Wait, where'd my music go?

Where am-

Oh...

What even is Starclan?

In Warrior Cats, they worship their warrior ancestors, generations of cats

that came before them who can help them avoid disaster by sending signs and prophecies

and... that's basically the only consistent thing about it.

Starclan is basically cat heaven; it's where good cats go when- oh wait, did I say good cats?

I mean... Starclan is where ALL clan cats go when they die and believe in it,

Unless they've somehow aligned themselves with the Dark Forest instead

"Wait! But all the cats in the Dark Forest are evil!" you cry.

But are *all* evil cats in the Dark Forest?

Do you see any evil rogues in there?

You ever notice that multiple questionably good cats are in Starclan?

Or maybe the fact that there was a debate on if or not Cloudtail, and Mothwing will go to Starclan, based entirely on their belief in it.

If it is real, and is where good cats go when they die, why would it matter if the characters have faith in it or not?

We've also got confirmation that other cats, regardless of clan status, go somewhere when they die.

Starclan, and by extension, the Dark Forest are just places that *clan* cats go.

And the Tribe of Endless Hunting is where the tribe cats go.

We also know that somewhere outside of or around Starclan the kittypet Jake likes to hang out.

So Starclan is just a group of dead clan cats all living together in a perfect borderless space utopia,

And the Dark Forest is a starless, prey free, horrible, murky, muddy place where people who don't like Starclan very much, go

And then they die.

Oh wait did you think that these cats where going to have an eternal life up in paradise?

No, they are slowly disintegrating as people forget them.

What people? We don't know...

Do they have to be alive? Probably not.

And cats like Shadowstar and Skystar are still kicking,

but the ghost of Mapleshade, who's much, much younger, is fading away...

We actually have a scene where Yellowfang explains this to Jayfeather in Fading Echoes--

(which is basically the first book where we learn this even happens)

(which is ironically called Fading Echoes, or maybe purposefully called Fading Echoes, who knows.)

(text on screen)

A cat named Rock is cursed to be alive and know everything. Why?

Who knows?

But he is related to the clans,

As he was part of the original group that became the tribe, which then became the clans

Yes, this does mean that the lake is the cats' ancestral home land.

The cats in Starclan are only there because other cats remember them,

Which doesn't explain how cats like Sootfur and Rainwhisker go to Starclan at all, but regardless.

At one point, Rock comes up from his personal hell in the tunnels under the lake territory

And yells at all the cats for remembering bad cats as if it's a good thing to just completely forget when horrible things happen.

Apparently remembering anyone just keeps their ghost alive and, evidently,

Dead people remembering you works out fine too.

So the cats who are fading away really have no excuse if they remember each other.

In fact, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Speaking of ghosts, there's also ghosts.

Literal dead cats who just hang around and don't go to Starclan that nobody can see.

Nobody except this one hippie named "Tree".

And then they go up to Starclan after they've finished their business or whatever,

(if they are clan cats) to fade away and die a second time.

Why do cats die twice? Mystery.

The dead cats are also seemingly on a lower level than Starclan in a "not quite dead yet"

sort of way.

And you can probably obviously tell that this is based on other religions, and isn't

exactly too original to Warrior Cats, but I'm not gonna go too far into it.

Either way this whole "fading away" thing was clearly not a plot point until Omen of the Stars.

Up until that point, it was implied that cats in Starclan just... lived forever.

If I remember correctly, I could be totally wrong, but

I'm pretty sure the first time they use the word 'fading' to refer to a Starclan cat is in Fading Echoes.

So, to recap,

The warrior cat is born, the warrior cat dies,

the warrior cat goes to Starclan, the warrior cat dies again (although very slowly,

unless somebody literally murders their ghost, which also could happen-- oops,

--I forgot to talk about the murdering their ghosts!

Yeah, other ghosts can murder ghosts.

A-Anyways,

Born, die,

die again in Starclan, and then their spirit goes *whoosh*

into the wind, forever gone, missing.

And at that point, the cat is totally dead. Never coming back.

You see, we do this to get rid of extra love interests.

So cats go to Starclan, and they live out their lives as a dead version of their former self.

Well, they live out their dead lives as a dead version of their former self.

Sort of.

Seemingly, they can appear as young or old as they've been, but kits will never grow up.

(Barring a couple side exceptions.)

They just stay forever kittens, despite having lived a really, really long time.

While being dead in Starclan, they also hunt and eat,

and, while they likely don't die without food,

the Dark Forest is devoid of food and full of skinny, skinny, stinky cats.

In Starclan all of the clan borders are gone,

and in action,

it's a disorganized mess of cats who are barely wiser than the cats that look up to them.

They pass along prophecies not because they see the future,

but because they got them themselves.

Most of the time.

They also cover the moon with clouds, uh, showing their disapproval

Do they always control the weather? Who knows? Who controls the clouds? Who knows,

because Starclan apparently is working without any strict system of governing

especially in Omen Of the Stars.

When three cats gained superpowers,

The cats in Starclan didn't know where they came from or specifically why,

but Starclan knew that they were going to arrive.

They also have the power to reincarnate cats--

--well, maybe they do.

Jayfeather, Dovewing, and Lionblaze, the previously mentioned three cats, are reincarnated cats from the past.

