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  • This video topic was picked out by my patrons, and  suggested originally by Herriberri (apologies if  

  • I mispronounced that) who pointed out thatVision of Shadows is an arc I really haven't  

  • covered much on the channelwhich is truebut uhhh maybe this video will explain why.

  • A Vision of Shadows is not my favorite  arcon some days it is my least favorite arc,  

  • tossing that position back and forth with The New  Prophecy, and while I have several qualms with it,  

  • the primary thing that prevents A Vision of  Shadows from being in any way appealing to  

  • me is the characters. I have my gripes with  how the main characters were constructed,  

  • some of which I've talked about before, and  also how the support characters like Needletail,  

  • Finleap, or Jayfeather are handled in this arc but  the biggest problems come in the background cast  

  • where they simply cease to exist at all. With all  of the newest arcs, there has been a trend of more  

  • background characters being pulled up for a single  line, a short scene, or maybe even a part of a  

  • book when a character is needed but then thrown  back out immediately after their utility is gone,  

  • creating very disjointed clans full of nobodies  who mainly just fulfill the purposes of being  

  • mean to or oppositions for our point of view  characters. This is especially true with any  

  • characters who were specifically born at the end  of or after Omen of the Stars, but even some of  

  • the older characters who were less prominent  are shoved into obscurity of different levels  

  • and often stripped of any notable personality or  relationships they had before. I really hate this,  

  • on a personal level. I am someone who mainly  goes into fiction looking for characters I  

  • can understand and see grow and relationships  between those characters that I can feel happy  

  • to see flourish. Refusing to flesh out characters  to any extent and instead slotting their names  

  • into lines you need at random prevents any of that  from occurring, and it is made even worse when,  

  • to fuel the plots, most of the lines  you slot them into are derisive, cruel,  

  • and / or illogical. It ends up feeling like the  clans are filled to the brim with mouse-brained  

  • jerks who serve no purpose other than to make us  pity the protagonist for having to deal with them.

  • Here I am showing lists of every ThunderclanShadowclan, and Skyclan cat born or introduced  

  • at the very end of Omen of the Stars or during the  A Vision of Shadows period. I'm focusing on these  

  • to give a fair shot in just showing clans we have  points of views in at some point. Immediately you  

  • can see the first problem: too many stinkincats. There was already a big kit boom at the  

  • end of Omen of the Stars and in between that arc  and A Vision of Shadows, but this arc also opens  

  • us up to points of view in three clans instead  of one. Inevitably only some of the cats are  

  • going to be able to get much focus. And just asfun piece of evidence, here they are in order of  

  • how many lines they have. Of course we have the  protagonists and the closest support characters  

  • who get higher counts, but after three or four top  characters, no one manages to get even 50 lines  

  • across all six books in the arc, and before long  every clan gets into the single-digits, a problem  

  • especially prevalent in Thunderclan where tons of  new characters were born or carried over from the  

  • end of the last arc without being given any time  or focus in this new story. Even many of those who  

  • *are* prominent in this arc will practically  disappear in next arcs while only a few of  

  • the currently-obscure cats will ever be given  prominence in the future, let alone consistent  

  • prominence. Now, if any of the lines these  background characters get are intentional or added  

  • to an overall picture the authors themselves note  down about who these cats are, then no matter how  

  • long it takes, characters will eventually formHowever, Warriors is and always has been a series  

  • written by the seat of the Erins' pants, and their  deadlines and lack of a series bible force them to  

  • instead assign random lines or roles to whatever  character wins the lottery in one chapter and let  

  • them go in the next. That makes it very hard  to do a deep dive of, say Dewnose in the way I  

  • would for Hazeltail or Thornclaw, but it is what  I have promised so let's at least give a couple  

  • of these cats a try. I'm going to randomize which  cats I actually cover for each clan, discounting  

  • everyone with more than a hundred or less than  five lines just to give these guys a chance.

  • So first uplooks like Grassheart! She was  Tawnypelt's apprentice during Bramblestar's  

  • Storm but is introduced as a queen in the second  book of this arc. Several characters mention  

  • her and her kits without her being on screenHowever, she gets two full lines in this book:  

  • one asking who Alderpaw is and one telling  Violetkit that she has never seen her kit,  

  • Snakekit, so ill. Her kits become apprenticesalso with no word from her, and she returns to  

  • warrior duties in time for the Shattered Skywhere  she is mentioned exactly once by Darktail when  

  • he asks Rain for an assessment of her talentwhich was that she wasn't the greatest fighter  

  • but not likely to be a traitor to the Kin. Onto  Darkest Night! Here she uhwatches a speech from  

  • Rowanstar, suggests that they send out a search  party to look for the six-toed cat, exchanges  

