Name: Cats of the Clans – Trip Through Time | Warriors Analysis
Uploaded: 2024-02-18T12:08:02.000Z
Duration: 16 min 36 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

As separated from the normal story-driven books as they are, the first field guide was

a joy to read in my case, so I'm happy to revisit the concept for this entry.

This one, however, may be a slight challenge to convey in the spoken word because of its

Cats of the Clans came out on June 24th, 2008, two months after Outcast and Warrior's Return

and the same day as another, standalone manga that I will be covering in the next episode.

It was written by Victoria Holmes this time and, importantly, illustrated by Wayne McLoughlin.

McLoughlin was the main cover artist for four and a half Warriors arcs, more than a decade

However, in 2015, he passed away, and many of his work on the covers has since been replaced

with rerelease covers primarily done by Owen Richardson.

I mention this because Cats of the Clans is built on its illustrations more than any other

These were the first official renderings of several characters and are still widely known

and recognized as who the characters truly are to this day.

Considering I rarely show the covers of books within these episodes, it felt especially

important to show off some of this art now to give recognition to McLoughlin's well-loved

That being said, this book is divided into different clans as Secrets of the Clans was,

and gives page-long descriptions of each cat it covers, along with showing a vibrant and

detailed illustration of that cat on the adjacent page.

For anyone who appreciates the visuals of the stories they read, this book may be far

more fun for you to look at yourself than to hear me talk about.

With that said, it begins with the framing device for the book.

Three Starclan kits meet Rock, that cat who Fallen Leaves met when he went down into the

tunnels before he died, and who told Jaypaw to go to the mountains.

The first kit is Mosskit, Bluestar's daughter and Mistyfoot and Stonefur's sister.

While we didn't know their name before, Bluestar explicitly used he/him pronouns in

reference to her third kit who died on the way to Riverclan.

So yes, for anyone who was curious, the book that retconned Mosskit's gender was Cats

Anyway, the other two kits here are Adderkit, a Windclan tom who apparently died to a snake

which became his namesake, and Blossomkit, a Shadowclan kit who died in battle under

Brokenstar in an effort to become an early warrior.

Rock promises to tell the three kits the stories of many cats in the clans, but also those

outside the clans as he doesn't think much of the clans' general arrogance, believing

Beginning with Thunderclan, and after mentioning that the hunter's crouch is a Thunderclan-specific

technique, Rock first tells us about Firestar.

The fiery tom is described as a champion who has long since moved past his kittypet roots.

Rock wishes for him to have a long life, but immediately laughs at the notion because he

already knows how each of Firestar's lives will be lost.

Moving on to Bluestar, with heavily emphasis on Mosskit's connection to her, Rock says

she was a great leader who paid a steep price to become leader instead of Thistleclaw and

acted as a mother figure to Firestar in their stead.

He's sure to emphasize the sacrifices she made at the beginning and end of her leadership

to explain her behavior in her last moons of life.

Graystripe meanwhile is described as every cat's friend, torn away from his friends

and clan when he left for Riverclan with his kits.

Rock is also rather complimentary of Millie and her unacknowledged achievements in getting

Sandstorm is a loyal mate and mother, but Rock points out that she should be remembered

as much more than that since it was Sandstorm who pushed Firestar into much of the heroics

he managed to accomplish, and she matched him pawstep for pawstep on their journey to

rescue Skyclan, even being the clan's medicine cat until they found their own and saving

Firestar's body when he was killed by the rats.

Yellowfang's life and connection to Blossomkit are summarized briefly and Rock mentions that

while she was stubborn and grumpy, she was the most loyal cat you could ever meet, brave

as well, and someone who blamed herself for Brokenstar's evil deeds.

Cinderpelt is explicitly called out as a cat who should have been a warrior, and whose

fate shocked even Starclan, implying that cats do, at large, have general overarching

It is also called out that she doesn't have an especially strong connection with Starclan,

a confirmation of a theory based on her misinterpretation of the Fire and Tiger omen, and Rock implies

that her being told about her own death before being reincarnated as Sorreltail's kit was

actually a test to show she was deserving of her next life.

Rock doesn't necessarily know what Starclan was actually thinking but if that was the

real reason they told her…that's a little messed up guys.

Onto someone with an even worse relationship with her ancestors though, because Rock next

tells us about Leafpool, oh and also that Blossomkit wanted to be a medicine cat like

Rock talks about her magical connection with Squirrelflight, her receiving the blood will

spill blood prophecy, and then immediately jumps into blaming her for her relationship

with Crowfeather that her ancestors could never have approved of…you know, except

when they came down on two different occasions and directly set them up together.

Rock doesn't mention that part for some reason.

Squirrelflight is lauded for her fiery spirit, sharp tongue, and strong morals, though Rock

also briefly implies that she has some sort of secret.

Rock then moves on to talking about her as a companion for Brambleclaw, or even Stormfur,

and then Ashfur, pointing out that he totally would have been loyal to the end and simply

didn't appreciate her strength enough for her to like him back.

This page also has a line famous to me, that Squirrelflight “needed someone to match

her fire, not contain it, and that cat was always going to be Brambleclaw.”

Famous because it's poetic nonsense that doesn't actually get at whether they are

matching wits playfully or arguing all the time.

Rock also says that she's been a great mother to our current protagonists and he hopes she

Ha…hahaha…okay we'll see about that one.

Brambleclaw's story is framed as that of a tragic but noble, loyal, and brave cat who

led the clans to safety and acted as the leader of the sun-drowned place journey, and yet

who also let Tigerstar train him in his dreams with Hawkfrost.

Rock asks if he is truly as goodhearted as he wants cats to believe, and says he already

knows the answer, but won't tell the kits.

Ashfur is up next, and to Rock it is a “shame” that he will always be spoken of in relation

to Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw when he is a strong and brave warrior that Rock himself

Rock gives him a lot of credit as Lionpaw's mentor and defends him in comparison to Dustpelt,