Warrior Cats



""For as long as any cat can remember, four clans have ruled the forest: ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan and RiverClan.""

In this book series, cats run wild in large family groups, fighting each other, falling in love, and worshiping their starry ancestors.

A lot Better Than It Sounds; those of you expecting sweet little stories about cats lazing about licking each other and falling in love are in for quite a shock (although that happens too, of course). The books are quite mature, thanks to Erin Hunter's Anyone Can Die policy, and the series can be quite graphic, as they face certain death and possible annihilation at least once a series, and, early on, usually once a book. They also grapple with questions of faith, loyalty, honor, and responsibility on a very regular basis. These books are about as child-friendly as Watership Down.

Yet kids are the target audience...

There are currently four six-book arcs available, all of which are complete. The first, simply called Warriors (or Warrior Cats, depending on where you live) focuses on a house cat named Rusty, who decides to abandon his comfortable life to join ThunderClan and ends up being the Chosen One. The second arc, The New Prophecy, features the next generation of the Clans from the first series as they find a new home. The third Power of Three is a mostly character driven series about another new generation of the Clan cats, this time burdened with mysterious powers and the secret of an ancient prophecy. The fourth arc, Omen of the Stars, continues to deal with the mysterious prophecy, as well as years worth of animosity that continues to lurk in the shadows and the repercussions of past actions, which threaten to break out into all-out war. A fifth arc, Dawn of the Clans, which will be a prequel, has been announced. There are also plenty of spin-off titles out and coming soon, such as the twice as long Super Editions, Field Guides, and Mangas. Its sister series, Seekers, and Survivors are also worth checking out.

For summaries of each book, see here.

For the individual arcs, see:


 * Warrior Cats the Original Series
 * Warrior Cats the New Prophecy
 * Warrior Cats Power of Three
 * Warrior Cats Omen of the Stars
 * Warrior Cats Dawn of the Clans

Fan works:
 * Starkits Prophecy and Hidden Prophices, the Warriors equivalents of My Immortal
 * Various abridged series
 * Warrior Cats Untold Tales, a fan-made PC game
 * SSS Warrior Cats, a fan anime adaptation

Tropes A-C
"...a queen who did not care for her new charge, who bit it and nipped it and deprived it of milk as punishment for being born at all."
 * The Abridged Series: At least four of them
 * Abusive Parents:
 * Crowfeather to Breezepelt.
 * Lizardstripe's treatment of Brokenstar:

""RiverClan fish! RiverClan swim! RiverClan warriors use water to win!""
 * Crookedstar's Promise gives us another example in.
 * Acid Reflux Nightmare: Brambleclaw originally thinks his prophecy dream was one of these.
 * A Crack in the Ice:  falls into one in Night Whispers.
 * Acronym and Abbreviation Overload: The fandom is fond of this. Acronyms include:
 * The series titles (TNP, TPOT, OOTS).
 * Book titles (TDH, FQ, BP, NW, BotC, T4A, SotC, to name a few... This created a slight issue when Code of the Clans came along, because there was already a CotC from Cats of the Clans. There were even forum threads debating on what to call it - the most common form is C2otC).
 * Some characters, places, etc (HF, DF, PoNS).
 * Related websites (Ww, OF).
 * Action Girl: Almost every she-cat in the series besides the medicine cats.
 * Heck, even the medicine cats on occasion. Yellowfang in particular.
 * Also excepting permanent Queens like.
 * Adventures in Coma Land: in The Sight, has greencough, and has a dream about being in StarClan's forest. Jayfeather is also there, because of his power, and stops her from dying.
 * Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times the clans learn the value of working together, they always divide back up once the danger has passed. Wanting to unite the clans is treated as a big red "I Am A Villain" flag. Then again, they are cats.
 * Affably Evil: . Also,.
 * All She-Cats Want Bad Toms: Snowfur and.
 * All Genes Are Codominant: According to feline genetics  should have been a tortie. There's much more, but in general cat genetics are a lot more complicated than the Erins know about. They even admit they don't know poop about cat coat genetics.
 * Almost-Dead Guy: ... there has to be more.
 * Always Chaotic Evil: Dogs, great StarClan!
 * Except for the pair in the Ravenpaw's Path trilogy.
 * And also the dogs in Warrior's Refuge; they seem pretty vicious to the barn cats, but once it's revealed that they chase cats not to catch them, but because it's fun.
 * Ambition Is Evil: A recurring theme in the books.
 * Tigerstar could have easily MADE this trope.
 * Brambleclaw feels the very same ambition that drove his father but, well aware of what his father became, he is determined to not allow his ambition to control him (still implying that ambition is the opposite of good, even though Whitestorm also mentions in the first series that Firestar has quite a bit of ambition himself).
 * The protagonists' ambition fits into Not So Different.
 * Ancient Conspiracy: The Dark Forest, which has been plotting to destroy the clans since long before Firestar came to the forest.
 * Animesque: Most of the fan-made YouTube Warriors animations. To a nauseating degree. Some of the more prominent animators out there even like to slap on a full head of human hair onto their cats. Firestar is always drawn as a brunette, and Tigerstar with black hair. Either way, it's anatomically incorrect and it looks awful.
 * Most fanart of Warriors has taken to adding a large tuft of hair on the cats' foreheads, even though real cats don't have such tufts. Others will draw a gold star on a cat's forehead to signify that the cat's a leader, when this is never described in the books.
 * James Barry's manga also is in a more animesque style than the other artists. He tends to give cats tufts of fur on their heads too, but for the most part it actually looks like fur. The only example where it actually was hair (and yes, looked horrible) was Husker from the Graystripe trilogy.
 * Anyone Can Die: Beyond the large amount of minor characters that get killed, even important characters like get killed off.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Tigerheart, Sunfall, Hawkfrost, Talon of Swooping Eagle, the list goes on.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: The leader ceremonies.
 * Arc Words: Some of the prophecies. "Pack, pack, kill, kill" in A Dangerous Path.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: Clan Leaders, definitely
 * A Storm Is Coming:
 * In the prologue of Dark River, cats feel that rain is coming. Fallen Leaves then goes to the tunnels to take his test, and lies to Rock that there are no signs of rain.
 * In Bluestar's Prophecy, Featherwhisker forecasts rain for a few days, and it starts raining just before the battle with WindClan.
 * Axe Crazy:
 * Back From the Dead:.
 * Also, Heavystep, who died but managed to stay on the cast list for quite a while afterwards due to a Continuity Snarl.
 * The Clan Leaders probably count as well, since they literally have nine lives and spend a few moments dead after losing each one before being revived (minus the wound/disease that killed them). Once the ninth is gone though, they are Killed Off for Real.
 * Backstory: Explored a lot with different characters. There's The Rise of Scourge, Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: According to Secrets of the Clans, this is a technique taught to apprentices.
 * Backup From Otherworld: in The Fourth Apprentice.
 * The Ancients and StarClan in The Last Hope.
 * Badass Creed: Battles of the Clans gave us:
 * Badass Creed: Battles of the Clans gave us:

