It's probably the most popular clan among fans, with more people calling it their favorite than any other.

But it's also probably the most disliked of the main clans,

with plenty of people pointing out it's issues and how it never lives up to the image its fans see.

I...stand on both sides honestly.

I love Riverclan for what it could have been, and what it has been to me,

but because of my love I'm angered by how bad Riverclan has become.

It's already a bad sign that their best representation is in a field guide.

Secrets of the Clans treated Riverclan just as well as the other clans.

Their leaders and medicine cats were all, in their brief descriptions, interesting characters.

Riverstar came up with the system of mentoring apprentices.

Crookedstar had an interesting story to tell with how he got his name and injury in the first place.

Mothwing trained as a warrior before becoming a medicine cat,

was direct family with two main series villains, and she didn't believe in Starclan.

And even Dapplepelt, the first Riverclan medicine cat,

was unique in that she went into the job of a medicine cat with the attitude of a warrior.

The clan as a whole was portrayed as strong and adaptable,

unique in their plentiful supply of prey and passtime swimming in the river that other clans detested.

They were said to collect little shells and feathers to decorate their dens,

purely aesthetic items that they only had time for because hunting was so easy,

and their territory had the defense of the river without even doing border patrols.

Of course, the natural allure of swimming is appealing to many human readers without any clan culture attached.

When your other options are “being in the dark,” “running,” or “being in or under trees,”

swimming seems the most exciting, unique and frankly fun option for anyone fantasising about *being* a warrior cat.

I've started with this because it's what I believe a lot of fans clung to in their early days when choosing a favorite clan.

Not what place they hold in the story, but how interesting it could be, either to live there yourself or to use it in a story of your own.

Because in the narratives we do get in the series, Riverclan is boring at best and actively harmful at worst.

Crookedstar's Promise, the prequel Super Edition, probably did the best job.

The clan culture was intricate and many of the characters got good moments to show their personalities and values even if they weren't main characters.

But even in this iteration, many of the interesting quirks from the guide were removed.

No one collected shells or feathers,

and even though they had a couple instances of fishing for fun, they didn't seem to have more free time than any other clan,

and they struggled with getting enough food multiple times, so we never got to see the benefits of them being well fed or safe.

And since Bluestar's Prophecy had already shown many battles over Sunningrocks in the time period, where Thunderclan won,

what we did see of Riverclan's battle prowess in Crookedstar's Promise was lacking at best.

The original arc continues this trend.

Thunderclan, and Fireheart, needed to be the heroes,

so Riverclan was shown as losing their deputy and other warriors,

bowing to Brokenstar's pressure,

needing Thunderclan cats to hunt for them,

and joining Shadowclan multiple times as evil underlings,

either to take down Windclan when it was already weak, or to take over the forest and turn on their own clanmates to do it.

Still, there were moments like Riverclan taking in Thunderclan after the forest fire where they showed strength and promise.

Shadowclan recovered from being the designated bad guys,

so there's no reason Riverclan couldn't do the same, given time and effort.

But what followed instead was the New Prophecy, a detriment to every character and clan but especially to Riverclan.

The series featured a main cast of cats from every clan, and a villain from Riverclan,

which should have given them ample time to develop.

But Feathertail and Stormfur are both more connected to Graystripe and the Tribe then they are to Riverclan,

and even when they aren't they barely show off any personality traits before one dies and the other leaves the cast.

Hawkfrost meanwhile is more focused on being Tigerstar's son than anything else,

and most of his plots revolve around Brambleclaw in Thunderclan or Mudclaw in Windclan.

He certainly did something in Riverclan, but we have no eyes in the clan to see that, so the clan itself was left to rot when he died.

And of course, once The New Prophecy was over, Riverclan was across a massive lake from Thunderclan, rather than right next door.

Almost every character we were given any details on was killed off or left behind,

and with the clan across the lake from the POV characters they never bothered to introduce any new characters.

Leopardstar died, leaving us with Mistystar, Mothwing, and sort of Willowshine

as the only three characters remaining in Riverclan among a sea of faceless strangers.

Occasionally in Power of Three, Omen of the Stars, and A Vision of Shadows

they would mention bad things happening to Riverclan as a reminder they were still there,

but no progress was made on characterizing the clan

and they never had moments of saving cats anymore, instead of being saved.

But the Erins had another chance to make Riverclan cool with Dawn of the Clans.

It had a completely new cast with no borders between them yet,

so there were plenty of opportunities to introduce Riverclan's cats and form their clan culture nicely, like they did with the other clans.

They even had Secrets of the Clans to work off of,

since a few interesting details about the first leader and medicine cat were already there for them.

But even under these ideal circumstances, Riverclan got next to nothing.

River Ripple, who becomes Riverstar,

never moves to being anything other than a wise, mysterious stranger, even to the warrior ancestors.

