Now that the writing of the Power of Three half of Paws of Stars is behind me it's

time that I examine Omen of the Stars, my favorite arc but also one with a litany of

issues.

Now, I don't want anyone thinking that Omen of the Stars is just a continuation of the

failures in Power of Three.

These arcs are quite tightly joined in terms of their plots and casts, but they have very

different problems.

Power of Three tried to do too many types of stories at once, and didn't go far enough

with any of them, resulting in a mangled mess of a plotline.

Omen of the Stars does have a story it wants to tell, and even consistently makes progress

on that plotline, to some extent anyway.

But it has two main problems, completely distinct from those of Power of Three: a disconnect

between the characters and the conflict, and the details of the conflict itself being mangled

and often stupid.

To illustrate this, rather than going through each book and explaining its progress towards

the goals of the arc, I will give a rundown of the main arc's conflict through each

book and then trace each character's main character's journey individually to see

how they interweave with the plot.

The conflict of this arc is the Dark Forest building an army to launch an all-out attack

on the clans.

The Fourth Apprentice didn't go too deep into the conflict, something to be expected

with the first book in an arc.

However, it did have Breezepelt team up with Brokenstar to attack Jayfeather and Poppyfrost.

We learn that Breezepelt and Tigerheart are likely Dark Forest trainees, and that the

Dark Forest cats are able to come down into the physical world.

Fading Echoes is what really gets this plot running, since, through Ivypaw's perspective,

we get to see the Dark Forest itself.

The prologue shows us how the Dark Forest manipulated Breezepelt with the relationship

and revelations established in Power of Three, and many chapters show the Dark Forest manipulating

Ivypaw based on her relationship with Dovepaw and her desire for attention.

In Night Whispers, we begin seeing group training among all the Dark Forest trainees, and that

the training of cats in the Dark Forest is far more widespread than the characters might

have initially thought.

They go through rigorous battle training each night with some brand new Dark Forest cats

never before seen in the series.

Their goal is revealed in the very end to be destroying the clans and Starclan.

How they plan to do that...other than just attacking with trainees on their side, is

unclear, but their strength and skill is growing.

Also in this book, the three protagonists find out Ivypaw is training with the Dark

Forest, she finds out that the Dark Forest is evil and trying to hurt the clans, and

agrees to spy on them for the Three instead.

Sign of the Moon, other than adding a few new trainees, does nothing to advance the

Dark Forest story.

In The Forgotten Warrior, Ivypool becomes a...warrior in the Dark Forest?

Whatever that entails.

We then arrive at The Last Hope, where the Dark Forest cats and trainees begin training

in and exploring the physical world.

Then in the last few chapters, they attack every camp at once.

Only two of the trainees decided to fight on the Dark Forest's side but the battle

still led to the deaths of Hollyleaf, Mousefur, and Ferncloud among assumed others.

Spottedleaf is double-killed by Mapleshade, Tigerstar double-dies to Firestar who dies

to...a burning tree, and the rest of the Dark Forest cats flee without a leader.

The clans won.

That's a pretty simple conflict.

Bad guys grow in strength.

Bad guys attack.

Good guys fight them and win.

This would explain why the progress on the conflict across the six books is so slow.

There just isn't much story to tell.

But what fills the rest of the pages then?

Well, did you notice that I didn't mention a single protagonist character other than

Ivypool in that synopsis?

Let's see what they were up to.

Jayfeather is determined to fulfill the prophecy, and he does this mainly by speaking to Starclan

and sometimes Rock about what they should do whenever he gets the chance.

Unfortunately neither of them are particularly good sources of information so he spends most

of his time checking in on or helping out his clanmates like Poppyfrost and Briarlight,

which each make very compelling stories but aren't all that related to the oncoming

war.

Later in the arc he takes a couple detours to return to ancient-land to make Half Moon

the first Stoneteller and gets caught up in Flametail's death, which he is blamed for.

Flametail death at least ties into another plotline in this arc: Starclan being aggressive

and dumb as a rock suddenly.

They split up from each other, demand that the medicine cats stop speaking, and on Flametail's

side, refuse to clarify what happened at his death to stop the conflict in the clans before

the real army arrives.

When that finally concludes, Jayfeather decides to pursue yet another prophecy: that of the

fourth cat.

He thinks of multiple cats it could be and thinks about how important it is to find them

often for the last two books.

But just before the battle, Bluestar just...tells him it's Firestar.

Then, other than forgiving Leafpool, he does absolutely nothing of consequence in the final

battle.

For the arc in general it felt like they were giving him menial tasks to keep him occupied

without having to involve him in the conflict, since his character wouldn't stand by and

do nothing.

Lionblaze meanwhile is fully capable of doing nothing.

It's his forte.

He mentors Dovepaw, which has no effect on him.

He's still mad at Squirrelflight and Leafpool, something that is resolved in his head spontaneously

during a fight with Breezepelt in Night Whiskers, and spends 4 and a half books caught in a

will-they-won't-they romance with Cinderheart, which has some reveals about his power and

her Cinderpelt reincarnation sprinkled in for nonsensical drama to prolong their relationship's

screentime.

The biggest thing he does is accidentally killing Russetfur in a battle with Shadowclan,

which he is sad about for half a book before it's forgotten forever.

When the final battle arrives, he does at least fight in it, in Shadowclan, but other

than killing one background Dark Forest cat, he doesn't do anything important.