"I am working on the Cat book for Tokyopop and I am at an interesting point in the story. The story involves Feral cats and life in the wild. A Feral cat stops and kills a wild hare as described in the script. I drew the layout and it was approved, but at a certain point, the powers that be wanted a change. The dead rabbit looks too creepy. I understand that the pre-teen market may not be into dead rabbits, but why write it into the script? They wanted me to change the angle to obscure the hare, messing up the storytelling. My compromise was to turn the rabbit around, and closing his eyes. It's not dead, just sleeping! No trauma, just a sleepy, knocked out bunny. (Comparison of original and revised sketches)"
 * Badass Grandpa: Whitestorm is one of the oldest active warriors, but he's still a powerful fighter and is popular with all of ThunderClan.
 * Band of Brothers / Fire-Forged Friends: The main characters of The New Prophecy.
 * Battle in the Rain: In Bluestar's Prophecy, battle between ThunderClan and WindClan takes place in rain.
 * The battle between ThunderClan and ShadowClan at the end of Into The Wild also happens during a storm.
 * Because Destiny Says So: Most medicine cats get screwed over by this.
 * Bluestar gets hit pretty hard by this trope as well:
 * Jayfeather has to become for this exact reason.
 * Berserk Button:
 * Don't try to say in front of Dovewing.
 * Don't break the warrior code when Hollyleaf is around.
 * Don't suggest to Crookedstar.
 * Better Living Through Evil: Tigerclaw promises that any cats that come with him will be well rewarded later on; despite this, nobody follows him into exile.
 * Big Bad: Tigerstar
 * Big Eater: The characters often joke that Graystripe is one.
 * Big No: Bluestar (then Bluepaw) makes one of these in Bluestar's Prophecy, when . Complete with eight o's.
 * Bitch Alert: Sandpaw's first appearance. She snarls that Firepaw smells revolting, and then makes a comment about how he's a kittypet.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: fits this trope to a T.
 * Blasphemous Boast: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar claims that he is more powerful than StarClan because he changed the number of Clans in the forest from four to two.
 * Blind Seer: Jayfeather.
 * Blood From the Mouth:
 * coughs up clots of blood shortly before he dies at the end of Sunset.
 * at the end of the Rise of Scourge manga.
 * Non-fatal example: At one point in Forest of Secrets, Graystripe has blood bubbling from his mouth.
 * After he is, blood trickles out of 's mouth as he tries to speak.
 * In Moonrise a doomed Tribe cat has blood coming out of its mouth after being slammed against a wall.
 * , when she's.
 * In the short story The Clans Decide, blood comes out of an injured she-cat's mouth as she tries to speak. She gets better, but she is near death at this point.
 * In Night Whispers, Jayfeather has a vision in which he sees blood spilling from the mouths of every cat in ThunderClan except.
 * Bloodless Carnage: In the Tigerstar and Sasha manga, those squirrels and frogs and hares they kill look quite clean. The illustrator, Don Hudson, even had a scene where the editors thought that even a clean dead rabbit looked too creepy.


 * Boring Return Journey: The trip back from the beavers, and also the portion of the sun-drown-place journey from the Tribe back to the Clans (which was described in one paragraph).
 * Breaking the Fellowship: After the great journey, the chosen cats have to split and return back to their clans.
 * Breakout Character: Crookedstar, who stars in his own Super Edition. In the Ultimate Leader Election in late 2008, it was he who made it far enough to go up against Firestar at the end. He lost, which is understandable considering that Firestar's the main character that introduced us to the series, but Vicky said in the next Authortracker that even though she expected Firestar to win, she was surprised that out of all the leaders in the running, Crookedstar would be the one to make it so far. Perhaps this is why she decided to have a Super Edition from his point of view. Not bad for a minor character that died in book 5.
 * Break the Cutie: Any and all "cuties" will be broken, and how., for example, first appeared as a timid but determined apprentice
 * Even though it says "any and all" above, Brightheart deserves a special mention.
 * The award probably goes to.
 * gets this in perhaps the most literal fashion possible.
 * Brick Joke: Used in Twilight, but NOT played for laughs. Near the beginning of the book, the ThunderClan cats have to drive a badger and her cubs off their territory. Fast-forward to the climax, and
 * Bus Crash: In Midnight, we find out that  got killed by a badger. However, the death ceased to be a bus crash when it was depicted in Firestar's Quest.
 * Bury Your Disabled:  gets killed in Dangerous Path because of his disability.
 * Cain and Abel:
 * Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost.
 * And since Word of God confirmed that, some fans believe this applies to them too. Both are inversions, as with Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, the older brother is the good one, the younger the evil, and with the younger brother is the killer. In both cases, the good brother is the killer.
 * Since Word of God also said Graystripe's parents (Willowpelt and Patchpelt) and Darkstripe's parents (Willowpelt and Tawnyspots), that makes another pair. Of course, it is the younger, good brother that is the killer in this case as well.
 * Call Forward: In Firestar's Quest, Firestar wonders if there is another afterlife for evil cats.
 * Cash Cow Franchise: The catalog entry for Yellowfang's Secret describes the author as mega-bestselling.
 * Can't Kill You - Still Need You: In The Darkest Hour, Tigerstar decides to spare Featherpaw and Stormpaw because he thinks they may still be useful to him.
 * Cats Are Mean: Played straight, subverted, averted... since the vast majority of the cast is feline, it's only natural that this trope both shows up and gets turned on its head.
 * Cats Hate Water: Three of the Clans do, at least. RiverClan doesn't.
 * Cats Have Nine Lives: The Clan leaders, usually the first eight times they die they enter a trance for a few minutes and are healed by StarClan. Though there are injuries that can take multiple lives,
 * Caught in a Snare:
 * The climax of Sunset involves.
 * Rabbittail in a short story in Battles of the Clans gets caught in a net meant for rabbits.
 * Cave Behind the Falls: The Tribe lives in one of these.
 * Cave Mouth: The Moonstone cave is called "Mothermouth" by the cats because the entrance resembles a mouth.
 * Cessation of Existence: When a StarClan or Dark Forest cat is completely forgotten by living cats, they gradually fade away into nothing. However, if either recieves an injury that in life would be fatal, they just disappear instantly.
 * The Chains of Commanding: It ain't always easy to be a Clan leader.
 * Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The Super Editions are a possessive version: Firestar's Quest, Bluestar's Prophecy, SkyClan's Destiny (which, unusually, refers to a group and not just one character), Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Barley, who turns out to be
 * Chekhov's Skill: Jayfeather's swimming ability
 * Chew Toy: Percy in SkyClan's Destiny. Most of Stick's group gets away with just wallowing in Dodge's incredibly vague Offstage Villainy, but Percy is singled out for both having and getting . In fact, he doesn't have any role in the story other than having horrible things happen to him.
 * Chocolate Kit
 * The Chosen One: Or four, or three... StarClan isn't very picky about the number of cats they choose to do things.
 * The Clan: Four... er, Five of them, to be exact.
 * C-List Fodder: Minor characters get slaughtered left and right.
 * Combat by Champion: In Crookedstar's Promise, one of the battles for Sunningrocks is decided like this.
 * Combat Medic: The few medicine cats who were warriors before they became medicine cats are basically this. Regular medicine cats also get basic training in fighting skills, even though they usually don't end up using them much.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: The mangas.
 * Conflicting Loyalty: Warrior Code forbids taking mate from another clan to protect against it. Also a frequent accusation against half-clan cats.
 * Continuity Snarl: A somewhat glaring example of this: In The Fourth Apprentice, Yellowfang witnesses and tells him that . In Fading Echoes, a book written by a different author, Jayfeather tells her about  and she is shocked and apparently doesn't know anything about what he's talking about. Ummm...
 * In Secrets of the Clans, Raggedstar is the leader when his son, Brokenstar, is born. However, in Bluestar's Prophecy, Brokenpaw is mentioned long before Raggedstar becomes a leader. Argh.
 * Another notable one is in the short story "The Elders' Concern", from the official Warriors app. The story is about how the elders are discussing how they're not happy with Fireheart as deputy, because he's young and not Clanborn and was named after moonhigh... except in this story, he's named deputy immediately after Lionheart; it takes place the day after Lionheart's death. Uh, he was an apprentice when Lionheart died. And how could they forget about Tigerclaw and his attempts to kill Bluestar in order to become leader? It's not as if they forgot about him altogether here; one of the elders says that Fireheart isn't the best fighter of the Clan, and calls Tigerclaw a real warrior.
 * Lampshaded in The Forgotten Warrior. Millie remarks about Sol, who, despite his earlier wrongdoings, proved himself by saving Cherrypaw and Molepaw, that "tabbies never change their stripes." Said cat was described as both a tortoiseshell and a tabby.
 * Cool Cat: Pretty much everyone.
 * Covered in Mud: The Tribe rolls in mud to cover their fur in order to disguise their scent and blend into the rock better so that prey doesn't spot them so easily. The visiting Clan cats try this, and aren't too thrilled at the idea, but it works.
 * Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: This article about the graphic novels includes a picture of what they call the "first and second volumes of the SkyClan and the Stranger trilogy". They do have the second volume of that particular trilogy, but what do they have as the "first" one? Warrior's Refuge, the second volume in the Graystripe's Adventure trilogy, which came out four years and nine volumes earlier. You'd think that the "2" on the front of each would have tipped them off that it wasn't the first volume...
 * Cruel and Unusual Death:
 * Cultural Posturing: Most cats believe that their own Clan can do no wrong, and that the other Clans are all weaklings or heartless bastards. This often works in ThunderClan's favour, since the majority of the series is from their POV, but the series does occasionally show that the other Clans are Not So Different. For example, the same is done with RiverClan when they become the protagonists in Crookedstar's Promise.
 * Cultural Translation: The old forest map was based on an actual forest in England, meaning the first series was set in England, which is also somewhat reflected by some of the wildlife. However, the second series featured a mountain lion, which cannot be found in the UK, and . Even though, the series is now apparently set in the United States.
 * One can also argue that the series is still set in Britain due to the lack of rabies despite the cats constantly biting and being bitten by other animals.
 * This isn't entirely impossible, even in the U.S.A. An animal needs to have rabies in the first place in order to transmit it, so unless the bitten/biting animal had it, there's no risk. That said (assuming the series did take place in America), it would still be amazing that, in all this time, they never once addressed this danger.
 * Word of God: "The first series was set in the county of Hampshire in the UK (on the South Coast, near where I grew up). Then I invented an imaginary setting for, and when they encountered a mountain lion I realized they must have crossed the Atlantic somewhere along the line because American wildlife had started appearing! So it's a fictitious island somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic which has a unique blend of British and American flora and fauna..."
 * Cursed with Awesome: The three, but most notably Jayfeather.