He's said to be elegant and knowledgeable about about his own territory,

but other than being nice and calm at a basic level we don't see any of his personality or story.

He doesn't even get to participate in the big battle that spurs them to form official clans in the first place.

And unlike the other clans which split and were built based on their different values and relationships with each other,

the few cats that join River Ripple do so because...

they like water.

He likes water.

Yahoo.

He gets a little more characterisation through his backstory in the bonus scenes,

but it never impacts his story in the main series, and certainly not the culture of the group he forms.

Both Dappled Pelt and Shattered Ice practically disappeared when they joined River Ripple,

such that Shattered Ice is remembered more for his invention of Windclan's tunneling than for anything in Riverclan,

and even in the super edition about creating the medicine cats,

Dappled Pelt doesn't get to do much of anything to make her and Riverclan unique.

So in the past as well as the present, Riverclan can't seem to get off the ground.

Where does that leave us now, in the Broken Code?

Well, as you might expect, not good.

The Broken Code focuses on a possessed clan leader making trouble not just for his clan, but all the others as well.

To show the effects of this, the team wanted a big climatic battle in Veil of Shadows,

with all five clans involved to show how far the fake Bramblestar's influence had spread.

It was also preferable that our protagonists were the underdogs in this conflict,

meaning the two clans on the side of the rebels, Shadowclan and Skyclan,

would have to fight against all three of the others, Thunderclan, Windclan, and Riverclan.

Harestar dies in this battle, and comes to understand that Bramblestar was fake, retracting his support of the leader.

But, I assume just so they could continue the conflict for three more books,

Mistystar decides she still believes that codebreakers are a problem despite knowing Bramblestar wasn't himself.

She decides to banish those who fought on the side of the rebels and dishonor Dappletuft, who died on their side,

refusing to even sit vigil for her or wish her well in Starclan.

Mothwing, who was already mistreated by Mistystar when she was outed as a codebreaker earlier in the book,

can't stand by while her leader wrongly exiles her own clanmates, so Mistystar banishes her too.

Mistystar is a half-clan cat herself, and went through great pains to become Riverclan's leader despite her heritage.

Then when she found out Mothwing didn't believe in Starclan, she had a whole novella about learning to accept her friend regardless.

But none of that is present in the Mistystar of The Broken Code.

This Mistystar isn't nothing anymore. She's unquestionably the antagonist, making Mothwing into a victim once again.

At this point, Mothwing is the sole surviving character in Riverclan who has a personality while being sympathetic.

But even that, evidentially, couldn't last.

In Darkness Within Mothwing has been generously taken in by Shadowclan

and proceeds to meticulously criticize every action Shadowsight takes

and weasel Puddleshine and Tigerstar into demoting him

on the grounds that his apprenticeship finished too early and he needs more training.

There's a few issues here.

First, Shadowsight's siblings were already warriors when Lost Stars started and he doesn't earn his name until The Silent Thaw.

He had plenty of training.

Second, after demoting him, neither Puddleshine nor Mothwing actually trains him anymore!

He's relegated to doing less than an actual medicine cat apprentice would, only allowed to take care of Ashfur.

And third, on a meta level it is entirely contrived.

The real reason presented for every cat treating Shadowsight badly is because he caused Bramblestar's death,

but every cat is aware at this point that it was entirely Ashfur's fault.

Having every cat suddenly hate and mistreat Shadowsight is only convenient because it makes him seem like a victim,

and drives him towards helping Ashfur in the final pages of the book.

But when a situation like that comes at the expense of every character around them, it's contrived.

Mothwing acts entirely out of character in this book, which is especially obvious since we just got her novella last *April*.

This is extremely bad since Veil of Shadows just made a point of Mothwing being the victim to Mistystar's cruelty.

To have her turn around and also be an unquestionable, manipulative, and out of character antagonist

is damaging not only for her, but for the entirety of Riverclan,

since she was the only cat left who was both recognizable and sympathetic in her clan.

Riverclan is in a really bad state,

one that's only been growing worse since through the series, but especially since The New Prophecy.

They were one of the four, and now five clans around the lake.

Reasonably they should be equals to any of the others,

but they've been denied this at every opportunity.

Even the Tribe gets more focus than Riverclan,

despite the fact that it takes days to journey to the mountains while crossing the lake would be a short walk for any of our protagonists.

I dream of a world where we could get a Riverclan point of view in the modern times

to see what's going on there and get some amount of strength back into the clan.

This would be especially helpful after a soft reboot, if one ever happens.

All the weakness and aggression could be gone, and Riverclan could be a blank slate again

that could be utilised better than it was in Dawn of the Clans.

But in reality, I'm not sure any of this will happen ever, let alone soon.

So even though it is my favorite, I have to accept that

Riverclan is the worst clan.

Thank you for watching, and always remember that

water isn't a personality trait.