Zippy and I have wrapped up the third Warrior Cats arc, Power of Three.  Another clean arc for ShadowClan – their only sins this arc were falling under the sway of a cult leader in book 4/5 and some trespassing in the first few books.

This arc has three PoV characters – Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf (“the Three”) – who are the children of two of the second arc’s protagonists (Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw) and, therefore, the grandchildren of the first arc’s primary protagonist and its primary antagonist (Firestar and Tigerstar, respectively.)  As Firestar’s grandchildren, they fulfill the requirements of a prophecy given to Firestar in the extra-arc Super Edition book Firestar’s Quest, namely “there will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.”

The three PoV characters are one of the major strengths of this arc: the first arc’s PoV character Firestar didn’t really have much of a character and the second arc switched PoVs way too often.  Jayfeather is blind and has a massive chip on his shoulder over it – he wants nothing in the world more than to be a warrior, but because being able to see is kind of important in combat, he’s stuck being a medicine cat.  Lionblaze wants to be the best fighter there ever was to the point where he starts training in his dreams with the spirits of his dead evil granddad and his dead evil uncle.  And Hollyleaf seemingly loves the warrior code more than life itself and wants nothing more than to be a clan leader one day.

The Three learn about the prophecy they fulfill in the first book, so the arc is mainly the three of them getting into various misadventures as they try and figure out what the prophecy means for them.  Jayfeather discovers that he can commune with StarClan and enter other cats’ dreams.  Lionblaze gets involved in a forbidden romance with a cat from WindClan, cuts it off, and then regrets doing so for the rest of the arc.  Hollyleaf realizes a seemingly imminent battle between WindClan and ThunderClan is based on nothing but unfounded rumor, so she goes to resolve the situation personally.  The three of them all go on a journey with the surviving members of the adventuring party from the first half of the previous arc to help some mountain cats who are beset by outsiders.  A cult leader takes over ShadowClan, so the Three fabricate a sign from StarClan to get ShadowClan back on board with the true faith.

Then, everything kind of goes to shit.  Ashfur, who was the third leg of last arc’s love triangle along with the Three’s parents, tries to kill the Three in front of their mother Squirrelflight because he’s bitter about being rejected and wants to make her suffer.  Squirrelflight saves the three by revealing that the three are not her children after all.  Ashfur buys this but threatens to reveal Squirrelflight’s secret to the whole clan before being found dead in a creek.  The final book then turns into a murder-mystery-cum-suspense-thriller: the Three are desperate to find out who their real parents are, but also to hide the truth of their parentage from the rest of the clan.  They eventually figure out that their real mother is Leafpool, the clan’s medicine cat, which is a huge problem because 1. medicine cats are supposed to remain celibate, and 2. the Three’s father must be WindClan’s Crowfeather, making the Three half-clan. Hollyleaf, who, as previously mentioned, is obsessed with the warrior code, goes to confront Leafpool about this, but Leafpool then hits us with the shocking reveal that Hollyleaf is Ashfur’s murderer, and she knows it.  This leads Hollyleaf to lose it completely – at the next Gathering (basically the cat UN) she reveals the truth of her and her siblings’ parentage to all present, then she tries to force Leafpool to commit suicide for the crime of breaking the warrior code, then she runs away and is killed by a collapsing tunnel.  The arc ends with Jayfeather and Lionblaze reflecting on the prophecy – at first, they conclude that they couldn’t have been the prophesied cats, but then they realize that 1. the two of them still fit the conditions of the prophecy as Leafpool is also Firestar’s daughter, and 2. They aren’t the only “kin of [Firestar’s] kin,” and his nephew’s daughter just birthed two kits…

This arc is suffused with an atmosphere of malaise – this feeling that things suck, and they will only ever get worse.  Victories are few and fleeting.  Hollyleaf may have prevented a massive battle from happening for no reason, but in the next book a massive battle happens for no reason anyway.  The Clan cats did help the mountain cats defend their territory from outsiders, but it’s obvious that it’s not a long-term solution.  Lionblaze may have done right by the warrior code by breaking off his forbidden cross-clan friendship/romance, but he regrets it for the rest of the arc. StarClan repeatedly refuses to help Jayfeather with anything, no matter how much he begs.  Hollyleaf kills to keep her parentage secret, then within a month reveals it to everyone.  And poor Leafpool – she gave up the only cat she ever loved, she gave up her children, she lived a lie for moons, and what does she get for her trouble?  She loses her position as medicine cat, the father of her children hates her guts, and her own daughter tries to force her to kill herself.  Absolutely brutal.  I love it.

Some other points that might make for an interesting discussion would be the role of disability in Warriors (Jayfeather is not the first disabled character in the series, but he’s the first disabled PoV character) and the franchise’s weirdly pro-monarchy overtones but I’ll save those discussions for another time.

Overall: Power of Three is the best Warriors arc so far.  The characters are strong, the atmosphere is great, and the drama is interesting.  Hopefully the upward trend continues in the next arc, Omen of the Stars…

Originally posted 5/5/2025