This past week in Warriors: catching up on Super Editions. Let’s see what we have…
SkyClan’s Destiny
This Super Edition acts as a direct sequel to Firestar’s Quest and focuses on Leafstar, the leader of SkyClan. This is a very episodic book – it’s mostly a series of vignettes and incidents set in the early days of the reformed SkyClan. The main conflict is between self-styled “full clan” cats – cats who live with the clan full time – and so-called “daylight warriors” – kittypets who are members of the clan during the day but go home to their owners at night. Leafstar butts heads with her deputy, Sharpclaw over his poor treatment of the daylight warriors. Some loners appear and join SkyClan. There’s a fight with some rats. The SkyClan cats concoct a Scooby-Doo-ass scheme to spook a local twoleg (human) into not being an animal abuser. Leafstar gets into a Not Really Forbidden but Definitely Frowned Upon Romance with daylight warrior Billystorm, but she thinks they can’t be together because 1. He’s a daylight warrior, and 2. She’s a clan leader which she thinks means she can’t have kits. The SkyClan cats assist in the rescue of a twoleg kit (human child) who fell into a gorge. The SkyClan cats go on a journey to help the rogues that joined them earlier drive out a meaner group of rogues. Finally, confident in her judgement and leadership abilities, Leafstar puts Sharpclaw in his place (which he takes very well,) decides to pursue her relationship with Billyclaw, and commits SkyClan to always be welcoming to outsiders.
I like SkyClan because they draw into contrast how dogmatic the four main clans are with their interpretation of the Warrior Code. The existence of daylight warriors is a direct rejection of Code 15 (“A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet”) [yes, the codes are numbered – see Field Guide “Code of the Clans”] and many of the other codes just don’t apply to SkyClan’s situation because they refer to other clans, and SkyClan doesn’t have any other local clans. And yet despite their somewhat lax attitude towards the Warrior Code, SkyClan does just fine and StarClan doesn’t seem to care. The cats in the four main clans have this tendency to take for granted the wisdom of StarClan and by extension the Warrior Code, but StarClan is just a group of non-villainous warrior ancestors who are presumably as fallible in death as they were in life, and the Warrior Code is just a collection of precepts that were developed over time by living cats to address issues in clan society (again, see Field Guide “Code of the Clans.”) It’s a utilitarian ruleset, not a deontological one, and it’s refreshing to see a clan treat it as such.
The idea that “a she-cat clan leader can’t have kits” shows up here for the second Super Edition in a row. The fact that both Bluestar and Leafstar independently have this weird hangup independent of the Warrior Code leads me to believe that there might be something to it – that it reflects real sexism present in clan society. It doesn’t _entirely_ make sense here – Bluestar at least had to worry about getting appointed to deputy in the first place, but Leafstar, my sister in StarClan, you have been anointed by your warrior ancestors as an absolute monarch whose word is law (Code 13) – who’s going to stop you?
Unfortunately, the book itself is middling – not the worst Warriors has to offer but far from its best.
Crookedstar’s Promise
Crookedstar was the leader of RiverClan for most of the first arc and this Super Edition acts as his biography. Stormkit and his littermate Oakkit get into various hijinks until one day Stormkit smashes his face on a rock and breaks his jaw, which heals crooked. Because he is disfigured, Stormkit’s mother Rainflower is ashamed of him and starts treating him with unconscionable cruelty, making him sleep separately from her in the nursery and forcing the clan leader to change his name to Crookedkit. Rainflower’s treatment of Crookedkit causes her mate Shellheart to cat-divorce her, which of course Crookedkit thinks is his fault. When his brother is made an apprentice and he isn’t, Crookedkit runs away for several moons before coming back, further delaying his apprenticeship. Despondent over his destiny, he is visited in his dreams by friendly spirit cat and surrogate mother figure Mapleshade, whom he presumes is from StarClan but of course we (and anyone who’s been reading the books in release order) know better. Mapleshade tells him that she’ll make him her apprentice and her tutelage will make him clan leader one day – all he has to do is promise her that he will always put his clan first, above all other things. Crookedkit sees nothing wrong with making a pact with a mysterious magical being who is offering him everything he’s ever wanted, so he agrees.
