Line #43 Recap/WarriorCatsDarkRiver


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/po3_2.jpg]]
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3	''Dark River'' is the second book in the third ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, ''[[Literature/WarriorCatsPowerOfThree Power of Three]]''.
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7	%%%% Synopsis needed! %%%%
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9	!!Tropes appearing in this book:
10	* AttackTheTail: A [=WindClan=] warrior bites Brightheart's tail. Although not a major injury, it's one of the more notable ones of the battle.
11	* AuthorCatchphrase: Hedgehogs are used as a comparison an unusually large number of times in this book: a couple characters' fur is spiked out like one at different points, one character is "no bigger than a hedgehog", a sleepy character is claimed to be hibernating like a hedgehog, and one character's difficulty in talking to her sibling was compared to picking fleas off a hedgehog.
12	* CassandraTruth: When a crisis on [=RiverClan=] territory forces the Clan out of their camp, the other Clans all start preparing for invasion, since they believe that [=RiverClan=] will now try to steal territory. Hollypaw is seemingly the only cat on the lake that notices that all these fears are founded on nothing but paranoia, and that by preparing for a battle, everyone is making it that much more likely to happen. Naturally, nobody listens to her when she says they should try to ''help'' [=RiverClan=] with their problem, or at least get more information about it before jumping to conclusions, because she's just an apprentice and they are all "more experienced".
13	* CatUpATree: Mousepaw gets caught in a tree while chasing a squirrel and is too scared to come down. So Cinderpaw has to go up there to get him down... and ends up breaking her leg in the process.
14	* ChekhovsGun: Rock's stick. It appears in the prologue, when he tells Fallen Leaves that it represents the cats who have succeeded or failed in their sharpclaw initiation, and Jaypaw finds it later. It becomes important in the climax, when it shows Jaypaw that they can still escape the tunnels, because it floated through them to where he'd first found it.
15	* CompanionCube: Jaypaw is obsessed with the stick he finds in this book, and is horrified when he nearly loses it in the lake: he practically drowns himself trying to pull it out.
16	* CoveredInMud: When Hollypaw 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.
17	* CreepyHairlessAnimal: Rock is an incredibly ugly, hairless cat with bulging, sightless eyes, who haunts the tunnels where Fallen Leaves died in ancient times and has been around since then.
18	* CulturalRebel: Millie, Daisy, and Brook decide to keep their given names rather than taking on warrior names. This causes some uncertainty in the Clan.
19	* TheDissenterIsAlwaysRight: Hollypaw is the only cat who doesn't panic and think that [=RiverClan=] will start a war for territory once they can no longer live at their camp. The other warriors ignore her, [[NotNowKiddo not helped by her age and inexperience]], so she sneaks out to talk to Willowpaw from [=RiverClan=] and discovers the truth about why the Clan moved onto the island, but for her trouble, she gets confined to the new camp for a few days and a battle between [=RiverClan=] and [=WindClan=] nearly breaks out anyway thanks to everyone else's paranoia.
20	* DistantPrologue: The book's prologue is in fact the earliest chronological scene in the series: a good two or so generations before the Clans were created, and even a couple seasons before the Tribe of Rushing Water was formed.
21	* DreamSpying: Jaypaw has the ability to do this. When Hollypaw goes missing, Leafpool tries to make him do this to figure out where his sister is.
22	* DrowningPit: The tunnels underneath [=WindClan=] territory flood whenever it rains, threatening to drown any cats inside. Fallen Leaves dies this way while traversing the tunnels in a ritual to become a Sharpclaw (the ancient equivalent of a warrior), and the same nearly happens to Lionpaw, Jaypaw, Hollypaw, Breezepaw and Heatherpaw while trying to rescue three [=WindClan=] cats.
23	* EarNotch: Lionpaw gains one in a battle against [=WindClan=], and is pleased to have his first battle scar.
24	* EnsembleCast: The ''Power of Three'' arc features three protagonists: Jaypaw, Hollypaw, and Lionpaw.
