Warrior Cats: The Original Series
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"Fire alone can save our Clan."
—Into the Wild
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Warrior Cats: The Original Series is the first arc of the popular Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter.
The series focuses on housecat Rusty, who, tired of the easy life of a pet, decides to join ThunderClan, one of four warrior Clans who rule the forest neighboring his home. Rusty is dubbed Fireheart and sets out on a quest to unravel the secrets his Clanmates keep hidden in an effort to protect the forest from evil.
The series was inspired by Redwall and Watership Down and it shows. Anyone Can Die is in full effect, and every cutie is broken. The first arc is the most popular among the fandom, and is the bloodiest in the series.
Tropes used in Warrior Cats: The Original Series include:
- Almost-Dead Guy: Whitestorm, Bluestar and Yellowfang among others.
- Ambition Is Evil: Most evidently with Tigerclaw.
- A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Firestar, leader of ThunderClan.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Fireheart's leadership ceremony.
- Big Bad: Brokenstar at first. Tigerclaw takes over after becoming ShadowClan's new leader.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Brokenstar and Tigerclaw. Later becomes a Big Bad Duumvirate.
- Cain and Abel: Word of God confirms that Fireheart and Scourge as well as Graystripe and Darkstripe are brothers.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Before going to his first gathering, Graystripe hopes that Clawface and Stonefur will attend. Both later become major players. Also, Barley who was once a member of BloodClan, and the small apprentice Lionheart talks to at Fireheart's first gathering, who later becomes ShadowClan's medicine cat.
- Chekhov's Skill: Fireheart's I Surrender, Suckers, which he uses throughout the series (most notably in his first battle ever), is the key to defeating Scourge.
- The Chosen One: The prophecy says Fire alone can save them. The hero is named Fireheart. See the connection?
- Disc One Final Boss: Brokenstar. And also Tigerstar.
- Early Installment Weirdness:
- Kits call their parents Mother or Father when speaking to them, rather than using their names, throughout the first series.
- Apprentices must travel to the Moonstone before becoming a warrior. This is mentioned several times in the series (though Fireheart and Graystripe are the only ones that actually do as far as the reader knows) and forgotten later on. After fans pointed this out to the authors, it gets Lampshaded in the later part of the second series by Leafpool, who comments that they seem to have left that tradition behind when they came to the lake.
- Even she-cats not expecting kits are referred to as queens in the first book.
- Earlier books have slightly different spellings than later books - Highstones is HighStones in the first book, "crowfood" is two words or at least has a hyphen, "Clanmate" is two words.
- At Gatherings, cats of all ages tend to mix: examples include senior warrior Lionheart talking with some apprentices, and Fireheart sitting with a group of elders and medicine cats. In later books, the characters tend to stick with the cats their own age.
- Mates aren't (for the most part) treated as major relationships in the first series, and it is mentioned that warrior fathers don't stay close to their kits (Crookedstar being a rare exception.) In the third series, Spiderleg is critisized because he doesn't want to play with his kits, and in the third and fourth series especially, everyone gossips about young couples and young she-cats talk about who they like and things like that.
- Evil Is Hammy: Brokenstar until he is stripped of his leadship of ShadowClan. Later on Tigerclaw takes a level in hamminess after becoming ShadowClan's leader.
- Genki Girl: Cinderpaw, until she gets hit by a car.
- He Knows Too Much: Tigerclaw's primary reason for trying to kill Ravenpaw and Fireheart.
- Heroic BSOD: Bluestar suffers a particularly nasty one after Tigerclaw's betrayal. It takes her two entire books to get over it completely... just in time for a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bluestar
- It Has Been an Honor: Whitestorm. "I’ve been proud to serve as your deputy."
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Yellowfang
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Tigerclaw attempts (and fails) this twice:
- He tells Bluestar to meet him by the Thunderpath, setting his scent markers too close to the edge. He hopes Bluestar will run right onto the road, not realizing how close she is, and be hit by a car. Cinderpaw ends up caught in it instead.
- He tries to drown Fireheart, as mentioned below under The Uriah Gambit. Even Fireheart wasn't sure whether it was an accident or not until he noticed the way Tigerclaw was looking at him later.
- Darkstripe gave Sorrelkit deathberries to eat; if Graystripe hadn't seen what happened, every cat would have just assumed she found the berries and didn't know what they were.
- Meaningful Rename:
- When an apprentice becomes a warrior, their name's "-paw" suffix is replaced with something more appropriate.
- Brightpaw gets special mention here. When she is wounded and nearly dies, Bluestar gives her the name Lostface as part of her Rage Against the Heavens. Later, when Fireheart becomes leader, he renames her Brightheart.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Bluestar, Lionheart and Yellowfang, mentors to Fireheart, Graystripe and Cinderpelt respectively, and all mentors to Fireheart in some way, all die.
- Red Sky, Take Warning: "The clouds are stained with blood! This day will bring an unneccessary death."
- Retronym: Originally just called "Warriors", however, fans now call it "The Original Series" to distinguish it from the rest of the arcs.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Graystripe and Silverstream
- Turned Against Their Masters: Scourge turning against Tigerstar.
- Twist Ending: The very last line of Rising Storm. See Wham! Line below.
- Unexpected Successor: Tigerclaw to Nightstar.
- Unfortunate Names: Yellowfang, Deadfoot, Runningnose.
- Unfriendly Fire: One of Tigerclaw's tactics before he is exiled:
- In the first book, he kills Redtail after a battle, claiming that Redtail was killed by Oakheart during the battle. Oakheart died in the same battle, so he's not exactly around to deny it.
- Tigerclaw's attempt to kill Bluestar. He convinces a group of rogues to attack the camp, and during the battle, attacks Bluestar himself, planning to make it look like she had been killed by rogues.
- The Uriah Gambit: Another one of Tigerclaw's tactics:
- Tigerclaw, suspecting that Ravenpaw knows he killed Redtail, sets him some dangerous hunting tasks, including at Snakerocks (named for the deadly adders that bask there in the summer... Ravenpaw actually manages to catch one!) and in ShadowClan territory.
- During battle, Fireheart's pinned down and fighting for his life. He calls to Tigerclaw for help, but Tigerclaw just watches him; it's to his advantage if Fireheart dies since he believes Ravenpaw told Fireheart what he knows.
- At one point, he orders Fireheart to cross a flooded stream, using only a spindly branch caught in the water. When Fireheart's halfway across and Longtail isn't watching, Tigerclaw tries to Make It Look Like an Accident by knocking the branch loose of the rock it's caught against.
- Wham! Line: And with a cold shiver of dread, Fireheart realized that the new leader of ShadowClan was Tigerclaw.