Crookedkit becomes an apprentice and eventually a warrior, taking the name Crookedjaw. Two minor characters have a Forbidden Romance and their kits become subject to a custody dispute between clans. ThunderClan and RiverClan fight over Sunningrocks. Crookedjaw starts a relationship with Willowbreeze, which isn’t really forbidden but Mapleshade isn’t happy about it (“a mate will only hold you back” or something.) Abusive mother Rainflower dies and Crookedjaw laments that he’ll never be able to make her proud of him. His father Shellheart retires as clan deputy and Mapleshade engineers an omen gets Crookedjaw appointed in as deputy. She then reveals to Crookedjaw that she’s a Dark Forest cat and therefore evil (gasp!) and that his earlier promise (i.e., to always put his clan first) has given her the power to make him lose everyone he loves.
Shortly afterwards, Shellheart dies of what is presumably stomach cancer, followed closely by the old clan leader, leaving the now-Crookedstar clan leader. His mate Willowbreeze gives birth to three kits, but she and two of the kits die. Distraught, Crookedstar goes to the Dark Forest to fight Mapleshade; he loses, but instead of killing him, she reveals her cool-ass backstory in a four-paragraph long monologue: she was a ThunderClan cat who had a Forbidden Romance with a RiverClan cat; said Forbidden Romance caused her to be cast out of ThunderClan; RiverClan refused to take her in and her kits died; and then her forbidden mate left her and sired one of Crookedstar’s ancestors with a different she-cat. Ergo, her whole motivation is vengeance against her ex-lover’s bloodline. Crookedstar then keeps distant from his sole surviving daughter Silverkit for fear of losing her if he gets too close until his brother Oakheart points out that he’s behaving a lot like their abusive mother, and the book ends with Crookedstar finally introducing himself to Silverkit. On a side note, both of Crookedstar’s close surviving family members would predecease him: Oakheart is killed offscreen in like Chapter 2 of the first book, and Silverstream (née Silverkit) dies in childbirth in the third book after taking part in the series’ very first Forbidden Romance.
There is so much to like about this book. The plot, pacing, and atmosphere are on point. One of the ghostwriters once cited Shakespeare as an inspiration and with the tragic character of this book I can see why. It hits that perfect ratio of melodrama to sincerity that I find in all my favorite pulp fiction. The sense of malaise that I loved so much in Power of Three is all over this book: ThunderClan and RiverClan are constantly fighting over Sunningrocks not because it’s a valuable piece of territory, but because they’ve been fighting over it for generations. It covers much of the same period as Bluestar’s Prophecy and even contains some of the same scenes from Crookedstar’s perspective, Rashomon-style, which is fun – at their first meeting, Bluestar thinks Crookedstar is a cool rebel while Crookedstar thinks Bluestar is total dumbass.
Mapleshade continues to be an icon. She is the Platonic ideal of what a Dark Forest cat should be – a malevolent, manipulative evil spirit, rather than a ghost that can just materialize and punch you in the face. It’s stated by both Mapleshade and a medicine cat late in the book that Crookedstar’s destiny was set long before he was born, which implies that he would have become deputy and clan leader even without Mapleshade’s machinations. It’s also not clear if Mapleshade is actually responsible for the deaths of any of Crookedstar’s loved ones – sure, she says she is, but did she really give Shellheart cancer? If we assume that Mapleshade didn’t have any power over Crookedstar’s destiny and she didn’t directly kill any of his loved ones, then that implies her entire evil plan was simply to torment Crookedstar by convincing him that the deaths of his loved ones were his fault. That’s the kind of subtle villainy I can really get behind.
Overall, a very solid Super Edition that shows Warriors can still be great when it gets out of its own way.