Tropes D-M
""What are you doing here?" Hollyleaf demanded. She could feel every hair on her pelt bristling, her tail fluffing out to twice it's size, and her belly churning with distrust of this powerful cat. "I thought you'd gone."
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Bluestar, Crookedstar, Yellowfang...
 * Dark Chick:.
 * Darkest Hour: The aptly-named The Darkest Hour, as well as various other points throughout the series, like Dawn, or the later books in Power of Three.
 * Dark Secret: Many cats' forbidden relationships. The parentage of kits really born to forbidden relationships. Visiting the Dark Forest.
 * Dead Person Conversation: Talking to StarClan.
 * Deadly Training Area: The Dark Forest.
 * Death by Childbirth:
 * A Death in the Limelight: in Night Whispers.
 * Death Is Dramatic:
 * Tigerstar is.
 * Hawkfrost.
 * , also serving as her Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Subverted with
 * Deceptive Disciple: Tigerstar, and possibly Brokenstar, who has the added bonus of killing and usurping .
 * Defiant to the End: Stonefur.
 * Demoted to Extra: The major characters in each series become less important as the focus shifts to the younger generation. One example is that fans were trying to figure out whether Graystripe, The Hero's best friend and therefore a major character in the first series, even got mentioned once in Sign of the Moon.
 * The Determinator: Tigerstar. And how.
 * Did Not Do the Research:
 * The authors have admitted that they know nothing about cat genetics and just make up whatever makes sense to them when coming up with physical descriptions of characters' offspring.
 * In Bluestar's Prophecy, Bluekit and Snowkit had their eyes open and were walking around the camp way too soon after birth.
 * Bluekit and Snowkit's incredibly fast development doesn't just contradict real life, it contradicts the rest of the books, considering we've never seen a kit that was able to speak before the age of two moons.
 * Read the births and subsequent sections involving the kits in Power of Three to any person that has actually been through cat birthing. Anyone at all.
 * Did You Just Punch Out A Twoleg: SkyClan takes it upon themselves to
 * Also averted when, in the same book, the cats
 * Disney Villain Death:
 * Whiteclaw falls into the gorge and dies.
 * Smokepaw falls to his death when a ledge breaks underneath him. This doesn't stop him from coming back in later books, though.
 * A pair of ShadowClan warriors fall over the top of the quarry to their deaths in Starlight.
 * Ancient cat Dark Whiskers is killed this way when blown off a cliff during a storm.
 * Dissonant Serenity: Sol stays calm and composed all the time, even when surrounded by enemies and . He so calm, other cats often find it unsettling. The only times he's lost his cool is whenever he's making a speech (and he's really more "incensed" than "angry"), and when Hollyleaf apparently pushes his Berserk Button, and even then he recovers in less than half a second.
 * Ancient cat Dark Whiskers is killed this way when blown off a cliff during a storm.
 * Dissonant Serenity: Sol stays calm and composed all the time, even when surrounded by enemies and . He so calm, other cats often find it unsettling. The only times he's lost his cool is whenever he's making a speech (and he's really more "incensed" than "angry"), and when Hollyleaf apparently pushes his Berserk Button, and even then he recovers in less than half a second.

Fury flashed in [Sol's] eyes, and his claws dug into the ground. Yet a hearbeat later he was cool and controlled again, so that Hollyleaf almost believed she had imagined the anger he had betrayed."

"Firestar let out a long breath. "I don't know, Bramblepaw," he admitted. "I just don't know.""
 * Doctor's Orders: There are plenty of times when a medicine cat says "As your medicine cat, I'm ordering you to rest."
 * Dogs Are Dumb: The most intelligent dogs shown in the entire series had a vocabulary of about eight words, the two most frequently used being "pack" and "kill".
 * It's also worth noting that the dogs mentioned above are defeated by.
 * One dog in Sunrise was even stupid enough to.
 * And don't we all know dogs like this? Truth in Television.
 * Don't forget the dog in Rise of Scourge who was scared of kitten Scourge's shadow (it was a rather fierce looking shadow, but still).
 * Don't Go in The Woods: What kittypets seem to be raised on.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Jayfeather (also his Berserk Button). Also don't be too nice to him, or he'll think you're pitying him. And don't mention his blindness, but then again, don't seem like you're trying to avoid it, either.
 * Doomed Hometown: The forest in the second series.
 * Double Don't Know: In The Darkest Hour:

