Forest of Secrets.

The Darkest Hour.

If you know any Warriors book titles, these are likely to be very familiar to you.

It's no secret that the first arc is the most well known (and well sold) arc in the

series.

But how does it hold up, now that we have so much more Warriors material to compare

it to?

I think the only fair place to start would be with our protagonist, considering how completely

centered the arc is around him.

Firepaw/heart/star, hereon known as Fireheart is a fairly basic modern hero guy.

He's strong, brave, caring, and willing to break the rules when he feels it is the

right thing to do, but also often stupid, especially when the plot requires it, and

sometimes he shows himself to be reckless, tries to solve every problem on his own, or

gets bogged down by his insecurities about being a kittypet.

This isn't a bad character, and putting aside the times when he feels distinctly out

of character, it's difficult to *dis*like him.

But it's nothing new.

The main heroes in tons and tons of our classic media, new and old, follow this character

formula as well, and Fireheart doesn't do much to differentiate himself from the characters

who came before.

When comparing him to some of the complex and entertaining protagonists who will come

later in the series, such as Jayfeather and Clear Sky, he simply doesn't grab our attention

as well.

That being said, there is a reason that Fireheart was chosen as the protagonist for this arc:

because he works as a great introduction to the world.

It may seem second-nature to those of us fans who have been engaging with this material

for five plus years, but Warriors has quite a lot of material to introduce: from the hierarchy

of clan roles to the natures of each clan to the territories to the warrior code and

special in-universe terms for everything.

To introduce readers to this bombardment of information, the Erins needed a point-of-view

character who was not only new to the world, but curious and eager to learn about it.

They needed a cat who would have both a reason and the will to explore numerous areas of

the forest, and speak to cats even outside their own clan.

And they of course needed a cat who would be able to stand against the villain as a

hero, preferably as the single main driving force so they wouldn't have to split attention

between multiple point-of-view or main characters.

All told, Fireheart was the natural fit for their requirements, but that doesn't make

him particularly interesting in comparison to the world he shows us.

And that world is quite a rich one.

The inter-clan relations, histories, religion, and differences between the clans all speak

to a wide and engaging culture that clearly invested many many readers, given how long

we've all been willing to stick around in it.

Many of these aspects were only touched on partially, to varying degrees and with some

inaccuracy compared to what would be solidified later in the arc or series.

However, this could itself be seen as another draw, since it gives an opportunity for expansion

later on in further arcs, supplementary material, and of course fan content.

And the power a single cat can gain in this society allows for an array of tense stories.

As far as this arc's plot is concerned, it's a pretty coherent self-contained story.

Brokenstar, Tigerstar, and Scourge are hardly the most complex villains you'll ever see,

but they served their functions well, as did most of the support and side characters in

Thunderclan and beyond.

All three non-Thunderclan clans were involved and characterized to some extent, with at

least three noteworthy members in each that served the plot.

The plot was also simple enough that it had time to work in plenty of engaging moments

for side characters, like Brightheart, Longtail, Speckletail, and Tawnypaw.

But it certainly wasn't perfect.

A Dangerous Path in particular became something of a convoluted mess on the plot half, and

many of the character beats centered around Fireheart, especially in his interactions

with Sandstorm, seemed to butcher his character and make him seem stupid at best and cruel

at worst.

But the biggest issue comes in the characters that aren't Fireheart.

This arc clearly has the goal of making a story about a bustling community where dramatic

things could happen at any time, rather than solely telling the story beats and skipping

over any focus on the cast.

They make an attempt at involving as many of the clan cats as they can in their own

stories, which have varying levels of connection to the larger Fire vs. Tiger plot.

But these side characters have little attention given to them.

They are only given enough book time to do exactly what they need to do for their arcs,

with no introductions or follow throughs.

As an example, Brightpaw and Swiftpaw weren't given any attention until the dog attack had

already occured, so we only got to care for them after the fact, and not because we regretted

losing the place they must have held in the clan, offscreen.

In fact, they aren't the only cats in this category.

Snowkit and Gorsepaw were only introduced for the sake of dying, barely being mentioned

let alone speaking.