25	* FakeActionPrologue: Chapter 1 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.
26	* GenderBender:
27	** Pouncepaw was a she-cat in ''The Sight'', but is a tom starting in this book.
28	** Sedgekit is a she-cat in ''The Sight'' and later books, but is a tom for ''Dark River''.
29	* Hypocrite: Squirrelflight berates Hollypaw for sneaking off and for not listening to her superiors and leaving the decision-making to them. That's fair... except this is something Squirrelflight often did in her youth, and still occasionally does in her adulthood.
30	* 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. [[spoiler: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]]).]]
31	* IslandBase: [=RiverClan=] is temporarily forced to shelter on the Gathering Island while they deal with Twolegs attacking their camp.
32	* MaliciousMisnaming: Apprentices occasionally call each other by their kit name as an insult.
33	* 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.
34	* OddNameOut: Daisy and Millie decide to keep their original names, rather than taking Clan names like all of their other Clanmates. The [=ThunderClanners=] worry that this will make it seem like they don't belong, and that it will make [=ThunderClan=] look weaker, since having their cats reject Clan tradition makes it seem like their warriors are less loyal.
35	* PastLifeMemories: Cinderpaw 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.
36	* ProphetEyes: Rock is described physically as having bulging, "sightless eyes" in his physical description when Fallen Leaves meets him, so we can assume the only way a cat could tell by sight that another is blind is because the blind cat has eyes that look like this.
37	* PuppyLove: Lionpaw and Heatherpaw (who are both young apprentices) become friends and begin to sneak away at night to play with each other, and they start to realize that they have actual feelings for each other.
38	* {{Sabotutor}}: Lionpaw claims that Ashfur (who has a grudge against Lionpaw's parents, as he was part of a LoveTriangle involving them) has been teaching him to do everything the wrong way. Brambleclaw (Lionpaw's father), is shocked at the accusation because he knows it could possibly be true, but he also scolds Lionpaw for blaming others.
39	* SecretRelationship: Lionpaw/Heatherpaw, due to being from different Clans.
40	* SecretUndergroundPassage: The tunnel system between [=ThunderClan=] and [=WindClan=], where Lionpaw and Heatherpaw secretly meet and where the [=WindClan=] kits later get lost.
41	* SeriesContinuityError:
42	** It claims that "The tip of [Berrypaw's] thick cream tail stirred the surface of the lake." Berrypaw no longer has a "thick cream tail" since he lost all but a stump in ''Sunset''.
43	** The tree-bridge to the Gathering island is described with the top of the tree and its branches on the island. This is backward from how the tree fell in ''Starlight'' from the island to the mainland.
44	* SneakyDeparture: ''Dark River'' is basically "Sneaky Departures, the Book". First, Lionpaw and Heatherpaw are constantly [[SneakingOutAtNight 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.
45	* AStormIsComing: In the prologue, 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. Turns out there is an underground river there that floods the tunnels during the rain.
46	* SwitchingPOV: Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw.
47	* TunnelNetwork: The cave system, which has tunnels linking [=ThunderClan=] and [=WindClan=]'s territory.
48	* UnknowinglyInLove: Lionpaw doesn't consider that his eagerness to have secret night meetings with Heatherpaw might be motivated by something other than "friendship". Unlike most examples, he ''never'' realizes the truth, because ([[StarCrossedLovers them being from different Clans]]) their romance was cut short before it even began.
49	* WatchingTroyBurn: [=RiverClan=] faces this when a group of Twolegs attack their camp. However, they eventually get it back.
50	* AWayOutOfACaveIn: While trapped in a flooding cave with his littermates and some young [=WindClan=] cats, Jaypaw has a vision that shows him that Rock's notched stick had originated from the cave. Since he'd found the stick by the lake, he realizes that the subterranean river must lead out of the cave to the lake, and they use it to successfully escape.

Context Recap / WarriorCatsDarkRiver