"Skipper: "I've seen Red around a lot lately. Next time, it might be a tuft of her fur that's left beside a dead Twoleg pet."
 * Dragon-in-Chief: Hawkfrost in The New Prophecy. Tigerstar, the Big Bad is just as strong and fearsome, but he's hindered by
 * Dramatis Personae: Each book has allegiances section at the beginning, listing all characters that appear in that book and many that don't.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him:
 * Well,  Later on
 * The grand prize goes to, who was killed by a falling tree branch. In between books.
 * What, no mention of
 * Said tree was then used as a bridge, therefore literally dropping a bridge on him...
 * Dysfunction Junction:
 * In the third series, Crowfeather is using his "mate" just to get his Clanmates to trust him, and and he abuses his son (who also has related issues), and is in denial of how much he loves Leafpool and, Lionblaze goes Ax Crazy from time-to-time, and is usually horrified by the results, Jayfeather has some serious attitude problems, Hollyleaf is obsessed with the warrior code and , Ashfur is , Leafpool, who can't seem to succeed at anything, is incredibly depressed , and a lot of other cats throughout the course of the series become depressed because of the the authors' cruel treatment of their characters.
 * It continues on into the fourth series, with Dovewing, and Ivypool,.
 * Then we have Millie and her kits.
 * Early Cat Cameo: Thistleclaw is mentioned in Forest of Secrets and shows up in Rise Of Scourge before his real debut in Bluestar's Prophecy.
 * Tawnyspots and Goosefeather were first mentioned in Forest of Secrets, though the latter not by name. In addition, Sunstar and Featherwhisker were mentioned in Secrets of the Clans before their debuts in Code of the Clans and Bluestar's Prophecy, respectively.
 * Ear Notch: With large groups of fighting cats, someone's bound to get a ripped ear, and it does happen often. One example is Tigerstar; it's one of his more frequently noted physical characteristics.
 * Either/Or Prophecy: StarClan seems to give a lot of these. Take the prophecy at the top of the page, for instance. It does not say that fire will save the Clan . A minor prophecy in the second arc is misinterpreted as well due to this trope.
 * Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Smart is Midnight, but she no speak cat good.
 * The Empath: Jayfeather.
 * Everyone Is Related: Seeing as they live in Clans that do not allow intermixing... See also Tangled Family Tree below.
 * Everything's Worse with Bees: A scene in.
 * Evil Versus Evil:
 * Exact Words: In Midnight, after Leafpool sees Squirrelflight leave for her journey, Cinderpelt asks if she knows where Squirrelflight is. Leafpool is able to say no because she didn't know where Squirrelflight was at the exact moment.
 * Executive Meddling:
 * The publishers thought Cruel Season was too depressing of a title (never mind the fact that said book was depressing), even though earlier books have dark names like A Dangerous Path, The Darkest Hour and Long Shadows. Of course, the title change didn't stop protective parents from reacting negatively to the actual content of the book.
 * The New Prophecy series was supposed to consist of three books, until the publisher decided that the series was far too profitable and made Hunter write another series - which lead to there being three more in that series.
 * There was originally only going to be one book, Into the Wild. It became a trilogy, which later turned into a six-book series (followed by, let's see, four additional arcs, four super editions, four field guides, and thirteen mangas...)
 * Expanded Universe: Manga, Super Editions, Field Guides, short stories, etc. See above.
 * Eye Scream:
 * A later bit of narration in TPoT implies her parts of her skull remain visible.
 * Brokenstar.
 * And we now have in SkyClan's Destiny.
 * Faith Heel Turn:
 * Family-Unfriendly Death: Some of them would qualify for Cruel and Unusual Death.
 * If count, then they certainly qualify. Very much so.
 * Family-Unfriendly Violence: Pretty much every single fight. After Lionblaze, pretty much every fight he gets in features large amounts of this and High-Pressure Blood.
 * Fan Nickname: Kit Machine (Ferncloud), Teapot ([The] Power of Three; tPoT), Oats (Omen of the Stars; OotS).
 * Fantastic Racism: From many canon characters, but also, some say, from the fans. It's another one of those things they disagree on.
 * Fatal Flaw: Scourge's lack of belief in StarClan.
 * Fear of Thunder: The official app claims that Hollyleaf has this ever since Long Shadows, when.
 * Feathered Fiend: Birds of prey such as hawks, eagles, and owls. Justified, since these birds are larger than they are, and can carry off a kit (or in the eagles' case, a full-grown cat).
 * Fighting For a Homeland:, when they were exiled from the forest. The other four Clans, when the forest is destroyed - but at least they know there's good territory waiting for them.
 * First Snow: Happens a couple times. In Fire and Ice, Fireheart is amazed because he hasn't seen it before; he was shut inside as a kit when still living with Twolegs when it last snowed. He quickly learns that snow makes it difficult to move around, however. In The Darkest Hour, Firestar is out with his apprentice Bramblepaw when it begins to snow. Bramblepaw chases the snowflakes gleefuly, and Fireheart wonders whether Bramblepaw's evil father Tigerstar ever played with snowflakes.
 * Flanderization: RiverClan's fish-loving tendencies (no, not like that), as well as the general Love It or Hate It nature of fish as prey.
 * Flat Earth Atheist:
 * Cloudtail acts like this around the end of the first series. You'd think that seeing fatal wounds stitch up by themselves and hearing actual, accurate prophecies would be enough for the kid...
 * There's also Mothwing, who is a medicine cat despite not believing in StarClan, which is essentially the cats' equivalent of an atheist priest. Apparently her explanation for medicine cats knowing things StarClan has told her is that they subconsciously figure it out by themselves and all convince themselves that a dead cat told them it in a dream, which is arguably more ridiculous than what she is trying to explain. It gets even worse in Fading Echoes, where she sees something strange happen to Mistystar while she's receiving her nine lives and manages to figure out that Jayfeather is essentially reading her mind, but she still can't comprehend that StarClan exists.
 * Another interpretation of what she says/how she acts is that she acknowledges that they probably exist, but refuses to have faith in them or try communicating with them... for some reason.
 * The reason she doesn't have faith or try communicating is probably because StarClan lie consistently, rarely help them out, and when they do send them a message, tend to do so in obscure, twisted ways when they could easily just tell them straight out.
 * Flaw Exploitation: Tigerstar and Hawkfrost
 * Flip-Flop of God: Has happened sometimes.
 * Fragile Speedster: WindClan cats in general.
 * Framing Device: In the field guides Code and Battles of the Clans, the reader is a kittypet who is visiting the Clans and being told stories by the characters.
 * Freudian Excuse: Pretty much every villain in the series. Tigerstar . Brokenstar was abused by his foster mother, Lizardstripe. Scourge   Sol   Mapleshade
 * Gender Bender: A lot, most of them being one-time typos. Permanent/more major ones include:
 * Birchstar from Code of the Clans: male in first story, female in second
 * Foxheart: female in Secrets of the Clans (thought by ShadowClan to be the mother of Brokentail) > male in Bluestar's Prophecy
 * Mosskit: male in Forest of Secrets and Secrets of the Clans but female in Cats of the Clans and Bluestar's Prophecy. Word of God has stated that Mosskit was female.
 * Mintkit and Sagekit: Mintkit was male and Sagekit was female in the allegiances of Firestar's Quest, but they flipped genders in the actual text. SkyClan's Destiny confirms the allegiances of Firestar's Quest to be correct.
 * Rowanclaw: female in Dawn > male in Starlight and subsequent books. Fathers and later.
 * Rippletail: female in Twilight > male in The Sight
 * Pouncetail: female in The Sight > male in Dark River
 * Sedgewhisker: female in The Sight > male in Dark River > female in Sunrise
 * Gorsetail: female in Sunrise (was actually a mother of kits earler in TPOT) > male in The Fourth Apprentice
 * Rushpaw: male in main OOTS series > female in Battles of the Clans
 * Genki Girl: Squirrelpaw, though it fades pretty quickly.
 * Cinderpaw too, though that stops after
 * Go Mad From the Revelation:
 * Good Shepherd: Common archetype for medicine cats.
 * G-Rated Sex: Beyond all of the characters that have been born to the various Official Couples throughout the series (one litter being both implied and confirmed by Word of God to be the result of a one-night stand), there are some specific scenes that are very noticeable:
 * Bluestar and Oakheart were by far the most blatant, provoking many thoughts of "how did they get away with this?". Oakheart asks Bluestar to meet him somewhere at night, saying he wants to get to know her better. After a romantic evening, Bluestar starts begging to let herself enjoy "Just one night!". Next thing you know, Oakheart is building them a nest, and the next chapter skips to the next morning. Soon after, Bluestar is pregnant.
 * Sasha and Tigerstar. Tigerstar spends a night in Sasha's den "recovering". Sasha is pregnant afterwards.
 * Leafpool and Crowfeather run away together, at which point the narration switches to another character until a bit later, at which point we are informed that "they had been traveling all day even though neither of them had gotten any sleep the previous night.".
 * Before what Firestar thinks will be the final battle with Tigerstar, he starts thinking about how many of his cats might die. He then asks Sandstorm to join him in his den.
 * Daisy and Spiderleg are pretty much outright stated to have had a one-night stand.
 * Greater Need Than Mine: Some cats, particularly the elders, insist upon this when prey or herbs are low.
 * Grim Up North: ShadowClan, normally thought to be the most "evil" Clan, lives in the northernmost territory. There's even a saying in ThunderClan that the cold north wind blows over every ShadowClan cat and chills their heart.
 * Grumpy Old Man: Some elders are portrayed this way, notably Mousefur and Tangle.
 * Happy Rain: The end of The Fourth Apprentice, signifying the end of the drought.
 * Heel Realization:
 * Heroic BSOD:
 * Heterosexual Life Partners:
 * Firestar and Graystripe
 * Ravenpaw and Barley, although pretty much every Warriors fan that doesn't hate slash (and even some who do) believes that Ravenpaw and Barley are more than Heterosexual Life Partners. It's also worth noting that the author herself said that she envisions them "like a married couple," and that they are perfectly happy with just each other and don't want any girls to boss them around.
 * Made even more blatant by Ravenpaw's manga trilogy.
 * Let's just end it here and say that Barley and Ravenpaw's relationship is more Ho Yay than Heterosexual Life Partners.
 * High-Pressure Blood: A few instances, specifically:
 * Tigerstar. Any wound inflicted on him seems to bleed twice as much as a wound inflicted on someone else. And of course, when he.
 * 's death. It just keeps coming and coming...
 * Every fight involving Lionblaze from Outcast onward.
 * Firestar has been having a few of these moments lately. In Fading Echoes, he's slipping in a pool of his own blood as it's still gushing out of him.
 * Hijacked By Tigerstar
 * Hiss Before Fleeing
 * Hold Your Hippogriffs: Pigs aren't said to fly, hedgehogs are. You don't split hairs, but split whiskers. And 'a load of foxdung' and 'Who made dirt in his fresh-kill?' are used as substitutes for... erm... yeah.
 * The Homeward Journey: Moonrise. The journey to the sea was hard, but the journey home is just as dangerous
 * Hot-Blooded: Hollyleaf even pokes fun at this, when she says that Sorreltail is one of the rare cats in ThunderClan who isn't that.
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: Much of what the Twolegs do is naturally incomprehensible to the cats, and they view Twolegs as one of the greatest threats.
 * I Can't Feel My Legs: Used with when a tree falls on her. She ends up with her hindlegs paralyzed.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal:
 * Lionblaze, to a lesser extent. He even sympathizes with 's situation in The Fourth Apprentice.
 * I Just Want to Be Special:
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: and.
 * Incurable Cough of Death
 * Initiation Ceremony: Of the pleasant type, joining the clan requires taking an oath of loyalty in front of the clan, and adopting a clan suitable name.
 * Infant Immortality: does not exist. When they say Anyone Can Die, they mean it. One particular example is Snowkit, a deaf kitten, who is eaten by a hawk.
 * Info Dump: The narration occasionally spouts large amounts of exposition to avoid Continuity Lock Out. It doesn't work very well.
 * Instant Oracle, Just Add Water: Well, the medicine cats do have to touch their nose to, or drink from, the Moonpool in order to receive dreams from StarClan...
 * Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: ShadowClan in the first book.
 * Ironic Echo: In Beyond the Code, "Why do things like this always happen to me?" First it's
 * Irony: In Outcast, thinking about Crowfeather, Hollyleaf thinks "I'm glad he's not my father!"
 * Is That a Threat?: In SkyClan's Destiny:
 * Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: ShadowClan in the first book.
 * Ironic Echo: In Beyond the Code, "Why do things like this always happen to me?" First it's
 * Irony: In Outcast, thinking about Crowfeather, Hollyleaf thinks "I'm glad he's not my father!"
 * Is That a Threat?: In SkyClan's Destiny:

Stick: "Leave Red out of this. And don't make threats you can't keep."

