Post by Oakley on Jul 27, 2018 11:36:39 GMT
Bandido 's post about Scourge in the thread about character screen-time inspired me to write a thread about the villains of the series.
Tigerstar wasn't terrible (as far as writing goes). He had a clear goal with a common motivation that anyone can relate to in some way or another: Power. I was never much of a fan of Tigerstar, but even through all of his flaws, he was loyal to ThunderClan during his warrior days and he was undoubtedly charismatic and clever. Leading a dog pack to the Clan? Smart. Setting up the trap for Bluestar that Cinderpelt fell into? Also pretty good.
Tigerstar's back story was decent, especially if one reads Bluestar's Prophecy and, though I haven't read these, I know Pinestar's Choice and Goosefeather's Curse contain more development on this. Part of me always liked Goosefeather knowing that Tigerkit would grow to be this menace (the other part rolls her eyes because she can't stand the fact that StarClan is so inconsistent, but that's a discussion for another thread).
As I'm writing this, I'm trying to think of all the other villains I know of. Hawkfrost, minus his tension with Brambleclaw, was more or less forgettable. I've given my views on Scourge in the other thread. Sol was charismatic and impressive, but I'm not sure what his goal was? It's been five or so years since I read that arc, but if I remember right, he was just angry because he'd been kicked out of SkyClan (though I don't think that was explained in the main series)?
Mapleshade was interesting, but she's another that could've used more backstory. I was reading a thread somewhere else about her, and one person wrote that they felt she should've had a super edition for the readers to explore more than the short lead-up to her breaking point. I never bothered to read her novella because I had the summary and didn't felt any pull to it, but had they written a super edition going further into her background, I totally would've picked it up.
Now, to my favorite: Clear Sky. I've only read up through the third book of Dawn of the Clans, so my impressions of him aren't fully developed.
Spoilers for the first half of DotC:
I loved that Clear Sky's motivation was fear. It's so primal and raw. At first, I thought he was just distancing himself and trying to be a good leader, though I felt as though he was failing a bit. Given the situation with Storm and Thunder's short time in CS's group, it seemed that he was being a dick to his own cats out of a desire to be controlling and all-powerful.
While I'm still fairly sure that Clear Sky is controlling and power-hungry by nature, by the time I finished the third book I could totally see where that fear was coming in and how it implemented itself in his personality. I loved reading from his perspective, too: Seeing what his thoughts and feelings were, learning that he had a million doubts he could never voice, and understanding that he really didn't get why Thunder wouldn't stay with him. It was great to see a Warriors villain's PoV.
Tigerstar wasn't terrible (as far as writing goes). He had a clear goal with a common motivation that anyone can relate to in some way or another: Power. I was never much of a fan of Tigerstar, but even through all of his flaws, he was loyal to ThunderClan during his warrior days and he was undoubtedly charismatic and clever. Leading a dog pack to the Clan? Smart. Setting up the trap for Bluestar that Cinderpelt fell into? Also pretty good.
Tigerstar's back story was decent, especially if one reads Bluestar's Prophecy and, though I haven't read these, I know Pinestar's Choice and Goosefeather's Curse contain more development on this. Part of me always liked Goosefeather knowing that Tigerkit would grow to be this menace (the other part rolls her eyes because she can't stand the fact that StarClan is so inconsistent, but that's a discussion for another thread).
As I'm writing this, I'm trying to think of all the other villains I know of. Hawkfrost, minus his tension with Brambleclaw, was more or less forgettable. I've given my views on Scourge in the other thread. Sol was charismatic and impressive, but I'm not sure what his goal was? It's been five or so years since I read that arc, but if I remember right, he was just angry because he'd been kicked out of SkyClan (though I don't think that was explained in the main series)?
Mapleshade was interesting, but she's another that could've used more backstory. I was reading a thread somewhere else about her, and one person wrote that they felt she should've had a super edition for the readers to explore more than the short lead-up to her breaking point. I never bothered to read her novella because I had the summary and didn't felt any pull to it, but had they written a super edition going further into her background, I totally would've picked it up.
Now, to my favorite: Clear Sky. I've only read up through the third book of Dawn of the Clans, so my impressions of him aren't fully developed.
Spoilers for the first half of DotC:
I loved that Clear Sky's motivation was fear. It's so primal and raw. At first, I thought he was just distancing himself and trying to be a good leader, though I felt as though he was failing a bit. Given the situation with Storm and Thunder's short time in CS's group, it seemed that he was being a dick to his own cats out of a desire to be controlling and all-powerful.
While I'm still fairly sure that Clear Sky is controlling and power-hungry by nature, by the time I finished the third book I could totally see where that fear was coming in and how it implemented itself in his personality. I loved reading from his perspective, too: Seeing what his thoughts and feelings were, learning that he had a million doubts he could never voice, and understanding that he really didn't get why Thunder wouldn't stay with him. It was great to see a Warriors villain's PoV.
