History Literature / WarriorCats

!!Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including {{Spoiler Title}}s and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (''River of Fire'') and side book (''Tigerheart's Shadow'') may be unmarked.

!!Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including {{Spoiler Title}}s and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (''Darkest Night'') and side book (''Tigerheart's Shadow'') may be unmarked.

#''Path of the Stars''

As of 2016, Alibaba Pictures has obtained movie rights to the series, with David Heyman named as the producer.

The fourth arc, ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsOmenOfTheStars Omen Of The Stars]]'', continues to deal with the mysterious prophecy from ''Power of Three''. As the cats struggle to unearth the truth about their purpose, the old foes of the Clans are rising. Strengthened by years worth of animosity, they are preparing to wage an all-out war on the Clans. This arc was intended to serve as a GrandFinale to the modern day series.

There are also plenty of [[SpinOff spin-off]] titles out and coming soon, such as the extra long Super Editions (extra-long standalone novels), Field Guides (which give additional information on the Clans and also include short stories that involve both the founding of the Clans and some of the modern characters), Manga installments (which generally serve as side stories to the main series), and novellas (which flesh out events that are briefly described in or give backstory to the main series).

Its two sister series, ''[[Literature/SeekerBears Seekers]]'' (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, and both arcs are completed) and ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Creator/ErinHunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city, currently on its second arc) are also worth checking out. A fourth series, ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'', featuring African animals, has been released in mid-2017.

!!Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including {{Spoiler Title}}s and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (''Shattered Sky'') and side book (''Legends of the Clans'' novellas) may be unmarked.

[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warriorcats_611.jpg]]

#''Dark Night''

Its two sister series, ''[[Literature/SeekerBears Seekers]]'' (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, which is currently on its second arc) and ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Creator/ErinHunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city) are also worth checking out. A fourth series, ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'', featuring African animals, is on its way in mid-2017.

Its two sister series, ''[[Literature/SeekerBears Seekers]]'' (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, which is currently on its second arc) and ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'' (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Creator/ErinHunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city) are also worth checking out. A fourth series, ''Bravelands'', featuring African animals, is on its way in mid-2017.

!!Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including {{Spoiler Title}}s and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (''Shattered Sky'') and side book (''Hawkwing's Journey'') may be unmarked.

!!Due to the series' spoiler-filled nature, including {{Spoiler Title}}s and even character names, all spoilers aside from the newest main-series book (''Thunder and Shadow'') and side book (''Hawkwing's Journey'') may be unmarked.

[[WhatDoYouMeanIt'sForKids Yet kids are the target audience]].

Yet kids are the target audience.

