istg why did this take 10 hours OH MY GOSH 20 YEARS OF BATTLE CATS BAYBEE I mean I've starting reading the books on the very ipad I made this animation on today, around the beginning of the pandemic. I kid you not, I thought Into The Wild was gonna be the oddest thing I ever read, and here I am almost three years later still reading the religious murder cat cult books. Not trying to take you on a whole journey, but um I'm going on a rant here so- I have this fuzzy memory from about..maybe the end of third grade or beginning of fourth, I was peaking on my excitement for Wings of Fire. Mind you, this was the year 2020, so I had too much free time. I was literally reading Tui's blog and waiting for A Dangerous Gift with glee. The audiobooks I really only listened to when I did schoolwork, and I needed entertainment so what did I read? Brina the Cat of course. I finished that and really wanted to find the second one. It was released that September but guess which book website that now has a sign in requirement didn't have it? No other than getepic.com.
With that, the third one isn't coming until next year, I still haven't read #2, and I no longer use epic. I needed something to fill that cat shaped hole in my heart and there it was. That iconic kitty Rusty sitting on the discover page. I did purposefully avoid it for a while before reading it but I don't regret it. I finished the first and that was the only book in the series on there. Naturally, I decided to calmly find a solution. Begging my mom to get a library card since for some reason I couldn't legally get one or something. In that time, I also came across the rabbit hole that is Warriors MAPs and edits, "official" movie/series trailers, and Top 10 saddest warrior deaths, and it all started with that Ready as I'll Ever Be MAP. You know the one. That song would be on repeat for hours. These cat books quickly became my life. I do remember..summer 2020 maybe..I spent a while in the downstairs guest bedroom with my sister watching Disney Channel and playing games while Hulu picture in picture entertained me while I dominated those levels and then watched older Disney Channel show from dinner till 10. Why do I mention this? This was routine for about 2 weeks while we get upstairs carpet taken up and replaced with wood. That stain smell was awful. Couldn't eat my pancake on stick because the smell was so strong it literally tasted like pickles. The one comfort in that time was the last Dawn of the Clans. to finish the book, and the last sentence gave me a wave of emotion that swept me out of my torment for a record 2 minutes. So timeskip back to fourth grade. I call this the crush era, but don't worry about it. I walked up to Multi one day, I think book fair day, and I had my books i'd ordered from online book fair ooh, Hawkwing's Journey and some Survivors book both if which I still have. Anyways, I saw she had one of the mangas or something and we started a whole conversation about our favorite characters and books. And thus began the worldbuilding. She had this idea that I should write my own Clans, she had already had some, Kinkajoucloud's story actually. So I did, and that's where a lot of Legends of LionClan's characters are from. We made it in good old Slides, and even made a collab called The Kin where Kinkajou goes to LionClan because of a prophecy about Reedheart, who is actually distant kin of her, and antics ensue. The first chapter of LoL is her reminiscing and everything else is a while the events of The Kin. My love for warriors art started when I drew out some scenes, which I can show you guys in another project. It's clear that we've kept in touch, now about 10ish hour's drive apart. She introduced me to the wonders of Akira and Moonkitti, and Northflowo about this time last year because of, no joke, that rat song. Warriors has been in my life as a lighthearted series in dark times, and I wouldn't know a lot of people if not for it, nor would my art or animation be where it is. Happy 20th, Warriors. Enjoy this little Firepaw animation,as it took me forever :'D This is Quilla, signing off.