But they're TRUE reincarnations, and Starclan wasn't even responsible for them.

Meanwhile, Cinderheart is a reincarnation of Cinderpelt...

...sort of.

They more shoved Cinderpelt's soul into a newborn baby's body,

HAUNTING her with the strange ghost of a former medicine cat.

They later separate into two different cats, completely nonsensically.

Starclan gives out prophecies, but the prophecies are usually very unhelpful

and any problem ends up solving itself,

with or without the prophecy foreshadowing it.

The way that prophecy works in Warrior Cats is kinda strange to begin with,

because there's literally never any unfulfilled ones.

We never see a prophecy fail,

and the series' greatest prophet, Goosefeather,has visions of the future

that always come true no matter what he does or tries.

So, they see the future, and they give signs to pass along this future, but...

most of the time it's completely meaningless.

It doesn't matter if or not they pass along the sign because everything's going to work out the same way anyways.

Along with the fact that Starclan might have control over weather,

maybe.

And they may or may not be able to, as of the most recent book, just call upon storms and rain or whatever.

And it Has to be them,

because the Higher Powered cats couldn't POSSIBLY be focused

so entirely on one lake full of cats, could it?

The fact that cats with superpowers have been born into this specific group of cats to fight for them

tends to make me think that...

it HAS to just be a group of really invested, somehow powerful ancestors.

But it's also clearly Starclan themselves

who have an investment in if or not all five clans are together,

which, honestly, has always been sort of nonsensical.

There's never really a good reason for the five clans to be separate or not,

aside from "oh no, Starclan will punish us if we change".

So, Starclan exists, and some sort of Higher Power exists

that can properly reincarnate cats and give out superpowers,

But this higher power is really, really, super concerned with Cats.

In fact, it's implied to only be concerned with this one group of cats,

even more so than it's concerned with their oldest, still functioning settlement: The Tribe.

In fact, when the Tribe is in trouble, they just send up cats from the Clans to help them

instead of giving them the tools they need to help themselves.

There is even a magical, talking

sea-gazing badger, who may or may not be a ghost,

(and to remind you, she's a badger and she has no relation to any of this)

who is super super concerned

with the well-being of the Warrior Cat Clans.

and if you think about it, this world, this *fictional* world,

is absolutely filled with cats.

Everywhere the characters go, there's cats and cats and more cats.

There's even cats that are shown to live in groups,

with their own separate ideals and beliefs.

Like the cats in the park, from Riverstar's backstory,

or the cats that Dovewing leaves to live with--

--oh, I mean, leaves *the clans* to live with in Tigerheart's Shadow.

There's a really urgent feeling to all of this, too,

'The clans better stay together, or something Bad will happen!'

'The clans have to exist, or something BAD will happen!!'

and there's never any elaboration on *why* these bad things will happen,

or why the clans need to exist,

beyond cats growing up healthy and the continued--

[moon flubs the word continued]

--the continued remembering of the Warrior Cat ancestors,

who seemingly can also be remembered by the other dead cats...

...erasing the need for the living ones!

The fact that there are superpowers and prophecies

being doled out to these cats specifically to help with their personal problems

has to have something to do with their ancestors playing the dead cat system or something.

Now, I believe strongly that where I'm about to go

didn't go through any author's mind while writing this.

It's really just an excuse.

A headcanon, or an explanation.

But, are these specific warrior cat ancestors,

as compared to any other cats' ancestors,

so powerful because there's just so many of them?

And so many cats are believing in them?

The only logical conclusion I can come to,

aside from free entertainment as the clans gossip and fight,

is that they need all the clans to be together

to achieve this power, or to achieve... something.

In the beginning, Starclan only has power over clouds, prophecy, and giving other cats nine lives,

Which they need... about nine--

or is it eight-- ghosts to do in the first place.

And as the series progresses,

They eventually become powerful enough to materialize in the real world,

control thunderstorms, and fight alongside the living cats.

Their absolute insistence that the clans must exist

makes sense in the situation that they're somehow addicted to power,

because it keeps as many cats as possible alive and believing in them.

Their insistence that the clans must stay separate as clans makes sense too,

because their competition and uncooperative nature likely leads to more and more cat deaths,

along with their reliance on the warrior ancestors to achieve their goals.

Because the way I see it,

Tigerstar was right-- I mean about this one, specific issue.

There's no good reason for all the clans to stay separated,

when they all have nearly identical lifestyles

and live within a day's walk of everyone else.

What would be best for the Warrior clans would be to combine

and live in a way that protects and feeds and shelters everyone, but...

...would that be best for a huge Starclan that needs as much faith as possible?

You could argue:

"Oh, the clans would grow weak and lazy and be like kittypets",

but the cats in the current books fight each other so infrequently

compared to how frequently they fight foxes, kittypets, rogues,

and other outside invaders.

A huge chunk of the actual deaths or near deaths we end up seeing

are from silly things, like cats not sharing their herbs properly,

or dying because their leader was being too stubborn to ask for help.

But like I said, this is just an excuse, a silly theory.

Why would this group of cat ancestors be granted so much power?

This is only one colony of cats living around a lake.

There are cats all over the world in this universe, like I said,