Battles of the Clans is the fourth released
Warriors "Field Guide", a side book with short stories and additional information about the world. This book covers information from the original series (aka
The Prophecies Begin) through the third book of the fourth arc,
Omen of the Stars.
Tropes appearing in this book:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: In "The Leader Who Sought Peace":
Morningstar: "Is this [mangled, frozen bird] all you could find? "
Pineclaw: "No, actually. There are squirrels and mice all over the place out there, but I thought you'd prefer this."
- Attack the Tail: Nightwhisper explains that he fled the battle in the ThunderClan camp after a young cat (Thornpaw) badly bites his tail.
- Caught in a Snare: In one of the stories in the book, a WindClan warrior named Rabbittail gets caught in a net meant for rabbits.
- Dead Person Conversation: Morningstar speaking to his dead mate Songbird.
- A Dog Named "Cat": In "The Leader Who Sought Peace", Morningstar's mate was named Songbird.
- Ear Notch: Pineclaw of ThunderClan gains one when a patrol he's on is ambushed by WindClan.
- Fear Is Normal: One story is about Lionheart's first battle as an apprentice; he turns and flees as it begins and fears that he'll be punished or have to leave the Clan. When his Clanmates find him, they reassure him that even the strongest warriors feel fear and that there's no such thing as bravery without it.
- Framing Device: This book frames the stories as the reader being in the role of a kittypet who is visiting the Clans and being told stories by the characters.
- Gender Bender: Rushpaw of RiverClan is female in the Rushpaw Splash story, but is actually male in the main books.
- Greater Need Than Mine: In "The Leader Who Sought Peace", the elders and Morningstar give up their prey to the nursing queens, because they believe the queens need it more.
- A Handful for an Eye: A couple RiverClan battle techniques - the Double-front-paw Slapdown and the Tail Splash - involve temporarily blinding a foe with water.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: ThunderClan has a technique they call the Lightning Strike where they sneak up on the opponents, attack, flee into the trees, and then attack right away again when the enemies aren't expecting it yet (since "lightning doesn't strike twice in one place").
- Hostage Situation: In "Hailstar Speaks: The Lost Kits", RiverClan warriors take two WindClan cats hostage and threaten to kill them if they don't let the RiverClan cats leave with the kits.
- Inescapable Net: One cat tells a story about how his ancestor got chased through an old rabbit warren by some kind of terrier. He dashes out of one of the tunnels, only to get caught in a net and be at the mercy of the human and the dog.
- It's All My Fault: In "The Leader Who Sought Peace", when Morningstar learns of his deputy's death, he says that he killed her, blaming himself for not being able to feed his Clan.
- It's Raining Men: The "Skydrop" move that SkyClan developed. Backfired in the "The Defeated Clan" story at the end when a SkyClan cat misses her target and ends up with a broken leg.
- The Magnificent: The Clans remember Gray Wing as "Graywing the Wise".
- Meaningful Rename: Fallowtail requests that her kits' warrior names be Willowbreeze and Graypool, to reflect how they are half-WindClan and half-RiverClan.
- Named in the Sequel: In Forest of Secrets, an unnamed rogue led by Tigerclaw attacked Fireheart during battle, and Thornpaw helped drive him off. This book, released 7 years later, reveals the rogue's name to be Nightwhisper.
- Perspective Flip: "The Victorious Clan" and "The Defeated Clan" are twin stories that show the aftermath of the same battle in two different Clans, to show that each battle fought has an impact on everyone involved and even on the future of each Clan.
- Reminiscing About Your Victims: Tigerstar remembers how fun it was when he killed Redtail.
- Saved by a Terrible Performance: In the "Rushpaw Splash" story, Mistystar is seen training a group of apprentices in water combat. Rushpaw, the smallest, is having trouble swimming due to the water temperature and her size. After driving everyone crazy with her problems, she accidentally splashes water everywhere when they're tasked with ambushing Mistystar. She thinks she ruined everything, when Mistystar admits that the water splash made her think the apprentices were on the other side of the stream— and that it could be considered a brand new battling tactic.
- Series Continuity Error:
- In the story "A Time for Mercy", Whitetail and Antpelt are both called ShadowClan cats, when they really are in WindClan, and therefore, since RiverClan and WindClan were allied in the battle in Eclipse, they should have been on the same side as the RiverClan patrol, not fighting against them.
- In Nightwhisper's story, he mentions that Tigerclaw yowled "ThunderClan! Enemies! Attack!" before turning on the rogue nearest him. In Forest of Secrets, it was Fireheart who had said that as he ran down into the ravine; Tigerclaw, instead, had yowled "To me, ThunderClan!"
- It mentions at one point that Rainwhisker had died in the badger attack from Twilight alongside Cinderpelt and Sootfur. He actually was killed by a falling branch some time after that, as mentioned in The Sight.
- Shout-Out: One of the Adventure Game chapters in Battles of the Clans is titled "Here Comes The Sun".
- The Social Darwinist: Rabbitstar of WindClan says that only the strongest Clans deserve to survive, and he calls Morningstar weak for asking for mercy.
- Suicidal Pacifism: In one of the stories, Morningstar, a Clan leader, refused to fight, afraid to see his warriors injured - even announcing publicly at a Gathering that they were too weak for him to sanction a fight and politely asking the other Clans to stop hunting in ThunderClan territory. Of course, this was an open invitation to the other Clans to continue hunting there, since they would not be driven off. Eventually the spirit of the leader's mate visits him and explains to him that they need to fight battles, and he agrees.
- Throwing the Distraction: RiverClan develops a move called the "Rushpaw Splash" where a cat makes a splash to distract their opponent away from their attacking Clanmates - originally done by accident during training when Rushpaw falling into a stream makes the perfect distraction for the other apprentices to sneak up on Mistyfoot.
- Tunnel Network: WindClan's tunnel system.
- Violence is the Only Option: One of the short stories focuses on this idea, where a leader asks the other Clans to stop stealing prey from his starving Clan instead of fighting back. This only serves as an invitation to them since they know they'll be unchallenged; in the end, the spirit of his lost mate appears to him in a vision and convinces him to let his Clan fight.
Songbird: "Peace is not the way of the Clans. We prove ourselves in battle."
- The X of Y: The title Battles of the Clans.
- You Fool!: In "The Leader Who Sought Peace", Willowstar of RiverClan calls Morningstar a fool for thinking the Clans would agree to share prey for leaf-bare.