Yellowfang’s Secret
“Who’s Yellowfang?” I hear you cry. Well, Yellowfang was one of the best characters in the first arc – crotchety old lady-coded character, exiled ShadowClan medicine cat who joins ThunderClan and becomes Firepaw/heart/star’s surrogate mother figure, has some quotes that go incredibly hard, dies in the climax of book 4, and later shows up frequently in visions as a StarClan cat. Unsurprisingly, this is another biography-style Super Edition that follows Yellowfang from birth through the beginning of the first arc. Much of the first half of the book follows her training as a ShadowClan warrior and her romance with Raggedpelt, whose main character trait is his serious daddy issues. Yellowfang has the superpower of being able to feel other cats’ pain, which convinces medicine cat Sagewhisker that she’s destined to become a medicine cat. Yellowfang refuses to accept this because she wants to be a warrior and doesn’t want to break up with Raggedpelt, but she relents when she realizes that her power makes her useless in battle. She and Raggedpelt carry on in secret during her medicine cat apprenticeship, but she breaks things off when she becomes a full medicine cat to avoid any Forbidden Romance-related tragedy. Unfortunately, at that point she’s already pregnant with his kits. Two of her three kits are stillborn, the third (Brokenkit) Raggedpelt accepts as his son (although the mother is kept secret from the rest of the clan.)
Despite Yellowfang doing everything she can to be a mother for Brokenkit/paw/tail without revealing herself as his mother, he grows up into an arrogant and cruel warrior with no regard for the Warrior Code. When the clan leader dies, Raggedpelt ascends to leadership as Raggedstar and goes through two deputies in quick succession before appointing Brokentail as his deputy. Raggedstar then dies under mysterious circumstances (aka he’s murdered by his evil son) and Brokentail ascends to leadership as Brokenstar. Brokenstar then speedruns breaking as many rules of the Warrior Code as possible: cutting Social Security (exiling the elders, leaving them to fend for themselves – breaks Code 3,) appointing an invalid deputy (breaks Code 9) and, worst of all, apprenticing kits younger than six moons (breaks Code 5 and arguably Code 12.) When his policies of warmongering and using child soldiers predictably result in child casualties, Yellowfang confronts Brokenstar and threatens to have StarClan take away his extra lives (which I’m pretty sure they can’t actually do, but whatever.) Brokenstar responds by murdering two more children, pinning it on Yellowfang, and using it as a pretense to kick her out of ShadowClan. Despondent and suicidal, Yellowfang wanders into ThunderClan territory, loses a fight to arc 1 protagonist Firepaw, whose pure main character energy restores her will to keep living until she does something to stop her Obviously Evil son…
The adjective I would use to describe Yellowfang’s Secret is “unnecessary.” Yellowfang’s backstory was already a major plot point in the first arc, so we already knew the most dramatic parts (the framed for child murder, Forbidden Romance & Brokenstar stuff.) Her empathetic superpowers are a new addition in this book, but they don’t really add much. We see her relationship with Runningnose, her successor as ShadowClan’s medicine cat – I like him but he’s a minor character and they rarely interact in the main series. We get some backstory on Nightpelt, interim ShadowClan leader between Brokenstar and Tigerstar, which is interesting. Brokenstar is just Obviously Evil, which is entirely consistent with his depiction in arc 1 and as a Dark Forest cat in Omen of the Stars. Raggedstar really gets the short end of the stick in terms of characterization – in the main series he seems to be remembered fondly by all, but in this book he’s just the worst. He…
- Has major daddy issues that he simply refuses to work on
- Throws a fit when Yellowfang breaks up with him to be a nun
- Bans Yellowfang from ever revealing to Brokenkit that she’s his mother
- Starts ignoring Yellowfang entirely once Brokenkit is born
- Acts like Brokentail being Obviously Evil is somehow Yellowfang’s fault even though he refused to let her parent him
- Tells Brokentail off once and is convinced that’s enough to stop him from being evil when all it does is make him angrier
The fact that there’s any competition for who the worst character is in a book where Brokenstar LARPs as Joseph Kony is telling.
Like I said, this entire book feels extraneous. It’s not bad per se, it just doesn’t really add much to the cool Yellowfang stuff in the first arc, but at least it doesn’t detract from it either.
Conclusion
I understand Super Editions have a reputation for being spotty, and I can see why. My ranking so far:
- Crookedstar’s Promise (by a mile – probably the best Warriors book so far, period)
- Bluestar’s Prophecy
- Yellowfang’s Secret
- SkyClan’s Destiny
- Firestar’s Quest
Now that I’m up to date with the Super Editions, I’m free to continue with the next main series arc, Dawn of the Clans. The prequel Super Editions were spotty – will the prequel arc be any more consistent? Stay tuned…
Originally posted 5/23/2025
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