Misha: "Oh, they're not threats. They're promises.""

"Crookedstar's head was spinning. "Slow down," he meowed.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Firestar has used this trick on several occasions to great effect, defeating opponents that otherwise had the advantage.
 * This also is used by other cats. According to Secrets of the Clans, this is a tactic taught to apprentices.
 * It Has Been an Honor:
 * I Thought Everyone Could Do That!:, much to the young cat's surprise.
 * It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time: StarClan thought it was a good idea to hide from Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather. It wasn't.
 * It's Raining Cats: The "Skydrop" move that SkyClan developed and that ThunderClan later uses.
 * It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Great StarClan, does it.
 * I Wished You Were Dead: to  at the end of Eclipse. She doesn't actually die, but  spends the majority of the rest book.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
 * Jayfeather. Not the friendliest cat in the world to be around, although that's hardly surprising, considering, but still always does his best to help his Clanmates whenever and however he can.
 * Crowfeather could also count, but Feathertail and Leafpool are the only ones who have actually seen his good side. It's worth a mention that Crowfeather
 * He was still a jerk back then. The only difference is that now he's actually abusive.
 * Pretty much all of ShadowClan after the first series.
 * Job Title
 * Just-So Story: There are stories in Secrets of the Clans that explain how tigers got stripes and how adders came to be.
 * Kangaroo Court: In The Darkest Hour, what Tigerstar calls a "trial" for the prisoners. It's really nothing but whipping up hatred for the half-Clan cats so that their own Clanmates would mistrust them enough to want them driven out or killed.
 * Karma Houdini: Blackstar. He was one of the minions of two different Big Bads, killed a ThunderClan elder while trying to kidnap some kits, and murdered the RiverClan deputy in cold blood in front of the entire Clan. He then goes on to be Clan leader, and Firestar lets him off with what can best be described as a stern warning. None of this is ever mentioned ever again.
 * Blackstar was deputy of ShadowClan, therefore, he succeeds Tigerstar. This is explicit Clan law, which the cats take very seriously. Not allowing him to become leader would have been counter to the Warrior Code, and interfering in another Clan's business, also counter to the Code. In other words, a very serious breach of StarClan's laws.
 * That would explain why they don't just invade ShadowClan and kill him, but it doesn't explain the sheer lack of animosity any Clan shows towards him for those actions, as well as the fact that they're never acknowledged to the point of borderline Canon Dis Continuity. Not to mention that he's probably going to end up in StarClan when he dies, even though other cats have gone to the Dark Forest for doing less horrible things with the exact same justification.
 * He never was the one deciding to do those horrible things mind you. According to the warrior code, part 13 "The word of the Clan leader is law". He did, after all still follow the code. Though he really shouldn't have let the code get in the way of doing what's right. Also, he's not dead yet. Karma may yet come back to bite him.
 * Kissing Cousins: Seeing as they're cats, and clans that don't allow intermixing, this is kind of inevitable.
 * Word of God also confirmed one pairing that turned out to be Brother-Sister Incest. It wasn't on purpose because she didn't realize that they had the same parents (they were in different litters, a couple seasons apart), but she decided to just leave it once she found out.
 * Kits Are Innocent
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: StarClan members can forget parts of their past they don't like.
 * Last-Episode New Character: Dovepaw and Ivypaw are born at the ending of Sunrise (the last book in the third series), with Jayfeather realizing that . Both of them are main characters in the fourth series.
 * Late Arrival Spoiler: One noteworthy example would be the way the names "Firestar" and "Tigerstar", both big spoilers for late in the first series, are being thrown around indiscriminately on this very page.
 * Lawful Stupid: Hollyleaf was turning into this before
 * The Erins have remained neutral on.
 * Lighter and Softer: Fans thought this about Power of Three. Then Outcast happened.
 * Power of Three starting out Lighter and Softer and ending Darker and Edgier makes this a one arc long case of Cerebus Syndrome.
 * Light Is Not Good: Especially with.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters : Each book features a section at the front which lists all the characters. The most recent books' Allegiances sections have OVER ONE HUNDRED characters listed. (Of course, several of them are background characters, kits, and cats who haven't even made an appearance.) There are over 700 named characters in the whole series.
 * Loser Son of Loser Dad: Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt in early books. Who's their dad? Tigerstar.
 * Lost in Transmission: Whitethroat is injured, and Fireheart questions him about Runningwind's death. But just when Whitethroat opens his mouth begins to speak, a monster roars past so Fireheart can't hear him, and when Whitethroat tries to speak a second time, he dies.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Check out the main page, because we don't even want to start here.
 * Love Makes You Evil :
 * Luke I Am Your Mother: Almost abused. We have THREE counts of this so far, and one Luke I am NOT your mother.
 * Mad Oracle: Goosefeather was often seen as this, and indeed, many of his prophecies and signs seem rather questionable. The problem is that there are some actual premonitions in there too, so everyone ignores him when he starts getting really bad feelings about Tigerkit's future.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Tigerstar.
 * May-December Romance: Pinestar and Leopardfoot... he's already a leader on (or close to) his last life when she's born.
 * Meaningful Name: A Clan cat's name is an indicator of their rank in the Clan hierarchy: kits' names end in -kit, apprentices' in -paw, leaders' in -star... the more unique names belong to warriors and medicine cats. Further, many cats have names that reflect some aspect of their appearance: Firestar got his name from his oft-mentioned "flame-colored pelt", and as for Halftail and One-eye... isn't it obvious?
 * And outside of the Clan naming conventions, there is also Sol, who is named after the Roman god of the sun, which makes sense because he . Although, he hasn't done anything sun-related since Eclipse...
 * Jayfeather and Hollyleaf..
 * Meaningful Rename: Names are changed quite often, usually indicating change of status(promotion to apprentice or warrior), more rarely because of some physical change, e.g. Halftail, One-Eye, Lostface or Crookedkit.
 * The Medic: Medicine cats, of course.
 * Mercy Kill: Littlecloud uses Deathberries to save dying cats from pain.
 * Mighty Glacier: ThunderClan and RiverClan cats.
 * The Migration: The plot of Dawn.
 * Mind Screw: Probably the best way to describe trying to create an accurate family tree of every named character in the series.
 * It's been done.
 * Jayfeather's visions in Night Whispers. You can't even tell they're visions until they're over.
 * Mirrored Confrontation Shot: The cover of A Dangerous Path.
 * And the Taiwanese version of The Darkest Hour.
 * The Missing Faction: SkyClan.
 * Monster Is a Mommy: The badger and her cubs in Twilight, and the dead fox and its cubs in The Sight.
 * Morality Pet: Snowfur for Thistleclaw.
 * Honeyfern and Poppyfrost wind up being this for Berrynose. He's still  but, hey, at least he's trying to act decent.
 * Brightheart for Cloudtail.
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain: Hawkfrost. Who most definitely didn't want to take over RiverClan and eventually rule the whole forest.
 * Motor Mouth: Crookedstar's apprentice Sedgepaw.

"Sorry!" Sedgepaw flattened her ears. "I know I talk too much but I just want to be the best apprentice. I'm so glad you're my mentor. You're the strongest cat in RiverClan, except Rippleclaw, but he's old - not an elder or anything - but you're younger and you remember what it's like to be a 'paw. And I'm going to listen to everything you tell me...""


