u will blaze alone!

hollyleaf 🌿

myler & mapleshade redraw

shadowsight doodles

Fun headcanon:

There's no such thing as "traditional" warrior names. Instead, naming trends in the Clans go in and out of popularity, much like human names do!

For a couple years leading up to Rusty joining the Clans, and all through "The Prophecies Begin", names emphasizing some physical characteristic were very popular. This is probably, in part, thanks to the rise of leaders with names like Tallstar, Crookedstar, and Raggedstar. This is also why some of the elders chose to change their names to reflect their appearances! Color based names were particularly in style- it was considered simple yet elegant to name a kit after a color.

Plant and animal related names were fashionable through the New Prophecy and Power of Three arcs. Naming kits after their physical appearances became considered uncreative- if you could only list the obvious about your kit, you must not be a very attentive parent...

The Power of Three and Omen of the Stars arcs also saw some movement away from the old, body based suffixes, and a shift towards more abstract names. (ex, LionBLAZE, HoneyFERN, CrowFROST, IvyPOOL, RedWILLOW) With the Clans growing to be larger in size than they had been for a long time, unique and catchy name combos became the go-to to help new warriors stand out from the crowd. (A lot easier to remember a name like Sunstrike of WindClan than Petalfur of RiverClan, right?) This trend started in ThunderClan, as they were the biggest Clan by a long shot, but it spread a bit to the other Clans as well. It caught on best in ShadowClan, while RiverClan and WindClan names remained a bit more old fashioned in general.

For the first half of AVOS was marked by a rise in monosyllabic prefixes. This trend also started in ThunderClan, mostly as a reaction to the flashy suffixes Bramblestar seemed fond of giving his warriors. No one wanted to have a warrior name that was too much of a mouthful to be chanted easily. This trend DID take off in the other Clans as well. It's also worthwhile to note that in RiverClan, it became very popular to give kits prefixes currently in use in one of the other Clans. The other Clans have no idea why it started, but there were some accusations flying around that RiverClan was trying to "steal" prefixes from other Clans, which doesn't make much sense.

Towards the end of AVOS and the beginning of TBC, a new fad of naming a kit something "lively" or "energetic" took off. It wasn't common to name kits this way before, but with the influx of unusual names from SkyClan and the new ShadowClan members Tigerstar II brought back with him, all the Clans suddenly wanted to break away from their old naming conventions a bit. This resulted in prefixes like Snap, Flip, Hop, Pounce, Whistle, Flutter, Splash, etc.

The most "poetic" naming era in Warriors history was a bit before Bluestar's time- Tallstar and Yellowfang were born into this time period, where prefixes could really be whatever as long as they were paired with an exciting, creative suffix. Some of the names considered most beautiful during this time were: Mistmouse, Meadowslip, Sandgorse, Featherstorm, Silverflame, Toadskip, Brightsky, Ottersplash, Mudthorn, Brambleberry, Moonflower...

I was just thinking about this bc of all the debates that happen in the fandom over whether or not the names of characters are good or bad, traditional or cheesy... this was just my way of making a fun explanation for the authors' inconsistency in naming the cats over the course of the series.

i feel like warrior cats protagonists are so lame and predictable in these newer arcs, like i love alderheart but like... ok so into the wild had fireheart, greystripe and bluestar as main protags (sorry ravenpaw fans but i dont remember him being, like, THAT involved? hes more like cinderpelt to me. bluestar had narrative and plot development n stuff) and its like youre in fireheart's paws, learning abt this entirely new deal, with bluestar as a revered guidance figure who falls from grace.

the new prophecy is abt squirrelflight and brambleclaw, kids of the previous arc's main character and villain that already had narratives abt this brought up at the end of the first one so its going to explore that more, plus minor perspectives from other clan members who end up being important later in the series. power of three follows these little kits, the first main plotline perspective to start here and watch them grow as apprentices for more than a single book which starts this trend, and theyre very fun characters to follow and while they share a prophecy plotline like the previous plot, its different here where its about powers inherent to them. omen of the stars is similar to this, taking the young kit/apprentice and close sibling thing but expanding more on the growing resentment between them from lacking powers and how this factors into the end main plot. dawn of the clans... i havent read yet im sorry im sorry i know fake fan but you can tell how its different.

but then starting from a vision of shadows to the broken code and now soon a starless clan... the main protags all seem the same? 3 cats, usually apprentices or one young warrior, are already situated in these clans we know about. theyre probably kin or kits of important cats from the previous books, but it doesnt feel like its brought up that often as anything more than a setpiece rather than something to expand upon and add to their character development (it seems like the new cat flamepaw will explore this from the promo blurb but... why is it HIM and not squirrelflight or sparkpelt, who are also kin of firestar and look like him? gee i wonder why 🤔) in fact it feels like the only "development" these protags get is them resolving whether or not to leave their clan to be with their forced forbidden clan love. and when there ARE interesting tidbits abt them, like rootspring's ghost seeing abilities and connection to his father and shadowsight's whole deal, its never touched up upon as much as i want it to be. THAT stuff is interesting to me, not whether rootspring and bristlefrost will get together. i also cant like, name a character trait of anyone? i think exaggerating one or two big traits for these characters REALLY helps them stand out, like i remember squirrelflight for her brashness and jayfeather for his snappiness, but what traits do these cats have? theyre just not compelling protags anymore and i basically only like these modern books for the interesting convos and plot points about the code theyre only just NOW bringing up, but all these dumb forbidden love plots just get in the way of my enjoyment. i think it'd be neat if they did like more timeskips, not even as drastic as dotc like just a couple generations, or maybe bringing in a rogue or other outsider like firestar was.

commission for @scampering of their warrior cats self-insert Bumbleheart :3c

you wanna draw yellowfang?

and her boy

into the wild deputies

could we get a traditional emo scourge?

i love emo scourge hope i did him justice

omg i forgot to send an ask.... perhaps mapleshade ? :] <3

mapleshade one of my favorite-designed dark forest cats <3

i love how u draw cats so much!! if your requests are still open, maybe longtail? he was my favorite as a kid^^

thank u :3c and i was obsessed with the longtail from that one into the wild animated thing on youtube you know the one... that design is the only longtail one that exists in my mind now

Le jayfeather mayhaps...?

brightheart she is a friend :)