On the topic of Dovewing, she is mostly a part of this plot because she is dragged into

it by other forces without acting on her own motives or beliefs.

Her power, and not knowing that it's strange, pulls her into her beaver quest.

Lionblaze and Jayfeather drag her into the prophecy and Ivypool's jealousy along with

Dovewing's desire to stay close with her sister pulls her into learning about the Dark

Forest.

When she does get to make her own choices, she mostly just tries, unsuccessfully, to

live a normal happy life.

She plays with her sister, she cares about cats she knows when they are in danger, and

she meets secretly with Tigerheart, often the only cat she can feel free with, and one

that she quickly realizes she loves.

She doesn't stay with him forever though.

His behavior around Flametail's murder caused her to put off their relationship, and get

closer to Bumblestripe, another way in which she is forced into an important part of her

life without her opinions being taken into account.

When the Dark Forest actually arrives, she announces their arrival, but then proceeds

to do nothing for the battle itself.

Of all the protagonists, Dovewing spends the least time thinking about the Dark Forest.

It's not really a part of her life.

It's just something she was placed into without warning.

She's often a pitiable character, for how little choice she gets in her own life, but

she, like the other members of the Three, do nothing to affect the outcome of the plot.

Flametail, for the period that he is a point-of-view character, at least, is a standard medicine

cat with no knowledge of the Dark Forest at all.

When he dies, though, he is lured into the Dark Forest to nearly be murdered by Ivypool,

which presumably let him know what was happening.

After another two books pass, he becomes an obstacle for Jayfeather for seemingly no reason,

steadfastly believing it would be better for Starclan and the clans to be split up and

angry as war is coming than for Jayfeather to be proven innocent by his testimony...he's

a piece of work.

Ivypool therefore stands as the only protagonist to have any of her story revolve around the

actual battle the arc is based around.

Her jealousy over Dovepaw is well established by the end of the first book, so when Hawkfrost

approaches her in Fading Echoes, and his manipulations land, it works for us, even if you don't

agree with the premise for her jealousy in the first place.

She spends the whole rest of the arc as a point of view character within the Dark Forest,

learning about it and seeing first-hand many examples of its brutality, from the training

to the murders committed to the standards expected of trainees.

During the battle, she is able to convince the trainees not to fight on the Dark Forest's

side (even if it was ridiculously easy), and she witnesses and is part of the most impactful

battles with Hollyleaf, Hawkfrost, and Breezepelt.

Ivypool also spends some of her time working on a relationship with Blossomfall, but the

vast majority of her story centers around her sister and the Dark Forest, which easily

makes her the most intertwined with the arc's plot out of all the point-of-view protagonists.

Most of our characters spend the arc completely disconnected from the plot, having their own

relationships and adventures entirely distinct from the conflict the arc is working with.

Especially egregious is prophesied three, who's entire purpose in life was supposed

to be defeating the Dark Forest, doing nothing at all to stop them in the end.

The only cats who could claim that even partially are Firestar, who by killing the Dark Forest's

leader somehow made the battle end immediately, and Ivypool, who withinin the last moments

convinced the Dark Forest trainees to fight on their clans' side.

But even her part of the story is far from perfect, and the reason for that has to do

with the other big problem with the arc.

The Dark Forest, both in the plan they seem to have, the lore behind them, and the way

they are defeated is just...silly.

First off, what exactly was their plan?

If they defeated the clans, either by killing them all or terrorizing whatever survivors

came out, what would happen then?

Would they form Tigerclan again?

Well that can't be.

Apparently Brokenstar was the Dark Forest's leader until he died, and he was always more

interested in driving clans out rather than bringing them into his own clan.

Were they just going to take over the lake territories?

They don't need them.

Dead cats don't need to eat.

Is the Dark Forest so terrible that they want a living plane to take over to get out?

Well that might have been true in previous arcs but in Omen of the Stars the Dark Forest

is a pretty thriving place where all the cats living there in death can talk to each other

and be as brutal as they like with no repercussions.

But even the idea of them winning is a ridiculously far stretch, for two main reasons.

First, there was no way that a majority of the clan cats training in the Dark Forest

would have ever fought beside them when that choice meant attacking the clans.

Maybe Breezepelt and, for some reason, Redwillow have evil natures that allowed them to easily

side with the villains, but everyone else was portrayed through the whole arc as a victim

who was only in the Dark Forest because they were tricked and lied to about the true intentions

of the cats there.

Most of them were only there to become stronger for their clans, which isn't a lie conducive

to making them attack let alone kill the cats in those clans.

If we were to believe that the trainees would fight on the Dark Forest's side, either

we would need far more cats like Breezepelt and Redwillow, who genuinely want to destroy

the clans, or, more likely, the lies the Dark Forest told would have to be more convincing

and targeted to not just make the clan cats keep training with them, but to make them

fight beside the Dark Forest when the time came.

This would also probably mean, for a lot of trainees, the villains would have to throw

out killing the clan cats all together, and opt for a slightly more peaceful goal that

would still transition power to the Dark Forest.

There is a second problem as well.

If every Dark Forest cat we've ever been introduced to, even after Omen of the Stars,

joined in the battle, including Antpelt, who died as a trainee and became part of the Dark

Forest, they would have a mass of 15 cats.

If they then added every living trainee from the time of Omen of the Stars, including Thornclaw

who was only ever said to be a Dark Forest trainee retroactively once the arc was complete,

that would be another 16 cats.

Discounting every queen and elder, the clans have 68 cats fighting against that force before