rookflower

[rookflower]

not bothered to reblog and respond directly to a point I saw in the notes of that one post I made since I'm just rambling on mobile but

a) it is absolutely reasonable to criticise a series for themes that aren't literally and transparently what the text is about. in university for almost every single text we studied you could find something to say about it's connections to gender, to colonialism/imperialism, and to capitalism because these are themes so pervasive in so much of daily life across the world that there is usually always something worth looking at, sometimes even in absence. writing doesn't exist in a vacuum. writers live, though usually in a different time and place, in the same world as any of us. they have biases. they have beliefs. they have things they are trying to say.

b) warrior cats absolutely does deal with themes of racism and xenophobia, despite the characters not literally being human. I understand the hesitancy to immediately apply a real life form of bigotry to a fantasty one but the way outsiders and half clan cats are spoken about in the books is constantly bringing up obsession with blood purity and ancestry and clashes in culture/tradition. one of the protagonists in asc has a mother who is anti immigration and talks about the sanctity of shadowclan the same way tories do about britain. I don't know how one is supposed to interpret these themes as a commentary on anything else. it does it allegorically and usually poorly but I think to act like there is zero place for an examination of how the books tackle racism (or resultingly, sometimes, are racist) is being purposefully obtuse. not to even get into what native american fans have brought up time and time again about the blatant inspiration (and bastardisation) the books take from indigenous cultures for their worldbuilding

[rookflower]

[rookflower]

i do understand people's frustration with how persistently negative fandoms can be, but at the same time when the equivalent is a space where everyone is expected to be overwhelmingly optimistic and accepting and uncritical of even the worst shite in a series and take everything at obtuse face value then yeah fuck I'd pick the haters any day. especially with a series as bad as this one. do you know how annoying it is to have to justify the fact alone that you Have Criticisms.

[rookflower]

there are definitely some flaws worth criticising in the tpb graphic novels but to be fair i cant and dont want to put the majority of them on the artists because they are adapting by far the densest arc in an incredibly flawed book series from the early 2000s and they have three graphic novels in which to visually and narratively adapt 6 books. i think to smooth over all of tpb's issues while removing the majority of the nuance from them for time while keeping it at a coherent pace in a coherent structure, consistently, while also being hugely faithful to the originals, in a very narrow timeframe for release schedule, is quite literally an impossible task to be given. i think they're genuinely doing a really good job all that considered. and for what it's worth i think the art is really nice

[rookflower]

the reason why I'm so attached to clangen is that part of me longs a very specific pet breeding simulator game and part of me longs for a very specific society/kingdom simulator game, and while clangen doesn't perfectly encapsulate what I'm looking for, it threads between the two concepts very nicely. I can extrapolate and worldbuild multi generational fantasy political drama from gameplay events AND they're cute cats that come in a lot of nice fur colours and patterns.

[rookflower]

[rookflower]

[rookflower]

On the topic of those “unpopular opinions” posts that pop up every once in a while, how do you feel about people’s constant need to call Squilf abusive or say Bramblestar did nothing wrong?

When questioned about it I always see people saying that they either haven’t read Squirrelflight’s Hope and/or they don’t consider it canon.

In relation to this there’s also the really frustrating fandom mentality on Reddit specifically that seems to be super anti-Moonkitti. Like it feels like her points don’t matter in these discussions, but rather the fact that Moonkitti said it is what makes the points invalid. I’ve seen people be very weird and sexist about her Bramblestar is Worse video at the very least. The Frecklewish and Curlfeather discourses do also come to mind though as well.

i mean personally yeah the "brambleclaw is an innocent pure man and squirrelflight is an evil abusive bitch" take sucks and is bad and is generally usually incredibly sexist but this isn't new and isn't preventable unfortunately. i think it's a take that mostly comes from a contrarian place, usually from younger fans or fans who either don't read the books or haven't read them in a while. a lot of people read the books, get attached to brambleclaw arbitrarily, and then become ride or die for him. i can sympathise that the fandom turning on your fav overnight one day would really suck and i do think some people will take other people's takes to heart a little too hard and be annoying to his fans about it, but a lot of people just kind of shut down and refuse to listen to any criticism that conflicts with their set opinions even slightly and i think that's just a pretty bad way to engage with media and the world in general

though i will say that when people insist that squirrelflight is just as bad or worse than brambleclaw, i usually never see them elaborate on any actual textual evidence beyong just "well uh um she lied to him. and she is kind of loud sometimes" so like lol

when people say "i dont consider (x) book canon" i don't think that's a crime, but in an argument or discussion setting to me it's the same type of argument as saying "well i haven't read the book in a decade so idk"- like yeah nobody can stop you from basing your own opinions on whatever you want, everyone does that it happens, but you kind of need to understand that when you enter a discussion with other people that it should be reasonable to acknowledge your blind spots. warrior cats sucks and i think everyone should be able to cover their ears and go lalalala i cant hear it from time to time but with the brambleclaw thing you kind of need to do that with like. at least 60% of his character LOL

also yeah the fandom is super horrible to moonkitti and it can't be understated. any time i've spoken with her over the past few years she's been genuinely lovely. really cool person. i think a lot of people don't quite realise how small the fandom can be when they're talking shit, and while nobody's work or opinions should be immune from criticism i think there's quite a difference in that vs just being an asshole. which, again, can't be stopped and mostly comes from younger fans, but man :(

