It's the latest in a long line of Warriors graphic novels written by Dan Jolley with

art by James L. Barry.

Starting back during the release of Power of Three, several graphic novel arcs were

published in groups of three smaller portions, but once Omen of the Stars ended they entered

into a long hiatus, seemingly replaced with the novellas instead.

However, since 2020, in the middle of the Broken Code arc, they have begun again, this

time in longer releases but all in one book.

So far in the modern graphic novels we've had A Shadow in Riverclan, focused on Feathertail,

Winds of Change, focused on Mudclaw, and Exile from Shadowclan focused on Nightpelt.

Considering the last of the old manga arcs was focused on Skyclan, many fans were already

predicting that the next graphic novel would be a Thunderclan one, and by golly we were

right.

I'll have you know that the day I found out this new graphic novel would follow Brightheart,

I. Was.

ECSTATIC!

I sure wasn't the only one either, as Brightheart is a very popular character within the fandom

thanks to her unique and sympathetic story, mostly-functional relationships, kind personality,

and honestly, lack of any focus in the narrative.

Warriors fans tend to thrive on material that hasn't been touched enough yet.

The book was likely going to be set in a clan we know well in a time we're already aware

of, so there was the chance that there is with every piece of retconning supplemental

material that we would know all of the plot beats already, the story would be constrained

by or contradict what we already know had to have happened, or the characters wouldn't

be able to engage with the plot at all since another, previous main character, is filling

that role.

Even knowing that, this is a rare occasion where I was hopeful because I would be totally

happy just watching Brightheart live her life in any time period and seeing how a new (to

her) author interprets her personality, struggles, desires, and relationships, especially considering

how much a lot of that was glossed over in the main series.

Plus, uh, it's not a secret that the modern graphic novels have often been more well-structured

and genuinely entertaining than the super editions or even main series books…except

for Exile From Shadowclan but they were tossed a truly awful hand in trying to make the already-told

stories of Yellowfang's Secret and Into the Wild work with the lore they had literally

just introduced for their main series.

Anyway, where A Thief in Thunderclan is concerned, since I will be covering it here, I can tell

you right away that I will be spoiling almost all of it, so if you would like to go read

it for yourself with just the premise to go on, I encourage you to leave now.

Without saying much, I actually really enjoyed this book and I think it's well worth your

while.

So go read it if you're interested and come back when you're done.

…

Now that they're gone, let me just give a quick rundown for those of you who are still

watching without reading the book.

Yes, I see you, and I like how you live dangerously.

There are two main threads through this book: one external, plot-driven, and the other very

much internal and character-driven.

As is done in good writing though, these two threads are intertwined, with the external

conflict giving an arena in which the main character can explain, explore, and alleviate

their internal conflict.

The external conflict here is what the book is named for: there's a thief in Thunderclan.

Over the course of several nights, Thunderclan's prey pile is continuously emptied, rapidly,

and always while at least one warrior is guarding the camp.

No one ever sees the prey being stolen, and a series of warriors are openly accused early

on because of their proximity to the prey or their behavior being deemed suspicious

around the time of the thefts, which leads to not only some conflict, but some mystery

as more incidents occur and more clues are noticed.

Through it all, Firestar of all cats is distant and spending an increasing amount of time

exhausted and / or out of camp, leaving him with little time or sense to give cats coming

to him for advice or with reports of the incidents.

(For the record, that particular thing is because this is the period of Firestar's

Quest and he is in the process of being called by Starclan to find and rebuild Skyclan.)

Because of this, though, Brightheart feels it is left up to her to find the true culprit,

along with enough proof to make her accusations, whatever they may be, seem like more than

personal biases getting in the way.

And since I'm already dipping my toes into it a little, let's now explore the *internal*

conflicts of this book.

I'll fully admit, this is the main thing I'm here for.

This is the part I dug into so deeply and it is the primary reason I found this book

so entertaining.

After her injury, Tigerstar's associated plots, and the uphill journey she had to earning

other cats' respect, Brightheart at this point finds it difficult to trust in her clanmates

and has an impulse to do everything herself or with Cloudtail so she can “prove” herself

to be better, and even with Cloudtail she sometimes feels inadequate, like when he got

an apprentice over her.

Cloudtail is a loving mate and does try to include her as Rainpaw's second mentor,

but I can't imagine that makes the sting entirely go away.

Of course all of this is heightened by her becoming pregnant with kits and slowly losing

a lot of her mobility and freedom, making her want to prove even more that she's capable

despite her physical hangups.

At least she can still jump well, almost as well as a Skyclan cat, and she now holds the

honor of being the only cat in the clans to ever sing so how can you possibly not love

her?

Within universe, though, the true result of these feelings first appears when she sees

Longtail and Bramblepaw meeting with Oakfur and Tawnypaw of Shadowclan.

She knows that she wants to and to an extent does trust her clanmates, but she trusted

Tigerstar in the past too, and that ended badly for every cat.

With this in mind, and the fact that Longtail was recently guarding the camp when the prey

was taken, Brightheart brings to Firestar an idea that they could be responsible for

the stolen prey.

Firestar, both out of exhaustion and the trust that he grew during the end of the original

arc, encourages Brightheart to seek out proof of who, if any cat, was stealing prey before

accusing them.

This puts Brightheart on the track to believe that she should gather definitive proof before

she tells any cat, whether that's Firestar or Graystripe or any warriors on guard.

