Hello! Not really a true reaction but I just have some comments on the chapter. This will be broken up into three parts, Thoughts, Theories, and End Note. - THOUGHTS - I absolutely loved this chapter, so you will hear my ramblings as to why. First of all, I love the way grief is portrayed. Often a lot of deaths that happen in stories are in battle or other fast acts. This means that the audience sees the death and how people react in the moment, but in these types of stories the sadness is often quickly moved on from and/or not really talked about. The fact that we don’t see Mistkit die but see the larger effects that his absence left behind is so satisfying, especially in a fandom like Warriors that is focused a lot around battle and war. I also really like how the entire clan mourns the kitten’s loss. In the real books and in a lot of fanfiction I read I mostly just see the immediate family and friends grieving, but seeing the entire clan go into mourning like this really drives home the fact they are a close knit community and not just a bunch of roommates. Also the types of grief. No one feels the same feelings the same way, and we get a lot of representation of that here. Cherrypaw mourning in a ‘traditional’ sense, being sad, sullen, and losing his appetite. Hazepaw has what I would call a savior complex. I’m no psychologist, obviously, but from my understanding she feels a need to be perfect and save everybody. When she can’t do that, she consider’s giving up being a medic. I think that this is a realistic type of grief for a young individual, especially because she is shown to be competitive. Adderpaw seems to be really protective of those they care about now. They try to get Cherrypaw to eat and try to organize patrols to feed the rest of the clan. This grief seems similar to Haze’s, but slightly more achievable; Adder doesn’t need to be perfect, she just needs to do her best to save those she cares about. Despite all of this mothering and caring though, I truly think Adder is hiding her true grief deep down, but she feels the need to stay strong for the others. Featherstar, from the few panels we see of her, seems enraged. Rage could be her true base emotion hidden by all of that fake sweetness, or perhaps she just refuses to be ‘weak’ and cry. We really don’t have enough information to know. We haven’t seen much of Goldenpaw’s grief, but I think he is coping similar to Adderpaw, like how he follows his sister out into the woods and tries to comfort her. I know I’m just saying it in a long-winded way, but I do really like how realistic their sadness feels. Honestly, the only real critique I have for the chapter is that it left me feeling blue for a bit after reading it. I had really grown close to these characters, and it was depressing to see them have to deal with all this. - THEORIES - I’m honestly really excited for the upcoming chapters, even if my theories aren’t correct. We haven’t really seen how the Shadowclan protagonists react to internal struggles, and I think it’ll be fun to see how they cope with all of this. I have a few ideas: I believe that Adderpaw is going to get an earful from Featherstar. Though they might feel slightly bad, they might also get mad back as they feel they were justified in asking for a patrol to be organized. This might end with them going on a solo hunting mission against Feather’s orders, and maybe even finding themself on the Skyclan border. Who will Adder find there other than OJ. I believe this is where Adderpaw’s villain/anti-villain/anti-hero arc will start, with her perhaps getting secret training from OJ. Adderpaw might think this is a way to keep her friends safe from danger or death, which is her way of mourning. I also really want to get a smidgen more lore from this interaction, but Meadow did say EA was going slow, so I won’t get my hopes up too much. My next theory has to go with Hazepaw. No one really blames her for not saving Mistkit, but she still feels absolutely horrible. She runs out of camp, intent on getting some fresh air, and she finds herself back to Cobweb’s house. There she finds someone she can vent to without any judgement, and I believe they’ll begin to be better friends. Perhaps, there will also be a bit of romance? :> Well, only time will tell. - END NOTE - Wowie, it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted a theory. I know I don’t have a schedule or anything, but I do try to upload semi-consistently, so sorry about that. Honestly, school and extracurricular have just been killing me recently, which drains both my motivation and the time I have to work on theories. The other thing is that I think I may be kind of running dry on theories. There are very few cracks in the lore that I haven’t already tried filling in. Don’t worry, I do still have a few cards up my sleeves, but I’d need a new major lore drop to really get some new ideas. This is honestly why I’m so excited for the next EA with Music.
Anyway, thanks for reading and goodbye :D Credit to @Meadowfoot_ToPH for characters, story, and art