[rookflower]

Is the Mothpool shipping post referencing anything or just a general thing you've seen in the fandom?

prompted by a random twitter post and its replies I saw offhandedly a few hours ago but it's a sentiment I've been seeing in the fandom for years, especially twitter. any time one of those "tell me an unpopular opinion" posts goes around (which happens every few months) no less than five people minimum will complain about mothpool on it and the people in the replies of those posts will big up leafcrow. I don't hold a grudge against anyone for it it's all subjective and unserious but I, uh, disagree with them, personally

[rookflower]

ily pls never explode

ill do my best (phone doesn't have a saluting emoji imagine so one here) (actually o7 works) o7

[rookflower]

I do Try to not get that opinionated about wc shipping because end of the day I'm not a very big shipper myself in the first place and also I understand these things are all layered in personal headcanon so nobody will have the same interpretations and that's fine. But also when I see posts that say "god mothpool sucks because it's boring and overrated and there's no chemistry and people mischaracterise them and also mothwing is an asshole so leafpool doesn't deserve her. you know what's an infinitely better ship with none of these problems? crowpool 😊" my eyes start glowing red and shooting laserbeams

[rookflower]

We can't even really credit the Erins themselves for RavenBarley, it's the artists who made the novel who rewrote the arc and added that in. Props to the publisher for not censoring that, but they didn't make the decision to add this.

If this graphic novel gets translated I think it's very likely they'll remove it too, so Harper Collins/ the Hunter team really aren't praiseworthy for this.

(As a side note, this has happened in side content, a graphic novel adaptation of a 20+ year old book series, not in the main books and I'd like it to stay this way. I do not trust the actual Erin Hunter team to handle queer themes properly and thus I don't even want them to think about doing so)

oh yeah that's why I said "allowing this" and not "doing this", 100% believe it's down to the GN artists rather than the Erins or coolabi. from what we've seen I doubt the erins are actively (or at least consciously) homophobic but they've always been very passive and """safe""" about this and left to their own devices I doubt gay cats would be a thing for years if at all. would not be surprised in the slightest if it doesn't survive translation, but it's still something

as for not trusting the team to handle queer themes, I do get that, but I think some cases of minor implementation are pretty impossible to fuck up. Even if they did do an involved and messy job of it I can't say I wouldn't be cautiously intrigued.

[rookflower]

explicitly stated ravenbarley in the graphic novel adaptation after 2 decades is kind of the bare minimum for canon wc queer rep and I do think people are giving the erins too much credit for finally allowing it, but also it is unquestionably a good thing and I'm happy it's there. line officially crossed for the better yknow

[rookflower]

warrior cats is often extremely weird about its disabled characters dont get me wrong but to be honest i do think the argument of "why do these characters struggle with their disabilities in the books when disabled cats irl are barely hindered?" is a little flawed because of the way the books anthropomorphise their characters. im not physically disabled so dont take my words to heart on this but i think the point is less about the logistics how the characters would be able to move or thrive in a realistic physical setting, and more about what the books do with the themes of disability from a conflict and narrative standpoint.

[rookflower]

"erm how could warrior cats be loosely, poorly inspired by native americans in the first place? the authors are british" it's almost like the majority of the western english speaking media zeitgeist consists of USAmerican fiction through which the Erins will undoubtedly have an awareness of a very fictionalised idea of what indigenous americans are like while also being less likely to know any IRL or to have bothered to look thoroughly into research to dispel stereotypes and inaccuracies and racism (which is likely what the majority of their general knowledge is in the first place)

[rookflower]

Here's my finished piece for the WC Cover Collection Zine, organised by @harriertail!

Check out the zine here! There's a digital version and stickers available too, and proceeds go towards Hearts with Hands Hurricane Helene relief!

[rookflower]

WARRIORS COVER COLLECTION RESTOCK AND SHOP UPDATE! ETSY (worldwide) /// UK/US/AUS ONLY DIGITAL VERSION ONLY All proceeds will go to Hearts with Hands Hurricane Helene fund

Thank you so much for all the support! all proceeds will go to support the cause whether you get a zine, a digital zine, or just a sticker : )