 * Mundane Made Awesome: The climax of The Fourth Apprentice, where . It is the most dramatic scene about that you will ever read.
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning: Most main characters will end up appearing with StarClan at some point after they die. The best example of this trope is, who has appeared in almost every single book in the series, even though she died in the very first book.
 * My Master, Right or Wrong: Leaders have supreme authority, and their orders are followed, no matter how insane or evil they are.
 * My Master, Right or Wrong: Leaders have supreme authority, and their orders are followed, no matter how insane or evil they are.

Tropes N-Y
"Vicky (after a fan asked what Yellowfang's Secret would be about): Yellowfang will be in it. She will have a secret. Bad things will happen."
 * The Namesake:.
 * Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: Tribe cats, although most of the time they use shortened versions of their names.
 * The Napoleon: Scourge.
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: Tigerstar towards the end of the first series.
 * Never Say Goodbye: Fireheart does this to when he finds her dying. She starts to tell him something she wants him to hear before she dies, and he stops her, insisting she isn't going to die. She knows she is, though, and continues speaking.
 * Never Trust a Title: The title is Firestar's Quest, but back when it was released and wasn't quite what readers were expecting, it was often said by fans that would be a more accurate title.
 * Never Trust a Trope: The Clans often say this about each other. "You can't trust a ThunderClan cat!"
 * New Era Speech: Tigerstar gives one at a Gathering in The Darkest Hour when he announces the formation of TigerClan.
 * Newleaf Is Late
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: A bit of subversion with Lionblaze, since his power covers the incredibly wide umbrella of "", meaning the authors are able to make them take the shape of whatever they're in the mood for writing..
 * New Season, New Name: Each series has a different subtitle: Warriors, Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: The Power of Three, Warriors: Omen of the Stars
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hey,  we know your intentions were good, but
 * No Antagonist: Power of Three.
 * The Omniscient: Rock. Cats of the Clans makes it clear that he knows everything about the clans and tribe.
 * No One Could Survive That: at the end of the third arc. Not explicitly invoked, though, so a little less clear odds of coming back than usual.
 * No Kill Like Overkill: manages to  by
 * Oh Crap: Billystorm pulls this when Leafstar gives him a death glare when their kits tell her that.
 * Old Dog: In The Rise of Scourge, an old dog called Sam is sleeping in an alley. Tiny is afraid it'll eat him, but it's too old to chase him, and it loses a tooth as it gets up. As Tiny tries to use the tooth to get his collar off, it gets stuck, and then he claims he got it by killing a dog. So it's thanks to Sam the Old Dog that Tiny became Scourge, leader of BloodClan.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted. There have been three different cats named Birchstar, two Ashfurs, three Rocks, and each healer of the Tribe of Rushing Water adopts the name of Stoneteller, among other examples.
 * One Word Title: The entirety of the second series. Also, Outcast, Eclipse, and Sunrise.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Two Tribe of Endless Hunting ancestors named Fall and Slant are mentioned in Sign of the Moon. We never hear their full Tribe names, just their nicknames.
 * Only Mostly Dead: Leaders stay dead for a few minutes before getting the wound that killed them healed and waking up.
 * Opposed Mentors: In Crookedstar's Promise, the titular character is taught by his real mentor, Cedarpelt, but, unknown to other cats, he also is trained in his dreams by the deceased warrior Mapleshade. Mapleshade focuses more on combat skills, while Cedarpelt tries to explain that being a warrior is about more than just being a good fighter. Even their advice on battle moves differs, though that can be explained by the fact that.
 * In addition, Firestar has a split mentorship for two moons between Lionheart and Tigerstar. As you would expect, they argue a lot. However, two moons into his apprenticeship, he gets Bluestar as his permanent mentor.
 * Overly Long Name: Most of the cats of the Tribe of Rushing water have these, like Brook Where Small Fish Swim or Teller of the Pointed Stones.
 * Owl Be Damned: Owls are often thought of as ill omens. Justified, since an owl seems quite large to a cat, and owls have been known to carry off kits. However, ThunderClan does occasionally look for owls at night, because if it's windy and they're having trouble scenting prey, they can follow an owl and find prey that way.
 * Panicky Expectant Father: Berrynose of all cats. Of course, being Berrynose, he is this in the most annoying and bossy way possible.
 * Past Life Memories: Cinderheart has memories of her past life as Cinderpelt, but she has only ever shown signs of remembering them in her dreams, or recalls her past life subconsciously; for example, Cinderpelt's former apprentice Leafpool notes Cinderheart flicks her paw in the same way Cinderpelt did, as well as another character once thinking she was acting Wise Beyond Her Years, and Cinderheart remembering the distance between the Great Sycamore and ThunderClan's camp in the Forest, even though she had been born after the Clans had left the Forest.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Scourge. AND FUCKING HOW.
 * Any apprentice who's worth their salt in battle counts, particularly Thistlepaw from Bluestar's Prophecy.
 * Power Trio: Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw formed one in Into the Wild before Ravenpaw left. In Power of Three, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf formed one before . was then replaced by Dovewing.
 * Prequel: Bluestar's Prophecy, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, the planned fifth series (though that will take place much earlier in time than the Super Editions).
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Just about all of the Clan cats at one point or another, but probably ShadowClan most of all, considering how often their pride is pointed out. They consider themselves to be superior to pretty much any cat that doesn't live in a Clan. Even then, they generally consider their birth Clan to be better than the other three. Outsiders who have joined Clans often have to deal with prejudice against them due to not being "Clanborn".
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Every medicine cat, actually.
 * And Firestar, or any of the other Chosen Ones.
 * The Warriors app reveals that his mother had one before he was born. Maybe it runs in the family?
 * Public Execution: Stonefur's death.
 * Publisher Chosen Title: Sunrise. Vicky wanted it to be called Cruel Season.
 * Putting the Band Back Together: Chosen cats from New Prophecy join back together to scout the lake in Starlight and to help the tribe in Outcast.
 * Rage Against the Heavens: causes her to declare war on her ancestors. She comes around.
 * Rage Against the Mentor
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dovewing gives one to Ivypool after Ivypool pushes one too many berserk buttons.
 * Leafstar herself gives one to Sol after
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, anyone?
 * Reformed Criminal: Blackstar. After doing things against the warrior code (stealing kits from another Clan, killing other cats needlessly), he lived as a rogue for a while, but eventually rejoined the Clan, became its leader, and hasn't done anything like that since.
 * Renowned Selective Mentor: It is considered to be a huge honor to be mentored by the Clan leader or, to a lesser degree, the deputy. It occurs only a couple times in the series, most notably in the first book when Bluestar chooses Firepaw as her apprentice. It is also considered an honor to train as the medicine cat's apprentice, because it is such an important position; each medicine cat only trains one apprentice in their lifetime. In that case, however, it usually isn't a surprise because the younger cat already has an interest in healing and helps out the medicine cat for a while before officially being apprenticed.
 * Retcon: Since the first book in the series, Blackstar has had black paws. However, as of Sign of the Moon, he only has one black paw.
 * Bluestar's Prophecy and Crookedstar's Promise were set in the same timeline. In one shared scene between the two books, in a gathering, the cats' dialogue was retconned to reference an event in Crookedstar's Promise (which was the later released of the two).
