Bramblestar/Squirrelflight, which was once very popular, has since fallen out of favor with fans in recent years due to their lack of proper communication, relationship drama, and Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome. Additionally, more fans have started seeing their relationship as abusive or toxic, and simply want them to split up.
Bumblestripe/Dovewing used to be a rather popular pairing, as fans saw him as a healthier alternative to Tigerheart since he was in the same Clan as her so she wouldn’t have to deal with all the forbidden relationship drama. However, later books showed that Dovewing clearly didn’t reciprocate as strongly as him, and he in turn began to act like a Diet Ashfur, pushing the subject of kits on her during Purdy’s funeral and acting upset and entitled when she didn’t return his feelings towards her.
Brambleclaw is an obvious example (especially as an apprentice) being a ridiculously KeetNaïve Newcomer who's energetic and eager to go on The Great Journey. This carries on to his days as ThunderClan's leader when he's eager to please and full of life, even though he's one of the oldest cats in the Clan.
Bumblestripe and his father, Graystripe could count as well. Both are genuinely Nice Guys who are best friends (and in Bumblestripe's case at one point dating) the protagonists of their specific series. Both enjoy food and are a bit goofy and clumsy.
Is Spottedleaf a sweet and caring she-cat who watches over her lost love and his kin from beyond the grave, or a creepy Stalker with a Crush to Firestar? She's shown to have a somewhat caring friendship with Leafpool, guiding her when Firestar no longer needs her help, and says at several points that she supports Firestar finding love with Sandstorm. However, she's also shown to manipulate Leafpool into running away with Crowfeather in order to fulfill the prophecy and later forces Jayfeather to follow the path of a Medicine Cat. Is she trying to ensure the safety of all the clans by maneuvering for the Three to be born, or is she being a Manipulative Bastard who seeks to retain as much control over Firestar's lineage for her own end?
Ashfur: A genuinely likable Nice Guy who was just so broken that he snapped or a wangsty prick who had no right to get revenge on Squirrelflight over a breakup? To say that the fandom is split over which one he fits is a severe understatement (unless you think he can be both). At least until The Broken Code, which firmly established that not only is he the latter, he's completely off his rockerandused the former interpretationIn-Universe to trick his way into StarClan so he could continue plotting revenge.
Crowfeather feels that WindClan ostracizes him. Is that because of his failed attempt to elope with Leafpool - or because he's an abrasive Jerkass and neglectful father?
When Frecklewish finds out Mapleshade's kits weren't fathered by her brother but her brother's killer, she loses it at Mapleshade and calls the kits "half-Clan creatures", even though she previously loved them so much. Is that really how she felt, or was she just so mad that she gave into a Moment of Weakness? Lots of people say things they don't mean when really angry and end up regretting them later.
Arc Fatigue: The "Power Of Three" arc. Partly because they couldn't decide on what power Hollyleaf would have by the time they were halfway through the six-book Power of Three series, and then Vicky finally got the idea that maybe Hollyleaf isn't actually one of the Three, and the story arc got dragged on to fill the fourth series, Omen of the Stars, as well. The purpose of the Three is that they all have special powers that will help them defeat the Dark Forest when they invade the Clans; this wasn't even hinted at until partway through Omen of the Stars. Instead, the two series were mostly filled with short filler conflicts, and there was no real villain throughout all of Power of Three.
Archive Binge: Warriors is a fun binge. There are seven full arcs which each have six books and the eighth one in progress, and that's the bare-bones experience. You also have a bunch of extra-long standalone "super editions", books explaining history and characters, several series of OEL manga, and at least a dozen novellas. Your wallet will never be this thick again if you decide to read, unless you happen to have a very good library. Have fun!
Archive Panic: Warriors currently has 42 books in the main series with 6 more on the way, 13 super editions, 14 manga volumes, 7 guidebooks, and 18 novellas. And that's not even counting the TTRPG, the various one-act plays, articles on the website from the writing team...
Ass Pull: The deaths of Sagewhisker and Cedarstar in Yellowfang's Secret were very sudden and unexplained, and were only there to move the plot forward by making Yellowfang ShadowClan's medicine cat and Raggedpelt the leader.
Audience-Alienating Era: The era spanning from the end of The Power of Three up until the release of The Broken Code can be considered this. Omen of the Stars is one of, if not the most divisive arcs in Warrior Cats, and A Vision of Shadows is nowadays widely seen as a rather hit-or-miss arc that just didn't live up to any potential it had. Omen of the Stars' heavy focus on the more spiritual aspects is a departure from the more grounded feeling that the early arcs had, and is the first to directly build off of the plot of a previous arc, leading to Continuity Lockout; Warriors is, for better or for worse, a series built off of being as welcoming to new readers as possible. A Vision of Shadows attempts to pull off a Nothing Is the Same Anymore towards its first half, but as its main villain is killed off before even the second can begin, it instead becomes a story focused on the political drama between the Clans, with Status Quo Is God being reinstated soon after. The fact that Omen of the Stars was meant to be a Grand Finale to the Warriors series as a whole (DOTC was meant more as a send-off than any meaningful continuation) did not help. There's also the meta aspect of many of the readers who had gotten into the series at its height during the mid-to-late 2000s as kids/teenagers now being young adults or just coming into teenagehood who would consider Warriors too "childish" and branch out into other interests in the time of their release (early-to-late 2010s).
Who was in the right during the events of Mapleshade's Vengeance: Mapleshade herself, or Ravenwing, Frecklewish, and Appledusk? Many fans give Mapleshade the Draco in Leather Pants treatment and say she was 100% justified in murdering the three cats because they were partly responsible for the tragic events that happened to her (Ravenwing for exposing her secret and getting her kicked out of the Clan, Frecklewish for not saving her kits, and Appledusk blaming her for their kits' deaths and taking a new mate). Others believe that Mapleshade has no excuse for her actions, and that her three victims did not deserve to be murdered and were only doing what they thought was right (Ravenwing could not lie to his Clan leader, Frecklewish couldn't have done anything to help the kits without making things worse, and Appledusk really did hold her responsible for the deaths of their children). A third contingent goes with Both Sides Have a Point and believes that, while the three cats shouldn't have done what they did, and Mapleshade did have the right to hate them, she crossed the Moral Event Horizon by murdering them in cold blood.
A Vision of Shadows is a huge one amongst fans. It has a sizeable amount of fans who like it for the interesting characters, SkyClan returning to the lake, and the focus on another Clan besides ThunderClan. However, they come in conflict with its detractors, who argue that it's repetitive, there are parts that feel like filler, and that many of the side characters exist only to fill space.
Who was in the right during the events of Squirrelflight's Hope? Squirrelflight or Bramblestar? Many people believe Squirrelflight was entirely (or at least mostly) in the right because she was trying to solve the tensions between the Clans, protect the Sisters and Moonlight's innocent kits, and because of Bramblestar constantly berating her and not listening to her. Others argue that Bramblestar was right to put the Clans first and had every right to be angry and frustrated with Squirrelflight because of her constantly going behind his back, undermining his authority, putting the needs of a group of strangers before her own family and Clan, and also at one point asking their own daughter, Sparkpelt to lie to him (putting Sparkpelt in not only the uncomfortable position of having to choose between her parents, but between her leader and her deputy as well). A third contingent goes with Both Sides Have a Point, saying that Bramblestar should've taken Squirrelflight's concerns more seriously, but Squirrelflight also should've realized that she can't just expect Bramblestar to trust her if she constantly goes behind his back and keeps secrets from him.
Common Knowledge: It's well-known that Ferncloud has had the most number of kits of the series, hence her Fan Nickname "Kit Machine". That honor, however, goes to Snowbird of ShadowClan, who has nine kits, two more than Ferncloud did.note Though it's worth noting that the "Kit Machine" nickname originated long before A Vision of Shadows was released.
Brokenstar is a ruthlessly ambitious warrior and the cruel leader of ShadowClan. Rising to power by killing his own father, Brokenstar sends kits under six months old to fight full-grown warriors, making up the losses in both battle and training by kidnapping kits from other Clans. Dissatisfied with the marshy wetlands ShadowClan calls home, Brokenstar wages a war of aggression against WindClan and forces them out of their territory. After forcing RiverClan to bow to him, Brokenstar went to war against ThunderClan to force their submission. Fleeing with some of his most loyal followers when ShadowClan turns on him, Brokenstar later gets blinded after leading his rogues in a failed attack on ThunderClan, who take him in. To repay them for their mercy and protection, Brokenstar conspires with Tigerstar to kill Bluestar and take over the clan. Returning as the ruler of the Dark Forest after his death, Brokenstar continues his cruel machinations against ThunderClan and eventually takes part in the Great Battle against the living and StarClan. Bloodthirsty, power-hungry, and uncaring of anyone but himself, Brokenstar serves as a terrifying reminder of what one person with a little power is capable of.
Ashfur is a seemingly normal ThunderClan warrior during the second arc, but after his advances were rejected by Squirrelflight, he begins to spiral, and in the third arc, he reaches a boiling point, trapping Squirrelflight's children in a forest fire with the intent of making her watch them die, although he does ultimately move out of the way. After his death, he is allowed into StarClan despite his actions, under the reasoning that he "loved too much", but in the seventh arc, Ashfur possesses the body of Squirrelflight's mate and current ThunderClan leader, Bramblestar. With this newfound power, Ashfur begins to mistreat the members of ThunderClan, particularly Squirrelflight, even throwing her off the Highledge. At one point, Ashfur drags Squirrelflight down into the Dark Forest with the intent of holding her captive there until she agrees to be his mate or suffer like he has. We later learn that his true intentions are to destroy the Clans and their afterlives completely—even causing the evil residents of the Dark Forest to work together with the heroes to try to put a stop to his plans, showcasing how much damage that Ashfur's pettiness and psychosis can bring once he has the opportunity.
Continuity Lock-Out: It is possible to skip the first series and start with the second series, but from the third series onward, it keeps getting less and less accessible to new readers. This changes in the sixth series, A Vision Of Shadows, which has been designed to be enjoyable without the context of the previous material.
Crack Pairing: Lots, as to be expected of a series with a massive number of background characters just ripe for shipping material.
Sure, you can find fanfiction for Hollyleaf/Ashfur, Jayfeather/Berrynose and Jayfeather/Brightheart, but special mention goes to the fact that not only were Hollyleaf/Sol and Hollyleaf/Blackstar shipped, but they were also popular.
Hawkfrost/Ashfur, Hawkfrost/Leafpool, Hawkfrost/Sorreltail, and Hawkfrost/Feathertail are all known pairings, with the first two even being somewhat popular.
Most notably, Ashfur, obviously has some form of a disorder, if his obsessive pursuit over Squirrelflight is one thing to go by. Throughout The Broken Code, his internal dialogue in A Light in the Mist, his treatment of other cats, and actually analyzing his personality seems to indicate Ashfur has a very stereotypical form of a cluster-B personality disorder, considering he enjoys spreading torment, manipulating, has little regard for others (besides Squirrelflight, obviously), and doesn't appear to feel much remorse over how actually evil he is. More icing on the cake is that Ashfur sees himself as the victim. It's worth noting that these things haven't been confirmed in the books nor by any other sources, but it's certainly a worthwhile thought.
It was largely speculated in Moth Flight's Vision that the titular character was somewhere on the autism spectrum. It was later confirmed to be ADD.
In A Starless Clan, ThunderClan leader Bramblestar has a very drastic personality change in being more passive, paranoid, and tired. Comments made about it from various cats point out that Bramblestar is suffering from a form of PTSD after being as a ghost for the majority of the arc, and being stuck in the Dark Forest to be tortured by Ashfur.
A downplayed variant, but protagonist Nightheart seems to suffer from PTSD as well during his time under Ashfur's reign of ThunderClan possessing Bramblestar's body. Bramblestar raises his voice at Nightheart once in Sky, and that results in Nightheart getting scared and shaking in terror as he recalls the abuse he suffered under Ashfur.
Every forbidden love pairing has suffered more than it's fair share of hatred, for better or worse, considering it's, ya know, forbidden love. (Even though they usually always end badly.) Nightcloud, Daisy, and Millie tend to get the worst of the shipping-fueled hate from supporters of Crowfeather/Leafpool, Brightheart/Cloudtail, and Graystripe/Silverstream, respectively.
Jessy from Bramblestar's Storm, who fans immediately disliked for getting in the way of the then hugely popular Bramblestar/Squirrelflight pairing, especially after the two had recently gotten back together. Thankfully for the fans, Jessy left the same book and was never mentioned again.
Some Mothpool shippers depict Crowfeather, Leafpool's canon mate, as an abusive jerk to Leafpool in order for her to get together with Mothwing. In reality, Leafpool was one of the few cats that Crowfeather ever showed his soft side to.
Every villain to some degree among the fans that don't understand the concept of Gray-and-Grey Morality. Although (thankfully) some villains, like Hawkfrost and Tigerstar, have fans that like them because they are villains.
Despite Erin Hunter saying very clearly in Rise of Scourge manga that Scourge's poor childhood doesn't give him any excuse for his actions, he gets this treatment a lot.
Thanks to Beyond The Code, Sol has been getting this treatment as well.
Due to her backstory in Crookedstar's Promise and Mapleshade's Vengeance, Mapleshade has fans who claim that she is a good cat and Tragic Hero who deserved to go to StarClan instead of the Dark Forest. This is despite how she flat out calls herself an irredeemable bitch.
In the earlier years of the online fandom (around 2009-early 2017), Thistleclaw used to receive this treatment a fair amount since, despite his aggressive, power-hungry nature and handling of the Tiny incident, it was unknown at the time exactly what he did to deserve the Dark Forest; his grief over Snowfur’s death was often used to excuse his later actions (though he had been shown to be aggressive even before they got together), many fan works depicted him and Snowfur still pining for each other from separate sides of the afterlife (in addition, Snowfur as a spirit watching Thistleclaw spiral further into villainy after her death and being powerless to stop any of it), and it had even become a popular belief among some fans that he had initially been sent to StarClan but Bluestar chased him into the Dark Forest upon finding out he was there. Pretty much all of this went down the drain when Spottedleaf’s Heart was released, and the fandom found out the true crime he was sent there for: grooming a kit. Some fans refuse to acknowledge the novella as canon, but that’s more because of how poorly the authors handled such a sensitive topic (in the novella he is shown training in the Dark Forest and that’s framed as the main reason he should be seen as a villain rather than because he’s a pedophile), less because they don’t want to acknowledge that a character they may have used to love and defend is now canonically a child predator.
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually hates Oakheart now that the prequel Super Editions have revealed what an awesome brother he was, as well as his surprising sweetness towards Bluefur.
Sorreltail, Mistystar, Antpelt and Snowtuft as well.
Purdy is one of the most popular cats, even without having the same, ahem, charm as other characters.
Despite showing up in very few scenes — not getting even a speaking role in his first appearance — Shredtail has achieved a surprising amount of popularity.
Primrosepaw from Mistystar's Omen, mostly due to her name.
Harestar, for being a Nice Guy, The Atoner, and a Reasonable Authority Figure — especially considering his predecessor Onestar was a huge Jerkass for three arcs, so having such a calm and kind cat in charge of WindClan is refreshing.
Stagleap for his role in Redtail's Debt, which is considered to be one of the few good things in the novella. His calling out of Tigerclaw and Redtail for fighting and injuring his apprentice Sorrelpaw, whose only crime was to accidentally cross the border, has made him popular.
Fan-Disliked Explanation: Fans wondered why Thistleclaw ended up in the Dark Forest, because while he was an aggressive War Hawk, he technicallynote (he did order his apprentice to attack and potentially kill Tiny, which would violate the rule that a warrior does not ignore a kit in pain; however, Bluefur intervened and allowed Tiny to escape with only minor injuries) didn't commit any serious crimes in his life — and even the attempted murderer Ashfur made it to StarClan. Enter the novella Spottedleaf's Heart, where he was characterized as a pedophile grooming Spottedpaw while also training in the Dark Forest. This made the novella one of the most unpopular works in the entire lengthy series, as most felt that the subject matter wasn't handled well.
Warriors gets this with other Erin Hunter works. Warriors outnumbers the fandoms by a huge lot, however that doesn't stop debates on which series is better. Warriors versus Survivors is popular simply due to the "cats vs dogs" debate.
Warriors versus any other cat xenofiction work, such as Tailchaser's Song or Varjak Paw. Warriors is the most popular and many of the series share fans, but there's still plenty of room for arguing between the fans.
Kit Machine (Ferncloud), Teapot ([The] Power of Three; tPoT), Oats (Omen of the Stars; OotS).
After Tigerheart's Shadow, Tigerheart has received the nicknames Tigerheartstar, Tigertsar, Tigerjesus, Tigerstar 2: Electric Boogaloo, Tigerstar Jr., and Tigerstar II because of his over the top resurrection, and to differentiate him from his more famous grandfather, who was also named Tigerstar. Due to this, the original Tigerstar is sometimes referred to as Tigerstar Sr. or Tigerstar I.
Fans who hate Appledusk for his treatment of Mapleshade have given him a number of unflattering nicknames, including "Appledick", "Appledouche", and "Applefuck".
Assfur for Ashfur after his actions in Long Shadows.
Bramblefake, Fakestar, Impostorstar, and Impostor-Bramblestar for Bramblestar's impostor. Brashstar for those who (correctly) guessed he was Ashfur.
Squilf for Squirrelflight.
Jaybae for Jayfeather, usually from his large amount of fangirls.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Jayfeather/Briarlight is a ship that has withstood the test of time, due to their well-developed friendship with hints of sweet Ship Tease. Many fans consider his relationship with her to be much more romantic than his relationship with his actualLove Interest, Half Moon.
Many fans refuse to accept Spottedleaf's Heart and Redtail's Debt as canon, owing to the former severely mishandling matters of grooming and pedophilia and the latter forgetting that Redtail didn't kill Oakheart.
Due to the contradictory information presented in the Field Guides (especially Code of the Clans), most fans don't consider them as canon. At the very least, they should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
A notable part of the fandom considers the website's decision to put Frecklewish into the Dark Forest to be... flawed, to put it lightly. Following the article made to detail why she was put in there, fan art of Frecklewish in StarClan, along with posts arguing against the article or outright denying its conclusion, popped up in protest.
The Wings of Fire fandom, due to Wings of Fire being created by a member of the Erin Hunter team. Lots of Wings Of Fire fans are also Warriors fans.
Genius Bonus: Mapleshade is one of the series' most bloodthirsty, Ax-Crazy villains. The scientific genus of maple trees is Acer, Latin for sharp or piercing.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: After Nowa Baśń began publishing the series there in 2015, Warriors has found a large audience in Poland. It's so popular there that the Polish editions of the books have beautiful, specially-illustrated covers that are regarded as being better than the American ones.
Ghost Shipping: Since StarClan and Dark Forest cats are able to still interact with living characters, this crops up a lot in the fandom. Some obvious cases are Firestar/Spottedleaf, Ivypool/Hawkfrost, and Jayfeather/Brightspirit. Fallen Leaves/Hollyleaf is a big one, and at least one of the writers considers it canon.
Gotta Ship 'Em All: The sheer amount of ships in this series is ridiculous, with characters who have never even met/interacted getting shipped together. That not even getting into the Ghost Shipping, as stated above.
Hard-to-Adapt Work: A Warriors film has been greenlit; however a film adaptation has previously been in Development Hell for this reason. The series has over two dozen books and over a thousand named characters. This alone makes it difficult to produce a self-contained film based off of even the first arc due to its length and the number of characters. However, the major issue is that the series is about feral cat colonies. With its crap ton of Family-Unfriendly Violence and Family Unfriendly Deaths (with the first book more-or-less beginning with a cat being murdered), it's not impossible to get a kid's film out of the series but it's unlikely the film would appeal to the mainstream teenage demographic. Warriors already had adaptations in the case of Comic Book Adaptations, but they have heavily toned down compared to the books and go for the Bloodless Carnage route.
In Redtail's Debt, Tigerclaw saves Redpaw from a hawk. Redpaw tells him that he owes him one, but Tigerclaw replies that Redpaw owes him his life. Considering what happened to Redtail later in life, it makes that line become one.
Before going for their walk, Bluefur tells Snowfur to stop worrying about Whitekit, because it's not the last time she'll ever see him. Unfortunately, Bluefur was wrong.
As if Lightning Tail being killed by a pack of dogs wasn't bad enough, it becomes more poignant once Shadowstar's Life reveals that Sun Shadow died the same way a short time later.
The general premise of kittypets leaving their owners to become wild cats and hunting for survival quickly steers into this with the increasing awareness of just how much damage feral cats can do to native populations of prey animals. This article estimates that sixty-three species have been driven to extinction by house cats alone.
The Dawn of the Clans Arc is widely praised as arguably the best in the series and a return to form after the disliked Omen of the Stars. Some fans have been disappointed upon reading the arc by awkward pacing, divisive treatment of female characters, and Gray Wing, widely hyped as one of the series' best and most beloved characters, being seen as boring or a Designated Hero.
Many fans read Tallstar's Revenge excited by the portrayal of Tallstar's relationship with Jake, one of the only "semi-canon" LGBT relationships where the authors have all but said portraying them as a couple was their intention although the publisher forbade them from making it explicit, which is the subject of much fanart and praise for its development and emotional effect. Some of these fans have ended up disappointed by the rushed nature of the relationship which leaves some thinking it didn't earn their supposed strong emotional connection by the end of the book.
Moth Flight is the reason medicine cats are forbidden from taking mates or having kits, on the grounds that she believed herself incapable of dividing herself between her kits and her duties. The problem is that Moth Flight's Vision revealed that the reasoning behind this decision is that Moth Flight's circumstances resulted in her becoming incredibly stressed trying to keep up with her duties; on top of being the sole cat responsible for attending to WindClan's medical needs, she's also a very young first-time mother trying to take care of four kits by herself because her mate died before they were born. When one of said kits gets into an accident that could have easily happened to anyone's kit, rather than chalking this all up as a natural consequence of her being an inexperienced single parent, or even questioning whether having one single doctor constantly on call is a good thing, Moth Flight and the narrative agree that her having children was a mistake — and furthermore, that no medicine cat ever should.
Frecklewish refusing to jump in the river to save Mapleshade's kittens is treated by the narrative as her crossing the Moral Event Horizon, and the official writing team has stated that this was the reason she was placed in the Dark Forest. However, it's stated repeatedly in Mapleshade's Vengeance that the water was overwhelming and terrifyingly powerful even before the flash flood, and that Frecklewish had watched her brother and his apprentice (who jumped in to save him) drown just a few months prior to Mapleshade being exiled. One of the first things that any water safety class will teach is that even if you are properly trained to attempt rescuing someone from a riptide or strong current, it's incredibly easy to end up a hindrance at best and another casualty at worst. In a flash flood, there's no warning or time to think, and trying to be a hero when you don't know what you're doing could end up taking away attention from the people who need rescuing. Frecklewish had no swimming experience and was able to see RiverClan cats on the far banks, so leaving the rescue to the people who actually knew what they were doing was probably the best decision she could have made in this situation. As cruel as doing nothing seems, anything else Frecklewish could have done would've made things worse.
Squirrelflight and Leafpool being on trial for their deception of the Three's parentage, with their entry into StarClan upon their deaths on the line. Except that they went with the deception was because StarClan was the one who told Leafpool to follow her heart when she asked for guidance on whether she should run away with Crowfeather. They were also the ones who gently informed her that she was pregnant while lying to Squirrelflight by telling her that she was barren so that she'd be more inclined to claim Leafpool's kits. In short, the sisters are being on trial for doing as they were told. Is it any wonder many readers hated this in Squirrelflight's Hope?
It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: The series basically got this treatment, especially with how many animations the series got. (Specific incidents from the Fandom with certain animators for the series did not help matters.)
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Appledusk is one of the most glaring examples of a Base-Breaking Character in the franchise. Many readers wish he was sent to the Dark Forest or even that he was killed twice. Yet, Appledusk himself only rejected and cheated on his former mate Mapleshade, who subsequently proceeded to go on a killing spree that included him. This rejection also led to his kits being killed, and to make it all worse, it's easy to interpret Appledusk as rejecting his children as well. Appledusk's cruelty towards his own family makes him one of the most despised cats in the series, yet he never laid a claw on anyone.
Karmic Overkill: Frecklewish was hated for a long time for how she turned on Mapleshade's kittens, who she once loved, upon learning who their father was, but most fans agree that the treatment she received afterwards (being blinded and later killed by snake venom, only to be thrown into the Dark Forest while her father got to go to StarClan) was just too much.
LGBT Fanbase: While there has only been one canonically gay relationship in the series (Ravenpaw/Barley, via Word of Gay), the vast amounts of Ho Yay and popular LGBT pairings (especially Tallstar/Jake and Leafpool/Mothwing, the former of which is supported by one of the authors) has made a large majority of the fandom be comprised of LGBT people.
The Darkest Hour takes place during the winter. Despite this, even official art depicts the BloodClan battle as taking place when the trees are leafy and green (such as flashbacks in the manga), instead of bare-branched as they were in the book.
Bluestar's journey through the forest with her kits on the way to give them to Oakheart in Bluestar's Prophecy is frequently depicted (including in some of the Russian illustrations) as taking place during a blizzard. It was actually a quiet, clear night in the book, and only started snowing when they were at the river and Bluestar was leaving.
Many fans remember Firestar's final death in The Last Hope being due to lightning striking a tree and it falling on him. What actually happened is that he died due to his wounds, and at the same time a dead tree already on the ground nearby was struck by lightning. They are, perhaps, getting it mixed up with Mudclaw's death (which was due to being crushed by a lightning-struck tree) or one of Firestar's earlier lives (in which a tree fell on him, but no lightning was involved). It doesn't help that the narrator of that chapter, Dovewing, described the scene as Firestar defeating Tigerstar without seeming to be wounded at all, with him only revealed to be dead after the tree was struck by lightning, which Word of God has said is Dovewing being an Unreliable Narrator.
Most fan works depicts Firestar losing his first life by a wound to the throat as is the typical cause of death for cats in battle, though he in fact died of a head wound.
Memetic Loser: Bumblestripe, known for his Dogged Nice Guy tendencies toward Dovewing and always being rejected by her; the fandom likes to paint him as a general failure just for existing.
Memetic Troll: Sol has gained a memetic reputation as a troll thanks to his Affably Evil attitude and the smug expression he had on a book cover (which later got edited so it wasn't so smug). Here◊ is a macro that got passed around for a bit with that original image.
Misaimed Fandom: To name a few examples: The people who think pure blooded warriors are superior to other cats, regardless of upbringing; The people who think Scourge's Freudian Excuse makes him not evil, regardless of the fact that Word of God says that no one is purely evil or purely good, and that the author's note at the beginning of book that contains his backstory says that his harsh past doesn't make up for his atrocious actions, etc.
Scourge crossed it the first time he murdered a cat and welcomed the cold feeling it gave him.
Sol kidnapping Leafstar's kits so he could rescue them to prove he was a warrior in After The Flood is the last straw for Leafstar.
Thistleclaw crosses it when he orders Tigerstar (his apprentice) to maul the kitten named Tiny (later Scourge)..., and his willingness to let his apprentice murder a child. This sets Scourge firmly on his dark path of revenge against Tigerstar.
Even if you think Mapleshade was right to kill Ravenwing and Frecklewish, there's no defending how she tried to murder Reedshine, a pregnant she-cat, for the crime of being in a relationship with Appledusk. Luckily Appledusk jumped in between them and took the blow, but Mapleshade would have moved on to kill Reedshine if it weren't for Perchpaw.
More Interesting as a Villain: The series' fandom has created "Evil AUs" for many characters, though "Evil Spottedleaf" is the most popular one. Spottedleaf is a character who dies in the first book and joins the Clans' afterlife of StarClan, and spends the rest of the series as a Spirit Advisor and idealized The Lost Lenore for the protagonist Firestar. Due to a combination of frustration with her being seen as a Purity Sue and Satellite Love Interest and criticism of StarClan being a Designated Hero group in general, many people preferred if Spottedleaf were a villain, both making her more interesting from their perspective and making StarClan's cruel moments intentional rather than brushed off by the narrative.
Despite being a series with many spine-chilling moments, some can lapse into this, notable examples including the Dark Forest's chant of "Death to the Clans!" in The Last Hope. Bluepaw's Big "NO!" in "Bluestar's Prophecy" also counts.
The manga at the end of Tallstar's Revenge. Sure, it's heartwarming to see Tallstar reunited with his best friend. But the creepy way that said best friend is drawn makes it seem less like a touching reunion and more like a crazy psychopath just showed up and offered Tallstar some obviously drugged candy or something.
Narm Charm: It's a series about fluffy kitties fighting grand battles and having torrid love affairs in the middle of the woods. It should be absolutely ridiculous, and yet somehow it works.
The novella Spottedleaf's Heart will forever be remembered for its complete mishandling of the sensitive subject of sexual abuse, especially towards children, and how it leveraged a traumatic and life-altering event mainly as an excuse to focus on the cruelty of the perpetrator and not the suffering of the victim.
Squirrelflight's Hope, which is regarded and/or remembered by most people as a poorly-written book which ruined Bramblestar and Squirrelflight's relationship by throwing their arguments out of proportion, and made them and several other cats act out of character (or derailed Character Development), just for the sake of drama.
Popular with Furries: The Warrior Cats fandom is one of the biggest feral furry fandoms, and arguably one of the biggest furry fandoms period. It's rare to find a furry who likes domestic cats but not Warriors. It's often a Gateway Series into other furry-friendly works, especially cat-related.
Realism-Induced Horror: In a series filled with gore, dark themes, betrayal, and nightmare fuel for days, Spottedleaf's Heart is widely regarded as the most terrifying of them all. Thistleclaw, a full-grown warrior and respected member of his community, slowly isolates and grooms Spottedpaw from a very young age, keeping her away from her friends and family and conditioning her to rely on him and trust his judgment. While she manages to escape his direct influence, she's never able to truly get away from him, and even after his abuse ends he remains unpunished for his behavior while Spottedpaw is left unaware of just how wrong his treatment of her was. In a time when sexual abuse is only just having a light shown on it, the story of a victim of child grooming being unable to escape her abuser and unaware of what was done to her is one of the most chilling things written in a children's book series.
Stargleam, the protagonist of the notorious Troll FicStarKitsProphcy, appears in many other fan-works.
Cloudsnap, a fan character who was made as a joke based on how minor characters are often forgotten by the writing team, has become this in recent times.
Romantic Plot Tumor: Tigerstar II/Dovewing deserves special mention. Fans were already sick of it in Omen of the Stars when Dovewing's Love Triangle preoccupied her more than the upcoming war against the forces of darkness. Then, when fans thought it was over, it continued to rear its head in the background for another arc before she finally moved to ShadowClan to be with him. All in all, the process of her and Tigerstar II actually becoming an Official Couple spans two arcs, two special editions, and a novella. That's fifteen books of Will They or Won't They?.
Ron the Death Eater: Hawkheart of WindClan gets this treatment, similarly to Squirrelflight. His first (and for a long time, only) appearance in the series was his killing of Moonflower, the mother of Bluestar. Moonflower was a kind and loving cat, not to mention our main character's mother, so many fans decided he was evil and probably resided in the Place of No Stars. In fact, he was just a cat defending his Clan from an invasion, and was a fairly decent guy overall, as we see from him in Tallstar's Revenge and Yellowfang's Secret.
Appledusk is widely despised, particularly by Mapleshade fans, for being a bad boyfriend to her. When their kits drowned because she made them cross a flooded river, he called their relationship a "mistake" in front of his Clan to get back in their good graces, cast her out of the Clans to live as a rogue, and took a new mate, after which she completely snapped. Many fans hold him partly or even entirely responsible for Mapleshade's descent into evil, some going as far as to consider him a Karma Houdini because he was allowed into StarClan while Mapleshade was not.
Some fans give Reedshine, Appledusk's second mate, similar treatment for being the "other she-cat" that he was cheating on Mapleshade with, as well as the fact that she decided to cruelly rub salt in Mapleshade's wound by telling her that "she'd caused enough trouble tonight" right after she'd just lost her kits, been cast out of the Clans, and rejected by Appledusk.
Sagewhisker is pretty consistently disliked for the way she pressured Yellowfang into becoming a medicine cat despite her dreams of being a warrior, only told her how to control her powers after she caved, shamed her for having kits, and berated her into never spending any time with her son, thus guaranteeing his good qualities never flourished.
Mistystar, at least in Veil of Shadows. Many fans, who once liked her, turned against her after her decision to exile Mothwing for her parentage despite Mistystar being half-Clan herself, and then exiling Icewing and Harelight, who didn't deserve it.. It doesn't help that she is very old compared to the other cats, and many people are sick of her being leader and the only cat who gets focus in Riverclan. It's telling that many fans cheered when she kicked the bucket in the follow-up series.
Moth Flight's decision to forbid all medicine cats from taking mates or having kits on the grounds that she couldn't handle it instead of coming up with the simple solution of having more than one medicine cat, thus ruining the lives of generations of medicine cats, made her pretty resoundingly disliked. She got hated even more when she tries to send Leafpool to the Dark Forest for breaking the rule that she made up in Squirrelflight's Hope.
Self-Fanservice: When making a Human!AU for the series, it's far common for fan artists to make the characters look more attractive in human form than they're described as looking in their cat forms in the books. Male characters, such as Lionblaze and Jayfeather, are almost always made into Bishōnen.
Signature Scene: The chapter in Long Shadows where Ashfurunveils his grudge against Squirrelflight by trying to burn her children alive in front of her and Squirrelflight reveals her children are actually adopted. It is the most well-known moment in Warrior Cats, depicted in countless fanart and fan animations, due to the massive consequences it has on multiple characters. It's so iconic that even though there have been at least three other forest fires, people will instantly know you mean this one if you say "the fire scene".
Spottedleaf's Heart heavily features Thistleclaw's grooming of Spottedpaw, who is younger than his own son. There's a reason it's the most controversial book in the entire series, and to date, with all the horrifying imagery that appears in the books, it is the only page on the Wiki to have a content warning.
Due to the lack of continuity about familial relationships and the limited gene pool as a result of the warrior code forbidding relationships outside of one's Clan, there's unfortunately a lot of incest and inbreeding within the series; it's a common phenomenon for a fan to go back through a character’s family tree only to find out that two characters who are mates are also cousins (all kinds, from first to distant), uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, or some sort of otherwise distant relation, which has resulted in the Erins making a few minor retcons (for example: Graystripe’s father was originally Patchpelt, but this was retconned when it was pointed out that Willowpelt, his mate and Graystripe’s mother, was in fact his sister). It’s never brought up as a plot point, so it’s really just one of those things that you just have to not think about too much. Hopefully with the growing acceptance of cross-Clan relationships as well as kittypets and loners being allowed to join, this will become less of an issue later on.
Bluestar/Oakheart is hard to swallow while reading Bluestar's Prophecy, as the two hardly exchange any words up until the scene in which Oakheart begs to meet Bluestar at Fourtrees, which marks the climax of their relationship. Up until this point, Bluestar hates him, which is meant to be read as Belligerent Sexual Tension, but it's based on almost nothing. Later on, Bluestar and Oakheart are painted as being Star-Crossed Lovers more than anything else, despite their relationship lasting around the length of one night.
Jayfeather and Half Moon. She doesn't even know who he is. He's a time-traveler who is posing as a cat Half Moon knew long before Jayfeather replaced him due to some time-travel shenanigans. The two spend little time together and Half Moon never learns his true identity.
Hollyleaf's Story was a victim of this for several reasons. For one, being e-book exclusive meant that people who bought the paper versions were out of luck. Another reason is that novellas are often available for free online, and previous short stories by the authors were, yet this still cost money. And that's not even going into the people who are on the hatred side of the base Hollyleaf broke. HarperCollins didn't seem to take the hint, as they continued with further e-books. Fortunately they began releasing the novellas in paperbacks after every three releases, and eventually switched to releasing three new ones all at once in a paperback.
Many fans have misgivings about the announced Warriors film:
The simple fact that it's being adapted makes fans wonder what direction and tone it might take, and whether it'll be a film worthy of the series. The reason it took so many years for a studio to acquire the rights was because the series was long viewed as something that wouldn't appeal to wide audiences - too violent and serious for young children, while the whole talking-cat thing would appear too childish for teen and adult audience, similar to the Guardians of Ga'Hoole film. Will it stay true to the books' more serious tone and level of violence? Will it follow the storyline closely, or condense the first series and/or take creative liberties?
The fact that it was picked up not by one of the big Hollywood studios, but by Chinese studio Alibaba Pictures, made many uncertain (despite being a major company, it isn't necessarily a big name among US filmgoers). David Heyman being named as producer, however, was a plus (as he produced the Harry Potter films).
The writers of the film being revealed as Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Their most well-known past works are the Kung Fu Panda films, the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequels, The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water, Monsters vs. Aliens, and a handful of King of the Hill episodes. This raised concerns both about the aforementioned direction they might take since they're comedy (mostly children's comedy) writers, and about the quality of the writing, as most of those credits are generally considered mediocre at best among critics and audiences.
The success of Warriors is the reason why Seeker Bears, Survivor Dogs, and Bravelands, the Erin Hunter team's other series, rarely get recognition.
After the very positive reception of The Prophecies Begin, The New Prophecy was always going to have a tough reputation to uphold and didn't quite hit that mark.
All the pivotal characters in Mapleshade's Vengeance, except for Mapleshade herself: Ravenwing, her medicine cat who revealed her and Appledusk's secret relationship to her Clan, Oakstar, her leader who kicked her out of ThunderClan as a result of Ravenwing's actions; Frecklewish, who she holds responsible for the deaths of her kits; Appledusk, who broke her heart by taking a new mate; Reedshine, who became Appledusk's second mate and was widowed when Mapleshade murdered him; Mapleshade's own three kits, whose deaths motivated her to take revenge in the first place. Presumably, they still exist as spirits in StarClan, but they never appear in person during Omen of the Stars, meaning that Mapleshade never gets a chance to interact with them, which could have opened up any number of possibilities for her character. Would she try to take revenge on the cats who wronged her in life by killing them again? What would her reaction be to seeing her lost kits again after so long? How do her enemies/victims feel about the role they played in her path to the Dark Forest? How does Appledusk feel about Mapleshade trying to take revenge on his descendants? None of these questions were explored or answered, and now that Omen of the Stars is over, they might never be.
Lionblaze's first litter of kits, Fernsong, Hollytuft, and Sorrelstripe. All of them were named after cats who died in the battle against the Dark Forest, and Hollytuft is mentioned to look exactly like her aunt Hollyleaf. It could have been interesting to explore how they feel being named after these cats, especially with Hollytuft. Instead, they're minor background characters (save for Fernsong on account of being one of the protagonists' father) and barely contribute to the plot.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: After the events of The Last Hope, Breezepelt, despite fighting on the side of the Dark Forest, is back in WindClan with a mate and kits. Why has WindClan taken him back? How did he go from wanting to destroy it to settling down? How does he feel about Heathertail and their kits? Is he going to be a better father than his father? Kate said she wanted him redeemed, but we haven't seen anything about it, and a lot of fans think he should be getting some kind of novella or Special Edition. Crowfeather's Trial answers some of these questions by showing his redemption, but there are still some who think it should have been from Breezepelt's perspective, not his father's.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The prequel Super Editions seem to have no plot other than a series of bad things happening to whoever is the protagonist. The pattern of Bluestar, Tallstar, and Crookedstar all having either dead or abusive parents and going through tragedy after tragedy got so predictable as to be funny.
Lots of unexpected characters pop up in the Omen of the Stars finale The Last Hope, such as Redtail, Raggedstar and Mosskit. But almost nobody was expecting Brambleberry's cameo appearance at the beginning where she is one of the first cats to ever successfully give Jayfeather a lecture.
When Dawn of the Clans, a prequel series dealing with the founding and early days of the five Clans was announced, lots of theories were made about appearances from the Clan Founders (Thunder, River Ripple, Wind Runner, Tall Shadow, and Clear Sky), original medicine cats (Cloudspots, Dapplepelt, Mothflight, and Pebbleheart), and a few other characters mentioned in the field guides (Gorsefur, Owleyes, Lightningtail, etc.). However, almost nobody predicted Graywing the Wise (a character whose sole mention in the series beforehand was being credited with creating a few WindClan battle strategies in Battles of the Clans) showing up, let alone his role as the (initial) main character of the arc. To a lesser extent, few expected Half Moon and Lion's Roar to appear in the arc, but they ended up being supporting characters in The Sun Trail.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Mapleshade in Mapleshade's Vengeance. Before that, she states she was proud to be in the Dark Forest and had no regrets for her actions, and was clearly displayed as a pure villain. But the events that led to her becoming a villain—her entire Clan turning on her, her kits drowning, her mate cheating on her and rejecting her—and the implication it all drove her mad are so depressing, it makes her seem like more of a victim and Tragic Villain than the Erins probably intended.
Viewer Gender Confusion: In The Rise of Scourge, it's unclear whether Brick◊ is a tom or she-cat, and it was a point of debate for years: some fans felt the cat looked masculine, while others disagreed and pointed out that Brick had distinctive eyelashes like Scourge's mother and sister. Twelve years later, the novel Graystripe's Vow finally confirmed Brick to be male.
estimates that sixty-three species have been driven to extinction by house cats alone.
Purity Sue and Satellite Love Interest and criticism of StarClan being a Designated Hero group in general, many people preferred if Spottedleaf were a villain, both making her more interesting from their perspective and making StarClan's cruel moments intentional rather than brushed off by the narrative.