Its two sister series, ''[[Literature/SeekerBears Seekers]]'' (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, which is currently on its second arc) and ''Literature/{{Survivors}}'' (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Creator/ErinHunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city) are also worth checking out. A fourth series, ''Bravelands'', featuring African animals, is on its way in mid-2017.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes A-C]]
* AbandonedArea:
** Sites abandoned by humans - old houses, for instance - usually are a benefit, as Clan cats occasionally find shelter in them during journeys. The most prominent ones are in [=ThunderClan=]'s lake territory: their camp is in a long-abandoned quarry, and the abandoned workman's house still stands with healing herbs such as catmint growing in its garden, and it was also used as a quarantine in one book when a large portion of the Clan got greencough.
** After the Clans leave the forest, their camps still stand and are considered to be fairly creepy. Graystripe travels to them upon his escape from Twolegs ([[UnexpectedlyAbandoned not realizing that the Clans have left]]), and Ravenpaw and Barley also take a look around the old territories a few years later.
* AbandonedMine: The "human view" map reveals the cave that the Moonstone is found in to be an abandoned mine.
* AbdicateTheThrone: Pinestar, leader of [=ThunderClan=], left the Clan to become a kittypet near the end of his life.
* TheAbridgedSeries: [[http://hyperadam.deviantart.com/gallery/23785581 At least]] [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6154225/1/Warriors_The_Abridged_Series_Into_the_WTF four]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz5x5LxCMQY of]] [[http://forums.warriorcats.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7641093/m/4311046057/p/1 them]]
* AbusiveParents:
** Crowfeather to Breezepelt.
** Lizardstripe's [[FreudianExcuse treatment of Brokenstar]]:
--->...a queen who did not care for her new charge, who bit it and nipped it and deprived it of milk as punishment for being born at all.
** ''Crookedstar's Promise'' gives us another example in Rainflower. After her son twists his jaw, she forces a name change ("Stormkit" to "Crookedkit"), makes him sleep in another nest, looks down on him constantly, and arranges things so that Oakheart gets special treatment and Crookedstar feels alone.
* AccidentalHero: Scourge became the ruthless warlord he was in part by trying to live up to a reputation for toughness he got for beating up two dogs. One of these incidents was a complete fabrication and in the other the dog became scared of Scourge's massive shadow and ran while Scourge was yowling at him.
* AccidentalMurder:
** In ''Fading Echoes'', Lionblaze accidentally kills Russetfur when pulling her off Firestar. They establish, however, that she probably shouldn't have been fighting still at her age.
** During the ''Dawn of the Clans'' arc, Gray Wing is minding his own business when he's attacked by Fox, and in the ensuing fight, Gray Wing accidentally kills Fox by slashing his throat.
* AcidRefluxNightmare: Brambleclaw originally thinks his prophecy dream was one of these.
* AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload: The fandom is fond of this. Acronyms include:
** The series titles (The OS for ''The Original Series'', TNP for ''The New Prophecy'', TPOT for ''Power of Three'', OOTS for ''Omen of the Stars'', DOTC for ''Dawn of the Clans'', AVOS for "A Vision of Shadows").
** Book titles (TDH for ''The Darkest Hour'', FQ for ''Firestar's Quest'', BP for ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', NW for ''Night Whispers'', [=BotC=] for ''Battles of the Clans'', [=T4A=] for ''The Fourth Apprentice'', and [=SotC=] for ''Secrets of the Clans'', to name a few... This created a slight issue when ''Code of the Clans'' came along, because there was already a [=CotC=] from ''Cats of the Clans''. There were even forum threads debating on what to call it - the most common form is [=C2otC=]). A later problem came when ''Tallstar's Revenge'' and ''Thunder Rising'' were announced as releases for the same years. Fans called them both "TR" until they realized the problem. Some alternate acronyms were made as solutions, such as [=TaR=] and TSR for ''Tallstar's Revenge'', and [=ThR=] and [=TRi=] for ''Thunder Rising''.
** Some characters, places, etc (HF for Hawkfrost, DF for The Dark Forest, [=PoNS=] for The Place of No Stars, another name for the Dark Forest).
** Related websites (WW for Website/WarriorsWish, while the Website/WarriorsOfficialForum is called either the OF for "Official Forum", WOF for "Warriors Official Forum", or WCF for "Warrior Cats Forum").
* ActionGirl: Almost every single she-cat in the series is just as competent as any one of the male characters that are not named Scourge or Lionblaze. Even she-cats that you wouldn't expect to be badass turn out to be this, such as medicine cats (in ''Into the Wild'', Yellowfang defeats TheDragon and nearly takes down the BigBad), queens (they help out during ''Twilight'''s badger attack, and Lionblaze successfully teaches them some fighting skills in ''The Last Hope'' that are seen in the FinalBattle), and elders (Mousefur and Goldenflower drive away a freaking badger on their own in ''Twilight''). The number one example of this is probably Ivypool. She's female, but she's also the main character that doles out the most asskicking (well, other than Lionblaze, but Ivypool actually worked for her strength).
* ActionMom: Though she-cats take a break from their warrior duties when they have kits, they still have to be ready to protect their kits if the camp is attacked. One gift that new leaders are often given as part of their [[CatsHaveNineLives nine lives]] is the love a mother has for her kits, in order to help them protect the Clan; this life is often expected to feel gentle, and the new leader is often shocked by how painfully fierce it is - mothers are willing to face any amount of enemies or even die for their kits. One particular Action Mom is Leafstar: leaders normally are not allowed to have kits because it conflicts with their duties, but Leafstar decided to have kits anyway.
* ActionPrologue: The prologue of the very first book features a fight between [=RiverClan=] and [=ThunderClan=].
* AdaptationDyeJob: In the actual books, Millie is a silver tabby. On the manga covers, she's pinkish-brown colored. The illustrator explained that when he got the character outlines, she was only described as a tabby, so he pictured her as rosy brown, and didn't find out her real color until he had already colored the cover of the second volume. He discussed with his editor whether to change it, but they decided that it would be dull to have two gray cats next to each other.
* AdaptedOut: The ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'' manga trilogy (and bonus manga at the end of [=SkyClan=]'s Destiny) is unique among ''Warriors'' mangas in that they try to make ''all'' [=SkyClan=] cats appear, or at least be ''mentioned''. While almost the entire Clan ''is'' in there, the only ones to not show up or be mentioned at all in either the trilogy or the bonus manga are Sagepaw and Egg, for whatever reason. Sagepaw appears in later books; Egg does not.
* AdultFear: The series deals with this a couple times. The forest is dangerous, so it's always frightening to the characters when a young cat disappears... one mother has to deal with the fact that her daughter's hindlegs are paralyzed so she'll never live a normal life and might die early... another mother's kits go missing, and she's forced to realize that her mate may have kidnapped them to live with him.
* AdventuresInComaland: In ''The Sight'', Poppyfrost has greencough, and has a dream about being in [=StarClan=]'s forest. Jayfeather is also there, because of his power, and stops her from dying.
* AdvertisedExtra: Tigerstar is this for the second and third books of ''Tigerstar and Sasha''. In the first book, he was the love interest. However, in the second book (on which he is the only one on the cover), he shows up, asks the hero a question, and is never seen again! In book three, he only appears in dream sequences. It's like the writers didn't know what to do with him, so they hid him in a cupboard and hoped no one would find him.
* AesopAmnesia: No matter how many times the Clans learn the value of working together, they always divide back up once the danger has passed. Wanting to unite the Clans is treated as a big red "I Am A Villain" flag. Then again, they ''are'' cats. And the first time someone did try to unite the Clans, it was with the intention of taking over the whole forest and seizing power for himself.
* AfterActionPatchUp: Happpens frequently after major or minor battles.
* AllGenesAreCoDominant: According to feline genetics Hollyleaf should have been a tortie. There's much more, but in general cat genetics are a lot more complicated than the Erins know about. They even admit they don't know poop about cat coat genetics.
** There are multiple male tortoiseshells in ''Warriors'', which are incredibly rare (about a one in three thousand chance). At least one of them, Redtail, is also a father, despite almost all male tortoiseshells being sterile.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys:
** Snowfur only had eyes for Thistleclaw, who was violent and kind of a jerk.
** Speckle from ''Sunrise'' knew that the traveling cat Sol was a bad guy, but she was hopelessly in love with him and wished he was the father of her kits.
* AlliterativeFamily: Graystripe and Millie's kits are named Bumblestripe, Blossomfall, and Briarlight.
* AllThereInTheManual: Many character motivations, family tree information, bits of worldbuilding, and pivotal scenes are only seen or mentioned in the field guides, the app, and WordOfGod.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs:
** Happens in ''Into the Wild'' when [=ShadowClan=] launches an attack on [=ThunderClan=]'s camp.
** Also happens in ''Eclipse'' when [=RiverClan=] and [=WindClan=] team up to attack [=ThunderClan=].
* AlmostDeadGuy: Very common.
** In ''Forest of Secrets'', Brokenstar survives just long enough to suddenly comprehend that he's dying and get an OhCrap moment. It was exactly the kind of death that he deserved.
** Midway through ''Rising Storm'', Fireheart finds Whitethroat by a Thunderpath. Whitethroat gets hit by a car, but he still keeps talking for a little bit before he dies.
** At the end of ''Rising Storm'', Fireheart finds Yellowfang dying on smoke inhalation. Before she dies, she confesses all her secrets (which he already knew), and gives him reassurance that it's a good way to die.
** In ''A Dangerous Path'', Bluestar holds on just long enough to apologize to her kits, be forgiven, and to tell Fireheart how much faith she has in him before she dies.
** In ''The Darkest Hour'', after Bone strikes him down, Whitestorm reassures Firestar that [[ItHasBeenAnHonor it's been a pleasure]] being deputy and tells him that Graystripe was always destined to be his deputy before dying.
** In ''The Darkest Hour'', Darkstripe rambles aimlessly as he dies. Strangely, it actually worked as a send off for the character.
** In ''Moonrise'', Feathertail lives just long enough to tease Crowpaw and echo his words before dying.
** In ''Twilight'', Cinderpelt tells Leafpool to be brave as she dies.
** In ''Sunset'', Hawkfrost taunts Brambleclaw one last time and warns him that nothing is over before he dies.
** In ''The Last Hope'', Hollyleaf forgives Leafpool and says that she's not afraid to die with her last breaths.
** Later in ''The Last Hope'', Spottedleaf tells Firestar that she can't travel with him any longer as her spirit fades away for good. Subverted when she has one last thing to say to him, but it's too late and she dies with it unresolved.
** Probably the most badass one ever occurs in ''The Last Hope'' when Firestar uses his dying moments to rid the world of his ArchEnemy forever. His last words aren't a lament, but a badass quip.
* AlternateAnimalAffection: There's no single equivalent of a kiss in ''Warriors'', but cats tend to press their cheeks together, lick each other, and/or entwine their tails when they're emotionally close, regardless of whether the relationship is platonic or romantic.
* AlternativeCalendar: The Clans measure everything by moons instead of months and have alternate names for the seasons because they're cats.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Dogs, great [=StarClan!=] Except for the pair in the ''Ravenpaw's Path'' trilogy. At first they may be ungrateful to Ravenpaw and Barley for saving their lives (attacking them as soon as they're free), but later they return the favor to Ravenpaw, Barley, and the [=ThunderClan=] cats by helping chase off [=BloodClan=]. And also the dogs in Warrior's Refuge; they seem pretty vicious to the barn cats, but once Millie reveals she can speak a little dog it's revealed that they chase cats not to catch them, but because it's fun.
* AlwaysSecondBest:
** [[BigBad Tigerstar]] suffered from this. He claims that he was a great warrior, but as soon as Bluestar discovered [[TheChosenOne Firestar]], he was reduced to "a great warrior, just not as good as Firestar".
** Ashfur in the second arc, ''Literature/WarriorCatsTheNewProphecy''. He would be the best choice for deputy...if not for Brambleclaw. He could have been [=StarClan=]'s chosen one... if not for Brambleclaw. He could have had Squirrelflight's affections...if not for Brambleclaw. See the pattern?
** Gray Wing from ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsDawnOfTheClans Dawn of the Clans]]'' to his brother Clear Sky. He's the Tribe's second best hunter after Clear Sky, second place in their little brother Jagged Peak's BigBrotherWorship, and second place romantically to Clear Sky's first mate Bright Stream and second mate Storm. It stems from Gray Wing being a {{deconstruction}} of series protagonist Firestar.
* AmateurSleuth:
** Firestar went out of his way to solve several crimes in the original series, such as Redtail's death and some kit-killings in [=ShadowClan=].
** Minor character Shrewtooth later tries his paws at it by solving the mystery of Leafstar's lost kits in the ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'' manga minutes before Leafstar herself worked it out.
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The series ''appears'' to take place in the present day. However, nobody knows how long in the "past" the background lore goes back - WordOfGod has [[FlipFlopOfGod flip-flopped]] on whether the Clans have been in the forest for 50 years or 30 years, both of which are considered to be too short by fans considering all the leaders and generation gaps we know about. When you go all the way back - before the Clans were formed, before the Tribe was formed, back when their ancestors lived by the lake - there seems to be modern construction equipment; it describes yellow vehicles. Most people accept the series as taking place slightly in the future because of this, but it's not clear exactly when.
* AmbitionIsEvil: A recurring theme in the books.
** Tigerstar's desire to be leader of [=ThunderClan=] (and later of all four Clans) is what makes him a villain; he will do just about '''anything''' to achieve his goal.
** Brambleclaw feels the very same ambition that drove his father but, well aware of what his father became, he is determined to not allow his ambition to control him (still implying that ambition is the opposite of good, even though Whitestorm also mentions in the first series that Firestar has quite a bit of ambition himself).
** The protagonists' ambition fits into NotSoDifferent.
* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Some of the other-language versions of the books are more hardcore than the originals: for instance, compare [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120326232020/warriors/images/c/c7/OS-4.jpg this American cover]] to [[http://images.wikia.com/warriors/images/c/c9/OS-4-RU.jpg this Russian cover]]. There's a lot more where that came from: The title translation is also subject to this having been translated as ''Raging Storm'' rather then ''Rising Storm''. Also, the French title for ''Fire and Ice'' roughly means ''In Fire and In Blood''. Inverted with the Japanese covers. The Japanese cover for ''The Darkest Hour'', which is one of the most carnage-tastic books in the series, is of [[CoversAlwaysLie two fluffy kitties smiling]].
* AncientConspiracy: The Dark Forest, which has been plotting to destroy the Clans since long before Firestar came to the forest.
* AncientKeeper: Midnight is a helpful badger who can speak Cat. She seems to have an infinite amount of knowledge, and she always shows up to inform the heroes of the next plot point. Also, she's been around since the dawn of time.
* AndThisIsFor: In ''The Blazing Star'', Star Flower betrays Thunder and helps her father One Eye attack Thunder's father, Clear Sky. Later in the fight, Gray Wing (Thunder's uncle and Clear Sky's brother) kicks her back, thinking with satisfaction, "That one's for Thunder".
* AngryGuardDog: Guard dogs appear at the prologue of ''A Dangerous Path'', brought to the Treecutplace compound by humans to find the arsonists who set the forest on fire in ''Rising Storm.''
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Crowfeather to Leafpool, after saving her from falling off a cliff.
-->'''Crowfeather''': Is that what you think? Don't you know how I feel about you? And how much I hate myself for feeling that way about another cat so soon after Feathertail's death? I loved her, I really did! How can I love you too?
* AnimalReligion: The Clans have a version of ancestor worship. When they die, their spirits go to join [=StarClan=], their version of the afterlife. [=StarClan=] grants the Clan leaders their [[CatsHaveNineLives nine lives]], and also give visions and direction to the Clans' medicine cats.
* AnimalTalk: Several different types of animals can speak, but each species speaks a different "language" and they are all unintelligible to each other (and to humans). The cats can only understand one or two words that the dog pack speaks (namely, "pack" and "kill"), while Midnight the badger is highly unusual for having learned to talk to cats, as well as foxes and rabbits. It's even mentioned that there are different languages among cats in different regions (Midnight can speak a couple of those others too). The Tribe of Rushing Water, for instance, speaks the same language as the Clans, but are mentioned to have a strange accent and use different idioms.
--> '''Midnight''': Fox and rabbit also. They speak... not of interest. Fox talk is all of kill. Rabbit have thistledown for brain.
* {{Animesque}}:
** Most of the fan-made Website/YouTube Warriors animations. Some of the more prominent animators out there even like to slap on a full head of human hair onto their cats. Firestar is always drawn as a brunette, and Tigerstar with black hair. Either way, it's [[ArtisticLicenseBiology anatomically incorrect]].
** Most fanart of ''Warriors'' has taken to adding a large tuft of hair on the cats' foreheads, even though real cats don't have such tufts. Others will draw a gold star on a cat's forehead to signify that the cat's a leader, when this is never described in the books.
** James Barry's manga also is in a more animesque style than the other artists. He tends to give cats tufts of fur on their heads too, but for the most part it actually looks like fur. The only example where it actually ''was'' hair was [[http://i56.tinypic.com/35i53sx.jpg Husker]] from the Graystripe trilogy.
* AntagonisticOffspring:
** Breezepelt in ''Power of Three'' and ''Omen of the Stars''. He's the son of [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Crowfeather]], but he allies himself with the ghosts of the villains in an attempt to overthrow the society of the characters.
** [[TheMedic Yellowfang's]] son Brokenstar is one of the first villains to be shown in the entire series. In fact, he was so evil that Yellowfang had to kill him to save [=ThunderClan=].
* AnyoneCanDie: Beyond the large amount of minor characters and villains that get killed, even important characters like Yellowfang, Bluestar, Feathertail, Cinderpelt, Flametail, Hollyleaf (for reals this time), Spottedleaf's spirit, and Firestar get killed off.
* ArchnemesisDad:
** Tigerstar is the BigBad, with his son Brambleclaw as the hero during the [[Literature/WarriorCatsTheNewProphecy New Prophecy]] arc. However, while Tigerstar seeks to rule the world, Brambleclaw wants to stop him and says he'd rather die than join him.
** Clear Sky was this for Thunder in ''Dawn Of The Clans'' until his HeelFaceTurn in ''The First Battle''.
* ArcWelding: Some books have melded two subplots together to make their story through use of a retcon.
** ''Crookedstar's Promise'' introduces the Dark Forest to the past and shows it influencing the events of book as early as ''Fire and Ice'' through use of Crookedstar's story.
** ''Yellowfang's Secret'' makes it so that [=SkyClan=] is directly responsible for the rise of Brokenstar, even though they had died out years before his birth.
* ArcWords: Some of the prophecies. "''Pack, pack, kill, kill''" in ''A Dangerous Path''.
* AscendedFanboy: Deconstructed in ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger''. Sol's mother always got him and his siblings to behave by telling them stories of the Sky Warriors, which were the [=SkyClan=] cats from the days before the Clan was destroyed. Sol always loved the stories of the Sky Warriors. When his mom left him at the home of a crazy cat lady, he wished that he could become a Sky Warrior, because he thought that if he did, she would come back. After he grew up, he learned that [=SkyClan=] had been rebuilt, and wanted nothing more than to become one of its members. Leafstar, [=SkyClan=]'s leader, let him join, but no matter how much he tried he didn't have what it took. She promised that she would let him become a warrior after he had proved himself, but Sol, fueled by his dreams from kithood, was impatient. To try to become a [=SkyClan=] warrior faster, he kidnapped Leafstar's kits, planning to "find" them after she realized they were missing and become a warrior because of it. Leafstar caught him however, and exiled him, realizing that he had none of the qualities of a true warrior. Because of this, Sol turned against the Clans, and vowed to destroy their CodeOfHonor to prove that it was worthless.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Tends to be the case with Clan leaders, because they're often one of the strongest warriors in the Clan when they're chosen to be deputy.
* AvengingTheVillain: Darkstripe and Hawkfrost's motivation for attempting to kill Firestar is mainly vengeance for Tigerstar's death.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Tigerheart, Sunfall, Hawkfrost, Talon of Swooping Eagle, the list goes on.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: The leader ceremonies.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther:
** Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are almost the poster couple for this pairing. There's at least four fights between them a book.
** Also, Firestar and Sandstorm in the first arc suit this trope, too. Sandstorm hates Firestar until he saves her life in ''Fire and Ice'', when she starts to like him.
* AxeCrazy: Plenty of the villains are this. Most notably Mapleshade, whose start of evil was when she very violently murdered cats she felt wronged her based on what she believed were the restless spirits of her kits, and then later on she generally treated everyone with a SlasherSmile.
* BackForTheDead: Hollyleaf. After being presumed dead for four books, she returns to [=ThunderClan=] in ''The Forgotten Warrior'', only to be killed by Hawkfrost in the next book, ''The Last Hope''.
* BackForTheFinale:
** Stormfur and Brook appear in the last paragraph of ''Twilight'', just in time to be important characters again in ''Sunset'', the finale of ''The New Prophecy''.
** For the GrandFinale of the series, ''The Last Hope'', the Erins brought back most of the cast of the Original Series, along with several minor characters who hadn't appeared for a while, and a ton of other characters from the backstory of the series: Adderfang, Brindleface, Broken Shadow, Cedarstar (mistakenly called "Cedarheart"), Cinderpelt (in person - er, cat) Fallen Leaves, Flametail, Frostfur, Goosefeather, Half Moon, Hollyflower, Lionheart, Longtail, Mosskit, Owl Feather, Redtail, Runningwind, Silverstream, Slant, Snowfur, Sparrowfeather, Sunstar, Swiftbreeze, Swiftpaw, Tawnyspots, and Whitestorm all make their returns here.
* BackFromTheDead:
** In ''Sunset'', Cinderpelt is revealed to have been reincarnated as Sorreltail's daughter Cinderkit.
** Also, Heavystep, who died but managed to stay on the cast list for quite a while afterwards due to a ContinuitySnarl. Similarly, Smokepaw fell off a cliff in ''Dawn'' but remained in the books afterward, even being given a warrior name, Smokefoot.
** The Clan Leaders probably count as well, since they literally have nine lives and spend a few moments dead after losing each one before being revived (minus the wound/disease that killed them). Once the ninth is gone though, they are KilledOffForReal.
* {{Backstory}}: Explored a lot with different characters. There's ''The Rise of Scourge'', ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', ''Crookedstar's Promise'', ''Yellowfang's Secret'', and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.
* BackStory: Explored a lot with different characters. There's ''The Rise of Scourge'', the "prequel" Super Editions, many novellas, and then a number of short stories in the field guides, such as the one about Barley's past. Even the main series has some of these moments.
* BackToBackBadasses: According to Secrets of the Clans, this is a technique taught to apprentices.
* BackupFromOtherworld:
** Honeyfern in ''The Fourth Apprentice''.
** The Ancients and [=StarClan=] in ''The Last Hope''.
* BadassCreed: ''Battles of the Clans'' gave us:
--> "[=RiverClan=] ''fish''! [=RiverClan=] ''swim''! [=RiverClan=] warriors use water to ''win''!"
* BadassGrandpa:
** Whitestorm gets a special mention in that he is one of the oldest active warriors and his age is mentioned multiple times, but he's still a powerful fighter and is popular with all of [=ThunderClan=]. That is, of course, before he is killed.
** Several characters such as Firestar and Graystripe become grandpas eventually, but they're still strong fighters.
** Even retired elders can still usually put up a decent fight if worse comes to worst.
* BadassInDistress: In the [=SkyClan=] manga, ActionGirl Leafstar gets captured by a CrazyCatLady and has to be rescued by her Clanmates.
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Scourge kills Tigerstar, so Firestar's never put in a position where he has to genuinely consider it.
* BadOmenAnecdote:
** One young cat's spine is broken when a tree falls and she's pinned by the branches. Jayfeather, the medicine cat, tries to encourage her by telling her how [=ShadowClan=] once had a cat with a similar injury and had told him about their experiences. Unfortunately, [=ShadowClan=]'s warrior had ended up dying because of complications with it, which doesn't encourage Jayfeather's patient much.
** In ''Dawn of the Clans'', when a cat's about to have kits, Gray Wing asks Reed (a cat who's helping with the birth) if he's helped at a kitting before. He said that he has, Gray Wing asked what happened, and he says that the kits lived but the queen died. Gray Wing's worried for a moment, but Reed explains that the queen he'd helped was already sick, while this one is healthy.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: There is an old Twoleg living near [=SkyClan=] who is cruel to his pets. In ''Firestar's Quest'', Petal and her kits have to be rescued from him, and in ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'', the perpetually nervous Shrewtooth reveals that he is so jumpy because he used to be owned by the same man. [=SkyClan=] attacks the man to try to teach him not to mistreat any more of his pets.
* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: Part of Rock's shtick is that there must be a balance between light and darkness, because without one the other would not exist.
* BandageWince: A lot of characters tend to wince when herbs are applied - even if moments ago they claimed they're fine and don't need any.
* BandOfBrothers: The main characters of ''The New Prophecy'' become true friends over the course of their journey, sharing a bond beyond that of Clan boundaries.
* BastardBastard:
** Brokenstar. Since his mother, Yellowfang, is a medicine cat who is not allowed to have kits, he is considered illegitimate. His father, Raggedstar (who is also the leader of [=ShadowClan=]), and his mother have to pretend that he is an orphaned kit, so as not to arouse suspicion. He murders his father to become leader.
** Hawkfrost too. He's the son of Tigerstar and loner Sasha, is a huge {{Jerkass}}, pinning down Sorreltail, getting Stormfur and Brook exiled, attempting to take over the Clans (and after his death, destroy them by manipulating living cats), and [[KickTheDog kicking Beetlewhisker's corpse]] come to mind. It's quite obvious his father doesn't give a damn about him, but we're never told to feel sorry for him.
* BathroomBreakOut: In ''The Darkest Hour'', Darkstripe is being watched by Brackenfur since he's suspected of being a traitor. He tells Brackenfur he needs to make dirt, so he goes behind a bush for privacy and sneaks off.
* BattleCry:
** The clans are mentioned as having them.
** The Dark Forest also has, "Kill the Clans!"
** In the first book, Firepaw's seems to be "Gr-aar!"
* BattleInTheRain:
** In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', the battle between [=ThunderClan=] and [=WindClan=] takes place in rain.
** The battle between [=ThunderClan=] and [=ShadowClan=] at the end of ''Into The Wild'' also happens during a storm.
* BearsAreBadNews: In the ''[[TabletopGame/WarriorsAdventureGame Adventure Game]]'' campaign ''Mission of Mercy'', the cats protect a young girl who gets attacked by a bear. Notable for being the only time bears appear in the series.
* BeastFable: ''Into the Wild'' is analyzed as such in the Nikolajeva book ''Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers''.
-->...The book is an example of (ab)using cats as a disguise for human beings, since the feline appearance is not inherent to the plot. It certainly adds excitement and not least novelty to the [[ClicheStorm well-trodden narrative]], appealing to cat lovers and adventure lovers equally.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Most medicine cats get screwed over by this.
** Bluestar gets hit pretty hard by this trope as well: allow a bloodthirsty, needlessly violent cat to become leader and destroy your Clan... or abandon your newborn kits in order to become leader yourself and prevent that tragedy?
** Jayfeather ''has'' to become a medicine cat for this exact reason.
* BecauseYouCanCope: Millie did this to two of her children when the third broke her back. One of the deciding factors in bringing Blossomfall to the Dark Forest.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: In the graphic novel ''Shattered Peace'', Minty stops her mate from killing Ravenpaw because Ravenpaw was nice to her kits.
* BecomingTheMask: Scourge was a product of this: When he was little, he was tricked into running away from his home and happened to end up in the city. To survive, he managed to fool the other rogues residing there into believing that he was a cold-blooded killer so they would fear him and bring him free food. However, by the time he actually kills someone, he slowly starts to become the unfeeling, cold-blooded monster he was portrayed as in his debut.
* BeeAfraid: A scene in ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' features Frecklepaw being the victim of a bee attack.
* BelatedBackstory: Yellowfang doesn't have her backstory explained until the second book, and her characterization changes to reflect it afterward.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't try to say Tigerheart is in the Dark Forest in front of Dovewing.
** Don't break the warrior code when Hollyleaf is around.
** Don't suggest to Crookedstar that he is like Rainflower.
** And for the love of [[HoldYourHippogriffs [=StarClan=]]], PLEASE don't tell a Clan cat that they sharpen their claws on bones and eat kittypets! (Although they do take advantage of the myth occasionally, just to watch the freakout.)
* BetrayalByInaction: In the second novel, Fireheart's suspicions about Tigerclaw being a traitor are confirmed when, during a battle, Fireheart is pinned down by Leopardfur, who is trying to kill him. He calls to Tigerclaw for help, but Tigerclaw ignores him and just stands there watching it happen.
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: Tigerclaw promises that any cats that come with him will be well rewarded later on; despite this, nobody follows him into exile.
* BettyAndVeronica: There are several of these. Cats tend to prefer Veronicas if they're in love triangles. Bluestar prefers Oakheart over Thrushpelt, Storm prefers Clear Sky over Gray Wing, and Dovewing prefers Tigerheart to Bumblestripe.
* BigBad: Tigerstar is generally considered the main antagonist of the series, but the arcs and some individual books have their own main villain.
** ''The Original Series'': Tigerstar
*** ''Into The Wild'' has Brokenstar by virtue of his leadership of [=ShadowClan=] and attempt to rule the forest.
*** ''Fire and Ice'', ''Forest of Secrets'', and ''Rising Storm'' split the role between Tigerstar, Brokenstar, and Nightstar, each of whom are major enemies of [=ThunderClan=].
*** ''A Dangerous Path'' sets up Tigerstar as the true villain, but has the dog pack as the main antagonists.
*** ''The Darkest Hour'' has Tigerstar again, until Scourge kills him and takes over the campaign to rule the forest.
** ''The New Prophecy'': Appears to be Hawkfrost, but it's actually Tigerstar, albeit with Hawkfrost as his chief enforcer.
*** ''Moonrise'': Sharptooth, the mountain lion terrorizing the Tribe.
*** ''Starlight'': Mudclaw, due to his rebellion against Onewhisker.
** ''Power of Three'': Sol, the traveling cat who turns the Clans against each other.
*** ''Outcast'': Stripes, the leader of the Tribe Invaders.
*** ''Eclipse'': Other than the main villain of the arc, we have Onestar, who turns on [=ThunderClan=] and tries to destroy them.
*** ''Long Shadows'': Ashfur, who becomes a major enemy of Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf during his insane crusade to destroy Squirrelflight.
*** ''Sunrise'': Hollyleaf, who is the murderer the Clans are trying to find.
** ''Omen of the Stars'': Either Tigerstar or Brokenstar, depending on who actually leads the Dark Forest.
*** ''The Fourth Apprentice'': The beavers, whose dam is draining the lake and causing the Clans to struggle with thirst and starvation.
*** ''The Forgotten Warrior'': Sol, back for one more attempt to destroy the Clans.
* BigBadassBattleSequence:
** The [=BloodClan=] battle in ''The Darkest Hour''. [=BloodClan=], a huge group of city cats (enough to take on around 100 forest cats) with a leader who can kill a Clan leader's [[CatsHaveNineLives nine lives]] in one blow, gives the forest Clans three days to either leave the forest or meet them in battle. The forest Clans spend the three days weighing their options, training, having medicine cats prepare herbs, and coming up with an escape strategy for the defenseless kits and elders if they fail. All four Clans join together to face [=BloodClan=], and the battle itself lasts about a day.
** That's nothing compared to what happens in the fourth series' last book. Basically, the cat versions of Heaven and Hell start fighting an epic war on Earth, and dozens of cats both living and dead kick ass. That one book alone has more Crowning Moments Of Awesome to its name than any preceding it.
* BigBadEnsemble:
** In the first arc, Tigerclaw and Brokenstar were this for a while. Then they teamed up and Brokenstar died.
** In the ''Power of Three'' arc, both Sol and Tigerstar were vying for the spot of BigBad, and the arc ends with Sol leaving.
** And then you've got the end of the ''Omen of the Stars'' arc, which brings ''all'' the {{Big Bad}}s back to try and get revenge from beyond the grave.
* BigBadWannabe: Sol in ''Power of Three'': he takes over [=ShadowClan=], but then is easily defeated by Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf.
* BigBallOfViolence: In ''The Rise of Scourge'', young Tiny/Scourge invents a story about him fighting a dog. His "story" is drawn in a very rough, sketched style, and the "fight" is drawn as a ball.
* BigBrotherBully:
** In ''The Rise of Scourge'', Tiny, the runt of his litter, is teased by his sister Ruby and brother Socks.
** In ''Thunder Rising'', as soon as Clear Sky sees Jagged Peak (who he'd driven out for breaking a leg), he drops the niceness and politeness he showed Gray Wing and acts ugly towards Jagged Peak, taunting him and accusing him of being lazy and selfish. Gray Wing stands up for Jagged Peak, and Clear Sky begins to apologize only to be rejected by Jagged Peak, calling him out for making him leave the forest just because of a broken leg. He gets better toward the end of the series, however. In fact, he even apologizes to Jagged Peak for kicking him out of the forest.
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In ''Fire and Ice'', Graystripe shows up to save Fireheart from Clawface.
** In ''The Heart of a Warrior'', the dogs repay Ravenpaw and Barley for saving them by showing up and defeating Neo [=BloodClan=].
** In ''The Last Hope'', Hollyleaf saves Ivypool when she was cornered by Hawkfrost, giving her life in the process.
* BigEater: The characters often joke that Graystripe is one.
* BigGood: Firestar in series two through four. He is the leader of the main CastHerd, [=ThunderClan=], and is always trying to stop evil and create peace between the Clans.
* BigNo: Bluestar (then Bluepaw) makes one of these in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', when her mother is killed in battle. Complete with eight o's.
* BigScrewedUpFamily:
** Every Clan is so inbred at this point that every Clan-born character is related to everyone else. It isn't uncommon for someone to have an affair with their cousin, or even sibling. One character even went out with her half-uncle for a while.
** At best, they're suspicious of each other, at worst, they're constantly trying to kill each other... yeah.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} with inter-Clan mating, and the (very) rare newcomer.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Cinderpelt dies shortly before Cinderkit is born.
* BitchAlert:
** Sandpaw's first appearance. She snarls that Firepaw smells revolting, and then makes a comment about how he's a kittypet.
** Foxheart and Lizardstripe of Shadowclan. The former is constantly rude and mocking towards Yellowfang while the latter occasionally joins the former as well as being cross with having to be a queen and mistreating Brokenkit.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Hawkfrost fits this trope to a T. Brambleclaw can't believe at first that his half-brother may be evil.
* BitPartBadguys: Duke, a villain from ''The Lost Warrior'',, is one of these. His only reason for existing was so that Graystripe could fight someone in the first book, and out of all the villains in the series, he is one of the quickest to go down.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality:
** Hollyleaf starts out with her absolute trust in the [[CodeOfHonour Warrior Code]], and believes that all who follow it are good, while those who don't are evil. After using the code to justify most of her actions, she learns that her very birth broke the code, and that someone she had respected had broken one of the code's core principles, but for a good reason. After learning this, Hollyleaf's mind was completely shattered, and she realized that her morality was flawed, leading her to attempt to murder her own mother, then flee from the Clans.
** The series in general is at first an example of GreyandGrayMorality with [=ThunderClan=] and [=ShadowClan=] each having their good warriors (Firestar, Graystripe, and Yellowfang come to mind) and their bad warriors (Brokenstar, Tigerstar, and Darkstripe) but in the fourth series... Black-and-White Morality is in effect as the Clans go against The Dark Forest cats who are indeed evil. Also in effect during the fight with [=BloodClan=] who are (with few exceptions) very black.
* TheBlank: In ''Forest of Secrets'', Fireheart has a nightmare of a faceless queen losing her kits.
* BlasphemousBoast: In ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar claims that he is more powerful than [=StarClan=] because he changed the number of Clans in the forest from four to two.
* BlessedWithSuck: The Three's powers all have their downsides. Lionblaze can't be harmed in battle, but he also suffers from bloody nightmares of him murdering others. Jayfeather can see into other cats' dreams and memories, but this causes him to learn things he shouldn't (which he constantly has [=StarClan=] cats nagging him about), and he is also blind in life. Dovewing has super-strong senses, which leaves her sometimes distracted, and it also makes her sister very jealous of her.
* BlindSeer: Jayfeather. He's blind, but he's very perceptive and his power gives him the ability to gain a huge amount of knowledge that he wouldn't otherwise have.
* BloodFromTheMouth:
** Hawkfrost coughs up clots of blood shortly before he dies at the end of ''Sunset''.
** Tigerstar at the end of the ''Rise of Scourge'' manga.
** Non-fatal example: At one point in ''Forest of Secrets'', Graystripe has blood bubbling from his mouth.
** After he is hit by a car, blood trickles out of Whitethroat's mouth as he tries to speak.
** In ''Moonrise'' a doomed [[RedShirt Tribe cat]] has blood coming out of its mouth after being slammed against a wall.
** Snowfur, when she's hit by a car.
** In the short story ''The Clans Decide'', blood comes out of an injured she-cat's mouth as she tries to speak. She gets better, but she is near death at this point.
** In ''Night Whispers,'' Jayfeather has a vision in which he sees blood spilling from the mouths of every cat in [=ThunderClan=] except Ivypool.
* BloodIsSquickerInWater: Hawkfrost's death: he stumbles into the lake bleeding from stab wound in his throat, fulfilling the prophecy ''Blood will spill blood and the lake will run red.'' To a lesser extent, Ashfur's death, since his body was dumped in a stream after his throat was slashed.
* BloodlessCarnage:
** Blood is never referenced in regards to prey, aside from one instance in ''Midnight'' where it mentions that Brambleclaw knows the taste of salt because he'd sometimes taste it in the blood of prey. The cats never get blood on themselves while hunting or eating, which is odd considering how bloody some battles get.
** In the ''Tigerstar and Sasha'' manga, those squirrels and frogs and hares they kill look quite clean. The illustrator, Don Hudson, even had a scene where the editors thought that even a ''clean'' dead rabbit looked too creepy.
--> I am working on the Cat book for Tokyopop and I am at an interesting point in the story. The story involves Feral cats and life in the wild. A Feral cat stops and kills a wild hare as described in the script. I drew the layout and it was approved, but at a certain point, the powers that be wanted a change. The dead rabbit looks too creepy. I understand that the pre-teen market may not be into dead rabbits, but why write it into the script? They wanted me to change the angle to obscure the hare, messing up the storytelling. My compromise was to turn the rabbit around, and closing his eyes. It's not dead, just sleeping! No trauma, just a sleepy, knocked out bunny. ([[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_s0GsnDo9fJI/R1mEOA3z2lI/AAAAAAAAAvg/wEE_Fyub6l4/s1600-h/cat+layout.jpg Comparison of original and revised sketches]])
* BloodSplatteredInnocents:
** Lionblaze. Although most of the times he ends up splattered with blood, he's responsible, the times in ''Long Shadows'' when Tigerstar shows him visions of himself killing Heathertail in a series of violent fashions may count.
** Generally averted with ''everyone else''.
** Jayfeather's vision of blood spilling from the mouths of every [=ThunderClan=] cat.
* BluntYes: Tigerstar's response to Firestar:
-->'''Firestar''': Has it been worth it, Tigerstar? All the hate? All the death?\\
'''Tigerstar''': [[BluntYes Every moment]].
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: This conveniently happens to Mudclaw, a minor villain. [=StarClan=] may or may not have been behind that one, as they have a strict rule of non-interference in the physical plane. It was, in any case, an extremely convenient lightning strike for the Clans: not only was Mudclaw killed, but the lightning felled a tree which created a very handy bridge to a nearby island.
* BondVillainStupidity: Originally, it was believed that the only reason Tigerstar doesn't [[TalkingInYourDreams go into Firestar's dreams]] and kill him was because he ''couldn't''. However, WordOfGod revealed that he ''can'', but he just ''doesn't want to''.
-->'''Iceclaw:''' If Tigerstar can harm cats like he can and walk in their dreams, why doesn't he just do it to Firestar, take revenge, and get it over with?
-->'''Vicky:''' Because Tigerstar wants a long-drawn out kind of vengeance, involving as many cats as possible, so that Firestar truly suffers. ...
* BookEnds:
** When ''Omen of the Stars'' was still intended to be the ending of the main ''Warriors'' series, the series began with Firestar entering the forest for the first time and ended with Firestar's death. Kate Cary was also the one to write ''Into the Wild'' and also the one to write ''The Last Hope'', so she felt that was fitting and was very pleased to have been the one chosen to write it.
** The last lines of ''The Last Hope'' are this in the best way possible.
-->''There will be three cats, kin of your kin, with the power of the stars in their paws. They will find a fourth, and the battle between light and dark will be won. A new leader will rise from the shadows of his death, and the Clans will survive beyond the memories of his memories. That is how it has always been, and how it always will be.''
* BoomerangBigot: In ''The Power of Three'', [[AwesomeEgo Berrynose]] complains that the [=ThunderClan=] leader Firestar is letting too many kittypets (house cats) into his Clan and tainting the blood of the Clan. Another cat immediately points out that Berrynose himself was a kittypet that Firestar let into the Clan, only for Berrynose to try to claim that it's different.
* BoringReturnJourney: The trip back from the beavers, and also the portion of the sun-drown-place journey from the Tribe back to the Clans (which was described in ''one paragraph'').
* BorrowedCatchphrase:
** In the first book, [[TheHero Fireheart]] accidentally attacks his friend [[TheLancer Graystripe]]. When Graystripe complains that he was taken by surprise, Fireheart replies, "Surprise is the warrior's greatest weapon." He then mentally notes this to be the catchphrase of Graystripe's mentor, Lionheart.
** In ''Yellowfang's Secret'', Yellowfang borrowed this phrase from her mentor Deerleap: "Look, listen, scent!"
* {{Bowdlerise}}: The manga, which, despite following [[LighterAndSofter mostly non-violent]] (except for ''Rise of Scourge'') backstories, still manages heavy {{Bowdlerisation}} in the form of BloodlessCarnage. The fact that these mangas still manage to get a 10+ rating makes this one wonder what they would do with an uncensored adaptation of [[FamilyUnfriendlyViolence the orig]][[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath inal novels]]. However, they're still [[NeverSayDie allowed to say "die"]], and one significant character in the ''Tigerstar and Sasha'' manga does die a [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath somewhat unpleasant death]]. Somewhat averted by ''Shattered Peace''. Although the art style still makes things seem LighterAndSofter, the artist clearly wasn't trying to hide any blood in the chicken coop scene.
* BreakingTheBonds: In the first book, Longtail doesn't want Rusty to join the Clan because he was owned by humans, and the two fight. There's a moment during the battle where Longtail grabs the back of Rusty's collar and begins using it to strangle him. Rusty struggles forward until his collar snaps, and the Clan leader stops the fight, saying that it's a sign that Rusty is meant to join the Clan.
* BreakingTheFellowship: After the great journey, the chosen cats have to split and return back to their Clans.
* BreakoutCharacter: Crookedstar, who stars in his own Super Edition. In the Ultimate Leader Election in late 2008, it was he who made it far enough to go up against Firestar at the end. He lost, which is understandable considering that Firestar's the main character that introduced us to the series, but Vicky said in the next Authortracker that even though she expected Firestar to win, she was surprised that out of all the leaders in the running, Crookedstar would be the one to make it so far. Perhaps this is why she decided to have a Super Edition from his point of view. Not bad for a minor character that died in book 5.
* BreakTheCutie: Any and all "cuties" will be broken, and how.
** Ashfur first appeared as a timid but determined apprentice that soon had his mother brutally murdered by Tigerstar, lost the cat he thought would be his mate (Squirrelflight) to the son of Tigerstar (Brambleclaw), and then had to mentor their "son". Finally, in Book 5 of series 3, he goes insane, attempts to murder the main characters, has his throat bitten, thus killing him, while his body gets pushed off a cliff into a river, where his lifeless corpse gets snagged on a rock and be seen bobbing limply in the water by the rest of the Clan. Ouch.
** Scourge was a curious, adorable little kitten. He wandered into the forest and was attacked by Tigerpaw. This made him hate Clan cats. It didn't help that his siblings drove him away.
** Brightheart was a sweet, eager apprentice. When Bluestar made Cloudtail a warrior but refused to promote any of the other apprentices, she and Swiftpaw went to look for the dogs, which resulted in the latter's death, and with Brightheart losing ''half her face'' (including an eye and an ear) in the attack. Bluestar then renamed her "Lostface", a name that the young she-cat had to carry with her for months. Even after Cloudtail continued to love her and remained her constant rock, she still avoided puddles so that she wouldn't see her face, and constantly had to deal with cats being afraid of her because of her appearance.
** Hollyleaf. A strong young apprentice who wanted to follow the warrior code do the best she could for her Clan and also was one of the Three with a special power... or so she thought. She later learned that Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw weren't her real parents and that she was the product of a doubly-forbidden relationship: her very existence shattered the beliefs she'd held so long about the warrior code. She then murdered a Clanmate before deciding to run away from the Clan, nearly dying in the ensuing tunnel collapse, and then lived a lonely life outside the Clan for several years. Also, she was never one of the Three.
** Briarlight gets this in perhaps the most literal fashion possible: her spine is broken in an accident, leaving her paralyzed for life, feeling worthless due to not being able to continue any normal career in the Clan and relying on the others to survive, and being treated differently by her Clanmates.
* BreakTheHaughty: Lionblaze started out arrogant and battle obsessed, and trained under his grandfather [[BigBad Tigerstar]] to become a great warrior. Then in at the end of the ''Power of Three'' arc, he learned that he was actually a bastard, and Tigerstar was just using him for his power. He still remained somewhat arrogant, until ''Night Whispers'', where his love interest Cinderheart left him because he had to focus on his destiny and couldn't be distracted, leading to him becoming much more humble and less battle-hungry.
* BrickJoke: In the beginning of ''The Fourth Apprentice'', Jayfeather says that if Mousefur starts acting sweet and kind, he'll know the drought has gotten to her. At the end of the book, this happens to Blackstar!
* BringHelpBack: Happens several times.
** There are many examples where cats - often apprentices - are sent to fetch patrols for help in battles.
** In ''Fire and Ice'', a [=WindClan=] cat runs to [=ThunderClan=] to bring them back to help, since the other two Clans are trying to drive them out again or kill them.
** In ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsDawnOfTheClans Dawn of the Clans]]: The First Battle'', Clear Sky and his cats trap Thunder, Gray Wing, Tall Shadow, and Jackdaw's Cry on top of the Great Rock at the Four Trees. Thunder manages to escape, and has to get back to the Moor Group so that he can bring cats back to save the other three. This involves a harrowing ChaseScene.
* BrokenPedestal: Happens often, especially where [[BigBad Tigerstar]] is concerned.
** In the first book, ''Into the Wild'', the main character Fireheart puts Tigerclaw/Tigerstar on a pedestal. Then he finds out that Tigerclaw is a team-killing psycho, and they become [[ArchEnemy arch enemies]].
** Similarly, Dustpelt in ''Forest of Secrets'' turns his back on Tigerclaw after learning that he's a traitor.
-->'''Dustpelt:''' I looked up to you. I wanted to be like you. But Redtail was my mentor. I owe him more than any cat. And you killed him. You killed him and betrayed the Clan. I'd rather die than follow you.
** In the ''Tigerstar and Sasha'' manga SpinOff, Sasha is in love with Tigerstar until she finds out about his evil actions.
** In the ''Omen of the Stars'' arc, all of the Dark Forest apprentices except Breezepelt and Redwillow eventually have this when they realize how evil the Dark Forest is.
** Jagged Peak from ''Dawn Of The Clans'' used to look up to Clear Sky, his older brother, until the latter kicks him out of the forest for having an unhealed broken leg. The pedestal crumbles to dust when Clear Sky starts [[KickTheDog bullying him in front of Gray Wing]], causing Gray Wing to defend their brother and Jagged Peak to call him out on his behavior.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl:
** Leafpool and Crowfeather are this; as is Crowfeather's first relationship with Feathertail. Crowfeather is prickly and warms up to few others, while Feathertail and Leafpool are friendly and gentle - Leafpool is even a medicine cat.
** Jayfeather and Half Moon are worth a mention, even though they have limited interaction in the books, since they don't even live in the same time. Jayfeather's grumpy and sarcastic; Half Moon is friendly and cheerful and later becomes the first Tribe-Healer of the Tribe of Rushing Water.
* BrotherSisterIncest: Unintentionally. The authors said that Willowpelt and Patchpelt are Graystripe's parents. In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', the two end up being brother and sister - the authors didn't realize that, because they're born in different litters several seasons apart. When it was pointed out, they just decided to leave it because it ''can'' happen with cats.
* BrutalHonesty: Wind Runner from ''Literature/WarriorCats: Dawn Of The Clans'' does this for Bumble. While the other cats are wondering whether Bumble should join them or not, Wind Runner bluntly tells her that she can't because she doesn't know the ways of a wild cat.
* BuffoonishTomcat: Both averted and used... male Clan cats are more normal, but male kittypets tend to be a lot more goofy and friendly. The latter is probably because male kittypets [[GroinAttack are not really "male"]], as discussed in the books.
* BuffySpeak: ''The Ultimate Guide'''s first official description claimed that the book had an "oversized, gift-y trim".
* BuriedAlive:
** Oakheart in ''Into the Wild'', killed by falling rocks.
** Hollyleaf is buried by a collapsing tunnel in ''Sunrise'', though she is later revealed to have survived in ''The Forgotten Warrior''.
** ''Tallstar's Revenge'' mentions, though never shows, the death of Leafshine in a collapsing tunnel, and later Sandgorse is killed in a collapsing tunnel while trying to save Sparrow.
* BuryYourDisabled: Snowkit gets killed in Dangerous Path because his deafness prevents him from noticing the hawk until it's too late.
* BusCrash: Happens several times after timeskips; for instance in ''The Sight'' we learn that Rainwhisker was killed in between books by a falling branch.
* ButNowIMustGo: Several characters leave the Clans, most notably Cody, Shortwhisker, and Snookthorn.
* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: In ''Shattered Peace'', Ravenpaw and Barley go underground into the Moonstone cave. All that is visible is their silhouettes in the tunnel and their eyes glowing white.
* CabinFever: In ''The Lost Warrior'', Graystripe gets this, since he's lived outdoors in the forest his whole life and is now shut in a house as a pet. Results in him desperately searching for a way out and clawing up some of the furniture.
* CainAndAbel:
** Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, with the older Brambleclaw being the good half-brother who kills his evil kin.
** In ''The Darkest Hour'' Firestar kills Scourge who is his half-brother, though this fact is only hinted at in the text and confirmed by the authors.
** According to Word Of God, Graystripe's parents are Willowpelt and Patchpelt, and Darkstripe's parents are Willowpelt and Tawnyspots, so this makes another pair when Graystripe kills Darkstripe.
** Clawface and Nightstar. One was the leader of [=ShadowClan=], and one was an evil rogue opposing [=ShadowClan=], although they don't fight each other directly and weren't stated to be siblings at the time ''Into the Wild'' came out.
* CallARabbitASmeerp: The cats have their own vocabulary: "monsters" for vehicles, "Thunderpath" for roads, "Twolegs"/"housefolk"/"Upwalkers" for humans (depending on where the cat's from) and "Twolegplace" for towns, "kittypet" for a cat owned by humans, "The Cutter" for veterinarians, and "sun-drown-place" for the ocean.
* CallBack:
** In ''The Last Hope'':
-->'''Firestar''': "I guess fire will save the Clans once more."
** Also in ''The Last Hope'', Tigerstar's "The Dark Forest is endless" line is a call back to ''Night Whispers''.
* CallForward: In the {{Interquel}} ''Firestar's Quest'', Firestar wonders if there is another afterlife for evil cats, and if Brambleclaw will ever go there. The Dark Forest, which is exactly that, was previously revealed in ''The New Prophecy'', which ''Firestar's Quest'' precedes. And Brambleclaw trains there.
* CallingParentsByTheirName: It's usually only young kits that might call their parent "Mama" or something to that effect. It's most common for characters to call their parents by their actual name, so it stands out and really emphasizes the family bond when they ''don't'' call them by their name. For instance, in ''Dawn'', when a tree falls on Firestar, Squirrelpaw first cries his name, and then yowls "Father!".
* CanonDiscontinuity: ''Secrets of the Clans'' was the earliest guidebook; however, in the years following its release, several other books had come out, contradicting some of the things it said. When asked whether it or ''Yellowfang's Secret'' was correct about one such instance, [[Creator/ErinHunter Vicky Holmes]] [[WordOfGod stated]]: "I'm afraid Secrets of the Clans is a bit of an anomaly, in that it strayed off the path of rightness in several areas. Please take the Super Editions, and other Special Editions, as canon!"
* CantHaveSexEver: Medicine cats are forbidden from having kits, so they aren't allowed to have mates. That's not to say nobody breaks the rule, but for the most part they adhere to Clan standards.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: In ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar decides to spare Featherpaw and Stormpaw because he thinks they may still be useful to him.
* CaramelldansenVid: At least [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvq3CpbmIYw one]] exists.
* CareerEndingInjury: Happens several times. For the most part, the cat is already considerably old when it happens:
** Stonepelt retires early due to a shoulder injury that didn't heal properly.
** Longtail also retires early when he goes blind from infected scratched eyes.
** The most notable example in the series, though, is Cinderpelt, whose hind leg was permanently damaged when she was hit by a car when she was only an apprentice. She dreamed of being a warrior, but decided to serve her Clan as a medicine cat after it became clear her leg would never heal.
** Another major example is Briarlight, whose spine was broken when a tree fell on her just before she was about to receive her warrior name. Though she survived, her paralyzed hindlegs made her unable to fight or even move around much, so she just helped out around the camp, especially in the medicine cat's den.
* CareerVersusMan: Male deputies and leaders are allowed to have a mate and kits, but female leaders aren't because it might get too in the way of their responsibility of the Clan. Leafstar even thinks about how unfair this is, and by the end of the book she decides to follow the "The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code" rule and declare that [=SkyClan=] female leaders are allowed to have kits.
* CarFu: There's a scene where the main character is trying to cross a road when a car suddenly drives off the road and heads straight at him, That's right - they swerved off a presumably 55 MPH road, drove on the grass, and leaned out of their window, jeering, ''just to hit a cat''.
* CastHerd: The series starts off book one with [=ThunderClan=], [=WindClan=], [=ShadowClan=], [=RiverClan=], [=StarClan=] and the Twolegplace kittypets. The story has since grown to include the normal Clans at different time periods, [=SkyClan=], [=BloodClan=], The Dark Forest, The Tribe of Rushing Water, The Tribe of Endless Hunting, The Ancients, the cats that founded the Clans, and many, many side groups such as Daisy's barn, Jingo's group, the traveling rogues, the mountain rogues, Stick and Dodge's groups, and Darktail's rogues. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Now to take a breath.]]
* CatConcerto: ''Thunder Rising'' contains a bonus story at the back that shows how one character came to the forest. It begins with Ripple and all the other cats of the park yowling together to greet the morning.
* CatsAreMagic: When cats die, they go to [=StarClan=], where they can enter living cats' dreams, influence real-world events by creating omens, and even enter the physical world from time to time.
* CatsAreMean: Played straight, subverted, averted... since the vast majority of the cast is feline, it's only natural that this trope both shows up and gets turned on its head.
* CatsAreSnarkers: Again, since the cast is nearly entirely feline, there are plenty of examples of this. Yellowfang is one notable example.
* CatsHateWater: Three of the Clans do, at least. [=RiverClan=] doesn't.
* CatsHaveNineLives: The Clan leaders are gifted with nine lives by [=StarClan=]. The first eight times they die they enter a trance for a few minutes and are healed by [=StarClan=], though there are rare instances of injuries that can take multiple lives, like Tigerstar when he got his stomach torn open. There are also a rare few cases of new leaders only getting eight or less lives when meeting [=StarClan=]: Sunstar of [=ThunderClan=] and Nightstar of [=ShadowClan=] because the previous leader was still alive, and Windstar of [=WindClan=] because she was dying when she arrived at the Moonstone.
* CatStereotype:
** Breeds:
*** The "bratty, showy, and aristocratic" part of the Siamese stereotype is played straight in ''Firestar's Quest''. When trying to recruit cats to join the new [=SkyClan=], he encounters two Siamese females who are disdainful of the idea of living wild.
-->"What, us?" Rose's eyes opened wide. "You're joking, of course."\\
"Us live in a ''cave''? With no warm blanket?" Lily added. "No creamed chicken?"\\
"To chase mice and ''kill'' them?" Rose's tongue rasped delicately over one brown paw. "How vulgar!"
** Fur colors/patterns:
*** '''White:''' Most white cats tend to be good, with the exception of Snowtuft, a Dark Forest cat, in the fourth series. Whitewing in particular tends to be gentle and kind. Whitestorm is one of the earliest stereotypical TheMentor characters. The ''Warriors'' series does make note of the fact that white cats with blue eyes often tend to be deaf; one character comments that one of her first litter was, and Fireheart is thankful that his nephew is not.
*** '''Red/Orange/Ginger:''' For the "heroic and humble" type, there's the main character of the first series, Fireheart/Firestar, who is named for his bright orange fur. There's also his grandson, Lionblaze, one of the protagonists of the third and forth series. For the "spirited" type, Firestar's mate, Sandstorm, is known for her sharp tongue and temper. Their daughter, Squirrelflight, who also has a sharp tongue (and is especially wisecracking as an apprentice), is explicitly compared to fire, and her warrior name reflects her flighty nature. A character named Red in the Super Edition ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' is also a fiercely independent young female.
*** '''Black/Dark-colored:''' If there's a villain, chances are it's a dark brown tabby male - Brokenstar, Tigerstar, Hawkfrost, Dodge (even a few other characters such as Thistleclaw were mistakenly referred to as dark brown once or twice) - and it wasn't until fans pointed out just how many of them there were that the authors added a female tortoiseshell villain. Other villainous dark-colored cats include Scourge (black) and Darkstripe (dark gray with black stripes). Some examples of stubborn black cats include Tall Shadow and her brother Moon Shadow from the prequel series.
*** '''Black and white:''' There's not too many standouts with this fur color, so this apparently fits the "Average Joe" part of the stereotype. Tallstar (at least as seen in the main series, not his Super Edition) is an example of an even-tempered character.
*** '''Gray/Blue:''' Bluestar and Yellowfang are old, wise mentors (and Yellowfang is snarky, too). Graystripe is mellow, mischevious, and a BigEater.
*** '''Tabby:''' A large percentage of the cast is tabby. The most common stereotype is the "aloof/snarky" one, with Jayfeather, Longtail, and Speckletail being some examples.
*** '''Tortoiseshell:''' The spunky but kind stereotype tends to come up most; notably, Sorreltail. Most tortoiseshells are female, but two males do appear: Redtail and Sol.
*** The shaded/chinchilla and colorpoint/lynxpoint fur patterns do not appear commonly, if at all.
* CatUpATree: In ''Dark River'', Mousewhisker gets caught in a tree while chasing a squirrel and is too scared to come down. So Cinderheart has to go up there to get him down... and ends up breaking her leg in the process.
* CaughtInASnare:
** The climax of ''Sunset'' involves Firestar getting caught in a fox trap.
** Rabbittail in a short story in ''Battles of the Clans'' gets caught in a net meant for rabbits.
* CavalryOfTheDead: The Dark Forest is a villainous variation of this. In ''The Last Hope'', [=StarClan=] and The Tribe of Endless Hunting pull this for the Clans, along with Midnight.
* CaveBehindTheFalls: The Tribe lives in one of these.
* CaveMouth: The Moonstone cave is called "Mothermouth" by the cats because the entrance resembles a mouth.
* CelestialBody: The warriors of [=StarClan=] have stars in their pelts.
* CelibateHero: Medicine cats take a vow never to have kits.
* CessationOfExistence: When a [=StarClan=] or Dark Forest cat is completely forgotten by living cats, they gradually fade away into nothing. However, if either recieves an injury that, in life, would be fatal, they just disappear instantly.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: It ain't always easy to be a Clan leader. Onestar in particular is noted in ''Cats of the Clans'' to have been forced to give up his long friendship with Firestar in order to focus on his Clan. And all in all, it's just a stressful job, with the lives of all of your Clanmates relying on you.
* ChangingOfTheGuard: The first series started off with Firestar as the [[TheHero main character]]. He was then replaced by Brambleclaw, his former apprentice, in ''Literature/WarriorCatsTheNewProphecy''. In ''Power of Three'', Brambleclaw turns into a background character like Firestar, and is replaced by his adopted children Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf. ''Omen of the Stars'' has Ivypool and Dovewing, two younger cats, as its main focus, with the ''Power of Three'' characters still in tow. And then in ''A Vision of Shadows'', Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight's kit Alderpaw is the main focus, with Ivypool and Dovewing as background characters.
* CharacterFocus: Starting in ''The New Prophecy'', the character focus tends to shift in each book.
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: The Super Editions and novellas are a possessive version; for instance ''Firestar's Quest'', ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', ''Hollyleaf's Story'', ''Mistystar's Omen''.
* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: The series has killed off ''560'' characters so far, and counting. AnyoneCanDie, indeed.
* ChasteHero: Firestar in the first arc. He doesn't get it until Cinderpelt directly points out to him in book 5 that Sandstorm loves him. He also never realizes that Cinderpelt herself has feelings for him. In the words of Vicky, "Stupid man-cat."
* ChekhovsBoomerang: The fox trap from ''Sunset''. First, Berrykit loses half his tail in it. Then later, it turns out to be instrumental to the villain's plot, ''and'' to beating the villain.
* ChekhovsGun:
** The Stick from ''Dark River''. It shows Jaypaw that he can still escape the tunnels because it floated into them from the river.
** In ''Sunrise'', Hollyleaf uses the deathberries in the camp to try to kill Leafpool.
** In ''Sign of the Moon'', the reflection of the moon that Half Moon sees means that she has to become the first Stoneteller.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Clawface, one of Graystripe's idols who is mentioned early in ''Into the Wild'', kills Spottedleaf in the book's climax.
** In ''Into the Wild'', there is a casual mention of a litter of kits that Bluestar lost one leaf-bare. ''Forest of Secrets'' reveals that two of her kits are still alive and living in [=RiverClan=]. They then become very important to the plot.
** Barley, who turns out to be an ex [=BloodClan=] member in ''The Darkest Hour''.
** In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', Tigerpaw brutally attacks a kit on Thistleclaw's command. That kit turns out to be Scourge, a cat who later kills Tigerstar.
** Used in ''Twilight''. Near the beginning of the book, the [=ThunderClan=] cats have to drive a badger and her cubs off their territory. Fast-forward to the climax, and the cats are facing a massive ambush by the badgers that leaves many cats wounded and Sootfur and Cinderpelt dead.
** Harry, a random cat hanging around in ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'' turns out to be Sol, the villain of the ''Power of Three'' arc.
** Thistleclaw was mentioned in ''Forest of Secrets'' and said to be Bluestar's rival. He's very important in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' and even revealed to have been a major contributor to Scourge's FaceHeelTurn. He's also later revealed as a leader of the Dark Forest, meaning that he was manipulating events in the forest and lake for a long time.
* ChekhovsSkill: Jayfeather's swimming ability comes in handy when Flametail is drowning. It doesn't save Flametail from dying however.
* ChewToy: Percy in ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny''. Most of Stick's group gets away with just wallowing in Dodge's incredibly vague OffstageVillainy, but Percy is singled out for both having [[EyeScream his eye ripped out]] and getting [[GroinAttack fixed]]. In fact, he doesn't have any role in the story other than having horrible things happen to him.
* {{Chickification}}: Poppyfrost from is initially portrayed in ''ThePowerOfThree'' as a fearless warrior. By the next series, she's an anxious wreck who stays in the nursery taking care of her kits and fretting over them.
* ChickMagnet: Berrynose manages to attract several she-cats, much to the surprise of other cats.
* ChildHater: Lizardstripe appears to not like having any kits, showing dismay at Hollyflower for missing her kits at one point. She even directly says to Raggedstar and Yellowfang that she wished that she hadn't had her own kits.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Most kits are portrayed as innocent, energetic young cats who contrast with the hardened, shell-shocked, and weary warriors. Even Tigerstar (basically cat Hitler) was adorable and innocent as a kit. It's only when the kits start training to become warriors that they lose their innocence. Subverted with Brokenstar in ''Yellowfang's Secret'' and Shrewclaw in ''Tallstar's Revenge''. You can see the seeds of Brokenstar's evil right from his kithood, and Shrewkit is a bully who picks on Tallkit and calls him a worm.
* AChildShallLeadThem: In ''Sign of the Moon'', Jayfeather realizes that Half Moon, who isn't yet considered a sharpclaw (an adult cat, to the Ancients), is the rightful cat to lead the Ancients and transform them into the Tribe of Rushing Water, due to her wisdom and her ability to read supernatural signs. ''The Sun Trail'' shows that Half Moon is still leader into her old age, and is considered great and wise.
* ChildSoldiers: One of the laws in the warrior code is that kits must be six moons old (the feline equivalent of about age 10) to begin training, and they don't see battle until they're more experienced. This rule stemmed from too many kits being trained at too young an age; it took their mothers refusing to fight in a battle to make the Clan leaders see sense. This law has been broken once during the books: Brokenstar trained [=ShadowClan=] kits to fight when they were barely weaned from their mothers, and as a result many of the Clan's kits died in battle.
* ChocolateBaby: Two of the three kits in Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw's later-revealed-to-be-adopted litter. Jayfeather is a small gray tabby. There's no gray fur in this cat's supposed father's line, but there sure is in the real father's, not to mention the [=WindClan=] scrawniness. And Hollyleaf is black, again probably inherited from the father, who is very very dark grey.
* TheChosenOne: Or four, or three... [=StarClan=] isn't very picky about the number of cats they choose to do things.
* CircleOfShame: In one of the Graystripe mangas, Graystripe has a nightmare that [=StarClan=] cats are surrounding him and screaming that it's all his fault that bad things happened to [=ThunderClan=].
* CityMouse: Pretty much every kittypet (cat owned by humans). Most of them seem surprised that wild cats have to hunt for their food, and can't imagine doing it themselves (in fact, some of them find the idea of hunting to be messy and disgusting) or sleeping anywhere but a warm bed.
* TheClan: Four... er, [[ExpandedUniverse Five]] of them, to be exact.
* ClimbingTheCliffsOfInsanity: It seems like the only way to travel through the mountains is to walk along narrow cliffs. Naturally, there's a couple {{Literal Cliffhanger}}s and a minor character's DisneyVillainDeath.
* CListFodder: Minor characters get slaughtered left and right. Some characters like Rosetail and Whiteclaw in the ''Original Series'' exist only to die. Others, like Talonpaw and Sootfur from ''The New Prophecy'' do nothing for a whole arc, then bite the dust near the end of it.
* CluelessChickMagnet: Firestar didn't know Sandstorm and Cinderpelt were in love with him until the latter tells him about the former.
* CodeOfHonour: The Warrior Code. It's eventually deconstructed in the ''Power of Three'' arc when Hollyleaf, who had used the code to determine morality, realizes that the code is imperfect and goes on a murderous rampage. Then it gets reconstructed in ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' and ''The Forgotten Warrior'', when the characters realize that the code is a guideline that can be changed, and also when Hollyleaf uses it to atone.
* ColdSnap: Usually 1-2 books in each story arc take place in winter, and oddly enough they seem to have the biggest events happen in them. The fact that it's winter becomes plot-relevant as well, as winter makes it more difficult for the Clans to hunt and usually causes an outbreak of sickness, and the weather occasionally causes events to occur (such as a cat falling through the ice - which leads to a death once and a forbidden romance another time - or the thaw causing floods).
* ColonCancer: Every single book from the second series onward. Each book has the initial title ''Warriors'', and two subtitles to indicate which specific series it belongs to, and the title of the book itself (for example: ''Warriors: The New Prophecy #3: Dawn'', ''Warriors: Power of Three #2: Dark River'', and ''Warriors: Omen of the Stars #1: The Fourth Apprentice'').
* ColourfulThemeNaming: The first part of cats' names come from things a forest cat would know, such as plants, animals, and natural objects. They also use a lot of colors -- every basic color except purple and pink. They even use some more unusual colors, such as "golden", "silver", "copper", "russet", "tawny", "amber", and "fallow". Oddly enough, out of over 1000 characters, "white" is the most common prefix of all, and even "fallow" got used about five times, but "brown" only got used once, and the cat in question disappeared from the cast list before recieving his warrior name.
* CombatByChampion:
** In ''Crookedstar's Promise'', one of the battles for Sunningrocks is decided like this.
** In ''Hawkwing's Journey'', [[spoiler:Hawkwing offers to fight Dodge when Dodge takes Curlypaw hostage and insists [=SkyClan=] must help him drive out Stick's group: if Hawkwing loses, [=SkyClan=] will do as Dodge says, while if Hawkwing wins then [=SkyClan=] goes free.]]
* CombatMedic: The few medicine cats who were warriors before they became medicine cats are basically this. Regular medicine cats also get basic training in fighting skills, even though they usually don't end up using them much.
* ComicBookAdaptation: The manga, of a sort. The stand-alone volumes all tell stores the regular books don't. Played straight in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'': the manga in the end of that book shows a scene that originally appeared in the books: Rusty joining [=ThunderClan=].
* CommunityThreateningConstruction: In the second series, a new road is being built through the forest. The loss of territory and starvation after the prey leaves forces the four Clans to leave the forest.
* CompanionCube: Jayfeather and his stick. To the point where he always looks for the stick when he needs answers, and was horrified when he almost lost it in the lake.
* CompellingVoice: Sol seems to able to persuade anyone to do anything. The books constantly remind us of how powerful and unnatural his voice sounds, and most converstations with him seem like a struggle not to fall under his influence.
* [[CompletelyDifferentTitle/{{French}} Completely Different Title]]: The French translation uses the name ''La Guerre des Clans'' (''War of the Clans'').
* ConfessionCam: ''Secrets of the Clans'' has a variant of this: there are brief sections called "_____ Speaks", and the characters talk about their feelings during a major event that occured in the main series, their motivation for doing something, and things like that.
* ConflictingLoyalty: Warrior Code forbids taking mate from another clan to protect against it. Also a frequent accusation against half-Clan cats. And then there's the fairly common occurrence of a cat's loyalty being split between what they think is right and what the Warrior Code or their leader is telling them.
* ContemptibleCover: The covers for various books all-too-often show cute little kitties doing nothing in particular, with lots of bright happy colors. The books themselves [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids are very dark]], with lots of FamilyUnfriendlyViolence and the overall theme that AnyoneCanDie (especially early on in the series; the sixth book contained an infamous scene where a major character ''[[HighPressureBlood bleeds to death nine times in a row]]'', and [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/warriors/images/8/86/OS-6-JA.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080322164229 this was the Japanese cover]]).
* ContinuityDrift:
** At first, battles were a lot more common and weren't treated nearly as seriously as they are in later books - for instance, it's not particularly considered out of the ordinary that Raggedstar was allegedly killed by an enemy patrol. In later stories, a border skirmish is a big deal and cause for concern about Clan wars, where in the early books it was the standard response to finding a trespasser: fight first, ask questions later. [=ShadowClan=] driving [=WindClan=] out in the first book ''was'' taken seriously, but if that happened in later books it would have been an instant MoralEventHorizon rather than the other Clans just raising a slight protest over the aggressiveness of the action.
** A more minor example: The first book states that each apprentice must visit the Moonstone before becoming a warrior: they travel there with the leader when he or she decides to [[DeadPersonConversation speak with StarClan]]. While we don't actually see it happen for the rest of the first series, it still gets mentioned occasionally. It's totally forgotten in the second series, and after it was pointed out by fans, the authors later {{lampshade|Hanging}}d it by having Leafpool say "We seem to have left that tradition behind in our old home." In the prequel Super Editions that take place before the first series, they do have the "each apprentice must visit the Moonstone" requirement again, but oddly enough it's the apprentices themselves, rather than the leader, that receives the visions from their ancestors at the Moonstone.
* ContinuityNod: In ''Sunset'', Firestar says to Brambleclaw, "Remember when I had to go away for a while, when you were a new warrior?", and talks about how Graystripe said he'd wait for Firestar to return, as a reference to ''Firestar's Quest''. Interestingly, ''Sunset'' came out over half a year ''before'' the release of ''Firestar's Quest'', so it referenced a scene that fans didn't know about yet.
* ContinuityPorn:
** Definitely present in ''[[Literature/WarriorCats Bluestar's Prophecy]]''. Scenes from later books replicated in full with detailed explanations of what was going on, lots of cameos of Field Guide characters, and backstories for all the major villains of the [[MythArc first arc]]. As well, the book did it's best to give backstories to almost all the characters in the [[CastHerd main group]]. This was [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters kind of difficult.]] It even gave a large role to a character who was only mentioned once in the entire series and didn't get on the cast list in that book (Rosetail).
** Though the entirety of Omen of the Stars has it, ''The Last Hope'' especially. Not only does it include appearances by many cats from the earlier series and the ExpandedUniverse, but after Firestar's death, all nine of the cats who gave him nine lives appear to take him to [=StarClan=], with their gifts they gave repeated.
* ContinuitySnarl:
** In ''The Fourth Apprentice'', Yellowfang witnesses Breezepelt and Brokenstar attacking Jayfeather and tells him that the Dark Forest is rising. In ''Fading Echoes'', a book written by a different author, Jayfeather tells her about the attack and the uprising within the Dark Forest and she is shocked and apparently doesn't know anything about what he's talking about. Ummm...
** In ''Secrets of the Clans'', Raggedstar is the leader when his son, Brokenstar, is born. However, in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' and ''Yellowfang's Secret'', he is deputy. (Although in the scene in ''Yellowfang's Secret'' where she gives Brokenkit to Lizardstripe, there's a few accidental mentions of his leader name; the scene appears to have been copy-pasted from ''Secrets of the Clans'' and edited.)
** Another notable one is in the short story "The Elders' Concern", from the official ''Warriors'' app. The story is about how the elders are discussing how they're not happy with Fireheart as deputy, because he's young and not Clanborn and was named after moonhigh... except in this story, he's named deputy immediately after Lionheart; it takes place the day after Lionheart's death. Also, they're unhappy that Tigerclaw wasn't chosen, because he's the best fighter. Uh, Fireheart was an apprentice when Lionheart died. And how could they forget about Tigerclaw becoming deputy after Lionheart and his subsequent attempts to kill Bluestar in order to become leader?
** Firestar's nine lives is probably the most major one. He first lost a life in ''The Darkest Hour'' to Scourge, and then ''Dawn'' to the falling tree; at the beginning of ''Sunset'', it said he had seven lives left, and then at the end after he's caught in the fox trap and is noted to be lying motionless, it says he has six left. Then ''Firestar's Quest'' came out - which takes place after ''The Darkest Hour'' and before ''Dawn'' - which said that he had ''six'' lives left, and then he lost one to rats in the book. When asked why it said six, Vicky said that he lost one to Scourge, one to the rats in the book (even though the line was before it occurred), and one helping Ravenpaw (the Ravenpaw manga was not released until years later, and when it was released, it took place after Firestar's Quest and he didn't lose a life in it), so that didn't clear up matters at all and just caused confusion; the "six" line is generally assumed to be an error. Vicky also said that he didn't lose one in the fox trap (and the short story "After Sunset: The Right Choice?" would later support this), despite ''Sunset'' itself claiming he had. He lost one in Long Shadows to greencough, and one just before The Fourth Apprentice to a fox. In Fading Echoes, Yellowfang says that five of Firestar's lives are in [=StarClan=], leaving him with four remaining. If you count all the lives we actually ''saw'' him lose in the books minus the fox-trap one - Scourge, rats, tree, greencough, fox - this is correct. He lost a life at the end of Fading Echoes to Russetfur, evidently leaving him with three left. And then he lost a life - his ''final'' life - in The Last Hope to wounds from the Dark Forest battle. The only way that this count is accurate is if you count the fox trap (which one book said did happen, and Word of God and one short story said it didn't), and the supposed "Ravenpaw" one which didn't actually happen in the manga nor was referenced whatsoever in the books, or perhaps you can just headcanon that his wounds in ''The Last Hope'' were bad enough to take more than one life. No matter which book directly references his life count, it's always incorrect each time.
* ConvenientCranny: This happens many times, when they are chased by dogs or other predators, such as badgers: cats will hide in places such as under a thick bush, or in a rabbit hole, or in a crevice between rocks, where the larger creature cannot reach them.
* CoolCat: Pretty much everyone.
* CoolTeacher: Several mentors are seen as cool by their apprentices. Bluestar in particular was thought of as awesome by her student [[TheHero Firestar]].
* TheCoup: Several.
** In the first series, Tigerclaw plots to kill Bluestar in order to become leader himself by inviting some rogues to attack the camp and passing off her death as part of the battle. Fireheart jumps in and rescues her during the attempt.
** Successfully done in the first series by [=ShadowClan=] elders, with some help from [=ThunderClan=]. They depose the evil Brokenstar and Nightstar takes over.
** In the second series, Tallstar, in his dying breaths, names Onewhisker as his successor instead of Mudclaw. As the only cats who witnessed this are Onewhisker himself and two of his friends, Mudclaw doesn't believe Onewhisker should be leader, and leads a rebellion against him before the younger cat can receive his [[CatsHaveNineLives nine leader's lives]]. [=ThunderClan=] helps out Onewhisker and he wins.
** Also in the second series, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost come up with a plan for Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost to kill the Clan leaders at a Gathering and forcibly take control of all the Clans. Brambleclaw disagrees with it, and it is never attempted.
* {{Courier}}: Apprentices play this role during the battle against the Dark Forest cats - traveling through a battle-filled forest where any enemy will kill them on sight so that the Clans can send messages to each other on the status of their warriors.
* CoveredInMud:
** The Tribe rolls in mud to cover their fur in order to disguise their scent and blend into the rock better so that prey doesn't spot them so easily. It also supposedly insulates them better. The visiting Clan cats try this, and aren't too thrilled at the idea, but it works.
** In ''Dark River'', when Hollyleaf is stuck with [=RiverClan=], she has to roll in mud so that if she encounters a [=WindClan=] patrol, they won't realize she's a [=ThunderClan=] cat.
* CoveredWithScars: Tigerstar has a pelt covered in scars. He even has a scarred nose and an ear nearly split in two.
* CoversAlwaysLie: In the manga ''Escape From The Forest'', [[BigBad Tigerstar]] gets the cover all to himself, implying that [[AdvertisedExtra he will be important in it]], however he only appears once to ask the protagonist a question. After she answers it, he is not seen again.
* ACrackInTheIce: In ''Night Whispers'', Flametail falls through some thin ice and drowns.
* CrashIntoHello:
** There was a positive variation in the first book, ''Into the Wild''. Rusty decided to visit the forest neighbouring his home, only to get attacked by Graypaw. However, after they crashed into each other, they stopped fighting and became fast friends.
** In the ''Omen of the Stars'' arc, Ivypool crashes into the villainous Mapleshade (due to Mapleshade's near-invisibility) during their first meeting. Mapleshade does not respond well to this, but she later becomes an EvilMentor to Ivypool.
** Happens in the ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsDawnOfTheClans Dawn of the Clans]]'' arc. Gray Wing is running freely and happily on the moor he recently arrived on, only to crash into Wind and Gorse, the future founders of [=WindClan=], and ruin their hunt. They get off to a bad start, but later they do become pals.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Ashfur, who was willing to murder four cats (one of whom was ''his own apprentice'') to hurt Squirrelflight -- who had rejected him the year before.
* CreepySouvenir: Members of [=BloodClan=] collect teeth from cats and dogs they have killed, wearing them as SpikesOfVillainy on their collars. (This started when Scourge, as a young cat, attempted to use a loose dog tooth he found to try getting his collar off, only to get the tooth stuck. When others asked about the tooth, he claimed he killed a dog and took the tooth as a trophy, and from there the idea took off and became true.)
* CrisisCrossover: ''The Last Hope'' is as close as you can get to a self-contained CrisisCrossover, with loads of screentime for all past and present protagonists, the final battles with all the past villains, and cameos by nearly every [=ThunderClan=] cat from the [[WarriorCatsTheOriginalSeries first arc]].
* CrisisOfFaith: A recurring event in the series:
** In ''A Dangerous Path'' Bluestar spends the book losing her faith in [=StarClan=] and becoming paranoid that her Clanmates are all traitors, but in the end she regains her faith.
** In the Super Edition ''Firestar's Quest'', [=SkyClan=], particularly Cloudstar, believes that [=StarClan=] has abandoned them.
** In the ''Power of Three'', Sol begins to convince Blackstar that [=StarClan=] has abandoned them and that leaving the forest was a bad idea, to the point that Blackstar rejects his leader name and refuses to visit the Moonpool or bring his Clan to Gatherings. Lionpaw, Jaypaw, and Hollypaw fake a sign from [=StarClan=], which turns into a ''real'' one when Runningnose and Raggedstar appear.
** In ''Hawkwing's Journey'', [[spoiler:[=SkyClan=] begins to lose faith in [=StarClan=] as they endure hardship after hardship and their Clanmates die, disappear, or leave one by one.]]
* CrossPlayer: A variant. [=ShadowClan=] are defeated by [=ThunderClan=] in a major battle at the end of the novel ''Fading Echoes''. In the next novel, ''Night Whispers'', the [=ShadowClan=] cats decide to roleplay the battle and figure out tactics they can use to counter [=ThunderClan=] the next time they fight. Oakfur, a tomcat, is chosen to act as the [=ThunderClan=] she-cat Hazeltail for [=ShadowClan=]'s roleplay.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Tigerstar. [[HighPressureBlood Tigerstar]], [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath Tigerstar]], [[NightmareFuel Tigerstar]]. Having his stomach torn open probably hurt a good bit.
* CueTheSun:
** The Darkest Hour ends with a rising sun.
-->...and it seemed to Firestar that no dawn had ever been brighter.
** Forest of Secrets also ends with the sun rising as Fireheart races back to the Clan, gradually growing more eager to face his new life as Clan deputy.
* CulturalPosturing: Most cats believe that their own Clan can do no wrong, and that the other Clans are all weaklings or heartless bastards. This often works in [=ThunderClan's=] favour, since the majority of the series is from their [=POV=], but the series does occasionally show that the other Clans are NotSoDifferent. For example, the same is done with [=RiverClan=] when they become the protagonists in ''Crookedstar's Promise''.
* CulturalTranslation: The old forest map was based on an actual forest in England, meaning the first series was set in England, which is also somewhat reflected by some of the wildlife. However, the second series featured a mountain lion, which cannot be found in the UK, and had a change of location, the new setting being entirely invented for the books.
* CultureClash: The Clans and the Tribe are rather similar, but there's enough difference in them that they can clash at times - especially when the Clan cats insist that the Tribe try to live like them in order to drive off intruders.
* CurbStompBattle:
** Scourge manages to kill Tigerstar, one of the forest's most feared warriors, with a single blow.
** Pretty much every fight Lionblaze participates in. With his powers granting him ultra-quick reflexes and extraordinary strength, he often fights multiple warriors without getting hit a single time.
** Hollyleaf's battle against Sol is extremely one sided, with Hollyleaf demonstrating her practiced battle techniques while Sol attempts to defend himself by flailing randomly, ultimately proving that he is not a warrior.
* CuteKitten: They manage to even make ''Tigerstar and Scourge'' look adorable when they're written/drawn as kittens.
* CutenessProximity: At the end of ''Crookedstar's Promise'', the {{jerkass}} [[SmallNameBigEgo egomaniac]] Beetlenose comes flying out of the Nursery, squeeing about how cute Crookedstar's daughter Silverkit is. Keep in mind that he's a very nasty cat, and even he found her cute.
* CynicismCatalyst: Talltail fantasizes about (and almost goes through with) killing Sparrow as he believes Sparrow was the cause of his father's death.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes D-F]]
* DamageControl: A forest fire burns through [=ThunderClan=]'s territory in ''Rising Storm''. In addition to killing several cats and driving out all the prey, the camp itself was destroyed. They have to try and rebuild it with whatever little they have left to work with, and try to get back to a normal lifestyle, before the other Clans take advantage of their vulnerability.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Many major characters, such as Bluestar (had a prophecy about her, mother and sister died untimely deaths, had to fake her kits' death and give them up to another Clan in order to become leader), Crookedstar (rejected and abused by his mother, trained with the Dark Forest, lost his mate), Yellowfang (spent her life feeling other cats' pain and had to become a medicine cat, later had a kit with the Clan leader and had to give him up)...
* DarkChick: Mapleshade, the only major female villain, who is also very active in the Dark Forest. And Ivypool, to some extent, since she trained there too.
* DarkestHour: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin aptly-named]] ''The Darkest Hour'', as well as various other points throughout the series, like ''Dawn'', or the later books in ''Omen of the Stars''.
* DarkHorseVictory: The whole first arc was focused on the rivalry between [[TheHero Firestar]] and [[BigBad Tigerstar]]. Then, when the final book of the arc, ''The Darkest Hour'', reached their final showdown, Tigerstar revealed that he had an ally named [[PsychoForHire Scourge]], who proceeded to kill both Tigerstar and Firestar. Fortunately, Firestar came back from the dead with eight lives remaining, or else Scourge would have ruled the whole forest.
* DarkIsEvil: Not only do the bad cats stay in the extremely unsubtle ''Dark'' Forest after they die, but most of the major villains are dark brown, dark gray, or black (Tigerstar, Brokenstar, Thistleclaw, Hawkfrost, and Breezepelt, to name a few).
** Averted with Sol and Mapleshade, who are both tortoiseshell.
** Subverted with Hollyleaf, who suffered from a [[SanitySlippage Sanity Slippage]] but ultimately ended up on the side of good.
* DarkSecret: Many cats' forbidden relationships, and the parentage of kits born to said forbidden relationships. Visiting the Dark Forest.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Several minor and supporting characters get to star in their own spinoff books or parts of main-series books.
** The manga trilogies (or standalone in Scourge's case) each feature a character: Graystripe (''Graystripe's Adventure''), Scourge (''The Rise of Scourge''), Sasha (''Tigerstar and Sasha''), Ravenpaw (''Ravenpaw's Path''), and Leafstar (''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'').
** Super Editions feature a character, with only ''Firestar's Quest'' focusing on one of the main-series protagonists. Featured cats include Bluestar (''Bluestar's Prophecy''), Crookedstar (''Crookedstar's Promise''), Yellowfang (''Yellowfang's Secret''), Tallstar (''Tallstar's Revenge''), Leafstar (''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' - Stick also got several chapters as well), Bramblestar (''Bramblestar's Storm''), Moth Flight (''Moth Flight's Vision''), and Hawkwing (''Hawkwing's Journey'').
** The e-books each feature a character as well. The ones that don't have a POV in the main series are Mistystar (''Mistystar's Omen''), Cloudstar (''Cloudstar's Journey''), Mapleshade (''Mapleshade's Vengeance''), Tigerstar (''Tigerclaw's Fury''), Goosefeather (''Goosefeather's Curse''), and Ravenpaw (''Ravenpaw's Farewell''), Pinestar (''Pinestar's Choice''), and Spottedleaf (''Spottedleaf's Heart'').
** Some main-series books have minor characters as a point-of-view character for that book alone:
*** Half of ''Moonrise'' was told by Feathertail and Stormfur, who haven't been narrators since.
*** ''Night Whispers'' gave the [=ShadowClan=] medicine cat Flametail a handful of chapters, while also having a plot that focused heavily on [=ShadowClan=].
* DawnOfAnEra: In ''Bramblestar's Storm'', Bramblestar adds a new rule to the warrior code: in times of trouble, Clan cats must forget their rivalries and help each other. When the danger passes, then they can split apart again. This is triumphant concerning that for twenty-four books, the Clans had been learning to work together.
* DaydreamBeliever: Though not as common now that the fanbase has grown older, there used to be quite a few who claimed to genuinely believe in [=StarClan=], the warrior afterlife, even though the author said she made it up.
* TheDayOfReckoning: The coming of [=BloodClan=] in ''The Darkest Hour'', and the Dark Forest invasion in ''The Last Hope''.
* DeaderThanDead: Once a [=StarClan=] cat or Dark Forest cat is forgotten and fades away over time, or is "killed" by a wound that would have been fatal in life, they never come back. Examples include Spottedleaf, Antpelt, Brokenstar, Hawkfrost, and Tigerstar.
* DeadGuyJunior:
** One of Sorreltail's litter in ''Twilight''. The camp is attacked by badgers, which are trying to get into the nursery as she is kitting. Cinderpelt dies protecting her and the kits. When telling Leafpool her picks for names, a gray kit is named in her honor as Cinderkit. It turns out she IS Cinderpelt reincarnated as her niece so she could SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in her life and be a warrior.
** Another example occurs in the next generation. Out of that same litter that included Cinderkit, Molekit died. Cinderkit and Molekit's littermate Poppyfrost ends up naming her son after her dead brother.
** Lionblaze and Cinderheart's kits Fernsong, Sorrelstripe, and Hollytuft were all named after cats who died in the Dark Forest battle. (Ferncloud, Sorreltail, and Hollyleaf). Ferncloud was a queen who had nursed their father when he was a kit, Sorreltail was their grandmother, and Hollyleaf was their aunt and their mother's best friend.
* DeadlyGraduation: The trainees of the Dark Forest are forced to fight to the death as their final assessment.
* DeadlyTrainingArea: The Dark Forest. Unlike in real life, they train with claws unsheathed, and unlike in normal dreams, wounds sustained in the Dark Forest become real and physical: training can very easily result in a fatal injury. It's TrainingFromHell, both figuratively and literally, since the Dark Forest is feline Hell.
* DeadPersonConversation: Talking to [=StarClan=], the spirits of their ancestors.
* DeathByChildbirth: Silverstream and Brightsky.
* DeathByFallingOver:
** An elder, Graypool, is flustered when Tigerstar snarls in her face, so she takes a step backward, only to lose her footing on the steep riverbank and hit her head on a rock.
** During a battle, a dog accidentally runs into Rainflower; she falls and hits her head on a rock. This one's a little more realistic in that she doesn't die instantly; her son debates whether to first fetch the medicine cat or drive away the dog. He chooses to fight off the dog first, and in that amount of time, she dies, and he feels responsible for her death.
* DeathByLookingUp: Happens to mountain lion Sharptooth when Feathertail knocks a stalactite off the ceiling of the cave.
* DeathFakedForYou: Firepaw realizes that Tigerclaw is trying to kill Ravenpaw for [[HeKnowsTooMuch witnessing something he shouldn't have]]. To protect his friend, he sends Ravenpaw to live far away on a farm at the distant edge of Clan territory, and returns to the camp telling everyone that Ravenpaw was killed by an enemy patrol.
* DeathGlare: In ''After the Flood'', Leafstar proves herself very capable of giving death glares. One of them is enough to make her mate drop the prey he's carrying.
* ADeathInTheLimelight:
** Flametail in ''Night Whispers''.
** Bright Stream from ''The Sun Trail'' got a [[https://archive.is/MQp7t short story]] about her death, written from her point of view.
* DeathIsCheap: When Clan cats die, they move on to [=StarClan=] most of the time, which is basically heaven for cats. If they were evil, then they're trapped in the Dark Forest. Regardless of which place cats end up in, they can still interact with some Clan cats, particularly medicine cats. They can even injure cats who dream-walk into their domain. Death became so cheap that by the fourth series, the Hunters had to invent a second death so that cats could be killed DeaderThanDead.
* DeathIsDramatic:
** Tigerstar is ripped open from throat to tail and loses ''[[CatsHaveNineLives all nine of his lives]]'' from blood loss.
** Hawkfrost gets a wooden stake driven into his throat by his brother and yanked out. He stands right back up as he's gushing blood, and then falls into the lake, causing the nearby water to turn red from his blood.
** [[HeroicSacrifice Feathertail dying after she impales Sharptooth with a stalactite]], also serving as her CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** Bluestar's death, also a HeroicSacrifice and CrowningMomentOfAwesome.
** Cinderpelt was ripped apart by badgers, let's not forget, with lotsa blood indeed. This also served as her HeroicSacrifice, since she was protecting the nursery during the birth of Sorreltail's kits.
** Subverted with Flametail's death. It wasn't in battle or any other major disaster; it simply was an accident when he was playing on ice that broke beneath him and he drowned quietly beneath the ice.
* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: Brambleclaw and Ashfur both love Squirrelflight, and Ashfur ends up dying. Subverted in that the hypotenuse dies long after the relationship issue ends.
* DecapitatedArmy: After Firestar kills Scourge, the leader of [=BloodClan=], one of the [=BloodClan=] cats notices and yowls that Scourge is dead. The fight goes out of all the [=BloodClan=] cats and they flee.
* DeceptiveDisciple:
** Tigerstar was noted by other cats as knowing the Warrior Code by heart. He really was planning to kill his leader and take over [=ThunderClan=], something that, obviously, is against the code.
** Brokenstar did the same but succeeded, with the added bonus of the cat he killed and usurped being ''his own father''.
* DeceptiveLegacy: In ''Tigerstar and Sasha'', Sasha gets pregnant with Tigerstar's kits before she realizes that he's a power-crazy murderer bent on ruling the entire forest. She raises her kits on her own, only telling them stories about how their father Tigerstar was strong and brave and that he'd be proud of them. A while after Tigerstar's death, Sasha takes the kits to [=RiverClan=]. Imagine the kits' shock when they see young [=RiverClan=] cats pretending to be the evil Tigerstar and reenacting his death.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Stormfur is a deconstruction of MightyWhitey. He's a cat from the main group in the series who gets discovered by the Tribe of Rushing Water, a group with strange customs, and finds out that he's TheChosenOne destined to save them, and even gets to date a native she-cat, and eventually [[IChooseToStay chooses to stay with the Tribe]]. Plus he gets to [[TrainingThePeaceFulVillagers train the tribe cats in his fighting skills]] to later save them from some rogues who they're utterly helpless against without him. But not only is he [[MissedTheCall not]] really TheChosenOne, but his strategy only ends up failing and leading to the deaths of many Tribe cats rather than saving the Tribe like he believed it would, and once he finally gets to come back and make up for everything by saving them for real, he and the other cats realize that, however they want to defend the Tribe, they don't want to force their culture on them or constantly be their rescuers.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Stonefur, who, when given a chance to kill Featherpaw and Stormpaw to prove his loyalty, tells Tigerstar that he'll die before he kills them. Tigerstar obliges by ordering Darkstripe to kill him. Even though Stonefur has been starved for an extended period of time and is weak, he manages to have the upper paw for a while until Tigerstar sends in Blackfoot to help and finish Stonefur off.
* DemotedToDragon: Brokenstar was the BigBad of ''Into the Wild'', the first book of the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series. Then he gets driven out of his [[TheClan clan]] and killed, leaving [[BigBad Tigerstar]] in control of Brokenstar's rogue army. Later in the ''OmenOfTheStars'' arc, Tigerstar and Brokenstar meet up in the afterlife and Tigerstar becomes Brokenstar's dragon.
* DemotedToExtra: The major characters in each series become less important as the focus shifts to the younger generation. One example is that fans were trying to figure out whether Graystripe, TheHero's best friend and therefore a major character in the first series, even got mentioned once in ''Sign of the Moon''.
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: If a cat is assigned to hunt and eats his catch rather than sharing it with the kits and elders of the Clan first, he can't take anything off the fresh-kill pile for supper.
* DependingOnTheArtist: In the manga, since all the art styles are radically different, seeing cats appear in two different styles is quite jarring. This especially applies to Bluestar and Tigerstar.
* DepthPerplexion: In the online Hunting Game, enemies could travel through tree stumps that you couldn't get past without jumping over them.
* TheDeterminator: Tigerstar. And ''how.'' He will do absolutely ''anything'' to rule (kill the Clan deputy in an attempt to become deputy himself, attempt to kill his leader multiple times - including trying to trick her into running onto the Thunderpath and conspiring with rogues to make it look like a rogue killed her - in order to become leader himself, become leader of ''another'' Clan, try to join all the Clans together, and bring in the bloodthirsty [=BloodClan=] in order to make the other Clans do what he wants). And then later he tries to get revenge on the Clans from beyond the grave, first by visiting his children in their dreams and trying to make them take over their Clans, and then by organizing the Dark Forest's armies and visiting even cats not related to him in order to get them on his side and ultimately declare all-out war on the living Clans.
* DeusAngstMachina: Leafpool. In ''Twilight'', her mentor dies (and she blames herself for her death), she has to give up the love of her life, and she essentially becomes isolated from the rest of the Clan. She seems to have been able suck it up, but then in ''Sunrise'' it is revealed that she was actually pregnant and had to give up her kits to be raised by her sister, she can no longer be a medicine cat (the only joy in life she had left), she gets insulted by the aforementioned love of her life, her own daughter tries to kill her, and she apparently blames herself for Ashfur's death. All this isn't really a ContrivedCoincidence though, since it all just originates from one bad decision... and another bad decision to cover up the first one...
* DiabolusExNihilo: The sudden appearance of Scourge in ''The Darkest Hour.'' Tigerstar had nine lives at the beginning of the book. In order to avoid making him seem like a pathetic weakling, the authors had a random cat called Scourge show up, instakill all of Tigerstar's nine lives, kill ''the protagonist'' Firestar, and try to take over the Clans.
* DidNotGetTheGirl: Ashfur did not get Squirrelflight, Thrushpelt did not get Bluestar, and several notable genderbent examples include Cinderpelt and Firestar, Spottedleaf and Firestar, Mapleshade and Appledusk, Feathertail and Crowfeather, and Leopardstar and Tigerstar.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'', [=SkyClan=] takes it upon themselves to defeat the Twoleg who keeps abusing cats. Also averted when, in the same book, the cats save a Twoleg kit with a broken leg.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Jayfeather is born blind, but learns he has the ability to read minds. As well, he can creep into dreams, in which he gains perfect vision.
* DisabledSnarker: Jayfeather. "Oh great. Let's lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!"
* DisappearedDad:
** [[BigBad Tigerstar]] leaves his kits and their mother to join [=ShadowClan=]. There is a lot of bitterness involved as Tigerstar attempted to murder Bluestar, the leader of Thunderclan, and also murdered Redtail, the former deputy. [[JustifiedTrope Unsurprisingly, [=ThunderClan=] does not want his kits, Bramblekit and Tawnykit, to [[TurnOutLikeHisFather turn out like their father]].
** Tigerstar's own father was absent - left the Clan to be a kittypet - and this is [[FreudianExcuse a major part of why he's evil]].
* DiscOneFinalBoss:
** Brokenstar is built up as the BigBad in ''Into the Wild'', but by the book's end it is apparent that Tigerclaw/star will be the true villain. Then in ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar is killed by Scourge, who usurps the position of primary villain.
** In ''The New Prophecy'', Hawkfrost seems to be the villain, but he turns out to only be the DragonInChief to Tigerstar's lingering spirit.
* DiscontinuityNod:
** In the first book, there was a [=ThunderClan=] cat named Rosetail who was killed defending the nursery; she was not [[DramatisPersonae listed in the Allegiances]] or otherwise mentioned in the book. It became a well-known error, and in a book that came out five years later, a character comments, "There was an elder named Rosetail who died back when I was nursing Swiftkit..."
** Similarly, in the first series, apprentices would always travel to the Moonstone before becoming a warrior. Fans pointed out that the characters haven't been doing it in recent books, even though the Clans had found a replacement for the Moonstone in their new home. Leafpool comments in a scene, "We seem to have left that tradition behind when we came to our new home."
* DisneyVillainDeath:
** Whiteclaw falls into the gorge and dies.
** Smokepaw falls to his death when a ledge breaks underneath him. This doesn't stop him from [[SeriesContinuityError coming back in later books]], though.
** A pair of [=ShadowClan=] warriors fall over the top of the quarry to their deaths in ''Starlight''.
** Ancient cat Dark Whiskers is killed this way when blown off a cliff during a storm.
* DisposingOfABody: Hollyleaf attempts to dispose of Ashfur's body by tossing it in a stream, hoping he'll be swept into the lake, the Clan would think he just mysteriously vanished, and that would be the end of it. Things don't exactly go as planned.
* DissonantSerenity: Sol stays calm and composed all the time, even when surrounded by enemies and accused of murder. He is so calm, other cats often find it unsettling. The only times he's lost his cool is whenever he's making a speech (and he's really more "incensed" than "angry"), and when Hollyleaf apparently pushes his BerserkButton, and even then he recovers in ''less than half a second''.
-->"What are you doing here?" Hollyleaf demanded. She could feel every hair on her pelt bristling, her tail fluffing out to twice it's size, and her belly churning with distrust of this powerful cat. "I thought you'd gone."
-->Fury flashed in [Sol's] eyes, and his claws dug into the ground. Yet a hearbeat later he was cool and controlled again, so that Hollyleaf almost believed she had imagined the anger he had betrayed.
* DistantFinale: ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' ends many years after the main story of the book, with Bluestar making a decision which causes the events of the first book.
* DistantPrologue: Several books have prologues which take place long before the main story.
** The most notable ones are ''Firestar's Quest'' and ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'', which take place several generations before the story begins, long enough that [=SkyClan=] - the Clan featured in the prologues - has been forgotten by the modern Clans.
** Also notable is ''Dark River'', which takes place at least twice as early as those: before the Clans were formed, and before even the Tribe of Rushing Water was formed.
* DiurnalNocturnalAnimal: In the books, the cats are active mainly in the daylight. WordOfGod states that it is to prevent most of the scenes from happening in the dark. Real life cats can be active anytime of the day or night and cannot see in complete darkness, needing at least ''some'' light in order to see (which is usually provided by the moon).
* DividedForPublication: The Graystripe manga trilogy was originally meant to be a single volume as long as a normal manga. Then someone decided that it should be released on the same day as the first book in a new series, but the illustrator wasn't done with it, so they decided to split it into three shorter volumes. Every manga afterward has followed suit.
* DividedWeFall: In ''Dovewing's Silence'', Bramblestar says this phrase after the distrust towards the Dark Forest trainees goes too far. That involved getting them to attack an injured fox, which prompts Bramblestar to tell everyone that the time of mistrust must end.
* DivingSave:
** Willowpelt leaps in front of her young son Sootpaw to save him from a badger in front of her. The blow meant for her son breaks her spine and kills her.
** In ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'', Red leaps in the way when her father Stick aims a killing blow at her mate Harley, and she's fatally wounded.
* DoctorsOrders: There are plenty of times when a medicine cat says "As your medicine cat, I'm ''ordering'' you to rest."
* DoesntTrustThoseGuys: The Clans often say this about each other. "You can't trust a [=ThunderClan=] cat!"
* DoggedNiceGuy: Thrushpelt spends most of ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' complimenting and helping Bluestar, but to his chagrin, she is not really interested in him like that. [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy He remains her friend]] to the end, and when he realizes that the father of her kits isn't in the picture, he offers to step in, in order to help her avoid any awkward questions.
* DogsAreDumb: The most intelligent dogs shown in the entire series had a vocabulary of about eight words, the two most frequently used being "pack" and "kill". (Although it's later noted that dogs and cats speak different languages, so presumably most dogs have a larger vocabulary in their own language.)
** It's also worth noting that the dogs mentioned above are defeated by being tricked into running off a cliff.
** One dog in ''Sunrise'' was even stupid enough to stick his head through a fence and right into the claws of a bunch of cats with a grudge.
*** And don't we all know dogs like this? TruthInTelevision.
** Don't forget the dog in ''Rise of Scourge'' who was scared of kitten Scourge's ''shadow'' (it was a rather fierce looking shadow, but still).
* DontGoInTheWoods: What kittypets seem to be raised on.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Jayfeather (also his BerserkButton). Also don't be too nice to him, or he'll think you're pitying him. And don't mention his blindness, but then again, [[HairTriggerTemper don't seem like you're trying to avoid it, either]].
* DoomedByCanon:
** In the prequels, we never heard about characters like Snowfur, so they have to die.
** The leaders have to die so they can be replaced.
* DoomedHometown: The forest in the second series.
* DoubleDontKnow: In ''The Darkest Hour'':
--->Firestar let out a long breath. "I don't know, Bramblepaw," he admitted. "I just don't know."
* DownHereShot: In the novella ''Mistystar's Omen'', Mistystar is about to receive her [[CatsHaveNineLives ninth leader's life]]. She looks around and doesn't see anyone, and is confused because she knows she has one more life to get yet. She hears a squeak, looks ''down'', and sees that the ninth cat is her son who died as a young kit.
* DragonInChief: Hawkfrost in ''The New Prophecy''. Tigerstar, the BigBad is just as strong and fearsome, but he's hindered by his being dead.
* DragonTheirFeet: Tigerstar, the BigBad, becomes Brokenstar's dragon in the Dark Forest. However, since Tigerstar is eternally the true BigBad, in ''The Last Hope'', he shows up after Brokenstar's death as the final villain.
* DramaticIrony: Jayfeather is unable to understand why Leafpool and Crowfeather act so weird around each other, but any reader who has read the second series would know that what he is detecting is pure UnresolvedSexualTension, and they also would probably have guessed that the two are his real parents.
* DramaticNecklaceRemoval: Happens to Firestar early on. He was a kittypet who wore a collar with a bell on it, and several [=ThunderClan=] cats disagreed with him joining the Clan due to all the trouble the collar would cause. His collar gets torn off in a fight with Longtail, causing Bluestar to declare it a divine sign that Firestar is meant to join the Clan, and Firestar to win the respect of the Clan as well has lose his ties to being a pet cat.
* DramatisPersonae: Each book has an "Allegiances" section at the beginning, listing all characters that appear in that book and many that don't.
* DreamCrushingHandicap:
** Jaypaw just wants to be a great warrior, and won't listen when other cats tell him that he can't because of his blindness. He does get the chance to train as a warrior apprentice, but when a patrol he's on gets into a fight and he's easily beaten by an enemy apprentice because he can't make sense of what's going on, he has to come to terms with the fact that he'll never be a warrior. He ends up becoming a medicine cat instead.
** Snowkit is born deaf. His mother refuses to accept that he won't be able to become a warrior, and even tries training him herself. Then Snowkit gets carried off by a hawk because he couldn't hear it coming or hear other cats warning him.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: A standard part of being a medicine cat.
* DreamIntro: Several books start out with dreams. Many of them involve the characters [[DeadPersonConversation receiving a prophecy/warning from [=StarClan=]]] or speaking to other dead cats. At least involves Gray Wing talking to another living, dreaming cat over a great distance, and there are also several "ordinary" dreams/nightmares as well.
* DreamSpying: Jayfeather has the ability to walk in dreams, so he uses this to walk in other cats' dreams, mainly that of the other medicine cats when they [[DeadPersonConversation speak with their deceased ancestors]]. Leafpool tries to make him do this once to figure out where his sister is when, as an apprentice, Hollyleaf goes missing.
* DreamWalker: Jayfeather has the ability to enter other cats' dreams, as do the members of [=StarClan=] and the Dark Forest.
* DrivingQuestion: The "Three" arc of ''Literature/WarriorCats'' (''Power of Three'' and ''Omen of the Stars'') has many questions. "Where did the three come from?" "What is their purpose?" "Who is the fourth?"
* DrJerk: Jayfeather, who even at one point proclaims, "I'm a medicine cat. If you want sympathy, go to the nursery." He never gives up on a patient however, and legitimately cares for his Clan, making him more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Hollyleaf's "death". Instead of dying in a battle, she was crushed as the underground tunnel collapsed. (Turns out she escaped the worst of the collapse and managed to survive with some injuries, and she eventually dies in a battle for real.)
** Rainwhisker, who was killed by a falling tree branch. ''In between books''.
** Mudclaw, who got an entire TREE dropped on him when it was struck by lightning. Said tree was then used as a bridge, therefore [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literally dropping a bridge on him...]]
* [[DubNameChange/EnglishAndOtherLanguagesToForeign Dub Name Change]]: Firestar's kittypet name is Rusty in English, but it is "Sammy" in the German version. Most of the other names, which are composed of actual words, are translated directly to German, e.g. Redtail to Rotstreife or Tigerclaw to Tigerkralle.
* DueToTheDead: A vigil is held overnight for the family and friends of a fallen warrior to say their last goodbyes, and in the morning, the Clan elders bury the body. There have been occasions where enemy warriors have been returned to their own Clans for their Clan to mourn them, and at least one occasion where a rogue was killed, and it was decided that a couple of young warriors would bury the body, no elders need be present.
* DyingAsYourself: Bluestar has a stage lasting a couple books where she develops some dementia, being confused and extremely paranoid: she [[RageAgainstTheHeavens is convinced that their ancestors have abandoned them]] and that all her Clan are traitors; she does not even trust Fireheart. Right toward the end of her life, she realizes she's been wrong, and performs a HeroicSacrifice saving Fireheart from the dog pack. She has just enough time to reconcile herself with her long-lost kits before she dies.
* DysfunctionJunction:
** In the third series, Crowfeather is using his "mate" just to get his Clanmates to trust him, and and he [[AbusiveParents emotionally abuses his son]] (who also has related issues), and is in denial of how much he loves Leafpool and that he had kits with her, Lionblaze goes AxCrazy from time-to-time, and is usually horrified by the results, Jayfeather has some serious attitude problems, Hollyleaf is [[LawfulStupid obsessed]] with the [[WellIntentionedExtremist warrior code]] and eventually [[FaceHeelTurn goes insane]], Ashfur is trying to kill Squirrelflight's family to get revenge, Leafpool, who can't seem to succeed at anything, is incredibly depressed, and a lot of other cats throughout the course of the series become depressed because of the the authors' cruel treatment of their characters.
** It continues on into the fourth series, with Dovewing (who [[IJustWantToBeNormal just wants to be normal]], because she can't handle all of the responsibility that has been thrust on her, and hates the way it has distanced her from her sister), and Ivypool, (who is insanely jealous of her sister and wants to be noticed as much as her, to the point where her feelings of jealousy and loneliness became manipulated by the BigBad). Then we have Millie and her kits. Millie's daughter, Briarlight, becomes paralyzed from the waist down when a tree falls on her and it keeps her from ever becoming a Warrior, having to live in the medicine den, and her main activity for each day is to drag herself to and from the fresh-kill pile. This causes Millie to become obsessive over her crippled daughter and completely ignore the fact that she has two other kits, which in turn affects Blossomfall (Millie's other daughter) to visit the Dark Forest and learn from Tigerstar because she's feeling unloved and unwanted at home all thanks to Millie. Bumblestripe, Millie's son, takes the developments surprisingly well.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Thistleclaw is mentioned in ''Forest of Secrets'' and shows up for a scene in ''Rise Of Scourge'' before his real debut in ''Bluestar's Prophecy''.
** Tawnyspots and Goosefeather were first mentioned in ''Forest of Secrets'', though the latter not by name. In addition, Sunstar and Featherwhisker were mentioned in ''Secrets of the Clans'' before their debuts in ''Code of the Clans'' and ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', respectively.
* EarNotch: With large groups of fighting cats, someone's bound to get a ripped ear, and it does happen often. One example is Tigerstar; it's one of his more frequently noted physical characteristics.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: By the end of ''The Last Hope'', every character has gone to hell and back (sometimes literally), but they still pull through and earn happy endings for themelves and all the Clans. The Clans have survived nearly being taken over by Tigerstar, almost being killed or driven out of the forest by [=BloodClan=], the destruction of the forest by Twolegs and the resulting starvation and journey to the new territories, and the Dark Forest (feline hell)'s attempt at destroying the Clans. Not to mention all the hardships and heartbreak in between.
* EasilyForgiven:
** During the fifth book of ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsOmenOfTheStars Omen of the Stars,]]'' Hollyleaf returns to [=ThunderClan=] and nobody cares about her crimes, even when they find out that she killed Ashfur.
** An unintentional example in the ExpandedUniverse manga ''Ravenpaw's Path''. During ''Shattered Peace'', Ravenpaw and Barley are chased off the farm they live on by the farmer because he is tricked into thinking they killed his chickens. The farmer says that if he sees them again, he'll shoot them. However, when they come back and defeat the rogues who took over their home in ''The Heart of a Warrior'', the farmer doesn't care, despite still thinking they killed his chickens.
** A rather odd example in ''Tigerclaw's Fury''. In the Warriors universe, fleeing from battle until your leader tells you to do so would be considered treachery and cowardice. Fleeing from battle when ''Tigerclaw'' is your leader would be considered suicidal. But the cats who abandon him when it looks like he's losing don't get any sort of comeuppance.
* EdibleThemeNaming: Apparently the Erins were hungry when they wrote the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny''... it introduces cats named Egg, Onion, Nutmeg, and you could even count Velvet if you think of red velvet.
* EitherOrProphecy: [=StarClan=] seems to give a lot of these. Take the prophecy "Fire alone can save our Clan", for instance. Note that it does not say that fire ''will'' save the Clan. A minor prophecy in the second arc is misinterpreted as well due to this trope.
* ElectionDayEpisode: ''Warriors Ultimate Leader: The Clans Decide''. Around the 2008 Presidential election, [=HarperCollins=] decided to teach children about voting by creating a subsite where users could vote on their favorite out of several Clan Leader characters, and the winner would have a short story (involving voting) written about them. Ultimately it was Firestar that won; the story was released when Barack Obama took office, and it focused on the Clans deciding to work together to survive a harsh winter and voting on whether Firestar should temporarily lead them all.
* EloquentInMyNativeTongue: Smart is Midnight, but she no speak cat good.
* EmbarrassingRescue: In ''Fire and Ice'', Fireheart saves Sandpaw from falling into the gorge. Considering that up until this point Sandpaw has done nothing but insult Fireheart and call him useless, it's not surprising that she's angry at him for saving her - and pretends that she didn't need the help.
* TheEmpath:
** Jayfeather can sense other cats' emotions.
** Yellowfang can feel other cats' physical pain.
* EmpathicEnvironment:
** The night sky tends to cloud over and become stormy at Gatherings when there is arguing. The cats believe that their warrior ancestors are controlling the weather and expressing their displeasure, but one medicine cat does point out that sometimes a storm is just a storm.
** Firestar thinks at least once that it seems like the weather fits the mood:
-->A vast, unnatural silence covered everything. With the rational part of his mind, Fireheart realized that all the prey had been scared away by the rampaging dog pack, but in the grip of his grief it seemed that even the forest was stunned into mourning Bluestar.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal:
** Lionblaze starts out as a very strong, yet very normal, warrior. Then in ''Outcast'', he starts developing the powers of invincibility, becoming exceptionally strong.
** Becoming a Clan Leader works this way. They start out as normal warriors like everyone else, but when they become a leader, they receive [[BackFromTheDead nine lives]], the powers of [=StarClan=], and any other gift the authors decide to give them.
* EnigmaticMinion: Sol. Although he isn't a minion and also a HiddenAgendaVillain, he has many EnigmaticMinion tendencies, such as randomly coming and going whenever the plot requires.
* EnsembleCast: Each arc after the first focuses on a group of characters with roughly equal screentime and importance, with each of them getting various turning points and focal segments.
* EpiphanyTherapy: When Firestar fears that Scourge will crush the Clans, he laments that there were always four Clans in the forest, but Scourge is trying to change that. Then [[TheWatcher [=StarClan=]]] tell him that there were never four Clans, there were always ''five''. Cue Firestar realizing that [=StarClan=] is always with him, and that while he has [=StarClan's=] support and the gift of [[BackFromTheDead nine lives,]] Scourge does not.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Dark Forest is made up of cats from all four Clans, which are treated like races in the series.
* EscapedAnimalRampage: In ''A Dangerous Path'' a pack of dogs gets loose from the tree farm that they were being kept in to guard, and they end up living in the forest. While escaped dogs might not be the scariest thing to a human, they were a big threat to the cats living there.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Despite being a [[LargeHam hammy]] bad guy, Hawkfrost loves his mother Sasha. In fact, he scolds the [=ThunderClan=] cats for chasing her and bids farewell to her when the Clans move.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Tigerstar, the BigBad of ''Literature/WarriorCats'' had a mate and kits. So did his brutal, BloodKnight mentor Thistleclaw, and the eventually villainous Antpelt also had a mate.
* EveryoneIsRelated: Seeing as they live in Clans that do not allow intermixing... See also TangledFamilyTree below.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Hawkfrost's plan to take over the Clans fails because he literally cannot understand why his brother would rather earn the position of Clan Leader than kill the current leader and take it.
* EvilIsDeathlyCold:
** In ''The Rise of Scourge'', Scourge describes feeling an icy cold feeling in his belly when he kills his first cat, and he embraces the cold and lets it fill him.
** The power of the Dark Forest freezes over [=StarClan=] territory in ''The Last Hope''.
* EvilMatriarch: Mapleshade, a villain with an "evil mom" vibe. What drove her to evil was when, after she was exiled from [=ThunderClan=] for having a [=RiverClan=] mate, her kits drowned in the river when she was trying to bring them to [=RiverClan=]. Her mate blamed her for this, and she ends up getting rejected by [=RiverClan=] as well.
* EvilPlan:
** In the first arc, there's Tigerclaw, who wants to become leader of his Clan. He starts out by killing the current cat who is next in line for leader. When that is over and he's next in line, he plots to kill the current leader. Fortunately this doesn't work out so well, and he's banished. After that, he becomes leader of a different Clan and plots to kill the hero and take over all four Clans.
** In the same series there's Scourge. His real motivation is to kill Tigerstar, who once beat the snot out of him. He successfully does this, but after that he decides the forest is a pretty cool place and that he wants to stay; he just has to drive out those pesky Clans first.
** In series two, Hawkfrost has a similar plan to his father Tigerstar's. He even has help from his dad's spirit. He manipulates Mudclaw into staging a coup in order to weaken [=WindClan=], and Hawkfrost nearly succeeds in killing the [=ThunderClan=] leader Firestar.
** In the third series, Sol wants to destroy the clans because [=SkyClan=] cast him out. This cat is a master manipulator and tends to play the cats against each other.
** One of the most elaborate plans actually stretches across generations of cats. The Dark Forest (where evil cats go when they die) walks in the dreams of many Clan cats, training them in vicious battle moves and fostering their ambition and bloodthirstiness. Like most villains, they want to destroy the Clans as well. They nearly succeed.
* EvilVersusEvil: Tigerstar vs. Scourge.
* ExactWords:
** In ''Midnight'', after Leafpool sees Squirrelflight leave for her journey, Cinderpelt asks if she knows where Squirrelflight is. Leafpool is able to say no because she didn't know where Squirrelflight was at the exact moment.
** The warrior code rule "The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code" was chosen so that cats obey the decisions of their Clan leader - suggested when a leader gave away part of their territory to another Clan, and the deputy protested, undermining his authority in front of the other Clans. This gets used as an excuse for cats to follow their leader into evil deeds, and Leafstar uses it to decide that the forest Clans' rules don't totally fit [=SkyClan=] and that she can make her own amendments to the warrior code.
** Crookedstar promises to put his Clan above all else. Mapleshade later points out that this means before kits, before family, ''anything'' else.
* ExpandedUniverse: Manga, Super Editions, Field Guides, novellas, short stories, etc.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller:
** In ''The Darkest Hour'', [[TheHero Firestar]] thinks that Scourge's much bigger [[TheDragon deputy]] is the leader of [=BloodClan=], as he wasn't expecting such a small cat to be leader. When Tigerstar meets Scourge for the first time, he even blurts out, "''That's'' Scourge? He's no bigger than an apprentice!"
** In ''A Forest Divided'', Minnow remarks, "''This'' is Gray Wing? I thought he'd be bigger."
* ExtrudedBookProduct: The authors have admitted that they deliberately wrote the books based on what was likely to sell from the beginning. Some of them don't even ''like'' cats!
* EyeScream:
** Brightheart's face being mauled and almost completely ripped off by a dog. A later bit of narration in [=TPoT=] implies her parts of her skull remain visible.
** Longtail going blind from an infection in his eyes after a rabbit claws them out.
** Brokenstar gets his eyes clawed by Yellowfang and is permanently blinded.
** Percy in ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny'', who gets an eye ripped out.
* TheFaceless:
** In ''Sign of the Moon'', Ivypool and Blossomfall encounter a mysterious cat in the tunnels. Ivypool can't see any of the cat's features, and is unable to determine its gender. In ''The Forgotten Warrior'', the cat is revealed to be Hollyleaf, alive and well, but reluctant to return to [=ThunderClan=].
** The prologue of ''The Forgotten Warrior'' features a mysterious cat declaring that they will have their vengeance on the Clans. It's never explicitly stated who this cat is, but it's almost certainly Sol, based on his role in the book.
* FacialHorror: Brightheart was savaged by a pack of dogs, who mangled her face to the point that she lost an eye and parts of her skull were showing even after she recovered. She was even called "Lostface" for a while, but fortunately Firestar renamed her.
* FailureToSaveMurder: In ''Sign of the Moon'', while at a Gathering, Dawnpelt accuses Jayfeather of murdering her brother Flametail. In reality, the death was a tragic accident (Flametail had fallen through the ice, and Jayfeather dived in and tried to pull him out of the water but would have drowned himself if he hadn't let go), but Dawnpelt was too consumed with grief to see the obvious.
* FaithHeelTurn: Hollyleaf, after realizing she's the product of a forbidden relationship, loses her faith in the warrior code, murders Ashfur, and tries to make Leafpool eat deathberries before running away from the Clans.
* FakeActionPrologue: ''Dark River'' begins with what appears to be the main characters fighting off an invasion by the fierce rival Clan [=ShadowClan=], only for it to be revealed that it was only a game they were playing, and that there's no real invasion.
* FakingTheDead: In the first book, Ravenpaw's death is faked in order to protect him from Tigerclaw, who had intended to silence him for [[HeKnowsTooMuch witnessing something he shouldn't have]].
* FallenHero: Hollyleaf becomes this, when her love of the warrior code makes her turn murderous. But then she has a HeelRealization.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze are raised as Squirrelfight's and Brambleclaw's kits. However, Leafpool - Jayfeather's mentor and the sister of Squirrelflight - is their real mother. When this is [[TheReveal revealed]] to the three, Hollyleaf doesn't take it well.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Many - Swiftpaw (mauled by dogs), Tigerstar (split down the middle and losing nine lives at once), and Hawkfrost (stabbed in the throat and bleeding out into a lake), to name a few. Some of them would qualify for CruelAndUnusualDeath. If the nightmares Tigerstar showed Lionblaze of himself murdering Heatherpaw/tail count as death, they qualify as well.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Pretty much ''every single fight''. After Lionblaze discovers his power of invincibility in ''Outcast'', pretty much every fight he gets in features large amounts of this and HighPressureBlood.
* FamilyVersusCareer: After she gets pregnant she realizes that having to raise the children will make her look like a less fitting candidate to be the Clan deputy than her rival, Thistleclaw. A bit unusual in that she decides to go for the career path instead of family, by giving away her children and making it look like they died in an accident.
* FantasticMeasurementSystem: The most common unit of measurement is a "tail-length", which is equivalent to about a foot. "Foxlength" - about a yard - is used occasionally as well, and at least once they've used "kittenstep" (about an inch).
* FantasticNamingConvention:
** The Clan cats have a naming system that involves putting two nouns, verbs, or adjectives together. The first part of the names may include stuff from nature such as plants, animals, colors, etc., while the last part of their name includes the part of a cat's body, an action, plants, animals, and much more. (Fireheart, Ivypool, Whitestorm, etc.) The suffix of the name changes throughout their life: with "kit" when they are kittens, "paw" when they begin training, pretty much anything once they're an actual warrior, and "star" if they become a Clan leader. (For example, one character went from Bluekit to Bluepaw to Bluefur to Bluestar).
** Tribe cats are named after the first thing their mother sees when they are born, and this results in several-word-long, [[NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom descriptive]] names, such as Bird Who Rides The Wind and Brook Where Small Fish Swim. (They just go by the first word of their name for everyday use.)
** Both naming schemes began with an early group of cats, who had names like "Moth Flight" and "Gray Wing" and so forth, which are very similar to Clan names. The Tribe's pattern branched off of this when an ancient cat, Stone Song (who was temporarily leader of the ancient group), was named by his mother for the wind that blew over the rocks when he was born.
* FantasticRacism: From many canon characters, but also, some say, from the fans. It's another one of those things they disagree on.
* FantasticRomance: Jayfeather ends up going back in time - to the ancestors of the forest Clans before they even ''lived'' in the forest - and falls in love with Half Moon. He is able to go back to her time again later [[IChooseToStay and wants to stay]], but their destinies [[StarCrossedLovers don't allow it]].
* FantasyWorldMap: There are two two-page maps at the start of each book. One is the "cat view" map, which is more decorative, having houses and trees and everything drawn out, and labeling it with the cats' names for landmarks. The second is a "human view" map, which labels the landmarks with human names. It also looks more like a proper map: rather than drawing the forest, there is a map key, and it just uses the symbol for "tree" lots of times.
* FatalFlaw:
** Scourge's lack of belief in [=StarClan.=] He doesn't have nine lives, so when he's killed, he's dead for good.
** Hollyleaf's excessive pride led to her downfall.
* FatCat: Kittypets are often described this way.
* FauxAffablyEvil:
** In the later ''Power of Three'' books, Sol acts like he wants to be your friend and mentor, but his main purpose is revenge on the Clans.
** Tigerstar and Hawkfrost act polite at first when a cat starts visiting the Dark Forest, but they're really training them to destroy the Clans.
* FearOfThunder: The official app claims that Hollyleaf has this ever since ''Long Shadows'', when Ashfur threatened to kill her and her littermates [[DramaticThunder during a storm]].
* FeatheredFiend: Birds of prey such as hawks, eagles, and [[OminousOwl owls]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since these birds are larger than they are, and can carry off a kit (or in the eagles' case, a full-grown cat).
* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: In general, bad cats are most often males.
** This trope is really present in ''The Prophecies Begin'' arc, in which nameless bad guy cats are always, or almost always, toms. The named villains are also overwhelmingly male. Tigerstar and Scourge are the main villains of series one, and both of their chief henchcats, Darkstripe and Bone respectively, are toms as well, as is Brokenstar, the villain of early series one. Blackfoot, who later becomes Blackstar, is at his most villainous in this arc as well.
** In ''The New Prophecy'' the villain is Hawkfrost, and also Mudclaw, who plots to overtake [=WindClan=]. Sharptooth, the cougar who preys on the Tribe, is also male, although not really a character so much as a monster.
** ''The Power of Three'' has Sol, who wants to destroy the Clans, and Ashfur, who tries to murder three of his Clanmates. The closest thing to a female villain in this arc is Hollyleaf, who kills Ashfur. Of the Tribe invaders, half are toms and half she-cats.
** In ''Omen of the Stars'', most of the male villains are reused from previous series, although some female villains finally get introduced. Mapleshade is the biggest female villain, and introduced in this series (after fans pointed out that most villains so far were dark brown tabby toms). Also appearing in the Dark Forest is the minor female character Sparrowfeather. Ivypool may also qualify, before she realizes that the Dark Forest wants to destroy the Clans.
** ''Dawn of the Clans'' has the male cat Clear Sky and later One-Eye and Slash as chief villains, but also the she-cat Star Flower, although she later undergoes a FaceHeelTurn.
* FieldPromotion: Firestar did this when Whitestorm, died during the [=BloodClan=] battle, naming Graystripe deputy mid-battle rather than waiting to hold the usually performed ceremony.
* FightingForAHomeland: [=SkyClan=], when they were exiled from the forest. The other four Clans too, when [[DoomedHometown the forest is destroyed]] - but at least [[ThePromisedLand they know there's good territory waiting for them]].
* FightsLikeANormal: Out of the three cats with superpowers, only Lionblaze's are useful in battle (he can't get hurt in a fight). Jayfeather's power is to enter other cats' dreams (though he doesn't fight anyway, since he's a [[TheMedic medicine cat]]), and Dovewing's power - SuperSenses - is actually a hindrance in battle because the amount of noise and scents confuses her.
* FillerVillain: The re-formed [=BloodClan=] in the ''Ravenpaw'' manga trilogy whose whole existence is to give the trilogy villains. They are beaten easily, never mentioned again, and have zero impact on the plot. They don't even make sense in the overall canon. They're just... there.
* FinalBattle: The [=BloodClan=] battle in the original series. The next three arcs build up the much more deadly war with the Dark Forest. It finally comes in ''The Last Hope'', and takes up a whole quarter of the book.
* FinalSpeech: Most main characters that get [[AnyoneCanDie killed off]]. The award goes to Bluestar, who speaks to Firestar for about ''four pages'' before she dies.
* FindTheCure: A large portion of ''Long Shadows'' deals with Jayfeather trying to find catnip to cure a recent epidemic in his clan after his stock was destroyed. Also, in the Adventure Game included with ''The Fourth Apprentice'', the Clans are coming down with a sickness, so they send out the Adventure Game cats to find some herbs for them.
* FireForgedFriends: Some of the main characters in ''The New Prophecy'' were openly hostile to each other before their journey - Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw didn't get along, and Crowpaw was aggressive to everyone (but particularly Brambleclaw due to a border conflict) - but in the end they become true friends due to everything they've faced together.
* FireWaterJuxtaposition:
** In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', the eponymous message she receives from [=StarClan=] compares Bluestar to fire, but warns that even the greatest flames can be extinguished by water. Bluestar eventually dies from drowning, but survives just long enough to say goodbye to Fireheart (her apprentice) and her [=RiverClan=] children.
** The character Flametail dies when he falls through ice and drowns in a lake.
** In ''Cats of the Clans'', when Rock talks about Squirrelflight and Leafpool, he explicitly compares Squirrelflight to a burning fire and Leafpool to a calm pool of water.
* FirstSnow: Happens a couple times. In ''Fire and Ice'', Fireheart is amazed because he hasn't seen it before; he was shut inside as a kit when still living with Twolegs when it last snowed. He quickly learns that snow makes it difficult to move around, however. In ''The Darkest Hour'', Firestar is out with his apprentice Bramblepaw when it begins to snow. Bramblepaw chases the snowflakes gleefully, and Fireheart wonders whether Bramblepaw's evil father Tigerstar ever played with snowflakes.
* FishEyes: A minor character named Pounce from ''Ravenpaw's Path'' has this look worn all the time. He's often seen [[FunnyBackgroundEvent derping in the background.]]
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: In ''Long Shadows'' and ''Sign of the Moon'', Jayfeather is sent back to the time of the Ancients and must adapt to their traditions, while teaching them traditions he learned from the future version of them.
* {{Flanderization}}: [=RiverClan=]'s fish-loving tendencies (no, not like ''[[BestialityIsDepraved that]]''), as well as the general LoveItOrHateIt nature of fish as prey. Princess also becomes a far bigger worrywart as the first series progresses.
* FlashbackNightmare: Dovepaw has one about Rippletail's death in ''Fading Echoes''.
* FlatEarthAtheist:
** Cloudtail acts like this around the end of the first series. You'd think that seeing fatal wounds stitch up by themselves and hearing actual, accurate prophecies would be enough for the kid...
** There's also Mothwing, who is a medicine cat despite not believing in [=StarClan=], which is essentially the cats' equivalent of an atheist priest. Apparently her explanation for medicine cats knowing things [=StarClan=] has told her is that ''they subconsciously figure it out by themselves and all convince themselves that a dead cat told them it in a dream'', which is arguably more ridiculous than what she is trying to explain. It gets even worse in ''Fading Echoes'', where she sees something strange happen to Mistystar while she's receiving her nine lives and manages to figure out that Jayfeather is essentially ''reading her mind'', but she ''still'' can't comprehend that [=StarClan=] exists. Another interpretation of what she says/how she acts is that she acknowledges that they probably exist, but refuses to have faith in them or try communicating with them... for some reason.
* FlawExploitation: Tigerstar and Hawkfrost use cats' flaws to convince them to join the Dark Forest, mainly preying upon cats who just want to prove themselves and feel unnoticed and unliked.
* FloralThemeNaming: There are lots of plant-based names in the series, since the characters name their children after what they know, and they live in the forest.
* FollowInMyFootsteps: Tigerstar genuinely does want his children to become strong warriors. He also wants them to continue his goals of ruling the forest, however, and even after his death tries to groom them into following his plans.
* ForbiddenFriendship: The Clans aren't that fond of inter-Clan friendships, but they allow it (though not to the point of sneaking away, which happens sometimes - such as with Lionpaw and Heatherpaw). In the first book, [=ThunderClan=] looked down on the hero talking with his house-cat friend Sumdge because of Clan bias and even questioned whether his heart was truly with the Clan, but they got over it eventually.
* ForcedToWatch:
** In ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar, after taking control of [=ShadowClan=] and [=RiverClan=], organizes an attack on [=WindClan=]. Once the CurbStompBattle was over, he rounded up all the prisoners and forced them to watch as he brutally killed a young apprentice, as a "warning" as to what would happen if any of them tried to defy him again.
** In the ''PowerOfThree'' series, Ashfur tries to ''burn Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf alive'' and force their (adoptive) mother to watch as "[[DisproportionateRetribution vengeance]]" for her choosing another mate instead of him ''two years'' ago. Her quick thinking gets them out of it, but at the cost of her adopted kits' love.
* ForegoneConclusion:
** ''Bluestar's Prophecy''. As if the fact that how and when Bluestar dies is [[LateArrivalSpoiler already known by the entire fanbase]] isn't enough, the book opens with her death scene rewritten from her point of view. A good part of the book works like this, too, such as her relationship with Oakheart, Mosskit's death, and the fact that all of the characters who aren't in the first books will end up dead.
** ''Crookedstar's Promise'', especially seeing as we never heard of Willowbreeze or Crookedstar's other kits]]. And also Stormkit breaking his jaw and being held back from being an apprentice. And that he dies at the end.
** ''Yellowfang's Secret'': We knew from the very first book that Yellowfang was a warrior who became a medicine cat, and from the first series in general that she had a forbidden relationship with Raggedstar that resulted in Brokenstar.
* ForeseeingMyDeath:
** At the beginning of ''Twilight'', a cat is informed by [=StarClan=] of their impending death. It's later revealed to be Cinderpelt, who dies defending a kitting queen from badgers.
** Toward the end of one of the ExpandedUniverse novels, it is mentioned that medicine cat Goosefeather predicted that he would die on the day of the first snowfall, and he did.
* FramingDevice: In the field guides ''Code'' and ''Battles of the Clans'', the reader is a kittypet who is visiting the Clans and being told stories by the characters.
* FreakinessShame: Brightheart feels like this after a dog attack gouges out her eye and leaves half her face bald and scarred. Cloudtail, her mate, insists that she's still beautiful and delivers a DeathGlare to anyone who would indicate otherwise. In later books, younger cats who have grown up knowing Brightheart remark that they don't even notice the scars, and are a bit surprised when cats from other Clans point them out. By that point, Brightheart has made peace with her appearance, though she still flinches when one young kitten refers to her as "that ugly cat".
* FreudianExcuse: Pretty much every villain in the series.
** Tigerstar had a father who abandoned him to become a kittypet, and a mentor who taught him to be violent and evil.
** Brokenstar was abused by his foster mother, Lizardstripe.
** Scourge was bullied by his siblings, Ruby and Socks. They told him he would be drowned in the river if he wasn't adopted by Twolegs, so he ran away, only to be attacked almost to death by Tigerstar.
** Sol had a father who neglected his kits, and a mother who always told them stories about [=SkyClan=] cats and was upset with her life. Because she couldn't take care of them, she gave them all to Twolegs. Sol thought that, if he was a [=SkyClan=] cat, his mother wouldn't have given him away. When he later did join [=SkyClan=], they didn't make him a warrior, and from his view it was unfair prejudice rather than his own incompetence.
** Mapleshade was hoping to become [=ThunderClan=] leader, but they drove her out after she had kits with a [=RiverClan=] tom. She then tried taking her kits to [=RiverClan=], but they drowned on the way. [=RiverClan=] rejected her, her mate blamed her for the kits' death, and he took on another mate within his Clan.
* FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow: The Warrior Code (which forbids inter-Clan relationships, has rules about territory, lists prerequisites to achieve certain ranks, and lists other rules about what they're allowed and not allowed to do) is broken quite often. Goes to the point of deconstruction with Hollyleaf, who is so obsessed with the code that she breaks down when she realizes that she's the product of a forbidden inter-Clan relationship.
* FromStrayToPet: Both played straight and inverted:
** Mostly inverted: The main character, Firestar, started as a "kittypet" named Rusty who ran off and was adopted into [=ThunderClan=]. He also brought his nephew, Cloudtail, to [=ThunderClan=] as a kit. Scourge was originally a kittypet named Tiny, who fled his home after his sister taunted him that any kits unwanted by humans are thrown in the river. Sasha's owner went to a nursing home, and when she realized he wasn't coming back, she became a rogue; Purdy, similarly, took to the streets after his owner died. Millie left her home to help Graystripe find [=ThunderClan=] and join it herself. Daisy and her kits were farm cats, but when the humans took away Floss' kits, Daisy brought them to [=ThunderClan=] where they could be safe. About half of New [=SkyClan=] were also kittypets that left their homes to join the Clan. Violet's kits were born as kittypets, but they dreamed of becoming warriors, and Violet had Ravenpaw bring them to the modern [=SkyClan=].
** Played straight: Ravenpaw was born in [=ThunderClan=], but became a farm cat. Violet was born in [=BloodClan=], but when she was badly injured by her brothers, Barley took her to live with Fuzz, whose owner was a veterinarian. Pinestar, a leader of [=ThunderClan=], left the Clan to live out the rest of his [[CatsHaveNineLives final life]] as a kittypet. A few of the last remaining members of Old [=SkyClan=] became kittypets when the Clan finally split up. In ''Dawn of the Clans'', after Turtle Tail realizes her feelings for Gray Wing are unrequited, she joins her friend Bumble as a kittypet (later goes back to the forest, however.)
* FullBoarAction: One of the Clans' mythology tales features Rage and Fury, two wild boars who plagued the three great cat Clans - [=LeopardClan=], [=TigerClan=], and [=LionClan=] - with their presence. Fleetfoot, a [=LeopardClan=] warrior, offered to kill Rage (but not knowing about Fury, who the other leaders conveniently didn't mention), and she managed to kill both of them one at a time despite them being powerful animals. Because she had done this, Goldenstar and Shadestar let her and her Clan earn hunting rights to the river.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes G-I]]
* GenderBender: A ''lot'', most of them being one-time typos. Permanent/more major ones include:
** Foxheart: female in ''Secrets of the Clans'' (thought by [=ShadowClan=] to be the mother of Brokentail) > male in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' > female in ''Yellowfang's Secret''
** Mosskit: originally written as a male in ''Forest of Secrets'' and ''Secrets of the Clans'', but later was female in ''Cats of the Clans'' and ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' (which became Mosskit's official gender), and mentioned as both at different points in ''The Last Hope''.
** Mintkit and Sagekit: Mintkit was male and Sagekit was female in the allegiances of ''Firestar's Quest'', but they flipped genders in the actual text. ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' confirms the allegiances of ''Firestar's Quest'' to be correct.
** Rowanclaw: female in ''Dawn'' > male in ''Starlight'' and subsequent books. Fathers Tawnypelt's kits in an intentional acknowledgement of this error.
** Rippletail: female in ''Twilight'' > male in ''The Sight''
** Pouncetail: female in ''The Sight'' > male in ''Dark River''
** Sedgewhisker: female in ''The Sight'' > male in ''Dark River'' > female in ''Sunrise''
** Gorsetail: female in ''Sunrise'' (was actually a mother of kits earler in TPOT) > male in ''The Fourth Apprentice''
** Rushpaw: male in main OOTS series > female in ''Battles of the Clans''
* GenderEqualEnsemble: ''The New Prophecy'' has three she-cats (Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, and Feathertail) traveling with three toms (Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, and Stormfur).
* GenderIsNoObject: The Clans' society has almost perfect gender equality, with equal numbers of female leaders and warriors throughout. The only real difference in how they're treated is when a female warrior becomes pregnant: she spends a few months in the nursery to have her kittens, and female deputies and leaders cannot have kits.
* GeneHunting: Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf are listening when - after Ashfur tries to kill them out of jealousy that Squirrelflight chose Brambleclaw over him - Squirrelflight tells Ashfur that the three aren't her kits. Hollyleaf thinks Leafpool might know who their real parents are, since she was there at the time of their birth. Leafpool reveals that she is their real mother, which is against the warrior code since she is a medicine cat and medicine cats aren't allowed to have mates.
* GenerationalSaga: The Original Series stars Firestar, while his daughters Squrrelflight and Leafpool take center stage in the second series, his grandchildren Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather become mains in the third, in the fourth his grand-nieces Ivypool and Dovewing are added as main characters as well, and in the sixth series a younger litter of grandchildren - mainly Alderpaw - is featured.
* GeniusDitz: Mothflight. While she spaces out a lot, leading to some near-death situations, she's an expert with herbs and healing.
* GenkiGirl:
** Squirrelpaw, though it fades pretty quickly.
** Cinderpaw too, though that stops after she gets hit by a car.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See GRatedSex located below.
* GiveTheBabyAFather: In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', the eponymous character has a forbidden inter-Clan relationship with Oakheart, and ends up having his children. Thrushpelt - [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy despite also having feelings for Bluestar]] - offers to help her care for the kits and let their Clanmates assume that Thrushpelt was the father, in order to help her avoid any awkward questions about her kits' parentage, which Bluestar accepts.
* GoKartingWithBowser: Gatherings are a temporary truce between the four Clans that happens once a month. However, there are cases where these Gatherings can get broken. Also, Clans can refuse to join a Gathering in several cases.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation:
** Learning that her parents broke the Warrior Code, which she'd obsessed over for the majority of her life, pretty much [[BreakTheCutie shattered what was left of Hollyleaf's sanity]].
** In the original series, Bluestar after Tigerclaw's betrayal.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: In ''A Dangerous Path'' when Bluestar's suffering from dementia and is absolutely convinced that [=WindClan=] is stealing prey, she won't listen to Fireheart when he gives her evidence that a dog has been killing the prey. She tells him that he's a good and noble warrior, so he can't comprehend that other cats would have morals any less pristine than his own. He especially thinks this comment is odd, since ''he'' was the one that exposed Tigerclaw as a traitor and murderer.
* GoodIsNotNice: Jayfeather may be one of the most important heroes in the third and fourth story arcs, but his temper is notoriously short.
-->'''Bumblestripe:''' ''[shrugs]'' He snapped at Hazeltail for getting in the way, hissed at Cherrypaw for trampling on Ferncloud's moss, and ordered Foxleap and Toadstep to fetch comfrey. So I guess he's okay.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Both played straight and averted. Clawface, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as his name implies]], has many scars running along his face. He's a villain. However, [[EnsembleDarkhorse Stonefur]], who has battle-scarred ears, and Brightheart who has one eye and ear missing and is horrifically scarred in that area, are both heroes. Tigerstar, another villain, has a scar across the bridge of his nose and a split in his ear. Longtail, a hero, has a V-shaped cut in his ear as well. Of course, one has to take into account that almost every character in existence is scarred somehow, but...
* GoodShepherd: Common archetype for medicine cats.
* GoshdangItToHeck: All the characters are cats with a different vocabulary, and therefore, different profanities than humans, so it's understandable when a character exclaims "mouse dung!" or calls someone a "fox-hearted traitor". Tigerstar calls Firestar, his arch-enemy, a "stinking furball". When Ashfur called Squirrelflight a "[[UnusualEuphemism faithless she-cat]]", he really meant "whore" (it works in context, and explains Hollyleaf's shocked reaction).
* GradeSkipper: In a manner of speaking. Apprentices usually become warriors in the order they were apprenticed, and an apprenticeship is stated to normally last 6 moons. Fireheart and Graystripe were made warriors before the older Dustpelt and Sandstorm, and if you carefully keep track of every mention of time passing in the book, they were only apprentices for a little over two moons.
* GrandFinale: ''The Last Hope'' was intended to be this, and included the big battle between the Clans and the Dark Forest that they'd been building up to for two series, wrapped up other plotlines, and gave characters one last moment of glory, including some long-dead characters making a cameo.
* GRatedSex: Beyond all of the characters that have been born to the various {{Official Couple}}s throughout the series (one litter being both implied and confirmed by WordOfGod to be the result of a one-night stand), there was one particularly blatant scene in ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' that provoked many thoughts of [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar "how did they get away with this?"]]. Oakheart asks Bluestar to meet him somewhere at night, saying he wants to get to know her better. After a romantic evening, Bluestar starts begging to let herself enjoy "Just one night!". Next thing you know, Oakheart is building them a nest, and the next chapter skips to the next morning. Soon after, Bluestar is pregnant.
* GratuitousEnglish: In the Japanese translations of the series, the names of the characters, which are usually combinations of nouns, verbs and adjectives, are left in English.
* GreaterNeedThanMine: Some cats, particularly the elders, insist upon this when prey or herbs are low.
* GreenEyes: Most of Firestar's family (and at least one other major bloodline) fit this description, although the trait seems rarer outside of [=ThunderClan=]. When someone's green eyes are brought up repeatedly, it usually signals a bold or strong character. And the eyes are usually described as emerald-green or leaf-green, even though brilliant green eyes are usually a purebred trait. Real Life cats tend to have the duller yellow-green kind, especially in populations that have been feral for many generations.
* GreyAndGrayMorality: Featured very prominently from the second series onward. The authors have even gone back to write sympathetic backstories for most of the villains, the most notable being Scourge. Tigerstar and Hawkfrost are also noteworthy because, although they wanted power and did horrible things to get it, they only wanted power because they believed they could do a better job of running the Clans and help keep the forest peaceful (Although Tigerstar's vision for running the Clans was [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain very racist]]). The villains of the fourth series also consist almost entirely of cats that have been wronged or forgotten and are rising up for revenge. Then for the heroes, we have Brambleclaw, who had the exact same goals as Hawkfrost, and leaned dangerously close to TheDarkSide, making Hawkfrost's status as a ManipulativeBastard pretty much the only difference between them. We also have Leafpool and Squirrelflight with their (spoileriffic) lies and betrayal. And then there is [[LawfulStupid Hollyleaf]], [[AxCrazy Lionblaze]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jayfeather]], who all seem to be [[DysfunctionJunction much more dysfunctional]] than all the other characters.
* GrimUpNorth: [=ShadowClan=], normally thought to be the most "evil" Clan, lives in the northernmost territory. There's even a saying in [=ThunderClan=] that the cold north wind blows over every [=ShadowClan=] cat and chills their heart.
* GrudgingThankYou: One of the mountain rogues gives this to the Clan cats and Tribe cats when they saved them from an eagle.
* GrumpyOldMan: Some elders are portrayed this way, notably Mousefur and Tangle.
* GuttedLikeAFish: Tigerstar is killed in this manner when the cat he tried to order around got fed up with it - the wound is bad enough that he [[CatsHaveNineLives loses]] ''[[CatsHaveNineLives all]]'' [[CatsHaveNineLives of his nine leader's lives]].
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Cats who are the result of a forbidden relationship between cats from two different Clans are called half-Clan cats. Some characters are more accepting of them, knowing that it's the cat inside and not their blood that determines who they are, but others mistrust them simply because they share the blood of another Clan. A notable example is Jayfeather in the fourth series - everyone trusted him before, but after his lineage is revealed, when he fails to save a drowning cat, he's accused of trying to ''murder'' said cat, ''even with witnesses''. He points out that it's only because he's half-Clan that they don't trust him.
* AHandfulForAnEye: One [=RiverClan=] technique is temporarily blinding a foe with water.
* HandicappedBadass: Brightheart and One-Eye (originally named White-eye) each lost an eye at a young age. This does not stop them from learning how to fight just as well as others (despite having a blind side) and becoming warriors.
* HappilyAdopted:
** Mistyfoot and Stonefur were adopted by the [=RiverClan=] cat Graypool, who had just lost her own kits. They grew up believing that she actually was their mother.
** Brindleface adopts Cloudkit when Cloudkit's mother gives him up to be raised as a Clan cat. Cloudkit was a newborn when given to the Clan, so until Fireheart explained to the kit his parentage, Cloudkit thought Brindleface was his mother. When Fireheart later became Clan leader, he received a life from Brindleface and in the process felt the love she had for her kits, including Cloudtail just as much as her own.
** In ''Dawn of the Clans'', Gray Wing raises Thunder as his own after Thunder's mother dies and his father [[ParentalAbandonment abandons him]]. He also adopts Turtle Tail's three kits, and especially feels protective of them after her death.
** Also in ''Dawn of the Clans'', a rogue is killed by Clear Sky's cats, and afterward they realize she had two kits. The kits, Birch and Alder, are raised by Petal, one of Clear Sky's cats.
** In ''Hawkwing's Journey'', [[spoiler:after Sandynose and Pebbleshine are captured by Twolegs, Hawkwing develops a platonic relationship with Sandynose's mate Plumwillow. After her kits are born, he fills the father role. Sandynose later finds his way back to the group, and his kits refuse to interact with him at first since they view him as a stranger and Hawkwing as their father. Hawkwing eventually does convince them to build a relationship with their real father.]]
* HappyEndingOverride: The first arc ends on a pure happy ending. The sequel has humans tear down the forest and reveals that the villain is still hanging around from beyond the grave.
* HappyRain: The end of ''The Fourth Apprentice'', signifying the end of the drought.
* HateAtFirstSight: Longtail, Sandstorm, and Dustpelt hate Fireheart the moment he joins the Clan, and the feeling is mutual. Eventually Fireheart [[RescueRomance saves Sandstorm's life and she falls in love with him]], Longtail, without the influence of Darkstripe and Tigerstar, eventually becomes loyal to Fireheart (particularly after Fireheart begins to treat him with more respect), and Dustpelt continues to be a bit of a jerk, but in their old age they begin to relish their rivalry more than anything.
* HaveYouComeToGloat: Yellowfang from asks Molepelt this after she kills Brokenstar, since she had been feeling very guilty about it. To her surprise, he says he would never gloat. [=ShadowClan=] was his Clan too.
* HealingHerb: Because the characters are cats and obviously wouldn't have access to or knowledge of human medicine, their healers, known as medicine cats, use herbs instead.
* {{Heaven}}: [=StarClan=] for Clan cats and The Tribe of Endless Hunting for Tribe cats. However, the cats in these heavens can communicate on rare occasions, and it is possible for a cat to belong to both.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: When Beetlewhisker says that he's going to leave the Dark Forest because he didn't know that they wanted to destroy the Clans, Brokenstar leaps on him and kills him.
* HeelFaceReturn: This happened to Hollyleaf. When last seen in Sunrise, she tried to murder her mother and confessed another murder she'd committed. She returns in The Forgotten Warrior as a friendly cat who helps defeat real villain Sol and a potential candidate for the fourth cat in the prophecy. A short story was later released to explain this change.
* HeelRealization: Ivypool realizes what the Dark Forest - which she's been training with and working for - is all about after seeing Tigerstar talking about destroying the forest.
* {{Hell}}: The Place of No Stars (also called the Dark Forest), a forest covered in fungus, lit only with a SicklyGreenGlow, with sludgy rivers, and no prey. Each evil cat is meant to walk the Dark Forest alone, but they haven't exactly been doing that lately.
* HellSeeker: Mapleshade was this when alive: she hated [=StarClan=] and wanted to go to the Dark Forest.
* HeroicAlbino: Pink Eyes is the series' first ever albino cat. He's also a solid good CoolOldGuy.
* HeroicBastard: The series has these in just about every arc. Examples include: Mistyfoot and Stonefur, who are half-[=ThunderClan=]-half-[=RiverClan=], with their mother faked as a [=RiverClan=] queen. Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf also count, with them also being half-Clan, and their mother a medicine cat. They believe that another relation of theirs is their mother, and the truth does not come out until much later.
* HeroicBSOD: Bluestar suffers a particularly nasty one after Tigerclaw's betrayal. It takes her two entire books to get over it completely... just in time for a HeroicSacrifice.
* HeroicLineage: Almost all of the point of view characters in the main series are the descendents of the living legend Firestar, the first hero of the series. The blurb for ''The Sight'' even describes Lionpaw, Hollypaw, and Jaypaw as "children of Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, two of the noblest [=ThunderClan=] warriors, and grandchildren of the great leader Firestar himself".
* HeroicRematch: In the ''Ravenpaw's Path'' manga trilogy, Ravenpaw faces off against [[BigBad Willie]] in ''Shattered Peace'' and gets completely crushed. They fight again in ''The Heart of a Warrior'', and this time it is Ravenpaw who is victorious.
* HeroicSecondWind: Occurs when Firestar fights Scourge. Scourge actually ''kills him'' once, and assumes he's gone forever, but since Firestar has nine lives, he comes back later. Firestar's triumphant return is somewhat of a shock to Scourge, and he comes back apparently fighting with the power of [=StarClan=]. However, Firestar's ISurrenderSuckers is the actual deciding factor in the battle.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: There are several times when characters other than the heroes are off on their own quests to save the Clans. There are several such as Yellowfang, who in the first book was organizing a resistance against [[StarterVillain Brokenstar]]; Stormfur, who was helping the Tribe become strong enough to defeat the Mountain Invaders; Tigerheart, who spied on the Dark Forest so that he could protect the Clans; and even Jingo, a cat trying to protect her band of former kittypets after their lives were ruined by Sol.
* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** Firestar and Graystripe
** Ravenpaw and Barley, although pretty much every ''Warriors'' fan that doesn't hate slash (and even some who do) believes that Ravenpaw and Barley are more than HeterosexualLifePartners. It's also worth noting that [[WordOfGod the author herself said]] that she envisions them "[[HoYay like a married couple]]," and that they are ''perfectly happy with just each other'' and ''don't want any girls to boss them around''. This is made even more blatant in Ravenpaw's manga trilogy.
** Leafstar and Echosong
* HighOnCatnip:
** For the most part, the series pretty much averts this. It appears in the books and is used as a medicinal herb to help cats with greencough relax (though Fireheart in the first series remembers it from when he was a kitten and is extremely tempted to bite down on it when carrying some back). The authors have commented that, while they touch upon several serious topics in the series, one that will almost certainly never appear is drugs in any form.
** In ''Moth Flight's Vision'', it finally gets played straight. Moth Flight, having never used catmint before and no idea what the proper dose is, guesses and ends up giving Rocky too much. The old cat gets high and plays like a kit, and tries hilariously to find any excuse to get some throughout the rest of the book.
* HighPressureBlood: A few instances, specifically:
** Tigerstar. Any wound inflicted on him seems to bleed twice as much as a wound inflicted on someone else. And of course, when he bleeds to death ''[[CatsHaveNineLives nine times]]''.
** Hawkfrost's death. It just keeps coming and coming...
** Every fight involving Lionblaze from ''Outcast'' onward.
** Firestar has a few of these moments. In ''Fading Echoes'', he's slipping in a pool of his own blood as it's still gushing out of him.
** Stick's daughter Red after he accidentally slits her throat.
* HijackedByGanon: Tigerstar ends up being responsible for a good chunk of other cats' evil deeds throughout series one through four. Despite ''dying in the first series.''
* HisNameIs: Zigzagged. Runningwind is dead and Fireheart sees Whitethroat nearby, who he assumes to be the killer. Whitethroat is hit by a car after Fireheart realizes it wasn't him. Fireheart asks who killed Runningwind, and Whitethroat says who it was but Fireheart can't hear him over the noise of a passing car. Fireheart asks again, but Whitethroat dies just as he's about to say it, however he has a look of horror in his eyes. Then Fireheart turns around and sees the killer right there.
* HissBeforeFleeing: Naturally, since the cast are all cats. Usually done to show that the losing side are sore losers or are particularly furious at losing the battle.
* HitlerAteSugar: A variant with Tigerstar, the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName series equivalent of Hitler]]. When apprentice Tawnypaw, Tigerstar's daughter, is slighty late bringing moss to the elder Smallear, Smallear says, "Tigerstar didn't want to serve the elders either when he was an apprentice! You're going to turn out just like him!"
* HiveQueen: ''Firestar's Quest'' has a HiveMind horde of rats led by one that can speak Cat. Firestar actually [[CatsHaveNineLives loses a life]] in battle with the rats, and then his SpiritAdvisor Spottedleaf tells him "''Not many, but one''." He realizes that this means [[KeystoneArmy killing the leader will ensure the cats' victory]].
* HoldYourHippogriffs: [[CueTheFlyingPigs Pigs aren't said to fly]], hedgehogs are. You don't split hairs, but split whiskers. And 'a load of foxdung' and 'Who made dirt in his fresh-kill?' are used as substitutes for... erm... yeah.
* HolyGround: The Moonstone, and later, Moonpool, are sacred places for the cats to communicate with their ancestors. New leaders are given nine lives there, each new warrior must make the trip there once, and that's where the medicine cats receive omens twice a moon.
* HometownNickname: In ''Night Whispers'', the [=ThunderClan=] warrior Ivypool is kidnapped by a [=ShadowClan=] patrol and held prisoner in their camp. There, a group of [=ShadowClan=] kits give her the nickname "Thundercat".
* TheHomewardJourney: ''Moonrise''. The journey to the sea was hard, but the journey home is just as dangerous (In fact, one of them didn't make it back.)
* HopelessBossFight: In the tabletop game included with a few of the books, if you attempt to fight a [[HumansAreCthulhu Twoleg]], it ends like this. The [=PCs'=] only options are to attack, which does nothing but damage them, or run away.
* HopelessSuitor: WordOfGod has it that Leopardstar loved [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Tigerstar]]. However, Tigerstar does not return her affections as he loves Sasha.
* HotBlooded: Hollyleaf even pokes fun at this, when she says that Sorreltail is one of the rare cats in [=ThunderClan=] who isn't that.
* HufflepuffHouse: [=WindClan=] somewhat serves as this as they are neither the designated villains like [=ShadowClan=], the protagonists like [=ThunderClan=], or the neutral softy like [=RiverClan=]. In fact they weren't even in the first book, made almost no appearance in the third and fourth books, and a minor one in the fifth book. Only in the second and sixth books are they important, otherwise before ''Starlight'' they were simply "[=ThunderClan=]'s allies", then Tallstar died, making them the focus one last time, but once Onestar took over [=WindClan=] just became [=RiverClan=].
* HumanlikeAnimalAging: Averted. Aside from a few inaccuracies, they age and develop just like real cats do. The exceptions to the lifespan rule are the Clan leaders, who have 9 lives. They measure age for kittens as "moons".
* HumansAreCthulhu: Much of what the Twolegs do is naturally incomprehensible to the cats, and they view Twolegs as one of the greatest threats (especially after their original forest is torn down to make way for a new Thunderpath).
* HumansAreSmelly: The cats believe that humans smell, and even once Fireheart earns his place in the Clan, other cats still occasionally insult him by saying he smells like humans.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: Humans are most commonly referred to as Twolegs. They have also been called Nofurs (by Daisy, Smoky, and Floss) and Upwalkers (by Purdy), as well as housefolk and workfolk (by house cats).
* HypocrisyNod: When Jagged Peak runs without looking where he was going, Gray Wing scolds him for it...before doing it himself by accident. He realizes he's being a hypocrite and resolves on not becoming one.
* IAmNotMyFather: Brambleclaw is determined to get out from under the shadow of being the son of BigBad Tigerclaw.
* IAmTheNoun: Tigerstar tries to declare himself the sole representative of [=ShadowClan=]. It doesn't really work out for him...
* ICantFeelMyLegs: Used with Briarpaw when a tree falls on her. She ends up with her hindlegs paralyzed.
* IChooseToStay: In ''Long Shadows'', Jayfeather goes back in time to the ancient incarnation of himself. He first sees it just as part of his duty, to make sure he sets certain events in motion so that they affect the future, but then he falls in love. He wants to stay in that time period, but isn't allowed to because he's still needed in the present day.
* IcyBlueEyes: Both Scourge and Hawkfrost have ice-blue eyes. And they're both villains, the former being a dictator and the latter being an ambitious ManipulativeBastard.
* IdenticalGrandson:
** In ''Firestar's Quest'', Firestar realizes that Tigerstar and Spottedleaf are distantly descended from [=SkyClan=] when, during Leafstar's nine lives ceremony, he sees the kits of an ancient [=SkyClan=] leader that look identical to them.
** A female example with Sparkpaw, who is described as being a clone of her grandfather, Firestar.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Hollyleaf gives this as a reason for killing Ashfur in order to prevent him from spilling the secret of her and her siblings' parentage.
* IfICantHaveYou: Averted with Ashfur. He wants Squirrelflight to suffer, so he plans to kill her kits in front of her and let her live with the horror.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: In ''Omen of the Stars'' Ivypaw goes undercover in the Dark Forest after finding out they're using her, only to find out that she's up to her final loyal Dark warrior test - murder Flametail. Made funny by the fact that Flametail is an actual CAT, albeit not a kitten.
* IGotBigger: Tigerstar had been the runt of his litter until getting older. Not only did he get older and bigger, but he also became a ''giant'' among the Clan cats. It appears that his sons Bramblestar and Hawkfrost share their father's growth spurt as well.
* IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy:
** Thrushpelt is in love with Bluestar (Bluefur back then), but she doesn't like him back in that way. When he finds out that Bluestar was pregnant with Oakheart's kits, what does he do? He offers to pretend to be the kits' father, and he shows great love for them even if he's not their real father.
** Spottedleaf towards Firestar. She sees that Sandstorm is his mate... and it doesn't bother her at all. In fact, she admitted that the relationship between her and Firestar wouldn't have worked out since she was a medicine cat (and medicine cats can't have kits). In fact, when Mapleshade almost kills Sandstorm because she "stole" Firestar from Spottedleaf, the latter of them says that there was nothing left to steal and that Sandstorm made him happy. Mapleshade ends up [[DeaderThanDead killing Spottedleaf]] for this. WordOfGod says that Spottedleaf died again so that Firestar wouldn't have to choose between her and Sandstorm when he died.
** Feathertail with Crowfeather. While Crowfeather fell in love again with Leafpool after her death, Feathertail supported their relationship because she didn't want Crowfeather unhappy. This stretched out further when Crowfeather had kits with Leafpool and Feathertail cared about them as if they were her own.
** Feathertail's mother Silverstream was also like this towards Graystripe after he got another mate and kits. When Millie and Briakit were deathly sick, Silverstream in [=StarClan=] viciously protested this, saying that Graystripe couldn't bear any more heartbreak.
* IJustWantToBeNormal:
** Dovewing, who hates the fact that her powers set her apart from the rest of the Clan and that it causes a rift between herself and her sister. She even says the phrase exactly in ''Fading Echoes''.
** Lionblaze, to a lesser extent. He even sympathizes with Dovewing's situation in ''The Fourth Apprentice''.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Ivypool, who is extremely jealous of her sister's power and the attention she's getting - to the point that she trains with the Dark Forest, hoping that she'll become good enough to be noticed too.
* ImmediateSequel: Some of the most notable examples are:
** The end of ''Rising Storm'' and beginning of ''A Dangerous Path'' - ''Rising Storm'' ends with a cliffhanger, and ''A Dangerous Path'' picks up at the same moment. In fact, you could stick the first line of chapter 1 of ''A Dangerous Path'' after the last line of ''Rising Storm'', and not know that there was meant to be a break.
** ''Starlight'' begins minutes (at the longest) after ''Dawn'' ends - the Clans arrive at the lake just at the beginning of dawn, and Starlight's first page describes how they're staring down at the water, and it still describes it as very early dawn.
** ''Twilight'' and ''Sunset'' have a bit of a cliffhanger as well - Twilight ends at the end of a battle, with Brambleclaw seeing two characters he never thought he'd see again, and Sunset begins with him walking over to them.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Sharptooth and Hawkfrost.
* IncestSubtext: Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost - half-brothers - could be interpreted this way. Brambleclaw chose to trust Hawkfrost '''over''' Squirrelflight, his LoveInterest, and trusted Hawkfrost completely up until he tried to make him kill his leader. Even though it was hinted at that Hawkfrost was evil.
* IncompatibleOrientation: In ''Tallstar's Revenge'', Reena seems to like Talltail/star and is obviously flirting with him. The only problem is, Talltail is gay, so her advances don't even show up on his radar. Reena later complains to Shrewclaw about it.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Many cats die of greencough, or, less frequently, whitecough throughout the series. Notable examples include Leopardstar's siblings and mother, and Tigerstar's siblings. Firestar and Bluestar even lose one of their lives this way.
* InertialImpalement: At the climax of ''Sunset'', Brambleclaw is fighting Hawkfrost. He'd just saved Firestar from a fox trap by digging up the stake holding it in the ground, so he picks up the stake in his mouth and swings it around. Hawkfrost lunges at him and impales himself on the spike. Brambleclaw is shocked and gasps "[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Hawkfrost! I... I didn't want this.]]"
* InescapableNet: In one of the field guides, one cat told 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.
* InevitableWaterfall: This happens in ''Moonrise''. The traveling Clan cats end up having trouble in bad weather, fall into a mountain stream, and go over a waterfall, landing in a pool of water at the bottom. Fortunately, there is a Tribe of cats that lives in a CaveBehindTheFalls, so even though the Clan cats are pretty battered, they are able to recover because the Tribe takes them in for a little while.
* InfantImmortality: [[AvertedTrope does not exist.]] When they say AnyoneCanDie, they ''mean'' it. One particular example is Snowkit, a ''deaf kitten'', who is eaten by a hawk.
* InferredSurvival: Fans had strong suspicions that Hollyleaf in survived because of the way her "death" was presented - we "see" it from the POV of a blind character who merely hears rocks caving in and automatically assumes that NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat without even trying to dig her out. [[NeverSayDie The characters keep using the word "lost" instead of "died".]] When the other characters finally realize that she might still be alive since they NeverFoundTheBody, they finally dig through the rubble... and find nothing, so they know she must be out there somewhere. She does return later that book.
* InformedFlaw: In ''The First Battle'''s finale, proto-[=StarClan=] shows up to tell both the protagonists and the antagonists what horrible people they are for fighting. The fact that the Moor Group were fighting ''to protect themselves from being slaughtered by the BigBad'', who they had unsuccessfully tried to reason with before, is never really acknowledged.
* InheritanceMurder: Clan law dictates that the Clan deputy becomes leader if the leader dies. In the first series, Tigerclaw attempted to murder his leader, Bluestar; he, as [=ThunderClan=]'s deputy, would have inherited her position if he had succeeded.
* InitiationCeremony: Of the pleasant type - joining the Clan requires taking an oath of loyalty in front of the Clan, and adopting a Clan-suitable name.
* InnocentInaccurate: A not so horrific example is used in ''Crookedstar's Promise''. As a [[CuteKitten kit]], Crookedstar sees two warriors in the midst of a forbidden relationship, but assumes that they are on a secret mission.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Gray Wing from ''Dawn of the Clans'' tries (poorly) to comfort Wind Runner by saying that her son Emberkit was in a better place. This, however, makes Wind Runner angry at him, yelling at him that the best place for a kit was at its mother's belly and wishing him grief, saying that he's as bad as Clear Sky and she'll throw that comment back at him. But when Turtle Tail dies, she apologizes to him.
* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: ''Dark River'' is one of these. At first it seems to be an interesting romp based on forbidden love, but looking back on it with ''Omen of the Stars'' and ''Dawn of the Clans'' completed it's far more important than it first appeared. It introduces the Ancients (the shared root of the Tribe and the Clans), Rock (who is revealed in ''The Last Hope'' as the cat who gave [=StarClan=] the prophecies), Dark Forest cats entering the real world, and the Tunnels (a massive [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Location]]).
* InsaneTrollLogic: Played for laughs in ''Bramblestar's Storm'', when the apprentices bunk in with the warriors temporarily. Dewpaw says that they must be warriors now since they were in the warriors' den now.
* InstantOracleJustAddWater: Well, the medicine cats ''do'' have to touch their nose to, or drink from, the Moonpool in order to receive dreams from [=StarClan=]...
* InsultBackfire: Blackstar at one point starts going on and on about how generous [=ThunderClan=] was to give up a piece of territory, and how much good use [=ShadowClan=] has been getting out of it as a hunting ground, using the concession as an opportunity to mock [=ThunderClan=] for weakness. Firestar, who had simply not thought the piece of territory important enough to fight for, responds: "I'm glad to hear that you are getting so much out of a piece of land prey-poor by [=ThunderClan=] standards." Blackstar is not amused.
* InsultOfEndearment: Clan cats often tease each other by affectionately call each other "mouse-brain", "fish-breath", or some other variety of that. Squirrelflight, for example, is well-known for calling Bramblestar "mouse-brain". It's the harsher insults like "crowfood-eater" or "fox-heart" that they have to watch out for.
* IntangibleTimeTravel: Rock can travel through time like this. And he can also interact with time travelers.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Apprentices almost always end up being good friends with their mentors. Fireheart also becomes good friends with Yellowfang, the medicine cat old enough to be his mother or grandmother.
* InterimVillain: In ''Power of Three'', Sol is an interim villain, meant to carry the story (and introduce massive changes) while Tigerstar and Brokenstar gathered their power to rise up in ''Omen of the Stars''. Ashfur then becomes an interim villain for Sol's time as BigBad: he causes Hollyleaf's FaceHeelTurn, before being murdered and causing the characters who didn't know of Ashfur's villain status to bring Sol back to the lake and try him for Ashfur's murder.
* InternalReveal:
** In the Original Series Bluestar reveals to her grown up kits that she is their real mother, something the reader (and Fireheart) found out about a while ago.
** Bluestar telling Firestar about [=SkyClan=] in ''Firestar's Quest'', which the reader saw in the prologue. Although some of the information was new. Similarly, Sol mentions it to Hollyleaf and Dovewing in ''The Forgotten Warrior''.
** In the third and fourth series, the prophecy du jour (known to the readers, Firestar, and Jayfeather) is revealed at least three times. Once to Jayfeather's siblings, once to Dovewing, and once to Brambleclaw, Leafpool, and Squirrelflight. Not to mention Jayfeather finally telling Firestar he knows about the prophecy.
** Any cat training in, or being trained by a member of, the Dark Forest. The readers know it's bad news, and the characters eventually find out that they're being trained by evil cats who want to use them to destroy the Clans. Notable examples include Ivypool in series four, and Crookedstar in his/her Super Edition.
** A more minor one in ''Mistystar's Omen''. The readers have known for ages that Mothwing doesn't believe in [=StarClan=], but it's a huge reveal to Mistystar and provides the main drama of the book.
** Bramblestar learning about [=SkyClan=] in ''Bramblestar's Storm''. By the time this book came out, readers had known about [=SkyClan=] for ''seven years''.
* {{Interquel}}: A majority of the ExpandedUniverse is made of interquels.
* InterspeciesAdoption: In ''Hollyleaf's Story'', Hollyleaf attempts this for a day or so with a fox cub lost in the tunnel, finding it and caring for it before later bringing it back outside. She encounters it a year later and happily greets it, only to find that it does not remember her and it attacks her.
* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: [=ShadowClan=] stealing [=ThunderClan=]'s kits in the first book.
* IronicEcho:
** When Sandpaw and Dustpaw get to go the Gathering but Graypaw doesn't, Sandpaw tells him to have a "nice quiet evening". Later, when Graypaw gets to go but Sandpaw doesn't, he mentions that he told her to have a "nice quiet evening".
** In ''Beyond the Code'', "Why do things like this always happen to me?" First it's Sol's mother, Cinders, in a flashback after her mate leaves her because she complained too often, and Sol was devastated. Later, in the present day, Sol says it himself when he wants to be made a warrior at the Gathering and he thinks Leafstar deliberately tried to embarrass him by refusing for the time being.
** And in ''Tallstar's Revenge'', Talltail uses the harsh nickname "Wormcat" against Shrewclaw, the cat who always tormented him with that name.
* IronicName:
** The prefix Petal is usually for a soft-spoken and kind she-cat. But as for Petal from ''Dawn Of The Clans''...as Thunder says: "Which cat named her 'Petal'? There's nothing soft about her!"
** Quick Water ''hates'' water, much to the amusement of Turtle Tail.
* Irony:
** In ''Outcast'', thinking about [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Crowfeather]], Hollyleaf thinks "I'm glad he's not ''my'' father!" Three guesses what gets revealed three books later.
** And in ''Night Whispers'', Flametail snaps at Lionblaze that he was happy he wasn't related to a murderer (referring to when Lionblaze accidentally killed Russetfur.) Yet Flametail himself ''is'' related to a murderer: his grandpa Tigerstar.
* IslandBase: [=RiverClan=]'s camp in the old forest is located on an island. Also, in ''Dark River'', they are temporarily forced to shelter on the Gathering Island while they deal with Twolegs attacking their camp.
* IsThatAThreat: In ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny'':
-->'''Skipper:''' "I've seen Red around a lot lately. Next time, it might be a tuft of her fur that's left beside a dead Twoleg pet."
-->'''Stick:''' "Leave Red out of this. And don't make threats you can't keep."
-->'''Misha:''' "Oh, they're not threats. They're promises."
* ISurrenderSuckers:
** Firestar has used this trick on several occasions to great effect, defeating opponents that otherwise had the advantage.
** This also is used by other cats. According to ''Secrets of the Clans'', this is a tactic taught to apprentices.
** Lampshaded in ''The Forgotten Warrior'' when Antpelt uses it on Ivypool, then expresses exasperation at how she fell for a "tired old trick".
* ItGetsEasier: In ''The Rise of Scourge'', it is shown that Scourge, the leader of [=BloodClan=], started innocent but found it easier to kill as time went on.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Whitestorm. "I’ve been proud to serve as your deputy."
* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: Dovewing's ability to sense events from far away, much to the young cat's surprise.
* ItsAllMyFault:
** Foxleap does this in ''Sign Of The Moon'' when his plan to save the rogue cats gets a Tribe cat killed.
** Mousefur also goes through this when Longtail dies in ''Fading Echoes''. She believes that if she hadn't stopped to complain about her missing meal, Longtail would not have run off and went to fetch it. This sends her into depression.
** Firestar also blames himself for making Squirrelpaw run away in ''Midnight'' because of an omen.
* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: [=StarClan=] thought it was a good idea to hide the secret about their parents from Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather. ''[[BreakTheCutie It]]'' ''[[DysfunctionJunction wasn't]]''.
* ItsNotYouItsMe: Dovewing dishes this out on Bumblestripe in ''Bramblestar's Storm''. She broke up with him because she still loved her last mate, Tigerheart, and legitimately felt bad for stringing him along for so long.
* ItsProbablyNothing: In ''The Forgotten Warrior'', Tigerheart warns Dovewing that Dawnpelt believes that Jayfeather killed Flametail, but she brushes it off as nothing several times. Near the climax of the book, Dawnpelt accuses Jayfeather of the murder at a Gathering, causing an uproar and making many Clan cats hate Jayfeather.
* ItsRainingMen: The "Skydrop" move that [=SkyClan=] developed and that [=ThunderClan=] later uses.
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: [=StarClan=] might tell you you can't have a mate or kits, or maybe the magical powers you have alienate cats around you, maybe you don't get to be a warrior at all, maybe all the cats you love will die, but regardless, it definitely sucks.[[OhMyGods Great StarClan]], does it.
* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream:
** Cats occasionally dream they were ''just'' about to catch a mouse when awakened.
** During a drought, Lionblaze is dreaming about the lake being filled with water.
-->'''Lionblaze:''' Did you have to do that? I was having a really great dream!\\
'''Cloudtail:''' And now you can go on a really great patrol.
** In a dream, Squirrelpaw is talking to a spirit-cat, and is about to be told how she can save her sister, when Shrewpaw wakes her up.
** Ivypool is spying on the Dark Forest. She's just about to hear the plans for the final battle when Dovewing awakens her.
* IWasNamedMyName:
** We see in Barley's backstory that he always had the name Barley, even when he lived in the city; the name didn't initially come from the humans who own the farm he lives on. However, in the ''Ravenpaw's Path'' graphic novel trilogy, one of the humans calls him "Barley", so we can assume that they just happened to name him his actual name.
** Dovewing's name as a [=ThunderClan=] warrior is almost exactly the same as when she was an Ancient.
* IWillFightNoMoreForever: Mudfur loses his taste for battle and decides to become a medicine cat after his mate and all but one of his kits die the day they are born. He announces it after representing [=RiverClan=] in a CombatByChampion fight (and winning).
* IWillFindYou: The [=SkyClan=] leader Cloudstar and his mate Birdflight are separated for good when [=SkyClan=] is forced to leave the forest and Birdflight stays behind as a [=ThunderClan=] cat because her kits are too young to travel. The two promise to find each other in the afterlife, and they eventually do, after many years.
* IWillWaitForYou:
** Though it's just best friends and not a romantic example, Firestar and Graystripe do this. In the [[ExpandedUniverse Super Edition]] ''Firestar's Quest'', Firestar goes away on a quest that leads him far out of the forest, leaving the Clan in Graystripe's care. Graystripe promises "I'll wait for you as long as it takes." Firestar, of course, makes it back safely. In the second series, when Graystripe is captured by Twolegs and the Clans leave the forest for good to find a new home, Firestar refuses to give up hope that Graystripe will return, leaving the deputy position open, even though most of the cats believe that Graystripe is dead. He even cites Graystripe's waiting for him as a reason why he should continue to wait. Eventually, several moons later, pressure from many other cats and the need for a deputy forces him to accept that Graystripe probably won't come back, and he appoints Brambleclaw as a deputy. Over half a year later, Graystripe finally finds his way to the Clan.
** This is the very line Half-Moon says as the last sentence in ''Sign Of The Moon'' to Jayfeather.
** Silverstream's spirit says this word from word to Graystripe in The Last Hope.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Firestar and Spottedleaf. After Spottedleaf dies, she promises that she will wait for Firestar in [=StarClan=], but she is [[CessationOfExistence killed again]] just a while before Firestar dies.
* IWishedYouWereDead: Lionblaze to Heathertail at the end of ''Eclipse''. She doesn't actually die, but Lionblaze spends the majority of the rest book being tortured by nightmares about killing her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes J-M]]
* JackassGenie: One of the Clans' mythology stories features a young [=LionClan=] warrior named Sunpelt defeating Mouthclaw, a giant, extremely toxic snake. In exchange for sparing her life she grants him a wish: he wishes that she would shrink down to the length of a cat's tail. She does just that...[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor by turning herself into thousands of smaller, equally poisonous snakes]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: Graystripe catches Darkstripe feeding Sorrelkit deathberries and reports him to Firestar. On being questioned, Darkstripe growls that of course Firestar will always take Graystripe's word. Even Firestar admits to himself that it's true: although he trusts Graystripe, he believes Darkstripe has a point and has to find solid proof to make sure Graystripe wasn't lying.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Jayfeather. Not the friendliest cat in the world to be around, although that's hardly surprising, considering his father is Crowfeather, but still always does his best to help his Clanmates whenever and however he can.
** Crowfeather could also count, but Feathertail and Leafpool are the only ones who have [[HiddenHeartofGold actually seen his good side]]. It's worth a mention that Crowfeather was ''a lot'' more of a pleasant cat before his first love, Feathertail, died.
** Dustpelt. He was always portrayed as strict and confrontational, but had great respect for his peers and especially showed his soft side to his mate Ferncloud and their kits.
** Cloudtail, to an extent. He was hot-headed and quick to jump into arguments, though he did mellow out a bit when he got older. He always had undying loyalty and a strong sense of what was right despite his prickly exterior.
** Pretty much all of [=ShadowClan=] after the first series.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Several of Tigerclaw's followers in [=ThunderClan=] were generally jerks, but they remained in the Clan when his treachery was revealed: Dustpelt and Longtail proved to be loyal warriors and grew to treat Fireheart with respect. Darkstripe, however, only refused to join Tigerclaw because Tigerclaw hadn't told him about conspiring with Brokenstar, and later continued to work for him while still in [=ThunderClan=], until he was caught and exiled himself. After Tigerstar's death, Darkstripe joined up with Tigerstar's killer, Scourge, to destroy the Clans.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: ''Power of Three'' and ''Omen of the Stars''. They gradually revealed the significance and origins of [[TheChosenOne the Three]], as well as The Dark Forest and their plans, etc.
* JobTitle: Most of the characters are "warriors".
* JokerImmunity: Tigerstar takes this to the logical extreme, since he keeps appearing even though he died in the first series. However, his limited interaction with the living world makes him much less of a threat then when he was alive, and his involvement in the earlier books of [=tPoT=] was somewhat lacking. Eventually - after four series - they do manage to finally make him DeaderThanDead.
* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Hawkfrost does this at the end of ''Sunset''. His plan wasn't particularly complicated, but before trying the strike the killing blow, he felt the need to tell Brambleclaw that he was just testing him. And of course, after Brambleclaw impales him, he remembers something else important and says a little extra as he bleeds to death.
* JustSoStory: There are stories in ''Secrets of the Clans'' that explain how tigers got stripes and how adders came to be.
* KangarooCourt: In ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar holds what he calls a "trial" for his prisoners. It's really nothing but whipping up hatred for the half-Clan cats so that their own Clanmates would mistrust them enough to want them driven out or killed.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Blackstar. He was one of the minions of two different {{Big Bad}}s, killed a [=ThunderClan=] elder while trying to kidnap some kits, and murdered the [=RiverClan=] deputy in cold blood in front of the entire Clan. He then goes on to be Clan leader, and Firestar lets him off with what can best be described as a stern warning. None of this is ever mentioned ever again.
** [[spoiler:Ashfur]]. After four counts of attempted murder in order to get back at the cat who rejected him, he makes it to [=StarClan=] with the excuse of "his only fault was to love too much".
* {{Kiai}}: [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness In the first book]], Firepaw tends to use "Gr-aaar!" every time he attacks something.
* KickTheDog: There's one cat that ''The Last Hope'' really wants you to know is an evil bastard, and it's not Brokenstar or Tigerstar. It's not even Shredtail. It's Hawkfrost. [[spoiler:Sure, Brokenstar murdered Beetlewhisker, but Hawkfrost made it personal when he kicked the corpse and smugly mocked Beetlewhisker. Then, he goes on to nearly kill fan-favourite Ivypool, and actually succeeds in killing Hollyleaf, another fan-favourite (admittedly without Ivypool's absurd levels of popularity). Then, he spends the rest of his screentime rubbing it in to Ivypool and Brambleclaw that he killed Hollyleaf. He really has his death coming.]]
* KidHeroAllGrownUp: The kits and apprentices from the first books are adults in the later series. The third-series kits/apprentices are also young adults in the fourth series.
* KissingCousins: Seeing as they're cats, and clans that don't allow intermixing, this is kind of inevitable.
** WordOfGod also confirmed one pairing that turned out to be BrotherSisterIncest. It wasn't on purpose because she didn't realize that they had the same parents (they were in different litters, a couple seasons apart), but she decided to just leave it once she found out.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [=StarClan=] members can forget parts of their past they don't like.
* LastEpisodeNewCharacter:
** Dovepaw and Ivypaw are born at the ending of ''Sunrise'' (the last book in the third series), with Jayfeather realizing that [[spoiler:one of them is the third cat in the prophecy]]. Both of them are main characters in the fourth series.
** In the manga at the end of ''Bramblestar's Storm'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:Lionblaze and Cinderheart have three kits, and that Squirrelflight is pregnant. Their kits will all appear in the sixth series.]]
* LateArrivalSpoiler: One noteworthy example would be the way the names "Firestar" and "Tigerstar", both big spoilers for late in the first series, are being thrown around indiscriminately on this very page. Even some of the books' titles contain major spoilers - see SpoilerTitle below.
* LawfulStupid: Hollyleaf was turning into this before [[spoiler:her disappearance.]]
* LegendFadesToMyth:
** In ''The Sun Trail'', Shattered Ice and Jackdaw's Cry figure out tunneling after Gray Wing saves Rainswept Flower from falling into a rabbit hole and guess that it will work because Gray Wing told them about Wind's tunneling technique. By the time of ''Tallstar's Revenge'', the story has been hilariously skewed so that Shattered Ice is an action hero who saves all of [=WindClan=] (which hadn't even been formed when tunneling was invented) from starvation by digging a hole in the middle of a blizzard.
** The start of the Clans' origin story in ''Secrets of the Clans'' even says that stories change and details are lost in the retelling. The book has the story that is told in the modern Clans nowadays, in which the forest settlers fought at Fourtrees, and after Thunder, Wind, River, and Shadow try to lay claim upon leadership, the spirit-cats tell them that they must split into Clans, each of the four leading one. While there ''was'' a battle like that at Fourtrees, and the spirit-cats did visit them there and guide them into splitting up, it didn't happen like the story told it, and the cats split apart more gradually over time.
* LegionOfDoom: The Dark Forest is a villainous group made up of the past enemies of the Clans, and some new ones.
* LetThePastBurn: Toward the end of ''Rising Storm'', a dry summer and young humans messing around results in a forest fire, badly burning [=ThunderClan=]'s territory, including their camp. Three of the Clan are killed in the fire, and while they do return, it takes a long time to recover and rebuild.
* LighterAndSofter: Fans thought this about ''Power of Three''. Then ''Outcast'' happened.
** ''Power of Three'' starting out LighterAndSofter and ending DarkerAndEdgier makes this a one arc long case of CerebusSyndrome.
* LightIsNotGood: Especially with [[spoiler:Sol]].
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters : Each book features a section at the front which lists all the characters. The most recent books' Allegiances sections have OVER ONE HUNDRED characters listed. (Of course, several of them are background characters, kits, and cats who haven't even made an appearance.) There are over [[SerialEscalation 900 named characters in the whole series.]]
* LongRunningBookSeries: 2003-present, still ongoing, with 28 main books, 5 Field Guides, 7 Super Editions, 6 e-book novellas, and 13 manga volumes as of March 2015.
* LoserSonOfLoserDad: Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt are treated poorly by their Clanmates in early books for this reason. Who's their dad? [[BigBad Tigerstar.]]
* LostInTransmission: Whitethroat is injured, and Fireheart questions him about Runningwind's death. But just when Whitethroat opens his mouth begins to speak, a monster roars past so Fireheart can't hear him, and [[HisNameIs when Whitethroat tries to speak a second time, he dies]].
* LoveDodecahedron: Check out the main page, because we don't even want to start here.
* LoveInformant: Cinderpelt tells Fireheart that Sandstorm loves him (and that [[EveryoneCanSeeIt it's obvious to everyone else]]).
* LoveItOrHateIt: In-universe, the characters either tend to adore fish or despise it.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Ashfur]], who attempts to murder the father and kits of the cat who rejected him. When another cat questions how he made it to [=StarClan=] after that, Yellowfang's response is "his only fault was to love too much".
* [[LukeIAmYourFather Luke I Am Your Mother]]: Almost abused. We have THREE counts of this so far, and one [[InvertedTrope Luke I am NOT your mother]].
* MadLibFantasyTitle: It would take much less time to list the books that don't apply to this trope. ''Warriors'' is full of mystical stuff (such as ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' or ''Mistystar's Omen''), metafictional stuff (like ''Firestar's Quest''), and vague time-and-space stuff (''Eclipse'', ''Moonrise'', etc).
* MadOracle: Goosefeather was often seen as this, and indeed, many of his prophecies and signs seem rather questionable. The problem is that there are some actual premonitions in there too, so everyone ignores him when he starts getting ''really'' bad feelings about Tigerkit's future.
* MamaBear: Queens will do ''anything'' to protect their kits. When Firestar is receiving his [[CatsHaveNineLives nine leader's lives]], Brindleface gives him a life with the love a mother has for her kits. He expects this life to feel warm and comforting, but is surprised by the ferocity of it.
* ManipulativeBastard: Tigerstar.
* MayDecemberRomance: Pinestar and Leopardfoot... he's already a ''leader'' on (or close to) his last life when she's ''born''.
* MeaningfulName: A Clan cat's name is an indicator of their rank in the Clan hierarchy: kits' names end in -kit, apprentices' in -paw, leaders' in -star... the more unique names belong to warriors and medicine cats. Further, many cats have names that reflect some aspect of their appearance: Firestar got his name from his oft-mentioned "flame-colored pelt", and as for Halftail and One-eye... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin isn't it obvious?]]
** And outside of the Clan naming conventions, there is also Sol, who is named after the Roman god of the sun, which makes sense because he [[spoiler:predicts a total solar eclipse]]. Although, he hasn't done anything sun-related since ''Eclipse''...
** Jayfeather and Hollyleaf. [[spoiler:Their suffixes are references to their real parents, ''Leaf''pool and Crow''feather'', and Jayfeather's prefix is a further reference to his father, since jays and crows are different species of bird within the same family. Leafpool also wanted to name Hollyleaf after Crowfeather, but Squirrelflight wanted a say in the kits' names and chose Hollykit for the dark color of holly bark]].
* MeaningfulRename: Names are changed quite often, usually indicating [[RiteofPassage change of status]](promotion to apprentice or warrior), more rarely because of some physical change, e.g. Halftail, One-Eye, Lostface or Crookedkit.
* TheMedic: Medicine cats, of course.
* MercyKill: Littlecloud uses deathberries to save dying cats from pain.
* TheMigration:
** The plot of ''Dawn'' is about the cats moving from the doomed forest to the lake.
** ''Long Shadows'' reveals that [[spoiler:the Ancients went through this, as they used to live at the lake but moved to the mountains and became the Tribe of Rushing Water.]]
** In ''Dawn of the Clans'', about half of the ancient Tribe of Rushing Water left the mountains to find a new home in the forest.
* MilesGloriosus: Scourge used to be one, claiming to have killed foxes and ripped teeth out of the mouth of dogs. Then he TookALevelInBadass and was actually able to do the stuff he claimed to be able to do.
* MindScrew:
** Probably the best way to describe trying to create an accurate family tree of every named character in the series.
** Jayfeather's visions in ''Night Whispers''. You can't even tell they're visions until they're over.
* MirroredConfrontationShot:
** The [[http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrensImages/isbn/large/1/9780060525651.jpg cover]] of ''A Dangerous Path''.
** And [[http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv237/Flametail_von_Karma/Book%20Covers%20and%20Official%20Art/chinesetdh.jpg the Taiwanese version]] of ''The Darkest Hour''.
** The cover of [[http://i44.tinypic.com/w025bd.jpg The First Battle]] as well.
* TheMissingFaction:
** [=SkyClan=], who were forced to leave the forest after losing their territory. Eventually, however, they were lost from the memory of the living Clans.
** [=WindClan=] was this for a time in the first series, after [=ShadowClan=] drove them out while under the rule of Brokenstar. [=RiverClan=] and [=ShadowClan=] are pleased at the extra hunting territory at first, but Bluestar convinces the other leaders that it's wrong and gets them to agree that the Clan should be brought back.
* MonsterIsAMommy: The badger and her cubs in ''Twilight'', and the dead fox and its cubs in ''The Sight''.
* MoralityPet:
** Snowfur for Thistleclaw.
** Honeyfern and Poppyfrost wind up being this for Berrynose. He's still [[spoiler: not exactly ready to be having kittens]] but, hey, at least he's trying to act decent.
** Brightheart for Cloudtail.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: Hawkfrost. [[SarcasmMode Who most definitely]] ''[[SarcasmMode didn't]]'' [[SarcasmMode want to take over [=RiverClan=] and eventually rule the whole forest]].
* MotorMouth: Crookedstar's apprentice Sedgepaw.
-->Crookedstar's head was spinning. "Slow down," he meowed.\\
"Sorry!" Sedgepaw flattened her ears. "I know I talk too much but I just want to be the best apprentice. I'm so glad you're my mentor. You're the strongest cat in [=RiverClan=], except Rippleclaw, but he's old - not an elder or anything - but you're younger and you remember what it's like to be a 'paw. And I'm going to listen to everything you tell me..."
* MultipleChoicePast: Rock. Is he the Guardian of the Tunnels from the Ancients, [[spoiler:the first Stoneteller]], [[spoiler:an immortal cursed to be unable to save the Clans from their fate]], [[spoiler:a ghost]], [[spoiler:the Keeper of the Prophecies]], [[spoiler:the Creator of The Three]], or some combination of these things? Not even WordOfGod can decide.
* MundaneMadeAwesome:
** The climax of ''The Fourth Apprentice'', where [[spoiler:Jayfeather breaks his stick]]. It is the most dramatic scene about [[spoiler:a cat breaking a piece of wood in half]] that you will ''ever'' read.
** [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya Scourge saying his name]] in ''The Rise of Scourge'' is probably the most badass shot of a cat introducing himself you'll ever see. It even turns up the awesome by using random flashbacks.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning:
** Most main characters will end up appearing with [=StarClan=] ([[spoiler:or in Tigerstar and Hawkfrost's case, the Dark Forest]]) at some point after they die. The best example of this trope is [[spoiler:Spottedleaf]], who has appeared in almost every single book in the series, even though she died in the very first book.
** [[spoiler:And now it seems that Brokenstar has attacked Jayfeather from beyond the grave. Yellowfang hints that a massive war between [=StarClan=] and the cats of the Dark Forest is coming, and that the living cats will be heavily involved.]]
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Leaders have supreme authority, and their orders are followed, no matter how insane or evil they are.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes N-Y]]
* TheNamesake: [[spoiler:''Midnight'' is named after the talking badger the cats meet at the end of the book.]]
* NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom: Tribe cats, although most of the time they use shortened versions of their names.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** [=BloodClan=], the evil Clan.
** Several characters' names end in "-claw", but special mention goes to Tigerclaw, the main villain, who is a particularly strong warrior.
* TheNapoleon: Scourge gets very angry if you make fun of his size.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Tigerstar towards the end of the first series.
* NeverSayGoodbye: Fireheart does this to [[spoiler:Yellowfang]] when he finds her [[AlmostDeadGuy dying]]. She starts to tell him something she wants him to hear before she dies, and he stops her, insisting she isn't going to die. She knows she is, though, and continues speaking.
* NeverTrustATitle: The title is ''Firestar's Quest'', but back when it was released and wasn't ''quite'' what readers were expecting, it was often said by fans that [[spoiler:''Firestar and Sandstorm's Quest'']] would be a more accurate title.
* NewEraSpeech: Tigerstar gives one at a Gathering in ''The Darkest Hour'' when he announces the formation of [=TigerClan=].
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: A bit of subversion with Lionblaze, since his power covers the incredibly wide umbrella of "[[spoiler:being ''really'' good at fighting]]", meaning the authors are able to make them take the shape of whatever they're in the mood for writing. [[spoiler:What to show how crazy and out off control he is? He is invulnerable and bloodthirsty to the point where he bathes in his enemies' blood. Need something heavy held up? He has super strength. Bullet time is fun to write? He fights in bullet time]].
* NewSeasonNewName: Each series has a different subtitle: ''Warriors'' (later renamed ''Warriors: The Prophecies Begin''), ''Warriors: The New Prophecy'', ''Warriors: Power of Three'', ''Warriors: Omen of the Stars'', ''Warriors: Dawn of the Clans''
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Hey, [[spoiler:Ivypool]] we know your intentions were good, but [[spoiler: trusting the Dark Forest caused Firestar to lose a life and Russetfur to die. Hope the worthless territory was worth it.]]
* NoAntagonist: ''The Sight'' and ''Dark River'' are mainly about the conflict between the Clans and don't have a driving enemy behind them, unlike the other books.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Scourge]] manages to [[spoiler:[[OneHitKill kill Tigerstar in one hit]]]] by [[spoiler:doing so much damage that Tigerstar dies ''nine times''.]]
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Hollyleaf]] at the end of the third arc. Not explicitly invoked, though, so a little less clear odds of coming back than usual.
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: [=StarClan=]. They're supposed to watch over and guide the Clans, but especially in the fourth series they tend to be bickering too much to agree on things.
* OhCrap: Billystorm pulls this when Leafstar [[DeathGlare gives him a death glare]] when their kits tell her that [[spoiler:their dad wants to take them to his Twoleg's place to stay safe for a while]]. In fact, he even drops the squirrel he was carrying when he sees her!
* OldDog: In ''The Rise of Scourge'', an old dog called Sam is sleeping in an alley. Tiny is afraid it'll eat him, but it's too old to chase him, and it loses a tooth as it gets up. As Tiny tries to use the tooth to get his collar off, it gets stuck, and then he claims he got it by ''killing'' a dog. So it's thanks to Sam the OldDog that Tiny became Scourge, leader of [=BloodClan=].
* OminousOwl: Owls are often thought of as ill omens. Justified, since an owl seems quite large to a cat, and owls have been known to carry off kits. However, [=ThunderClan=] does occasionally look for owls at night, because if it's windy and they're having trouble scenting prey, they can follow an owl and find prey that way.
* TheOmniscient: Rock. ''Cats of the Clans'' makes it clear that he knows everything about the Clans and Tribe.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There have been three different cats named Birchstar, two Ashfurs, two Greywings, three Rocks, and each healer of the Tribe of Rushing Water adopts the name of Stoneteller, among other examples.
* OneWordTitle: The entirety of the second series. Also, ''Outcast'', ''Eclipse'', and ''Sunrise''.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Two Tribe of Endless Hunting ancestors named Fall and Slant are mentioned in ''Sign of the Moon''. We never hear their full Tribe names, just their nicknames.
* OnlyMostlyDead: Leaders stay dead for a few minutes before getting the wound that killed them healed and waking up.
* OnlyServesForLife: Clan Leaders serve until their death, which can take a while since they're granted nine lives upon becoming leader, so they must die nine times before they'll stay dead. The Clan deputy automatically becomes leader when the leader dies, so this has led to a couple times when a LeaderWannabe deputy decides that his leader's taking too long to die and tries to secretly kill the leader himself.
* OpposedMentors:
** In ''Crookedstar's Promise'', the titular character is taught by his real mentor, Cedarpelt, but, unknown to other cats, he also is trained in his dreams by the deceased warrior Mapleshade. Mapleshade focuses more on combat skills, while Cedarpelt tries to explain that being a warrior is about more than just being a good fighter. Even their advice on battle moves differs, though that can be explained by the fact that [[spoiler:Mapleshade came from another Clan]].
** In addition, Firestar has a split mentorship for two moons between Lionheart and Tigerstar. As you would expect, they argue a lot. However, two moons into his apprenticeship, he gets Bluestar as his permanent mentor.
* OverlyLongName: Most of the cats of the Tribe of Rushing water have these, like Brook Where Small Fish Swim or Teller of the Pointed Stones.
* PanickyExpectantFather: Berrynose of all cats. Of course, being Berrynose, he is this in the most annoying and bossy way possible.
* PastLifeMemories: Cinderheart has memories of her past life as Cinderpelt, but she has only ever shown signs of remembering them in her dreams, or recalls her past life subconsciously; for example, Cinderpelt's former apprentice Leafpool notes Cinderheart flicks her paw in the same way Cinderpelt did, as well as another character once thinking she was acting WiseBeyondHerYears, and Cinderheart remembering the distance between the Great Sycamore and [=ThunderClan's=] camp in the Forest, even though she had been born after the Clans had left the Forest. [[spoiler:Eventually she does recover ''all'' her memories of being Cinderpelt.]]
* PintsizedPowerhouse:
** Scourge. '''AND FUCKING HOW.''' Despite his small size he [[spoiler:rips Tigerstar's stomach opening, killing him nine times. He also manages to kill the main character of the series, and is so badass that he leads a legion of cats that would never dare to question him.]]
** Any apprentice who's worth their salt in battle counts, particularly Thistlepaw from ''Bluestar's Prophecy.'' He fought a dog. And won.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, especially when they're apprentices. Squirrelflight is sharp-tongued and energetic, and becomes a warrior, while Leafpool is calm and more reasonable, and becomes a medicine cat. They're even compared directly to fire and water once.
* PosthumousSibling: Plenty of examples, since life in the forest is dangerous and couples often have multiple litters in the books. For instance:
** Graystripe has three kits with his new mate, Millie, a few years after his daughter Feathertail died.
** Dustpelt and Ferncloud have several litters of kits. Shrewpaw from their first litter and Larchkit and Hollykit of their second litter are dead by the time that Icecloud and Foxleap are born.
** Sorreltail's kits Molepaw and Honeyfern have died before Lilyheart and Seedpaw are born.
* PowerTrio: Firepaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw formed one in ''Into the Wild'' before Ravenpaw left. In ''Power of Three'', Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf formed one before [[spoiler:Hollyleaf supposedly died]]. [[spoiler:She]] was then replaced by Dovewing.
* PregnantHostage:
** Breezepelt does this to Poppyfrost, a heavily pregnant she-cat, and even threatens to kill her to frame Jayfeather. Surprisingly, it's not Poppyfrost's mate who saves her but [[TheMedic Jayfeather]] and [[spoiler:a deceased Honeyfern, who was Poppyfrost's sister]].
** ''Path of Stars'' involves a rogue named Slash holding the pregnant Star Flower hostage.
* {{Prequel}}: ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', ''Crookedstar's Promise'', ''Yellowfang's Secret'', and ''Tallstar's Revenge'' all take place about two generations before the original series. ''Dawn of the Clans'', the fifth series, and ''Moth Flight's Vision'', a Super Edition about a ''Dawn of the Clans'' character, take place at the Clans' beginning, long before the other prequels. ''Code of the Clans'' spans almost the entire length of time the Clans have existed up until Bluestar's time.
* ThePromisedLand: The prey-rich forest is this in ''The Sun Trail'' for the starving cats who travel there from the mountains based on Stoneteller's vision. In the second arc, the lake becomes this when [[spoiler:construction destroys the forest and the Clans are forced out.]] Both lands are good, but they are still susceptible to natural disasters and predators.
* ProphecyPileup: This being a series with lots of prophecies, does this a couple times.
** The second series revolves around a prophecy meaning that the forest will be destroyed - one cat from each Clan is chosen to go on a journey to learn how the Clans can survive. (The four do go on the journey, along with two others who chose to come along as well.) This overlaps with two other prophecies:
*** Shortly before the journeying cats leave, when the heat sets a bush on fire, Cinderpelt has a vision of a tiger leaping in the flames. She determines that it refers to Squirrelpaw (daughter of Firestar) and Brambleclaw (son of Tigerstar), and destruction to the forest; they think that it could possibly mean that the two young cats could somehow cause this desctruction. [[spoiler:The "destruction to the forest" is the same as the original prophecy, and the fire and tiger mean that Squirrelpaw and Brambleclaw will have something to do with it - they ''save'' the Clan from being destroyed when the forest is.]]
*** The Tribe of Rushing Water has a prophecy that they will be saved by a silver cat. This cat is believed to be Stormfur, especially since he wasn't actually one of the prophecy cats chosen to go on the journey - he just came along to protect his sister Feathertail, the chosen [=RiverClan=] cat. [[spoiler:The Tribe's prophecy is actually referring to Feathertail, so she's the subject of two prophecies.]]
** The main prophecy of the third series is "''There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.''" [[spoiler:Throughout the third series, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf are sure that they are the three - after all, Jayfeather [[DreamWalker has the ability to walk in other cats' dreams]], and Lionblaze can fight without getting hurt. At the end of the series, after Hollyleaf's [[NotQuiteDead apparent]] death, Jayfeather realizes it could refer to one of Whitewing's newborn kits, since they too are Firestar's kin, and Hollyleaf never had a power emerge. Yellowfang speaks a prophecy to Dovepaw to reveal her as the third cat in the "power of three" prophecy: "''After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, peace will come on dove's gentle wing.''"]] And then a ''third'' prophecy gets piled on towards the end of the ''Omen of the Stars'' arc: "''The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that lasts forever.''" [[spoiler:The "fourth" cat is Firestar, who doesn't really do much in regards to the prophecy, but he does end up making the BigBad of the entire ''Warriors'' series, Tigerstar, DeaderThanDead.]]
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Just about all of the Clan cats at one point or another, but probably [=ShadowClan=] most of all, considering how often their pride is pointed out. They consider themselves to be superior to pretty much any cat that doesn't live in a Clan. Even then, they generally consider their birth Clan to be better than the other three. Outsiders who have joined Clans often have to deal with prejudice against them due to not being "Clanborn".
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone:
** Every medicine cat gets messages from [=StarClan=], actually.
** And [[TheChosenOne Firestar]], or any of the other [[TheChosenOne Chosen Ones]].
*** The ''Warriors'' app reveals that his mother had one before he was born. Maybe it runs in the family?
* PublicExecution: Stonefur's death.
* PublisherChosenTitle: ''Sunrise''. Vicky wanted it to be called ''Cruel Season''.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: In the ''Code of the Clans'' short story where White-eye and Dappletail try fishing, Pinestar tells them "We. Don't. Eat. Fish."
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Subverted, then averted in ''Dawn of the Clans''. Gray Wing acts as a mentor and father figure to Thunder, his nephew. The reason behind this is because Clear Sky (Thunder's father) was slowly turning into a cruel AntiVillain . When Gray Wing allows Thunder to visit him, Clear Sky claims custody of his son, who was young and naïve, and decides to mentor him. Gray Wing is powerless against this, and fears that Thunder would be influenced and turn cruel. Averted when Thunder deserts and disowns Clear Sky, seeing the error of his ways. Clear Sky eventually regains his senses, and the three (sort of) make up.
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Chosen cats from ''The New Prophecy'' join back together to scout the lake in ''Starlight'' and to help the tribe in ''Outcast.''
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: [[spoiler:Bluestar attempts to after Tigerclaw betrays her--the bad luck that [=ThunderClan=] receives afterwards]] causes her to declare war on her ancestors. She comes around [[spoiler:as her children forgive her as she's dying]].
* RageAgainstTheMentor:
** Ravenpaw against Tigerclaw when Tigerclaw kills the beloved deputy Redtail.
** In ''Long Shadows'', [[spoiler:Lionblaze against Ashfur when he finds out about the murderous ways of the cat who taught what he knew.]]
* RatKing: In ''Firestar's Quest'', [=SkyClan=] is threatened to be wiped out by a swarm of rats. Firestar realizes that the rats have a leader, which is more intelligent than the others: it is able to speak Cat, and give commands to all the other rats. [[spoiler:Once he kills the leader, the rest of [[KeystoneArmy the rats have nothing to command them, and they scatter.]]]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Clear Sky gives one to Jagged Peak, who already had self esteem issues.
** Dovewing gives one to Ivypool in ''Night Whispers'' after Ivypool pushes one too many [[BerserkButton berserk buttons.]]
** Leafstar gives one to Sol in ''After The Flood'' after [[spoiler:he steals her kits to rescue them so that he can prove to be a warrior.]]
** Sol gives TWO of these. The first was to Billystorm about being a daylight warrior, and the second was to [=SkyClan=] for thinking that the warrior code could keep them safe forever.
* RedOniBlueOni: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, anyone? Squirrelflight's the "red", while Leafpool's the "blue". Their personalities are even compared to fire and water once.
* ReformedCriminal: Blackstar. After doing things against the warrior code (stealing kits from another Clan, killing other cats needlessly), he lived as a rogue for a while, but eventually rejoined the Clan, became its leader, and hasn't done anything like that since.
* RenownedSelectiveMentor: It is considered to be a huge honor to be mentored by the Clan leader or, to a lesser degree, the deputy. It occurs only a couple times in the series, most notably in the first book when Bluestar chooses Firepaw as her apprentice. It is also considered an honor to train as the medicine cat's apprentice, because it is such an important position; each medicine cat only trains one apprentice in their lifetime. In that case, however, it usually isn't a surprise because the younger cat already has an interest in healing and helps out the medicine cat for a while before officially being apprenticed.
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Zigzagged. Leaders have nine lives, so they can come back from being killed, but their ninth death is permanent. As well, they can still die from old age, and some things are powerful enough to take multiple lives, such as [[spoiler:Scourge's organ shredding blow]] in ''The Darkest Hour'' and [[spoiler:Leopardstar's diabetes]] in ''Fading Echoes''.
* {{Retcon}}:
** Ever since the first book in the series, Blackstar has had black paw''s''. However, as of ''Sign of the Moon'', he only has one black paw.
** ''Bluestar's Prophecy'' and ''Crookedstar's Promise'' were set in the same timeline. In one shared scene between the two books, in a Gathering, the cats' dialogue was retconned to reference an event in ''Crookedstar's Promise'' (which was the later released of the two).
** The first book mentioning the founding leaders referred to them with proper Clan names: Thunderstar, Shadowstar, and so on. When they appeared in later books without the "star" on their name, it was retconned that the "star" part in Clan leaders' names came later on and that the founding leaders only get called "Thunderstar"/etc to show them respect. And even later, in ''Dawn of the Clans'', it's revealed that, aside from Thunder, that's only part of their name: Shadow is Tall Shadow, River is River Ripple, and Wind is Wind Runner. Then it was retconned again that they were given the "star" names (and the nine lives that go with them) midway through their careers, but didn't have them when the Clans were formed.
** ''Secrets of the Clans'', the first official guidebook, states very clearly that there were originally four clans. In ''Firestar's Quest'', published about a year later, it's revealed that there were originally five clans. All material published after the release of ''Firestar's Quest'', including the other guidebooks, also says there were five to begin with; this includes the whole series about the origins of the Clans. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as ''Secrets of the Clans'' was a collection of stories told by elders after the second arc--and by the time those stories were told, nobody remembered that the fifth clan had ever existed.
* {{Retronym}}:
** The first set of six was called simply ''Warriors'', but that became the series name altogether. To distinguish the first six from the rest, fans usually use "the first arc", or "the original series". When it was reprinted with new covers in 2015, it was given the official title ''The Prophecies Begin''.
** The Graystripe manga trilogy never had its own trilogy subtitle like the others; perhaps they weren't originally planning on doing more manga after his? The boxed set of his three now calls the trilogy ''Graystripe's Adventure''.
* RiteOfPassage: Quite a few - apprenticeship represents the end of childhood, and becoming a warrior is a mark of adulthood. Getting your first apprentice is also a meaningful and awaited mark, since it allows a cat to become a deputy. Pretty much any time there is a ceremony going on, it's a rite of passage.
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: Kind of. Rats are basically just normal-sized rats, but are fearsome and universally loathed by cats. And, of course, rats are much bigger compared to cats than to humans. The authors also have joked that the badgers on the cover of ''Twilight'' look like Rodents of Unusual Size.
* RomanticFalseLead: Ashfur in ''Twilight''.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin:
** "Rogue" is a term that is used regularly in the series. Cue bad fanfiction authors spelling it wrong all the time.
** Also expect to occasionally find people asking others what their favourite "[[StoryArc arch]]" is, or what "[[{{Canon}} cannon]]" pairings they like.
** The most frequently misspelled names are probably "[[Literature/AChristmasCarol Scrouge]]" (Scourge) and "[[GroinAttack Loinblaze]]" (Lionblaze).
* RuleOfThree: The ''third'' series, ''Power of Three'', with ''three'' protagonists.
* RunningGag: Almost every time [[MeaningfulName Runningnose]] makes an appearance, one of the main characters will remark that he can't be that great of a medicine cat since he can't even cure his own cold. To add to that, in the French version [[{{Woolseyism}} his name literally means "hay fever"]]. Even ''dying'' isn't enough to stop him from being the butt of this joke...
* SaidBookism Mewed Bookism]]: The word "said" is always replaced with either "mewed" or "meowed." Apart from that, the more normal synonyms for "said," like "warned," "adviced," and so on, are used often.
* SanctuaryOfSolitude: Occasionally a cat will visit the Moonstone or Moonpool to commune with the spirits of their ancestors when they are troubled.
* SanitySlippage:
** [[spoiler:Hollyleaf]], and to a [[BreakTheCutie lesser extent]], her brothers, when they realize that they're the product of a forbidden relationship.
** [[spoiler: Bluestar]] after ''Forest of Secrets'', when Tigerclaw's betrayal shatters her trust in her Clanmates and in [=StarClan=].
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: This seems to be the attitude of a good many elders. WordOfGod has admitted that the influence of one of their older pet cats had something to do with it.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: A pretty common mark of a 'good guy' character is to ignore the warrior code when it seems to be getting in the way of morality. Firestar does this a ''lot'' in the original series.
* SecretRelationship: [[OnceAnEpisode Everywhere, all the time]]. [[spoiler:Reedfeather/Fallowtail, Raggedstar/Yellowfang, Bluestar/Oakheart, Graystripe/Silverstream, Crowfeather/Leafpool, Lionblaze/Heathertail, Dovewing/Tigerheart]]... Great [=StarClan=], the list is endless. [[spoiler:[[StarCrossedLovers And they never end well]]]].
* SecretUndergroundPassage: The tunnel under the Thunderpath in [=ShadowClan=] territory in the old forest, as well as the tunnels between [=ThunderClan=] and [[spoiler: [=WindClan=]]] in the lake territories. Also, though they never appear in the original series, there are apparently secret tunnels under [=WindClan's=] territory in the old forest.
* SeriesContinuityError: Lots and lots of them. Most are minor ones, like eye or pelt color changes, and one-off (or permanent) gender changes are relatively common too. Cats appearing after their death (Heavystep, Smokepaw/foot, Clawface in ''Tigerclaw's Fury'', etc) also happens quite a bit.
* ASharedSuffering: Brambleclaw is the son of [[BigBad Tigerstar]], who terrorized the Clans when he was alive. Because of this, the other cats hate and distrust Brambleclaw; he grows up feeling [[IJustWantToHaveFriends lonely]] and uncomfortable around them. (Brambleclaw had a sister, but she left the Clan to get away from this treatment.) When he finds out that Tigerstar had another son - Hawkfrost - he's overjoyed, and the two strike up a fast friendship because of this trope. However, while they share the same memories of prejudice, they deal with it in different ways: Brambleclaw tries desperately to impress his Clanmates and be the best warrior he can be, while Hawkfrost tries to overthrow the Clans and make himself deputy. Unfortunately, when other cats try to warn Brambleclaw of Hawkfrost's bloodthirsty ambitions, he considers it a sign of the same discrimination that he endured, and refuses to listen.
* ShipperOnDeck: Both Rosetail and Larksong are [[IdiosyncraticShipNaming Platonicshippers]] ([=BlueXThrush=]).
** In ''The Forgotten Warrior'', Whitewing, Ivypool and Cinderheart all start shipping Dovewing with Bumblestripe.
* ShoutOut:
** Vicky admits to hiding quotes from ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' (in ''Moonrise''), ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'', and ''[[Film/TheAvengers2012 The Avengers]]'' (in ''Ravenpaw's Farewell'') in some of the dialogue.
** Macgyver in ''[=SkyClan's Destiny=]'' is named after the [[Series/MacGyver television show of the same name]], as Vicky is a fan.
** Fuzzypelt is named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_Felt Fuzzy Felt]], a toy Vicky remembers playing with when she was little.
** The magazine ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Fancy_(magazine) Cat Fancy]]'' makes an appearance in the first volume of the [=SkyClan=] manga, on page 82.
** One of the Adventure Game chapters in ''Battles of the Clans'' is titled "[[Music/TheBeatles Here Comes The Sun]]".
** As Vicky is a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan, ''The New Prophecy'' was originally going to be called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]''. She still had files on her computer with "TNG" in the name years after the New Prophecy series was done.
** In ''Tallstar's Revenge'', Talltail says, "[[Film/ThePrincessBride You killed my father. Now I'm going to kill you.]]" [[WordOfGod Vicky confirmed on her Facebook]] that Talltail was paraphrasing Inigo Montoya.
** Nightwhisper's rogue name, Mowgli, is the same name as the main protagonist from Rudyard Kipling's ''Literature/TheJungleBook''.
** Two cats that show up together in ''Bramblestar's Storm'' are named [[Film/GoneWithTheWind Scarlet and O'Hara]].
* ShutUpHannibal:
** Billystorm gives on of these to Sol during Sol's ReasonYouSuckSpeech.
** Blackstar delivers an epic one to Redwillow and kills him on the spot.
* SiblingRivalry: Dovewing and Ivypool, especially in ''Night Whispers''.
* SicklyGreenGlow: The Dark Forest glows green. Fits well, having to do with both evil ''and'' death.
* SkyFace: When Firestar's going on his Quest, he sees his deceased mentor/leader Bluestar's face in the clouds, and she looks worried. This is right before [[spoiler:Sandstorm goes missing in the flood]].
* SlashedThroat: The most commonly used method of killing someone. One of the more realistic, messy examples.
* SlasherSmile: Mapleshade. She can make Ivypool feel like [[TastesLikeDiabetes Daisy]] is with her, right before [[spoiler:trying to drown her.]]
* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: Basically subscribes to Prophecies Are Guidlelines, Not Rules. [=StarClan=] can warn cats that bad stuff is going to happen, and with this foreknowledge cats are often able to avert terrible events. ''Warriors'' probably exists somewhere between this and Fighting Fate Is Hard, because only some cats succeed in thwarting fate.
** On the other hand, [[spoiler: Rock claims to have seen the whole future in a vision and is the one making sure it plays out exactly as it's supposed to. And it does. He's the source of all StarClan prophecies, who themselves have no clairvoyance. So you might say that any signs of free will simply come from StarClan not knowing the original vision.]]
* SlidingScaleOfLeadershipResponsibility: The best leaders tend to be Theodens (who take an equal share in the danger and fight alongside their warriors) with the occasional [[HeroicSacrifice Superman moment]], which is to say that they sometimes take on the most dangerous tasks in order to spare their cats some unreasonable danger. Villains are always Xykons (sacrificing their cats left and right without a care) and Magnetos, who aren't quite as bad as Xykons, but still don't care that much about their followers.
* SmallTownBoredom: The reason Rusty decides to stop being a kittypet and become a warrior. He's bored with his kittypet life.
* SmartPeopleSpeakTheQueensEnglish: The last three audiobooks in the ''The New Prophecy'' series are read by Nanette Savard, an American actress. The narration and most of the characters are read with an American accent - except, for some reason, the [[TheMedic medicine cats]], who are read with a British accent. They're regular Clan cats, born and lived with their Clanmates all their lives, and just chose a different job - so where did the accent come from? Are they born with it and for some reason all cats with this accent take the medicine cat's job? Or does healing cats suddenly give you a different accent somehow?
* SneakyDeparture:
** In ''Into the Wild'', Yellowfang sneaks away from [=ThunderClan=] camp to chase after Clawface, who she deduces has stolen [=ThunderClan=] kits. Firepaw, Ravenpaw, and Graypaw sneak away to chase after her, and so that Firepaw can fake Ravenpaw's death.
** In ''Fire and Ice'', Tigerclaw claims to have found evidence of an invasion that the Clan leader Bluestar needs to see. (It's actually a trap he set to kill Bluestar so that he can take over.) However, Bluestar is too sick to go and see, so Fireheart's apprentice Cinderpaw offers to go instead. Fireheart forbids her from going, but she sneaks out of camp anyway and walks into Tigerclaw's trap, causing her to get hit by a car and break her leg.
** In ''Fire and Ice'' and ''Forest of Secrets'', Graystripe constantly sneaks out of [=ThunderClan=] camp so that he can meet with his love interest Silverstream. This is necessary, as they are in a forbidden relationship.
** At the beginning of ''Forest of Secrets'', Fireheart and Graystripe sneak away after a Gathering to meet with Ravenpaw so that they can find proof that Tigerclaw murdered Redtail. They later sneak away from [=ThunderClan=] territory into [=RiverClan=] to find more proof, and eventually to deliver food to the starving Clan.
** In ''Rising Storm'', Cloudpaw sneaks away from [=ThunderClan=] to get food from humans. Unfortunately for him, this leads to him getting kidnapped.
** In ''A Dangerous Path'', after Bluestar refuses to make them warriors, Swiftpaw and Brightpaw sneak away from the camp to fight the dogs and prove their valour. [[spoiler:Swiftpaw ends up dying in the fight and Brightpaw gets half of her face ripped off.]]
** In ''The Darkest Hour'', it's revealed that Darkstripe has been sneaking away from [=ThunderClan=] camp to meet with Tigerstar and give him intel on what [=ThunderClan=] is up to.
** ''The New Prophecy'' begins with a cat from each Clan getting an omen telling them that they need to go on a journey far away from the Clans. Since they can't let their Clanmates in on this, they have to sneak away from the Clans and meet up together for the journey.
** In ''Twilight'', Leafpool and Crowfeather sneak away from their Clans to meet up, and eventually run away with each other. Since they didn't tell anyone, their Clans each think that they went to the other Clan.
** ''Dark River'' is basically "Sneaky Departures, the Book". First, Lionpaw and Heatherpaw are constantly sneaking away at night to meet each other. Then, Hollypaw sneaks away from [=ThunderClan=] camp and goes to [=RiverClan=] to find out what the huge problem impacting them is. Then, a battle starts when three [=WindClan=] kits sneak away from their Clan to explore the tunnels they heard about and [=WindClan=] thinks they were kidnapped. In order to stop the battle, two separate groups composed on Lionpaw, Hollypaw, and Jaypaw, and Breezepaw and Heatherpaw sneak away to find the kits.
** The plot of ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsDawnOfTheClans Dawn of the Clans]]'' is kicked off when Jagged Peak sneaks away from the tribe to join the Followers of the Sun Trail and find a new home, forcing Gray Wing to head after him so that he can keep him safe on the journey.
* SpartanWay: [=ShadowClan=]'s training while Brokenstar is the leader - even [[ChildSoldiers kits]] are forced to train in the brutal battle training, and many end up dying. Dark Forest training also counts.
* SpeakInUnison: [=StarClan=] is described as sounding like every cat Firestar has ever known, all speaking at once in one clear voice.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''TailchasersSong''. Also to the ''TheBookOfTheNamed'' series - to the point that people occasionally accuse ''The Named'' of copying ''Warriors'', [[FanDumb not realizing]] that ''Ratha's Creature'' was published 20 years before ''Into the Wild''. (The two series also have completely different themes and age demographics.)
* SpoilerTitle: Several of the ExpandedUniverse works, mostly due to being {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s.
** The first Super Edition, ''Firestar's Quest'', reveals who becomes leader to people who haven't finished the first arc.
** The third Super Edition, ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' both subverts and plays this straight. Every other Super Edition is named for the viewpoint character, which in this case would spoil which member of the newly founded [=SkyClan=] becomes leader at the end of ''Firestar's Quest''. However, it doesn't use that format, but still spoils ''Firestar's Quest'' by revealing that there's another Clan out there.
** One of the manga arcs is called ''Tigerstar and Sasha'', spoiling Tigerclaw becoming a leader for first series readers and the identity of Hawkfrost and Mothwing's father for ''The New Prophecy'' readers.
** ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'' continues in the tradition of it's predecessor Super Edition by not revealing who becomes leader in ''Firestar's Quest'', while giving away the earlier revealed spoiler of [=SkyClan=]'s existence.
** The title of the first novella should tell you that [[spoiler:Hollyleaf didn't die in ''Sunrise'', because the book is ''Hollyleaf's Story''.]]
** The second e-book is titled ''Mistystar's Omen'', revealing to leaders who haven't read ''Fading Echoes'' that Mistyfoot becomes a leader.
** The seventh Super Edition is named [[spoiler:''Bramblestar's Storm''.]] Nice job giving away the ending of ''The Last Hope'', Erins.
* SpringIsLate: A plot point in ''Into the Wild'' is that spring is late and [=ThunderClan=] needs more warriors ''now'', causing its leader Bluestar to take in a kittypet.
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Spottedleaf. She had undying love and affection for Firestar, continuing on as a spirit despite how they had no future together. When Firestar fell in love with another, a feisty she-cat named [[{{Tsundere}} Sandstorm]], she coped with her sadness by deciding that she would be okay with it as long as Firestar was happy. She had even died again (this time for good) to protect Sandstorm and Firestar's happiness by proxy.
** [[{{Nice Guys Finish Last}} Thrushpelt]] was another example. He had one-sided love for Bluestar (Bluefur at the time) and when he realized she had fell pregnant, he respected that she couldn't reveal who the father was and promised her that he would pose as her "mate" to the Clan to protect the secret of her kits, and raise them as his own, because he wanted her happy.
** Crowfeather also qualified briefly when he saw that Leafpool was happier with her Clan than with him, but eventually lost that selflessness and became extremely bitter with her choice to the point he was a complete jackass.
* StarsAreSouls: When a Clan cat dies they go to [=StarClan=].
* StartMyOwn:
** Some remnants of [=BloodClan=] decide to try and start their own Clan in Ravenpaw and Barley's barn.
** Sol, after [[spoiler:parting ways with [=SkyClan=]]], starts his own Clanlike group of cats.
** In A Forest Divided, [[spoiler: After several arguments, Thunder and his friends leave Clear Sky's group, (Future SkyClan), and eventually found their own group, ThunderClan. ]]
* StartOfDarkness:
** ''The Rise of Scourge'' for Scourge.
** ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger'', for [[spoiler:Sol/Harry]].
** ''Mapleshade's Vengeance'', for Mapleshade.
* StoppedCaring: Bluestar, in books 4 and 5 (''Rising Storm'' and ''A Dangerous Path'') of the first series.
* StormingTheCastle: The characters will, on rare occasions, attack another Clan's camp instead of just fighting somewhere in the territory. This can be risky, though, as the home Clan knows the best way to defend it, will be fighting more fiercely and desperately to protect the defenseless kits and elders, and the raiding Clan is usually outnumbered. It's worked about as often as it has failed.
* AStormIsComing:
** In the prologue of ''Dark River'', cats feel that rain is coming. Fallen Leaves then goes to the tunnels to take his test, and lies to Rock that there are no signs of rain. [[spoiler: Turns out there is an underground river there, that floods the tunnels during the rain.]]
** In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', Featherwhisker forecasts rain for a few days, and it starts raining just before the [[BattleInTheRain battle with [=WindClan=]]].
* StoryArc: Each series is its own story arc that contributes to the overall MythArc (although series 3+4 were really one long arc, and series 5 was a prequel): the first series followed Firestar's rise to leadership and defeat of villain Tigerstar, the second series was about the forest's destruction and the Clans finding a new home, as well as Hawkfrost's attempt at following in Tigerstar's pawsteps, the third and fourth series dealt with three cats discovering that they have special powers and the [[{{Hell}} Dark Forest]]'s attempt to destroy the Clans, and the sixth series is about the discovery of the modern remnants of [=SkyClan=].
* StrangeSalute: The Tribe's greeting gesture: extending one paw while bowing the head.
* SuccessionCrisis: Happens a couple times, despite the fact that the Clans' hierarchy is set up in a way to avoid it.
** In the second series, Tallstar, leader of [=WindClan=], announces with his dying breaths that [[spoiler: Mudclaw is no longer his deputy: Onewhisker now is]]. Since deputy succeeds leader, and Tallstar managed to announce his decision only to [[spoiler: Onewhisker, Firestar (Onewhisker's friend), and Brambleclaw (Firestar's trusted warrior)]], many [=WindClan=] cats don't believe it, and start a civil war supporting the old deputy.
** [[ExpandedUniverse The guidebook]] ''Code of the Clans'' explains how this setup came to be, after two specific crises: The deputy-becomes-leader rule started after there was a case where a leader selected his son as his successor. The son led his Clan into a needless fight, where half the cats disagreed with his choice and those that did listen nearly drowned. He realized that the deputy, due to her rank, had more experience in being in charge of the Clan. The rule that states that the new deputy must be chosen before moonhigh was created after a new leader waited too long to choose her deputy. She died of sickness, leaving the Clan leaderless and with two more dead cats who had attempted to fight for leadership. Eventually the spirit of the previous leader [[DeadPersonConversation tells the medicine cat in a dream]] to choose who the new leader will be.
* SurprisePregnancy:
** Bluestar is unaware that she is pregnant until another she-cat points it out.
** [[spoiler:Squirrelflight]] is also shocked to learn that she has become pregnant, since she believed that it was impossible for her to have kits.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: At one point in Night Whispers, Tigerheart asks Dovewing how she always manages to get to their meeting place first. Dovewing mutters back that she [[BlatantLies totally doesn't listen for when he leaves his nest]].
* SwitchingPOV: The first arc used this only for prologues but it became normal in all the other series due to their multiple protagonists. ''The New Prophecy'' has Leafpaw and one other cat per book (Brambleclaw or Squirrelpaw, mainly; one book had Stormfur and a couple chapters of Feathertail). ''Power of Three'' has Hollypaw, Lionpaw, and Jaypaw. ''Omen of the Stars'' has Jayfeather, Lionblaze, Ivypaw, and Dovepaw (and Flametail for one book). ''Dawn of the Clans'' has Gray Wing, Thunder, and Clear Sky, with a bonus scene from a different POV at the end of each book.
* SympatheticPOV: ''The Ultimate Guide'' is narrated in third person, but the [[MetaphoricallyTrue information]] given is noticeably slanted towards whoever's life its recounting. For example, Ashfur's omits [[spoiler:his betrayal of ThunderClan to Hawkfrost, which nearly killed Firestar (as Ashfur hoped it would)]] in favor of saying that he "was not a friend of Firestar", and describes him as a "good mentor" when he actively sabotaged Lionblaze's training. However, this could also be the result of FlipFlopOfGod - the different authors do ''not'' agree on his characterization.
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler:Red does this for Harley in ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'', jumping in the way when Stick goes for Harley's throat.]]
* TalkingInYourDreams: [=StarClan=] does this all the time, and so does [[spoiler:Tigerstar]] in the second series and onward. Jayfeather is the only living character who can do this to other living cats. Some experiences with dreamwalking has also shown that characters who are wounded in dreams sustain the same injuries in the waking world - it is even possible to be killed in a dream.
* TangledFamilyTree: It can be incredibly difficult to keep track of cats' relationships and relatives. Especially since a lot of the parentage of cats from the original series is only known to us by WordOfGod. [[http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6652/familytree110.png Just look at this thing!]]
* ThankYourPrey: This is one of the rules in the warrior code, to thank [=StarClan=] for the life the prey had given up to feed the Clan. Averted, however, with Tigerstar: he feels that he doesn't owe [=StarClan=] any thanks because he caught the prey himself.
* ThatOldTimePrescription: Medicine cats use remedies like poppy seeds as a sedative. The authors took much of the medicine cats' herblore from an old book called ''Culpeper's Herbal''.
* ThouShaltNotKill: Battles are relatively common, but killing is seen as dishonourable, and is generally avoided, [[spoiler:except by Tigerstar and Scourge]]. In fact, the main characters of the first two series have only killed one cat each. Oddly enough, they both killed [[spoiler:their own half brothers]].
** Although Firestar becomes a pacifist in the second and third series, in the first series he showed absolutely no aversion to killing. For example, when Whitestorm has to restrain him from killing Clawface, him believing that he and Tigerstar were destined to fight to the death, and saying that Brokenstar deserved to die.
*** This could be justified as CharacterDevelopment. Firestar was young at the time and probably didn't fully realize what the ramifications of his actions could be if he killed Clawface, and he was absolutely ''horrified'' by Tigerstar's death.
* ThroneMadeOfX: In ''The Darkest Hour'', Tigerstar takes control of both [=RiverClan=] and [=ShadowClan=], and has them build him the Bonehill, a pile of bones to sit on so he can look down on everyone else.
* ThunderEqualsDownpour: In ''Beyond the Code''. They're at a Gathering with the full moon shining down between a couple sparse clouds. The cats comment on how the drought might end since the air's cooler. An argument starts, Sol runs away in anger. Next panel: [[DramaticThunder lightning flash and a KABOOM!]] Next panel: Downpour. The rain is even enough to flood ''almost the entire gorge'' that same night.
* TieredByName: This doubles as both MeaningfulName and MeaningfulRename, in that the name of a cat denotes rank in a Clan Hierarchy (like -kit for kits, -paw for apprentices and -star for leaders).
* TitleDrop: In the prologue for the fifth book of ''Power of Three'', Rock makes a reference to "the power of three", and in ''Omen of the Stars'', Yellowfang mentions "an Omen of the Stars" (capitalized like a title) in the prologue of ''the very first book''.
** There are no less than three echo related metaphors used in ''Fading Echoes''.
** In ''Sign of the Moon'', the last series' title, Power of Three, is dropped: after Jayfeather realizes that [[spoiler:Lion's Roar and Dove's Wing are reincarnations of Lionblaze and Dovewing]], he says that the Power of Three has begun. And it is capitalized.
** ''The Last Hope'', however, takes the cake. It gets dropped at least ''five times'' in the book, two of them from the prologue alone.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Tawnypelt in [=ShadowClan=].
* TongueOnTheFlagpole:
** In his manga trilogy, Ravenpaw gets his tongue stuck to some ice in a gutter on the barn roof.
** Hollyleaf gets this too in ''Sunrise'', up to the point where she gets playfully teased that she found a new way to get water for the elders. It's thanks to Brambleclaw breathing on the ice that she got free.
* TonightSomeoneDies: ''And one more warrior may be lost forever...'', which likely referred to [[spoiler:Hollyleaf]]. [[spoiler:The word "lost" is probably meant to be taken literally, since she is indeed lost at the end and doesn't actually die. It could also refer to how she has "lost" her sanity, or "lost" her status as a warrior because she has turned her back on the Clans and the warrior code.]]
** Also, ''Twilight'' opens with an unidentified cat being told that [[YourDaysAreNumbered they will die soon]], leaving the reader in suspense over who it will be. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Cinderpelt.]]
* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: The eclipse in... err... ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Eclipse]]''.
* TotallyRadical: Every so often, a young cat will call something "cool" or say "totally", which sticks out when compared to the fairly formal speech most of the Clan cats use.
* TrainingFromHell: Both figuratively and literally with training in the Dark Forest.
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Jayfeather in ''Long Shadows'' when he [[spoiler:goes back to the time of the Ancients and can only go home after influencing them to go to the mountains]].
* TraumaCongaLine: [=SkyClan=] gets this a lot: originally they lost most of their territory due to Twolegs and began to starve, and then were driven out of the forest by other Clans; when they found the gorge, the remainder of the Clan was either killed by rats or split up. Special mention goes to their situation in ''Hawkwing's Journey'': [[spoiler:First they lose Duskpaw in a fire, then are unable to figure out the meaning of the prophecy Echosong received: when they try to follow it, cats (including Billystorm) die. The Clan is also attacked by raccoons at least twice, killing at least one and injuring others. Then Darktail's allies attack the gorge, forcing the Clan to flee. Several cats are killed in the battle (and one drowns in the river during their flight); several others go missing. The Clan decides that their only hope is to leave to find the other Clans, and several of their cats stay behind. [=SkyClan=] ends up running into trouble in Stick and Dodge's city and an apprentice is taken hostage, although at least [=SkyClan=] makes it out without losing anyone. Two cats leave to stay with Barley in his barn. During their journey, the pregnant Pebbleshine is kidnapped by Twolegs, and cats are frequently injured. They think they've found their new home by the lake, but the Clans have never lived by this particular lake, and the area proves to be too dangerous after multiple encounters with a hawk, dogs, and Twolegs (during which several more cats are captured by Twolegs, including a medicine cat apprentice.) A couple cats more decide to become kittypets. ''Then'' [=SkyClan=] falls ill with a sickness while the medicine cat is away, which kills a few more. They are in their darkest hour, saying that [=SkyClan=] is over, when finally a few missing Clan members find them, they are able to cure the sickness, and Echosong receives a new prophecy, leaving a spot of hope.]]
* TreacheryCoverUp: [[spoiler:When Hollyleaf dies in the tunnels after trying to escape from her Clan and everything that had gone wrong, Lionblaze and Jayfeather cover up her treachery by telling the Clan she had died chasing a squirrel into the tunnel, so that she would be remembered as a brave hunter rather than Ashfur's killer.]]
** It's hard to judge whether or not they did this for [[spoiler:Hawkfrost]]. They did cover up the fact that [[spoiler:Brambleclaw]] killed him, but there is conflicting evidence on whether or not they covered up why he was killed. In ''The Sight'', some warriors have a conversation about the mysterious circumstances of his death, and say that his Clanmates mourned him, and [=RiverClan=] seems relatively ignorant of his treachery in other books, which would suggest he did get a cover-up. But then in ''After Sunset: We Need To Talk'', Cloudtail says to a [=WindClan=] patrol [[spoiler:that Hawkfrost tried to kill Firestar]], which suggests everyone knows about it.
** [[spoiler:Ashfur]] after ''Long Shadows'', and [[spoiler:Tigerstar]] after he is exiled in ''Forest of Secrets''.
* TruceZone: The Clans agree not to fight at Fourtrees and the Gathering Island, and meet there every full moon for a Gathering, where they share news and can chat with cats from other Clans.
* {{Tsundere}}:
** The most stereotypical example of a tsundere started with Sandstorm in [[The Original Series]]. She initially held great dislike for the main character Firestar because of his kittypet background, but saw him differently after he saved her. Sandstorm became close friends and eventually mates with him as she fell deeply in love with Firestar; however that never stopped her from expressing her opinion! She got into many fights with him and was quick to annoy, much to Firestar's respect but discomfort.
** Fittingly, both of Sandstorm's daughters become second-generation tsunderes as well. Squirrelflight most notably, seen in her hot-headed nature and dislike of Brambleclaw at the start until she eventually came to love him. Leafpool, however, also showed some traits of this through her relationship with Crowfeather; she disliked his attitude, but then fell in love with him. Not only that, but her previous gentle personality becomes more tempermental as she gets older (A Type B at the most)
** Yellowfang. She was one of the most sharp-tongued she-cats in the series, though underneath it all was extremely compassionate and good-hearted. These two sides of hers were most frequently brought up through her interactions with Fireheart and Cinderpelt.
** Bluestar in her youth. She was extremely proud, ambitious, and independent. Her "deredere" and "tsuntsun" sides were most frequently seen with her mate Oakheart. She hated his cockiness and arrogance right from the get-go, but fell genuinely in love with him and never did with another despite her difficultness.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Done several times...
** Vicky has admitted to using fans' warrior names. Some of them, she has said, are from fans she met on tours, or from letters sent to her - none of these are known by anyone except her at this point. Some of them also came from online fans' names, notably from the sites WandsAndWorlds and Warrior's Wish - confirmed ones include Lakestorm, Quailfeather, Flintfang, and Blizzardstar (tribute to [[BigNameFan Blizz]], creator of Warrior's Wish, the largest fansite.)
** Brightspirit, Shiningheart, and Braveheart are based on ten-year-old fan Emmy Cherry and her parents Jimmy and Dana, who all died in a tornado in February 2008. [[http://www.wandsandworlds.com/community/node/3487 Vicky sent a message to Wands and Worlds]] so that the members there could offer words of support and comfort to Emmy's family. They gave Emmy and her parents warrior names to honor them. Vicky decided to use those names in the next book, ''Long Shadows'', which she also dedicated to them.
** Ivypool, a main character in ''Omen of the Stars'', is named after a person too. While Ivy herself, as a baby, was too young to have read the books when her name was used, her family has gone to see the author on every single one of her tours, earning them the nickname "[=FarDrivingClan=]" from Vicky, and they have become good friends with her. She decided to name the character after the youngest member of the family - warrior name and all, because Ivy's full name is Ivy Poole.
* TunnelNetwork:
** [=WindClan=]'s tunnel system in the forest.
** The caves in the lake territory.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters:
** Scourge turning against Tigerstar, although ''Rise of Scourge'' actually gives him an ulterior motive for killing him.
** Hawkfrost turning on Mudclaw might count, too. [[spoiler:Although, it is highly likely that Hawkfrost was actually pulling the strings, which would mean he was the master, making this more a case of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness]].
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Brambleclaw worries that he might.
* TwinTelepathy: Squirrelflight and Leafpool, while not identical twins, were of the same litter, and exhibit some signs of this: they can sense each other's emotions, and have shared dreams and sensations on occasion.
* TwistEnding:
** The very last line of ''Rising Storm'', which reveals that Tigerclaw has become [=ShadowClan=]'s new leader.
** ''Long Shadows'': [[spoiler:Ashfur is evil. Squirrelflight isn't the mother of Lionblaze, Jayfeather and Hollyleaf. Ashfur is ''dead''. Cue cliffhanger.]]
** ''Sunrise'': [[spoiler:It turns out that Hollyleaf killed Ashfur, and Leafpool is the mother of the Three. Then Hollyleaf runs away, and is possibly dead. Oh, and she was never a real member of the Three.]]
** ''[=SkyClan=] and the Stranger: The Rescue'': [[spoiler:Harry is Sol, the villain of ''Power of Three''.]]
** ''The Sun Trail'' has a huge one. [[spoiler:Storm is in a building with the kits she and Clear Sky had. Gray Wing talks to her, then leaves. Only for it to be revealed that, crap, the building was scheduled to be demolished. Gray Wing rushes back in, but it's too late for Storm and her kits. Wait, what's this? One of them survived? And then as Gray Wing is wondering about its name, Turtle Tail pipes up, "What about Thunder?"]] Well played, Erins.
* UnbrokenVigil: When Brightpaw gets attacked by dogs, after staying with her a full night, Cloudtail still refuses to eat or sleep, until Cinderpelt finally orders him to.
* UnexpectedlyAbandoned:
** In ''Dawn'', Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw finally return home from their journey, but the camp is entirely deserted, and they have no idea where the Clan is; there's no sign of a fight or anything. [[TheMedic Their medicine cat]], Cinderpelt, happens to come back to retrieve some herbs from her den, and she explains that the Clan has relocated to Sunningrocks because the humans' deforestation activities had come too close to the camp.
** Similarly, in the graphic novel trilogy featuring Graystripe, he finally escapes from the humans and finds [=ThunderClan=]'s territory and camp again, but is shocked to find that all the Clans seem to be gone, as they left for new territory without him.
* UnfortunateNames: A lot:
** Some have strange given names. Kinkfur, Runningnose, Foxheart (ItMakesSenseInContext for it to be unfortunate, as "fox-heart" is a feline team meaning treacherous and cowardly), Sneezekit, Deadfoot, Mudpuddle, Maggottail...
*** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Outcast'' when the apprentices joke about what kind of horrible name Firestar could give Berrypaw. They come up with Berrystumpytail, [[FanNickname which has now been adopted as a nickname for him.]]
** A lot of the characters' names in ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' and the [=SkyClan=] manga trilogy, are ''meant'' to be horrible, to point out how [=SkyClan=] is different from the other Clans - they're nothing but a kittypet name with a warrior ending added on: Billystorm, Harveymoon, Harrykit.
** Some characters' names were picked by other characters and meant to be cruel: Lostface and Crookedkit.
* UnknownRival: [[spoiler:Tigerstar is Scourge's archnemisis. Tigerstar however, doesn't remember Scourge.]]
* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn: Naturally this will happen from time to time, since having more than one kit in a litter isn't out of the ordinary for cats.
* VaguenessIsComing: ''Many'' vague prophecies fortell destruction and danger without actually managing to tell the Clans what exactly is coming.
** In ''Yellowfang's Secret'': "A poison will spring from the heart of [=ShadowClan=], and spread to the other Clans. A storm of blood and fire will sweep the forest."
** In ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny'': "Greenleaf will come, but it will bring even greater storms than these. [=SkyClan=] will need deeper roots if it is to survive."
** In ''Fire and Ice'': "A battle is coming, Fireheart. Beware a warrior you cannot trust."
** In ''Rising Storm'': "Beware an enemy who seems to sleep."
** In ''The Darkest Hour'': "Blood will rule the forest."
** In ''Midnight'': "Darkness, Air, Water and sky will come together and shake the forest to its roots. Nothing will be as it is now, nor as it has been before."
** In ''The Fourth Apprentice'': "Beware, Jay's Wing. Storm clouds are gathering on a dark breeze."
** In ''Sign of the Moon'': "The end of the stars draws near. Three must become four to battle the darkness that lasts forever."
* VillainBall: Tigerstar apparently has nothing better to do in the afterlife than harass the descendants of a cat whose worst crime against him was to foil an evil scheme or two. He shows less resentment toward the cat who killed him ''nine times.''
** Tigerstar actually has more than bothering Firestar in mind, as shown as his plans become more clear in ''Omen of the Stars''. As for why he doesn't resent [[spoiler:Scourge]]... well, it's kind of hard to resent someone who's soul doesn't exist in any known afterlife, isn't it? This still doesn't justify his only recently broken long streak of lackluster villainy, though.
* VillainProtagonist: Scourge in ''The Rise of Scourge'', and Tigerclaw in ''Tigerclaw's Fury''.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Tigerclaw in the first series. Firestar and Graystripe are the only characters in all of [=ThunderClan=] who suspect that he could be treacherous.
* VisionaryVillain:
** Tigerstar wanted to unite all the Clans into one, ending the constant war and bringing about a new age of prosperity. Of course, his ego and his methods were less than desirable.
** Hawkfrost followed his father's vision, but with just as much ego and a lot less success.
* TheWatcher: [=StarClan=] very pointedly state that they give advice, and watch over the living cats, but they do not interfere directly (they've bent that rule once or twice, but it's extremely rare). This makes it seem a bit silly when the Clans are constantly worried about incurring the "wrath of [=StarClan=]". Cinderpelt even has to remind the [=ThunderClan=] cats at one point that not every inconvenient natural phenomena is necessarily a sign from their ancestors: "There are times when a storm is just a storm."
** Oddly enough, everyone - fans included - seems to hate Sol because he tells them this. True, he does go overboard by [[spoiler:telling [=ShadowClan=] to ignore the warrior code]], and [[spoiler:he's got far more villainous actions later on when trying to cause a war between the Clans]], but it is kind of weird that everyone hates him just for saying [=StarClan=] isn't all powerful, even though that's ''exactly'' what they've been telling us for pretty much the ''entire'' series.
* WatchingTroyBurn:
** [=ThunderClan=] has to watch the forest burn from across the river in ''Rising Storm''.
** All the Clans face this in ''The New Prophecy'' when [[spoiler:Twolegs destroy the forest and they have to watch, knowing that there's nothing they can do about it.]]
** In ''Dark River'', [[spoiler:[=RiverClan=] faces this when a group of Twolegs attack their camp. However, they eventually get it back.]]
** The [=SkyClan=] saga {{prequel}} novella ''Cloudstar's Journey'' shows this happening to [=SkyClan=] while their home is developed to make way for a suburb. Cloudstar is helpless as trees around him are torn down, and it's pretty heartbreaking.
** Happens in the ''Warrior's Refuge'' and ''Warrior's Return'' comic book spinoffs when [[spoiler:Graystripe triumphantly returns to the forest, only to find it completely destroyed. He wanders around the destruction for a little while before Millie convinces him that his Clanmates are still out there somewhere.]]
* WeirdnessSearchAndRescue: When [[DrJerk Jayfeather]] is trapped in the past with the Ancients, the mysterious cat [[AllPowerfulBystander Rock]] shows up to take him back to his time period. [[spoiler:This happens twice.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy:
** Stormtail was this when Bluestar was a young warrior.
** Rainflower was always this to Crookedstar.
* WhamEpisode: ''Long Shadows''. Hoo boy...
** ''The Fourth Apprentice'' is also a ''massive'' one.
** As is ''Night Whispers''.
** But ''The Forgotten Warrior'' easily beats them all.
* WhamLine:
** From ''Fire and Ice'':
-->'''Yellowfang''' (About why she can't kill Brokenstar): [[spoiler:"He is my son."]]
** ''Long Shadows''
-->'''Ashfur''': [[spoiler:"I know you think I've never forgiven Brambleclaw for stealing you from me, but you're wrong, and so is every cat who thinks so. My quarrel is with ''you'', Squirrelflight. It always has been."]]
** Followed by:
-->'''Squirrelflight''': [[spoiler:"If you want to hurt me, you'll have to find a better way than that. They are not my kits."]]
** ''Sunrise'' (First one)
-->'''Jayfeather''' (Putting it all together in his thoughts): [[spoiler:"Leafpool! Leafpool is our mother!"]]
** ''Sunrise'' (Second one)
-->'''Leafpool''': (To Hollyleaf) [[spoiler:"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. But first, tell me why. Why did you kill Ashfur?"]]
** ''Sunrise'' (Third one)
-->'''Jayfeather''': [[spoiler:"There will be three, kin of your kin...Cloudtail is Firestar's kin, Whitewing is his daughter, and now Dovekit and Ivykit...Don't you see? The prophecy isn't over! We aren't the only kin of Firestar's kin. It doesn't matter which of Whitewing's kits is the one. ''There are still three of us!''"]]
** ''The Sun Trail''
-->'''Turtle Tail''': [[spoiler:"How about Thunder?"]]
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Despite being the sole reason for the Clans' misery, [[HumansAreSpecial humans are never harmed in the books]]. In fact, they occasionally get ''saved'' by the cats. Graystripe and Millie lead a toddler away from drowning in a pond, for instance. Special mention goes to when a child falls into [=SkyClan's=] territory and breaks her leg. The cats go out of their way to help the kid, find her family in the Twolegplace, and bring her home safely, when the more pragmatic approach would be to simply kill her, or leave her to die. It makes more sense why they'd do this, however, when you consider that most of the cats in those situations were kittypets at one point (or still partially are). The reason [=SkyClan=] didn't physically harm [[spoiler:Petalnose and Shrewtooth's old Twoleg]] was because they were warned by the kittypets how dangerous it is to attack a Twoleg. Considering how uptight people are about getting rid of pests and potentially rabid animals, this was probably a smart move. Also, it isn't exactly realistic for a group of wild cats to go maul a human to death.
* WhenIWasYourAge: Elders claim this on occasion - for example, Fireheart gets into a small argument with one in ''Forest of Secrets'' when the elder claims that young cats nowadays don't know what hardship is.
* WhereItAllBegan: When the Clans leave, they end up settling by a lake. Turns out their distant ancestors (way before the Clans formed) once lived there, and that that's where the ''Power of Three'' prophecy originated.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes:
** Jayfeather and water.
** Can't forget Bluestar. The prophecy about her even said ''the only thing that could destroy her was water''.
** [=SkyClan=] and rats.
* WorldOfBadass: Nearly every single one of the 900+ characters is trained in combat, and puts it to good use.
* WouldHurtAChild:
** Tigerstar kills Gorsepaw in ''The Darkest Hour'' for no other reason than to bring fear to [=WindClan=].
** Darkstripe attempts to kill Sorrelkit because she caught him meeting Blackfoot on their territory.
** Tigerpaw, under the orders of his mentor Thistleclaw, nearly killed a kittypet kit for straying onto [=ThunderClan=] territory in ''Bluestar's Prophecy''. The only thing that stops him is Bluefur.
* TheXOfY:
** The field guides ''Secrets of the Clans'', ''Cats of the Clans'', ''Code of the Clans'', and ''Battles of the Clans''.
** A few non-Field Guide books as well: ''Forest of Secrets'', ''Sign of the Moon'', ''The Rise of Scourge'', ''The Heart of a Warrior''.
** The series name ''Dawn of the Clans''.
* YouDirtyRat: The rats in ''Firestar's Quest'' and ''[=SkyClan=]'s Destiny'' are evil. In addition, the rats in ''Into the Wild'', ''Midnight'', and ''Crookedstar's Promise'' attack the cats, and [=ShadowClan=] has to be careful to not bring infected rats back from the Carrionplace. The portrayal of rats results in quite a few fans complaining.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: ''Twilight'' opens with an unidentified cat being warned of their impending doom. It's later revealed to be [[spoiler:Cinderpelt]].
* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: In one story in ''Code of the Clans'', a group of young [=RiverClan=] cats decide to try things such as "jumping into the gorge" for no reason other than youthful stupidity.
[[/folder]]

** Jayfeather. Not the friendliest cat in the world to be around, although that's hardly surprising, considering [[spoiler:his father is Crowfeather]], but still always does his best to help his Clanmates whenever and however he can.
** Crowfeather could also count, but Feathertail and Leafpool are the only ones who have [[HiddenHeartofGold actually seen his good side]]. It's worth a mention that Crowfeather [[spoiler: was ''a lot'' more of a pleasant cat before his first love, Feathertail, died.]]

* HumansAreCthulhu: Much of what the Twolegs do is naturally incomprehensible to the cats, and they view Twolegs as one of the greatest threats ([[spoiler:especially after their original forest is torn down to make way for a new [[strike:highway]] Thunderpath]]).

** Feathertail with Crowfeather. While Crowfeather fell in love again with Leafpool after her death, Feathertail supported their relationship because she didn't want Crowfeather unhappy. This stretched out further when Crowfeather [[spoiler:had kits with Leafpool]] and Feathertail cared about them as if they were her own.
** Feathertail's mother Silverstream was also like this towards Graystripe after he got another mate and kits. When Millie and Briakit were deathly sick, Silverstream in StarClan viciously protested this, saying that Graystripe couldn't bear any more heartbreak.

* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: [=StarClan=] thought it was a good idea to hide [[spoiler:the secret about their parents]] from Hollyleaf, Lionblaze, and Jayfeather. ''[[BreakTheCutie It]]'' ''[[DysfunctionJunction wasn't]]''.