Brightheart's personal journey through this book, which she needs to cross in order to

solve the external conflict, is finding a way to trust and rely on her clanmates without

feeling as useless as she did when she was first injured.

Despite progressing so much and having support in some close friends, Brightheart clearly

still feels inadequate in comparison to her clanmates and does everything she can to get

concrete proof that she measures up to them in every way she can think of.

Even her desire for an apprentice stems from this, as it would mean the clan trusts her

enough to entrust a future warrior to her.

I love this.

I have biases already, of course, because Brightheart is my third favorite character

and I have imagined this sort of character arc happening in the background for years,

but even pretending that I didn't care about this character before, it's a good execution

of a great concept for a character arc.

In the original arc, Brightpaw was an obedient and quiet apprentice, one who probably wouldn't

stand out even if Bluestar wasn't paying attention to anyone other than Cloudpaw.

While they didn't go into any of Brightpaw's reasons explicitly, we know Swiftpaw wanted

to go after the dogs as a way to stand out and get the recognition they needed to become

warriors, and it's likely that Brightpaw felt the same way since she agreed to join

him.

Rather than having that desired fulfilled, though, she was brutally injured and her friend

was killed, leaving her in the care of Cinderpelt and Cloudtail as she drifted through days

of pain and unconsciousness while, outside, Bluestar skipped past a normal warrior ceremony

and branded her with a name that would only bring to mind her injuries.

With both Cloudtail and Cinderpelt's help, and the task of taking care of Speckletail,

she did recover enough to learn new ways to hunt and fight in time for the Bloodclan battle,

which was a great achievement.

But even then, she became a warrior and a fighter on the recommendations of peers who

had to care for her and not because anyone found her extraordinary or even proficient.

Brightheart, at this stage, has no way of knowing if she could be a successful warrior

or be seen as one on her own merits and without being “good enough considering what she's

been through.”

In other words, she has no idea if she is good enough in comparison to her non-injured

clanmates.

That's the sort of insecurity that makes perfect sense to fuel into a character arc,

because the solution is realizing on her own how capable she is, and that her clanmates

do know that.

She doesn't *have* to prove anything to them.

Now, personally, I would add in the ability to grow confidence as a mentor at some point

in this arc to show categorically that this is something the clan trusts her to do, rather

than just having them say they trust her, and I would also want to add in some reference

to and resolution for Cloudtail's tendency to *always* stick up for and help her.

While comforting, that is also the sort of thing that might make a cat like Brightheart

less sure of her capabilities on her own and it might even make the clan trust her as an

individual less.

But what we have in this book is a fine version, especially for being so early in her journey,

before she has had Whitewing, met Daisy, tried to help out in the medicine den to escape

Cloudtail and Daisy, or briefly taken on Jaypaw as a mentor.

It's a great arc to have for Brightheart, and a very sweet and relatable one as well.

Brightheart is not a perfect cat, which is important in making sure we can believe in

her as a real character who we can then understand and potentially relate to.

Her initial bias against Longtail and Brambleclaw is a great example of this.

As she was so closely hurt by Tigerstar, and because of her existing problems with easily

trusting her clanmates, she thinks at different points that each of them may be taking Thunderclan's

prey or that they might be doing something nefarious with the cats across the border

in Shadowclan.

She doesn't *want* to distrust either of them but can't know for sure who they are,

or see them as like herself.

However, importantly, this is also the period in which Longtail loses his vision because

of infected rabbit scratches, an injury and recovery that we now get to see first-hand.

When Longtail is injured, he doubts himself, considers this the end for him, and has trouble

seeing any more worth in his existence.

At that point, Brightheart can't see the former-friend of Tigerstar that she once did.

Instead she sees herself.

She feels empathy for him, and it is this turning point that she uses to believe in

him, and in more of her clanmates, and seek out real answers as to who Thunderclan's

thief could be.

Willowpelt's death and her seeing Rainpaw's grief over his mother also helps this as she

finds the words to comfort him by saying he can rely on his clanmates, and doesn't have

to be totally strong on his own.

As Graystripe points out later, these are obviously words Brightheart herself needs

to internalize, but it is often easier to advise someone than to take advice yourself.

That said, by the end of the story, Brightheart puts her trust in Firestar and Sandstorm despite

not knowing anything about their journey, convincing the clan to do the same, and understands

how much earlier she should have involved her clanmates in the search for who took their

prey.

She finishes by designing and helping her clan to construct a trap to catch the thief,

a hawk who has been swooping down to the open prey pile, and jumping out to save Rainpaw

from them when it tries to carry him away too.

The clan is able to keep their prey safe from then on, knowing what the problem is, and

Brightheart is, for that night, a hero.

It's honestly super sweet.

As I said earlier, there are some elements that I believe Brightheart could still come

into conflict with in the future, but this is a great stepping stone for her and it's

really nice to see her cross this barrier into trusting and being recognized by her

clanmates.

Going back to the plot for a minute, I'd like to discuss the overall mystery.

We're first introduced to it when Ashfur accuses Thornclaw of taking the big squirrel

he caught while he was on duty the previous night, and Thornclaw is absolutely insistent

that he didn't ever touch a squirrel.

Cloudtail brushes it off as a bad morning argument and we are quickly thrown off course

by Brightheart feeling sick and realizing she'll be having kits but that seed is planted

for us as the readers to guess that something might be wrong.

This combined with Longtail and Oakfur talking extensively while Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt

meet leads Brightheart, and us, to believe that something could be wrong there too, and