#okay I’m done rambling abt turtles

[wormspoodle]

drew more a’ ma fav

[goosemixtapes]

okay one more post and i will be DONE talking about dawn of the clans but like. the more i think about it, it’s really underwhelming. gonna make bullet points bc this came out as a block of text ghdnfkdsfs but

to be fair, i’ve only read the first 4 books (and i barely remember the fourth one) but like... the clan lore was built up to be so dramatic and arcane, and dawn of the clans kind of... makes it a lot less exciting? like, the “great battle” originally was written as something almost fated to happen, the only way the rising tension could end, and then it turned out to be easily avoidable but for clear sky’s BS. 

the clan founders were made out to be the strongest cats in the area, powerhouses who cared for themselves only and didn’t know each other, and then the erins just made basically more clans of cats who already had a history.

and like. afaik they didn’t even explain how the whole convoluted naming/ranking system came out? like i was expecting some conscious choice to use -kit, -paw, etc etc, but there’s no consistency. turtle tail and gray wing, both cats who grew up in the mountains with a two-part name system, name thunder just “thunder.” but then a book later they give wind and gorse suffixes to match the two-part name system. wind runner just out of nowhere names a kit emberkit, with no explanation.

like HOW cool would it have been to see cats who don’t know each other at all be coerced together by spirits! how cool would it have been to see total strangers learn to live together and not only live but thrive, and make up their own entire government system!!! how rad would that have been! imagine the found family vibes! they could have easily made 6 books out of dozens of loners/rogues becoming five distinct clans + all the roughness that entails

but we didn’t get that. :pensive:

also like. not to be negative but the books are straight up just not that good. like, wc does really really well with villains, but clear sky is the closest thing the first half of this arc has to a villain, and they don’t utilize him all that well. the first two books especially are just like... long rambling plots w/o a lot of cohesiveness. thunder rising is literally 300 pages of buildup to basically nothing.

AND. wrt the last post i reblogged. there’s some gross stuff in there! bumble, an abuse victim, comes to the hollow for help and the other cats send her away because “she’s too fat and lazy to be a wild cat.” and you think, ah, well, is this going to be a lesson about judging people? but it literally isn’t. even when bumble is KILLED alone in the wild, no one expresses regret for her death. gray wing literally says “she wouldn’t have survived here anyway” to comfort turtle tail (or smthn like that) and she says “i know” even though bumble was HER BEST FRIEND LIKE. HELLO?

also like. maybe i’m biased bc i grew up w/ all the cats from the original arc but the characters just aren’t as interesting. stan turtle tail. stan bumble. stan river ripple. i tentatively like tall shadow and gray wing (when the latter isn’t being nasty). i love to hate clear sky. thats kind of it i don’t really... care about anyone else?

GOD THIS POST IS SO LONG IM SO FUCKING SORRY. I HAVE A LOT OF OPINIONS ABT THESE CAT BOOKS