  • glances with Stonewing in a sign of distrusting  Rowanstar, suggests the exact same search party  

  • again, blames Scorchfur for driving Rowanstar  away, presses around her kits with Stonewing  

  • who is now confirmed to be her mate for the first  time ever, suggests Shadowclan get supplies from  

  • their old camp before moving to Skyclan, cheers  Violetshine's warrior name along with the clan,  

  • and finally questions why Berryheart and  Yarrowleaf haven't returned to the clan. Already  

  • we're seeing the results of haphazardly assigning  lines to cats, as this book's meager pickings for  

  • her have had her be both for and against Rowanstar  as a leader. Even in this *very* small number  

  • of lines, she already has inconsistency, and  certainly no depth. This continues in River of  

  • Fire where she starts by demanding an answer as  to what Twigpaw is doing there, though she does  

  • accept Violetshine. Later she and Strikestone run  into Thunderclan and ask for Hawkwing because the  

  • missing Shadowclan cats have returned and  even later she gets her fourth and final  

  • line explaining that they're going to the Moonpool  where Tigerheart was taken. Finally, in The Raging  

  • Storm, she and Strikestone watch the Gathering  with neutral expressions, she goes on a patrol,  

  • and Violetshine thinks about her being caring if  not motherly when she was a kit. Grassheart gets  

  • attacked twice by Leafstar before and after she  calls to retreat and runs away. Medicine cats are  

  • mentioned to be treating her wounds a few times  and she says it hurts. Much later, she says that  

  • a Shadowclan warrior would never poison someone  because they settle arguments with claws like  

  • warriors. She also defends Tigerstar for wanting  to keep their land to protect Shadowclan. She and  

  • Snaketooth escort Alderheart to the border when  her wound heals and she notices that Tigerstar  

  • looked angry with Alderheart and checks in on  himand that's everything she does in the arc. Her  

  • main role is as a mother, a sub-par warrior, and  a patient so there's not a lot to go on beyond the  

  • stock Warriors she-cat characterization. She also  never interacts with her former mentor Tawnypelt,  

  • here or in Bramblestar's Storm, so it's impossible  to say what that relationship was like. It is  

  • probably true that she likes her mate and kits  and she appears to be at least friendly with  

  • Strikestone as well, in a single book. Her valuesthough, are very difficult to pin down thanks to  

  • the contradictions and the best I can say is that  she probably believes in fights solving problems  

  • to some degree. She at least has an implied  relationship with Alderheart after he treated her  

  • for so long but how that changes her perceptions  of other clans or what either of them honestly  

  • feel about each other beyond generic thanks is  completely unknown. Mostly, she's just she-cat:  

  • there to provide kits, fill in background spaceand expound on the current plot details we need to  

  • notice when her name is selected from a hat. Keep  in mind, she's also one of the more prominent cats  

  • on this list, about average. This is just whatVision of Shadows tends to give its characters.

  • As Skyclan's representative, the randomizer has  given me Nectarpaw: a kit born in Hawkwing's  

  • Journey who is an apprentice when she's introduced  in Darkest Night. Her first appearance is,  

  • in fact, being introduced by Nettlesplashher father. Later she and a bunch of other  

  • apprentices go on a patrol to the twolegplace and  she gets her first two lines encouraging Violetpaw  

  • to climb a tree while the other apprentices stay  down and telling her not to listen to Gravelpaw,  

  • who already thinks he's a warrior. Later it is  noted that both Nectarpaw and Fringepaw have  

  • lost their shynessand become more friendly with  their new denmate: Violetpaw, though I can't help  

  • wishing we ever saw any evidence of this. We also  learn in passing that Nectarpaw had, at one point,  

  • wandered too close to a twoleg patrol and been  saved by Molewhisker. She gets excited when they  

  • approach the lake, though that quickly drained  into hunger, that they relieved by going hunting  

  • with Gravelpaw and Nettlesplash, and that's  the last thing she does in the book. In River  

  • of Fire, she unfortunately only appears in the  allegiances, but in The Raging Storm, she is seen  

  • practicing battle moves with Pigeonpaw, defends  Shadowclan by saying they didn't invade Skyclan,  

  • collects and weaves tendrils intoden with Sunnypaw and Nettlesplash,  

  • gets excited about an announcement from Leafstar  about whether or not they'll leave the lake with  

  • some other apprentices, asks Harrybrook how far  the journey to the gorge will be, gets worried for  

  • Sunnypaw when she gets stuck in some mud and  quickly finds a stick to help in the rescue,  

  • and soon she and all the apprentices decide  that they only want to live at the lake where  

  • they were born. In two more instances, she  helps out with creating and reinforcing nests  

  • and her last action is being injured, gettingtwisted paw that causes a brief limp. Nectarpaw,  