* FamilyRelationshipoSwitcheroo: Hollyleaf, Jayfeather, and Lionblaze are raised as Squirrelfight's and Brambleclaw's kits. However, Leafpool - Jayfeather's mentor and the sister of Squirrelflight - is their real mother. When this is [[TheReveal revealed]] to the three, Hollyleaf doesn't take it well.

[[folder:Tropes G-M]]

* ICantFeelMyLegs: Used with [[spoiler:Briarpaw]] when a tree falls on her. She ends up with her hindlegs paralyzed.

** [[spoiler:Dovewing. She even says the phrase exactly in ''Fading Echoes''.]]
** Lionblaze, to a lesser extent. He even sympathizes with [[spoiler:Dovewing]]'s situation in ''The Fourth Apprentice''.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: [[spoiler:Ivypool, who is extremely jealous of her sister's power and the attention she's getting - to the point that she trains with the Dark Forest, hoping that she'll become good enough to be noticed too.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Sharptooth]] and [[spoiler:Hawkfrost]].

* InertialImpalement: At the climax of ''Sunset'', [[spoiler:Brambleclaw is fighting Hawkfrost. He'd just saved Firestar from a fox trap by digging up the stake holding it in the ground, so he picks up the stake in his mouth and swings it around. Hawkfrost lunges at him and impales himself on the spike. Brambleclaw is shocked and gasps "[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Hawkfrost! I... I didn't want this.]]"]]

* InfoDump: The narration occasionally spouts large amounts of exposition to avoid ContinuityLockOut. It doesn't work very well.

* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: [=ShadowClan=] in the first book.

** In ''Beyond the Code'', "Why do things like this always happen to me?" First it's [[spoiler:Sol's mother, Cinders, in a flashback after her mate leaves her because she complained too often, and Sol was devastated. Later, in the present day, Sol says it himself when he wants to be made a warrior at the Gathering and he thinks Leafstar deliberately tried to embarrass him by refusing for the time being.]]

** In ''Outcast'', thinking about [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Crowfeather]], Hollyleaf thinks "I'm glad he's not ''my'' father!" [[spoiler:Three guesses what gets revealed three books later.]]
** And in ''Night Whispers'', Flametail snaps at Lionblaze that he was happy he wasn't related to a murderer (referring to when Lionblaze accidentally killed [[spoiler:Russetfur]].) Yet Flametail himself ''is'' related to a murderer: his grandpa Tigerstar.
* IslandBase: [=RiverClan=]'s camp in the old forest is located on an island. Also, in ''Dark River'', [[spoiler:they are temporarily forced to shelter on the Gathering Island while they deal with Twolegs attacking their camp.]]

** Lampshaded in ''The Forgotten Warrior'' when [[spoiler:Antpelt uses it on Ivypool, then expresses exasperation at how she fell for a "tired old trick".]]
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: [[spoiler:Whitestorm. "I’ve been proud to serve as your deputy."]]
* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: [[spoiler:Dovewing's ability to sense events from far away]], much to the young cat's surprise.

* [[ItsRainingMen It's Raining Cats]]: The "Skydrop" move that [=SkyClan=] developed and that [=ThunderClan=] later uses.

* IWishedYouWereDead: [[spoiler:Lionblaze]] to [[spoiler:Heathertail]] at the end of ''Eclipse''. She doesn't actually die, but [[spoiler:Lionblaze]] spends the majority of the rest book [[spoiler:being tortured by nightmares about killing her]].

Its two sister series, ''[[Literature/SeekerBears Seekers]]'' (a series focusing on a group of bears coming together to fight global warming, which is currently on its second arc) and ''Literature/{{Survivors}}'' (a series by a different author/editor team working under the Creator/ErinHunter pen-name, featuring dogs surviving in a post-apocalyptic city) are also worth checking out.

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler: Ivypool realizes what the Dark Forest's all about after seeing Tigerstar talking about destroying the forest.]]
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Bluestar suffers a particularly nasty one after Tigerclaw's betrayal. It takes her two entire books to get over it completely... just in time for a HeroicSacrifice.]]

** In Moth Flight's Vision, it finally gets played straight. Moth Flight, having never used catmint before and no idea what the proper dose is, guesses and ends up giving Rocky too much. The old cat gets high and plays like a kit, and tries hilariously to find any excuse to get some throughout the rest of the book.

** Tigerstar. Any wound inflicted on him seems to bleed twice as much as a wound inflicted on someone else. And of course, when he [[spoiler:bleeds to death ''[[CatsHaveNineLives nine times]]'']].
** [[spoiler:Hawkfrost]]'s death. It just keeps coming and coming...

** Firestar has been having a few of these moments lately. In ''Fading Echoes'', he's slipping in a pool of his own blood as it's still gushing out of him.
** [[spoiler:Stick's daughter Red after he accidentally slits her throat]].
* HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler: Tigerstar]] ends up being responsible for a good chunk of other cats' evil deeds throughout series one through four. Despite [[spoiler: ''dying in the first series.'']]

* TheHomewardJourney: ''Moonrise''. The journey to the sea was hard, but the journey home is just as dangerous ([[spoiler:In fact, one of them didn't make it back.]])

** Vicky admits to hiding quotes from ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' and ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' in some of the dialogue.

** As Vicky is a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan, ''The New Prophecy'' was originally going to be called ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]''. She still had files on her computer with "TNG" in the name years after the series was done.

* GreenEyes: Most of Firestar's family (and at least one other major bloodline) fit this description, although the trait seems rarer outside of ThunderClan. When someone's green eyes are brought up repeatedly, it usually signals a bold or strong character. And the eyes are usually described as emerald-green or leaf-green, even though brilliant green eyes are usually a purebred trait. Real Life cats tend to have the duller yellow-green kind, especially in populations that have been feral for many generations.

* GenerationalSaga: The Original Series stars Firestar, while his daughters Squrrelflight and Leafpool take center stage in the second series, his grandchildren Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather become mains in the third, and in the fourth his grand-nieces Ivypool and Dovewing are added as main characters as well.
* GenkiGirl: Squirrelpaw, though it fades pretty quickly.
** Cinderpaw too, though that stops after [[spoiler:she gets hit by a car.]]
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See [[GRatedSex]] located below.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler:Learning that her parents broke the Warrior Code, which she'd obsessed over for the majority of her life, pretty much [[BreakTheCutie shattered what was left of Hollyleaf's sanity]].]]
** In the original series, [[spoiler: Bluestar]] after [[spoiler: Tigerclaw's betrayal.]]

[[folder:Tropes D-M]]

** In ''Sign of the Moon'', Ivypool and Blossomfall encounter a mysterious cat [[spoiler:in the tunnels]]. Ivypool can't see any of the cat's features, and is unable to determine its gender. In ''The Forgotten Warrior'', [[spoiler:the cat is revealed to be Hollyleaf, alive and well, but reluctant to return to [=ThunderClan=].]]
** The prologue of ''The Forgotten Warrior'' features a mysterious cat declaring that they will have their vengeance on the Clans. [[spoiler:It's never explicitly stated who this cat is, but it's almost certainly Sol, based on his role in the book.]]
* ExtrudedBookProduct: The authors have admitted that they deliberately wrote the books based on what was likely to sell from the beginning. Some of them don't even ''like'' cats!
* FaithHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Hollyleaf, after realizing she's the product of a forbidden relationship, loses her faith in the warrior code and murders Ashfur before running away from the Clans.]]
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:Swiftpaw, Tigerstar, Mudclaw, Hawkfrost, to name a few.]] Some of them would qualify for CruelAndUnusualDeath.
** If [[spoiler:the nightmares Tigerstar showed Lionblaze of himself murdering Heatherpaw/tail]] count, then they certainly qualify. Very much so.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Pretty much ''every single fight''. After Lionblaze [[spoiler:discovers his power of invincibility in ''Outcast'']], pretty much every fight he gets in features large amounts of this and HighPressureBlood.

** Scourge's lack of belief in [=StarClan.=] [[spoiler:He doesn't have nine lives, so when he's killed, he's dead for good.]]
** [[spoiler:Hollyleaf's excessive pride led to her downfall.]]

* FearOfThunder: The official app claims that Hollyleaf has this ever since ''Long Shadows'', when [[spoiler:Ashfur threatened to kill her and her littermates [[DramaticThunder during a storm]]]].

** ''The Power of Three'' has Sol, who wants to destroy the Clans, and Ashfur, who tries to murder three of his clanmates. The closest thing to a female villain in this arc is Hollyleaf, who kills Ashfur. Of the Tribe invaders, half are toms and half she-cats.
** In ''Omen of the Stars'', most of the male villains are reused from previous series. Mapleshade is the biggest female villain, and introduced in this series. Also appearing in the Dark Forest is the minor character Sparrowfeather. Ivypool may also qualify, before she realizes that the Dark Forest wants to destroy the Clans.
** ''Dawn of the Clans'' has Clear Sky and later One-Eye as chief villains, but also the she-cat [[spoiler:Star Flower.]]
* FightingForAHomeland: [[spoiler:[=SkyClan=]]], when they were exiled from the forest. The other four Clans, when [[DoomedHometown the forest is destroyed]] - but at least [[ThePromisedLand they know there's good territory waiting for them]].

** There's also Mothwing, who is a medicine cat despite not believing in [=StarClan=], which is essentially the cats' equivalent of an atheist priest. Apparently her explanation for medicine cats knowing things [=StarClan=] has told her is that ''they subconsciously figure it out by themselves and all convince themselves that a dead cat told them it in a dream'', which is arguably more ridiculous than what she is trying to explain. It gets even worse in ''Fading Echoes'', where she sees something strange happen to Mistystar while she's receiving her nine lives and manages to figure out that Jayfeather is essentially ''reading her mind'', but she ''still'' can't comprehend that [=StarClan=] exists.
*** Another interpretation of what she says/how she acts is that she acknowledges that they probably exist, but refuses to have faith in them or try communicating with them... for some reason.
*** The reason she doesn't have faith or try communicating is probably because [=StarClan=] lie consistently, rarely help them out, and when they do send them a message, tend to do so in obscure, twisted ways when they could easily just tell them straight out.

* FreudianExcuse: Pretty much every villain in the series. Tigerstar [[spoiler:had a father who abandoned him to become a kittypet, and a mentor who taught him to be violent and evil]]. Brokenstar was abused by his foster mother, Lizardstripe. Scourge [[spoiler: was bullied by his siblings, Ruby and Socks. They told him he would be drowned in the river if he wasn't adopted by Twolegs, so he ran away, only to be attacked almost to death by Tigerstar.]] Sol [[spoiler: had a father who neglected his kits, and a mother who always told them stories about [=SkyClan=] cats and was upset with her life. Because she couldn't take care of them, she gave them all to Twolegs. Sol thought that, if he was a [=SkyClan=] cat, his mother wouldn't have given him away.]] Mapleshade [[spoiler:was hoping to become [=ThunderClan=] leader, but they drove her out after she had kits with a [=RiverClan=] tom. She then tried taking her kits to [=RiverClan=], but they drowned on the way. [=RiverClan=] rejected her, her mate blamed her for the kits' death, and he took on another mate within his Clan.]]

** Birchstar from ''Code of the Clans'': male in first story, female in second

** Rowanclaw: female in ''Dawn'' > male in ''Starlight'' and subsequent books. Fathers [[spoiler:Tawnypelt's kits]] (this was done intentionally by the authors in acknowledgement of this error), and later [[spoiler:becomes deputy]].

* ChangingOfTheGuard: The first series started off with Firestar as the [[TheHero main character]]. He was then replaced by Brambleclaw, his former apprentice, in ''WarriorCatsTheNewProphecy''. In ''Power of Three'', Brambleclaw turns into a background character like Firestar, and is replaced by his adopted children Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf. ''Omen of the Stars'' has Ivypool and Dovewing, two younger cats, as its main focus, with the ''Power of Three'' characters still in tow. And then in ''A Vision of Shadows'', Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight's kit Alderpaw is the main focus, with Ivypool and Dovewing as background characters.

* BusyBeaver: In ''The Fourth Apprentice'', the cats discover that humans have released beavers into the wild and are studying them (which is based on real experiments done in the UK). Unfortunately, the dam and the drought are drying up the cats' lake downstream. The beavers are, rather unusually, portrayed as dangerous and viciously protective of their dam.

* DubNameChange/EnglishAndOtherLanguagesToForeign: Firestar's kittypet name is Rusty in English, but it is "Sammy" in the German version. Most of the other names, which are composed of actual words, are translated directly to German, e.g. Redtail to Rotstreife or Tigerclaw to Tigerkralle.

** In ''A Forest Divided'', Minnow remarks, "''This'' is Gray Wing? I thought he'd be bigger."''

* [[EarlyBirdCameo Early Cat Cameo]]:
** Thistleclaw is mentioned in ''Forest of Secrets'' and shows up in ''Rise Of Scourge'' before his real debut in ''Bluestar's Prophecy''.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: By the end of ''The Last Hope'', every character has gone to hell and back (sometimes literally), but they still pull through and earn happy endings for themelves and all the Clans. (Even the dead ones.)

* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: Tigerstar vs. Scourge]]

* ExpandedUniverse: Manga, Super Editions, Field Guides, short stories, etc. See above.

** [[spoiler:Brightheart's face being mauled and almost completely ripped off by a dog.]] A later bit of narration in [=TPoT=] implies her parts of her skull remain visible.
** [[spoiler:Longtail going blind from an infection in his eyes after a rabbit claws them out.]]
** Brokenstar [[spoiler:gets his eyes clawed by Yellowfang and is permanently blinded]].
** [[spoiler:Percy]] in ''[=SkyClan's=] Destiny'', who gets an eye ripped out.

** The most notable ones are ''Firestar's Quest'' and ''SkyClans Destiny'', which take place several generations before the story begins, long enough that [=SkyClan=] - the Clan featured in the prologues - has been forgotten by the modern Clans.