 * Retronym:
 * The first set of six was called simply Warriors, but that became the series name altogether. To distinguish the first six from the rest, fans usually use "the first arc", or "the original series".
 * The Graystripe manga trilogy never had its own trilogy subtitle like the others; perhaps they weren't originally planning on doing more manga after his? The boxed set of his three now calls the trilogy "Graystripe's Adventure".
 * Rite of Passage: Quite a few, apprenticeship represents the end of childhood, becoming a warrior is a mark of adulthood. Getting your first apprentice is also a meaningful and awaited mark, since it allows a cat to become a deputy.
 * Pretty much any time there is a ceremony going on, it's a rite of passage.
 * Rodents of Unusual Size: Kind of. Rats are basically just normal-sized rats, but are fearsome and universally loathed by cats. And, of course, rats are much bigger compared to cats than to humans.
 * Romantic False Lead: Ashfur in Twilight.
 * Rouge Angles of Satin: "Rogue" is a term that is used regularly in the series. Cue bad fanfiction authors spelling it wrong all the time.
 * Also expect to occasionally find people asking others what their favourite "arch" is, or what "cannon" pairings they like.
 * The most frequently misspelled names are probably "Scrouge" (Scourge) and "Loinblaze" (Lionblaze).
 * Rule of Three: The third series, Power of Three, with three protagonists.
 * Running Gag: Almost every time Runningnose makes an appearance, one of the main characters will remark that he can't be that great of a medicine cat since he can't even cure his own cold.
 * To add to that, in the French version his name literally means "hay fever".
 * Even dying isn't enough to stop him from being the butt of this joke...
 * Sanity Slippage:, and to a lesser extent, her brothers.
 * after Forest of Secrets.
 * Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: This seems to be the attitude of a good many elders. Word of God has admitted that the influence of one of their older pet cats had something to do with it.
 * Second Person Narration: Several stories - or the narration between the stories - in the field guides are written this way. Occasionally it will be as if the reader is a cat interacting with the characters. Other times, it will be from one character speaking this way to another specific character that appears in the books. At times - notably the "so-and-so speaks" portions - the identity of the "you" isn't necessarily clear.
 * Secret Relationship: Everywhere, all the time. ... Great StarClan, the list is endless..
 * Secret Underground Passage: The tunnel under the Thunderpath in ShadowClan territory.
 * Shipper on Deck: Both Rosetail and Larksong are Platonicshippers (BlueXThrush).
 * In The Forgotten Warrior, Whitewing, Ivypool and Cinderheart all start shipping Dovewing with Bumblestripe.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Vicky admits to hiding quotes from Rambo and Gladiator in some of the dialogue.
 * Macgyver in SkyClan's Destiny is named after the television show of the same name, as Vicky is a fan.
 * Fuzzypelt is named after Fuzzy Felt, a toy Vicky remembers playing with when she was little.
 * The magazine Cat Fancy makes an appearance in the first volume of the SkyClan manga, on page 82.
 * One of the Adventure Game chapters in Battles of the Clans is titled "Here Comes The Sun".
 * As Vicky is a Star Trek fan, The New Prophecy was originally going to be called The Next Generation. She still has files on her computer with "TNG" in the name.
 * Sibling Rivalry: Dovewing and Ivypool, especially in Night Whispers.
 * Sickly Green Glow: The Dark Forest. Fits well, having to do with both evil and death.
 * Similarly Named Works: Several.
 * Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
 * Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
 * The Sight by David Clement-Davies
 * Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
 * Into The Woods the musical
 * Slashed Throat: The most commonly used method of killing someone. One of the more realistic, messy examples.
 * Slasher Smile: Mapleshade. She can make Ivypool feel like Daisy is with her, right before
 * Small Town Boredom: The reason Rusty decides to stop being a kittypet and become a warrior.
 * Smart People Speak the Queen's English: The last three audiobooks in the The New Prophecy series are read by Nanette Savard, an American actress. The narration and most of the characters are read with an American accent - except, for some reason, the medicine cats, who are read with a British accent. They're regular Clan cats, born and lived with their Clanmates all their lives, and just chose a different job - so where did the accent come from? Are they born with it and for some reason all cats with this accent take the medicine cat's job? Or does healing cats suddenly give you a different accent somehow?
 * Spartan Way: ShadowClan's training while Brokenstar is the leader - even kits are forced to train in the brutal battle training, and many end up dying. Dark Forest training also counts.
 * Speak in Unison: StarClan is described as sounding like every cat Firestar has ever known, all speaking at once in one clear voice.
 * Spiritual Successor: To Tailchaser's Song. Also to the The Book of the Named series, to the point that the Ratha books have been accused of copying Warriors, except for the fact that Ratha's Creature was published 20 years before Into the Wild.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Spottedleaf.
 * Of course, Firestar actually loves her back. Unfortunately, she has to stop stalking him because he already has another mate.
 * Not that she can't continue to stalk every generation of his family thereafter, of course. Jayfeather/Spottedleaf, anyone?
 * Not that this stops her from expressing the desire to give anything to be with him, in spite of her devotion to her fate in Firestar's Quest.
 * Spottedleaf's Honest Answer, anyone?
 * Start My Own:
 * Some remnants of BloodClan decide to try and start their own Clan in Ravenpaw and Barley's barn.
 * Sol, after, starts his own Clanlike group of cats.
 * Start of Darkness:
 * The Rise of Scourge for Scourge.
 * SkyClan and the Stranger, for Sol.
 * Stopped Caring: Bluestar, in books 4 and 5 of the first series.
 * Storming the Castle: The characters will, on rare occasions, attack another Clan's camp instead of just fighting somewhere in the territory. This can be risky, though, as the home Clan knows the best way to defend it, will be fighting more fiercely and desperately to protect the defenseless kits and elders, and the raiding Clan is usually outnumbered. It's worked about as often as it has failed.
 * Strange Salute: The Tribe's greeting gesture: extending one paw while bowing the head.
 * Succession Crisis: Happens a couple times, despite the fact that the Clans' hierarchy is set up in a way to avoid it.
 * In the second series, Tallstar, leader of WindClan, announces with his dying breaths that . Since deputy succeeds leader, and Tallstar managed to announce his decision only to , many WindClan cats don't believe it, and start a civil war supporting the old deputy.
 * The guidebook Code of the Clans explains how this setup came to be, after two specific crises: The deputy-becomes-leader rule started after there was a case where a leader selected his son as his successor. The son led his Clan into a needless fight, where half the cats disagreed with his choice and those that did listen nearly drowned. He realized that the deputy, due to her rank, had more experience in being in charge of the Clan. The rule that states that the new deputy must be chosen before moonhigh was created after a new leader waited too long to choose her deputy. She died of sickness, leaving the Clan leaderless and with two more dead cats who had attempted to fight for leadership. Eventually the spirit of the previous leader tells the medicine cat in a dream to choose who the new leader will be.
 * Surprise Pregnancy: Bluestar is unaware that she is pregnant until another she-cat points it out.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: At one point in Night Whispers, Tigerheart asks Dovewing how she always manages to get to their meeting place first. Dovewing mutters back that she totally doesn't listen for when he leaves his nest.
 * Taking the Bullet:
 * Talking in Your Dreams: StarClan does this all the time, and so does in the second series and onward. Jayfeather is the only living character who can do this. Some experiences with dreamwalking has also shown that characters who are wounded in dreams sustain the same injuries in the waking world - it is even possible to be killed in a dream.
 * Tangled Family Tree: Just look at it!
 * Teasing Creator: Vicky Holmes, soooooo much.


