a dark closet…until they get to shore.

Then he takes her out and lets her go away, wherever she wants.

However, Sasha sees him walk off on his own and can tell that he is lonely and sad, just

like Ken was, so she sticks around to hunt and sleep.

The next day, a family pops by and asks for the boat cat, Sasha of course, and they quickly

spot and capture her with unwanted hugs.

The boatman promptly claims Sasha as his own for business reasons and Sasha notes that

he has gentle hands so it probably won't be so bad.

The family seems happy to have her and gives her lots of pets so she doesn't mind that

either.

Over the next days, she learns more about the boat's routine and draws in more and

more customers who are mostly there, not for a boat ride, but just to pet a cute cat.

I understand, random tourists.

Sasha enjoys sailing and being with the boat man and definitely not being alone anymore.

She is happy every day.

She has a wonderful time, gets named Brownie by the boat captain, gets lots of love, attention,

and fun every day from numerous tourists as well as the captain, and has all the food

she could need.

So clearly, something is wrong.

She is not meant to live the life of a kittypet, pampered with love and food and warmth and

happiness.

She needs something much more grim and dangerous and sad to feel fulfilled.

I wish I was kidding, or that the book was kidding.

Sasha is the happiest she has been since Ken left and she wants to leave because she's

not sad enough.

She does, however, hold off for a bit because she knows the captain needs her to sell tickets.

Also, a few nights later criminals break in and try to set fire to the docks, but Sasha

foils their plans by crashing trash cans and chasing the intruders into a mess of nets

which happens to trap them and makes enough sound to wake the captain up.

Sasha hisses and keeps an eye on the criminals as requested while the captain calls the cops

and just like that, Sasha has saved the world…of the boatman.

He is very grateful, and invites her into his home to get some ham, though she does

prefer to stay outside and hunt.

Sasha is very happy to have saved the boatman.

She likes life here, even if she isn't willing to go live in a house again.

The news reporters appear the next day to film and record Sasha's savior story, she

gets put in newspapers, and even more customers are drawn in to the captain's business.

She loves everything about this life…and she knows she simply must leave it.

It is implied that she also believes Tigerstar is coming for her but it really seemed an

awful lot like he was content to leave her alone when he made no attempts to hurt her

and instead wandered back into his clan calmly.

However, he no longer haunts her heart because she is sure she isn't nothing, she is Sasha.

Who is that, from her point of view?

I have my own opinions but she doesn't give us anything but the name.

Anyway, Sasha locates a kitten in the river and gets the boatman to rescue them before

saving their life with warmth and care and introducing them to the boat life.

All three characters go into the captain's house, the kitten is named Patch, and everyone

is getting along.

Clearly, this means things need to change.

Sasha will leave, but at least she won't leave the captain alone now.

Oh, and Sasha is pregnant by the way.

The river freezes over for the winter and the boatman is ready to leave until spring.

He of course invites both cats to come along in his car, but Sasha tells Patch she isn't

going.

The captain is sad but gives her an affectionate goodbye and wishes her the best before driving

along with Patch down the road.

Sasha wants to raise her kits in the woods, with trees and prey and freedom.

Housefolk can't stick around forever, so she needs to be able to survive on her own.

Now she just needs to make it through the snow to a place where they will be remotely

safe.

And that is where we leave off for this entry.

At the very least, I can safely say that I enjoyed Escape From The Forest more than Into

the Woods.

Aside from Tigerstar being almost entirely absent from the story, a welcome change given

his portrayal in the last book, Escape From The Forest stands out for just…having dialogue

that expresses who the characters are and cats-characters, I should say, who talk about

and display their feelings.

As has been an odd trend through almost all of the mangas, the twoleg presence here is

much more prominent than it ever is in the main series and it's honestly very cute

a lot of the time.

Seeing the captain grow from not caring about cats to seeing Sasha's worth and taking

both her, as Brownie, and Patch in as his own is very sweet, especially as it's shown

from Sasha's own perspective with her constantly trying to understand his true intentions and

behavior.

I could probably argue he has the biggest arc of the book despite our main character

not understanding much or any of his language.

One character she does understand is Patch, who comes in very late in the book and doesn't

have much time to develop, but in this case I do not mind.

His character is really only meant to be a very cute young kitty to get excited about

all of the things Sasha and the captain show him and for Sasha herself to both save and

take care of in preparation for her own kits.

He's not only adorable on his own, but shows us more about Sasha as well.

Maybe she has grown to not just want to be taken care of, but to want to take care of

others, both the captain and Patch.

That bodes well for the inevitable future of her becoming a mother.

Sasha's arc here is definitely a little muddled at times, easier to infer based on

what we expect from the structure of the story rather than anything this particular tale

tells us about Sasha's own feelings or decisions.

The main clear idea is that she's trying to find who she is and where she belongs without

her loving owner Ken or her abusive ex Tigerstar being around anymore, and what she comes to

is a realization that…well okay, as I said I can infer things but the text never states

anything directly.

It seems like the place Sasha found for herself was as a caretaker and even savior for others: