#Runningwind (mentioned)

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

the fact that the new graphic novel acknowledges that longtail and swiftpaw and ravenpaw and dustpelt are brothers is wild

though it's kind of weird cause like longtail is ALSO ravenpaw and dustpelt's brother, but swiftpaw is not ravenpaw and dustpelt's brother lmao

obviously it would have been awkward to say all of that when fireheart was just mentioning how he's jealous of cats with siblings and was just listing two sets of brothers, but still lol

[theanoninyourinbox]

Sorry if I'm late, but if you ever have the time, could you draw a pegasus Longtail? Feel like he'd be fast on his feet as well as his wings, but I haven't thought about some Warrior Cats MLP stuff in forever.

(haircut inspired by the amazing longtail design of @just-some-cat-art)

The number one racer of Thunder Falls, Shockwave is one of the dozen Thestral-blooded ponies in the Four Towns - his father was one! Call him Shocker, Hotshot, or Rudecolt, he IS the fastest being in the skies. His talent however, lies in his voice - he can project so loudly that glass shatters and clouds break apart, throw it across a room, and imitate just about any voice he hears.

He quickly became an antagonist to the recently moved in Rusty Sparks, but after finding out that the stallion he admired was a literal monster AND a massive racist, Shockwave started to cool off towards the earth pony. Their friendship wasn't cemented until Rusty helped save the life of Swift, Shockwave's rising star of a student, from an Umbrum attack. He was even the one that suggested Rusty Sparks change his name to Flaming Comet.

Eventually, Shockwave was attacked by an Umbrum infected Diamond Dog and partially blinded. He thought his flying days were over, but with the encouragement of his friends, he figured out how to echolocate through the skies, with goggles to protect his eyes. He one day will race Rainbow Dash herself, and run his own flight school for special needs students, with his old coach friend Swift Sprint.

[petalstem]

Trying to identify cats in the graphic novel preview is a fucking Sisyphean task. Every time I think I've gotten them all another random background cat appears. WHO ARE YOU WHITE THUNDERCLAN CAT WITH BROWN PATCHES THAT APPEARS IN A SINGLE SHOT. MOUSEFUR? ROSETAIL? RUNNINGWIND? WE COULD NEVER KNOW

[official-darkforest]

Sorry I would love for you to explain all of your rare pairs. I love deep warrior cats thoughts pls if you want to do so

ThornRat (Thornclaw x Ratscar) Dark Forest trainee pairing. They're also both old enough to remember the Old Forest . The whole dynamic I have in mind is Thornclaw being rather oblivious to his sexuality and also being a huge fucking hypocrite (he's one of the more conservative warriors of TC, ironically). Ultimately his relationship with Ratscar, if you can even call it one, is doomed from the start and Ratscar is stuck yearning for someone that's not worth pursuing for multiple reasons.

BrambleFern (Bramblepaw x Fernpaw) I specify -paw because I see them as a bit of a tragic pairing where it doesn't end up working out because Dustpelt swoops right in and inserts himself in Bramblepaw's place. Also, in the context of my rewrite, Brambleclaw is the one to run away to ShadowClan instead of Tawnypelt so whatever spark he and Fernpaw had going never gets to go anywhere. I imagine they're still friends but have some moments of 'what if' every now and then.

BrindleFlint (Brindleface x Flintfang) Honestly I just wanted to give Ashfur and Ferncloud a father that already existed in the series and also didn't fuck up the family tree any more than it already is. I think I got this idea from someone else but I can't exactly remember who - but it's a very interesting concept considering the events of the first arc and how Flintfang was still alive for the events that happened (according to Tigerstar's Fury and Blackfoot's Reckoning). I headcanon that Ferncloud is named after her aunt Fernshade, too. Additionally, in the anthro AU, their story is a lot sadder but that's another story...

LongWind (Longtail x Runningwind) Childhood friends to almost-lovers! They're around the same age and would've definitely trained together. As mentioned in my HalfOne family tree post, they had a budding interest but it was cut short by Runningwind's death. Sad :(

IvyBreeze (Ivypool x Breezepelt) This one is just funny. "You wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid" kind of shit. Breezepelt would be fucking fuming over it because he doesn't want to be like his dad.

HalfDove (Half Moon x Dove's Wing) Another one that's mostly in the context of my rewrite! I'm imagining it's very one-sided since I also love HalfJay, but it's a very complicated thing where Jay's Wing is very focused on saving their colony and too scatterbrained to really put any serious commitment to Half Moon (something he tells her explicitly, but she pursues anyways). Dove's Wing is embarrassed of her crush and knows it was never meant to be, not only because she's a prophecy cat but also because Half Moon doesn't even like her that way.

IceApple (Icewing x Applefur) Another Dark Forest Trainee pairing! I have a lot of these because I got attached to them. Not my only Applefur ship but certainly one that's kinda fun to think about. I don't have much to say about these two sadly but I thought it was a cute idea that I could maybe build off of later.

MinnowMouse (Minnowtail x Mousewhisker) I don't actually think this one is that much of a rare pair, I've seen a lot of ppl talk about this but I was kinda running out of ideas since there's a lot of characters idgaf about sorry LOL anyways this one is based on a scene in Dark River and the fact they were both Dark Forest trainees in their adulthood.

[wc-confessions]

I hate Runningwind x Redtail viscerally. Have not seen a single piece of content for that ship which didn’t entirely, solely revolve around RunningRed being Sandstorm’s biological dads and Redtail giving birth to Sand because trans. As a trans person myself it just gives SUCH uncomfortable energy because while you can certainly have biokids while being trans as it’s entirely up to your own personal choice and comfort levels, the fact I HAVE NOT SEEN A SINGLE THING ABOUT RUNNINGRED REMOVED FROM THEM BEING SANDSTORMS BIOPARENTS EVER is weird and seems in very poor taste. For example even when people use Mothwing as the three’s biosire for MothPool, I at least see people adding tons of substance to both Mothwing and Leafpool’s relationship outside of the fact they have kids together. Meanwhile why is Sandstorm being biologically related to Redtail so important? Why is it the only thing ever mentioned or “relevant” about this ship? Why can’t Redtail just adopt Sandstorm and be equally valid? What does Runningwind specifically as the father add to any of this besides being an extraordinarily generic cis man who can conveniently sire Sand if Redtail is trans ftm? I literally have never seen another ship so greatly reduced to being a one-note fixation on “they are xyz’s biological parents” like this. If there are people who ship RunningRed and have literally any headcanons about them OUTSIDE of them being Sandstorm’s biological parents please tell me cause I’ve been in this fandom for 10+ years and not seen anything other than that mentioned once.

.

[cacw]

ive never seen anyone mention this before but dappletails kits look exactly like stormtails daughters and we know they have a history but the website family tree tries to pass them off as runningwinds. im not crazy

[mothmans-warriors-designs]

Dappletail's dead kits. I know the website says they're Runningwind's but that's stupid. Like, one of them is literally blue? Like Stormtail, the guy Dappletail was dating?

They gain the names Feathertuft and Cricketwing in StarClan

Born: Bluestar's Prophecy

First Appeared: A Dangerous Path (mentioned only, unnamed)

Died: Bluestar's Prophecy

Mother: Dappletail

Father: Stormtail

Half-Siblings: Bluestar, Snowstorm

[bonebabbles]

Tigerstar body count:

Redtail

Runningwind

Brindleface

Gorsepaw

Bluestar (last life)

Stonefur

Clear Sky body count:

Fox

Misty

Bumble

Rainswept Flower

I will charitably count every indirect death at the First Battle, an event which was 100% his fault, as only 1 (Falling Feather, Jackdaw's Cry, Hawk Swoop, Frost, Fircone, etc)

Micah

Tiny Branch (refused to let Acorn Fur get fully trained or fetch help until it was too late)

Willow Tail

Wind Runner (1 life)

I could also point out that Tom the Wifebeater, Moon Shadow, Storm, Petal, and Bright Stream died as a result of bad calls or terrible choices he made. Not to mention his long history of physical assault, abandonment of the disabled, and emotional abuse.

This is fine because the writers like him. "He just made some mistakes," but also he should totally forgive himself because it was always foretold and thus not really his fault

[once-a-kittypet]

Runningwind

First Mention: Into the Wild (chapter 13; page 158)

[redux-iterum]

I went to a warriors meetup today and barely stopped myself from mentioning things from quartz hearts canon in the same sentence as og warriors canon. What do you mean this worldbuilding isn’t real? What do you mean Goldenflower hasn’t actually adopted fireheart? Of course every single warriors fan will know this one fanfic I’m talking about bc I actually forgot it’s a fic and not just. True.

So this is really funny to me, and I have a confession to make: conceited as it is, I also sometimes forget that the stuff I and Lynx made up is not canon. I will see people talk about how Runningwind had no personality or something like that, and I'll go, "Who's Runningwind? Oh, right. No, he had a personality- oh. No. He didn't."

In my defense, I have avoided canon for a really long time because reading those books just makes me angry from how bad they are.

[canon-notcanon-warriorcats]

also, swiftpaw is in my re-write now, only in a completely different situation from canon, he's actually one of longtail's littermates who dies during the famine and sickness in thunderclan by chasing a quail across the thunderpath in desperation to feed his clan and especially his sick sister, quickpaw, but gets hit by a monster

so he's actually kind of swiftpaw, but with shrewpaw's fate meshed together since shrewpaw doesn't die as an apprentice in my re-write, the only reason why it's a quail instead of a pheasant is because it feels weird using the exact same prey as what happened with shrewpaw when that's the ONLY time the cats ever mention hunting pheasants (i think) so that would feel too... copying

also runningwind was his mentor and runningwind blames himself for swiftpaw's death because he's the one that told swiftpaw they had to catch this prey no matter what and he hadn't realized how close to the thunderpath they were, he tried to call him back, but it was too late

and that's why runningwind never gets another apprentice, he doesn't want one, he doesn't think he's a good mentor because he feels like he failed swiftpaw

[bonefall]

Now I'm curious, I need to know how many bloodlines are dead, like Bluestar's is just tragic

WELL, it's a question without a straight answer. Bluestar's bloodline isn't "dead" but it's not "alive" either. It's a secret third thing. I'm calling it Schrodinger's Bloodline in my head.

In RiverClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan, there's a "missing generation" gap in-between TPB and TNP where a ton of "Orphan Warriors" suddenly appear. For a series that's hypothetically supposed to have legacy as a major theme, in practice, only ThunderClan is allowed to remember their grandparents lmao. So that means that Reedwhisker COULD have had children... but we don't know.

The only direct lines that cross that Missing Generation Gap we have tracked outside of Thunder and Sky are;

The Palebird Line (Tallstar, Onestar, Heathertail)

The Hickorynose Line (Deadfoot, Sorrelshine, Whitetail. Completely absorbed by the Palebird line)

The Scorchwind Line (Rowanstar)

So, any other non-ThunderClan family tree that you can think of is "gone", or more accurately, in the Schrodinger's Bloodline box. Yellowfang's entire family is gone. Blackstar's family is gone. Crookedstar's family is gone.

The TRULY DEAD lines in Warrior Cats are within SkyClan and ThunderClan. And by the way it's INSANE how inbred SkyClan, The Kittypet Guys, became in less than 3 generations. It's AWFUL.

This is because the writers have a really bad habit of "quantity over quality" in terms of which cats they choose to "breed." They'll pick "super parents" in a generation, essentially, have them produce 4 - 7 kittens, and then choose 3 of them to become the parents of the next generation. Clovertail, Snowbird, Robinwing, Swiftbreeze... and basically they irrevocably fuck up the genetic diversity completely.

(and then they forget they did it and ignore their own shitty tree, because if they didn't, they would completely prevent shipping within several generations. Dustpelt being Ferncloud's uncle, Spottedleaf being Tigerclaw's aunt, Brightheart and Swiftpaw being 1st cousins, Thrushpelt being Thistleclaw's brother, all things the writers completely forget... if you treat canon like scripture, you'll eat yourself alive.)

But anyway, tangents aside, lines that are entirely dead within ThunderClan;

Thrushpelt, Dappletail. This little branch is dead.

Sunstar's line is dead

One-Eye's kits, Runningwind and Mousefur, had none of their own

Doestar's line is dead

Not to mention the orphan warriors. Hollypelt, Rockfall, Weedwhisker...

So, in a nutshell, the list of "living" lines is shorter than the list of 'dead' lines. This is because the lines in most side clans aren't tracked, and in Thunder and Sky, bloodlines bunch up through genetic bottlenecks like Adderswift/Robinfuzzy/Clovertail.

[t4twnyclaw]

i think i have many thoughts about a starless clan arc, and only ONE of them good. spoilers for the ENTIRE ARC below.

CONTEXT: ASC is the only arc that I actually followed from start to end, when I got into TBC and AVOS those arcs were already complete and I spoiled myself and had a general idea of the plot and characters of that arc. ASC is the first arc ever in the WC series that I followed from start to finish; and I finally understand when other WC fans mention forgotten character arcs/unfinished plot-lines and rushed endings because oh my god ASC had all of these issues.

first of all. the villain. Splashtail.

I'm not going to lie I really enjoyed him in STAR. He is no Hawkfrost or Brokenstar but his kit-stealing motivations in Star were actually really nice to see. If this side of him was explored earlier on , oe eluded to I wouldn't be as disappointed but the problem here is: that his character shift slipping into madness isn't as smooth as it could be, and I feel like this in the previous book as well, where he seemingly drops his 'nice guy' facade completely.

Tigerstar the First's spiral into evil and madness is done way better. He's depicted as a loyal abiet a bit ruthless warrior, and a respectful family man (He does genuinely care for his kids.) and then he spirals and ends up killing and threatening his clanmates in gruesome ways. (Leading dogs to Brindleface, just blindly killing Runningwind and Redtail, Gorsepaw. etc.)

But at the same time you can see why people follow him, and why SC was eager to elect him as leader. He actually shows leadership skills. He feeds SC, he's a *warrior*.

The way Splashtail's descent leaves ALOT to be desired. It sucks because I loved the Macbeth-like lens they try to spin with Curlfeather and Splashtail but it just ends up falling flat, to me. Splashtail is just some teenager with no charisma skills but he could've been written like Tigerstar 1.

Unfinished plots/Plotholes

While ranting and raving about Splashtail I remembered how in the earlier books, It seemed like He and Berryheart (and their supporters) had a plan together from the beginning. But then STAR comes around and Berryheart and Splashtail's plan seemed to just be...her joining him? merging SC and RC? It seemed like it was a bigger deal in the first few books but it just felt like it fell flat here. Was their plan to try and vote Tigerstar 2 out of his position?

Tree specifically is mentioned twice, having to mediate the SC invading RC situation and both times I'm pretty sure we don't get a follow-up. And he seemingly did a bad job because RC still is really really, hostile against SC. So...Maybe he shouldn't be a mediator if he can't even mediate...correctly?

Leaders can be 'voted' out yet RC doesn't do this with Splashtail when he threatens kittens and obviously doesn't have the best interest in mind anymore.

One of the first lines Nightheart has is about Leadership being fluid, and being a shared responsibility between a few cats. In STAR, RC does just this when Splashtail is killed, even having two representatives during a gathering. I don't understand why RC just tried to disband instead of trying this out...

In STAR Sparrowtail has a conversation about family vs clan duties to Tigerstar 2. as if Tigerstar 2 doesn't CONSTANTLY put his family above his clan.

In STAR Frostpaw acts like she's never heard or seen of Leopardstar but...isn't Leopardstar the first Starclan cat she ever sees.

When Nightheart returns to TC It's implied Finchlight knows what heartbreak feels like, in regards to romantic love. WHO DID SHE LIKE...

Things I liked

Frostpaw, that's it. Frostpaw's POV actually carried this entire ARC. Even in TBC Bristlefrost and Rootspring's POV's may have dragged a bit (especially Rootpsrings) But they still contributed to the plot and characters greatly. Here, Nightheart and Sunbeam POV's mostly involve just each other and their feelings for each other to the point I think, it's obsessive.

I liked the warrior code changes, and I liked seeing Berryheart try to get Tigerstar 2 demoted, even if it was disappointing to actually witness and see play out.

I REALLY loved the names Splashtail gave Mistpaw and Greypaw. and I really like the idea of leaders giving new names as a punishment-of sorts. It reminds me of the cruel names from the first ARC.

I loved the relationship between parents and how that effects Frostpaw and Sunbeam. I wish we actually had more content of Lightleap and her parents, maybe to see how that effects her but whatever...

final thoughts

Sunbeams relationship with Nightheart wasn't anything new I really wanted to see her interact more with Lightleap and her family. Just, overall having Sunbeam STAY in SC instead of *immediately* joining TC would've been better. We have had all these arcs in TC's POV and just having Sunbeam stay in SC would've been SO MUCH BETTER!!!!

Having her realize she loves SC's territory and wants her kits to experience what she experienced so in the 2 month timeskip she and Nightheart move to SC instead would've sufficed.

overall. maybe a 4/10. and that 4 is completely from Frostpaw.

[cleverpelt]

does anyone else spend like, an inordinate amount of time thinking about sandstorm's parents.

like obviously no one in into the wild was created with a family tree in mind, but it's funny how her and nightcloud are like, the only two quite prominent characters to never have their family mentioned

general fandom belief was that her parents were brindleface and redtail (and i think that was treated as canon i seem to remember it being on the wiki??) but when redtail's debt released it didn't bring that up at all. probably because it released the same day as the first book in the broken code and it would be a very bad idea to highlight that ashfur and sandstorm are half siblings riiiight before the imposter arc.

and there's like, no one who can feasibly be her mom?? dustpelt and ravenpaw being robinwing's kits is already a huge stretch (and one i ignore) but it's even worse for sandstorm. like, of all the potential mothers in thunderclan:

-bluestar: it's very obviously not bluestar for infinite reasons.

-mousefur: even though she's retconned into being a lot older than she appears in into the wild, she's described as being young, too young to have a kid sandpaw's age. also it would suck to have one of the few female characters who never takes a mate or has children be retconned into being a mom the whole time

-willowpelt: absolutely not. you make her sorreltail and graystripe's half sister. decimates the gene pool.

-frostfur: even worse than willowpelt. the most terrible decision ever made in this series was making frostfur and brindleface littermates, and then making brightheart, brackenfur, and thornclaw siblings

-spottedleaf: lol

-goldenflower: same problem as brindleface. now brambleclaw is squirrelstar's uncle

-speckletail: makes her half siblings with lionheart and goldenflower. yucky!

-one-eye: this, through the power of retcons, now makes her COUSINS with lionheart and goldenflower! also one-eye is described as the oldest cat in thunderclan in book 1, despite bluestar's prophecy making that dappletail, halftail, or smallear.

thus we get my only two options, also elders, really:

-dappletail: we know she had kits that died young. we're told the father is runningwind, even though a) she and stormtail are heavily implied to be together, despite not having kittens and b) runningwind is the son of her foster sister. that's how much older she is. gene-wise, she's alright. her parents don't have any relations and neither of her brothers have kits (making tawnyspots and thrushpelt littermates was an awful move, though). if runningwind is sandpaw's dad, she's still related to brambleclaw and all of frost/lion's kits. i think making her stormtail and dappletail's kit is a cool story idea. it regrettably makes her related to whitestorm (and thus sorreltail's kits, and ferncloud's too if you subscribe to that retcon, which i don't), but i think it would be cool for her to be half-siblings with bluestar. if stormtail was anything like he was with his first litter, she wouldn't even know.

-rosetail: it was always kinda sad that she was so obsessed with romance and mates and never had one of her own! it doesn't matter who the father is (it would be better for it to be a loner probably), and yes, THIS STILL MEANS SANDPAW IS RELATED TO WHITESTORM, but we're running out of options, mate. the first series mentions that bluestar frequently visits the nursery (and that she stops after tigerstar's betrayal), so i think it would be sweet for her to take a special interest in rosetail's kits.

in conclusion, sandpaw simply manifested in camp one day, and no one could get her to leave

[wc-confessions]

I really dislike when people enforce the idea that male torties are impossible when that genetically isn’t the case, chimera cats can be male torties and simultaneously be able to sire kits. Also while I certainly enjoy transmasc male tortie headcanons like Sol and Redtail I see people make it weird more often than not. The idea of unconditionally being “able to tell” someone is trans just because of their appearance is uncomfortable stereotyping. Not to mention back before Sandstorm being Redtail’s daughter was retconned out, the amount of people making him have kits with Runningwind for the sole purpose of allowing him being Sandstorm’s biodad to “make sense” felt gross. It feels like potential agender or nonbinary erasure too, as why can’t tortie toms have these identities as well? I guess all I’m saying is I wish people wouldn’t blanket statement all male torties oc or canonical and just treat them like any other character, having an equal chance to maybe or maybe not be trans, same as any other identity.

Anyway trans mtf Sorreltail is my favorite <3

.

[theanoninyourinbox]

Thinking about my MLP x WC crossover…

Ah My Little Warriors, how I miss thee…maybe send me some characters I haven’t drawn yet?

I’ve drawn Moonpaw, Curlfeather, Sandstorm, Leafpool, Crowfeather, The Three, Squirrelflight/star, Firestar, Violetshine, Twigbranch, Dawnpelt, Dovewing, Ivypool, Tigerclawstar, Bloomheart, Blackstar, Runningwind and his OC rescuer Poppy Knitter, Brightheart and Cloudtail, Snowtuft (redoing him he looks so bad), Spottedleaf, and Mapleshade!

We’ve heard mention of Redtail and Bluestar and Rowanclawstar (Scarlet Mane a Deputy, Former mayor Frosted Star, and photographer Happy Daze respectively) and Whitewing and Birchfall (White Wing and Birch Branch) and Appledusk and Reedshine (Apple Seed and River Reed) and Bramblestar (Bramble Horn), but no art of them so they are requestable!

And they can be ponies, griffins, hypogriffs, zebras, zonies, diamond dogs, Abyssinians (I think that’s what they’re called), changelings, kirins, and sea ponies!