  • in the three books of this arc she appears inis exactly what I would prefer from a background  

  • character. I would *like* it if her friendship  with different cats had more confirmation but  

  • she clearly cares a lot for and spends time with  Sunnypaw and Gravelpaw as well as being friendly  

  • with every apprentice, can be pretty excitable  but also tires and gets frustrated easily like  

  • you'd expect of a young kid, and seems to  be taking on a secondary hobby of seeking  

  • out information on and taking part in the building  aspect of dens and nests. I couldn't tell you any  

  • of this was intentional, but it was consistent  and these are elements that could be taken and  

  • expanded on if a story focused on her more  closely. Of course, being in Skyclan where  

  • none of the protagonists had to be bullied  by them might have helped in that. Anyway,  

  • having said that, let's move onto our third  kitty cat, the Thunderclan representative.

  • For this one, the randomizer has selectedoh  no. Uh, Stormcloud. Okay so if Grassheart  

  • showed how most fully-background  cats are handled, thoughtlessly,  

  • and Nectarpaw showed what can happen when  a background character is given more than  

  • the average, Stormcloud is what happens  when a cat who already had interesting  

  • characterization is actively shoved into the  background. Stormcloud, if you aren't familiar,  

  • was once a kittypet named Frankie who came with  Minty and Jessy to Thunderclan during the flood  

  • in Bramblestar's Storm. They were all kittypets  who had lost their homes and, in Frankie's case,  

  • he lost his brother Benny as well. By the end of  the story, Minty wanted to get back to her plush  

  • kittypet home and Jessy didn't find anything  in clan life she couldn't already get elsewhere  

  • but Frankie decided to stay in Thunderclan and  became Stormpaw, then Stormcloud, apprenticed to  

  • Squirrelflight until he took up the duties offull Thunderclan warrior. That is an incredibly  

  • unique and interesting backstory. So what does he  do here, in his first main series arc? Well in the  

  • first book, he only appears in the allegiances. In  the second, he goes on a patrol and helps to track  

  • down the rogues in Shadowclan. In the third bookhe visits the medicine den, guiltily because of  

  • how many cats are injured, with some insomnia and  breathing problems, and says he misses Purdy. He  

  • mentions he never had to put up with any of this  when he was a kittypet, but though he believes in  

  • what Thunderclan stands for, he's worried there  won't be any clans at all soon. He exists for  

  • this one scene in this one chapter and not ever  in the rest of the book. So in the fourth book,  

  • he's one of three cats to run past Brackenfur when  some rock falls into camp. In the fifth book, he  

  • and Leafshade check on a fire near Skyclan and he  mentions this is just like old times, referring to  

  • the flood in Bramblestar's Storm. He later spends  one line imploring Bramblestar to take in Velvet  

  • and Fuzzball since taking in him didn't go badlyAnd finally, in his last chance, the sixth bookhe  

  • only appears in the allegiances again. A total  of one scene and two one offhand comments across  

  • this arc bring up Stormcloud's past to involve him  at all and he never grows beyond being the cat he  

  • was in Bramblestar's Storm. How is he adjusting to  Thunderclan? Who knows! Does he have any friends?  

  • Who knows! Does he have any hobbies or thoughts  about his past life? Who knows! This is the case  

  • that actually gets me the most annoyed since they  didn't have to come up with anything. Stormcloud,  

  • a brand new character with tons of unique  qualities, was right there for you. You just  

  • had to use him and you didn't. You didn't use  *most* of the resources you had for characters.

  • Whether because of the larger cast, the new teamlack of time, an adherence to the plot, a need to  

  • give the protagonists enough detractors, or some  combination, background characters in this arc  

  • were given little to no interest, and sometimes  actively kept away from the interest they had  

  • beforewhich might explain why I haven't done many  videos on them. It's entirely possible that I'll  

  • try to do a more thorough dive of a support  character in A Vision of Shadows one day,  

  • one that the narrative cared about for at least  some amount of time, and at some point I might  

  • try to write a more holistic story for one of  these cats using every piece of their life,  

  • not just the scraps A Vision of Shadows gives  them, but I don't want to confine myself to this  

  • period for much longer. It's a dark place to livewhere no one cares about developing relationships  

  • and the community that had begun to peek through  in the past three arcs is shredded into dust for  

  • the sake of providing a hostile environment for  our protagonists to traverse. As with any arc,  

  • or any character in Warriors, you can always go  back to revamp things yourself and make a story  

  • you feel proud ofbut for A Vision of Shadows,  I don't imagine I'll be the one to do that work.

  • Thank you for watching, and always remember  to keep track of every detail of who your characters

  • huh. That's funny. I forgot what I was  saying. Well, it was probably nothing important.

This video topic was picked out by my patrons, and  suggested originally by Herriberri (apologies if  

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