 * Thou Shalt Not Kill: Battles are relatively common, but killing is seen as dishonourable, and is generally avoided, . In fact, the main characters of the first two series have only killed one cat each. Oddly enough, they both killed.
 * Although Firestar becomes a pacifist in the second and third series, in the first series he showed absolutely no aversion to killing. For example, when Whitestorm has to restrain him from killing Clawface, him believing that he and Tigerstar were destined to fight to the death, and saying that Brokenstar deserved to die.
 * This could be justified as Character Development. Firestar was young at the time and probably didn't fully realize what the ramifications of his actions could be if he killed Clawface, and he was absolutely horrified by Tigerstar's death.
 * Thunder Equals Downpour: In Beyond the Code. They're at a Gathering with the full moon shining down between a couple sparse clouds. The cats comment on how the drought might end since the air's cooler. An argument starts, Sol runs away in anger. Next panel: lightning flash and a KABOOM! Next panel: Downpour. The rain is even enough to flood almost the entire gorge that same night.
 * Title Drop: In the prologue for the fifth book of Power of Three, Rock makes a reference to "the power of three", and in Omen of the Stars, Yellowfang mentions "an Omen of the Stars" (capitalized like a title) in the prologue of the very first book.
 * There are no less than three echo related metaphors used in Fading Echoes.
 * In Sign of the Moon (which isn't even in the Power of Three series), after Jayfeather realizes that, he says that the Power of Three has begun. And it is capitalized.
 * The Last Hope, however, takes the cake. It gets dropped at least five times in the book, two of them from the prologue alone.
 * Token Good Teammate: Tawnypelt in ShadowClan.
 * Tongue on the Flagpole: In his manga trilogy, Ravenpaw gets his tongue stuck to some ice in a gutter on the barn roof.
 * Tonight Someone Dies: And one more warrior may be lost forever..., which likely referred to . Although, many fans believe that
 * Also, Twilight opens with an unidentified cat being told that they will die soon, leaving the reader in suspense over who it will be.
 * Total Eclipse of the Plot: The eclipse in... err... Eclipse.
 * Totally Radical: Every so often, a young cat will call something "cool" or say "totally", which sticks out when compared to the fairly formal speech most of the Clan cats use.
 * Trapped in Another World: Jayfeather in Long Shadows when he.
 * Training From Hell: Both figuratively and literally with training in the Dark Forest.
 * Treachery Cover-Up:
 * It's hard to judge whether or not they did this for . They did cover up the fact that killed him, but there is conflicting evidence on whether or not they covered up why he was killed. In The Sight, some warriors have a conversation about the mysterious circumstances of his death, and say that his Clanmates mourned him, and RiverClan seems relatively ignorant of his treachery in other books, which would suggest he did get a cover-up. But then in After Sunset: We Need To Talk, Cloudtail says to a WindClan patrol, which suggests everyone knows about it.
 * after Long Shadows, and after he is exiled in Forest of Secrets.
 * Tuckerization: Done several times...
 * Vicky has admitted to using fans' warrior names. Some of them, she has said, are from fans she met on tours, or from letters sent to her - none of these are known by anyone except her at this point. Some of them also came from online fans' names, notably from the sites Wands and Worlds and Warrior's Wish - confirmed ones include Lakestorm, Quailfeather, Flintfang, and Blizzardstar (tribute to Blizz, creator of Warrior's Wish, the largest fansite.)
 * Brightspirit, Shiningheart, and Braveheart are based on ten-year-old fan Emmy Cherry and her parents Jimmy and Dana, who all died in a tornado in February 2008. Vicky sent a message to Wands and Worlds so that the members there could offer words of support and comfort to Emmy's family. They gave Emmy and her parents warrior names to honor them. Vicky decided to use those names in the next book, Long Shadows, which she also dedicated to them.
 * Ivypool, a current main character, is named after a person too. While Ivy herself, as a toddler, is too young to have read the books, her family has gone to see the author on every single one of her tours, earning them the nickname "FarDrivingClan" from Vicky. They have become good friends with her, and she decided to name the character after the youngest member of the family. Vicky has recently confirmed her warrior name to be
 * Tunnel Network:
 * WindClan's tunnel system in the forest.
 * The caves in the lake territory.
 * Turned Against Their Masters: Scourge turning against Tigerstar, although Rise of Scourge actually gives him an ulterior motive for killing him.
 * Hawkfrost turning on Mudclaw might count, too..
 * Turn Out Like His Father: Brambleclaw.
 * Twin Telepathy: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, while not identical twins, were of the same litter, and exhibit some signs of this: they can sense each other's emotions, and have shared dreams and sensations on occasion.
 * Twist Ending: The very last line of Rising Storm.
 * And few saw the ending of Long Shadows coming.
 * Unbroken Vigil: When Brightpaw gets attacked by dogs, after staying with her a full night, Cloudtail still refuses to eat or sleep, until Cinderpelt finally orders him to.
 * Unfortunate Names: A lot:
 * Some have strange given names. Kinkfur, Runningnose, Foxheart (It Makes Sense in Context, as "fox-heart" is a feline team meaning treacherous and cowardly), Sneezekit, Deadfoot, Mudpuddle, Maggottail...
 * Lampshaded in Outcast when the apprentices joke about what kind of horrible name Firestar could give Berrypaw. They come up with Berrystumpytail, which has now been adopted as a nickname for him.
 * A lot of the characters' names in SkyClan's Destiny and the SkyClan manga trilogy, are meant to be horrible, to point out how SkyClan is different from the other Clans - they're nothing but a kittypet name with a warrior ending added on: Billystorm, Harveymoon, Harrykit.
 * Some characters' names were picked by other characters and meant to be cruel: Lostface and Crookedkit.
 * Unknown Rival:
 * Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Naturally this will happen from time to time, since having more than one kit in a litter isn't out of the ordinary for cats.
 * Vagueness Is Coming
 * Verbing Nouny: Rising Storm, Fading Echoes
 * Villain Ball: Tigerstar apparently has nothing better to do in the afterlife than harass the descendants of a cat whose worst crime against him was to foil an evil scheme or two. He shows less resentment toward the cat who killed him nine times.
 * Tigerstar actually has more than bothering Firestar in mind, as shown as his plans become more clear in Omen of the Stars. As for why he doesn't resent ... well, it's kind of hard to resent someone who's soul doesn't exist in any known afterlife, isn't it? This still doesn't justify his only recently broken long streak of lackluster villainy, though.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Tigerclaw in the first series.
 * The Watcher: StarClan very pointedly state that they give advice, and watch over the living cats, but they do not interfere directly (they've bent that rule once or twice, but it's extremely rare). This makes it seem a bit silly when the Clans are constantly worried about incurring the "wrath of StarClan". Cinderpelt even has to remind the ThunderClan cats at one point that not every inconvenient natural phenomena is necessarily a sign from their ancestors: "There are times when a storm is just a storm."
 * Oddly enough, everyone seems to hate Sol because he tells them this. True, he does go overboard by, and , but it is kind of weird that everyone hates him for saying StarClan isn't all powerful, even though that's exactly what they've been telling us for pretty much the entire series.
 * They haven't been telling everybody this. That was just Firestar, and rather grudgingly, too. But of course, the whole sky-is-falling mentality is still firmly there.
 * But the fans know what Firestar was told, so they should know that StarClan isn't all powerful. However, they still bash Sol for this reason.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy:
 * Stormtail was this when Bluestar was a young warrior.
 * Rainflower was always this to Crookedstar.
 * Wham! Episode: Long Shadows. Hoo boy...
 * The Fourth Apprentice is also a massive one.
 * As is Night Whispers.
 * But The Forgotten Warrior easily beats them all.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite being the sole reason for the Clans' misery, humans are never harmed in the books. In fact, every time a particular human is involved, they usually get saved by the cats. Special mention goes to when a child falls into SkyClan's territory and breaks her leg. The cats go out of their way to help the kid and bring her home safely, when the more pragmatic approach would be to simply kill her, or leave her to die. It doesn't make sense that cats would sympathize with a species other than their own. Especially not a species that poses a constant threat to the very standing of the Clans.
 * Well, it makes more sense when you consider that most of the cats in that situation were In the same book, the reason they didn't attack  was because they were warned by the  how dangerous it is to attack a Twoleg. Considering how uptight people are about getting rid of pests and potentially rabid animals, this was probably a smart move.
 * On the other hand, prey animals are killed en masse for the sake of feeding the Clans, and nobody complains about that the way they'd complain about killing a human.
 * When I Was Your Age: Elders claim this on occasion - for example, Fireheart gets into a small argument with one in Forest of Secrets when the elder claims that young cats nowadays don't know what hardship is.
 * Where It All Began: When the Clans leave, they end up settling by a lake. Turns out their distant ancestors (way before the Clans formed) once lived there, and that that's where the Power of Three prophecy originated.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jayfeather and water.
 * Can't forget Bluestar. The prophecy about her even said the only thing that could destroy her was water.
 * Also, SkyClan and rats.
 * Working Title:
 * When the second series was set to be just a trilogy, the working title for the trilogy was Warriors: The Next Generation
 * "The Curse" for Dark River, as seen in advanced-release copies of The Sight
 * "Cruel Season" for Sunrise (changed because apparently it was too depressing for the end of a series)
 * "The Fourth Apprentice" was the working title for the whole fourth series, with "Ambush" as the first book
 * "Strangers in the Snow" for Shattered Peace, according to illustrator James Barry
 * "Betrayal" or "Dark Betrayal" (Vicky and the US editor Erica were "fighting most sweetly" about it, according to Kate) for Night Whispers
 * "Crookedstar's Secret" for Crookedstar's Promise
 * World of Badass
 * Would Hurt a Child: Tigerstar kills Gorsepaw in The Darkest Hour for no other reason than to bring fear to WindClan. Darkstripe also attempts to kill Sorrelkit because she caught him meeting Blackfoot on their territory.
 * Tigerpaw, under the orders of his mentor Thistleclaw, nearly killed a kittypet kit for straying onto ThunderClan territory in Bluestar's Prophecy. The only thing that stops him is Bluefur.
 * The X of Y: Secrets of the Clans, Cats of the Clans, Code of the Clans, Battles of the Clans
 * A few non-Field Guide books as well: Forest of Secrets, Sign of the Moon, The Rise of Scourge, The Heart of a Warrior
 * You Dirty Rat: The rats in "Firestar's Quest" and "SkyClan's Destiny" are evil. In addition, the rats in "Into the Wild" and "Crookedstar's Promise" attack the cats. The portrayal of rats results in quite a few fans complaining.
 * Your Days Are Numbered:.