Their stories are only tragic because we see other characters who presumably had connections

to them are sad.

We don't feel the grief ourselves since we didn't know who they were.

And you didn't have to die to have your chance at development taken away.

Sandstorm and Dustpelt, two of only four other characters who were apprenticed with Fireheart

and who really should be important characters throughout the arc, barely got any time to

establish themselves as bullies in the first and second books before that stopped being

who they were.

Because of this, we can't fully feel the weight of that development or track exactly

when or how much their feelings changed.

Another example is of course Tawnypaw, who's story in this arc and beyond always sounded

interesting and unfortunately was always cut from the story.

The most development we get for her is, like Brightpaw's and Swiftpaw's, told after

the fact by third party characters, in this case Smallear and Bramblepaw.

Knowing exactly why Tawnypaw chose to stay with her father and Shadowclan rather than

having to guess would have made Bramblepaw's journey even more interesting, and strengthened

both of their characters for the future.

But none of these characters were deemed deserving of development in the narrative, because this

story isn't about them.

Their short events are flavor for the clan that Fireheart lives in.

This is his story above all, and if you didn't get attached to his particular brand of sometimes

stupid stock heroism, you might come away without feeling satisfied by the characters,

especially if one of the other characters intrigued you before they were shoved back

to the sidelines.

Although, there is one other underlying issue in the characters that I've danced around

all this time: gender.

Even putting our male lead Fireheart aside, the arc consistently provides more and bigger

roles to their male characters than their females.

The toms always talk more on average than the she-cats, and even the diversity of character

types is significantly wider on the male side.

Toms have the wise senior warriors, the eager young toms, the ambitious villains, the disloyal

suck-up, the serious worker, the loyal but traditional, the laid-back brat, the lovestruck

jokester, and many more.

Meanwhile for the she-cats, we have Sandstorm, Bluestar, Yellowfang, and Cinderpelt, and

just about every other cat is either a stock queen, a stock mate, a stock good cat with

no interests of her own, or is shoved to the sidelines so much that you never get to see

their story.

Tawnypaw, as I mentioned, has her whole story told through other cats and doesn't get

to provide her own feelings on the subject, and, in my opinion most egregiously, even

when Brightheart is in her recovery and is creating new battle moves to beat even Fireheart

with her one good eye, both the credit and the speaking time is given to Cloudtail, her

mate.

Multiple whole scenes pass where Fireheart comes to check on Brightheart's fighting

progress and Brightheart herself doesn't get to speak.

Instead Cloudtail answers every question directed at her and Brightheart just nods or smiles.

Now, I do love Brightheart and Cloudtail as a couple.

I think it's very sweet that he was willing to stick up for her and that she was given

the space and time to grow stronger for her own sake since then.

But I could not believe how much of the attention that should have gone to her was instead given

to Cloudtail.

This sort of gender disparity does pop up through the entirety of the series in different

forms, but the first arc is a really glaring example of it, and it certainly doesn't

help the arc's general problems with giving support characters time and complexity.

Of course, some of the intensity of the problems may simply be due to the time we've had

to digest this story.

It's both the most read arc and most re-read arc, so it's easy and necessary to catch

these early mistakes in order to look forward into the other works in the Warriors world.

It's not a bad arc really.

Our protagonist was proactive...usually, and flawed without being insufferable.

Besides him there are plenty of side character moments to love, the story is compact but

coherent and interesting, and there are even some tear-jerker pieces of writing such as

Yellowfang and Bluestar's deaths, or the speeches Fireheart makes to himself during

the battle with Bloodclan.

It's a sweet little story and I understand why so many people, myself included, decided

to read it, even if this was the only Warriors content they ever read.

If you have any interest in more detailed explanations of each book, I've just finished

all six of these books in my Trip Through Time series, which I have linked below.

But even if you don't watch those, I encourage you to think back on this arc, both its flaws

and highlights that made you love the series in the first place.

It's worth that much.

Thank you for watching, and always remember to keep your heroes close to *heart*.

Heh...that was a bad joke.